The Tiger's Egg

CHAPTER ONE

A LOOSE CANNON

Along a hospital corridor marched a man on squeaking shoes, dressed in an outsized orderly’s uniform. He had a small round head and pale gray eyes, and he called himself the Great Cortado. Stuck to his upper lip, where his magnificent mustache had been only minutes before, was a tiny square of tissue paper with a spot of blood at the center. He was walking quickly toward the hospital entrance, away from the room where he had spent the past three months under lock and key. The room was locked again now, and the key was in his pocket. The uniform he wore belonged to the real hospital orderly, who lay unconscious on the floor of the locked room, his wrists and ankles tied with strips of torn bedsheet. The orderly had been hit over the head with a heavy steel tray, and would not be waking up anytime soon.

The Great Cortado squeaked through the reception area, past the desk where the night doorman sat reading his paper. The doorman looked up and frowned. Knocking off early? he said, glancing at his watch. Shift doesn’t end till four.

I’m going on strike, said Cortado, for better conditions.

The doorman put down his paper and raised an eyebrow. Strike? he said. Is it official?

Whatever, said the Great Cortado, and he pushed the revolving door and spun himself out into the frosty night air.

His foggy breath was lit by the lamps that lined the gravel driveway, and the cold bit his upper lip. A snigger escaped him, and he clamped his mouth shut. Better nip that in the bud. Once he started it could get the better of him. He marched out through the gates and along the tree-lined street beyond, his head filled with a tumult of sounds and pictures, of cackling and howling and falling and spinning. Night and day this freak show went on inside his mind, and he walked a tightrope through the chaos, sometimes slipping off and losing himself for days. Now was not the time, he told himself, and he fixed his eyes on a spot ten feet ahead of him as he walked. One step at a time. Left, right, left, right, up, down and sideways. No skipping. Another laugh bubbled up and he forced it back down. Concentrate, he muttered. You are the Great Cortado.

"You were the Great Cortado, said a voice at the back of his head. He spun around, but there was no one there. Nobody here but us chickens, he said. I am the Great Cortado. Just a minor setback. Once I get back on my feet, then we’ll see who’s laughing."

He marched on unsteadily into the night, the once Great Cortado, sudden giggles exploding from him like hiccups. As the cold air washed the hospital drugs from his system his old plans and schemes began to rise up through the madness, stranger than they had been before, darker and more crooked. An army of slaves. A city of bones. A military-industrial complex bristling with rockets and roaring with ire. He breathed deeply and allowed himself to laugh aloud. No matter what monstrosity he chose to build or how he trampled his way to power, there was one thing he knew for sure. At the gates of his empire there would be a tall straight pole, and on that pole would be the head of Selim, the boy who had brought down the Palace of Laughter. Item one on my shopping list, said the Great Cortado to the empty streets, Selim’s head on a pole. Then we’ll see who’s laughing!

The Circus Bolsillo came to Larde on a crisp February morning. From the moment the first wagons appeared over the brow of the hill it was clear that this was a circus without equal. A pair of elephants led the parade, painted and tasseled and each with a waistcoated monkey perched between her ears. They were followed by a gap-toothed man with slicked hair, juggling a dozen flaming clubs. A troupe of tumblers cartwheeled along the frosty road, their breaths tracing spirals of vapor that vanished at once in the winter sun, and behind them came a procession of wagons and trucks, painted in bright colors and each one more exotic than the last. They rode in on a wave of drums, whistles and gongs that could wake the dead, and the strange hoots and rumbles of animals from far-off jungles and distant deserts. The lead wagon was painted with the words THE INCOMPARABLE CIRCUS BOLSILLO in reds, blues and yellows, and in the large round Os were painted the grinning faces of three little clowns with pointed teeth.

A small girl and a coffee-skinned boy sat on the parapet of the stone bridge that led into Larde, oblivious to the cold and waiting eagerly for the circus to reach them. The boy’s name was Miles, and the girl was known as Little. Sitting side by side on the cold stone they might seem unremarkable enough, if you did not know that Little was over four hundred years old and had the outline of a pair of lost wings etched into the skin of her back, or that Miles had befriended a talking tiger and carried in his pocket a small stuffed bear that could dance like a drunken sailor.

The lead wagon drew closer, and Miles and Little could see the Bolsillo brothers themselves, Fabio, Umor and Gila, balanced on the roof like a small totem pole. As they rumbled across the bridge the totem pole made a triple bow. How are you, Master Miles? shouted Fabio over the racket of the circus band. And the little lady, Lady Little? called Umor, and Gila showed his pointy teeth in a broad smile.

Fine, I suppose, shouted Miles. How’s the new circus shaping up?

Can’t complain, called Fabio.

Yes we can, shouted Gila.

But we won’t, said Umor, his voice almost lost in the cacophony.

