by Dyan Chick
"Friends, fairies, creatures of the night. It is our last night in Chicago." He paused as the crowd booed and shouted. Raising his hands, he calmed them. "I know, I know. But alas, we are circus folk. We can't stay in one place for too long. We'll return in a year. But until then, I wanted to do something extra special for you to remember us by. Something that would fill your memories with happiness until we meet again."
The crowd seemed to be leaning forward as a group, they were eating up every word he said. The anticipation in the room was palpable.
The Ringmaster called to somebody off stage. "Release the bubbles."
The crowd reacted before I even saw the source of their excitement. I guessed this was something they'd seen before. Perhaps it was always the grand finale. Heads turned skyward and I followed their gaze. Above us, hundreds of colored bubbles floated down.
A pink bubble landed in my outstretched hand and rolled up my arm. As it traveled behind my neck, a wave of pleasure rushed through me. Startled, I jumped, knocking the bubble from me. A blue bubble landed on my toe and my feet rose off the ground a few inches. I kicked the bubble away and I landed back on the ground.
Nearby, a partygoer with a mohawk was painting light designs with a green bubble. It was like a sparkler but the letters and pictures he drew lasted longer. A yellow bubble made its way toward me but I was done with the surprises. Moving to the wall as quickly as I could, I slid along, making my way back to the hallway where I knew I'd be free from the falling orbs.
A security guard stood in front of the hallway. His eyes reflected like a cat caught by a headlight when I glanced at him. He smiled, showing fangs. I flinched then stood near the hallway, frozen in place.
I jumped when a hand touched my arm. Turning, I saw Evangeline standing next to me. "Come on," she shouted.
She led me toward the hallway and I followed her past the fanged guard back to the dressing room. Once inside, she closed the door then turned to me. "You did well tonight, better than I expected. It's a lot to take in, but it'll be easier next time."
I sat down on one of the plush stools and set my hands on my lap. When I looked at them, I was surprised to see they were trembling. "Next time," I repeated her words, more to myself than to her. How am I going to do this every day for a year?
"We've got a week-long train ride starting tomorrow. Brenon wants you trained for your new job while we're on the road. It'll help keep your mind off of things." She handed me a bottle of water.
I took the water with a trembling hand. "What job will I do?"
"Not sure yet. We'll have to see what your strengths are." She walked toward the door, pausing with her hand on the doorknob. "You can hang out here for the rest of the party. I'll be back when it's over."
I pressed the cool water bottle against my forehead. This was going to be a long year.
The door opened again, and I looked up to see the horn-headed man. My whole body tensed. He had shown me kindness once, but as the others have all made clear, he didn't like me. I managed a smile and nod at him.
"You're all alone." He shut the door behind him and dragged a dressing table in front of it.
My heart stopped. "What are you doing?"
"You shouldn't be here. You could ruin everything." He walked toward me, eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring.
"I don't want to be here, really. And I don't want any trouble." I stood up and looked around the room, trying to find another exit. "Please, leave me alone."
"Humans don't belong in the Rose Circus. Nobody wants you here. Nobody wants your kind around."
"I get that, but I mean no harm." Frantic I felt around on the dressing table and grabbed a can of hair spray. Pointing the spray at his eyes, I pressed down on the aerosol release with all my might.
He screamed and covered his eyes.
Not wasting a moment, I ran past him toward the door. As I started pushing the dressing table away, he grabbed my arm and dragged me down. My head knocked on the edge of the dressing table, sending stars across my vision.
He held me down with his knee pinned on my stomach. I cried out and clawed at him with my fingernails, trying to get to his red, watery eyes.
"You bitch!" He punched me across the jaw and I heard a crack. I'd never been punched before and it was a new kind of pain. I screamed, then stopped because it hurt too much to yell. I couldn't even open my mouth to beg him to leave me alone.
