by A. J. Marcus
“I might. Extra income is always welcome around the ranch,” Ed said. “Especially with new mouths to feed.”
“New mouths? Elephant or human?”
Ed laughed. “It might actually end up being cheaper if it were human, but Cara finally had her baby six months ago. I brought him along. I can’t separate them yet, and I thought he might help draw a little extra attention to the rides this year.”
Johan nodded again. “Little ones always help. Too bad baby raptors don’t draw in the crowds as much as baby mammals do.”
“Hey, Dad, I think something’s wrong with the eagle owl,” called Johan’s son. Ed saw Garret hurrying toward them. The awkward teen had somehow blossomed into a striking young man. Ed tried to remember the last time he’d seen the kid, but his mind went back to the gangly youth, where a broad-chested, slender-waisted man now stood. He was nearly as tall as his father’s six foot two. A short blond beard covered his rugged chin and jaw, making him look even more like a young version of his white-haired father.
“What’s she doing?” Johan asked.
Garret stopped in front of his father. “There’s some fresh blood under her perch, and I couldn’t get her to put her right foot down. I think she may have reopened that wound on her foot from the rat last week.”
The senior falconer shook his head. “I’ll need to look at that. Do you want to come and lend a hand, Ed?”
Ed shook his head. “I need to go report into the office and let them know the elephants are on site. They’ll need to check over paperwork and notify their insurance.”
“See you around, then.” Johan and Garret hurried off. Ed stood there for a moment, watching them disappear through an open door to the right of the stage where Johan did his bird show, as well as where a few of the court functions were held. The stage and everything around it glistened with a fresh coat of paint. Ed had stopped by and touched up the paint around the elephant and camel ride two weeks ago. By the end of the faire, it and all the other booths, shops, and stages in the faire would be coated in a thick coat of dust, stirred up by the feet of thousands of patrons visiting every weekend.
Ed didn’t run into anyone else on his way out to the site operations center, sitting on the north side of the parking lot, hidden from public view by a thick grove of trees. A short line of people extended out of the offices. Ed joined the line.
When he reached the counter inside, Margaret, the gal who basically ran the faire for the big bosses, smiled at him. “Hey, Ed, got your badges ready. Same head shots as last year okay?”
“Sure, Margaret,” he replied. “Having a good year so far?” He laid his packet of permits on the counter and slid them toward her. “Here’s this year’s paperwork.”
“Everything in order, I take it?” She took the packet and carried it over to the filing cabinet without looking at it.
Ed nodded. “Yep, everyone’s had their shots and all that. You should stop by and see our newest elephant. He’s only six months old.”
“Oh, I bet he’s just precious,” she squeed. “I’ll run by tonight after we close up. Oh, Bob wanted to see you when you stopped by. Let me see if he’s in the middle of anything.” Bob Parker, the man who’d bought Scarborough Faire a few years back, was someone Ed hadn’t had many encounters with over his years at the faire. The owner liked to stay out of the day-to-day running of things and, for the most part, let Margaret and the other staffers who’d worked the faire for years handle things. Margaret poked her head in the door at the back of the office. Ed wondered what the faire owner wanted to talk to him about.
“Come on back, Ed.” She walked back toward the counter as he came through the half door that separated the waiting area from the office proper.
“Hi, Ed,” Bob said. He offered a soft handshake, which Ed returned. Bob’s private office had a few posters advertising Scarborough from over the years, but otherwise it was fairly spartan. “Have a seat.” He gestured to the two chairs opposite his desk. “Don’t be worried. It’s nothing major.”
Ed let out the breath he’d been holding. “Good.”
Bob nodded. “I know you keep your animals in the best possible condition, and your paperwork is always in order, so we never have to worry about that.”
Ed nodded, silently wondering where this was going.
“Well, I’m letting all of you animal people know about some problems we’ve been having, just so you’re aware and not caught off guard by anything.”
“What sort of problems?”
Bob scratched his flabby bare chin for a moment. “Well, over the past few months we’ve been getting a lot of e-mails, and regular mail too, from some of the animal rights groups. They’re getting really pushy this year, for some reason. We’re particularly watching the petting zoo folks. You know, we had that incident a few years ago with them and the falconer.”
