by Ellie Margot
Cassian sat beside her, and they didn’t speak at first. Riette took Cassian’s hands, though he pulled back a little, and flipped them over to look at his palms. The burns were angry red and blistered. He didn’t wince, but she felt him tense when she touched it. The wounds were new, and she tried not to hurt him more.
“I did this,” Riette said. Her voice was quiet, and something in her belly flared to life at her words. Everything her mother had ever told her about needing to focus, about becoming a leader, about owning her power instead of letting it own her, became a physical thing she could barely keep down.
She bit the inside of her cheek.
“I hurt you. I’m the mistake.”
“No, whatever is happening to you isn’t you. It’s being away from home like this.”
“What if it is me? I gave Corin the bad idea of wanting to come here. I’m the reason everything is as fucked up as it is.”
“That’s bullshit.”
Riette’s mouth tilted at hearing the words leaving Cassian’s lips.
“Corin has always had a mind of her own,” Cassian said. He didn’t let go of her hand, but he turned to face her more fully.
“Even if she made me crazy sometimes, she always had a spark. You do too. That’s not a bad thing. You had a fire in you before you knew you were a fire Elf. Honestly, you being a fire wielder made more sense than you not being one.”
Riette laughed. “I still fucked up your hand.”
Cassian winced a little that time, but there was a small smile on his face.
“Not to interrupt, but I can fix that,” said Guy. He came through the clearing.
“Were you listening in?” said Riette.
“Not fully, but could you blame me? My options are listening to Romeo in the rain,” he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, “or watch you guys, who frankly are better than story time.”
“How can you fix me?” asked Cassian, ignoring him and not letting go of Riette’s hand.
“Years of therapy and clean living,” Guy said, straight faced.
Cassian and Riette looked at each other, but they didn’t laugh.
“Okay, so I have this ointment I got from this Fairy chick who—”
“Do I want to know this?” asked Riette.
Guy paused. “Probably not, but it works.”
He tossed a small round container to Cassian, but Riette caught it, opened the cap, and took a sniff. It smelled like leather and honeysuckle. Riette looked to Cassian, who shrugged, and she put it on his hands. Before he could wince, there was a shimmer over his skin, and they watched the wounds heal together.
“Now it won’t fix your face, but small things, it can handle,” said Guy.
Cassian rolled his eyes and let go of Riette’s hand to rub his hand on his legs.
“We were just about to thank you,” said Riette.
“After what I witnessed you do, I’m willing to do some favors gratis,” said Guy.
“I’ll take you up on that.”
“Now, don’t go crazy,” he tried to add, but they were already standing and walking past him back to the main camp.
“Too late for that,” Riette said.
After more travel, Guy said what Riette wouldn’t admit she was thinking. The rain hadn’t stopped. It wasn’t novel anymore. It had been wet. Riette’s clothes were soaked through, her bag with it, and if she got jammed in the back one more time by a pissed off Bark, she was going to pull him out regardless of how much shit she’d get from the rest of them.
The one thing she could be thankful for was that the monkey hadn’t picked another fight with Bark yet. He was blue, angry, and meaner than she’d wanted to deal with. Bark would be in for it in such close quarters.
“Are water signs supposed to like getting soaked?” Guy asked. “I missed that characteristic.”
Riette smirked, and Cassian did the same, but they didn’t laugh outright.
“What?” Mekhi said. He tried to edge a warning in his voice, but Guy didn’t heed it.
“I know you like water, bro, but seriously?”
“You think I did this?” Mekhi asked.
“No, you had some help,” Guy said, his eyes cut to Riette. “But this is squarely on your ginger shoulders.”
“Yeah fucking right.”
“It doesn’t rain here. Not often. You came along with Miss mood ring eyes, and now we’re swimming.”
Riette heard a grumble and felt a poke in her lower back. She rolled her eyes and felt like she was about to tell a little piece of wood who was boss.
She shimmied her shoulders to try to right the situation or at least warn Bark that he was a few feet from falling on his twiggy rear if he didn’t stop with the hints. She wasn’t happy about the water either.
“If I did do all this, I don’t have the ability to turn it off.”
“But maybe if we sacrificed you?” Guy asked. “I’m kidding. Unless you think it would work.” He looked to Cassian and Riette.
“Corin would kill us,” Cassian said, and Mekhi gave him a nod.
“I’m two seconds from killing everybody,” Guy said, and he pushed a lock of wet hair from his eye. “How is this good for my image?”
“Makeup smearing?” asked Mekhi.
“Not worse than yours,” said Guy.
“You don’t paint over a painting.”
“You also don’t paint a turd.”
“Is killing the two of you still on the table?” asked Cassian, and Riette elbowed him.
“They’ll take care of each other if we leave them to their own devices,” she said.
“I knew you had a reason for being quiet.”
“It’s hard to plan their demise and talk pleasantries at the same time.” She kicked a rock in front of her and smiled a little to herself. That was good. No darkness. No thinking of shit she couldn’t control. Riette needed more of less in her life.
