Erik And The Dragon ( Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

assistants had them in place. The juggler reached down and buckled his feet to the tops of the stilts and walked around the hall, making a show of kicking each stilt out before him.
    A couple senators clapped. None of the dwarves did.
    Then the assistants went to the three juggling pins and began to juggle between themselves. At the juggler’s command, they turned and threw the three pins up to him and he began to juggle while walking on the stilts.
    “Good show!” one of the women at the other table called out.
    “This is nothing,” the juggler explained. “The masters in Hornbeak have taught me a rare secret in my time there, and now I show it to you!” Each assistant pulled another pin from their own pants and they struck matches to them, lighting them on fire. Then they tossed them up to the juggler on stilts and he incorporated them in with the other three. “Watch carefully,” he said as he stopped walking in a circle. He tossed the pins up higher and higher, until they nearly reached the ceiling. Then he made a couple of them collide in air, lighting the others on fire as well and then catching them to throw them back into the rhythm. After all five were on fire, several senators whistled and clapped.
    Al watched the fire, entranced by the yellow and red flames as they danced and swirled over the juggler’s head. Then, as if on cue the juggler held the brim of his pants out in front of him and the flaming pins went down inside one after the other in rapid succession amidst gasps from the audience. The juggler smiled and snapped his pants closed as he walked around the room. Al watched intently, expecting the man’s pants to erupt in flame, but nothing happened. The juggler made three circuits around the room, then he stopped in the center of the room directly in front of the king.
    “Now, here is the finale,” he said with a sly smile. The man bent down in a quick bow and flipped the latches of his stilts loose before launching into a graceful backflip. The pins flew out the bottom of his pant legs one by one, each reigniting and streaking through the air after him. The man landed on his feet and looked up just in time to catch the first pin and throw it back into the air. He caught each pin effortlessly before throwing it back into the rotation. He juggled them for a few cycles and then clapped his hands twice. Afterward he would wave a hand over each pin as he caught it and threw it for the last time. The instant his hand passed over the wooden pin the flames died. When all of the pins were extinguished he caught them and tossed them to his assistants, who would hold them.
    When he finished several senators stood and clapped for him, and even some of the dwarves rapped their knuckles on the table in approval.
    “Well done,” King Mathias said.
    The juggler bowed his head and turned to each table for another bow. As he turned to face Al, the dwarf felt something strange. There was something in the ma n’s eyes that unsettled Al. The dwarf king instinctively pulled his knife into his right hand.
    The juggler then turned back to the king. “With your permission, I have one more trick,” he said.
    “Of course,” King Mathias said.
    The juggler stepped closer to the king and Al tensed. The man twirled around and smiled to the audience. “For the last trick, I need a volunteer,” he said.
    “I’ll do it,” Al said.
    “Oh, no no no,” the juggler replied with a pat of his hands. “I would not dream of it, I am not fit to work with kings, I only perform for them.”
    Al sighed and watched the man keenly.
    “Something wrong,” a dwarf soldier asked as he leaned in close.
    Al nodded, but said nothing. He watched the juggler turn to the senator that had originally called him out.
    “You sir,” the juggler said. “Would you be so kind as to join me in the center here?”
    The senator nodded and wiped the corners of his mouth with a cloth napkin before walking around the table to join the juggler.