to death for taking part in that stupid conjuring trick. People were saying they were witches. The rest of us could have gotten killed or trampled to death. We didnât know where you were!â
âYou should have stuck with us,â Red said. âIt was fine.â
âAnd what happens tomorrow if thereâs a curfew? Or a lockdown? How do we beg? How do we eat? Does the magician know how to fix that?â
A short silence was followed by sniggers. Flea realized that heâd missed something.
âKeep up, moron,â Big said. âTheyâve invited us to eat with them tomorrow night. Itâs a big deal, a feast with wine and everything. And thereâs no curfew, either. The Temple wouldnât dare.â
âNo one told me!â
âDo us a favor,â Big said. âDonât say another word.â
âAnd do me a favor,â Yesh said. âSpend some time with us and get to know us a bit better. Will you, Flea? Please?â
Flea felt the force of the magicianâs clever, intense eyes and looked away.
Yesh said, âWeâve got a tough one here, friends. Going to have to do more than my usual tricks to get him interested.â
Flea looked for Jude, but he wasnât there. âOne day youâll meet a real magician whoâll blast you off the face of the earth with lightning bolts,â he muttered.
âUntil then, youâve just got me.â
âWe should have robbed you.â
âYou wouldnât have gotten much.â
âI mean after youâd collected from the crowd.â
âWe donât do that.â He smiled a steady, warm smile that somehow spread beyond Flea to take in the rest of the gang. âNow, can we join you? That looks like a fine shelter. Did you make it yourselves?â
And in no time at all, Yeshua and his followers were crowding into the gangâs alleyway, and then they were sitting down by the shelter as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Flea shook his head. All he felt was a profound suspicion. He had to admit that the magician had a sort of powerâhe couldnât think of any other wordâthat could pull smiles out of a person like a butcher dragging the guts from an animal, but did it really make them happier? Did it change a thing?
When Clump asked Yeshua how he did the trick with the egg and the dove, Yeshua opened his eyes wide and said, âTrick? How dare you? Have none of you heard of magic?â
âBut can youâ¦â Clumpâs voice trailed off.
The gang exchanged glances. They knew exactly what he wanted to ask. A month ago Clump had stolen the gangâs takings and bought a cure for his twisted foot from a traveling doctor. The foul-smelling ointment had done no good at all except earn him a black eye for taking the money and a foot that reeked of camel dung and rancid lard, which was probably what the ointment was made of.
âI know what you want,â the magician said. âYou want to know if I can cure people. The answer is yes, I can sometimes.â
The magician looked around the gang, meeting and holding their eyes. Once, twice, he did it and then, without anyone uttering a word, Gaga stood and approached him as if he were on a string. The magician put his hands on Gagaâs head, looked upward, muttered something, then bent down and whispered in Gagaâs ear. Gaga smiled uncertainly, cleared his throat, smiled shyly, and said, âThank you,â in a little hoarse voice.
They were the first words any of the Temple Boys had ever heard Gaga speak. Everyone got up and made a fuss of himâslapping him on his back, asking him to say something else. Everyone apart from Flea, who felt sick in a way he could not understand.
He slouched to the end of the alleyway where the woman and her daughter were standing by their carpet and staring at the gathering with undisguised curiosity.
The followers pooled their money and two
Tim Lebbon, Christopher Golden