Harper and the Circus of Dreams
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For those who love stories, Amelie, Delphi and Logi—keep the magic. Xxx C.B.
For a brilliant musician and super duper Grandad John! Love you lots, big hugs from Twiglett xxx L.E.A.
Text copyright © Cerrie Burnell, 2016
Illustrations copyright © Laura Ellen Anderson, 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews and article. All inquiries should be addressed to Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.
First published in the United Kingdom by Scholastic Children’s Books, an imprint of Scholastic Ltd, 2015.
This hardcover edition published by Sky Pony Press, 2017.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are from the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Sky Pony Press books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or info@skyhorsepublishing.com.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available on file.
Jacket illustration © Laura Ellen Anderson
Jacket design by Sammy Yuen
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-5107-1567-7
EBook ISBN: 978-1-5107-1569-1
Printed in the United States of America
Once there was a girl called Harper who had a rare musical gift. She heard songs on the wind, rhythms on the rain, and hope in the beat of a butterfly’s wing. Harper could play every instrument she ever picked up, without learning a single note. Sometimes at night as she drifted to sleep, Harper heard a melody echo down from the stars. But when morning came, she could never quite remember the tune. It was the only song she couldn’t play—the song that haunted all of her dreams.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
A HOWLING WOLF
Chapter Two
THE STORY OF THE
FEARSOME STORM
Chapter Three
THE STORM-STIRRER
Chapter Four
MUSIC IN THE MIST
Chapter Five
THE RED-AND-GOLD TENT
Chapter Six
THE LIGHTNING-LEADER
Chapter Seven
THE CIRCUS OF DREAMS
Chapter Eight
THE CHILDREN OF THE CIRCUS
Chapter Nine
HARPER’S NOTE
Chapter Ten
THE TERRIFYINGLY TALL MAN
Chapter Eleven
A SPLENDID CONCERT
Chapter Twelve
THE DREAM SONG
Chapter Thirteen
HARPER’S FAMILY
Chapter Fourteen
A HAPPY FAREWELL
About the Author
About the Illustrator
Chapter One
A HOWLING WOLF
From the rooftop of the Tall Apartment Block, Harper perched beneath her Scarlet Umbrella and gazed down at the City of Clouds. Sea Mist rain filled the air, and twilight swept across the sky, turning the raindrops the color of smoke. Everything was peaceful.
Her beloved cat, Midnight, purred around her ankles, his green eyes twinkling. Harper raised her bow and began to softly play her viola. A single hopeful note rang out before a fierce howling filled the air. Harper dropped her bow and stared around her. There, at the other end of the rooftop, was a wolf the color of dusk and a boy lurking in the shadows.
Most children would be terrified of seeing a wolf on their roof. Most children would run and scream with fear. But most children weren’t best friends with Nate Nathanielson.
Nate was a boy who lived on the tenth floor. He had found the wolf as a cub, given her a home, and named her Smoke. Smoke loved Nate as if they were part of a pack, and her star-bright eyes could see all the things that Nate could not. She wasn’t a guide dog or a guard dog or a creature you could you call a pet. She was a wild companion, with wisdom in her heart and the full moon in her howl. But tonight something seemed to be troubling her.
Harper lifted her bow and played three sharp notes—the secret signal to summon her friends. There was a stirring of leaves and a pattering of light feet as a small, mouse-like girl flitted across the roof and threw her arms around the wolf.
“Hello, Liesel,” Harper said with a smile, ruffling the small girl’s knotted hair.
Liesel, who had large eyes and a love of fairy-tale witches, buried her face in the wolf’s silvery coat, trying to soothe her.
The sound of serious footsteps echoed across the roof. “Hi, Ferdie,” called Nate, recognizing the sound of his friend’s footfall. Ferdie—Liesel’s older brother—came hurrying over, still scribbling the last line of a poem. He tightened his scarf, tucked his pencil behind his ear, and said, in a serious voice, “I think Smoke’s howling at something in the sky.”
The others squinted up. Yet all they saw were thickening clouds and the glint of evening starlight.
“It’s too dark,” moaned Liesel.
Harper gave her a smile. “What we need,” she beamed, “is to fly!”
The children sprang into action. Nate pulled a strand of edentwine from his pocket and fastened Midnight’s cat basket to the Scarlet Umbrella’s handle. With a wild-eyed grin, Liesel shot into the basket. Ferdie grabbed a strand of twine and attached a big wooden kite to the umbrella’s spike, then wove his arms through the kite’s bars like a hang glider. Harper winked at Midnight, who jumped onto her head, landing like a little furry hat. Nate gave a low whistle and, with a breathtaking bound, Smoke pounced on the umbrella’s scarlet dome.
Harper and Nate both clasped the umbrella’s handle closely. “Ready?” Harper whispered.
“Ready!” the others called.
“Up!” she cried, and the Scarlet Umbrella soared into the sky, taking the four children, the cat, and the wolf with it. The flickering lights of the City of Clouds vanished far below, and the children held their breath as they sailed toward the moon.