Miles and Little fell into step with the Bolsillo brothers’ wagon, which was drawn by two enormous cart horses with legs like fringed pillars, but were soon caught up in the dense crowd that had spilled onto the streets, and stopped where they were to watch the rest of the parade go by.

The Circus Bolsillo could not have been more different from its predecessor, the Circus Oscuro, which had crept into town in the dead of night not six months before. That sinister outfit was disbanded now, and its ringmaster had been locked away in a secure hospital, but from its remains the Bolsillo brothers had built a brand-new circus, as colorful and chaotic as the Circus Oscuro had been eerie and dark. They had brought in new performers to replace those who were missing or jailed, and as their fabulous procession rolled by, Miles could see just what a remarkable show they had created.

There were many more wagons, brightly painted with the names of exotic acts and sideshows: the Toki sisters from the Far Orient, Countess Fontainbleau and her Savage Lions, K2 the Strongman, Doctor Tau-Tau Presents Your Future. Something about the name on that last wagon sounded familiar to Miles, but he was distracted by a cage fat with crocodiles that rolled by in its wake. The sleepy reptiles were draped across each other like saggy statues, their crooked grins hinting that they might just be quietly digesting a small child or two. Miles was secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of a tiger somewhere in the colorful parade. There were animals from every corner of the world, but he was not really surprised when the last wagon passed and the only stripes he had seen were on whinnying zebras and folded canvas.

Miles and Little followed the tail of the Circus Bolsillo, even as the first wagons were pulling into the long field at the bottom of the hill. Lady Partridge, who ran the orphanage that they called home, had told them that the circus was coming, although she could not say when, and that they would be quartering their animals in the old stables behind Partridge Manor for a few days before taking to the road for the spring season.

By the time Miles and Little arrived at the long field, the wagons and trucks had arranged themselves in a broad circle around its edge, and those first to arrive had already spilled from their traveling homes with their dogs and children and washing lines and folding chairs and basins and chickens and oil lanterns. Canvas canopies cracked in the wind as their corners were lashed to nearby trees. A generator on a small yellow truck roared into life, and Fabio Bolsillo appeared from behind it, wiping his hands on an oily rag. At the sight of Miles and Little his face broke into a grin, and he shoved the rag into the back pocket of his overalls and turned a quick cartwheel that brought him right up beside them. He bowed low, and gave Miles a sly wink.

Thought you’d come sniffing around, he said.

Like flies around horse dung, said Gila, who had appeared from nowhere.

Where’s Umor? asked Little.

Cooking, said Gila.

We’re expecting guests, said Fabio.

Oh, said Miles. Then we’ll go. We just came to say hello.

Go if you want, shrugged Gila.

Then we’ll have no guests, said Fabio.

All the more for us. Gila reached out, quick as a flash, and tweaked Miles’s nose. Ommadawn, he said.

As they walked toward the Bolsillo brothers’ wagon, Fabio gave Miles a sidelong glance from under his bushy eyebrows. I suppose you’ve heard the news from Flukehill? he said.

A cold feeling stole over Miles. What news? he asked.

The Great Cortado escaped from the secure hospital last week, said Fabio.

Hit his warder over the head with a steel tray, said Gila.

Shaved off his mustache with a sharpened butter knife.

Dressed himself in the warder’s clothes and marched straight out of the door.

Told the guard he was going on strike.

Miles felt his stomach tighten, and for a moment the ground seemed to tilt away beneath his feet. He could see Little looking at him anxiously from the corner of his eye, and he made himself smile at her. I don’t think he’ll get far before they catch him again, he said. He pictured Sergeant Bramley and his two trusty constables, filling in the crossword over mugs of steaming tea, and quickly pushed the thought from his mind.

I wouldn’t be so sure, said Fabio.

He’s a master of disguise, said Gila.

And handy with a knife! said Fabio.

He’s been sighted in Nape, and Iota, and as far away as Frappe, said Gila.

Fabio pulled Gila’s cap down over his eyes. Rumors and lies, he snorted, unless he’s sprouted a propeller since we saw him last.

Miles laughed, and the knots in his stomach eased slightly, but still he felt that a cloud had stolen over the day, and he reached into his pocket for the reassuring feel of his orange-gray stuffed bear, Tangerine, who had been sung to life by Little on a moonlit autumn night. Tangerine said nothing, but he gave Miles’s fingers a squeeze that said more than a pocketful of words.

CHAPTER TWO

A TIGHT SHIP

Umor Bolsillo, sloe-eyed and quick-fingered, danced a complicated jig in a cloud of smoke that smelled of pork and sage and wild mushrooms. He sang in a strange language as he danced, and he poked the meat that sizzled on a spit over the open fire. The other two Bolsillo brothers and their guests sat on wooden stools that Gila had brought from the wagon in a teetering pile and set down in a half circle around the fire.

