Read Online The Darker Carnival (The Markhat Files) by Frank Tuttle - Free Book Online

banshee’s own hair.
    If there was one way to immobilize a banshee, I thought, might there be others?
    Mama took the corncob pipe from between her teeth.
    “She ain’t dead,” she said. “That much I know.”
    I didn’t argue or ask.
    “So we go get her.”
    “I reckon we do,” said Mama. “You said there was a woman flyin’ about on a broomstick?”
    “Called herself Vallata the swamp witch. Saw her eat a live snake. Does that tell you anything about her?”
    “Tells me she ain’t got good sense,” said Mama. “But she wasn’t doing any flying until after the carnival closed?”
    “All we saw before that were second-rate carnival acts,” said Darla. “But something changed, once the show closed down.”
    “How many ogres did you count, boy?” asked Mama.
    “Half a dozen. And one drunk runt Troll.”
    “I can round up twice that many Hoogas,” said Mama. Hoogas are a local Ogre clan. Mama is practically one of them, to hear her tell it, and for all I know maybe she is. “You reckon you can ask your fancy friend from Avalante for some help?”
    Gertriss piped up. “His name is Evis, and he’ll help. This isn’t a House matter, but he’ll help just the same. You know he will.”
    Mama pretended not to hear. She might have softened a bit toward Evis personally, but her hard line against her niece walking out with a halfdead hadn’t changed.
    I rose, joints cracking like kindling-wood. “All right. Here’s how this goes. I’m heading for Avalante, with a stop at the Watch on the way.”
    Mama snorted. “You know damn well the Watch ain’t going to be any help, boy.”
    “I know that. But people are going to start turning up missing today. Those weren’t weeders or beggars in that crowd last night. Maybe somebody with enough pull to be a nuisance isn’t coming home this morning.”
    “I’ll go with you,” said Gertriss, wincing as she prepared to rise.
    “Like hell you will. I mean it, Miss. You’re staying put right here and watching for Buttercup. The three of you will sleep in shifts. I’m not arguing.”
    Miracle of miracles. No one argued.
    “So when you reckon we’re leaving?” asked Mama. She lit her pipe and sucked at it. “Sooner the better, I reckons.”
    “Depends on how long it takes at Avalante. Get the Hoogas together.” The skull on the shelf caught my eye. “Mama, you still got that hair rope?”
    “She took to cutting it with a paring knife she keeps hid, but I still got most of it.”
    “Got a bag for that skull?”
    Mama nodded, beady little Hog eyes gleaming with the promise of mayhem.
    “Reckon I do,” she said, blowing smoke.
    Darla rose and hugged me at the door. She smelled of pine needles, and her eyes were swollen and red.
    “There’s no way we can do this peacefully, is there?” she whispered, as we embraced.
    I didn’t bother answering. The last man who’d tried to retrieve his daughter by stealth and sheriffs died in the carnival’s shadow.
    “Love you,” I said, and then I stepped blinking out into the sun.
    My first stop was the new Watch house on Copper Street.
    I asked for Captain Holder, who more or less runs the Watch these days. He’d twice threatened to see me decapitated and my still-twitching remains fed to sewer rats, which still ranks as the nicest thing a Watch officer has ever said to me.
    Captain Holder was out. A bored Watchman not yet past pimples took my statement, and while he lacked a proper beard he had the customary Watchman’s expression of utter indifference down perfectly. He didn’t even blink when I added flying witches and giant spiders to the report.
    “Please see that Holder gets that,” I said, as I turned to leave.
    “The Captain a friend of yours?” asked the kid. He didn’t bother hiding his sarcasm.
    “Hell no. Holder hates me. Swears he’ll see me hung the next time we meet. Something about his sister. Don’t mention her. The baby isn’t due for a month.”
    I sauntered out, whistling, and