Up and up they raced, as if they were lighter than autumn leaves. Liesel leaned out of the cat basket and gave a shriek of joy. The inky sky made her feel like dancing. Ferdie laughed as the Scarlet Umbrella dipped through a fog of silken cloud, his mind filling with a million stories. Nate was silent, straining to hear what his wolf might have sensed and feeling the world shift around him.
Harper kept her eyes closed, for beyond the howl of the wolf and the purr of her cat, she thought she heard music. Just for a moment her heart seemed to tremble, for there was the tune that haunted her dreams—the one she could never quite play. Then they swirled upwards and the song vanished, leaving the world strangely still.
The umbrella hung in darkness, like a red boat on a deep and silent sea. Liesel coughed and giggled, Ferdie fiddled with his scarf, and Harper wondered what sort of cloud this might be, for it didn’t look like any of the ones that usually floated above the city. Nate carefully uncurled one hand and ran his fingers through the rain. “There’s a storm coming,” he whispered.
“A storm?” asked Harper, taking in the stillness of the deep night sky.
Nate shrugged. “Yes. There’s something stirring up the wind, mixing everything together. I can feel it.”
“But what?” pondered Ferdie, reaching out to touch a drop of moonlight.
Something shot past Liesel like a dart of ice and feathers, and she gave a sudden gasp. “There’s someone in the clouds,” she squealed. “A ghost in the fog!”
None of the children really believed in ghosts, yet as they craned their eyes into the dark they saw a girl moving faster than lightning. A girl who seemed to be running on air.
Chapter Two
THE STORY OF THE
FEARSOME STORM
“What is it?” asked Nate, who could sense the amazement that gripped his friends.
The others did their best to describe what they could see. “Somewhere within the mist is a girl in a cloak of snow,” began Ferdie.
“Her skin is golden brown,” said Harper, as she watched the girl leap between clouds as easily as if they were stepping stones.
“She’s got braids that are full of lightning,” piped up Liesel, who was now balancing on top of the cat basket on one foot, trying to get a better look at this wondrous cloud-skipping girl.
Nate opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment thunder bellowed like a bear, and the Scarlet Umbrella was thrown across the sky.
“Hold on!” cried Harper as a whirl of wind that sang like birds whooshed past, filling their heads with harmonies.
“We need to turn the umbrella over,” shouted Nate as the singing grew louder.
No sooner had Nate spoken than the umbrella spun upside down by itself, catching Harper, Midnight, and Nate, and somehow tipping in the wolf, too. Ferdie and Liesel screamed as the kite and cat basket collided, and then their mouths fell open as a rainbow of night colors appeared before them. It was the strangest storm the children had ever seen.
Harper gathered her thoughts and, ignoring the song of the storm, she commanded the umbrella to return to the Tall Apartment Block.
As they scrambled back onto the roof, Liesel gave a little yelp. “Look at the Scarlet Umbrella,” she cried, pointing to a glistening row of icicles that hung from its bright-red edge.
“And Smoke’s fur is full of stars.” Nate grinned, putting the tiny glittering fragments carefully in his pocket.
“Midnight’s covered in tufts of winter sky,” giggled Harper.
“What a super storm.” Ferdie sighed. “But who on earth is the girl in the sky?”
“And why could we hear birds singing?” wondered Harper, removing a feather that was caught behind Nate’s ear.
“Can we keep the girl in the sky a secret?” Liesel begged.
The children nodded gleefully. For there was nothing more exciting than a secret shared.
The residents of the Tall Apartment Block came hurrying over to help untangle the edentwine. “We haven’t seen a storm as good as this for at least five years!” said Elsie Caraham merrily. Elsie was the oldest resident of the Tall Apartment Block and she remembered everything.
“The skies haven’t been so alive since the night of the Fearsome Storm,” agreed Harper’s Great Aunt Sassy.
Everyone smiled, including Harper. She knew exactly why the Fearsome Storm was special and she loved hearing the tale. “Tell us the story again, Great Aunt Sassy,” Harper pleaded as they made their way indoors.
When everyone was gathered inside Harper and Great Aunt Sassy’s little flat with a mug of hot cocoa, Sassy began the story. “Five years ago, on the night of the Fearsome Storm, a little girl with dark hair and sea-gray eyes appeared on the rooftop.”
“Wow,” breathed Liesel, who loved the mystery that surrounded Harper’s arrival, and wished with all her heart it had happened to her.
“A little girl clasping a Scarlet Umbrella,” added Isabella, a member of the Lucas family from the seventh floor.
“Nobody knew where she’d come from, or how she’d ended up on the roof,” said Peter, Ferdie and Liesel’s father. “The only clue was a letter, which was pinned to the Scarlet Umbrella by the feather of a dove.”
“What did the note say?” asked Ferdie, who knew the answer already but wanted to hear it again.
Great Aunt Sassy swept across the flat and opened a little drawer. Carefully, she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, winked warmly at Harper, and read the note.
Nobody knew what the last word said, as it had been smudged by a raindrop.
