The Spook Who Spoke Again

12

Someone was coming to get me.

The person sounded different from Hesper, heavier and more blundery. Anyway, Hesper must be still putting out the fire in the Circus. The first thing I noticed was this new person fumbling with the ties on the door flaps. I knew it wasn’t Thalia. She had gone back to the theatre people, to spend the night with Davos, who was her husband and she hadn’t seen him for a long time so they would have many things to discuss. Anyway, she knew how to deal with the ties quietly. They were her own knots.

Whoever it was came inside and began blundering around the pavilion. He was making noise as if he was a clumsy person.

I didn’t know what to do. I put out my hand and tried to feel if I could burrow under the side of the main tent to get away secretly, but the leather was pegged down too firmly for me to pull it up to wriggle through. You have to make a tent secure from rats or thieves and barbarians reaching in to grab your kit or the hunk of the bread you are saving for breakfast. Also you have to keep out mud and dust or floods if there has been a downpour. I know the laws of camping from my father (I mean Falco) and his great friend, Uncle Lucius, who love to describe how they were in the army once.

I thought I had better get away from here, but I must do it in some other way. I would have to get up, move quickly from my end of the tent through the round outer part, then run like mad. I had to go right past this man, before he saw what was happening.

I decided not to put on my sandals, which might make a noise and tell him he was not alone. I picked up the wooden sword, though. I crept to the curtain that separated the tent rooms. I was being perfectly silent, which I know how to do. Many people have commented on how well I can creep up on them. I am not allowed to creep up on Falco, in case he spins round and instantly kills me, thinking I am an assassin.

As soon as I slid through the curtain, I saw a large man. He did have a pottery oil lamp but very small and faint. He was also shielding the light with one hand so it illuminated the tiniest area, but then he turned from the place where Thalia had her bed and looked right at me.

‘Oi!’ he yelled. ‘Come here, you!’

He was going to grab me. He smelled of wine, which I knew meant he would be hard to reason with. It would be no use asking what he wanted or begging him not to hurt me.

I ran straight at him, with the sword held out in front of me. It hit him at waist level. Dama was right, the point would not go into him, but the man nevertheless wobbled right off balance.

I ran out past him. Hearing cries and struggling noises, I looked back through the doorway. Straightaway I recognised that the man was Soterichus, the animal-seller.

Soterichus had barged against the big basket. He knocked it, so hard the heavy pot on top fell off, clanging. The basket lid dropped off too. Jason the python instantly shot his head out. He seemed highly annoyed at having his sleep disturbed and his basket knocked over while he was inside it. His tongue was flickering more wildly than I had ever seen and he was making a strange noise.

Soterichus lay on the ground, waving his arms about and rolling, trying to stand up again. He was definitely drunk so this was very funny. One of his flailing arms hit Jason in the eye. I could see it was an accident. Jason, that dumb snake, thought it was on purpose. He was mightily displeased. Oh dear.

Jason slithered all the way out of the overturned basket in one long smooth uncoiling movement. Before we knew what was happening, he wrapped his strong body around Soterichus. He began squeezing. He was tightening as hard as possible.

Soterichus went very red in the face. His mouth opened, though he was too busy being squeezed to say anything. He couldn’t escape from Jason’s coils. I could hear him breathing in horrid jagged gasps.

I decided to address the unfortunate situation. ‘Jason is suffocating you,’ I said in a stern voice. ‘He is too strong for me to stop him, so I will go for help.’ Fetching someone to rescue the man was a polite thing to do. I didn’t say that I wanted to save Soterichus because I needed a discussion with him about whether he was my father.

I scuttled as fast as possible over to where the theatre people had their own encampment. In the dark I had to be careful not to get lost and I had no sandals on, so I was held up when I trod on stones and had to hop about squealing. Everyone was still having their dinner. I ran to Thalia, telling her at once what was happening to Soterichus. She leapt up. Bowls and cups scattered in all directions. Faster than I would ever have thought she could run, Thalia pelted off. Davos and lots of other people saw that this was an emergency so at once followed, leaving their foodbowls and beakers behind. I limped in the rear, until I was suddenly seized by Lysias, who saw I was barefoot. He kindly picked me up and carried me all the way back to Thalia’s tent, although when we arrived, he kept me outside while other people went in.

Not long after, two men dragged out Soterichus by his feet, with his head lolling in the dirt. They pulled long faces and told us he was dead.