Vagabond Circus Series Boxed Set

by Sarah Noffke

  “What are you doing here, freak?” he yelled.

  “I’m convicting and sentencing you,” she said and walked forward, her combat boots mashing down the long grass under her feet.

  Another laugh. “Of what?” Sebastian said.

  “Are you or are you not responsible for Dr. Dave Raydon’s death?” she said, still moving forward.

  “Oh, is that what this is about?” he said, his hands on his hips and his black hair hanging in his face. “Yeah, so what? I was following orders.”

  “And what about Jasmine Reynolds-Underwood?” Sunshine said, her long black skirt taking pieces of grass with it as she walked. She was now fifteen yards away.

  “I was bored,” Sebastian said with a sneer. “Look, I don’t really have the time for this. You and Benjamin should leave the circus now that I know you’re traitors. But even then I will hunt you down and kill you.”

  “Not if I kill you first,” Sunshine said in a playful tone.

  The boy’s laugh sounded cold in the clearing as it echoed with no joy. “What are you going to do? Set me on fire? I’m pretty certain I can stop, drop, and roll. And you’re too far away. I’ll be in that forest and gone in no time.”

  “I’m closing in on you,” Sunshine said, moving forward, now ten yards from him.

  “Well, how about we end this then?” Sebastian said. And he took off at the girl, hand outstretched and aimed at her bare arm.

  Sunshine stopped, raised her own hand, and shot a neat bit of fire at the boy, but it missed. He laughed, continuing to close the distance. When he was almost ten feet from the girl he halted.

  “Looks like we get to have a showdown,” Sebastian said. “One ball of flame from you will burn me, but one touch from me will kill you. How about we count to three and take our best shots.”

  And he was right. The odds were in his favor, but they were also in the favor of the person who had planned for this disadvantage.

  “That sounds great, ’Bastian. Oh, and also notice your clothes are a bit stiff today. I took the liberty of doing your laundry. I used a solvent known as chlordane. It’s odorless and also highly flammable. Thank me for it while you burn in hell,” Sunshine said.

  Sebastian’s eyes widened. He lurched forward to close the distance but that only gave Sunshine a better shot. She aimed and hit him square in the chest with a large ball of fire. It knocked the boy back several feet, and what would have scorched him but disappeared, suddenly spread with vengeance. Fire ran over the surface of the boy, covering him like a suit. It licked up to his face where it paused as he screamed for mercy. He then threw himself to the dry earth but that only added kindling to the fire, which spread through the grass, smoking and growing hotter. Sunshine watched, feeling the pain and torture in the boy. She thought it was only fair to feel the emotions of the first person she’d ever killed. Then she looked up to the sky, closing her eyes against the bright fire in front of her. A tear slipped down her cheek, tasting of salt as it fell into her mouth. It was a welcome taste over the smoke and burning flesh.

  “I love you, Dave. And now you have the retribution you never would have asked for, but I needed to give you,” she said and then felt the warm hand slip into hers and squeeze. She didn’t look at the figure melting before her, only pulled her gaze down to the boy beside her. Sunshine slipped her hand from Benjamin’s and put her arm around his shoulder, turning him back toward Vagabond Circus.

  “Let’s get out of here, what do you say?”

  He nodded up at her, his lip pressed firmly between his teeth.

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  Knight’s fingers drummed on the desk he had set up in his semi. The place was quite cozy and didn’t resemble a truck at all. That’s what money and unlimited man hours did for a person. He swiveled his eyes to the antique clock on the far wall. Gwendolyn was late with his food by exactly thirteen minutes and twenty-six seconds. That was unacceptable. She would be punished severely for the incompetence. And still, it was so unlike her. She met expectations, or rather exceeded them, most of the time. Knight threw down the pen he’d just had in his other hand. He couldn’t focus knowing the girl had tarnished her almost perfect record. It made him livid enough to upturn the desk in front of him which once belonged to FDR.

