by Leanne Leeds
As I turned the corner out of Yurt Row, I caught the smarmy centaur Dergal sandwiched between two screaming women twenty feet in front of me. On his right, Stephanie Clodion poked her finger into his chiseled chest as she released her fury upon him. On his left, Alessandra Atwater wept tears of anger.
I had to give the guy credit. I wouldn’t want to stand between a furious naiad and an angry satyress.
“You promised me that you would be faithful! You swore it would never happen again!” Alessandra wailed as her fist thumped against Dergal’s thick, muscled arm. “Yet here you still stand, and you humiliate me with the goat-woman as your latest indignity flung in my direction!”
“And you are no satyr, Dergal! I do not allow those that I pair with to enjoy the fun that we satyrs are entitled to. I will not share one of my groupings with some weepy, jealous naiad!”
“Ladies, ladies, come on now,” Dergal purred as he stood strong and unmoved by their blows or their anger. “I love you both in my own way. There’s no need for all this drama.”
“Drama,” Alessandra spat contemptuously as she whacked him again and fury flashed across Dergal’s face. As her arm blazed toward his shoulder, I spotted a nasty bruise on her forearm. “You should not be breathing the air of this Midway to participate in any kind of drama, you disloyal, disreputable, manipulative lout. You think too much of yourself!”
I stepped back behind the carousel and watched the scene play out. Other paranormals simply walked by, ignoring the threesome screaming next to the weredeer pen. A few eyes peeked quickly at the love triangle, shook their heads, and walked faster to get away from the group.
I wasn’t sure what to do.
Was I in charge of coming between these people and managing their embarrassing fallouts? Did I just let personal issues like this work themselves out? I didn’t know.
I reached out to each participant to read them. Stephanie was angry, but not so mad that I would call it rage or think her out of control. Dergal was smug and amused at the two women’s emotional state. Alessandra was… frightened. And very sad.
“I wish that poison had killed you! You are a liar!” Alessandra Atwater screamed as she turned on her heel and stomped back toward the Charybdis Boat Ride.
“Put yourself out to pasture, horse-man,” Stephanie told him as she, too, turned on her heel away from him and headed toward the Milk Bottle game. “You are not smart enough to win the games you’re playing!” she called over her shoulder.
“Wow,” I said out loud to myself.
“Wow, indeed,” an unfamiliar voice answered. I whipped my head around and spotted one of the newer members of the Midway, Fortuna Delphi.
The petite woman was the picture of a fortune teller with ruby red lips, dark hair, and flowing layers of peasant clothing. Fluttering silk scarves dripped from her hair and limbs, and bells tinkled in the wind.
“When I came out of my tent I saw you and thought I would come over to say hello. That was quite a scene, was it not?”
“I hope that doesn’t happen when the humans are here,” I told Fortuna. I stuck out my hand and introduced myself formally.
“Never present your hand to a fortune teller unless you wish it to be read,” Fortuna laughed as she waved it away and curtsied in response. “It is nice to meet you, Ms. Astley. I wasn’t here long enough to know your uncle well, but he gave me a place when I feared I would find none. I was very grateful for that.”
“You came from the Langdon Circus, didn’t you?”
“I did,” she nodded, and her expression grew wistful and sad. “It was my home for fourteen years. Ever since my visit as a teenager to the Langdon Circus woke up my latent ability.”
Fortuna motioned for me to follow her into her tent, and I did so. Once inside, my nose filled with the scent of blue roses while my eyes adjusted to the gentle smoky dimness of the woman’s reading room. “Tea?”
My mouth felt drier at the suggestion though I politely declined. Refusing food and drink from everyone that I met or reconnected with at Magical Midway would be a real pain in the keister. Plus the fact that it felt rude. “Someone told me you were actually human. I didn’t think there were any humans in paranormal towns or fairs.”
“Somewhere in my ancestry, there is no doubt a witch or elf or some creature with the gift of intuition and foresight. As it was explained to me, stepping into the barrier of a paranormal fair can awaken that latent ability in some humans. Even when it’s been dormant for generations.”
