Page 204 (1/1)

"Don’t do it," I said quietly to Rory "She’s not what she see

He jumped as if I had poked him, and looked startled to find me there He had been so completely focused on the keeper’s base offer "Well, course not, Nevare What sorta fool do you take hed, low "Listen to him, you’ll be the fool thatfeller Do it nohile yer young, and the memory will keep you waret away from here," Oron said He didn’t seelad that he had said it, instead of an to turn away

"Come back later, without your friends!" the keeper called out after us as we pushed our way through the crowd "You can tell ’em later what they lanced back as we left Would they go back? I strongly suspected they would "Let’s see the rest of the freaks and get out of here," I suggested

"I need a beer," Rory countered "I got dust down my throat what needs washin’ out I’m leavin’ now"

And so he left us, and I feared he had gone back to speak to the keeper I toldI could do about it I abruptly recalled I was supposed to be looking for Epiny As the current of the croashed us along, I watched for her chimney hat in vain By the ti eater, my fellow cadets had somehow melted away froled with the calico woust I ested area I spat again, feeling queasy from the foul taste of the Speck dust in hing instead

When I caughtin a backwater in the freak tent I’d seen the es of the tent, were the secondary attractions, the ones that seees A woled her deformed yellow feet at me while she cackled like a chicken The insectwhile roaches and beetles and spiders crawled about on hi, he set a caterpillar across his upper lip as if it were a mustache It was too tame The crowd shuffled past him, unamused

The fat led his shoulders to set his naked gelid belly dancing I stared at hireased his pouched flesh tobreasts like a woman and his bare belly drooped over the waistband of his striped trousers like a fleshy apron Even his ankles were fat, I noted, the flesh puddling over the tops of his feet Beside him an obese woman dressed in a short pleated skirt and a sleeveless bodice reclined languidly on a divan She had a box of candies on a low table before her As I watched, she ate the last one, and sent the box to join its empty fellows on the floor around the table Her aze and sawat her, she pursed her lips at me in a kiss

"Look, Eron A soldier boy Did you come to see sweet Candy?" She beckoned to me The way her arms wobbled put me instantly in mind of the tree wo her laugh "Don’t be scared Come a little closer, lovey I won’t bite you Not unless you’re as sweet as sugar"

The fat man had resumed his seat on his stool He turned his head to look at me and smiled His face reathed in fat; even his brow seeawker He spoke to me "Soldier, eh? You a soldier lad? Oh, yes, I can tell It’s in the bearing What branch are you? Artilleryman?"

He spoke in such a friendly way that I would have been an oaf to ignore him Yet I was suddenly uneasy to have the spectacle turn into a person I glanced over my shoulder Most of the crowd sees of the tent and shuffled past his little stage with scarcely a glance

"I’’s Academy," I said, and then I stopped Was I? In a few more days, I was certain, I’d be culled The fat man didn’t even notice my abrupt silence

"Cavalla! You don’t say! I was cavalla h you’re not like to believe it now Jensen’s Horse I started out as their bugle boy, I did, no taller than a flea and skinny as a whippet Bet you don’t believe that, do you?" He spoke as casually as if we had e about hiawk at him as an oddity