Vagabond Circus Series

by Sarah Noffke

  Chapter Twelve

  It had been silent since Nabhi and his brother, Haady, had lain down for bed. Not even the usual sounds of the crew members working late in the big top echoed from the tent, which sat close to the triplets’ trailer. Nabhi lay on his back on the sofa staring at the ceiling. Haady lay beside him on the trundle bed. Padmal had closed the door to her room an hour before her brothers decided to finally retire. They had spent the whole night discussing the new owner, Charles Knight. The brothers had postulated on what was in the trucks. Equipment? Furniture? Supplies? Four long semis had to contain a whole lot of something. Haady had visibly shivered when he talked about the new owner, Dave’s strange brother.

  “There’s just something not right about the whole thing. I don’t trust that man,” Haady said.

  “Well, I do,” Padmal said as she marched out of her room. She’d been listening to the conversation from her room. She took the last bottle of water from the refrigerator, not caring to ask her brothers if they minded. She unscrewed the top and turned her dark brown eyes on the pair sitting on the sofa. “I think he’ll be good for the circus,” she said and then downed half the water. “You notice that effect he had on Titus? The man looked afraid of him. What a coward. We need a real man running this show for once.”

  Nabhi narrowed his eyes at his sister, but Haady simply said, “Does that mean you’re staying? You aren’t still planning to leave Vagabond Circus?”

  This had been Padmal’s threat for years now. It was what she held over her brothers’ heads if they didn’t comply with all of her demands. She didn’t care if her leaving ruined their juggling act. Padmal hardly cared about anything. “I guess I’m staying for now. I’m curious to see how things change at the stupid circus. And what’s the point in leaving now that I know my mom is dead.”

  “Our mom,” Nabhi reminded his sister.

  “Whatever,” she had said before walking back to her room and disappearing for the night.

  That conversation still made Nabhi burn with anger. He knew he should love his sister the way Haady did, with such unending patience, but he wanted to strangle her at times. The idea actually made him smile and for that he felt simply awful. Nabhi turned his head and checked on his brother. Haady had drifted off on some dream travel adventure an hour ago. He was probably in Glasgow or Mexico City. Those were his two favorite cities. Nabhi had declined to join him. He needed to think on his own. The younger brother needed to calm his thoughts and then dream travel to Portland, Maine. That was his favorite place. He had just closed his eyes to focus his thoughts when a series of cries and screams interrupted the silence. He shot into a sitting position. Listened. The sounds were muffled but they were in fact a cry of sorts. Nabhi just knew it. Several voices made a stifled chorus of noise. He pushed back the curtain to the window next to the sofa. The night was black but Nabhi could plainly see what stood just beside his trailer. One of the black semis.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The big top began to fill with Vagabond Circus members ten minutes before the meeting time Knight had announced. Performers and crew members were anxious to learn more. Some like Haady and Nabhi were automatically suspicious of the new owner of the circus. Some like Bill, the circus chef, were withholding judgment until they had more information. And then there was Ian, who knew the truth. He had already started to spread the rumors that staying at Vagabond Circus was the best option for everyone’s future. No one doubted these instructions, once told to them from the “never wrong” Ian. Now he sat on the back row watching various people as they entered the big top.

  Padmal entered smiling beside an extremely unhappy Oliver. She went to reach for his hand, to pull him toward a certain row of seats, but he pulled away, although he still followed. Oliver’s eyes had been on Sunshine, who was giving the couple a cautious stare. The empath wanted to uphold Dave’s rules of no dating out of respect for the deceased ringmaster, but also because she’d finally allowed herself to loathe Padmal and wanted a reason to punish her. However, what only Ian knew was that Padmal’s true punishment would only come once she openly disobeyed the rules. And Sunshine too would soon break Dave’s rules, but not with Oliver. They were only friends.

  Ian pressed his head into his large hands. The visions never stopped. Actually they had started to play on top of each other. Futures of everyone he knew constantly looping in his cramped head. If he had been looking up he would have seen Zuma enter the tent a few seconds later. But he already knew what was about to happen to her, and the vision had broken his heart the first time he’d seen it. She rushed into the tent seeming to be looking for someone and then also scanning the crowd with a fearful gaze. All eyes shot to Zuma when the girl entered but she didn’t notice.

  “You’re back!” an eager crew member said.

  “Zuma!” another said, waving.

  She smiled politely and waved but had spotted the person she’d been looking for. To most he would have been impossible to find in the back corner of the big top, head down and partially hidden behind Bill’s large figure. But Zuma’s eidetic memory made it easy for her to take a snapshot of something as complicated as a few dozen people and find exactly what she was looking for.

  Zuma marched past the people who all wanted her attention, performers and crew members. She marched past Titus, who had looked relieved to see her and had been scribbling notes on a pad in the front row. Zuma marched straight over to Finley, who stood in the corner, arms crossed. He didn’t lift his head when she paused right in front of him, sliding into the space between him and Bill in the back row.

  “What the hell is going on? What was that about last night?” she demanded in a harsh whisper.

  “What do you mean?” he said, his voice cold, eyes on the ground.

