Firetale (20 page)

“
Myth, Greg?” Bernardius began to
lose his temper.” Just because you’ve been lucky enough not to meet
them does not mean they do not exist. You’re still as naive as our
audience, who looks at us and sees only tricks and
hoaxes!”

“
Is this Judge a threat to us?”
asked Martha. Hearing the sound of her voice, all the men
immediately calmed down.

“
I don’t know. Judges are free to
decide what to do with mongrels whom they suspect of violating the
Pactum. This Caius promised to follow us, and I think he will keep
his word.”

“
And if, during the surveillance,
he accidentally fell asleep in his car with a cigarette?” Greg
said. “And a spark happened to find its way into the gas
tank.”

“
Are you insane?” Lazarus said
through clenched teeth. “Are you proposing to violate the Pactum
and become a target for all those working with Caius? Judges
communicate, reporting all their movements to each other. If one of
them disappears, the rest will give up their hunt and go on a
search. We would be pursued by every Judge on the
continent.”

“
Doesn’t mean they would find who
made their friend disappear,” Greg said.

The air was strained to the limit, and
Pietro tried to be the voice of reason.

“
He said he suspects one of
ours?” asked the archivist.

“
No, but Martha and Greg caught
his attention. Greg has the magic of demons, and Martha …” Lazarus
shrugged. “It looks like Caius is an experienced Judge. He knows
all kinds of demionis, but not her.”

“
If we can’t get rid of him,
let’s just live our lives as before,” suggested Martha. “I’m sure
it is a mistake. If we allow the Judge to observe us, he will
realize that no one broke the law and he’ll leave us
be.”

“
I’m afraid it’s not that simple,
Martha. Our circus is a gift for these”—Lazarus hesitated before
choosing his word—“for these thugs. They call themselves Judges,
but no one knows on what they base their verdicts.”

“
I still say there’s an obvious
way to get rid of his annoying attention,” Greg said. There was
fervor in his eyes, and crackling sparks, barely audible, flew
between his fingers.

“
Greg, before you tell us the
details of the ‘obvious way,’ I would like to talk to you alone.”
The tentmaster’s voice expressed no emotion, but his eyes were cold
and tense. Pietro quickly realized what it meant. Preventing even
the possibility of protest, the archivist gently took Martha’s arm
and walked to the door, trying to draw her attention with an
awkward conversation. Martha turned to look back at the magician
and the ringmaster. Greg nodded to her reassuringly and
smiled.

“
Wow, looks like I’m in trouble,”
Greg said as soon Pietro and the girl left the tent. There were
notes of alarm in his light-hearted tone, no matter how the
magician tried to disguise them.

“
Greg, I beg you to be serious,”
Mr. Bernardius said. He looked disappointed and tired, as if all
the years of his long life had hit him in an instant, demanding
that he repay debts.

“
Okay,” Greg
said.

“
I need to tell you something,”
Lazarus said, nervously tapping his cane on the floor of the arena.
“When you disappeared the last time, I sent Zinno to keep an eye on
you.”

“
You what?”

“
Calm down. When Zaches returned,
he told me that you were hanging around in bars and had got into a
drunken brawl. But now this Judge appears on the threshold of our
circus, and, among all our demionis, he’s only interested in you.
From this I can draw two conclusions. First, Zinno lied to me. My
fault, it was stupid to trust him. Second, you have broken the
Pactum. I can see no other reason why the Judge would show up
today.”

“
Mr. Bernardius
…”

“
Greg, let me finish. I do not
want to know what you’ve done. There is no need to have a bright
imagination to understand how to break the Pactum.”

“
If I broke it.”

“
Did you? Is the Judge so
interested in you for no reason? Tell me, Greg.”

The magician frowned. There was
darkness behind his eyes.

“
Imagine that Martha is asking
you these questions. Would you lie to her, Greg? Now you’re going
to your room, and there she will probably ask you about the Judge
and about our conversation. She’s a smart girl, she will understand
what was happening. Will you lie to her?”

“
No.”

Mr. Bernardius nodded.
“Good. I don’t want
to know what you did or with whom you did it. I want to know
why.”

“
I don’t understand, Mr.
Bernardius.”

“
Any demionis that has
consciousness, well, maybe except Zaches, would agree to live here
under my protection, without knowing specific details. Even the
ogres are satisfied. But not you. And I can’t understand why.”
Lazarus looked straight into Greg’s eyes. Hope, despair, and
confusion mingled on the face of the ringmaster.

Greg
seemed like a volcano before an
eruption. “Well, Mr. Bernardius, I did what I did, because it could
change the world for the better.”

“
What world, Greg?”

“
The world outside the circus,
the one from which we are all running without looking
back!”

“
Greg, my boy, that world is not
ours,” Bernardius said, his voice full of sympathy. “We do not
belong to the world of people.”

“
Actually, we sell them tickets,
and they come to our shows!”

“
And that’s all. For the people
there”—Lazarus pointed to the tent’s canvas walls with his cane—“we
are just monsters, entertainment for a song, a snake without
poison, a boar without fangs. We exist for them for only one and a
half hours, as long as our show lasts.” Bernardius again pointed
his cane to the walls of the tent. “Our roots are not here, but
there.” Lazarus tapped on the arena floor with his cane. “There is
something human in us, Greg. But what sets us apart from the people
is not skin color or habits. It’s our blood, which in this world
has always been considered a curse. We do not belong to this world,
my boy.”

“
Funny, Mr. Bernardius. But
unlike the others in this circus, I can use the power that I have
been given to …”

“
To what? Help people by
violating the Pactum?”

“
Yes, even if it were so!” Greg
roared. “You have no idea what scum I’ve had to deal
with!”