I didn’t know that. The stuff that I didn’t know seemed to pile up into a tower of information. In all these generations, no one wrote all this down? Really?
“Since humans cannot enter the paranormal towns,” Fortuna continued. “Someone with the ability would have to come to a fair for it to happen, so it happening at all is exceedingly rare. Further, they would have to recognize what’s happening before they leave again and it returns to dormancy.”
“So you’re kind of a unicorn.”
“No, I cannot shapeshift,” Fortuna responded.
“No, I mean… ah, never mind. So if you leave the fair, you lose the ability?”
“Yes,” Fortuna nodded as she motioned toward a chair. “When off these grounds, I am a regular human with no more or less insight than a regular human would have. You see now why I was very grateful to your uncle for allowing me a place here.”
“That’s… that’s both beautiful and tragic.”
“I agree,” Fortuna smiled as she pushed a wayward curl from her eyes. “Your choice to permit me a place here allows me to keep being the seer that I believe I was meant to be. I thought it important you knew that in case you were unaware.”
“If Uncle Phil brought you on, I can’t see any reason why I would change anything. Honestly, I don’t know enough to change anything yet, really.”
“But you could. I would prefer not to find myself one day sitting in a field alone as my world disappears without me.”
I tilted my head and raised my eyebrow, confused.
“The ringmaster must agree that someone can stay. You must decide the petitioner can be a part of the community, and once you decide in favor of us, we are tied to it. While other paranormals can enter the grounds, they will remain on the physical land when you move the Magical Midway to its next location unless you accept them as residents. Only then does the magic of the Midway include them, too.”
“Wow, that’s harsh. But good to know. Sometimes I feel like everyone knows more about this whole thing than I do,” I told Fortuna with some self-pitying frustration.
“We each know the parts well that are relevant to us,” she told me, and then sipped her tea daintily. “Not all parts are relevant, and not all parts are known. The two midways that remain are the two last truly mysterious magics left in the world. Their secrets have yet to be fully understood,” Fortuna said, and then paused dramatically. “Perhaps they are not meant to be.”
I left Fortuna’s tent feeling like I might have made another friend. In all my years visiting, I had made some aquaintences at the Magical Midway. Fiona was the only paranormal I would call a true friend.
With only a week’s time, I just never put myself out there. Admittedly, there were other reasons, too.
Some, like the Larry brothers, were hard to picture as real friends. Every brother other than Bob appeared unable to speak more than one word in a sentence most of the time. Even had I met them previously, I couldn’t see myself hanging out for the evening with Kat and Ari Riddle. Hours of the sphinxes rhyming in casual conversation would likely give me a migraine headache.
Fortuna Delphi, however, seemed like someone I could hang with.
Before I left her tent, she suggested that I check on Alessandra Atwater, the sad naiad from the earlier love triangle confrontation.
Alessandra had been getting readings and counseling from Fortuna for several weeks. Like a priest holding a penitent’s confession sacrosanct, the fortune teller refused to share with me
the reason for her suggestion but was insistent that she be my next stop.
I walked past the mentalist’s tent. Stepping behind the Haunted House, I came upon the naiad’s beautiful boat ride. The log flume twisted, raised, fell, and doubled over on itself in the relatively small space. The human riders got much more than their money’s worth, as well as a unique experience that could not have been duplicated in a non-magical amusement park.
“Ringmaster!” Anya, one of the naiad sisters, called as she stepped out from behind a waterfall. “Congratulations on your elevation! It’s about damn time we got a woman running this show.”
The naiad’s red hair was cropped short and spiky. Feminist slogan patches covered her blue jean jacket. Military-colored cargo pants and black steel-toed tactical boots completed the ensemble. Anya looked like she was prepared for a women’s march to break out at any moment.
