Skycircus

by Peter Bunzl

  Then the tiger leaped, bounding towards them, its tail flung out behind it. Its jaw was wide, displaying its sharp rows of teeth.

  Slimwood’s mouth dropped open; his grip loosened from Robert’s throat.

  Robert took his chance and scrambled free, vaulting over benches and ducking behind the front row of seats as the great cat ran towards them.

  There was a roar and then Slimwood screamed.

  Robert opened his eyes and peered over the rim of seats. The tiger was dragging the red-tailcoated form of the circus ringmaster away, vanishing into the smoky striped recesses of the tent.

  Robert turned away. He couldn’t watch. But the tiger had finished with Slimwood; now it turned to come back towards him and Malkin.

  It stalked closer, snarling at them. After being kept in that cage for all those years, it was finally free and ready to hunt…

  It was nearly upon them when Robert heard the beating of wings.

  Angelique dived down and nabbed him, sweeping him into the air. With a great flap of her wings, she made it to the platform beside the high wire and deposited Robert there, the sweat pouring off her as she breathed heavily. “Wait there,” she cried. “I’ll get Malkin.”

  Robert and Lily watched as she plunged back into the fray to pluck up Malkin, who was already running as fast as he could, dashing away from the tiger.

  “I could’ve faced it!” the fox blustered at Angelique as she swooped down over him and scooped him up in her arms. “But thanks anyway for the rescue! I appear to have become a flying fox.”

  Angelique carried him high above the ring, and Malkin felt bilious. Foxes were not meant to fly – not in airships or with winged girls, or anyhow. He was glad when Angelique deposited him on the platform beside Lily and Robert.

  The police sirens were closer now; they pierced the air right outside the tent.

  Lily glanced down at the ground. Silva and the others had made their exit on horseback, along with the audience, circus folk, lions and the roustabouts. Madame and Slimwood both lay like rag dolls, abandoned in the ring.

  The sirens outside had stopped, and the tent was eerily quiet, except for the growls and grunts of the tiger as it wrenched down the red curtains, overturned the make-up tables and props stand and ripped them apart. Lily could see Joey, Auggie and a few stranded rousties huddled behind a rack of clothes in the far corner, hoping it wouldn’t notice them.

  Then, just as suddenly as it had arrived in the tent, the tiger turned and ran off into the night, disappearing through the exit of the backstage area as the first few gendarmes arrived through the audience entrance.

  Lily glimpsed the tops of their helmets as they fought their way through the smoke, guns raised. Three plain-clothed figures were with them. Even from above and in the half-light, Lily could recognize each of them from their postures and gaits, and her heart leaped at the sight of them.

  It was Papa, Tolly and Anna.

  “Lily! Robert! Malkin!” Papa rushed around wildly in the smoke, peering beneath rows of chairs and behind poles. His suit was rumpled and his posture sharp and worried. He, Anna and Tolly splintered apart and began searching different areas, along with the police.

  “PAPA!” Lily yelled down to him and he stopped beneath her. He’d heard her voice, but he couldn’t see her.

  “Lily, where are you?” he called out.

  “I’m up here, in the roof,” she shouted.

  More police swarmed through the entrance to the tent as Papa turned and gazed upwards.

  When he spotted Lily, then Malkin, Robert and Angelique on the high platform, his shoulders drooped in relief and he pointed them out to Anna and Tolly.

  Lily climbed slowly down the ladder from the platform and ran over to meet Papa.

  He scooped her up in his arms, wrapping a blanket around her sparkly but now tattered outfit and kissing her on the cheek. “Lily, my dear-heart, thank goodness you’re fine! We were so worried about you… And Robert,” he added, throwing an arm around Robert as, carrying Malkin, he reached them too. “I wish we’d arrived in time to stop this,” he said, gesturing with a nod of his head to the mess of the tent around them: the broken smoking X-ray machine and the remains of the big mechanical Lunk trapped inside it and scattered round the ring.