  “Finley, I was nearly killed last night,” she said in a hush. “By Sebastian. He made threats.”

  Finley looked up then and his eyes were different. “And why do you think he came after you, Zuma?” he asked, his tone insinuating.

  She put her hand on his chest and encouraged him back a few feet farther from the crowd. “Because he’s a freaking psychopath,” she said up close to him, careful to keep her voice low.

  “No, because you came to my trailer. Stay away from me, Zuma. Better yet, leave Vagabond Circus.” Finley knew Zuma would be a target if associated with him, not just by Knight but also by Sebastian. He and the boy had a past. One where Sebastian went to great lengths to sabotage him. Finley had been the first kid named and Knight’s best thief. Sebastian loved two things in life: power and Knight’s recognition. He would take down anything Finley loved just as he had so many times in the past. The kids Finley had cared for. The ones he dared to almost love. They’d all died by Sebastian’s hand without explanation.

  “No, Finley. This is ridiculous.” She gripped his shirt and stared deep into his eyes, all her anger and hurt showing. Some people in the crowd turned to stare, but most couldn’t see past Bill, who couldn’t care less what the acrobats were doing in the back of the tent. “You could have protected me last night and instead you left me to fend for myself. I could have been killed.”

  Finley wrapped his hand around Zuma’s wrist. “You weren’t because you followed my directions. And you’ll stay alive if you keep listening to me. Stay away from me for good, Zuma.” He then ripped her hand off his shirt and threw it to the side with a new ferocity he’d never used when touching her. Finley moved around her, knocking her shoulder hard as he stalked to the other side of the tent. Away from the heartbroken girl.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Finley!?” Zuma heard Jasmine’s voice. “What the hell? Where you been? Where’s Zuma?”

  There wasn’t an answer from Finley. And then Zuma heard her friend say, “What, you’re not even going to say hi to me? Where you going?”

  Zuma then moved back to the front of the crowd. Her eyes couldn’t focus and inside her chest her heart thumped with long painful beats. Her throat had tightened with t
ears and she wanted to tear across the grounds and assault Knight. He’d taken so much from her. Dave, Vagabond Circus, Jack’s ability to walk, and now Finley. How could she feel so much pain and anger at once? It felt impossible that so much emotion could live in her at the same time. Still, Zuma approached the front of the crowd feeling like a smaller version of herself. When she materialized at the front, Jasmine shrieked and ran for the girl. She had been staring with bewilderment at the exit where Finley had just passed through, ignoring her as he went. Jasmine sprinted across the space and threw her arms around Zuma, knocking her back a few feet. Often Jasmine forgot that her super strength could bulldoze people if she wasn’t careful.

  “Oh my god!” she said, pressing Zuma so firmly into her it hurt.

  And then the tears Zuma had been holding in, the ones created by Finley’s rejection of her, slipped to the surface and down her cheeks. When Jasmine released Zuma, tears were also glistening on her brown face. “Where have you all been? I’ve been so worried,” she said, pushing the tears back from her bright green eyes.

  Realizing they’d attracted quite a bit of attention, Zuma pulled her friend back to where she and Finley had been, a place where they could see the ring and the crowd but couldn’t be seen themselves.

  “We’ve got to talk,” Zuma said.

  “You’re telling me,” Jasmine said, her hands pressed tightly into Zuma’s like she was afraid her friend would disappear if she let go of her.

  “But not right now,” Zuma said as a line of kids began filing into the big top.

  Chapter Fifteen

  A line of kids filed silently in to the big top in two separate rows. They were all dressed in black T-shirts and black pants. To Zuma they looked to be between the ages of eight and fifteen. Nothing was distinguishable about them. They were like soldiers, all with the same determined expression on their pale faces. They did vary in skin and hair color, but they all had the same lean build, similar to Finley, although he was definitely older than any of Knight’s Kids. Eighteen or nineteen she’d always guessed, although he didn’t know for sure.

  Zuma noticed Finley had slid back into the tent on the other side next to the entrance to the practice tent. His eyes were undoubtedly on her, burning with that intensity he always reserved for Zuma. But now the expression had that hostility he used to regard her with before they built bridges, the one he stared at her with when he first came to the circus. And she instinctively knew that now, and also then, the anger wasn’t at her but at himself and his regretful predicament.

  Zuma didn’t hide her gaze on him or her own regret. But then the two lines of kids split and she was forced to watch the strange formation they made. One line went to the right, one to the left, circling the perimeter of the ring. They each moved like Finley, with such precision. All eyes were on them, no circus member commenting on the strangeness of this all. They stopped when the first kid in each line met the other on the other side of the forty-eight-foot-diameter ring. They lined it creating a half circle. Roughly forty kids. Zuma looked back at Finley to see his eyes still on her. She pressed her mouth together, wishing just this once he’d open a telepathic link for her. She needed to know what was going on. What to expect. How to protect her people. What the abilities of these kids were and who was most dangerous. And then two figures entered side by side and Zuma reflexively straightened.

  Jasmine caught the sudden intake of air Zuma sucked in and she looked at her friend. “What?” she said.