“Thank you, though I wish that happened in a much different way,” I told her firmly shaking her extended hand. Ow. As she mercifully released me, I flexed my fingers to make sure none of the bones were broken. “I was actually stopping by to check on Alessandra. I saw an argument between her, Dergal, and Stephanie.”
“Mud puddles! Those sisters of mine, still so stuck in the whole bring a man under your spell, make him love you, decide whether or not to drown him in the lake thing.”
“You drown men in lakes?”
“Well, not recently.”
“Oh. Well, that’s a good thing. I think.”
“I suppose that depends on the man and whether he needs drowning,” Anya laughed. “No worries, ringmaster, one of the things we oathed to when we joined the Magical Midway is that we would cause no harm. That includes drowning people even if they need killing.”
“Is there some magical limitation on you? Like, if you kill someone, you’ll suddenly find yourself outside the boundary unable to get back in?”
“Nope. But how likely is it that you won’t figure out it’s one of us if some Lothario is suddenly floating face down in our log flume?”
I shrugged. “Good point.”
“And that’s why we don’t drown them,” Anya said as she held her hands wide.
“So what do you do?”
Anya turned away and motioned for me to follow her through the waterfall. “My sister Alessandra is here in the operations room for the boat ride. I’ll take you to her if you follow me.”
Well, that was question avoidance if I ever saw one. It wasn’t even a deft avoidance. I didn’t have much of a paranormal education, but I studied mythology in high school. If some of the myths that surrounded these nymphs were correct, I had to wonder why any man would date the Atwaters.
Anya disappeared right through the cascading waterfall of water.
Stretching my hand forward I placed my fingertips under the water nervously and was shocked to find I felt no wetness. What the heck is this? I thrust my hand through and felt energy tingle.
As I passed under the streams, I felt cleansed in a way I rarely had before. My tense muscles were relaxed, my hair fluffy, and my numerous concerns felt lighter. As I emerged out the other side of the enclosed operations area, I gasped.
“Damn cool, isn’t it?” Anya laughed. “I love seeing people’s faces after they go under it for the first time.”
“What is it? It’s amazing.”
“We don’t have magic the way you witches have magic, but we can make water do almost anything that we want it to. We can have it curse or cleanse or make folks happy or make them sad. That particular waterfall is like a three-second spa day,” Anya explained. “It gives you the results of a spa day without having to waste ten hours sitting in the steam room, getting a massage, getting a facial, and having your chakras and energy aligned.”
“Well, I definitely feel aligned,” I told her.
“The effects only last for a couple of hours, unfortunately,” Alessandra said in a hoarse whisper from the corner of a small alcove off of the larger room. “Lately, I feel I should just put my chair under there and stay. Good afternoon, ringmaster.”
“Could everyone please just call me Charlotte? This whole ringmaster title thing just makes me feel weird.”
“Of course, Ringmaster Charlotte,” Anya said.
“No, just Charlotte. No ringmaster. I’m just Charlotte.”
“You are definitely not just anything. Only two women before you have been ringmasters of the Magical Midway even though the founding Astley was a woman! You should be proud to wield the title. I bet the centaurs are having bloody apoplexy at the thought!” Anya laughed uproariously as Alessandra’s chin dropped to her chest with closed eyes.
“Are you okay, Alessandra? I don’t mean to pry, but I saw the brouhaha with Dergal and Stephanie on the Midway. I wanted to come check on you, make sure you are okay.”
“Thank you for your concern, Charlotte,” the delicate blond nymph whispered. “I do not know why I let myself feel such pain over his treatment of me. I should have learned by now that he is not to be trusted. Yet, I keep going back.”
“I told you he was bad news,” Anya told her. The tough looking woman went over to her sister and leaned down beside her. “You deserve better than that horrible centaur.” Alessandra nodded and pulled her long sleeves down over her wrists clutching them in her fists like a child.
“I also wanted to ask you about that bruise on your arm. It looked kind of nasty.” Alessandra paled at my question as Anya stared back at me with confusion. The quiet woman clutched the sleeves in her hands tighter, crossing her arms.
