The Palace of Laughter by Jon Berkeley Read Free Book Online

for you.”
    â€œBe careful,” came a muffled voice from under the overcoat.
    â€œDon’t worry,” said Miles. “I know this hill inside out, and they’re strangers, even if they do have a monster with them.” He wished he felt as confident as he sounded.
    He slipped back down the way they had come, peering through the shifting darkness for any sign of the circus men and their beast. The moon was hidden behind another cloud, and the wind gusted up the hill, flattening the grass and stealing the breath from his mouth. A strong odor like rotten bananas reached his nose, mixed with the stale cigar smell that surrounded Genghis like an invisible fog, and he heard the clink of chains and thenervous shouts of the strongmen. An eerie barking laugh made the hair stand up on his scalp.
    He left the path and pushed through the bushes, heading directly away from the barrel. As he half ran, half slithered down the side of the hill, he strained his ears for any sign that the circus men and their beast were following him. He remembered the smaller children he had tried to bring with him on his failed escapes from Pinchbucket House, and the beating they would all receive from Fowler Pinchbucket on their return. Miles had a feeling that Little’s fate, if his diversion should fail, would be something far worse. The men’s shouts were getting closer now, and he could see the lanterns swinging crazily as the boys who held them clambered over the rocky ground. They had picked up his trail all right, and they were gaining on him.
    Deep beneath the town of Larde, an ancient stream flowed through a dark tunnel before emerging through a stone arch below Beggar’s Gate. Miles had used this underground stream in two of his failed escape attempts, and it was to the stone mouth of the tunnel that he was headed now, along the slippery bank of the stream. He knew his footprints in the mud would make him easy to follow.
    The moon came out again as he reached the tunnel mouth, and as he ducked down into the darkness, he risked a glance over his shoulder. The Null was no more than twenty yards behind him, a hideous shadow that seemed to suck the moonlight into itself like a black hole. It had shaken off the strongmen, and its three stout chains dragged loose behind it from its iron collar. The creature’s red mouth opened wide in the blackness and its manic laugh followed Miles into the tunnel.
    The tunnel was clammy and pitch black, and cold water soaked Miles as he ran through the shallow stream. The faint moonlight from behind was blocked by the huge beast that splashed through the water on all fours, almost at his heels. A little way up the tunnel was an iron gate, and he knew from his Pinchbucket House escapes numbers three and five that he could just about squeeze himself between the bars. He was struck by the awful thought that he may have grown too big since the last time he tried this, and a moment later he was struck by the bars themselves as he ran full tilt into them in the inky darkness. His head met the iron gate with a loud clang, and he almost fell backward under the feet of his pursuer. With stars exploding in front of his eyes, he stumbled to one side andbegan to wedge himself into the narrow space between the bars. He breathed in, and turned his head sideways, but it was no good. He was stuck fast.
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    In the cold darkness, deep below the sleeping town of Larde, The Null hit the center of the gate like a giant hairy cannonball, almost wrenching it free of the crumbling stone walls. The impact buckled the gate, pulling the bars apart slightly and releasing Miles from its rusty grip. He fell through the gate and onto his knees, and began to crawl through the water, his head throbbing. The Null was rattling the bars and screeching with rage. Between its shouts he could hear Genghis’s wheezy voice echoing up the tunnel.
    â€œYou, Knoblauch and Kartoffel, get in there and see what’s