by Leanne Leeds
“I agree,” Ningul said as he sat beside her. Of course, the centaur agreed. Ningul was so smitten with Fiona that if she reported to him the sky was made of blue cheese, he would’ve agreed with her. “It would seem that exposing and driving out the spies at the Magical Midway must take place.”
“If they come back in seven days and wipe out this place, centaur, spies won’t matter,” Costin, an elf from the bow and arrow show, pointed out. “That may be what led to this trouble, but the removal of them now solves nothing.”
Aldo Forrest, a werebear, and Rhodia Adolphus, a werewolf, continued to sit at the side of the table without comment. Patches Timbo, the leader of the wereelephants, also said nothing. The wares kept to their own kind, so I knew none well. Other than Serena, with a personal stake in the outcome because of her relationship with Mark, the wares in the room quietly listened.
“I have eight children I need to protect,” Krog Kobold, the goblin that ran the children’s petting zoo, pointed out as he slammed his hand on the table. “If we will have to run, I need to know now.”
“We all have family we need to protect, Krog,” Patches Timbo told him quietly. “So long as the barrier is up, we are protected.”
“Are we sure about that?” Krog asked.
“Perhaps we should allow the ringmaster to speak,” Ari Riddle said. “This situation may not be all that bleak. Ringmaster, can you perhaps explain whether we are all simply panicked in vain?”
The entire table of nearly twenty paranormals turned to stare at my uncle.
Except for Anya.
Good old Anya.
It is not meant as disrespect, Charlotte, Uncle Phil thought as he looked across the table into my eyes. I nodded.
I don’t know the answer, Uncle Phil. So, at the moment they are all looking at the right person. My ego is the least of my problems right now.
While that wasn’t entirely true, we needed to get on with a plan. My bruised ego could wait until later.
“From where I sit, there are two issues. One is the safety of Fortuna and Mark. If the witches cross the barrier, they have their magic. They can do damage. They can grab them. If they cross the barrier, it is quite true that Charlotte can do more to them than they can do to her. That is, no doubt, what made them reluctant to cross last night,” Uncle Phil said. “But we would have to catch them here and hold them until Charlotte arrived.”
“We will step up patrols,” Bob Larry said.
“That’s good, but you guys can’t be everywhere, Bob,” I told him.
“Charlotte, can you just do some protection spell on Fortuna and Mark?” Fiona asked.
“I can, but I don’t know if we should count on that.” I stood up. “In the human world, there’s a saying that the good guys have to be right every time. The bad guys only have to be right once. I would have to come up with protection that covered every possible means of attack against Fortuna and Mark. I would only have to miss one thing, miss one possibility they thought of. I think it’s safer not to rely on magic here.”
“Especially not her magic,” Clancy, the surliest of the leprechauns, grumbled under his breath as he jabbed his thumb at me. Anya turned and glared at him. He stuck his tongue out at her and rolled his eyes. “What? Everybody’s thinking it. She’s no Phil Astley. And he’s not even Phil Astley anymore.”
“Mark will stay with us,” Serena announced. “My sister will have no problem with it. We have no need to rely on magic to defend ourselves, and no witch can cast faster than my claws can tear the muscles from their bone.”
No one disagreed with her.
“Fortuna can bunk with me,” I said. “We can move the fairgrounds to a more defensible location, and we’ll close to humans for the next seven days. I don’t want to have to worry about protecting Mark and Fortuna and making sure the visiting humans are okay.”
Uncle Phil nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.”
“What about the second problem?” Aldo Forrest asked. “Not that I don’t care about the safety of the two humans, but my immediate concern is my clan. We are only four bears strong now. I aim to increase that number, not shrink it from a witch war.”
“The second problem has two parts,” Uncle Phil told him. “The immediate threat to the Magical Midway, and the longer-term threat. Even if we resolve the current attack from the Witches’ Council, it is clear that it won’t be their last attempt. Charlotte, Samson, and I need to consider this carefully.”
“You are not alone,” Avalon whispered as she rose regally from her chair. “While you are our rulers, and we are obligated to your family, recognize you are a part of each of our clans. You have always dealt with us fairly, as have your forefathers. We honor you. You are not alone.”
The shy leader bowed her head, and all those assembled followed. My eyes teared up as I gazed over the room. I glanced to the other side and caught Uncle Phil’s gaze. I could see he was as moved as I was.
As they straightened, we bowed to them in response.
“Thank you, my friends. It is good to know Charlotte, and I are not alone.”
“We are totally, completely alone in this,” Uncle Phil said once everyone had left the area. I gawked at my uncle in confusion.
“What do you mean we’re alone? What was that big, spontaneous, sentimental bowing circle just a minute ago?”
“Comfort. Not truth.”
He walked across the room and poured himself a drink from a flask he carried in his right breast pocket. Apparently, being dead did not stop Uncle Phil’s imitation body from getting tipsy. Lucky him. I could use a drink right about now, too. Not that it would make a dent in my anxiety considering the ringmaster protections.
He is right. The Magical Midway is not untouchable. There is a reason that the paranormals hide within here, but are not entrusted to defend it, Samson said.
