“Anything’s possible if you want it badly enough. Question is, how badly do you want to have a place here? Your choice, princess.”
“It’ll take me months.”
“We’ll be in Barsava in less than two weeks. You’ll have a show ready by then, or you’ll be sent home. You’ll help Evie with her chores during the day, then she’ll help you with your routine when we stop at night. Take it or leave it. It’s the only offer I’m going to make.” He turned on his heel and strode into his wagon, shutting his door behind him with a conclusive bang.
Karolina’s eyes locked on mine, and I recognized the expression on her face: desperation mixed with fear and hopelessness. She may have won the battle, but perhaps she’d lost her war. I raised one finger. “Give me a second with him.”
After jumping down from the rear of the costumes wagon, I jogged to Falak’s cart. Although I knocked first, I gave him no time to answer before pushing my way into his quarters. He paused in the middle of tucking in his shirt and glared at me. “Oh, great, more arguing. And I haven’t even had tea yet.”
“No arguing. You seem like a reasonable fellow.”
He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Then how did I let an impotent goddess and a runaway princess talk me into giving them jobs? That’s not reasonable. It’s possibly insane.”
I leaned against his doorframe and crossed one foot over the other. “You’re kind and generous, Falak, and that’s rare. But I think your offer to let Karolina stay was capricious.”
He sagged a little and rubbed his shoulder—the one connected to his mechanical arm. Undoubtedly it still pained him. “The circus has always been a haven for the unwanted, the outsider, the ones who fit in nowhere else. On the surface, you and Karolina might not seem like our types, but underneath the titles and the history, you’re both searching for a place to belong. Forgive me if I have a soft place in my heart for that sort of thing.”
He stood up straighter. “But neither am I a complete romantic. The circus hasn’t survived this long on charity. You both must earn your keep, and until this morning, I wasn’t sure Karolina could. If she can pull off those stunts on a unicorn, the crowds will eat it up. I’ve always wanted to find a way to make the animals a bigger part of the act.”
“What about the empress?” I asked. “What if she figures out where Karolina has gone and wants her sister back?”
Falak tossed his hands out at his sides and shrugged. “That’s between the two of them. I don’t come between family. If Tereza wants to make Karolina return to the castle, I won’t be standing in the way.”
“The unicorn, though? She’s right. Changing the act at the last minute like this could be dangerous. More dangerous than it already is.”
He grinned and rubbed his hands together. “All the more reason to do it. It’s something that’s never been done before. Audiences pay big money for novelty, and that’s exactly what I’m going to give them. If you’re worried about Karolina, help her train.”
I frowned at him. “I take back what I said about you being kind and generous. I should tie Karolina up, throw her over my horse’s back, and take her home right now.”
“You probably should, but you won’t because staying here is easier. Safer. You were running away from something in Prigha. You don’t want to go there any more than the princess does.”
I shoved my hands on my hips and sniffed. “Fine. But if she gets hurt, we’re done.”
Falak turned away and snatched a comb from his small vanity table. He raked it through his dark hair before settling his little cap in place. “I wonder if you’ll be able to convince her of that.”
Somehow, I doubted it.
“The unicorn’s a deal breaker,” I told Karolina after joining her in the clearing at the center of the wagon ring. I held my open hands out at my sides and shrugged. “Sorry.”
Rolling her eyes, she slid from her horse. “He’s an idiot.”
“He’s a showman.”
As she rubbed Mika’s neck, the princess glanced at me from the corner of her eye. “No more big sister threats from you?”
“What do you mean?”
“No more talk about making me go back to Prigha, dragging me to Tereza?”
I rubbed my palm against her horse’s nose and studied the way the light played over the silvery hairs on his hide. “For the moment, the things you and I both want are similarly aligned. I don’t want to go to Prigha. It’s risky for everyone involved. Still, I don’t feel good about it. I can’t promise I won’t send Tereza a note when we get to the next city.”
“What if Le Poing Fermé intercepts your note. Or what if Tereza told them where to find you?”
I flinched. “Would she?”
The muscles around Karolina’s eyes tensed. “Don’t underestimate my sister’s ambition. She looks little and sweet, but she’s as much of a hungry beast as the tigress that mauled Falak.”
Picturing the lovely young empress who had treated me with lavish generosity, I shook my head. The princess’s words conflicted with the image in my memory, yet I knew from experience to never take people at face value. Deceit often ran like an underground river—deep, powerful, and hidden. If I asked Karolina for an explanation, however, I suspected she would refuse as she had the night before. The girl needed someone to trust—someone to protect her. If I couldn’t send her home, at least I could try my best to watch out for her. If she’d let me. That was a big “if”.
“Falak wants me to help you train,” I said. “I know as much about those mechanical animals as you do, but I agree with him that it doesn’t seem like something you should do alone.”
Karolina pursed her lips and snorted.
“At least if you get hurt, I’ll be there to run for help. That’s probably all I’m good for, but I’ll be there.”
She arched a single black eyebrow. “So, you’re done trying to send me home?”
“For now. In the meantime, Falak wants you to help with chores.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Chores?”
“It’s a condition of your employment.”
Her lips pressed into a thin line, but she didn’t object.
“Come on.” I turned on my heel. “Put Mika up and meet me at the dinner wagon. Gepennio is likely already cursing my name for not being there sooner.”
Without another word of argument or a snide remark, Karolina took her horse’s reins and led him toward the animal menagerie wagon. “Oh, and you’ll probably want to change before you come,” I said.