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Jiang pursed her lips. “Which is why it puzzles me greatly,” she admitted. “The typical solution to losing an act is to merely replace it as if it were always so. Yet the management took great lengths to track you down and return you to our fold.” Her lips were still pursed and her eyes fell to the ground as though the answer lay there. “I cannot stop wondering why that was so.”
I started to answer when I heard footsteps coming behind us. Jiang noticed them at the same time and used one of her feet to pull open the tent entrance flaps behind us. Without hesitation, I moved inside and my long-fingernailed friend took only a couple of moments to follow me. I gently pulled back the flap of the entrance slightly to see our unexpected caller. Even in the dim light, the dapper attire and handsome features of Laurent were unmistakable. But his face looked troubled, as if he were doing something he preferred to avoid.
While I knew it was better to simply walk away from him at the first opportunity, I noticed he was heading in the direction of the ebony caravan. That prompted me to slip out of the tent as I gestured for Jiang to follow me. I could hear her close behind me and we kept a healthy distance between us and the circus ringmaster.
To my surprise, the ebony caravan was in his path, but Laurent suddenly diverted his direction, going toward one of the tents on the way to the caravan. I was puzzled at first until a dim light suddenly shone through the thin material when Laurent approached it.
I was about to move closer when two extremely long fingernails blocked my path. When I looked over my shoulder, Jiang was pointing to the tent behind us, which was mercifully dim and, thus, probably unoccupied. I nodded and followed her and she parted the entry flaps for us to silently disappear inside.
This time, we stood behind opposite flaps and watched the lit tent directly across from us. I could make out voices but they were muffled. One belonged to Laurent, I was fairly sure, but I couldn’t identify the other person’s. All I could make out was the fact that Laurent seemed to be pleading for something. And the second voice remained firmly unmoved. Then Laurent’s tone grew hostile, his voice deepening.
All at once, the light went dark in the tent, and a bloodcurdling scream came from Laurent’s throat. The agony of it made me shudder and I had to take several deep breaths in order to keep my heart from pounding right out of my chest. Laurent was in trouble and my immediate reaction was to go to him—it was such an immediate reaction, I had to hold myself back.
I nodded to Jiang once I felt steady enough to walk again. Using one of her silver claws, she gestured towards the tent once more. It took me a moment, but I nodded and watched it with her. A moment later, someone emerged from the tent. His clothes were far too dark to be Laurent’s, and he appeared much taller than Laurent. Almost everything else about him was too dark to make out any more definitive details. Gasping breaths were audible inside the tent before the figure turned around and looked inside.
“Remember tonight, Laurent. I could have done much worse. Don’t forget that.”
The icy voice chilled me to the bone because I suddenly recognized it. It was none other than... Mr. Grey.
Chapter Eight
After what seemed like an eternity, Mr. Grey eventually walked out of sight.
It seemed even longer until his footsteps were no longer audible. But the moment both sight and sound of him were gone, I swept the flap I was hiding behind aside to check on Laurent. Jiang’s fingernails blocked my path, however, followed by Jiang herself. She glanced over her shoulder at the tent Laurent was in briefly before looking me straight in the eye and shaking her head. I sighed and tried to walk around her, only for her to block me again, this time with her body.
“We know he’s alive,” she whispered. “But no good can come from you being seen by him when you were supposed to be in your tent.”
I frowned at her with the sinking realization that she was right. “Speaking of no good things,” I responded, “there’s something I need to show you.” I pointed past the now-darkened tent. “That way.”
Jiang looked in the direction where I was pointing before straightening her posture. She reminded me of a soldier preparing for a heroic charge against the enemy. As quickly and quietly as possible, I started walking towards the ebony caravan.
Putting her other hand behind my back, Jiang asked, “Is it in The Hall of Oddities?”
“At the back of it,” I replied, keeping a nervous eye on high alert as we slipped away. “What I found there was the main reason I left in the first place.”
Jiang replied with another nod and I had the good sense to follow her example and remain quiet. Every moment we got closer to the tent Laurent was in, I worried he’d come out and see us. That fear persisted even after we walked two tents beyond him. It wasn’t until we were back on the darkened thoroughfare that I finally felt safe enough to start to relax.
Jiang also remained vigilant for a few more paces before she spoke again. “As we travel from place to place,” she said, her voice still low in tone, “I notice the shape and placement ofCirque du Noirchanges as well with only two exceptions.”
Anticipating her next sentence, I said, “The big top and the ebony caravan, right? Both of them are always positioned in the same place no matter where we go.”
“That is why I assumed the caravan was the source of all your unease.” I was surprised at the strong undercurrent of kindness and gentleness in her words. When I first met Jiang, I found her aloof and distant. But after she and Samuel helped me escape, I knew she was so much more.
“Not that I don’t appreciate your company,” I said with genuine gratitude on my face, “but why are you here with me instead of, I don’t know, Lady Liberty or the sisters?”
“Two very good reasons,” Jiang answered. “First, because of Samuel. Although he’s always friendly with the others, he shares a special bond with you. And I trust Samuel in his ability to read the good in people. The other reason I am here with you is that I had to retrieve him after he played his part in your escape.”
I turned away from her and nodded. “Thank you for helping me, by the way.” I waited for her to respond but was greeted with only silence. At first, I wasn’t disturbed by the long lapse of quiet. Jiang’s habitual precision with her words included long pauses sometimes. But when the silence stretched into the realm of the uncomfortable, I looked over my shoulder, and Jiang was no longer there! She’d completely vanished without so much as a rustle of clothing. I froze in my tracks as a chill ran down my spine. To my dismay, my surroundings had undergone a change too and I found I had no idea where I was. As I further studied my surroundings, trying to ascertain my location on the circus grounds, a light mist hovered in the air, beginning to obscure most everything around me. But nothing could have stunned me more than what I found when I looked directly in front of me.
A painted wagon was parked on the left of the path. In front of it stood a person I hadn’t seen since my first day atCirque du Noir.The old woman was dressed in rags that might have been slightly less weathered than her skin. Her eyes took in everything around her as she scanned the periphery, as though sizing it up. Her face was stony and excessively wrinkled and when her attention landed on me, she looked at me indifferently.
In a tone of disinterest, she said, “You have returned.”
“What did you do to Jiang?” I demanded, my anger and fear coloring my tone.
“Nothing,” she replied with a shrug. “You are the one whom I have pulled, child.”
“Pulled? Where are we?” I asked, my voice rising as I looked around myself again. The fog was coming in more thickly now, obscuring everything in its path.