  “What took you so long?” Lily asked, tears smarting in her eyes. She wiped them away, smearing the make-up and dust on her cheeks, then dropped her hand and felt a surprising tickle as Malkin licked at her fingers. She ruffled his ears and squeezed Papa and Robert closer in a grand hug. Her heart was filled with nothing but relief, and she hoped, deep in its ticking depths, that the four of them would never ever be parted again.

  The show was over, and in its aftermath Lily and Robert sat wrapped in blankets in the ringside seats. Malkin was resting, curled up at their feet.

  Lily watched as the gendarmes busily rounded up the rousties and Madame, Auggie and Joey, who were alive and only lightly mauled by the tiger. Slimwood was in the worst state, bleeding profusely and unconscious. He was placed on a stretcher and carried from the tent to an ambulance that was waiting outside. The rest of the motley crew were handcuffed together into a chain gang and led out from the main entrance in a long line.

  Despite the chaos and general devastation, the circus folk seemed filled with relief. Their faces shone at last. The pain and sorrow lifted from their eyes. The Buttons clasped their arms around their daughter and the rest of the acts and families gathered about Dimitri, their son – the son of the circus.

  As Lily watched this scene unfold around them, Papa sat down in the seat beside her. Then Angelique flitted down next to them too.

  “Papa, this is Angelique,” Lily said. “She saved us.”

  “Thank you, Angelique.” Papa shook her hand. “You certainly are a most remarkable young lady.”

  “You’re very kind, sir,” Angelique replied. Then she spotted someone in John’s shadow. “Bartholomew,” she asked, “is that you?”

  A broad grin spread across Tolly’s face. “Angela!” he cried. “Angelique, I mean. You changed your name! And I did too – it’s Tolly now. But Lily and Robert found you! I’m so glad! I’d no idea where you were since you left the Camden Workhouse.”

  “I was missing a long time,” Angelique said. “But I’m back now.” She folded her wings around him and gave him the most enormous hug, and Tolly blushed beetroot-red.

  Lily was glad to see him and Anna too. There had been moments in this awful week when she thought they might never be reunited with Papa or her friends again.

  “When I got back to your home and told them what happened, the entire party was in uproar,” Tolly explained to Robert and Lily. “Everyone vowed to help find you, Inspector Fisk included. The trouble was,” he continued, “we’d no clue where you’d been taken.”

  “Or where the circus might be headed,” Anna added.

  “I was in despair,” Papa said. He brushed a lock of hair from Lily’s face. “The only thing we could do was wait and hope for news. Then, last night, Mr Brassnose came to the house with a telegram from the French police saying the Skycircus had landed in Paris, and that you were being held prisoner by Madame Verdigris on board.”

  He squeezed Lily’s shoulder in relief. “We awaited an update, but after the gendarmes investigated and couldn’t find you, they claimed the message was a hoax. Tolly insisted it was true, so Anna kindly flew us here, along with Inspector Fisk, so we could try and make them see sense.”

  “Thank goodness you did,” Lily said. At that moment she noticed Inspector Fisk himself stood deep in conversation with the most senior-looking officer of the French police.

  Inspector Fisk looked up and saw them, then ambled over. “If you could step this way with me for a minute, please,” he said to Lily, Robert and John, “the commandant wants a quick word.”

  Inspector Fisk led them over to the French police commandant. Malkin came too, though he hadn’t strictly been invited.

  When the Fren
ch inspector saw them, he gave a tight little salute. “Monsieur Hartman, Monsieur Townsend, Mademoiselle Hartman, je m’appelle Commandant Oiseau. My men have recovered some things from the Skycircus ship. Are they yours?”

  He showed Lily the penknife, the Moonlocket and the red notebook.

  “Oh, yes, merci beaucoup,” Lily said. Her heart leaped and she felt overjoyed to have the red notebook returned to her and the rest of her mama’s words back at last. She took it and clasped it to her chest, before handing the Moonlocket and penknife back to Robert.

  Robert’s face flushed with relief. “Thank you,” he said as he put the penknife away and fiddled with the Moonlocket. The clasp was still broken, so he tucked it away carefully in his pocket. Then he remembered Da’s coat was still hung on the costume rail backstage next to Lily’s party clothes and coat, and, together, they dashed off to get them.