Well, Master Miles, said Fabio, tell us your news.

There’s not much to tell, said Miles. The orphanage is nearly finished. Lady Partridge is busier than ever. Baltinglass of Araby comes by now and then, when he can hitch a ride from Cnoc.

And The Null? asked Fabio, watching Miles from under his bushy eyebrows.

The Null is much the same, said Miles. He thought of the nameless beast that he had saved from execution, even after it had tried to crush him to death, and which now lived behind stout bars in the gazebo in Lady Partridge’s garden. He was in the habit of visiting The Null each morning, but today he had been distracted on the way by the arrival of the circus, and he knew the beast would be hunched in a corner, gnawing on a bone and brooding darkly. Sometimes it has quiet days, sometimes not, he said. I read to it every morning from the paper, and that seems to calm it somehow.

Fabio nodded. I doubt you’ll ever get further than that, he said.

Some tried to master the beast, while it still lived in the Circus Oscuro, said Umor.

But they all failed.

Even the ones that survived.

I don’t want to master The Null, said Miles. I just think it needs a friend.

A friend, echoed Fabio, and gave Miles a thoughtful look.

You have so many new acts! said Little, who had been looking around at the colorful wagons. Where have you been since we saw you last?

Here and there, little Sky Beetle, said Gila.

But mostly there.

Small towns, largely.

Little shows.

Big people.

Settling in the new acts, said Fabio.

Training them up.

Sawing them in half, laughed Umor.

Fabio leaned forward and dropped his voice. Working on a new show, he said.

Sort of Rutfal fo Salap, said Gila.

Rufta what? said Little.

It’s backwards, said Miles.

Palace of Laughter, said Fabio.

But in reverse, said Gila.

Grub’s up! called Umor from the smoke.

They sat around the warm fire, eating roast pork from cracked plates. The Bolsillo brothers told, in their usual leapfrogging chatter, how they had put on a series of shows over the winter months in small towns and villages while they searched for new acts to bring the limping circus back to life. There were bills to pay and animals to feed, but they had also been working hard on a new and more spectacular show for the coming year. The clowning routines would be of particular importance, for the brothers were quietly trying to devise a performance that would reverse the effects of the Great Cortado’s laughter hypnosis, with which he had sucked the laughter from the people, town by town and village by village, so that he could sell it back to them in small green-labeled bottles. Since Miles and Little had brought this odious racket to an end a creeping grayness had spread through parts of the country, and Fabio, Umor and Gila had set their minds to creating a show that could undo the damage.

And that, said Fabio to Little, is where you come in, little Sky Beetle.

Little wiped gravy from her chin with her shirt (a habit that Lady Partridge had tried to rid her of without success) and tucked her short blond hair behind one ear. What do you mean? she asked.

You’ve got the song we need, said Fabio.

There’s bad music to be untwisted, said Gila.

And bad laughter to be upended.

We heard a little of your singing, back in the Palace of Laughter.

You could sing the sourness off milk.

And the fur off the trees, said Gila.

Fur doesn’t grow on trees, said Umor.

You always told me there were fur trees.

If I did, then there must be.

Little shook her head. I can’t use the One Song for that, she said. I’m no longer a Song Angel. I can’t use it at all, not now.

Fabio put his finger to his lips. Shh-shh! he said. We don’t want to know about that.

None of our business, said Umor.

Tell us anyway, said Gila.

Miles looked at the stubborn set of Little’s mouth, but he knew her almost as well as she knew herself. She had bent the rules to follow Silverpoint to Earth, and when she had saved Miles from The Null by singing the creature’s name she had broken them altogether. He knew she would not take much persuading to tiptoe around them again.

Maybe you could work with the circus band in some way, he said.

Just what we were thinking, Master Miles, said Fabio.

We were? said Gila.

He was thinking it for you, save you the bother, said Umor, sucking the juices from his fingers.

You could be the World’s Youngest Bandmaster.

We’ve already got the World’s Tallest Midget.

Not to mention the Tiniest Flea.

They sat on their wooden stools, the coffee-skinned boy, his adopted little sister and three tiny men with black curly hair and eyebrows like caterpillars. A chilly wind whipped gray ash around them as the embers began to cool, and Miles felt his heart sinking as he realized that there was no place in this plan for him.

I wouldn’t want to go without Miles, said Little.

We’ll be back before the year’s end, said Fabio.

From rains to rains is the season, said Umor.

That’s if Lady P. will release you from your schooling.

Baltinglass of Araby says there’s more education to be got from a day of adventure than a month reading books, said Miles. He had not forgotten his promise to make Little’s new life as magical as the one she had left behind. A season with the Circus Bolsillo seemed like an excellent start, and he was torn between the excitement of the adventure that beckoned her and his disappointment at the prospect of being left behind.