“Show me,” Anya said sharply as she turned back toward her sister and reached out toward Alessandra’s wrist. Alessandra shook her head no vigorously pulling away from her sister and pressing her body against the wall. “I mean it, Alessandra. Show me your arms.”
Tears poured down the naiad’s face as she slumped in response to her sister’s demands. Alessandra unclenched her fists and opened her palms. Anya pulled up the two sleeves of the sweater and gasped as she saw the black and purple bruises up and down her sister’s arms. As I stepped closer, I could see the outline of thick fingers.
“I don’t even have to ask who did this to you. Oh, sister, why did you hide this? How could you go back to that horrible excuse of a man?” The tough as nails Anya teared up as she caressed the hair of her wounded sister. “You will stay away from him from now on, do you hear me?”
“I will,” Alessandra said. “I had made him angry. He found me at the weredeer party without him, and he had told me not to go. I know how jealous he can be, so I should’ve known better. It wasn’t entirely his fault.”
“The hell it wasn’t,” I told the two nymphs angrily. They startled and glanced up at me as if they had forgotten I was there. “Dergal did this, I assume?”
“Yes, but he didn’t realize how tightly he was squeezing me. The magician, the new one from the Langdon Circus, came out as we were passing by the front of his tent. I suppose he overheard us and he interceded.”
“What happened then?” I asked Alessandra.
“He made Dergal let go and then walked me back to the waterfall. Men cannot pass beyond its waters, so Mark made sure I got safely beyond its mists. I don’t know where he went after that.”
I glanced back toward the waterfall, but I could see nothing outside.
I didn’t know much about Mark Botsworth, but I knew he was a human that had telekinetic abilities that must have awakened like Fortuna Delphi’s when he came to the Langdon Circus. He performed mentalist feats for the humans, but he had no other power I was aware of.
Interceding against an aggressive centaur to protect Alessandra was an impressively brave act. Centaurs were notoriously strong—as Alessandra’s arms could, unfortunately, attest to.
“I want you to stay away from Dergal,” I told her, surprised at my own vehemence. “No one should put hands on anyone else at the Magical Midway, and no one should have reason to be afraid of anyone else.”
“You’l
l let me drown him?” Anya asked me hopefully.
“I have to admit the thought has crossed my mind since I saw her arms,” I told her. “But no, I don’t think drowning him is the way we need to go here. As satisfying as that might be for everyone in this room.”
“I told you, ringmaster, some people need killing,” Anya pointed out.
“Who has a right to decide that?”
“Well. You. You are the ringmaster,” Anya told me as if my powers of life and death over all the residents of the Magical Midway were obvious. “We all agreed to be subject to your judgment.”
“In the human world, battering your partner would get you jail time. There will definitely be some sort of consequences for Dergal. First, though, I need to fully understand everything he’s done.” Anya nodded as Alessandra covered her face with her hands.
“I will make sure until then that he can’t hurt anybody else,” I promised them both. “At least, I will as soon as someone tells me how I do that.”
“Ask the cat,” Anya said.
“Right. The cat.”
I suggested that Anya and Alessandro stay within the protection of the waterfall until I gave them the all clear, and left the boat ride to go patch up the relationship with my familiar.
8
“Samson, are you in here?” I called as I entered Uncle Phil’s yurt.
Silence greeted me. Oppressive, angry, judgmental silence.
My eyes scanned the interior looking for the origin of the negative emotions I could feel hitting me in waves. Closer to the sleeping area, I spotted the red-black glow of anger still curled up on the coverlet. The cat’s sensitive funnel ears moved as I did, indicating awareness of my presence despite Samson’s total lack of acknowledgment.
“Are you ignoring me now?”
Silence. Ears flicked.
“Look,” I said as I climbed up to the middle of the king-sized bed and sat cross-legged before him. “I will fully admit that I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m trying, but this is completely different from anything I experienced in the human world. There are rules and differences and unwritten requirements that I don’t know yet. If I violated one and it hurt your feelings, I am truly sorry.”