Limberleg bowed toward where Mr. Coffrett leaned against the porch of Mr. Maliverny's saloon, teacup in hand and looking mildly amusedâ"where we will open our doors and our cabinets to you!"
A fist ringed with bells shoved a creased handbill into Natalie's lap. Under the frayed hat she glimpsed a small face that wasn't like a child's at all. The sight of it close up was so unexpected that she actually recoiled before she realized it had to be a mask: the harlequin's face was the pale white of birch bark, but smooth as porcelain, with round, faded rosy spots high on its cheeks and glossy lips painted around a perfectly curved smile. It had glittering human eyes, but Natalie thought she heard something click as it blinked, its pale eyelids dropping and snapping open again like a fancy doll's. Then it was gone in a string of somersaults.
Natalie frowned at the handbill.
COMING!
JAKE EPIPHEMIUS LIMBERLEG,
DOCTOR OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, EMERITUS,
WELCOMES YOU!
WONDERS
OF SCIENCE,
MIRACLES
OF MEDICINE!
ALL YOUR AILMENTS CURED WITH THE LATEST ADVANCES
ACCOMPANIED BY
CARNIVAL ENTERTAINMENT IN HIGH CLASS!
SPECIAL PROGRAMME OF
NEW AMUSEMENTS!
UNRIVALED EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITYâA WINDOW
INTO THE MEDICINE OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM!
NO QUACKERY OR SPIELINGâONLY THE
NEWEST TREATMENTS AND PATENTED PANACEAS!
NOTHING LIKE IT EVER PRESENTED IN YOUR TOWN!
Welcome to your very good health!
"Simon rented 'em the lot?" Tom mumbled, reading over her shoulder. "Wonder what made him do that."
"Forget what you know about medicine! Forget what you think you know about the mysterious machine that is your own body! Forget what you thought you had to live with: the aches you could not cure, the hurts that would not fade! Forget what you know about medicine, and allow me to introduce you to new horizons, new hopes, new health!"
Old Tom looked up from the handbill and made that "huh" sound again.
"Come with your questions and doubts, friends," Dr. Limberleg continued, his lips stretching wide as the four Paragons and the child-sized harlequin passed among the townspeople handing out printed pages and tacking others to porches and pillars. "Come for news. Come for entertainment, if not for a cure. Moving pictures! Cabinets of curiosities! Exotic restoratives, including that time-honored and celebrated treatment for anxiety, the ducking booth!"
Dr. Limberleg pantomimed throwing a baseball across the street, and the harlequin fell neatly to its backside as if it had been dropped by the invisible ball.
The doctor waited for the laughter, still a little hesitant, to die down before adding, "And of course, complimentary trials for any soul bold enough to experiment with the marvels we will exhibit. All clinically verified, all guaranteed. Yes, friends,
guaranteed,
thanks to the wisdom of science and its miracles that my colleagues and I have brought to your front door!"
He hopped nimbly down from the chariot and turned to face Natalie and Tom, his smile diminishing to that narrow line again.
"Until tomorrow," he said.
NINE
The Old Village
"T ELL ME AGAIN why we're going all the way out there?" Miranda whined.
"So Natalie can tell the story right, Miranda," Ryan snapped, his voice so thick with irritation he didn't even have to add
geez.
"And
why
didn't we ride our bicycles and save some time?" She looked impishly at Natalie.
"I
told
you, anything that goes through the crossroads loses a wheel." Which was so perfect an excuse to have left the red bicycle at home that even Natalie's guilty conscience let her off the hook. "Everyone knows it. That's how the medicine show wound up here. They weren't even going to stop in Arcane, Dr. Limberleg said."
They were halfway to the Old Village, kicking stones through the dust as they hiked toward the ruins. Alfred had saved Natalie the trouble of trying to convince her gang to make the hike; after the procession he and Ryan had descended on Natalie, wanting to know what on earth she
A fist ringed with bells shoved a creased handbill into Natalie's lap. Under the frayed hat she glimpsed a small face that wasn't like a child's at all. The sight of it close up was so unexpected that she actually recoiled before she realized it had to be a mask: the harlequin's face was the pale white of birch bark, but smooth as porcelain, with round, faded rosy spots high on its cheeks and glossy lips painted around a perfectly curved smile. It had glittering human eyes, but Natalie thought she heard something click as it blinked, its pale eyelids dropping and snapping open again like a fancy doll's. Then it was gone in a string of somersaults.
Natalie frowned at the handbill.
COMING!
JAKE EPIPHEMIUS LIMBERLEG,
DOCTOR OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, EMERITUS,
WELCOMES YOU!
WONDERS
OF SCIENCE,
MIRACLES
OF MEDICINE!
ALL YOUR AILMENTS CURED WITH THE LATEST ADVANCES
ACCOMPANIED BY
CARNIVAL ENTERTAINMENT IN HIGH CLASS!
SPECIAL PROGRAMME OF
NEW AMUSEMENTS!
UNRIVALED EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITYâA WINDOW
INTO THE MEDICINE OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM!
NO QUACKERY OR SPIELINGâONLY THE
NEWEST TREATMENTS AND PATENTED PANACEAS!
NOTHING LIKE IT EVER PRESENTED IN YOUR TOWN!
Welcome to your very good health!
"Simon rented 'em the lot?" Tom mumbled, reading over her shoulder. "Wonder what made him do that."
"Forget what you know about medicine! Forget what you think you know about the mysterious machine that is your own body! Forget what you thought you had to live with: the aches you could not cure, the hurts that would not fade! Forget what you know about medicine, and allow me to introduce you to new horizons, new hopes, new health!"
Old Tom looked up from the handbill and made that "huh" sound again.
"Come with your questions and doubts, friends," Dr. Limberleg continued, his lips stretching wide as the four Paragons and the child-sized harlequin passed among the townspeople handing out printed pages and tacking others to porches and pillars. "Come for news. Come for entertainment, if not for a cure. Moving pictures! Cabinets of curiosities! Exotic restoratives, including that time-honored and celebrated treatment for anxiety, the ducking booth!"
Dr. Limberleg pantomimed throwing a baseball across the street, and the harlequin fell neatly to its backside as if it had been dropped by the invisible ball.
The doctor waited for the laughter, still a little hesitant, to die down before adding, "And of course, complimentary trials for any soul bold enough to experiment with the marvels we will exhibit. All clinically verified, all guaranteed. Yes, friends,
guaranteed,
thanks to the wisdom of science and its miracles that my colleagues and I have brought to your front door!"
He hopped nimbly down from the chariot and turned to face Natalie and Tom, his smile diminishing to that narrow line again.
"Until tomorrow," he said.
NINE
The Old Village
"T ELL ME AGAIN why we're going all the way out there?" Miranda whined.
"So Natalie can tell the story right, Miranda," Ryan snapped, his voice so thick with irritation he didn't even have to add
geez.
"And
why
didn't we ride our bicycles and save some time?" She looked impishly at Natalie.
"I
told
you, anything that goes through the crossroads loses a wheel." Which was so perfect an excuse to have left the red bicycle at home that even Natalie's guilty conscience let her off the hook. "Everyone knows it. That's how the medicine show wound up here. They weren't even going to stop in Arcane, Dr. Limberleg said."
They were halfway to the Old Village, kicking stones through the dust as they hiked toward the ruins. Alfred had saved Natalie the trouble of trying to convince her gang to make the hike; after the procession he and Ryan had descended on Natalie, wanting to know what on earth she
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