Page 16 of Nightmare's Dance

“Yeah, we know. The latest ‘princess.’” She said the last with a bit of sarcasm. “I’m Paige.”

“What is going on?” I hoped she would give me more information than my knight had.

“Every once in a while, Prince Baz remembers he has us, especially when he captures another potential princess. Then he drags us out to perform for the masses.”

“But, why? I don’t understand.”

“Neither do we. Not really. The little we’ve been able to figure out is pretty obvious. Baz is looking for his long-lost princess and he thinks she’s some sort of entertainer focusing on the circus arts. We don’t exactly know why he wants his princess, because he fucking hates all of us. I think he wants to kill her.” She said the last with a shrug. “At least he decided I wasn’t it. I’m stuck here now, but it’s not too bad until he remembers he has us. Come on. We don’t have a ton of time to get ready.” Paige pushed through the curtain of black fog. I followed, mostly used to the damp, clingy feeling now.

We came out into a dressing room of sorts. The mirrors were all shattered, but some pieces were big enough that people could see their faces to apply theater makeup. Several women were in various stages of preparing for the show. Some seemed to be about Paige’s age, while the oldest was probably in her late twenties.

I hadn’t been around anyone but myself for a while, and the presence of other humans brought tears to my eyes. I blinked them away and took a deep breath. Scents other than the weird dry dustiness I’d grown able to ignore were especially pungent. The sharp scents of makeup, the smell of other people’s sweat, and a distant aroma of—was that popcorn?—nearly overwhelmed me before I adapted.

Paige rattled off a series of names I didn’t catch. “My act is second to last,” Paige said, breaking through my shocked reaction to the others. “You’re last.”

“Okay. What am I doing?”

She shrugged. “Don’t know, what’s your specialty?”

“Aerial silks or straps.”

“Probably one of those, then.” She didn’t seem too concerned.

I shuddered, remembering how the silks had vanished. Could I get back in the air knowing that could happen again? Would I have a choice? Geraint had said to cooperate, act beaten, but would the fabric vanishing and sending me plummeting to the ground break me? If the ground didn’t, that was. If Baz hated us, he might simply choose not to save me from splattering on the ground.

“Here, get ready.” She shoved me at one of the broken mirrors. Makeup formed from the shadows, ready for me to apply. “And change your outfit to something shinier.”

“It does something other than black?”

Paige shrugged.

Frowning, I focused on a light pastel swirl of green and purple with gold highlights.

The weird shadow outfit I wore hesitated—that was the only way I could describe the weird sensation I felt—then it seemed to shrug just as Paige had, and shifted.

The girl next to me gasped.

“Oh, shit.” Paige stared. They all stared. “I meant from the costumes.” She pointed at a rack along the far wall I hadn’t noticed with my focus on the other humans.

“Oh.”

“Shit,” Paige repeated. “You’re her, aren’t you? They really found you.”

“I honestly have no idea. None of you can make the shadow stuff change?”

They shook their heads.

“Well, you’re screwed,” Paige replied, seeming to dismiss her shock and move on to preparing for the show.

“That’s nice.” I sighed.

“Yeah, we think he wants to kill the princess because we’ve heard that some sort of dark nothingness is eating away at the edges of Dream, and it will go away if it gets the princess. Or some shit like that. So probably a sacrifice.”

I swallowed, then caught a hint of movement out of the corner of my eyes. “How long have you all been here?” I changed the subject.

“Forever. Impossible to tell. Nothing changes, except sometimes another one of us shows up, and then we have to do all of this. You’ll get used to it, eventually. Unless he kills you.” She waved her hand at the backstage area. Her tone changed, and I thought she might have caught sight of whoever lurked in the shadows, too. “Then the prince forgets about all of us again for a while. Now finish your makeup.”

Falling silent and trying to ignore the furtive glances from the others, I got to work on my face. Years of practice had me ready in short order.

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