  Knight slid back from the desk, his hands gripping it. He had pretty much made up his mind to overturn the piece of furniture, even though that would most likely leave it in an irreparable state. But just then something bright flew by the door at the back of the truck, the one he left partially ajar to encourage air flow. Knight stood, his eyes pinned on the open door. Again an orb of sorts flew past the open space, but it paused and hovered just in the doorway before zooming off.

  “What the hell?” Knight said, wondering who was daring to disturb his dinner schedule. They should all know better. Then the orb returned, flying straight into Knight’s chamber and pausing just inside the space. It was a bright ball of light. No discerning curves or details, it was like the sun, too bright to see properly.

  “What are you?” he said to the extraterrestrial object.

  In answer it zoomed out of the semi and out into the grounds. Knight bolted forward and ripped the door back at once. The orb of light hovered just in front of his truck and then flew to the right. Knight’s eyes followed it and then it disappeared between two rows of trailers. He squinted, his gaze blurred by the setting sun.

  “Damn fools and their tricks,” he said, thinking it was one of the crew members playing with their lame gifts. That’s why they were all crew members, because they didn’t have a useful skill for performing, like his son, Finley.

  Knight was just about to turn back to his desk when someone impossible happened out from between the rows of trailers. Not only was it impossible for this man to be walking around the grounds of Vagabond Circus, but he was strolling casually, whistling and twirling his top hat around one finger. Knight blinked at the figure draped in evening sunlight. It had to be one of Oliver’s illusions. He would make the boy pay. And then the figure of Dave Raydon knelt and picked up something from the ground. The dead ringmaster held up the shiny penny between his gloved fingers as if inspecting it. Then he pocketed the found money. Illusions couldn’t pick up objects in the physical realm. But Dave was dead. Knight knew that.

  His brother strolled through the grounds until he disappeared into the big top, a little ways off. Knight didn’t believe for a second that his dead brother was ambling around the grounds of his circus. And still he had to believe his eyes. And then two other figures stepped out from the same spot where Dave had originated. One with red hair and the other with a head full of black hair. The two looked at the semi where Knight stood, but they were looking straight into the bright setting sun. They squinted. Gwendolyn even put her hand over her eyes like a visor and then shook her head at Sebastian. The two, as though deciding Knight wasn’t watching them, darted across the grounds in the direction of the big top. Knight guessed they couldn’t see him standing there in the doorway because of the direction of the sun.

  They both checked over their shoulders before disappearing into the big top. Knight shook his head. He didn’t know what was going on but he was going to get to the bottom of this damn mystery and he was going to do it right then. He only wished Finley was there, but he’d sent his son on an “errand” to take care of some patrons who had disgraced the side of the big top with graffiti. Knight stepped down from the semi easily and stalked east toward the big top.

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  From Titus’s vantage point, located behind Knight’s semi-truck, he knew they had been successful. The ringmaster had taken the bait and was now crossing the grounds, headed in the direction of the big top. It had been Titus who produced the ball of light. He’d always hated that he had such a lame skill, the ability to illuminate. He was in essence a walking flashlight. While some Dream Travelers could read minds or teleport, Titus was only really useful in a power outage. Dave didn’t think the creative
director’s gift was lame at all and mentioned it on several occasions.

  “Don’t you see, old friend, that you have the ability to illuminate because that’s what you do in other people’s lives?” Dave had said to Titus multiple times. “You produce light in the physical world as your Dream Traveler gift, but your gift as a human is that you bring that light out of people.”

  Titus always thought Dave must be projecting himself onto him, because he didn’t think he brought out much in most people. That was what Titus had thought, but presently he was thinking that Dave was right. Titus had swelled with pride when he watched Benjamin do the perfect impersonation of Dave a few minutes prior. He had worked with the boy for hours, ensuring that the ten-year-old didn’t just look the part of the dead ringmaster, but also acted the part, using Dave’s true mannerisms and flashing Dave’s easy smile. And Oliver, who had trouble crafting real people to detail, was able to create two exact replicas of Gwendolyn and Sebastian. Titus had helped with this. The creative director held out his hand and made a sphere of light appear there and smiled at it. My job is to illuminate, and for now my job is done, he thought to himself.