“I thought it was invulnerable? I thought that was the whole point?”
As you said, the good guys must be right all the time. The bad guys only must be right once. The circuses have been protected for several hundred years, but I can recall no time when the Witches’ Council has made such a concerted attack.
“Something has shifted,” Uncle Phil said. “The Council has never made such an open declaration of war.”
“Is it because of me?”
“I don’t see how it could be because of you, my dear,” Uncle Phil said. “You’re not exactly an intimidating witch even with the power. No offense.”
“Offense taken! Jeez.”
What your uncle is trying to say so clumsily is that the Witches’ Council only attacks when they see something they want, or when they perceive a hazard. Your skills are not so honed that you represent a particular threat, so we have no reason to believe they are attacking for that. While they have always wanted the ringmaster power, we are unaware of any reason for the sudden desperation.
“Is it just us? Are they going after the Makepeace Circus, too?”
“I don’t know. Have you asked your spies?”
“What spies?”
“The spies we have at the Makepeace Circus,” Uncle Phil said matter-of-factly.
“I remember you saying that we have spies there. Or someone did. Maybe Gunther told me? I don’t know, anyway, I know nothing about it. Like who they are, how to contact them. You know, stuff like that?” I raised my eyebrow.
“We have a centaur and a goblin. You can call them with the cauldron. Well, you wouldn’t call them with the cauldron. You must get Ningul or Krog to call them. If you appeared calling one of them, it would be clear to their compatriots they were spies.”
“That makes sense. Let’s do that first. Do we need to warn Mom and Dad?”
“The witches can do nothing at all against us for seven days. For now, I think your parents are safe. Let’s not worry them.”
I grabbed Ningul (and Fiona, because Ningul and Fiona were joined at the hip these days) and headed to the communications yurt. Uncle Phil and Samson were wai
ting for us.
“So, what do we want to know?” Ningul asked.
“Just ask him if the Witches’ Council is making any moves or threats against the Makepeace Circus,” I told him. “If the answer is yes, obviously, I want to know as much as I can about the situation over there.”
“Her.”
“I’m sorry?”
“The centaur spy we have at the Makepeace Circus is a female. Reina Ajax.”
“Oh. Right, sorry.”
“Be glad that Anya wasn’t in here,” Fiona pointed out.
I snickered. “I’m all for female empowerment, but man, she takes it to a whole new level.”
“Let’s focus, ladies,” Uncle Phil said. “We’re on an ever-ticking clock here.”
“You’re right. Go ahead, call Reina.”
Ningul spoke to the cauldron, and I heard it’s familiar bubble. The room filled with the heady scent of irises as the steam rose.
“I am unsurprised at the timing of this call, Ningul,” a pretty brunette woman said from within the steam. “I am alone, so you may speak freely.”
“Why? Is something going on over there?”
“Aye, the paranormals of this place are more frightened than they usually are.” Fiona and I glanced at each other with concern. Why would the paranormals at the Makepeace Circus normally be frightened? What was Gunther hiding?
“What’s going on?”
“Three witches arrived last night at the edge of our fairgrounds. Though Roland Makepeace ordered all the residents to stay away from the area, a few overheard the conversation. The rumor is that the Witches’ Council has made it a priority to ensure the end of the Magical Midway. They have raised the penalty for harboring humans in paranormal towns and applied that to our nomadic lands as well.”
“Are they coming after the Makepeace Circus as well?” Ningul asked unprompted.
“There is a concern here that Roland Makepeace has brokered some deal with the Witches’ Council to protect the Makepeace Circus while condemning you. While that deal protects the Makepeace inhabitants from this law, they fear it will cause outright war with the Magical Midway and imperile them all the same. The penalty for breaking this new law as a supernatural is… suspiciously severe.”
“What used to be the penalty?” Ningul asked Uncle Phil.
“While humans have been forbidden, it was previously a fine. It’s never been that serious of a violation because we were the only ones doing it. The Council also looked the other way because of the likely paranormal heritage of the humans we allow to stay. Since pure humans cannot enter paranormal towns, anyway, this hasn’t been a big deal.”
“It looks like it’s a big deal now,” I told my uncle. “Can you ask Reina what the formal penalty is for paranormals caught? They didn’t mention that to us.”
Ningul posed the question to Reina.
“Imprisonment. Imprisonment for those that harbored the human, those who knew about the human harbored and did not turn them in, and confiscation of the property the human was harbored within,” Reina told Ningul.
“This was just passed? It’s a new law?”
Ningul relayed my question, and Reina confirmed that the Witches’ Council told Roland Makepeace the law was new. Passed unanimously, and signed three days ago.
“If this only applies to us in practicality, this is a direct attack on us. They don’t just want the Magical Midway, they want to throw everyone here in jail. That’s ridiculous.”
“I think that’s a safe assumption to make, dear girl. Perhaps now that there are only two of us left, the Witches’ Council feels safe enough to come after us,” Uncle Phil said. He strolled over to the sitting area and sat down. The skin on his chubby face was tense, his brows knitted together in deep thought. “And we are really only one. Roland Makepeace would never join with us, and it sounds quite likely that he may be working against us.”