Don’t worry, said Gila, looking at Miles with his little black eyes. We’ll look after her good.

Like she was our own niece, said Umor.

Or our little spindly grandmother, even.

Miles nodded, a lump in his throat. He looked at the colored wagons and the currents of people swirling around them, eating and working and tending their animals. The wistful sound of an accordion drifted from one of the small campfires, and from the window of a blue wagon came the sound of a girl shouting, and the crash of a plate. It was like a village that had appeared in the space of an hour, and would disappear just as quickly; a moving mirage that no one could hope to enter unless by invitation. When he turned back to the fire, Gila was playing with his gray mouse, Susan, and Umor was noisily stacking plates, which he balanced on his head as he trotted up the steps and disappeared into the wagon.

Miles cleared his throat. Maybe I could . . . , he began, but Fabio shook his head. Circus is a tight ship, he said.

Gila looked up from his mouse. No room for passengers, he said.

There was the sound of another piece of crockery smashing in the blue wagon, and the girl’s voice shouted, When I go, Hector go too. You don’t feed him even!

But Miles works hard, said Little. He could help with the tent, or look after animals.

Can he walk a wire? asked Fabio.

Or show a lion? asked Gila.

Miles shook his head.

He could wash the dishes, came Umor’s voice from inside the wagon.

Everyone in circus must do two or three things, Master Miles, said Fabio. It’s the only way we can survive.

From the corner of his eye Miles saw a small muscular girl step out of the blue wagon, slamming the door behind her so that the windows rattled. Her glossy brown hair was tied back with a ribbon, and she wore an oversized coat. A small monkey sat hunched on her shoulder, and her eyes flashed with anger. She marched toward the Bolsillo brothers’ campfire, staggering slightly on her platform shoes under the weight of a large suitcase and a worn carpetbag. A sparkling pink sleeve hung from the suitcase, its end dragging in the mud.

I will not anymore work with that animal! she said in a voice much larger than herself. She dropped her bags and folded her arms, glaring at Fabio.

Fabio looked at the monkey curiously. He’s a good little performer, he said.

Tchah! said the girl. Not little Hector. The monkey is beautiful human being. She jerked her head over her shoulder. Stranski is the animal! He never wash, smell like a badger’s bum. He never say please, never thank you, always so much rude.

Stranski can’t speak, Julia, said Gila.

Not since his accident, shouted Umor from inside the trailer.

Hasn’t said a word in twenty years, said Fabio.

The girl sniffed. I know that! It’s not what he don’t say. It’s the way he don’t say it. Always push me into the box, pull me out, pinch me with hard fingers. He never feed the monkey, always I give him from my own food. I finish with Stranski now, and I take the monkey with me. We finish with this circus for good!

You can’t leave now, said Fabio.

Stranski needs an assistant, said Gila.

You have a contract, said Fabio.

Julia bent down and rummaged in her bag until she found a crumpled sheet of paper with spidery writing crawling over both sides. This contract? she said, and she rolled it into a ball and stuffed it in her mouth. She chewed for a minute, her head high and her hands on her hips, and swallowed the paper with an exaggerated gulp, then without another word she picked up her bags and staggered off in the direction of the road. The monkey turned back to face the circus, chattering loudly and pulling at the girl’s ear, but she shook her head resolutely and kept walking. Just before she reached the road Hector leaped from her shoulder and ran, dodging between wagons and under clotheslines, straight back to the blue wagon from which they had come. Julia paused for a moment and stared back after the monkey with a wounded look, then she turned and was gone.

There was silence around the campfire. Umor appeared on the top step and looked sadly after the girl. Pity, he said. I liked her.

Fabio stared into the embers for a minute, a frown knitting his bushy eyebrows together, then he looked up at Miles and smiled.

How would you like to be sawn in half? he said.

CHAPTER THREE

THE CANNY RAT

Miles Wednesday, bone-tired and chest-inflated, wheeled a barrow of elephant droppings over the stone bridge into Larde, with a broad grin on his face and Little skipping by his side. After Julia’s unexpected departure from the circus he had been hired on the spot as tent boy, junior beast man and assistant to Stranski the Magician, an expert knife thrower and trick swordsman who did indeed smell like a badger’s bum.

Some people are just in the right place at the right time, Umor had said, leading him over to the small elephant enclosure in the corner of the field.

And you’re not one of them, added Gila, handing Miles a shovel. He pointed to the miniature mountain of dung that Tembo and Mamba had already managed to produce. Load up the wheelbarrow there, Master Miles, he said.

You have to ask their permission first, said Umor.

And mind they don’t step on you, said Gila.

After several hours of backbreaking work he had been sent with Little to the Parks and Gardens Department of the town hall. The barrow of elephant dung, to which had been added a cocktail of exotic droppings from four continents (and a couple of incontinents), made an excellent manure, and selling it would help to