by Trudi Jaye
“So we have evidence that someone was sitting here, and a scrap of yellow material. It could mean anything,” said Jack.
“Or it could mean that she was out here by herself and her brothers, who had been waiting for an opportunity, came out of the woods and grabbed her.”
“Why wouldn’t she fight them or run from them? She wasn’t sitting that close to the trees. Shouldn’t there be evidence of a struggle?”
“She can’t fight them, remember?”
They stood silent for a moment. “We have to go check their circus.”
“I saw the poster. They’re in the old Hanson field on the road to Boise,” said Sam.
“We’ll take my car,” said Jack. He pulled the keys out of his pocket and sprinted off toward the Carnival parking lot.
The shadows were lengthening around them, and Jack had to put on the headlights to see where he was going in the dim dusk light. It wasn’t long before they were travelling at speed toward the rival circus.
“What do you know about the brothers? Other than that the big one has a bruising left hook?” asked Jack. He didn’t take his eyes off the road.
“Their only ability is to make Celestine do anything they want.” Sam rubbed his hands down his legs, trying to ease the dread he was feeling.
Jack glanced in the rearview mirror at Sam in the back seat. “She’s likely to fight us? If we try to get her out of there?”
“Yes.” Sam’s stomach lurched. “We’ll have to bring her against her will.”
“Then we have to do it as fast and as quietly as we can. Preferably without alerting the brothers.”
Sam looked grimly out the window at the dying light. “I don’t think there’s much likelihood of that happening,” he said.
Jack shrugged. “Then we make it happen any way we can. I promised to protect her. I refuse to let her brothers take her like this.”
Chapter 32
“Wake her up. She’s been asleep for too long anyway.” Alden’s voice hadn’t changed in the last three years. Her younger brother was still rough and whiney. “She can help us with the last of the packing.” Someone punched her in the shoulder, and she moved back, yelping in pain. They were in the trailer she’d grown up in; everything was familiar and comforting.
“Wake up, Tiny,” said her older brother, Leptune, using her childhood nickname. “We gotta get going. Show waits for no man.” He paused. “Or woman.”
She rolled away from him but got up as he’d asked.
They were almost done, which was surprising, because in the old days they would have waited until she’d done most of it and then rolled in to help with the final bits and pieces. Clearly their time without her had done them good. The thought came in and flittered away again, like a butterfly that had lost its way.
She stood up. “What do you want me to help with?”
“We need to get you ready to set up the fortune-telling tent straight away when we stop at the next town,” said Alden. “Put your stuff all together.”
Celestine shook her head. “I can’t do it anymore. It’s broken,” she said. The pain she’d felt before was gone; now she was simply numb and accepting.
“What?” Alden stopped and stared at her, a large sheet of canvas folded neatly in his arms.
“It’s broken. I helped with a Carnival ritual, and it’s done something to my ability to see the future. Now I see all of the possible futures, not just the most likely one.”
“What does that even mean?” asked Leptune.
Celestine shrugged. “I can’t tell the real futures from the possible ones anymore.”
Alden dropped the canvas he’d been holding. He took a threatening step toward Celestine. “Don’t think you can con us with your stories, sister. You think because you’ve hidden from us for so long, you can trick us? Think again.”
Celestine blinked. The warm feeling that had been covering her split open for a moment, and she knew that she didn’t want to be here with her brothers. They were forcing her to do something she didn’t want to do.
But then it was gone. “I wouldn’t lie to you, Alden. There’s no point.”
Leptune came over to stand in front of her, peering at her like she was an insect. “She seems to be under our control. The magic’s working. I can feel it. Mom couldn’t lie to Dad.”
Alden sneered. “Then how did she get away from us last time? She must have lied to us at some point.”
She blinked again, trying to remember what they were talking about. Her memories were a little fuzzy. “I think there was someone helping me,” she said vaguely.
