After Evra and the boy had wrapped the snakes around themselves, Mr Tall came on again and said the show was over for real. We kept to the shadows while the crowd streamed past, chattering with excitement. Then, as Evra and the child unwound and brushed themselves down, I moved. "Evra Von!" I roared.
Evra whirled around, startled. "Who's there?" I didn't answer, but walked forward briskly. His eyes widened with astonished delight. "Darren?" he yelled, and threw his arms around me. I hugged him tightly, ignoring the feel of his slippery scales, delighted to see him after so many years. "Where have you been?" he cried when we let go of one another. There were tears of happiness in his eyes mine were wet too.
"Vampire Mountain," I said lightly. "How about you?"
"All over the world." He studied me curiously. "You've grown."
"Only recently. And not as much as you." Evra was a man now. He was only a few years older than me, and we'd looked much the same age when I first joined the Cirque Du Freak, but now he could have passed for my father.
"Good evening, Evra Von," Mr Crepsley said, stepping forward to shake hands.
"Larten," Evra nodded. "It's been a long time. I'm glad to see you."
Mr Crepsley stood to one side and introduced our companions. "I would like you to meet Vancha March, Lady Evanna, and Harkat Mulds, whom I believe you already know."
"Hello," Vancha grunted.
"Greetings," Evanna smiled.
"Hi, Evra," Harkat said.
Evra blinked. "It spoke!" he gasped.
"Harkat speaks a lot these nights," I grinned.
"It has a name?"
"It has," Harkat said. "And 'it' would like very much to be called 'he'."
Evra didn't know what to say. When I'd lived with him, we'd spent a lot of our time gathering food for the Little People, and never once had one of them said a word. We thought they couldn't speak. Now here I was with a Little Person the limping one, whom we'd nicknamed Lefty acting as if his being able to talk was no big deal.
"Welcome back to the Cirque Du Freak, Darren," somebody said, and looking up I found myself face to belly button with Mr Tall. I'd forgotten how quickly and silently the owner of the Cirque could move.
"Mr Tall," I replied, nodding politely (he didn't like to shake hands).
He greeted the others by name, including Harkat. When Harkat returned the greeting, Mr Tall didn't look in the least surprised. "Would you care to eat?" he asked us.
"That would be delightful," Evanna answered. "And I would have a word or two with you afterwards, Hibernius. There are things we must discuss."
"Yes," he agreed without batting an eyelid. "There are."
As we filed out of the church, I fell in step with Evra to discuss old times. He was carrying his snake over his shoulders. The boy who'd performed with Evra caught up with us as we exited, dragging the other snake behind him like a toy. "Darren," Evra said, "I'd like you to meet Shancus."
"Hello, Shancus," I said, shaking the boy's hand.
"'Lo," he replied. He had the same yellow, green hair, narrow eyes, and multicoloured scales as Evra. "Are you the Darren Shan I was named after?" he asked.
I glanced sideways at Evra. "Am I?"
"Yes," he laughed. "Shancus was my first-born. I thought it would be"
"First-born?" I interrupted. "He'syours ? You'rehis father ?"
"I certainly hope so," Evra grinned.
"But he's so big! So old!"
Shancus preened proudly at the remark.
"He'll be five soon," Evra said. "He's large for his age. I started him out in the act a couple of months ago. He's a natural."
This was bizarre! Of course, Evra was old enough to be married with kids, and there was no reason for me to be surprised by the news but it seemed like only a few months since we'd been hanging out together as teenagers, wondering what life would be like when we grew up.
"You've got other children?" I asked.
"A couple," he said. "Urcha three and Lilia, who'll be two next month."
"Are they all snake-children?"
"Urcha isn't. He's upset he wants scales too but we try to make him feel as loved and extraordinary as the others."
"Webeing ?"
"Me and Merla. You don't know her. She joined the show shortly after you left ours was a whirlwind romance. She can detach her ears and use them as mini-boomerangs. You'll like her."
Laughing, I said I was sure I would, then followed Evra and Shancus after the others, to dinner.