  Everyone at Vagabond Circus had done their job that day, except for one. He would be the only employee in the big top when Knight entered it. And everyone was ordered to stay out of the big top no matter what. That had been Finley’s one request. “This war will end between father and son,” he had said during the final planning meeting. “I want no one there to be used against me. I want no one hurt in this final battle.”

  Titus had thought that Finley sounded much like his uncle saying those words. Finley had always reminded Titus of Dave in a way, and now he knew why.

  Titus watched as Knight paused momentarily before entering the big top. Now Finley would have to do something that his uncle was never prepared to do. He’d have to risk his life by taking Knight’s. Two men were in the big top and only one would walk out.

  Chapter Seventy

  The big top was dark when Knight entered. He paused in the entrance, but not because his eyes had to adjust. He could see fine in the dark, just like everyone in his family. It was a gift they all shared, like the ability to curse. He paused to take in his surroundings, since he suspected he had just been led into a trick. Still, anyone foolish enough to trick him would only find themselves defeated, he thought.

  Nothing was out of place in the big top. The seats were set up. The performance equipment stowed away in the practice tent, and the curtain pulled as it always was. And Dave? Where is he? Knight had seen him enter the big top, but it was empty now. Knight’s ability to torture through cognition made it so he could feel the minds around him, pick up on their energies. However, he felt no presence in the big top.

  “Gwendolyn? Sebastian?” Knight said, his voice loud and clear.

  Only silence met his ears. He stepped forward, his head held high. The man didn’t care for games. Had never played them as a child. Knight didn’t actually believe in the luxury of playing. It corrupted people’s minds. Made them soft and chipped away at the opportunity for discipline.

  In truth, the big top wasn’t empty. Benjamin had already cleared the space and exited through the practice tent at the back. However, hovering just inside the big top was Finley, but his father couldn’t feel the presence of his mind. The acrobat pressed his eyes closed and said a final prayer before teleporting.

  ***

  Knight was about to turn around and storm out of the big top when an unmistakable figure appeared in the middle of the ring. He could clearly see the features of his son’s face, which were much more proportionate than his own. His nose the right fit for his face. His chin the right degree of roundedness. His eyes not small, like Knight’s, but wide and unmistakably the greenish hazel shade of his mother Cynthia’s. Thankfully, Knight thought, his son took after his mother in appearance; otherwise he would have been more a freak than an acrobat.

  “Finley,” Knight said, not a question in his voice, although it was too dark for most to see in the big top. “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be done with the job I sent you on yet.”

  “I didn’t do it,” Finley said, his chest held tall, his chin high too. He could see his father without issue, as well. Knight’s snow white skin seemed to glow in the darkened big top. His long face and its features told Finley what he already knew. Knight was pissed. Pissed that he’d been led to the big top. Pissed that Gwendolyn and Sebastian appeared to be acting insubordinately. And pissed that he, Finley, had not done the job he was assigned.

  “You what?” Knight said, his voice rising.

  “I. Didn’t. Do. It.” Finley said each word deliberately. “I haven’t done any of the jobs you’ve assigned to me recently.”

  Knight marched forward until he was only a few feet from Finley. “Why?” He hissed out the word.

  “Because hurting people is wrong,” Finley said and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

  “That’s not for you to decide, SON!” Knight said, yelling the last word.

  “How I live my life is my decision.”

  “That has never been the way things are. You are mine. You were mine when I adopted you. And you are mine now that I know you’re my son. You don’t have the liberty of making your own decisions unless you want others to suffer,” Knight said, racing through parts of some sentences and deliberately slowing on others.

  “You aren’t going to hurt anyone anymore, Father,” Finley said, and the last word had a bite to it.