Just then, a pair of hands tore the huge man off of me. I was seeing the world through double vision and tried to focus on the fight happening in front of me. Brenon grabbed the horns and pulled Miles’ head down. Then, Brenon lifted his knee, making contact with the Miles' face. The horned man fell and Brenon aimed his foot above him, landing hard on his neck, crushing the man's esophagus. Miles head flopped down at an unnatural angle.
I recoiled as nausea overtook me. I tried to say something, but pain shot through my whole face. Tears streamed down my face and I tried not to shake as I cried.
Brenon knelt down in front of me. His top hat had fallen sometime since he entered the room and his white makeup was running from sweat. I reached out and ran my fingertips down the scars on his cheeks. Then everything went black.
11
I woke to a bone-rattling jolt and blinked a few times to clear my vision. I was laying on a bed in a poorly lit room. Every so often, the bed shook, setting my teeth on edge. I tried to figure out where I was or how I had gotten here. With a start, it all came flooding back to me. The circus, the costumes, the lights, the fist to my jaw. Sitting up, I touched my face. To my surprise, it didn't hurt.
"About time you woke." A thin, blonde woman in a gray tee-shirt and jeans walked over to me. "You've been out for hours."
"My face." I still couldn't get over the fact that my jaw wasn't hurting. Had I imagined the whole thing?
The woman slid my hand from my cheek and traced her fingers along my jaw-line. "It healed nicely. Just like new."
"How?" I was too stunned to elaborate.
She smiled. "Magic."
"Wait, what?" I shouldn't be so surprised after everything I'd seen over the last few days, but the ability to heal on that level was something new. This was real magic. Magic worth knowing.
As the realization poured through me, I felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on me, and I gasped. If she could do magic, if magic was real, that meant everything I had found out last night was real. Looking at her, I realized she had a shimmer about her, a sort of glow. Somehow, I knew she wasn't human. "It's real, isn't it?"
The blonde woman leaned against the bed next to me, her eyes softening in a sympathetic look. "What's real? Magic?"
"All of it." My mind spun as I recalled the bits and pieces of information I had. "Magic. Fairies. How is any of this possible? How could this all exist and nobody know?"
The woman smiled. "Humans don't want to know these things. If they see magic, they reason it away. Unless it reaches a point where they no longer can."
I blinked a few times. "I think I'm at that point."
Reaching for my head, I felt the spot where I had made contact with the edge of the dressing table. It was sticky with matted blood. When I pulled my fingers away, some of the blood stuck to them.
The blonde woman took a few steps away from the bed and turned to face me. "I patched your head up, too, but at some point, you'll need to wash out the blood."
I went to wipe my fingers on the dress I was wearing and noticed it was hiked up around my waist. I jumped off the bed and pulled the tight fabric down around my hips. "How long have I been in here?"
She looked at a grandfather clock stuck in the corner of the room. "We left Chicago at about 5, so, I'd guess it's been six hours or so."
My heartbeat quickened. "We left Chicago?" I raced to the window and moved the curtains aside. I gasped as I watched the countryside fly by. Turning, I stared open-mouthed at the woman. "We're on the train?"
She nodded.
"Where are we going?" I ask
ed.
She shrugged. "I'm not sure. The Ringmaster called in a favor I owed him. Once you're healed, I'll go back into hiding. I don't want anything to do with his war."
My blood ran cold. "What war?"
"There is much you don't know, and I'm not sure it's my place to tell you." She pressed her lips into a tight line as if she was holding back.
I rubbed my forehead, feeling overwhelmed. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me something? As you can tell, I'm out of my element here."
She reached a hand out toward me in a familiar gesture. I stared at it, blinking a few times before I reached my hand out to grasp hers. We shook.
"I'm Gia."
"Ara," I said.
She let go of my hand. "Nice to meet you, Ara."
"Nice to meet you," I said. Feeling guilty that I hadn't asked her name sooner, I tried to make up for my lack of manners. This woman had healed me and I never even thanked her. "Thank you for fixing me. Sorry I didn't say so sooner."
