Firetale (23 page)

“
Take
off your skin and dance around your bones.”

Tom Waits
, “The Black Rider”

Everything
had gone wrong. And Zaches ran,
leaving immediately after the show. Luckily for him, Lazarus,
Martha, Greg, and Pietro had gathered in the big top, and Blanche
and Black were on the lookout for anyone trying to enter the
circus, not for someone trying to escape from it. Zaches’s
preparations were quick; he just grabbed his knife and slipped out
of the trailer, trying hard not to step on the mirror shards, lest
the noise give him away. Fortunately, his camper was always the
farthest away, not because Zaches had ever thought about escaping
but because he enjoyed being away from the others.

Blanche and Black
were on duty but
killing time, playing cards, swearing, and calling each other’s
bluff. Zaches waited for them to reach the peak of their dispute.
When they were railing at each other determinedly, he ran. Only
when he had traveled some distance from the circus, did he realize
that his anxiety was
unnecessary
. He recalled that he had recently disappeared from the
circus to summon Astaroth, and no one had noticed his absence. But
now, he reminded himself, he was running not for one night, but
forever, and fear again seized him. He didn’t know where to go, but
he knew that it had to be away from the town. Away from Lazarus and
his bloody circus, and away from these terrible Judges.

The Judge. What had he expected
passing
an
invitation to a stranger? He had foolishly expected that this
stranger would be his savior, clear out the circus, catch Greg, and
leave Zinno alone with Martha to live together happily ever after
as in a fairy tale. Had Zinnober known he would have to deal with
the Judge, he would have abandoned his plan. Zaches had violated
the Pactum, and not once, although he had only learned of the
existence of the Pactum from Lazarus. It was foolish to hope that
the Judge would spare him just because he had ratted out
Greg.

Zaches had imagined things
differently. He had thought that
whoever received the invitation would make
Greg vanish from the circus quickly and inexplicably. Instead, one
man in a leather coat appeared, talked with Lazarus, and
disappeared. Old Bernardius wasn’t a fool, and even if Pietro said
nothing, he would be able to understand why the Judge had
unexpectedly attended the performance. Zinno felt trapped. One the
one hand, he had betrayed Mr. Bernardius, and on the other, he had
betrayed the Judge. The only solution was to escape, even if it
meant parting with Martha.

He ran through the woods
all the way to the
highway that led out of town. His short crooked legs carried him
awkwardly, and he often tripped on tree roots and fell. His grazed
hands were bloody and his pants were shredded. Every fall wasted
time, time he didn’t have. He knew Lazarus would chase him. Who
would be his pursuers? The ogres? Greg? If Blanche and Black found
him, he would suffer only a couple of head knocks, but who knew
what would happen if Greg got to him first? They would be alone in
the woods, without witnesses, and Zaches had no illusions about how
long he would last with a knife against Greg’s magic. After his
fifth fall, Zaches had no doubt that escape was a stupid idea. He
needed to stop and turn back before his disappearance was noticed.
He could concoct a story for Mr. Bernardius, talk himself out of
trouble. But then Zinno imagined Greg and began running
again.

The forest was thick, and at
every step
,
branches lashed Zaches in the face. Tree roots crawled between his
feet like evil snakes in search of prey. He was tired of running
and falling, tired of the pain in his hands and knees. It seemed
sometimes as if his lungs were filled with sharp icicles trying to
break out. Sometimes his lungs burned, and sometimes they seemed to
be compressed to the size of a walnut. And then it started to rain.
Suddenly the sky poured a wall of water, as if someone had turned
the switch to maximum. It rained so hard that for a moment Zaches
thought he had died and woken up in another place. But the pain
throughout his body reminded him that he was still alive. Realizing
that the rain was not the end of his torment, but only a new test,
Zaches wept. The tears meant he would be running blind, but he was
unable to hold back his sobs. He stopped and sat down under a tree,
right on the muddy ground. His sparse hair was soaked, water was
dripping from it into his eyes, mixing with his tears, and it
almost stopped Zaches from seeing anything in front of him. The
thought of returning to the circus visited him again, but he told
himself that he had gone too far and there was no way back for
him.

Through the
rain
, Zaches
heard sounds. For a moment it seemed to him that it was the sounds
of a chase through the forest, breaking branches and small trees in
its path. Perhaps it was Blanche and Black coming for him. Then
Zinno realized that it was the sound of a car on wet asphalt,
splashing water. He must be very close to the highway. Gathering
his strength, Zaches ran, guided by the sounds. After a couple of
minutes, he climbed up to the side of the road. It was narrow and
covered with cracks. In the distance, headlights loomed, and Zinno
waved his hand, hoping a random driver would pick him up. But no
one paid any attention to him. A car passed without slowing down.
Another slowed, as if it might stop, but then accelerated and sped
away. Zaches walked along the side of the road, waving his hand,
but few drivers even slowed, and no one stopped. It was like a
mockery, and Zaches cried again. It was dark and scary, he was
soaked to the bone, and his teeth were chattering from the cold.
Zinnober was afraid he might die right there on the
roadside.

A black car
slowed down and stopped not far
from him. When the passenger door opened,
Zinnober ran to the car and got
inside.

“
Thank
you,” the dwarf said in a weak voice to the driver.

“Don’t mention
it
. It’s a
sin not to help a stranger in such weather,” the driver said
cheerfully. He was a blond of indeterminate age, wearing a black
jacket over a plain white T-shirt.

“You hungry?”
the blond asked,
and he handed Zaches an apple covered with traces of rot. Noticing
the embarrassment of his passenger, the man added: “I have only
these.” Zaches refused. It was warm inside the car, and Zinnober
felt safe. The seat was comfortable; he gradually warmed, and
thoughts of cold rain, darkness, and Lazarus Bernardius’s damned
circus faded away.

