She grins at me. “Maybe one or two scars. They’re pretty badass.”
“No scars,” I counter. “On you or Dandelion. When are you going to debut?”
“Elke and Anouk say I’ll be ready soon. Anouk’s already making my costume. I’m excited, but I keep thinking, what if I fall off?”
“You won’t fall off,” I assure her. “And even if you do, the only thing that matters is getting right up and doing it again.”
We arrive at the next town just after lunchtime. In the early afternoon I’m seeing to Jareth while Daniel, one of the stagehands, decks Snowdrop and Patches out in their performance bridles. I should go and get changed myself, but as I see Ryah atop Dandelion coming toward me, I stay where I am and go on grooming Jareth.
Ryah dismounts a few feet away, flashes me an uncertain smile, and then starts currying Dandelion’s coat. Her swipes of the comb grow slower and slower as she looks wistfully at Daniel leading Snowdrops and Patches away toward the tent.
When she sees me watching her, she plasters a smile on her face, one that doesn’t quite meet her eyes. She puts the curry comb down and draws aside. “Sorry, I’m probably getting in the way.”
I catch her hand in mine and draw her back. Gazing down at her, I try to fathom what’s going on in her head. She seems envious and frustrated, and still unsure of her place here. It hurts my heart to think she’ll feel like this for weeks on end.
I give her hand a squeeze and then let her go. Nodding to Snowdrop and Patches, I ask her, “Can I ask you to do something? Do you think you can get the horses ready before the performances and look after them backstage each night? It would help the stagehands a lot.”
It’s not an interesting job, and maybe she won’t want to, but I’m not finished asking before Ryah’s face breaks into a huge smile.
“Oh, I would love to! I want to learn everything about the circus.” She glances toward the tent. “Do you think if I go and ask Daniel now, he’ll let me help him tonight?”
“Yes, I think he—”
Ryah is off like a shot, hurrying toward the big top. Dandelion and I watch her go, and then turn to look at each other. Accustomed to having all her mistress’s attention, Dandelion twists her ears back and forth, as if to say, Well, what about me?
I chuckle to myself, pat her and Jareth, and head back to my wagon to get ready for the show. “Don’t worry, Dandelion, she won’t forget about you.”
When I arrive at the tent just before dusk in my ringmaster clothes and my hair neatly tied up, all the performers are backstage. Elke and Anouk are standing with their horses and Daniel is showing Ryah around. Her face is shining as she listens to him explain about the schedule and how the curtains into the arena work.
A few minutes later, the show begins. I wait silently as Pamela performs her midair acrobatic dance, and then head out to welcome the audience to the circus.
During the break, Ryah grabs hold of my lapels and cries out, “You’ve got your knives again!”
I look down at myself, startled, and then realize that Ryah doesn’t know how my opening act works, how I disappear in the space of a second as the knives plummet toward me.
“Yes, after the lights go out—”
She presses a finger to my lips. “No, no, don’t tell me. I’ve been trying to figure it out. I knew you had them again by the second act, but I thought you fetched them during the break or something, even though I never see you go out there and ferret through the hay for them. But then I realized they can’t be out there the whole time otherwise one of the tumblers would stab himself with them, wouldn’t he?”
I fold my arms and smile down at her.
She screws her face up, thinking. “I don’t think you had them when Elke and Anouk were performing,” she says slowly, “because I remember your holsters were empty when you introduced the clowns.”
“Correct.” I say.
“So maybe one of the tumblers pick them up for you…? But I would have seen it happen, wouldn’t I?”
“Not if the tumbler is being held upside down with their enormous frock coat upended over their arms and head.”
There’s a section of that act in which an overdressed tumbler called Poul is upended by two of his co-performers, and much is made of the fact that he’s wearing bloomers printed with red hearts. He’s got fifteen seconds to collect six knives from the hay and slip them inside his costume.
“Ohhh,” Ryah breathes in realization. “I should have thought of that. Okay, but that doesn’t explain why I never saw the knives laying on the hay before that.”
“I’ll give you a hint. Underneath the hay.”
She shakes her head. “But the lights aren’t out long enough for you to dodge away from your knives and cover them up with hay and get off the stage. I’ve watched it several times now and I know that for certain.”
“So how do they get covered up?”