"I understand," Gia said.
I stepped back to the bed and dropped to sitting. "Please, I just want to know what's happening here. How are you involved in all this? What are you?”
Gia sat down next to me. "I'm a Sayge. We are the sacred guardians of the earth. Humans blessed with the power of keeping the balance." She smiled.
"So, you're human but not?" My head spun. None of this made any sense. When had my life gotten so complicated?
"I'm human, like you, but I channel the earth differently. Those of us trained to use our powers can pull from the earth to use the elements of nature. It gives us prolonged life and the illusion of being able to use magic."
"Like witches?" I asked.
She smiled. "It's probably where the early histories of witches come from, but we prefer to call ourselves Sayges."
I let out a long breath. "So there's sprites and other creatures and Sayges. How is this all connected? And what does this have to do with a war?"
"That's more than enough, Gia."
I turned to see Brenon standing in the doorway. His white makeup looked freshly applied, but jeans and a black tee-shirt replaced his Ringmaster costume. He looked a bit like a mime. A serious mime.
Frustration knotted in the pit of my stomach. "If I have to spend the next year here, shouldn't I at least be allowed to know what I'm getting into? Until yesterday, I would have said magic wasn't real. Now it's like I don't know anything anymore."
Yesterday, things made sense in my life. I majored in math. I needed things to make sense. "I'm still not sure I do, but I can't come up with other explanations for what I'm seeing, and frankly, it's making me think I may have suffered a severe head injury or that somebody has slipped me something."
The ghost of a smirk crossed his face. "Nobody slipped you anything."
I lifted my eyebrows and stared at him, silently asking for answers.
He shifted in the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest. "Look, I'll tell you everything, eventually. For now, can you trust me a little?"
I crossed my arms over my chest. "Trust you? So far, I've been here less than 24 hours into my year-long sentence and I've already been beaten by one of your - whatever they are - and watched you crush his esophagus."
He dropped his arms to his sides. "Sentence? You're not a prisoner. You exchanged a year of work for your brother's debt. And I happen to know it's more than double what a high school math teacher would make in a year."
I blinked a few times. Had I told him I was going to be a math teacher? I couldn't recall ever telling him about my life. How did he know this about me? A chill ran through me. What else did he know?
"If I'm not a prisoner, why can't I know what's going on here? What is this about a war? What the hell am I doing on a train full of mythical creatures?"
"We're not mythical, I assure you," he said.
I put my hands on my hips. "You know what I mean."
"Will you try to trust me, just a little?" he asked.
I took a deep breath and held it for a moment. Trust wasn't easy for me. I'd made few friends after the high school ones had so quickly abandoned me when I'd gotten into trouble. Something about facing death scared them all away. I didn't see much of a choice. "Trust is earned."
His relaxed his posture and I realized for the first time how tense he had been. Was he worried I'd say something else? I had a feeling that when I did find out the truth of what was going on here, it was going to far exceed my wildest imagination.
Brenon stepped into the room. "You're right. But you have to be open to letting me earn it."
"Can I call my brother?" I asked. He was probably checking into his dorm by now. It would be nice to hear his voice, to be reminded of the fact that there was still something normal somewhere out there.
"We've never been able to keep a phone working on this train. Something about magic and technology don't mix. But as soon as we stop tomorrow, you're free to go into town and find a phone."
Ryder was probably busy settling in I could wait one more day. "Thanks."
"As I said, you're not a prisoner here." He stared at me, straight faced.
I frowned. All of his seriousness had returned. "What do you want from me?"
"I'm here to check on your progress," he said.
"You know that's not what I mean," I said. "Why bring me along with you? You don't need the help."
Gia placed a gentle hand on my knee and gave me a look that came across as calming. I took a deep breath and tried to soften the glare I had directed at the Ringmaster.