It was wonderful to be back with the Cirque Du Freak. I'd been edgy and moody for the last week and a half, thinking about what Evanna had said, but my fears faded within an hour of returning to the circus fold. I met many old friends Hans Hands, Rhamus Twobellies, Sive and Seersa, Cormac Limbs and Gertha Teeth. I also saw the Wolf Man, but he wasn't quite as welcome a sight as the others, and I kept clear of him as much as possible.
Truska who could grow a beard at will, then suck the hairs back inside her face was there too, and delighted to see me. She greeted me in broken English. She hadn't been able to speak the language six years ago, but Evra had been teaching her and she was making good progress. "It is hard," she said as we mingled with the others in a large, run-down school which was serving as the Cirque's base. "I not good at language. But Evra is patient and I slowly learning. I make mistakes still, but"
"We all make mistakes, gorgeous," Vancha interrupted, popping up beside us. "And yours was not making an honest vampire of me when you had the chance!" He wrapped his arms around Truska and kissed her. She laughed when he let go and waved a finger at him.
"Naughty!" she giggled.
"You two know each other, I take it," I commented dryly.
"Oh, yes," Vancha leered. "We're old friends. Many's the night we went skinny-dipping together in oceans deep and blue, eh, Truska?"
"Vancha," she tutted. "You promised not of that to mention!"
"So I did," he chuckled, then began talking with her in her native tongue. They sounded like a pair of seals barking at each other.
Evra introduced me to Merla, who was very pleasant and pretty. He made her show me her detachable ears. I agreed that they were fabulous, but I declined her offer to let me have a go throwing them.
Mr Crepsley was as pleased to be back as I was. As a dutiful vampire, he'd devoted most of his life to the Generals and their cause, but I suspect his heart lay secretly with the Cirque Du Freak. He loved to perform and I think he missed being on the stage. Many people asked him if he was back to stay, and expressed disappointment when he said he wasn't. He made light of it, but I think he was genuinely touched by their interest and would have stayed if he could.
There were Little People with the Cirque Du Freak, as usual, but Harkat kept away from them. I tried getting him involved in conversation with others, but people felt nervous around him they weren't accustomed to a Little Person who could talk. He spent most of the night alone, or in a corner with Shancus, who was fascinated by him and kept asking impolite questions (most to do with whether he was a man or a woman in fact, like all the Little People, he was neither).
Evanna was known by many people at the Cirque Du Freak, although very few of them had met her before their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents had told them about her. She spent a few hours mingling and catching up on the past she had an impressive memory for names and faces then said her farewells for the night and departed with Mr Tall, to discuss matters strange, portentous and arcane (or else to chat about frogs and magic tricks!).
We retired with the coming of the dawn. We bid goodnight to those still awake, then Evra guided us to our tents. Mr Tall had kept Mr Crepsley's coffin ready for him and the vampire climbed into it with a look of sheer contentment vampires love their coffins in a way no human can ever understand.
Harkat and me strung up a couple of hammocks and slept in a tent next to Evra and Merla's. Evanna moved into a van adjoining Mr Tall's. And Vancha Well, when we met him that evening, he swore blind he'd stayed with Truska, and bragged about what a hit he was with the ladies. But by all the leaves and grass stuck to his hair and animal hides, I think it more likely he passed the day by himself under a bush!
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
HARKAT ANDme got up an hour or so before sunset and walked around the camp with Evra and Shancus. I was chuffed that Evra had named his first-born after me and promised to send the boy birthday presents in future, if I could. He wanted me to give him a spider Evra had told him all about Madam Octa but I had no intention of sending him one of the poisonous arachnids from Vampire Mountain I knew from painful experience the trouble a tarantula could cause!
The Cirque Du Freak was much the same as ever. A few new acts had joined, and one or two had parted company with the show, but mostly it was as it had been. Though the circus hadn't changed,I had. I sensed that after a while, as we strolled from one caravan or tent to another, pausing to chat with the performers and stagehands. When I lived at the Cirque, I was young in appearance at least and people treated me as a child. They didn't any more. While I didn't look that much older, there must have been something different about me, because they no longer spoke down to me.
