Page 6 of A Dance With Fire
The camps were unforgiving; made of iron to debilitate magic and prevent them from fighting back. Numbers had already been low, too low to start the wars the emperor and council of kings claimed the Fae were capable of starting, but that didn’t matter to the humans. All that mattered was their fear, irrational as it was.
Shula remembered the smoke emanating from the buildings, the putrid stench of burning flesh. She remembered looking up into the sky to find ash raining down over her skin and wondering if the flakes that stuck to her eyelashes were the remnants of the parents she had once loved.
She’d been a child then and had cried a thousand tears before she’d fled. She had nothing left now. The memories of them were practically a blur in her mind. All she knew now was survival, and tears had no place among the living.
Gray was the color of the sky now, but sometimes even the sunlight filtered through the clouds. She relished in it as much as she could, because she didn’t know when the last time she’d see the sun would be.
She strolled around camp in the early morning, not daring to go outside of circus bounds. Every time they camped, they always did it near a river so everyone in the pilgrimage could have a place to bathe and wash their garments close. Shula walked near the edge of the river, kicking her toes across the surface of the shallow end before treading back over dirt and grass.
It was the perfect time to go over what had happened the night before. She hadn’t gone in to check on Davina because she hadn’t wanted to draw attention to herself. Even if she’d been worried about her wellbeing, her prophetic words had left Shula tossing and turning all night. By the time day broke through the fog, Shula was out of her tent and taking a walk. The fresh air wasn’t fresh enough. She inhaled the iron coated air into her lungs and pushed it out on a heavy breath.
It did no good to worry about the future, even when it came from a seer. The truth was, the future wasn’t set. It had been given to her in shattered bits and pieces that didn’t interconnect in any way. Nothing was certain, especially not her choppy premonition.
That didn’t mean Shula was going to be letting down her guard. If anything, she would have to be even more vigilant and careful than usual, she thought as she walked back up towards the line of tents. The thoughts flew straight from her mind the moment she heard the voices. The shouts. She should’ve hid, but she’d stepped into everyone’s line of vision and it was too late.
Uniforms, armor of steel was what she saw first. It wasallshe saw. Steel. Swords. Blood. Fire. Ash. Years’ worth of memories came flooding back through her mind; the memories of her twelve-year-old self, and she tasted the fear so clearly on the back of her tongue like poison. A whimper threatened to rise, and Shula wasn’t sure if it was in her mind or the sound had really come out of her. She bit her tongue so hard, she tasted blood.
Turmoil raged inside her and she could show none of it. Slowly, she blinked and stepped forward with careful steps. These soldiers weren’t here for her. She knew that because they hadn’t rushed to arrest her yet, even when she knew they’d already seen her. They were watching as she took careful steps towards them.
The emperor’s soldiers weren’t the only people in attendance. Shula’s own people had emerged from their tents to watch the spectacle. Even Piriguini himself was in front of the officers. Among all the oddities, among two headed twins and secret Fae and men with reptilian skin, Piriguini was the oddest yet. At least, Shula thought so, and simply because he was a dwarf. Not an actual dwarf of the Fae race, but a human dwarf with a long beard that touched to his knobby knees.
A silk bathrobe covered his small body, and he looked little more than a child playing dress up with his mother’s clothes. He made a comical sight with the sleeves dragging against the earth and his ruddy face reddened with anger. All humor was lost on Shula as she approached and a soldier stepped forward and asked, “Shula Azzarh?”
The soldier’s face was visible as he wasn’t wearing his helmet like the others. It was settled against his hip, held in his gauntleted grip. Hair cropped short in the typical soldier style, dark searching eyes, and a stance that was prepared to kill. A sharp iron sword was sheathed at his waist and Shula could feel the poisonous pulse of it from a foot away where she stopped to face him.
Her eyes didn’t go to the weapon even while she felt it. It would be just a quick way to announce to her guilt, to let everyone know what she was.
“Yes?” She cocked her head to the side. A strange sense of calmness settled over her. She had prepared for this day for years. Her heart didn’t pound, her hands didn’t shake. She had done nothing wrong because she wasn’t Fae. Not in any way that counted. She was human now and they could prove nothing, could do nothing.
Or so she told herself.
“I am Captain Brannon of the Emperor’s Royal Guard, battalion currently stationed under King Ernest of Tuath’s rule. I am here because you have been suspected of being Fae.”
Her heart didn’t even give out. She just stared at the face of the human whose gaze pulsed with the vicious desire to condemn her.
Before she could reply though, Piriguini was stepping forward and waving his small, boney fist in the soldier’s direction. “And I told you that whoever suspects a thing has sand for brains!”
Shula counted the soldiers. Ten soldiers. They’d overpower her easily enough with the iron.
The captain glared like he would be glad to run Piriguini through with little effort.
“Stand back, dwarf,” he spat. “You’re lucky we aren’t investigating your bloodline for Fae taint.”
Piriguini made a face and held up his silk clad arm. The material of his robe slid down to reveal a skeletal limb and a band of iron around his wrist. “Try again, soldier! I’m as human as they come, but I have a condition, you hear? A condition!”
“In the name of Emperor Robert Laurel and King Ernest, move aside before I move you myself.” The soldier’s voice was a sound of deadly calm like the spark of a fire before the wild blaze.
Shula bent and placed her hand on Piriguini’s shoulder. It would do no good for him to get arrested as a sympathizer for defending her. Piriguini grumbled but waddled to the side and got out of the soldier’s way. With the smaller man gone, the soldier’s eyes flicked back up to her.
“A complaint was made known to us that Piriguini’s Circus was harboring a fugitive from the law, a Fae woman known as the infamous Fire Dancer.”
“A load of crock!”
The soldier replied to Piriguini’s outburst with a calm threat. “The crime for hiding Fae is severe in the form of death. Do well to stay silent, dwarf, before we arrest you.”
Piriguini was a rage-filled man who didn’t know how to keep quiet. “I pay the emperor’s taxes every year! I extensively and thoroughly test my performers before I allow them into my circus. I am frankly appalled—”
“It’s alright, Piriguini,” Shula interrupted. “Of course, I’ll do whatever the soldiers ask of me. It is for the good of Illyk and in the name of Emperor Laurel, after all.” Shula met the soldier’s gaze and saw the briefest flash of surprise there. Whatever it was he thought she was, this wasn’t the reaction he’d been expecting. Perhaps he’d hoped for resistance, denial, a chase. But his sword of iron would not taste Fae blood today. “How shall I assist you?”
