Excerpt: Flight

The sky had darkened completely, clouds blocking out the starlight, and most of the tents were illuminated by lamplight shining through their semi-translucent walls. Kisha could see the glow of street lights in the near distance, and she thought she could even hear music playing very faintly. She slipped her soft-soled shoes on and pulled the hood of her cloak up to hide her face, then began walking swiftly towards the sound.

Few people passed her in the streets, and those that did didn’t bother with a second glance. All of the shops she passed were shuttered, but she could see two blocks ahead the lights of the local pub; it had an outdoor seating area, and the tables were filled, while other people had moved out into the street to dance. The music and laughter reached her ears, and she longed to go join the merry crowd, but knew her youth would draw too much attention. At best, she’d be thrown out – at worst, they’d summon her father, and then there would be trouble. Serious trouble.

Still, she could watch, as long as she stayed in the shadows. As she began to walk towards the pub, she suddenly heard running footsteps behind her. As Kisha started to turn around, someone ran into her, hard enough to knock her to the ground. Her head struck the paved street and pain spiked through her. Struggling to breathe with the heavy weight atop her chest, she pushed at her assailant but then she felt a prick in her arm and everything went black.

Her head was pounding, and her stomach was queasy. She was lying on something hard, and felt cold. Kisha opened her eyes and struggled to sit up. The effort made her retch. She pulled her knees to her chest and sat hugging herself, trying to remember what had happened. Looking around, she realized that she was in a narrow alleyway. No sound reached her ears, and the only light was from the slightest sliver of the just past new moon. It must be very late.

She became aware of pain in her wrist and moved it to closer to her face to get a better look. She gasped and her eyes grew wide as she saw the thick white bandage was wrapped around it, stained by the blood slowly seeping through. Stripping off the bandage, Kisha to found a deep cut across the back of the wrist, one straight slash. Her stomach churned as touched the cut with her other hand, one finger pulling back a side of the cut to expose the flesh below. She shook her head to clear it and swiftly rewound the bandage, pulling it as tight as she could.

Terrified, Kisha got slowly to her feet and began making her way to the end of the alley. She came out into the main street, and took several minutes trying to figure out the right direction to take her back to the circus encampment, the pounding of her head making it difficult to think. Finally settling on a direction, she made her way unsteadily down the street, stopping several times to retch again, and eventually saw the few lights that were still on in the tents. Dizzy, she found the right tent and fumbled at the door, taking a few minutes to get it open. Kisha stumbled inside and her stomach heaved again, making her double over gagging. Faintly, she heard Rina calling her name, but was unable to answer. A hand grabbed her arm to break her fall as she swooned to the floor.