  Zuma only shook her head. Sebastian looked as she remembered, long scraggly black hair and cold green eyes. He was short for his age of fifteen at just under five feet. This was why Fanny believed the boy was twelve and didn’t have his Dream Traveler gift yet. She was wrong and Dave was dead because of Sebastian.

  A girl a few inches taller marched beside him. The look on her freckled face made something feel like it was crawling on the inside of Zuma’s skin. Power-Stopper had straight, chin-length red hair and the same cold green eyes as Sebastian. In truth, the two were siblings, born from the same Dream Traveler’s sperm and surrogate’s eggs, but they were a year apart.

  The siblings stopped in the center of the ring, leaving three feet between them. They halted in unison and pivoted to face the crowd. And then Zuma felt the blast of wind that surged through the big top when the impossibly tall man she’d met the night before stormed down the center aisle and took the spot in the middle of the ring. She had realized he was impossibly tall when she first saw him, but now towering over the kids beside him he seemed like a giant. Knight turned and faced the crowd, his small dark eyes not bothering to hide their cruelty. He spread his arms wide. They were like the wings of a giant hawk. It reminded her of the welcoming motion Dave made when he entered the big top at the beginning of each show, but there was nothing welcoming in Knight’s gesture. “I am Charles Knight and I’m the new owner of Vagabond Circus.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Knight swung his gaze over the crowd in front of him. Zuma’s eyes moved to Titus on the other side of Jasmine. He didn’t look tense like she expected, but rather pissed. Then Zuma noticed every one of the Vagabond Circus members were present with the exception of Jack, Fanny, and her kids.

  “You all knew my brother,” Knight began, his voice deep, matter of fact. “You knew him as your ringmaster. You probably judged him as a good man. He did run a successful circus, I’ll give him that. I bet he rescued many of you, am I right?”

  There was a murmur of yeses from the crowd.

  Knight nodded. “Oh, my dear brother. So kind.” Again he held his arms out wide, indicating the kids half circling him at his back. “These are my kids, and I have rescued them.”

  Zuma clenched her teeth together. Her combat sense told her Knight was lying, but she already knew that and didn’t need to read the micro-expressions on his long face. “I have rescued many an orphan and now I run a school of sorts. I have done as my brother had and have taken in those at a disadvantage and given back to them. Isn’t that right, kids?”

  “Yes, Master,” the kids said in unison.

  “And are you happy under my guidance?” Knight asked the kids behind him, his gaze forward.

  “Yes, Master,” they answered.

  “And I,” Knight said to the Vagabond Circus crowd, “I have rescued more than my brother, taken more risks to save and care for more. My brother tried but was always limited.”

  Zuma couldn’t believe that the people of Vagabond Circus would stand for this manipulative talk but when she scanned the crowd she saw no disgruntled faces, so slight were the remarks Knight was making.

  “Now my kids are fragile based on the circumstances I’ve rescued them from,” Knight continued. “Furthermore, they have strict regimens. And therefore none of you”—he pointed to the crowd and brought his finger across them—“will under any circumstances speak or interact with them. I do not allow unknown influences around my kids and as far as I’m concerned you all are unknown. And I WILL NOT STAND for anyone hurting my kids.” The sudden yell in his voice made several people jump. “Is that clear?” he said in a soft voice.

  The people of Vagabond Circus agreed with startled nods.

  “Now if you want proof of the types of genius talent my school produces then just look at your star performer, Finley,” Knight said, throwing an unexpected hand in Finley’s direction. Finley straightened suddenly, coming to attention. The people of Vagabond Circus all gasped in surprise. Some exchanged whispers.

  “That’s right, once he graduated I arranged with Dave that he work with him. Isn’t that right, Finley?” Knight said, an edge in his voice.

  “Yes, Master,” Finley said at once, not missing a beat, although Zuma spied the lie in him, the resistance.

  “Isn’t that wonderful?” Knight said to the crowd. “Now you see how great my school is for its kids.”

  There were more murmurs from the crowd but now they sounded like impressed exclamations.

  “And Sebastian was
a kid that Dave elected to transfer to my program. My brother had failed to meet the boy’s needs for a higher degree of training due to his brilliant nature, isn’t that right?” Knight said to the boy on his right.

  “Yes, Master,” Sebastian said and his voice ran over Zuma’s skin like a Brillo pad, reminding her of their encounter last night.

  “And to my left, please meet Gwendolyn,” Knight said, indicating the girl Zuma believed to be Power-Stopper. “If you need anything from me I must insist that you never approach me directly but rather one of my three graduates, Finley, Sebastian, or Gwendolyn.”

  Zuma noticed the resentment flowing through Finley. He was being forced into this situation and what was worse, anything he did would make him look dishonest. He had been manipulated into this position and there was no way out for him.

  “Now we discuss why you all are in such a blessed position to be a part of the circus I now run, Vagabond Circus,” Knight said.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Things have indeed changed,” Knight began, strolling to the front of the ring. “Your old ringmaster has died. You naturally have doubts about your new ringmaster.” He pressed his long-fingered hand to his chest. “And I hope you’ve all deduced that will be me. Owner and ringmaster of Vagabond Circus. These doubts of yours are normal. And I will not force any of you to work for me as Dave once did.”