“Ah, Bob, that was before your time, and the problem was that somebody”—Ed wanted to say idiot, but held his tongue—“moved the petting zoo too close to Johan’s show. A hawk saw the rabbit and didn’t care that it was in some kid’s arms at the time. They got that all worked out, and no one got sued.”
“Yes, yes.” Bob waved his hand dismissively. “So I’ve been told.
But anyway, I just want all the animal acts on alert in case any of these people try anything this season. Don’t let your guard down. Do you know all the people working for you this year?”
Ed nodded. “Yeah, they are all folks who have either worked for me in the past or been recommended by folks I trust. Everyone has the animals’ best interests at heart.”
“Good, good.” Bob returned the nod. “Well, that’s all I needed. You have a great season, and we’ll let you know if we get anything too extreme through our channels, and don’t be afraid to call security if you have any problems. We’ll be making sure they’re aware of the issues too, so they’ll keep an eye on things from their angle.”
Ed stood up and shook Bob’s hand again. “Thanks for letting me know, Bob.”
He left the office, promising himself he’d see about getting another person to help keep an eye on things. If anything happened to his animals, it would be like something happened to Eddy.
“Hey, Ed,” Margaret called as he walked past. “I’ll stop by later to see your new little one.”
“Thanks, Margaret, see you later.” Ed waved at her.
The man she was helping glanced up at that moment, and Ed looked into the most beautiful pair of gray eyes he’d ever seen. His heart skipped a beat. He’d never seen the man around the faire before. There was something in that look. It stirred the longings he’d thought about on the drive last night. For a second, Ed thought about hanging around the office and trying to talk to the man, but too many people were waiting for the badges and paperwork to get finished, and he needed to get back before Eddy got to worrying about him. The skinny man next to the blond with the shocking gray eyes looked familiar. He was the guy who worked at the ceramic shop a few booths away from the elephant ride. The skinny man was fairly flamboyant, not his type at all. If they know each other, is the blond just as bad? I’ll see what I can tell as time goes on. It’s not like I need a quickie this afternoon.
Chapter 5
“Are you sure this looks good?” Adrian asked for the third time.
Standing in the back room of the ceramic shop, surrounded by boxes of mugs and other Ren faire pottery, Sebastian nodded. “Dio, you look great. Those adjustments Holly made to the pants are perfect. I’m glad we found that pair of boots that look a bit like hooves. You were made to wear this costume, particularly with that goatee you’re trying to grow. Next weekend it will be fabulous. And those gray horns look great.”
Adrian rubbed at the four days worth of scruff on his chin. He’d decided to grow a goatee, something he’d never done before, to add to the authentic feel of a satyr. “If you’re sure.” He adjusted the gray ceramic horns that sat amidst his thick blond hair. Tied on with a leather strap that wrap
ped around his head, they felt odd and rough against his skull. In the distance, a loud boom sounded, and cheering erupted. “What was that?”
“Cannon,” Sebastian replied. “We need to get out front.” He headed for the door that would let them out into the shop. Paul and Holly stood out there waiting for them.
“So what’s with the cannon?” Adrian asked as he closed the door.
“It’s how we know the day has started,” Sebastian explained. “They’ll also fire it at the end of the day. Some morning you’ll have to go out and listen before cannon. A bunch of the court people and some of the performers gather on the wall and shout insults down at the crowd waiting to get in. It’s really cool.”
Something inside Adrian cringed. It all sounded really juvenile. “If you say so.”
“The first folks should be here in about five minutes or so,” Holly said from the counter, where the cash drawer and credit card machine sat camouflaged by a red-draped box so they didn’t detract from the medieval ambiance of the place.