  They returned changed back into their old outfits and were ready to go when they found the inspector and the commandant with Papa outside of the tent next to a police wagon.

  The commandant was speaking with Papa. “S’il vous plaît,” he said, pointing through the bars of the van at Madame, who was sitting on the bench in the back of the wagon opposite Auggie, Joey and the rest of the roustabouts. “For the record, could you identify the suspect before you?”

  Madame’s eyes flicked to the window and caught Lily’s, then she looked away.

  “Yes,” said Papa. “This is my old housekeeper.”

  “And the others?” the commandant asked. “Do you know them?”

  “No,” Papa said.

  “These are the people who kidnapped you?” the commandant asked, turning to Lily and Robert.

  They nodded.

  “I should say so!” Malkin added for good measure.

  “And this lady stole your property, Monsieur?” he queried Papa.

  “She most certainly did.”

  “They don’t have the rest of your papers, Papa,” Lily said. “Madame sold them to Dr Droz.”

  “Shelley’s involved in all this?” Papa looked shocked. “Where is she?”

  “She was here,” Lily said. In the madness of the show, she’d forgotten about the doctor.

  She scanned the back of the van, searching for her face among the handcuffed figures. But the woman wasn’t there. She must’ve slipped away with the crowd sometime between the explosion and the escape of the animals – that was, Lily realized, almost an hour ago.

  The commandant consulted his pocketbook. “One of these clowns has given us her address, sir. It’s an abandoned hospital. We’re going to visit it as soon as possible and apprehend her, right after we have dealt with the situation here.” He put a hand on Lily’s shoulder. “Do you remember the exact location of her apartment inside the building, Miss Hartman?”

  Lily nodded.

  “Then, if you might come to show us the way?”

  “I’m not leaving Lily alone again,” Papa said.

  “And neither are we,” added Robert and Malkin together.

  “In that case, Monsieur, might I suggest that you all come with us too?”

  “We most certainly will,” Papa replied. “I have a thing or two to say to Shelley myself, if she’s responsible.”

  “Very good. Take these lot away!” The commandant slapped the back of the police wagon with his open palm and it drove off past the wreckage of the Big Top and out of sight.

  “Your friend Angelique and the others will be perfectly fine with my colleagues here,” he said to Lily. “The site must be shut down temporarily, but our officers will see to their injuries and take statements, while the three of you, and perhaps Inspector Fisk as well, come with your père and us to visit Dr Droz.”

  The commandant blew a whistle that hung on a length of gold braid from the breast pocket of his blue uniform and another police steam-wagon pulled up to transport them safely away from the circus.

  They flew through the Bois in the police wagon with the siren raging, and then through the city, passing the gigantic arch, which Papa told them was the Arc de Triomphe, before swinging along the river and through a familiar-looking district. Only when they approached the street with the derelict hospital did they turn off the sirens and proceed more cautiously.

  It was nearly ten o’clock when they finally arrived. The inspector knocked, but Lily ended up picking the lock for them as there was no one to let them in.

  “It’s this way.” Lily led Commandant Oiseau and Inspector Fisk and the gendarmes up the stairs to the apartment. On the top floor, Fisk pushed the door open and led the way. Lily, Papa, Robert and Malkin followed behind with the commandant and the line of police.

  The group stalked from room to room, searching for the doctor, but the entire apartment was empty. Droz’s belongings had all gone, and the ticking noises of the building that had been so evident the night before had stopped. There were shadow marks on the walls where pictures had hung, and circles in the dust on the empty shelves where the jars of specimens had been.

  The place felt as if it could’ve been derelict for years, except that in the main room a flicker of a fire burned in the grate, stuffed with half-devoured papers.

  “My notes!” Papa rushed over to them and pulled a handful of burning pages from the flames.

  Lily, Robert and Malkin stood to one side as the inspector and the commandant paced the room. Then Lily noticed something propped on the mantelpiece above the fire. It was a letter.

