Past the square, along a tree-lined avenue of three-story buildings, and then Malia paused at a doorway and glanced back at Peer.
"Still with me?" she asked, smiling. Her breathing displayed hardly any sign of exertion, and Peer's respect for this Watcher woman grew some more.
Malia knocked at the door. A small viewing panel slid open and she exchanged words with someone inside. As bolts and chains were withdrawn beyond the door, she turned back to Peer, face grim.
"We should hurry," she said. "The bat's here and the reading's about to start."
Bats. Readings. Peer knew nothing of this. And as she followed Malia into the small, shady house, she wondered just how much the Watchers had ever confided in her. Being a part of their political wing, she'd believed that she had their beliefs and concerns at heart every time she'd confronted Marcellan politicians or the more fanatical Hanharan priests. The Marcellans had been entrenched, though, and although they were completely driven by their Hanharan faith, they had ironically viewed the Watchers' political face-the representation of a faithless belief-as fundamentalist.
But perhaps the Watchers had felt it safer keeping their true, deeper secrets to themselves. Having been banished and returned, she was now a part of something deeper and more covert. Being used even back then, she thought, but now was not the time for upset or recriminations. The past was past. The future had yet to be formed. And the higher the sun rose today, the more unsettled she feared their immediate future might be.
The woman was huge. Peer didn't think she'd ever seen anyone this size in her life-a bulbous mass of sickly gray and yellow flesh, with rolls of fat spilling from between swaths of damp leather. Atop this gently shifting mass was the woman's head, chinless and swollen, with a small tight mouth and eyes all but hidden in pits in her skull. Her arms and hands seemed unnaturally small compared to the rest of her body, and her legs were somewhere out of sight. The smells were rank and rich, and as the woman shifted to watch them enter, Peer heard wet and fluid sounds. It was disgusting, and it made her want to retch-but then she saw the woman's eyes for the first time.
"Hello, child," the woman said, staring directly at Peer. Her voice was high and light, lilting with harmonies that would have put a silk snake to shame. "Close the door behind you. It's cold."
Peer squeezed into the room behind Malia and closed the door. It snicked shut, and she had a moment of panic when she thought they might be locked in. But then she felt the warm, surprising touch of Malia's hand pressed flat against her thigh, a light tap that's the first time she's touched me.
– and she knew the Watcher was doing her best to settle Peer's fears.
"Peer, meet Blu. Ex-whore, ex-leader of the Bloodwork Gang in Mino Mont, ex-informer to the Scarlet Blades. Murderer, kidnapper, rapist, thief, and monster."
"Fuck you too, Malia," the huge woman said, and her body started to ripple as she giggled like a little girl.
"All that's true?" Peer asked.
"All but one," Malia said. She knelt beside Blu and smiled up at her, as though worshipping the fetid mass of flesh and bone this woman had become. She probably can't even leave this room, Peer thought, and she realized how safe this house must be. Anyone entering through the front door and not knowing what to expect would likely be scared right back onto the street.
"I saw the bat," Malia said. "I was coming to see you anyway, but the bat makes things so much more urgent."
"You want me to read and tell you, Malia?"
"Yes."
"And why should I do that?" Blu's voice was still high and light, but Peer detected the first hint of tension between her and the Watcher.
"Because we keep you safe," Malia whispered. Blu shook some more, but this time her laughter was silent.
"I'm only playing with you, Malia," she said. "Peer. You're very beautiful. I like beautiful women around me, but I… lose so many. I have my needs, you see. Places I can't reach. Things I can't do for myself."
"She's with me," Malia said, and those three words were loaded. Blu sighed, and a ripple of dejection passed around her body and lost itself in the clothes piled around her frame.
"Well, it was worth a try." Then the huge woman opened her hand, and curled in her warm, wet palm was a bat. Its wings were propped beside it, ears high, claws gripping lightly, and its nose twitched as its meaty prison unfurled.
"It flew in from the north," Malia said. "We're looking for someone, and I fear-" But Blu waved her words aside.
"Quiet, Malia. You've come to hear what I have to say, so don't taint the air with supposition."
Malia stood and backed away, standing close beside Peer where she leaned against the door.
"Now what?" Peer whispered.
"Watch and listen," Malia said.
Peer breathed lightly through her mouth, because tasting the stench did not seem quite as bad as smelling it, and her heart beat with nervous expectation.
Blu brought the bat up before her eyes. The little creature shifted in her plump hand, but only enough to maintain its balance. It was looking directly at the obese woman's face, and it seemed ridiculously small. She can't reach her own head, Peer thought, as Blu seemed to stretch her nonexistent neck a little, puckering her lips, pressing her arm into her side in an effort to bring the bat closer. Should I offer to help? Peer was about to ask Malia, but then Blu flicked her wrist, flinging the bat toward her. It landed perfectly on her wide shoulder, fluttering its wings slightly as if to shake off the effort of its short flight.
Blu settled again, and Peer had not realized how much Blu had been tensing her unnaturally large body until it slumped and regained its former, resting position. The huge woman sighed, belched, then tilted her head toward the bat.
Peer's stomach lurched and rolled, her eyes watered, and she could not understand how anyone could bear to be in here for very long. I have my needs, you see, the woman had said, and whenever Peer blinked she had brief flashes of what those needs must be. Her right arm ached in tortured sympathy with whoever had to fulfill them.
She saw Blu's lips shifting a little, and the bat's head tilting, and the woman muttered words and sounds almost too high for Peer to hear. In return the bat flapped its small leathery wings and squealed back. She felt rather than heard the conversation, and she was thankful that it did not take too long.
As the bat seemed to settle again, clawing its way down from Blu's shoulder to her expansive bosom, the woman's head snapped to one side and she grabbed the bat between her teeth.
Peer gasped. Blu bit. The bat squealed, its cries more than audible this time as its body popped. Blood streamed down the woman's wide neck. She bit again, jerking her head back like a wild dog as she drew the bat deeper into her mouth.
"Malia!" Peer said, an expression of disgust rather than a plea for action.
Blu chewed, crunching bone, dribbling blood, and her frown seemed distant and preoccupied. She started swallowing pieces of the bat, and each swallow made a revolting gurgling sound. She chewed some more, glancing at Peer and then away again, her frown deepening.
"What?" Malia said, but Blu ignored her.
When she had finished chewing, Blu opened her mouth and let a glob of glistening, blood-covered fur roll from her mouth. It struck her chest and rested there, spreading a pool of diluted blood across the cloth of her voluminous dress. She stared at it, unseeing.
"Blu, what?"
"Dragarians," the bat-eater muttered. "Many of them, streaming out of their canton. Some fly. Others crawl, run, and slither."
Dragarians! Peer had never seen one, other than in paintings and drawings. They were not quite as mythical as the deep-living Garthans-they were known to exist, beneath the cover of their massive domes-yet they were further beyond the reach of normal Echo City inhabitants. And Penler had respected, even honored them.