“
Greg, I have lived a lot longer
than you. I do not think any abominations of people can surprise
me.”

“
The fewer of these abominations
there are …”

“
Greg, listen to me. You’re not a
hero from some comic book, Superman from another planet who saves
humanity. Let the people themselves cope with their
sins.”

“
But why? Why do I have to stand
aside?”

“
You’re breaking the Pactum. This
is not a good deed.”

Greg wanted to protest, but he
restrained himself. His fists were in flames. Lazarus looked at
them and sighed. Noticing that his hands were on fire, the
magician
was
embarrassed and forced himself to extinguish the flames.

“
What now?” Greg said
hoarsely.

“
You know what now. You must have
already guessed. You’ll leave the circus. You may not admit it,
Greg, but I think your actions have led to something that has never
happened before. For the first time ever, the path of the circus
and the path of one of the Judges have crossed.”

Greg gave Bernardius
a look of despair
and anger. His fists were again in flames. But pulling himself
together, the magician found the strength to nod.

“
Well then, I’ll take Martha and
we’ll leave.”

“
Martha stays here.”

“
It’s not for you to
decide!”

“
You’re right, it’s not. But
since you’re Caius’s main object, you have to admit that she will
be safer here, not with you.”

The magician
stood with his head down. His
body shook as if he was ready to explode and burn everything in
sight. When Lazarus thought an explosion was inevitable, the fire
mage fell to his knees and put his head in his hands. Bernardius
approached him and put his hand on Greg’s shoulder.

“
I’m still responsible for you.
And I can’t send you back to the normal world without offering
help. Pietro came up with an idea.”

Martha was waiting for Greg in
the camper. She was tense, but smiled encouragingly at him when he
entered.
She
never blamed, never accused, never interrogated. At such moments,
she thought only of him, and for a moment the magician was ashamed.
When he killed people, had he thought about how it might affect
Martha or had he just selfishly given in to his dark
desires?

“
What did Lazarus say?” she
asked.

“
In short,” Greg said, sitting
down on the couch next to Martha,” he wants me to leave the
circus.” The magician could not find the strength to utter these
words while looking into Martha’s eyes.

“
You won’t go alone,” she said.
Greg was surprised. He had never heard so much determination in
Martha’s soft voice.

“
Listen to me, dear. Mister B. is
right. I deserve it for what I have done.”

“
Good Lord, Greg.” Martha’s voice
had become even harder. There was something in it that made Greg
feel weaker than this fragile girl. “I’m not an idiot. I know why
there are Judges. I don’t condemn Lazarus’s decision. I’m just
telling you that when you go, I’ll go with you.” She took Greg’s
head in her hands and looked into his eyes.

Greg
felt gratified that she would say so,
but he could not let her go with him. No matter how determined
Martha was, he could not let her.

“
You know about the Judges,
honey. And you know that they pass only one sentence for demionis
considered guilty. And you know that I will run until I find myself
as far away from the circus as possible. And then … then everything
will be easy. One of us will find the other. And when that happens,
when I meet Caius, I don’t want you to be near. It would be easier
…” Greg paused, choosing his words. “It will be easier to deal with
him, if I know that you’re not around. If I know that you are
protected by Lazarus. In the end, Mr. B is immortal, he can protect
you forever.” Greg tried to smile. “The Judge needs only me. Not
you and not the others. When it’s over, I’ll be back. Until then,
you’ll be here. I love you, Martha. But if I have to force you to
stay in the circus, I’ll do it.”

Greg stopped. She still looked
him in the eye.
In her eyes, Greg saw rage, humility, and despair fighting.
Finally she turned away. The magician thought the silence lasted an
eternity.

“
I know I should’ve told you
everything a long time ago, but I was afraid.”

“
Afraid I wouldn’t understand?”
Martha again looked at Greg. Under her gaze, he felt
confused.

“
Yes. And afraid you’d leave
me.”

“
Greg, I’m not immortal, and I
can’t control fire. But I see people. I see what’s inside. I know
that you have not harmed the innocent.”

It felt to Greg as if an electric charge
had gone down his spine. He was thrown into a fever, feeling as if
he had been creeping through a dark alley and was suddenly struck
blind by the light of a powerful lantern.

“
You … you
know?”

“
Of course I know. Well, I
figured it out. And when the Judge showed up, I realized that the
darkness I saw in you and your night disappearances are somehow
connected.”

“
Why didn’t you do
anything?”

“
What was I supposed to do? Share
this? With whom? The police? Lazarus, to let him exile you even
faster? You?”

“
Me,” Greg whispered, his voice
weak and uncertain.

“
And what would it change? Could
you abandon it?”

“
For you, yes.”

“
Greg, don’t lie to yourself,”
Marta said, speaking to him like a trainer trying to reason with a
puppy. “This darkness is too deep inside you. You can’t get rid of
it by snapping your fingers. It can dissipate only with time. And
with my help. I thought I could save you from it. I thought you
would start to appreciate us more than it. And I almost made it,
but …”

“
But now Caius comes for me,”
Greg finished for Martha.

“
Yes, now he comes for
you.”

Greg was ashamed that he had failed
Martha, that he had canceled all her efforts, and he regretted it
deeply. Until he had returned to the trailer, he was ready to blame
his upcoming exile on anyone—Lazarus, Zaches, bad luck—but now he
was resigned to the fact that he himself had ruined
everything.

“
Forgive me, Martha. I’m so
sorry.”

“
I know, Greg, I
know.”

Martha hugged and kissed the
magician. And that kiss immediately ousted from his head the
k
iller’s
face, which the ball had showed at that night’s performance—Judge
Caius’s face.