Adrian walked out toward the small wall just a few feet from the shop, where the ocarinas hung by narrow leather thongs, with the panpipes right below them and the cow-horn horns on either side, and selected one of the panpipes to start the day off with. He blew across the pipes, played a simple melody that he’d come up with the day before, and settled into playing as he spotted the elephant guy again. He sighed, and his tune shifted to something classically seductive. When he’d been getting his badge for faire access, which now rested along with his wallet in the bag tied to his new belt, he’d gotten a closer look at the handsome man. They’d made eye contact for a moment, and there was something in those brown eyes that called to him. As he watched and absentmindedly played, a small boy ran up to the man. The elephant guy bent down and softly kissed the boy’s black-haired head before the kid ran off to join more kids in Ren faire garb being led away by an older girl. Looks like they have their own medieval version of day care around here. Then, the first of the patrons poured around the corner.
“You can take a break for lunch, you know.” Sebastian interrupted Adrian’s playing several hours later. The flutist had gotten lost in the flow of the music, even if he had been interrupted many times by people, mostly kids and teens, asking about the instruments he played. For the most part, he’d stuck with the panpipes, but he’d knocked out a few tunes on the ocarinas to show little kids how to do it. He was enjoying himself, more than he’d thought he would at first.
He accepted the mug of water his friend offered him. He’d been so wrapped up in the flow of everything, he hadn’t realized he was thirsty until the water passed his lips. “Is it that time already?”
Sebastian nodded. “Yup, actually, it’s just past one. You’ve been playing for three hours. Paul is thrilled, by the way. You’ve sold several ocarinas and three panpipes already. Oh yeah, and one cow horn.”
Adrian handed Sebastian the empty mug. “Didn’t even touch the cow horns.” He’d been so wrapped up in the flow of people and music, he’d forgotten they were even hanging there.
“Well, go get something to eat. There’s a food court just over there.” His friend pointed off to the left, away from the spot where the elephant guy was leading one of his animals around. The little elephant was even following them.
“You coming?” Adrian slipped the cord for the panpipes over his neck. He’d decided to keep his demo pipes on him, just for sanitary reasons.
“Nah.” Sebastian shook his head. He’d put enough gel in his hair, as usual, that it didn’t move in the slightest. “We’re busy enough that Paul wants us to go one at a time today. I might go with you another day.”
“Okay.”
Halfway to the food court, a woman’s voice interrupted the music that still filled his head. “Hey, satyr boy!”
Adrian looked up and saw two women, both in belly dancer outfits, coming toward him. They were sleek, elegant women, one in various shades of blue with silver coins and bells, the other in jade greens with copper accents.
“Hello,” Adrian replied.
“Hey,” the blue one said. “We’ve been listening to you play.”
“In between our performances,” the jade one added.
“Well, you play a lot better than the guy they had last year,” blue continued. “Would you mind if we stopped by and danced a bit while you play?”
Adrian shrugged. “Don’t know. I’ll have to ask Paul. He owns the place. I don’t care.” He couldn’t see any harm in the belly dancers moving around as he played. Some of the new tunes flowing out of him right now might even be the type of thing they would enjoy. For some reason, the muses were moving him toward more Celtic sounds, far away from the classical he was used to playing.
“Cool, Paul won’t mind,” blue replied. “We hung around last year when….” She shook her head. “I can’t remember his name. He didn’t look nearly as satyrish as you do.” She grinned.
Adrian kept his cool, though inside he cringed. “So you don’t forget, my name’s Adrian. My friends call me Dio.”
The green one giggled. “Dio, sounds Greek.”
“It is; my last name’s Mylonas.” He offered her his hand. She placed hers in his and waited for a moment, as if she wanted him to kiss it. Sebastian had warned him that some of the customs at the faire were a little different than he was used to. He bent and placed a light kiss on her lilac-scented knuckles.
“I’m Jade, and this is Mel.” She gestured to her friend in blue, who also extended her hand for his kiss. Playing along, Adrian obliged.
“So, Dio, what do you do outside of faire?” Mel claimed his arm before he could withdraw his hand.
Jade swooped in and claimed his other side. “Yes, Dio, when you’re not making hearts beat faster in your leathers with your sexy pipes, what are you doing?”
“Until recently, I was a concert flutist.” Seeing no polite way to untangle himself from the two, particularly if they were going to come by and dance to his music, Adrian angled them toward the food area.