"She's fine," Gia said. "Just as I told you an hour ago. And the hour before that. And before that."
I stiffened. He'd been checking on me every hour? My heart sunk. Of course he has. He's the one who saved your life. I felt terrible. Instead of thanking him, I'd pouted. Though I suppose, I wouldn't be here in the first place if not for his contract. Part of me wanted to point that out, but I recalled the force with which he had taken down the horned-man and I didn't want that directed at me.
"Thank you," I blurted out.
Both Gia and Brenon looked at me.
I swallowed, too aware of the thick silence in the room while they gave me time to speak. I still wasn't happy about being left in the dark. It made me feel out of control, something I had a hard time with. But the fact remained that I had agreed to be here, and he had stopped the attack on me. "For saving me, I mean. Both of you, really."
"Of course, dear." Gia patted my shoulder then walked toward the door. "I'm going to get a wash basin."
"You don't have to go," I said. But she had already closed the door behind her. I shifted my feet and looked down at my bare toes. I looked back up to see Brenon watching me. I felt uncomfortable under his gaze but the anger I had felt was ebbing away.
"Thank you," I said.
He inclined his head slightly. It was a too-formal gesture that made me think he had come from a much different time than my own. "You're welcome." He paused, looking away from me for a moment.
I stared at the scars on his face while he was turned away. In the tee-shirt, I saw that they traveled down his neck, under the collar of the shirt. I wondered if the scars covered the rest of his body. "Why do wear the face-paint when you're not performing?"
He turned back to me. His sharp teeth flashed in his brief smile. "I don't usually. Then again, we've never had a human on this train."
"You're doing it for me?" What did that mean? Once again, I found myself drawn to him. I knew it was like a moth to the flame and that flying too close could be hazardous. "You don't need to do that."
I stood and took a few steps toward him, moving slow enough that he could stop me if he wanted to. With each step, my breathing grew faster, my heart pounded harder. I stopped a few inches from his him and took in his whole face.
I brought my hand up to his cheek and let it hover there for a moment to see if he'd push me away. He stared at me, green eyes fixed on me. Feeling brave, I used my thumb to smear awa
y a streak of the white paint on his cheek. The skin below was bumpy and crossed in angry red marks from whatever it was that injured him.
Pressing my fingers to his cheek, I wiped away a larger part of the paint. He caught my wrist in his hand, then turned his face away from me.
I gasped at his touch.
"That's enough," he said. He lowered my arm back to my side.
The door opened and Gia stepped in with a bowl of water and a washcloth. "Have a seat, dear. I'll wash off that blood for you."
My eyes met Brenon's and he returned my stare. I waited a moment to see if he'd say anything, but he turned his eyes away.
Disappointed, my shoulders dropped and I turned to Gia. She led me back to the bed where I sat while she washed the blood from my hair.
"You'll want to wait a day or two before you shower, but this will help in the meantime." The water ran down my head and dripped under the dress I was wearing. The silence gave me time to think about Brenon. The Ringmaster had brought me into his circus, on his train. I was the first human to travel on it. Why had he gone to all this trouble for me? Why did the other creatures seem to hate me so much?
Gia leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Be careful."
I looked up at her. "What do you mean?"
"Don't make any promises you aren't willing to keep," she whispered back. Then she moved her head away from mine and went back to work wiping away the blood.
My mind was a swirling mess of confusion. What had she meant by that? Was she referring to the blank contract I'd already signed? Maybe she already knew about that. Maybe she was warning me not to break it.
Gia dropped the cloth in the basin. The water that filled the bowl had turned red from my blood. She brushed the hair away from my eyes. "There, all better."
"Thank you," I said.
She smiled, then stood, placing the bowl on a small table. Then she walked over to Brenon. "I believe you have something for me?"
He lifted an open palm in front of him and a rolled up piece of paper appeared in his hand. "We're even. Contract fulfilled."