Alden’s eyes sharpened on her. “Who?” His expression was hard, and Celestine knew it would be bad for whoever had helped her. “I don’t remember.” And she really didn’t. But she also didn’t want to remember. Her brothers would hurt the person who’d helped her escape last time. She knew that much.
Alden stepped closer and grabbed her by the arms, shaking her hard. “Tell me who, or so help me....” His words trailed off, but the violent expression in his eyes remained.
Leptune put his hand on their brother’s arm. “Quit it, Alden. We need her whole for the show. A fortune-teller with bruises ain’t gonna bring in the punters.”
He gave her another shake, and Celestine’s head snapped back and forth. “If what she’s telling us is true, then she’s useless to us anyway. All she’s good for is a low-rent fortune-telling tent at the back of the Carnival. We need her for the high-end shows; that’s where the money is.”
Alden pushed her away, and Celestine took a step back. “I’m not lying to you. About anything.” She was in a cocoon of warmth. There was no happy or sad, no worry or despair. She was just here with her brothers. Doing whatever they asked of her. That was her life.
“What if she can’t do the show any more?” Alden shot a poisonous glare in Celestine’s direction. She smiled back at him.
“We’ll ask the witch doctor.” Leptune pronounced the words like he’d come up with a cure for cancer.
“That old hack? What’s he going to do?”
“Dad always used to go to him when he needed help with Mom. Remember?” Leptune remembered more about their mother than either Alden or Celestine. He was older by two years, despite Alden always taking the lead on their schemes and ideas.
Alden glanced from Leptune to Celestine. He looked at his watch. “We gotta catch him now, before he leaves. I told the boss she’d be ready for the next stop.”
“Come on, then,” said Leptune, grabbing Celestine’s arm in a tight grip. She would have a bruise there later, but it would be all right. She could cover bruises on her arm.
She followed them quietly as they led her through the gaudy remains of the circus as it was being pulled down. She felt low-level visions flicker across her brain as if she was catching something out of the corner of her eye. She knew she needed to stay away from the other people if she wanted to keep her mind clear of the full-blown images.
They were at the end of the takedown process; trucks were being filled with equipment, the tents brought quickly to the ground, and the crew boss was yelling at the stragglers. The setup here was smaller, more of a travelling show than the full Jolly Knight Carnival. There was litter everywhere, and the signs were faded. The ground was all churned up and muddied underfoot. There was a dismal air about the place.
Celestine thought she might feel sad, if her emotions weren’t completely numb.
They moved quickly through the commotion to another small trailer; this one painted in strange symbols and runes. Alden knocked. “Come on, old man. Open up,” he said, looking around nervously. He was probably worried about the boss finding them slacking off instead of helping with the takedown.
The witch doctor opened the trailer door, peering out at them. “What do you want, Alden.” He looked past her brother to where Leptune and Celestine waited. His eyes widened. “You found her?”
“We got her back, like I knew we would,” said Alden roughly. “C
an we come in?”
The witch doctor stepped back, welcoming them into his small place. Celestine followed Alden in, staring around at the bottles and containers on the shelves. They were filled with strange and disgusting creatures and body parts. The bottles were all attached to the shelves using an ingenious rubber band design.
“What can I do for you, boys?” asked the witch doctor, rubbing his hands together.
“She says she’s lost her fortune-telling talent,” said Alden.
The witch doctor looked sharply at Celestine. “Lost it? How?”
“She was part of some kind of ceremony, and now it’s gone wrong.”
The witch doctor walked over to where Celestine hovered just inside the entranceway. “You’ve lost your talent, eh?” he said.
As he came closer, images burned themselves into Celestine’s head, multiple images of the witch doctor, going from wildly happy to dead on the ground. She scrunched her eyes shut and tried to block the images out. Her head started to pound, and she put her hands to her ears. “Stop. Don’t come any closer,” she said. “I can’t think with all the images in my head.”
“I thought she had to touch people to see their futures?” asked the witch doctor.