“
Where
are you going?” the driver asked.

“
I
don’t know. Drop me wherever you’re going,” said
Zinnober.

The blond laughed.
“
Well, then,
we drive the same way.” He drove with one hand holding the rotten
apple that Zaches had refused, biting off pieces and chewing them
with obvious pleasure. The dwarf thought he saw a worm in the
apple. He frowned and turned away and stared out the window, but it
was too dark to see anything.

“
Who
would have thought you were such a sissy?” the driver
said.

“
What?”

“
I say
I didn’t think you were such a sissy, Zaches, also known as
Zinnober,” the driver said, and he turned to the dwarf. His face
was strange. As Zinnober stared at him, it seemed that his face was
curved into a crescent, one eye was larger than the other, and his
mouth was stretched in an incredibly broad smile.

Zaches was scared to
death.
“Who
are you?”

T
he driver laughed. “I did not think you
would recognize me. Not in this guise. We met recently. In a
cornfield.”

“
Astaroth?”

“A
t least you don’t have memory
problems.”

“
Why,
why do you look like that?”

“Y
ou’d rather see a donkey driving a
car? My look is disgusting and horrible only when a person summons
me himself. It’s to make the summoner shit his pants in fear, and
force him to stop learning demonology henceforth. So God decided.
But when I am in this world ad libitum, I can choose my
appearance.”

“H
ow did you find me? I did not summon
you!”

“
I see
Pietro neglected to tell you one detail about the summoning. One
summoning is enough to let a demon, let us say, remember you. After
the call, you are connected. A demon’s summoner becomes a beacon
that stands out among all the other people. Henceforth, the demon
will always know the location of the person who summoned him. Well,
until the summoner dies.” The driver laughed. “After that, they are
likely to meet in Hell. But enough digression into demonology. I
have come for you.”

“
For
me? I have to give my soul because I summoned you once?”

“
What
an idiot! Your soul is worth pennies. I want you.”

“
Why?
What did I do?”

“F
or some reason, I temporarily lost
all my servants and assistants. So I need to recruit new ones. And
you’ll be the first of them, Zaches, also known as
Zinnober.”

“
And
what are the reasons?”

“
All
in good time, dwarf.”

“
And
if I do not want to?”

“
Oh,
you’re stubborn! But whether you want to or not does not matter to
me. I’m not going to argue with you.” The passenger door suddenly
opened, and Astaroth pushed Zaches outward. The dwarf screamed,
closed his eyes, and cringed, expecting to hit the asphalt, but
instead he felt the wind shaking him like a reed. The car was not
riding on the road; it was rushing at an insane speed through the
night air. Zaches could see the lights of houses and a few cars in
the darkness below. Astaroth was holding his pant leg. Zaches hung
upside down and watched as people’s lifetimes flowed peacefully a
few hundred meters below. These people did not care about what was
happening at this moment over their heads. A cold wind whipped his
cheeks and climbed into his ears. Its whistling sound was
deafening, and raindrops hurt his face and hands. Astaroth yanked
his hand, and Zaches cried out, afraid the demon would open his
hand and drop him.

“
Okay,
okay! I agree! I’ll be your servant,” Zaches screamed into the
howling wind. Astaroth yanked his hand again, listened to the
frightened Zinnober yelp, and pulled him back into the car.
Awkwardly sitting on the seat, Zinno tried to fight off his fear.
He would not be able to cope with an immortal demon who always knew
where he was. He was a toy in Astaroth’s hands. But for some reason
he needed this toy.

“How should I serve you,
master?”
asked Zinno.

“
You
see, this circus of Lazarus Bernardius … my brother is too worried
about its welfare. Believe me, he’s not sentimental, even though
people like to think otherwise, so I think something is wrong
there. Perhaps somewhere in this circus is my ticket home. And I’m
going to use you, my little Zaches, to find it without drawing
unwanted attention. And if you serve me well, you will get what you
want. For example, you won’t see this ugly face in the mirror, and
even demionis won’t see your real face.”

“Is it
true,
master?” Zinnober asked hopefully.

Astaroth laughed.
“
Of course,
little Zaches! But be careful, because I sometimes give false
promises.”

“
Fan the flames with a little
lie.”

Queens of
the Stone Age, “Burn The
Witch”

Lazarus, Greg
, and their savior sat at an old
table in the back of the bar. The room was quite common. Greg had
expected a biker bar run by an immortal girlfriend of the cirque de
freaks ringmaster would be … unusual. Instead, it was ordinary,
littered with the detritus of food and alcohol, piled up chairs,
and old tables.

The woman smiled at Bernardius. “Glad to
see you’re still alive, Lazarus. So many years have
passed.”

“
Thirty or so,” said Bernardius,
his eyes on the floor.

“
Thirty-eight, to be precise.”
The woman continued to smile, but her smile became
colder.

“
Excuse me,” interjected Greg.
“You two met when you were …”

“
We met when I was twenty-four
years old, my boy,” the owner of the bar said, interrupting the
magician. Greg couldn’t understand how it was possible to look
around thirty when you’re sixty-two. In his mind, to look half
one’s age was affordable only to Hollywood stars. “I have my
secrets,” she said, and winked playfully at Greg when she noticed
his look of confusion.

“
Ino is a witch,” said Mr.
Bernardius, as if explaining the obvious.

“
Oh, I’m surprised you still
remember my name, Lazarus. Let me introduce myself, handsome. I’m
Ino, part-time witch, part-time bar owner.”