“I hadn’t seen my nephew Hugo since he was seven,” Sassy explained. “But when I peeked at the small girl beneath the Scarlet Umbrella, my heart fluttered with love. For she had the same sea-gray eyes as me, and I knew at once she belonged here.”
Everyone in the little flat grinned and sipped their cocoa. For it was true. Harper and Sassy had been wonderfully happy ever since, living in an apartment block of music and costumes and stories and cats.
Sometimes, late at night, it was true that Harper wondered who her parents were, or where they might be. But with Midnight to keep her company and the residents of the Tall Apartment Block watching over her, she rarely felt sad about it. It was only when she heard her star-song that thoughts of her family danced across her dreams, with a sadness she couldn’t quite shake.
Chapter Three
THE STORM-STIRRER
The next morning, Harper awoke to a most unusual sight. A thick white mist had covered the entire city! How strange, Harper thought. It’s as if the city has become its name. It really is full of cloud!
The city got its name from the many different clouds that soared across its sky. Harper knew most of them by heart, but her favorite ones were:
Star-stealer: a thick black cloud that blots out stars.
Feather-fern: a pale, thin cloud as light as a feather.
Dragonsmoke: a puffy blue cloud seen mostly at twilight.
Snowdrift: endless white clouds as soft as snow.
Great Aunt Sassy burst into the kitchen and flung her suitcase down in despair. “The Dutch Opera House are sending a helicopter to collect me,” she wailed, “but they’ll never find the Tall Apartment Block in all this fog.”
Midnight leaped from the window sill and vanished into the hallway. With a light flick of his tail, he opened the Scarlet Umbrella and tugged it over to Harper. She stared at the rich red fabric and smiled. “It’s okay, Great Aunt Sassy,” she said, laughing. “The scarlet silk will show up in the mist. We can use the umbrella as a beacon.”
Ten minutes later, Nate had attached the Scarlet Umbrella firmly to the rooftop by edentwine. “There is no way the wind can blow you away,” he said proudly, “and if the storm starts up again, give three sharp tugs and we’ll pull you back down.”
Harper sat down deep in the umbrella’s folds, and wrapped her arms around Midnight.
“Keep a lookout for the girl in the sky,” muttered Nate. “See if you can find out who she is.”
“I will,” Harper murmured, closing her eyes and sending the umbrella up to a Snowdrift sky.
When the edentwine stretched taut, Harper raised Elsie Caraham’s spyglass to her eye and peered around. All she could see for miles and miles were clouds that glistened like snow. She pulled her piccolo flute from her pocket and played a song of myths and mountains, a melody of magical ice. As her fingers found the notes, a little breeze picked up, tickling Midnight’s tail. Then came the sound of beating wings.
Harper froze as two white-winged eagles broke through a Feather-fern cloud. They were the hugest birds she had ever seen—like kings of the sky. Behind them soared a flight of other stormy birds, beautiful and fierce all at once. The birds circled them in a swirl of song, and from within them stepped a girl in a cloak of pale feathers—the girl who could run on air.
The girl stood tall like a queen amid her flock. She sang a soft note, and the birds dived right. She roared like thunder, and the birds arched left. She called like a swallow, and the birds seemed to hang in the air without moving. Harper was too stunned to speak.
As the girl came nearer, running across the sky, Harper noticed a tightrope, thin and silvery, reaching through the mist. She peeked
through the spyglass and found that the sky was full of tightropes, each end tethered loosely to the neck of a great storm-colored bird.
“What’s your name?” asked Harper in a voice as soft as breath.
“I’m Skylar,” sang the girl, diving onto the back of a white-winged eagle.
“Where did you learn to run on tightropes?” Harper asked.
“I grew up in a circus,” Skylar smiled. “We travel the world by wind. My job is to mix up the weather. I’m a storm-stirrer.”
Harper’s eyes opened wide with astonishment. “So that’s what you were doing last night, and that’s why the wind sang like birds.”
Skylar nodded. “I stir a mighty storm so the Circus of Dreams can arrive in secret.”
Harper leaned out of the Scarlet Umbrella. “What’s the Circus of Dreams?”
“It’s a circus bound by spells. You must come. We’re in the far north of the city. But be quick . . . When the wind changes, we leave.” And with that, the white-winged bird swooped away, taking the storm-stirrer with it.
The sound of a propeller thrummed through the mist. Harper waved a wild hello to the Dutch Opera House pilot, and then tugged happily on the twine, staring at the far-off wings of the eagles as she glided back to the Tall Apartment Block.
As soon as the helicopter had landed and Harper was safely on the roof, she played three sharp notes on her piccolo flute. “I know who the girl in the sky is!” she cried as her three best friends gathered around her. “She’s a storm-stirrer! She belongs to a circus that travels by wind.”
“A storm-stirrer!” Ferdie gasped, imagining a glorious poem.
“A queen of wild weather,” squealed Liesel.
“A circus that travels by wind,” said Nate, his face glowing with smiles.
The children were still for a moment, the same bright thought glittering in each of their minds. “We have to go to the circus!” yelled Liesel.
“Yes,” said Harper, “and we will!”
Chapter Four
MUSIC IN THE MIST