The Midnight Carnival Read Online Free PDF

dozens of ageing postcards pinned to the inside of the door. Delilah suddenly tripped up the wooden steps and pointed to one.
    ‘Soroca!’ she said, running her fingers over the pencilled image.
    It was a drawing of a stone tower, with no windows but one door at the bottom. There was an arched panel above the door and, above that, a dark cross. At the top of the structurewas a stand with a hoop.
    ‘What a strange building. It looks like a candle,’ said Adie.
    ‘It’s called the Thanksgiving Candle. It’s in a place called Soroca, in Moldova.’
    ‘Where you’re from?’
    ‘My uncle’s farm was further up the river, but we went to Soroca loads of times. It’s pretty, isn’t it?’
    ‘Verrry prrretty,’ said a deep voice from within.
    Delilah leapt off the steps like a scalded cat. A woman now filled the doorway of the trailer. She was so tall she had to duck under the frame, and her sleeveless shift showed off rounded arms with huge biceps. Adie was about to run when she recognised her as the strongwoman from the show the night before.
    ‘Sorry, we didn’t mean to bother you.’
    ‘No, no, mein kinder. Es ist okay.’ The woman pointed to the postcard. ‘Soroca. You know?’
    ‘Yes,’ Delilah replied.
    ‘Is good, ja? Soroca. Good people, ja?’
    ‘Yes, it’s a lovely place.’
    The woman jabbed her finger into another postcard, and named a place in a language neither of the girls recognised.
    ‘And dis, ja?’
    ‘No, I don’t know where that is. Sorry.’
    ‘Ah, is okay.’ The woman waved her hand, as if she had been silly to ask. She smiled. ‘My name is Agata.’
    ‘I’m Delilah, and this is Adie.’
    Adie waved shyly.
    ‘And dat boy is Drake.’ Agata pointed behind them at a figure curling onto a tree stump at the very edge of the park. He was just within earshot. ‘Say hallo, Drake!’
    The boy raised his hand in a reluctant half-wave, and Adie was shocked to notice the green shade of his skin was not because of the shadow of the trees. There were lines and cracks that made it look like he was covered in scales, and she felt a little queasy. As if he knew what she was thinking, the boy buried his gaze in the backpack on his lap, and said nothing.
    ‘He is shy today,’ Agata said smiling. ‘Have some tea?’
    The boy looked more cross than shy to Adie, but she smiled warmly and accepted Agata’s offer.

4
Tea and Mooning
    ‘Kohl. Cabbage, ja?’ Agata swirled her fingers in the air as if to suggest something rolled up. ‘And meat inside.’
    ‘Sarma!’ Delilah said. ‘Minced meat in cabbage leaves.’
    The strongwoman nodded, raising her eyes and hands to the sky like the mere thought of the food was divine. Adie thought it sounded gross. She hated cabbage, and she was no fan of minced meat either.
    ‘Yummy,’ Delilah sighed.
    ‘Ha!’ Agata slapped her knee, grinning. ‘Yummy! Das ist gut. Yummmmy… I use dis word now.’
    Adie sipped politely at her black, unusual-tasting tea, and watched the small girl clapping her hands and exclaiming every time Agata mentioned something that she missed about Moldova. Delilah had never been so boisterous in thewhole time that Adie had known her. She was like a different girl. And the light in her big, brown eyes made Adie feel guilty – by avoiding asking about her past, had the girls kept Delilah quiet and shy? She had certainly never opened up about life with her wicked mother, and Adie was sure she didn’t want to. Meredith Gold had been a blonde beauty, a talented witch, and the most evil person Adie had ever met. She treated Delilah like a slave, and the small girl never showed a moment’s regret when she was banished forever down the demon well.
    Still, thought Adie, perhaps the girls should have asked about the rest of her family. Delilah had fondly mentioned a grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins, but Adie and the others still shied away from quizzing her about them. They had asked about her father once, but Delilah didn’t