  She reached out and picked it up. The envelope was addressed to:

  Miss Lily Hartman, Brackenbridge Manor

  It was written in the same hand as the letter Lily had received a week ago, and Lily realized then that it had been Droz who’d penned the original. She was the one who’d been behind the whole plot, even more so than Madame. Before Papa or any of the policemen could stop her, she slit the envelope open and pulled out a single sheet of folded paper.

  Dear Lily,

  I have a simple question, and it’s one that’s not a trick:

  I have always wondered what it is that makes you tick?

  Of course, you have shown most profoundly that it is not just a clockwork heart, but a desire for equality amongst hybrids and humans. I cannot deny that your cause is a worthy one. You’ve proved yourself as strong as your mother, and so many other women before you. We too deserve equality, especially in the male-dominated world of science, and I know you will follow in Grace’s footsteps.

  I wish you well in all you do. And I am sure that we will meet again in the future.

  Yours, with sincere admiration,

  Dr Shelley Mary Droz

  Even after all she’d been through, Lily felt rather proud to receive such a letter. It felt less a conclusion than the congratulations of an admiring adversary that she’d beaten in a chess game. She was about to put the page away in the pocket of her coat, along with the papers and Mama’s notebook, when Commandant Oiseau appeared behind her.

  “We will need that as evidence,” he said, holding out a white gloved hand. “Naturally it will be returned to you after the conclusion of the investigation.”

  “Of course.” With a heavy heart, Lily handed it over to him.

  “Merci.”

  The commandant read through the letter. “Well,” he said, after he’d finished. “We’ll try our best to track her down. And if you think of anything more that might aid us…”

  He regarded Lily and Robert, who were visibly wilting. “These children look awfully weary. Perhaps you ought to check in to a hotel and find them a bed for the night? You needn’t wait around here any longer, my car will take you wherever you want to go, and we can clear up any last queries we have in the morning.”

  “You’re probably right,” Papa replied. “Where and when should we call on you?” he asked as the three of them and Malkin headed for the door.

  “We’ll be at the Skycircus site first thing,” the inspector replied. “And if you don’t find us there, I will be at the commandant�
�s office at the Police Prefecture, in Place Louis Lepine, in the afternoon.”

  “Very good,” Papa said.

  Fisk saluted goodbye to everyone, and the commandant tipped his hat to Papa, and then to Robert and Lily. “Au revoir, les enfants! À demain!”

  Lily nodded a sleepy goodbye in return. She felt the tiredest she’d ever been in her life. She glanced at Robert; his eyes were drooping and as they stepped into the hall she saw him give a proper great yawn. Malkin too was running very slowly and had been gradually winding down for the past hour. She hoped the hybrids and circus folk would be all right on their own, dealing with the chaos and the police. But, yes, she realized, as the three of them followed Papa past the policeman on guard outside and down the building’s stairs, there was only one thing she needed right now – and that was a proper bed and a good night’s sleep.

  They spent that night at the Grand Hotel, where the mattresses were as soft as clouds. Lily and Malkin shared a room, and Robert turned in next door.

  Tired as she was, Lily found it difficult to sleep. She woke a number of times in the early hours, her thoughts filled with worry about the fate of the hybrids.

  Would they be all right left alone on the site with the other circus acts? What would happen to them after tonight – especially if any trace of the old mistrust and animosity between them and the other human performers lingered? She needed to make sure that things were going to be better for them as she’d promised. She felt bad even to leave them for those few hours alone after what they’d all been through together, so she was relieved when Robert knocked for her first thing, with some croissants he’d snaffled from downstairs for breakfast, and told her that Papa and Anna and Tolly had already commandeered a carriage to return them to the Skycircus site as soon as possible.

  When they arrived, Lily was cheered at once to see that the hybrids and the circus folk who’d stayed seemed to have made their peace with one another. They’d been working together to dismantle Madame and Slimwood’s regime, and now there were no roustabouts or Lunk to control what they were doing, or Slimwood or Madame to tell them how to think, everyone seemed to be getting on just fine.