The Lake of Souls Read Free

flit for Vampire Mountain as soon as night falls. Darren — are you and Harkat coming?”
    I looked at my fellow Prince, then down at the hard brown earth of the forest floor. “No,” I said softly. “I’ve had all I can take of vampires and vampaneze. I know I’m a Prince and have duties to attend to. But I feel like my head’s about to explode. Mr. Crepsley meant more to me than anything else. I need to get away from it all, maybe for a while — maybe forever.”
    “It’s a dangerous time to cut yourself off from those who care for you,” Vancha said quietly.
    “I can’t help that,” I sighed.
    Vancha was troubled by my choice, but he accepted it. “I don’t approve — a Prince should put the needs of his people before his own — but I understand. I’ll explain it to the others. Nobody will trouble you.” He cocked an eyebrow at Harkat. “I suppose you’ll be going with him?”
    Harkat lowered the mask from his mouth (air was poisonous to the grey-skinned Little People) and smiled thinly. “Of course.” Mr. Tiny had resurrected Harkat from the dead. Harkat didn’t know who he used to be, but he believed he could find out by sticking with me.
    “Where will you go?” Vancha asked. “I can find you using the Stone of Blood, but it’ll be easier if I have a rough idea of where you’re heading.”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll just pick a direction and …” I stopped as a picture flashed through my thoughts, of circus vans, snake-boys and hammocks. “The Cirque Du Freak,” I decided. “It’s the nearest place outside Vampire Mountain that I can call home.”
    “A good choice,” Evanna said, and by the way her lips lifted at the edges, I realized the witch had known all along that I’d choose to return to the Cirque.
    We went our separate ways as the sun was setting, even though we hadn’t slept and were ready to drop with exhaustion. Vancha departed first, on his long trek to Vampire Mountain. He said little when leaving, but hugged me hard and hissed in my ear, “Be brave!”
    “You too,” I whispered back.
    “We’ll kill Leonard next time,” he vowed.
    “Aye,” I grinned weakly.
    He turned and ran, hitting flitting speed seconds later, vanishing into the gloom of the dusk.
    Debbie and Alice left next, to return to the city. Debbie asked me to stay with her, but I couldn’t, not as things stood. I needed to be by myself for a while. She wept and clutched me close. “Will you come back later?” she asked.
    “I’ll try,” I croaked.
    “If he doesn’t,” Evanna said, “you can always go looking for him.” She handed a folded-up piece of paper to Alice Burgess. “Hold on to that. Keep it closed. When the two of you decide upon your course, open it.”
    The Chief Inspector asked no questions, just tucked the paper away and waited for Debbie to join her. Debbie looked at me pleadingly. She wanted me to go with her — or ask her to come with me — but there was a huge ball of grief sitting cold and hard in my gut. I couldn’t think of anything else right now.
    “Take care,” I said, turning aside and breaking eye contact.
    “You too,” she croaked, then sobbed loudly and stumbled away. With a quick “Goodbye,” Alice hurried after her and the two women slipped through the trees, back to the city, supporting one another as they went.
    That left just me, Harkat and Evanna.
    “Any idea where the Cirque’s playing?” the witch asked. We shook our heads. “Then it’s lucky that I do and am going there.” She smiled. Standing between us, she looped her arms around my left arm and Harkat’s right, and led us through the forest, away from the city and its underground caverns of death, back to where my voyage into the night first started — the Cirque Du Freak.

CHAPTER TWO
    A LEXANDER RIBS WAS SLEEPING in a large tire hanging from a tree. He always slept curled up — it kept his body supple and made it easier for him to twist and contort when he was