A Life Less Ordinary by Christopher Nuttall Read Free Book Online Page B

going to stay with me?”
    “I have other business to see to,” Master Revels explained. “Don’t worry; remember the rules and you will be safe here. This is neutral ground.”
    He turned and walked off towards the castle, leaving me standing on my own. I was tempted to follow him, but I had to admit that the idea of an afternoon spent exploring the market was rather more tempting. Besides, it had been months since I’d had any money to spend on myself and I wanted to enjoy it. It was impossible to tell just how large the market actually was, yet I was sure I’d find something I wanted. I grinned to myself and started to explore, heading towards the animal sounds in the distance. I just hoped that I wouldn’t bump into Circe again.
    There were thousands of animals in a number of stalls, ranging from common pets to more exotic creatures, some of which I only vaguely recognised. One store was selling gnomes, baby basilisks and even a handful of talking animals, which had apparently travelled to our world to escape some great catastrophe in their own world. An oversized mouse caught sight of me and started to explain that they’d been enslaved and needed to buy themselves free. I was horrified, but what could I do? The storeowner was demanding a vast sum of money for even one talking mouse.
    “I’m sorry,” I said, and walked on to the next section. At first sight, it was a butcher’s market, but they were offering eye of newt and tongue of frog, along with hundreds of other ingredients I recognised were needed for spells of one kind or another. One sealed jar claimed to contain Gorgon eyes, harvested at great personal risk. A young buyer opened the jar without goggles and was instantly turned to stone. I recoiled, turned my back and walked away. There was nothing I could do for him.
    The book stalls seemed more promising at first, although it didn’t take long to realise that they weren’t selling anything I hadn’t already seen in the library back home. Most of the books were fairly basic spellbooks, copied out by hand; anything really interesting or unique would probably be offered privately to the people with the money or power to pay for it. I picked one of the rarer books up and examined it, but shook my head when I saw the price. I had nowhere near that much money.
    A hand caught at my dress, catching my attention. “Can I have some of your blood, lady?”
    I stared down in astonishment and horror. The speaker was a young boy – he couldn’t be more than seven years old – with fangs growing out of his mouth. His pale skin and red eyes told the full story. Somehow, he’d been bitten by a vampire and survived the experience, making the transition from human to vampire without problems. I had no idea why he was begging at first and then I remembered what Master Revels had said. The market was neutral ground and no one, not even a starving vampire, would willingly take the risk of breaking that truce. And if he was a vampire, no matter how old he looked, it was a fair bet that he was a great deal older.
    “No,” I said, firmly. The vampire gazed up into my eyes and I felt my resolve starting to weaken. One of the books I had read had talked about vampires. A vampire had considerable powers to influence a human mind, even if the vampire in question hadn’t drawn on the person’s blood. Once they had sucked some of their blood, the person would become a slave, to all intents and purposes. I shook my head angrily, pushing away the compulsion that threatened to overwhelm my mind. “No!”
    The vampire turned and walked off. I resisted the urge to stick a stake through its back and walked in the other direction, heading towards the sound of a man calling out for bids. There was a large tent, marked with a sign promising auctions today, so I entered. I saw, to my horror, a family standing on the stage, wearing nothing apart from iron collars around their necks. Their eyes were bleak and hopeless.
    “And