The Tiger's Egg by Jon Berkeley Read Free Book Online Page B

of applause and sweet music wash through him. The first show of the season was over, the townspeople had all gone, and the animals were fed and settled in their cages for the night. Now the two-legged performers sat around a large campfire in the center of their wandering village, eating their supper and laughing over the small mishaps and major triumphs of the night’s performance.
    The show had been a resounding success. It seemed that every man, woman and child in Shallowford had squeezed themselves into the bigtop until the canvas bulged. In truth, many of them had come because they had seen Doctor Tau-Tau’s name painted on his circus wagon, and the rumor had spread like wildfire that the circus would be dispensing Dr. Tau-Tau’s Restorative Tonic. The townspeople had dropped their tools and forgotten their appointments and flocked to the circus, elbowing each other in their anxiety to buy tickets for the show.
    Once inside the tent they had filled every seat, and settled themselves in the aisles between, anxiously looking for signs of the small green bottles of the tonic, which was the only relief they knew from the the grayness that had enveloped their lives since they had fallen under the Great Cortado’s sinister hypnosis at the Palace of Laughter.
    There was, of course, no tonic on offer at the Circus Bolsillo, but it was not long before the townspeople forgot all about the temporary relief of the little green bottles. Instead they found themselves watching a magical show of such warmth and gaiety that it seemed to shine a light on their troubled souls. The animals were beautifully groomed, powerful and well-trained, the acrobats flew like birds, and the clowns put all their heart into their craft, gently sending up everything that was sad andfunny and flawed and good in human nature, and bringing out laughter that was born where it should be, in the heart.
    But the best thing of all was the music. Such music had never been heard in the town of Shallowford in living memory! It was funny and strange, and it flowed through the night air like a gurgling stream of happiness, smoothing frowns and lifting hearts until the people began to laugh with pure delight, in a way they could not remember laughing for what seemed like a lifetime. Its echo could still be heard among the firelit circus folk now, as from time to time one of the musicians would pick up his trumpet or his flute to make it sing that phrase just one more time, and others would be unable to resist joining in.
    Little smiled to herself, sitting beside Miles in her sparkling acrobat’s costume, with his old overcoat wrapped around her. She had joined Henna and Etoile, the dark-haired trapeze artists, to form a treble act in which Little walked a high wire while the girls somersaulted through the air, and Miles had watched her through a gap in the backstage curtain. He had found himself holding his breath at the sight of her, glowing in the spotlight and perched high above the audience, as she had been the veryfirst time he’d seen her, at the Circus Oscuro.
    â€œYou were very good,” he said to her. “Weren’t you afraid up there, without your wings?”
    Little shook her head. “It felt good to be up high again,” she said, “and we have practiced a lot. Were you afraid?”
    Miles shrugged. “Not really,” he lied. “Stranski’s never skewered anyone yet. At least not as far as I know.”
    He could still feel the glow from the applause that had greeted his act with Stranski the Magician. It was a new experience for him, and he allowed his tired eyes to close so that he could relive his moment of triumph.
    There he was, padlocked in a star-painted box with his knees tucked up and only his head showing, while Stranski stood in the center of the ring and held a long saw in the air for all the people of Shallowford to see. The saw’s teeth glinted as the magician turned it under the