The Tiger's Egg by Jon Berkeley

Author:Jon Berkeley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-08-16T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CELESTE’S APPRENTICE

Doctor Tau-Tau, unmasked and aghast, sat down heavily in his chair as though some of the air had been let out of him. “That was a long time ago,” he said quietly, “and a different life. I suppose you’re going to march out there now and tell everyone.”

“And what if I do?” said Baltinglass. “Will the stars stop spinning overhead?”

“For you, no,” said Tau-Tau. “But for Doctor Tau-Tau they will. It has taken me many years to change my appearance and create a new life for myself, and I don’t believe anyone would recognize me now, though I keep a low profile when I’m nearer to home. Who would want their future revealed by Noel Dank of Grubwater New Street?”

“Dank,” said Baltinglass to himself, “of Dank Haberdashers and Discontinued Items? Next to the undertakers on the corner?”

Doctor Tau-Tau nodded, evidently forgetting that Baltinglass couldn’t see him. The blind explorer puffed on his pipe for a minute, a frown of concentration on his face. “Then you must be old Phelim’s youngest boy. The chubby kid. If I remember rightly he was grooming you to take over the business. How did you come to be a roving swindler instead? Did you buy a kit?”

“I am a leading clairvoyant and a healer of note,” said Doctor Tau-Tau, taking on some air again. “Fate apprenticed me to this boy’s mother, who had a fine reputation in the divining arts.”

Baltinglass of Araby turned toward Miles. “You hear that, Master Miles?” he shouted. “If this fraud is besmirching your mother’s good name I’ll be glad to give him a taste of my sword stick on your behalf. Just say the word.”

“It’s true, I think,” said Miles. “I don’t know a lot about my mother. She died when I was born.”

“Well that’s a damn shame!” said Baltinglass. He turned back and jabbed his cane in Doctor Tau-Tau’s direction, almost poking him in the eye. “I trust you’ve painted the lad a true portrait of his mother, whom he never had the good fortune to meet.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure I have,” said Tau-Tau.

“No you haven’t,” said Miles. “I don’t even know what she looked like.”

“Ah, really?” said Doctor Tau-Tau. He got up and lit the stove under his copper kettle. The smell of masala tea filled the air, and he breathed in deeply. “That smell always reminds me of the first time I met Celeste, in this very wagon as it happens.”

Miles sat forward on the bunk. He tried to picture his mother sitting on the upholstered stool that now creaked under the bulk of Doctor Tau-Tau, while his father’s laugh boomed out from somewhere else in the camp. He could almost feel Celeste’s presence, dark and serene, but her face was beyond his imagination’s grasp.

“Did you come to have your fortune told?” Miles asked.

“Not exactly,” said Tau-Tau. “I was working for the tax office at the time, and with my natural diligence I had risen swiftly to be head of my department. When the circus

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