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"I’ve never been so covered up," I said "Is it always this way?"

"If you’re a set used to it"

He led me out the door and down the steps People had finally started to appear around the wagons, and it was very hard not to stare, because they were very strange people doing very strange things

Closest to us, a taut rope hung between two posts, and a bored young wo a unicycle back and forth Her costume was made of lurid purple leather with yellow harlequin diamonds, laced at the neck, wrists, and ankles, with a flouncy leather tutu With all that lacing, she had to be hu us, she perked up

"Good day, Master Stain," she called "Who’s the new girl?"

Crihtrope stood a young man with a nest of wavy auburn hair, his blouse undone to show a hairless bird chest A big-nosed puppet drooped around his neck on invisible strings Several other puppets were strewn over a trunk nearby The loves were scarlet, and he was so focused on the cyclist above that he didn’t even acknowledge us as we passed

"He’s in love with her," Cri in the tender spot behindshe’ll fall and break her neck, so that he can turn her without guilt and be her knight in shining armor"

I didn’t knohat to say to that In the vampire stories I’d read, the vampire usually just did whatever he wanted and damn the consequences There was an odd balance of power at play in this world, if the blood drinker spent his life gazing longingly at a bored girl on a unicycle

The next car was an aquariu in crystal-blue water and fra water plants, was a mermaid

I had to look twice to confirm it Yep, a mermaid, complete with silvery blue tail

Beautiful blond hair billowed around her head, and she had white clamshells over her breasts Her eyes were dark with kohl and pinned to Crilass and kissed it with a saucy wink at my escort

"Sirena," Criminy said "The ic once, but she didn’t get on at all" She aving , "Yes, yes, we see you Get on with it"

Thethe surface of the water with her tail I shrieked as cold droplets sprinkled over me, and Criently dabbed at ht red handkerchief

"Missed a drop," he said, voice quiet and husky "Just there"

His lips barely brushed mine I wanted to push him away I should have turned e ofandinto a puddle at his feet The touch was brief and searing, and it was all I could do to pull back and clear rinned

Sirena slass with her hand and went to sulk behind a water plant Before I could ask if she was fake or real or reallye muscles and a waxed black mustache with curled tips He wore a tan leather suit that extended up his neck into the oddest top hat I had ever seen, ine how uncomfortable and sweaty it had to be inside his costu couch over his head Seated primly on it was a two-headed boy of fourteen or so Both heads had scraggly hair the color of nothing and dark eyes that were crafty and sullen The open collars told me that they were Bludmen, and I watched as each hand lifted a teacup to a different er can When the cups returned to the saucers, the lips were painted with blood Both heads grinned luridly atred-stained teeth I shuddered, and Cri, "It’s rude to stare unless you’ve paid, pet They were born that way"

"I wasn’t staring at their heads," I said "I was staring at the bloody teeth"

"You get used to it"

Just then, a strange wohta python head-first as if it were the o black, and her hair fell in braids to her waist She wore nothing but a shiny corset, bloomers, and snakeskin boots that came to her knees

"I can’t tell," I whispered to Criminy when she had walked past "What is she?"

"Veruca Lindenfain, Abyssinian ser of swords, fire, and snakes," he said "Abyssinians are hu will drink it Not even a bludrat wants to go blind and e croherever we go Not a lot of her type around, able to walk both worlds and s fire, too"

Next was the lizard boy, stretched out on a log, asleep He seeer who happened to be covered in scales of a sickly pale green A long forked tongue flapped as he snored