“What are we facing when we get there?” asked Cassian. “How in danger are we?”
“It’s a fairground,” Guy said. “It messes with you.”
“How would it do that?” asked Riette.
“More importantly, who’s making the shit?” asked Mekhi. “Who’s behind it?”
“It tries to fuck with your head,” said Guy. He looked down for a second and shook his head before gathering himself again.
“What do you mean?” asked Cassian.
“I had a friend go there. He didn’t come back. He looked at the wrong thing, and he lost who he was. They did that.”
“Who?” asked Riette.
“The people who run the place are rejected magic. They’re the leftovers from other factions. They’re broken creatures who play for fucking keeps who have nothing but time on their hands to come up with more shit and more ways to collect more bodies.” Guy took a breath. He turned to face Riette before continuing.
“There are mirrors there that suck you in,” said Guy. “Magic shit. You know how I warned you from staring too much? That came from here. Look too long, and they’ve got you. We don’t have the magic to get you back.”
“Will there be a lot of people?” asked Mekhi.
“No,” said Guy. “It’s not what it used to be. People used to travel from all over to get there. Now? Too many souls have been lost. Let’s hope ours don’t join them.”
When they finally arrived outside of the Trial of Truth, they were all tired. The short stop they’d had to recoup the night before was uneventful and uncomfortable. Part of Riette, the part that let her sleep or completely withheld it, was waiting for the insect creature to find her again.
What was he warning her about? What danger surrounded her? Was she walking into it now or walking away from it? She shook her head to try to shake the thoughts loose.
When they arrived at the Trial of Truth, Guy had to tell them they were there. It looked like just another abandoned place, a collection of red and white tents, riddled with holes and propped up with sticks. They couldn’t provide any shelter
because of the holes, and they made it look like the tents served no other purpose than to let people know dreams had been tried here and found lacking.
The tents in front of them looked like a stronger force of wind would have no competition taking them over. Worn out reds and grays striped across canvases that stretched to serve as walls. There was a curve in the line of where the structures stood, but what there wasn’t was people.
“Where is everyone?” Riette asked, her tattoo humming on her back. She stretched her fingers in front of her, flexing, and Cassian watched her as closely as he watched for danger in front of them.
“This doesn’t feel right,” he said in a voice barely heard over the whistle of the wind. Riette saw him bite the inside of his cheek. “This feels like a trap,” he continued. Then, he looked at Riette. “We’re not safe here.”
“This place isn’t exactly the haven of fun it used to be,” said Guy. “We can’t linger here.”
“All we need to do is find someone with answers, and then we’ll leave,” said Riette.
“Do you think he can help us?” asked Mekhi, nodding toward a figure in front of him. But the person hardly looked real enough to save himself, much less anyone else.
Chapter 26
Guy moved in front of them. The three stood in a line, and he scratched behind his ear again. Riette was starting to think it was a tic of his. When he hadn’t been looking, she saw the scarred tissue behind his ear. Years of worrying it had warped the skin. She imagined the texture of sandpaper, grooved with years, would be on her hands if she touched him. She had no plans to do so.
Guy was handsome until he wasn’t, and the burn returned back to her belly at the idea of whatever he was gearing up to say.
“This isn’t a joke. You misspeak in here, and it’s over. You get one request, and they may accept it, or they might fuck you up.”
“Have you been in?” asked Mekhi.
“I know people,” he said, and Mekhi made a noise in the back of his throat.
The man, if that was what he was, stood a distance off. Riette didn’t take her eyes off him. He had appeared without any noise, and he would disappear just as easily.
“Who is he?” she asked. She kept eye contact with the man, though his eyes were more like sunken sockets in his head.
“A guard,” Guy said. “A goon, probably. This place isn’t popular. The creatures here probably have shit rigged and who knows what.”
“I’m going,” said Cassian.
“No offense, but the strong silent type doesn’t always work,” said Mekhi.
“Neither does the young, dumb, and angry,” said Cassian.
“I’m going,” said Riette.
“Not every battle is your battle to fight,” said Cassian.
“The ones that I start are the ones I finish.”
“Riette—”
“No, she’s right,” Guy said. “She’s more sympathetic. Young, female—no offense—not ugly. The owners might be more willing to talk to her.”
It sounded like a joke from his lips, but his tone didn’t fit that. He looked Riette over. The rain had stopped, but she hadn’t yet dried out. She felt she’d never be dry again, not fully, and there was a chill residing in her bones that she didn’t think she’d ever shake.
Guy nodded after assessing her. “Besides, she has the most firepower if things go left anyway.”
“You can’t use your powers here,” said Cassian. His voice was sharp and cutting. “We don’t know what’s here, and we don’t know what they would do to you if they knew how special you are.”
“I won’t put us at risk, Cassian, not any more than I need to.”
“I’m not worried about us. I’m worried about you. Your mother would kill me, us,” he pointed to Mekhi and himself, “if something happened to you.”
“If I don’t go and one of you does, I’d burn the place to the ground if they crossed you, okay? Family first.”