“Aye, but do we really think that?” Fiona asked quietly. “Roland Makepeace is a right doaty, but we are the last two of our kind. Would that man really help those women take us down? Truly?”
The bubbling of the cauldron echoed gently in the silence as we all looked at one another. Each of us was looking for just one face filled with disbelief instead of nervous apprehension.
A wolf howled somewhere outside the yurt.
3
Fiona, Ningul and I sat in the Communications tent until late into the night. After midnight, Fortuna and Mark poked their heads in and asked if they could speak. Waving them in, I glanced at Fiona. She snuggled deeper against Ningul’s side and tucked her feet up beneath her.
“We both wanted to come see you and offer to leave,” Fortuna said. Mark nodded as he squatted down on the floor near the coffee table.
“Neither one of us want to be the cause of the circus coming under attack. But we do both have lives that we can go back to, though those lives were not as full and genuine as the ones we have here.”
“Whether or not you are here tomorrow morning, it sounds like it won’t make a bit of difference to the wicked triplets,” I told them both. “We have already broken their newly created law. My question would be whether you two want to stay here. Your lives are being threatened here. What do you want to do?” I asked them.
“I can’t leave Serena,” Mark said softly. “Yet I also don’t know how I can stay and put her through all of this. If I have to, I can go back to my life as a teacher. This would certainly give me a new perspective on mythology in the lecture hall.”
“I can do what I do now,” Fortuna said. “It would just be a bit lonely. I would miss you all. Surely, though, they would not come after us if we left.”
“I don’t know that you are correct about that,” Fiona told her friend. “You know of us. That’s not allowed. If you left, I think they would come after you.”
“I also don’t think it would keep them from coming after us,” I added.
“We don’t want anyone to get hurt because of us,” Mark said.
“I think you underestimate what our kind has had to deal with over the generations, Mark,” Ningul said quietly. Fiona frowned and nodded as her boyfriend reassured the mentalist. “We are trapped between the human world and the witch world, and again between the witch world and the circus world. We have become used to being on the outside, have grown used to being threatened. If you speak to Serena, I suspect you would find that she will happily take up this fight with you.”
“We are a tribe, ya kin’?” Fiona told him and then yawned. “You are part of this tribe, too, wherever you came from. Even if you haven’t been here that long. Even if you’re human.”
“Forgive me for saying so, but in that meeting of the leaders it didn’t sound like we were all that welcome anymore.”
“People are alarmed,” I told Mark. “Heck, I’m a little uneasy. There has to be a way to solve this without going into an all-out war with those women, though.”
“Maybe I can help,” Gunther Makepeace stuck his head into the communications yurt and waited for me to wave him in.
“What on earth are you doing here at this hour?”
“I made a copy of the law they’re trying to get you guys on,” Gunther said as he walked in and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a yellowing piece of parchment with grand ink flourishes. “I heard they refused to come on your grounds, so I figured you might not have seen the actual law. Maybe it would help.”
As I took the paper, Fiona leaped to her feet and ripped it out of Gunther’s hand before I could touch it. “Your father give you this to give to our ringmaster?” Fiona shouted as she waved the paper in front of his face. “Poison on the paper, maybe? Is the paper cursed so your father can hear all of our discussions?” Gunther winced as Fiona poked his rib cage. “Come on, Prince Makepeace, tell us why you are actually here in the middle of the night.”
“Fiona, come on,” I reached for the paper, and she yanked it further away.
“No, you come on,” Fiona said and pointe
d at Gunther. “That’s the son of the man that met with those wicked women not a full day ago. What do you think they were gabbing about, the latest circuit profits? Their new were-elephant?” Ningul reached out for Fiona, but she shook him off her and ignored his attempts to calm her.
“I would never do anything to hurt Charlotte, Fiona. Come on, you know that.” Gunther’s face reddened at her allegation.
“You are a Makepeace,” Fiona told him as she shook her head. “I don’t trust you at all, Gunther. Not with this. You are your father’s son. If it came down to choosing between Charlotte and Roland, none of us doubt whom you would choose.”
Gunther stood frozen to his spot only three steps into the room. His face flexed and twisted as if he wanted to talk to us but couldn’t quite figure out how to say what he had to say. Finally, he sighed. “Perhaps coming here tonight was a mistake.”
“Perhaps coming here at all was a mistake. Perhaps it was you that gave your father the idea to attack us like this,” Fiona snapped. Ningul grabbed his fiery girlfriend and pulled her back, whispering in her ear something I could not hear.
“My father had nothing to do with the Witches’ Council law change,” Gunther said as he rubbed his temples. “In fact, it was my father that suggested I come over here and bring you the law parchment. I know my father is not the kindest man in the world, and he won’t win any popularity contests, but he wouldn’t do what you’re accusing him of!”
Fiona dropped the parchment to the ground and frantically wiped her hand on her pants. Glaring at Gunther, she grumbled under her breath about poisoned papers.
“Okay, then why would he help us?” I asked Gunther. “Your father can’t stand us.”
“True,” he agreed. “Once they are done coming after you, though, they’ll come after us next. Dad feels the best defense for Makepeace is to ensure that the Magical Midway is not brought down by this.”