Although I'd been acting as an adult for years, this was the first time I really thought about how much I'd changed and how I could never return to the lighter days of my youth. Mr Crepsley had been telling me for ages usually when I complained about how slowly I was maturing that a night would come when I'd wish I could be young again. Now I realized he was right. My childhood had been a long, drawn-out affair, but within a year or two the purge would rid me of both my human blood and youth, and after that there could be no going back.
"You look pensive," Evra noted.
"I'm thinking about how much things have changed," I sighed. "You married and with kids. Me with worries of my own. Life used to be much simpler."
"It always is for the young," Evra agreed. "I keep telling Shancus that, but he doesn't believe me, any more than we did when we were growing up."
"We're getting old, Evra."
"No we aren't," he said. "We're gettingolder . It'll be decades before I hit old age centuries for you."
That was true, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd somehow grown ancient overnight. For more than twenty-five years I'd lived and thought as a child Darren Shan, the boy Prince! but now I didn't feel I was a child any longer.
Mr Crepsley tracked us down as we were devouring hot sausages around a camp fire. Truska had cooked them and was handing them out. The vampire took one, thanked her, and swallowed it in two quick bites. "Savoury," he said, licking his lips, then turned to me with a gleam in his eye. "Would you care to take to the stage tonight? Hibernius has said we may perform."
"What would we do?" I asked. "We don't have Madam Octa any longer."
"I can perform magic tricks, as I did when I first joined the Cirque Du Freak, and you can be my assistant. With our vampiric speed and strength, we can pull off some truly remarkable conjuring feats."
"I dunno," I said. "It's been a long time. I might get stage fright."
"Nonsense. You are doing it. I will not take no for an answer."
"If you put it that way " I grinned.
"You will need some grooming if we are to present ourselves to the public," Mr Crepsley said, eyeing me critically. "A haircut and manicure are in order."
"I take care of that," Truska said. "I also am having Darren's old pirate costume. I could fix up it to fit him again."
"You've still got that old thing?" I asked, remembering how cool I'd felt when Truska kitted me out as a pirate not long after I'd joined the Cirque Du Freak. I had to leave the fancy clothes behind when I left to travel to Vampire Mountain.
"I am a good holder-on to things," she smiled. "I fetch it and measure you. The suit might not be ready this tonight, but tomorrow I have it in shape. Come to me an hour now from, for measuring."
Vancha was jealous when he heard we were going to be performing. "What about me?" he grumbled. "I know a bit of magic. Why can't I go on too?"
Mr Crepsley stared at the green-haired Prince, with his bare feet, muddy legs and arms, his animal hides and shurikens. He sniffed the air Vancha had showered in rainfall about six nights earlier, but hadn't washed since and crinkled his nose. "You are not the essence of presentability, Sire," he remarked carefully.
"What's wrong with me?" Vancha asked, looking down, seeing nothing amiss.
"One must be elegant when one takes to the stage," Mr Crepsley said. "You lack a certainje ne sais quoi ."
"I don't know about that," I said. "I think there's a perfect part for him in the show."
"There!" Vancha beamed. "The boy has a keen eye."
"He could go on at the start, with the Wolf Man," I said, only barely managing to keep a straight face. "We could pretend they were brothers."
Vancha glared at me as Mr Crepsley, Harkat, Evra and Shancus fell apart with laughter. "You're getting too smart by far!" he snapped, then stormed off to find someone to rant at.
At the appointed time I went to be measured and get my hair cut by Truska. Evra and Shancus also went to prepare for the show, while Harkat helped Mr Crepsley search for props to use in his act.
"Is life being good to you?" Truska asked, snipping my newly-grown fringe.
"It could be worse," I said.
"Vancha told me you now are being a Prince."
"He wasn't supposed to tell anyone," I complained.
"Do not fear. I keep news myself to. Vancha and me old friends. He knows I can a secret keep." She lowered the pair of scissors and looked at me oddly. "Have you seen anything of Mr Tiny since leaving?" she asked.
"That's a strange question," I replied warily.
"He here was, many months ago. Came see Hibernius."
"Oh?" That must have been before his trip to Vampire Mountain.
"Hibernius was troubled after visit. He told me dark times are out in front of us. He said I might be wanting to think of going home to my people. Said I might be safer there."