Mel smiled and patted his arm. The tiny bells along her wrist tinkled as the smells from the food vendors hit him. “Well, that explains your most excellent playing.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “We had debated if you weren’t a real satyr come to the faire to charm the fair ladies off their feet with your playing.”
Adrian laughed. “’Tis not the fair ladies I’ve come to charm.”
“Oh,” Jade gasped, and her hand flew theatrically to her mouth. “Do tell. So we have a bawdy satyr in our midst come to carry off our menfolk.”
Mel sighed. “Why are all the handsome ones either married or gay?” Then she joined Jade in theatrics and placed a hand on her forehead. “Whatever are we to do? Even the satyr isn’t interested in our wares.” She heaved her ample bosom with a series of tiny jingles. Several of the patrons were stopping to stare at their spectacle. Sebastian had warned Adrian about such things, and being a performer, he played along, even if this wasn’t the type of performance he was used to.
He pulled out his pipes as they reached the first tables set up under the trees in front of the food booths. “Then, my fairest of flowers, I shall have to play a tune to lure some unsuspecting thrall into the clutches of your cleavage.” As he brought the pipes to his lips, the two belly dancers released his arms and whirled around, their tiny bells tinkling. With the first note he blew, they began keeping time with their finger cymbals as they moved around him.
For several minutes, he played while they danced. When his stomach finally growled with the overwhelming aroma of grilled steak filling the air, he finished his tune and lowered his pipes. The people around them applauded. He and the two women bowed.
“That was really nice,” Mel said. “I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with you this year.”
Adrian smiled at her. “Yes, we just might at that. Now, if you two ladies don’t mind, I’m starving and would like to get a bite to eat so I can get back to work.”
Jade gave him a big hug. “We’ll stop by later, and we can dance to some more of your great tunes. Paul’s going to love the crowd we draw.”
“I hope so.” Adrian accepted Mel’s parting hug and turned toward the food. He was more relaxed now than he’d been even a few minutes before. I think this is going to be an interesting couple of months.
Chapter 6
With practiced ease, Ed led Cara, the elephant, around the riding enclosure with a family of four in the howdah on her back. Cara didn’t seem to mind about the people who got on and off her back at regular intervals during the day. Even with the baby trailing along in her steps most of the time, she just plodded along behind Ed as he walked around the outside of the enclosure. Several times during the previous day, Ciro had gotten tired, as babies tend to do, and took naps in the shade of the huge oak tree that stood along the enclosure’s east side. During those times, Cara had kept a watchful eye on her offspring while she worked, but didn’t act up. That had been one of Ed’s concerns about bringing the new mother elephant along, that she might stop working when the baby got tired, but she was a trouper and kept going.
“Daddy, I want to ride again,” cried the little girl who was being lifted off the elephant by her father back at the loading stand. “I want to get a closer look at the baby. He’s so cute.”
“Then we need to get back in line,” the father said. “Or would you rather go see the belly dancers? They’re dancing on that stage over there.” He pointed over to the gypsy stage where the belly dancing troop had begun their midafternoon performance.
“Daddy.” The little girl got all serious for a moment. Ed couldn’t see her standing on the loading platform, but somehow he knew her little hands were on her hips. “You enjoy the belly dancers, not me and Mommy. You and Tommy go watch the belly dancers. Me and Mommy will get back in line to see the baby elephant again, won’t we, Mommy?” Ed chuckled, but waited for the signal from Sonny that the next load of riders was ready to go around the enclosure. If the belly dancers were starting their afternoon performance, then it had to be about three. He hadn’t stopped for lunch yet. As he’d anticipated, their crowds were larger with Ciro as an added attraction. They’d been going for hours. Even when Bryan took Gwen to walk in the parade, they’d still had a line of folks wanting elephant and camel rides. He needed to give Cara a rest for a little while too. The family moved off as the mother promised the little girl that they’d ride the elephants again before they left, but they needed to let her father have some fun too. As the next family loaded onto Cara, Ed spotted Bryan coming back into the riding arena. He motioned his brother over as Sonny rang the bell that was his signal the people had loaded and were ready to ride. With a light tap of his cane on her trunk, he walked out in front of Cara and started around the enclosure.