  “You don’t get it, do you, Finley? You think that people shouldn’t be hurt? You’ve always had that wrong notion. I watched you flinch when the kids in your set growing up were hit with headaches. You didn’t understand then, and you don’t comprehend it now, that I was disciplining them.”

  “You were killing them. That’s what happened to the kids in my set. All of them,” Finley said, allowing his emotions to spill out of him as he flung his arms out wide.

  “The weak die from discipline. That’s the natural order of things, Finley. That’s why you survived. You are my son. You are strong. But you are also flawed in your ability to see things clearly.”

  “It is not for you to decide who gets punished. You aren’t God. You don’t control the natural order of things. That’s not your job,” Finley said.

  “So you didn’t punish the kids who disgraced the side of my big top? Or punish any of the other kids I’ve assigned you to go after? Don’t you get that you’re allowing chaos when I’m trying to stop it?” Knight said.

  “There was never chaos or theft or violence by our patrons before you were the ringmaster. When Dave led this circus, he inspired good behavior by being good.”

  “Don’t you dare speak to me about my BROTHER!” Knight said and he raised his hand as if to strike Finley. However, Finley teleported back several feet just as Knight’s long arm swung through the air. He was quick, like Finley, and the movement barely missed his son.

  “You always had no issue striking me,” Finley said through gritted teeth. Too often he’d felt Knight’s oversized hand and heard the speech about how he was making him stronger.

  “What are you doing, Finley? Are you acting out? Are you having doubts about your role in this family?”

  “This is not a family. And what I’m doing is putting a stop to you and your demonic rule. It’s gone on too long, Father.”

  Knight laughed, one so loud that Finley could have sworn it made the support beams of the big top vibrate. “You are naïve. You are as diluted as the people you try and protect. Gwendolyn! Sebastian!” Knight yelled his kids’ names loud enough that Finley was sure the circus members who were no doubt stationed outside the tent could hear it. Actually he was fairly certain his father’s yells could be heard at the edge of the circus. “Gwendolyn! Sebastian!” Knight called again a few seconds later.

  “They won’t be coming,” Finley said plainly.

  “What did you do with them? Where are they?” And there was a
hint of worry in Knight’s eyes. He was strong, but without the ability to stop others’ powers or kill them with touch he was at a significant disadvantage.

  “They won’t ever be coming to help you. Father, you’re on your own.”

  “What did you do with my KIDS?”

  “They were punished for helping you,” Finley said. “I didn’t like it, but that’s what had to happen.”

  “Why?” Knight’s voice actually vibrated with something akin to pain. “You killed them? Why would you do that?”

  “Because you can’t be stopped as long as they are around. And they blindly follow you, no matter what you ask. There’s no reasoning with them. They are exactly what you intended them to be. Soldiers. And the worst kind. Unquestioning ones.”

  “Finley, you will pay for this,” Knight said. And if Finley had Zuma’s combat skill then he would have seen his father lunging for him before he did. But his father’s long frame and fast actions made it so he didn’t move before Knight wrapped his hand around Finley’s shirt, and launched him into the air so Finley’s feet flew off the ground. “How dare you try and stop me,” Knight said, spit flew and hit his son in the face.

  Finley wrapped his hand around the arm holding him up off the ground. His father’s skin was cold and tight. He took a steadying breath, knowing Knight was about to throw him through the air. He couldn’t give him a headache, but he could beat him until he couldn’t breathe and had done it on many occasions. Finley let out the breath and then disappeared.

  Knight dropped his hand to his side, looking around the big top for his son who had teleported away. “Oh where, oh where are you going this time?” Knight said, in a demonic sing-song voice.

  On the far side of the ring, next to the curtain, Finley appeared.

  “Why are you doing this?” Knight turned and faced his son straight on.

  “Because I’m tired of watching you abuse. I’m tired of being your pawn. I would rather die than allow you one more day to spread cruelty.”