Page 15 of Nightmare's Dance

“She does,” Geraint replied, fixing me with a stare.

Slowly, I nodded. I’d do what he said. I’d find this Nic guy and then I’d rescue Geraint. I just hoped Nic wasn’t as much of a douche canoe as Baz was.

Though I wanted to scream and throw a giant tantrum when the door thunked shut behind Geraint, instead I sat on the mat on the floor and wondered how long it would be until I had to put on a show. Could I do it? Could I act beaten?

Then I remembered the bruises covering my knight’s body. If I didn’t, they’d take my disobedience out on Geraint. So, yes, I could put on this performance. I would do it for Geraint, and then I would escape for him, and I would come back. I didn’t care what Prince freaking Baz said. Once I had my knight back, we were returning home.

***

I shifted my shadow clothing to the black cat suit most appropriate to a silks performance and attempted to limber up. After that, I sat and tried to calm myself. I’d drifted back to sleep when someone pounded on the door.

My heart leaped into my throat and adrenalin flooded my system. I scrambled to my feet in a rush, tripping over myself in my haste, but managing not to sprawl into a heap. Two of the gray men waited outside, swords at their hips. They had the completely flat gray eyes I’d mostly come to expect.

“You will come with us,” one intoned emotionlessly.

Anger surged, but I forced myself to recall Geraint’s bruises. He certainly hadn’t said anything about them, but I knew at least some wounds were my fault.

Dropping my gaze to the stone floor, I nodded. If nothing else, at least I was getting out of the room.

Meek as a mouse, I followed. The difference in air temperature from my cell to the hallway sucked the air from my lungs and my toes curled against the frigid stone. They hadn’t returned my shoes.

With a quick thought, my shadow clothing crawled across my feet and covered them like slippers. That helped, and I unwrapped my arms from my body.

They led me through yet another gray stone corridor, but this time we came to a set of iron-banded heavy wooden doors I hadn’t seen yet. They pushed the doors open. I couldn’t help but stop on the other side and stare.

Nothing had truly convinced me I was no longer on Earth until I stepped outside.

The sky was black, as if it were night, but no stars shone above, and no moon. It was as if the sky was filled with the same weird shadow mist that lined the castle or whatever it was I’d been in. I turned and looked. Yep, some sort of crumbly castle thing complete with crenellations and vicious cracks that made me think someone had attacked the place, and they’d never bothered to repair it.

The dry, dusty smell of the first cell I’d woken in was stronger here, tickling my nose and provoking a quick sneeze. The lighting was the same weird, pervasive illumination. I was becoming used to it, but that didn’t mean I didn’t miss the sun.

The land existed in shades of gray and black, though some places lightened almost to white. The scenery was stark, trees black of bark and bare of leaves. The ground looked to be some sort of dark gray gravel material. Was there any freaking color in this place? Other than the occasional splash of red? I shied away from my memory of the smear of blood Geraint had left when they’d dragged him away. Fortunately, I knew he was alive, but after tonight? He might not survive my escape attempt. I might not either.

I really needed to not focus on that.

They had laid out a circus tent in shades of black and gray in a large courtyard in front of the castle. Creatures—I could only describe them as creatures—streamed into the tent. Great… a circus. I loved performing, but these circumstances were crap.

The gray men let me gawk for a few minutes, but then they started forward down massive stone steps. I scrambled after them, trying to keep up the pretense that I was cowed.

Some creatures turned and looked at me. A few gazes lingered past mere interest. I couldn’t read any of the emotions in their faces, but if I had to guess, it was curiosity. Many of the beings were humanoid at least, but most of them were oddly proportioned, skeletal, had extra appendages, or were otherwise obviously not human. Not to mention the shades of gray everyone exhibited. Like, these creatures should have been terrifying, but they came across as flat, much like the guards in the palace.

Here and there a set of eyes sparked with a bit more life, and those were the gazes that lingered. I should have been afraid, but I just felt sad. Something told me those gazes weren’t supposed to be flat and lifeless. Those creatures should have been animated enough to instill fear even in me. Even in me? Where had that thought come from? Of course I should be afraid.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that things weren’t right, despite having nothing to base that feeling on.

My guards led us around the side of the tent and in through the back. The tent itself didn’t seem as if it would hold the numbers of beings flowing into the entrance. We came into a backstage area. There they left me.

In general, I knew what to do. Even if I hadn’t had Geraint’s warning, it would have been obvious they wanted me to perform. I cast my gaze about, looking for a clue as to where I should go, or if I could get away. A quick glance back at the entrance showed the two guards standing outside the split in the canvas. Now clearly wasn’t the time for me to attempt escape. Geraint had said after the performance.

Heart pounding in my chest, I took a deep breath and moved farther into the space. The ground had taken on the consistency of packed dirt instead of the gravel stuff I’d walked across before. The lighting back here was even lower than in the rest of whatever hell I was currently in, and I squinted as I looked around. The black fog hung heavily in here, but I didn’t want to walk blindly into it.

“Oh, there you are.”

I jumped, spinning around. A girl skipped out of the fog. At first, all I could take in was the vibrant color of her leotard. Even in the dim light, the swirling yellows and blues were dazzling after not seeing any color other than red for so long. Once I looked beyond the sparkly colors of her outfit, I focused on her face. She wore stage makeup, which made it a little harder to guess her age. Maybe sixteen? She had a dancer’s body, shorter, lithe, and lean, but well-muscled. Her eyes were a light brown and not at all flat, like maybe she was real?

I remembered what Geraint said about others, that Baz had captured other circus performers.

“I’m Ember,” I said after a flustered moment.

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