“Used to be. Now she’s seeing them just by being close to people. They’ve done somethin’ to her. Can you help us, Doc?” Alden peered anxiously at the strange man.
The witch doctor stepped away and the disturbing visions faded. Celestine opened her eyes.
“I think I can help. But we’ll need to pull away from the main circus to do it. I can perform a ceremony, tonight, under the full moon.”
“We have to get back to the main circus with her intact,” said Alden. “I promised the boss.”
“And the boss isn’t someone you want to piss off.”
“Right.”
Something glinted in the witch doctor’s eyes. “For this kind of magic, there are special ways that things need be done. I don’t make the rules. We need a full moon, we need moonlight.” He placed one finger on the calendar attached to his wall. “You’re just lucky that it’s a full moon tonight.”
Celestine shivered. It felt like a thousand tiny insects were running softly down her spine. She wished she were back in her brothers’ trailer, curled up on the sofa.
A fist banged on the door. “Come on, old man. Get yourself on the road,” shouted a voice on the other side. It was the crew boss.
“It was only a matter of time before he noticed,” muttered the witch doctor. He raised his voice to answer the crew boss through the closed door: “Of course, Bartholomew. I’m just leaving now.”
“Damn right you are,” said the crew boss on the other side of the door. He stomped off to yell at some other poor soul.
“We’ll meet at the clearing in two hours’ time,” the witch doctor whispered to Alden and Leptune. “There are things I need to prepare, and we need the full moon to be out for the ritual to work.” He rifled through a box at one end of his trailer. He triumphantly pulled out a blood-red dress. “She needs to wear this. I’ll bring everything else we’ll need.”
Celestine gazed blearily at the witch doctor. He came closer, handing the red dress to Leptune, and the images in her head returned.
There was something wrong.
He wasn’t telling the truth. She could tell that much from the images she was getting. She opened her mouth to tell her brothers.
But from somewhere deep inside her head a small voice yelled at her to shut up. To keep quiet and see where this went. If the witch doctor was planning something against her brothers, then it might be a good thing for her.
So she closed her mouth and kept quiet.
If one of her brothers asked, she would tell them. Until then, she would stay silent.
Chapter 33
“I’m sorry, Sam.” Jack’s voice was grim. They were standing on the edge of the now-empty field where the circus had obviously been until recently. Churned up dirt and grass marked where the trucks and tents had been, and litter was scattered around the ground. Garth held a flash light and slowly shined it over the whole field.
“We have to follow them. Go to their next stop.” Sam moved forward. “They can’t have gone far.”
“We’ll go back to the Carnival and plan our next move,” said Jack.
Sam shook his head. “We don’t have time for that. They could go underground. They could take her anywhere. We need to catch them fast.”
“I’m sorry, Sam. But I can’t just go chasing off on the slimmest of notions. I have to protect everyone in the Carnival. We don’t even know she’s definitely with her brothers; this could be some kind of trap organised by Veronica. We have be sensible.”
“She was here,” said Garth from a few yards away. He was shining his flashlight at a section of the ground. “I can feel it.”
“Can you tell where she is now?” asked Sam desperately. The darkness surrounding them made it feel like the world was pressing down on him, taking away his breath.
“She’s still close by,” said Garth in a strange voice. “This way.” He started walking off to the far side of the field, and Sam and Jack rushed to catch up to him.
“Can you sense her?” asked Sam.
“She’s this way,” said Garth.
Sam glanced at Jack, who shrugged.
“The Carnival will help wherever it can,” said Jack.
All three men strode across the field, and into the woods behind them. They followed a path only Garth could see, until the sound of voices ahead made them halt. Sam tried to make out if it was Celestine’s brothers or not, but he hadn’t heard them speak enough to know for certain.
“Who would be in the woods in the middle of the night?” whispered Sam.
“Hunters with big guns?” said Jack.
Garth shook his head. “I can feel magic swirling around them. And more forming. They’re not hunters.”
“We need to get closer, see who it is,” said Sam.