Cassian muttered something under his breath as he turned. He ran his hand down his face, and Mekhi touched Riette’s shoulder.
“Yell, okay?” Mekhi said. “Something goes left, you give a noise, and I’ll be there.”
Riette nodded, but she moved toward the main tent before someone could stop her. They needed answers now.
The man didn’t move.
Riette knew he was watching her because she was where his head was facing, but beyond that, nothing showed. She took step after step in front of her, and her bag was still on her shoulders. That might not have been the best idea, but she’d come too far to go back now.
When Riette finally closed the gap, she could see more of the man. He was older, with light skin, but it was spotted and riddled with wrinkles showing his age. He was tall, standing in line with Riette’s own height, but he wasn’t an Elf. Riette could see that, but there was something that sparkled in his eyes that looked like magic was at play. If it was, it wasn’t a magic Riette had ever seen before.
Her tattoo still burned like a light in the dark if she didn’t have it covered, which meant she wasn’t safe, but when was the last time she knew for certain that she was?
“I need to speak to someone about finding my friend,” she said, and when she did, she channeled her mother. Her shoulders were back, and she spoke as if he couldn’t tell her no. Not if he wanted to live.
He didn’t speak, and Riette was grateful. He kept his lips shut, his teeth grinding from how his jaw was set. The only action he did was step slightly to the side to let her pass. Was he doing her a favor or simply sealing her fate?
Beyond the man, a tattered curtain hung between Riette and the information she sought. She moved the curtain to the side and entered the dark that lay beyond it. There was an inner part of the tent which was separated by this curtain from the rest. While most of the tent looked empty, she could see the edges of furniture inside of the inner cavity.
Guy had spent some of their travel explaining what a circus was like, and inside, Riette felt like there was magic in the air. The air seemed to tingle with it. There had been activity there once. A lot of it. It was a feeling too, imprinted in the air in the way it seemed heavy with dust and possibilities.
She walked through to the small opening in the back of the room. There was hardly light beyond the light cast by small candles that were on the floor against the walls of the tent. At her feet were broken pieces of something mechanical like a toy that had been taken apart and never put back together, along with so many other toys that went through the same fate. Some were glittering with gold, but most were the color of rust, barely visible in the candlelight.
The ragged hole that looked sliced into the tent by shaky hands at the back of the room was lit with candles and a light that Riette couldn’t find the source of. It was bright enough to see a woman sitting at the small table in front of her. There was a small smile on her lips.
Riette pushed some curled hair behind her ear and waited for the woman to say something, although if she didn’t need answers so much, she would have left. There was something wrong in the woman’s smile. Something still and broken like the pieces she’d stepped over to enter.
The woman didn’t move. Her chest didn’t rise with breath. She looked like a doll made by a fractured mind, with delicate features and red lips. Dark hair framed her face, and she wore striped clothing that matched the tent itself.
“Sit down, girl,” she said. Her face tilted up, and after a blink, she looked human.
Riette couldn’t unsee the stiffness she’d had before.
“I thought you’d look different,” she said, taking the lower hanging of the fruit.
“You’re exactly who I thought you’d be. Age is a tricky thing. Time spent, time lost, time gained again.” She smiled. “Ask.”
“I’m looking for someone.”
“Corin.”
Riette stilled her face. “You know her?” The logical side of her brain spoke for her.
“I know about the lost much more than I
know about the living. We’ll need to do a trade.”
“For what?”
“Secrets, girl. What everyone has and tries to keep to themselves.”
Riette closed her eyes, and for a second, she thought about bullshitting her—just for a second. But when she opened her mouth, the woman slightly shook her head, and Riette knew what she was saying.
She swallowed. “I’m scared to lead.”
The woman shook her head. “Flora,” she said.
“What?”
“I want you to know the name of the person who’s going to tell you the truth. Your truth.”
Riette felt the sensation of something slithering across her hands, but there was nothing when she looked down. She gripped her hands shut.
“You’re not scared to lead. You’re scared you aren’t the leader your people need you to be.” She leaned forward by the end of her words. Her hands gripped the table in front of her, and her nails were the color of blood. “Tell me something true.”
Something twitched inside of Riette. It was a jolting scratch along the inside of her ribs. When Riette opened her mouth, no sound came out. Not initially. There was a gurgling inside of her and then came the sound of something ripping. Words were torn from a place inside of her that had never seen the light.
“I’m attracted to a monster,” Riette said, and her voice was quiet.
Flora sat back. There was a smile on her face that split it in half, and the right side sat far higher than the left.
“Now that’s something worth trading for.”
Riette shook violently. The siren call thrummed in her veins and rang in her ears again. Then, there was a pop and something warm, like blood, flowed out of her ears.
She touched a hand to her face and expected to see blood, but there was nothing. It was gone. The lights hadn’t flickered, and the world hadn’t ended. But Riette felt weaker.
“Corin is in Peruth, a small spot of a town,” Flora said on a sigh. She sat like a cat full to the brim on stolen cream. “Not far from your grandmother’s book. It is the book that will save your people.”
