Read Online Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top by Ekaterina Sedia - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Ekaterina Sedia
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will be done. You will be free of McKenzie. Free of all this . . . all this . . . ” and I gestured around the carriage, unable to find the words to describe the horror she had lived.
She laughed again and I laughed too, with her and for her, happy that I’d fulfilled my promise. Happy that I was truly her knight.
“I knew it,” she said between laughs. “You had me worried for a moment there. Plans indeed! But in the end you came through. I knew it the minute I laid eyes on you. I can always spot a dupe.”
Her words did not register with me at first. I was too caught up in her laughter, in my own puffed pride. I saw only her smile. Heard only the trill of her laugh. It was not until her hands came down hard on the keyboard, a roar erupting from the Calliope’s pipes, that the words finally registered in my mind. By then it was much too late.
The door behind me burst open at her signal, its edge catching me in the small of the back. I toppled forward off the stool, Kally still laughing as I fell beside her. The curtains parted and the grimy roustabout and a companion dived through. They landed on top of me, forcing the air from my lungs. My face crunched into the rough floorboards of the carriage and I felt my nose break, warm wetness spreading down my chin, soaking the carriage floor.
I stayed that way, unable to move, unable to talk, two fat ruffians sitting on my back. Pain raced up my spine and throbbed across my face. Kally sat motionless on her stool above me and I heard a third person moving around near the door.
“You alright, Kally?” I heard McKenzie ask.
“Fine, Boss,” Kally’s sweet voice curdling to poison in my mind. “Just like the rest of them in the end. Turns out he had money after all. Told you I can pick them. You worry too much.”
“Must be five hundred pounds here,” McKenzie said. “That’s a damn good haul, Kally. Better than California by far. You’ve outdone yourself this time, me girl.”
“You taught me well, Boss,” Kally said and they both laughed. The roustabouts on top of me laughed too, squeezing more pain through my body. Finally I must have managed a sound because their attention turned to me.
“May as well dump him somewhere, boys,” McKenzie said.
Dump me ? I was sure then that they meant to kill me. I tried to struggle, thrashing frantically in a vain attempt to unseat my unwelcome passengers. Every movement brought fresh pain searing through my lungs, pounding in my back, hammering in my head.
“Get him out of here,” McKenzie said and something hard came down on the nape of my neck, shooting darkness up into my brain, stopping the pain.
I awoke with my face resting in a bed of moss, cool and moist. My body ached from crown to toe. My dignity hurt more.
I crawled, though with some difficulty, from beneath a bush that grew against a large fig tree. Early morning sunlight stabbed through the green canopy overhead, blinding me until my eyes adjusted. I heard the horn of a steamer in the harbour, close by. I could hear a voice in the distance calling to allow women the Vote. Another voice cried of Daniel and the lion’s den. The Domain, they had dumped me in the Domain.
My wallet was gone, as was my watch. My shirt was stained brown with blood. I covered the stains as best I could by buttoning up my jacket, which was still relatively clean, and headed slowly, painfully, in the direction of Moore Park.
By the time I arrived, McKenzie’s Universal Circus & Museum of the Bizarre had gone. The grounds where they had been were a dry and trampled mess. Only piles of horse and camel dung, ticket stubs and peanut shells, remained to mark their passing.
I found the blueprints, scuffed and torn and covered with dirt, between the wheel ruts where the Calliope had stood. I stared at the plans for a while, opening them up and spreading them across the ground. She could have taken them. She could have hidden them from McKenzie and found a way to use them. A way
She laughed again and I laughed too, with her and for her, happy that I’d fulfilled my promise. Happy that I was truly her knight.
“I knew it,” she said between laughs. “You had me worried for a moment there. Plans indeed! But in the end you came through. I knew it the minute I laid eyes on you. I can always spot a dupe.”
Her words did not register with me at first. I was too caught up in her laughter, in my own puffed pride. I saw only her smile. Heard only the trill of her laugh. It was not until her hands came down hard on the keyboard, a roar erupting from the Calliope’s pipes, that the words finally registered in my mind. By then it was much too late.
The door behind me burst open at her signal, its edge catching me in the small of the back. I toppled forward off the stool, Kally still laughing as I fell beside her. The curtains parted and the grimy roustabout and a companion dived through. They landed on top of me, forcing the air from my lungs. My face crunched into the rough floorboards of the carriage and I felt my nose break, warm wetness spreading down my chin, soaking the carriage floor.
I stayed that way, unable to move, unable to talk, two fat ruffians sitting on my back. Pain raced up my spine and throbbed across my face. Kally sat motionless on her stool above me and I heard a third person moving around near the door.
“You alright, Kally?” I heard McKenzie ask.
“Fine, Boss,” Kally’s sweet voice curdling to poison in my mind. “Just like the rest of them in the end. Turns out he had money after all. Told you I can pick them. You worry too much.”
“Must be five hundred pounds here,” McKenzie said. “That’s a damn good haul, Kally. Better than California by far. You’ve outdone yourself this time, me girl.”
“You taught me well, Boss,” Kally said and they both laughed. The roustabouts on top of me laughed too, squeezing more pain through my body. Finally I must have managed a sound because their attention turned to me.
“May as well dump him somewhere, boys,” McKenzie said.
Dump me ? I was sure then that they meant to kill me. I tried to struggle, thrashing frantically in a vain attempt to unseat my unwelcome passengers. Every movement brought fresh pain searing through my lungs, pounding in my back, hammering in my head.
“Get him out of here,” McKenzie said and something hard came down on the nape of my neck, shooting darkness up into my brain, stopping the pain.
I awoke with my face resting in a bed of moss, cool and moist. My body ached from crown to toe. My dignity hurt more.
I crawled, though with some difficulty, from beneath a bush that grew against a large fig tree. Early morning sunlight stabbed through the green canopy overhead, blinding me until my eyes adjusted. I heard the horn of a steamer in the harbour, close by. I could hear a voice in the distance calling to allow women the Vote. Another voice cried of Daniel and the lion’s den. The Domain, they had dumped me in the Domain.
My wallet was gone, as was my watch. My shirt was stained brown with blood. I covered the stains as best I could by buttoning up my jacket, which was still relatively clean, and headed slowly, painfully, in the direction of Moore Park.
By the time I arrived, McKenzie’s Universal Circus & Museum of the Bizarre had gone. The grounds where they had been were a dry and trampled mess. Only piles of horse and camel dung, ticket stubs and peanut shells, remained to mark their passing.
I found the blueprints, scuffed and torn and covered with dirt, between the wheel ruts where the Calliope had stood. I stared at the plans for a while, opening them up and spreading them across the ground. She could have taken them. She could have hidden them from McKenzie and found a way to use them. A way
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