Jack nodded and crept toward the sound of voices, with Sam right behind him.
Sam crouched down next to Jack and Garth and peered through the trees into a small clearing. It was lit by a small fire in the center and four candles placed at an equal distance around the edge of a circle marked by crystals. The full moon over their heads gave extra light, so the whole scene was laid out before them in ghostly colors. Four paths led off into different directions through the woods.
In the middle of the circle of crystals stood Celestine, dressed in a flowing red dress. Her hands were bound in front of her by red ribbon. She looked beautiful, but her eyes were glazed over, the violet light gone.
Her two brothers stood to one side of the circle. The bigger one stood with his eyes fixed like a hawk on an older man who was setting up a small altar in the middle of the circle. “You sure this is going to work, witch doctor?”
Sam clenched his fists and held in the urge to simply run and grab Celestine. He was no match for the two goon brothers. He glanced at Jack and Garth.
The third man, his face lined with age, white hair sticking out from under a top hat decorated with bones, glanced up impatiently at Celestine’s brother. “Of course, Alden. I used to do this kind of thing for your father and mother all the time. Trust me.” He smiled, and showed a gap-toothed mouth.
“He’s lying,” whispered Garth. “I recognize this ceremony. Full moon, crossroads, circle of crystals, red dress, red ribbon... He’s trying to marry himself to her, and steal their powers. Put her under his power instead.”
Sam’s heart lurched in his chest. “No!” he said without thinking.
As one, Celestine’s brothers turned to look in Sam’s direction. “What was that?” said the smaller one.
The witch doctor looked up impatiently. “Go find out, will you? I need to make sure everything is exactly in order here.”
The brothers strode around the edge of the crystal circle, clearly nervous about the old man’s magic.
Sam gla
nced at Jack and Garth in apology. Garth shrugged and stood up. Jack and Sam were close behind him.
“Looking for us?” asked Sam. He moved out into the clearing and stood in front of the two brothers. Anger swirled around him, like a cloak. Jack and Garth were right behind him.
“It’s those bastards from the Carnival where she’s been hiding,” said the younger brother, his eyes wide. “How did you find us?”
“Thought you could just kidnap her, and we’d let you?” said Sam. “That’s not how it works.”
The bigger brother sneered. “Ask her what she wants to do.” He turned to Celestine. “Celestine, tell them you want to stay with your brothers,” he said.
Celestine turned to face them all. Sam felt like he was stuck in a painting tableau. They all waited for her to speak.
“I want to stay with my brothers,” she said to Sam, her face blank of emotion.
Sam shook his head. “I know the power you have over her. She doesn’t want to be here. I know it.” He took a step toward the two younger men. Without warning, the big muscled brother took a swing at Sam and smacked his giant fist into Sam’s face. Sam collapsed to the ground, his head spinning.
Garth and Jack surged forward, clearly more used to fighting. Garth took the larger brother and ducked fast under another powerful punch from the muscle-bound goon. Jack blocked a couple of rough punches from the smaller brother and then landed a heavy punch to the gut. Jack was taller by a good foot or so, and easily stronger. It was the bigger brother they had to worry about.
Sam crawled away from the fighting, shaking his head to clear it. He glanced up and saw the witch doctor pulling on Celestine’s bound hands. She was shaking her head and trying to pull away from him. The witch doctor’s face was no longer disinterested—he was snarling at her in the manner of a dog about to lose his bone. Sam struggled to clear his head. If the witch doctor managed to marry himself to Celestine, she’d be doomed a second time. He had to get her away from him.
Sam pushed himself to his feet and stumbled into the crystal circle, still woozy from the punch. The witch doctor stuck out a leg, and tripped him up. Sam went flying again and only just managed to get his hands out to break his fall. He shook his head and pushed himself to his feet. He had to save Celestine. He couldn’t fail. Turning he saw the witch doctor grab at Celestine, trying to pull her away from the fighting by one arm.