Firetale (31 page)

“
Demionis are not allowed to
attack people, as you correctly noted,” Ino said. “But your problem
is that you’ll have to deal not with them, but with some others.”
Ino grinned as the surviving muscles on Caius’s face
twitched.

“
What are you talking about,
whore? And who the fuck are you?”

Lazarus tried to respond
to
the
insult, but the witch put a comforting hand on his
shoulder.

“
Boys,” Ino called
loudly.

Behind Ino and Lazarus
came
a
mechanical roar, and one after another, spots of light began to
appear. The lights approached, hovering above the ground, one, two,
three, finally a dozen lights joining the witch and the other
inhabitants of the circus. The lights gathered in a line behind
Ino, and merged into one. The bright line a few feet above the
ground became blindingly white and then faded, and the source of
the lights was at last discerned. They were the headlights of a
dozen motorcycles, revving and rattling like steel horses impatient
for an attack. Among the riders, Greg recognized a few that had
been in Ino’s bar when he first met the witch. The bikers’ look had
not changed—leather, chains, and fancy hats, all remarkably like
the bikers in movies. Only their facial expressions were different.
When these guys had met Greg, they just wanted to kick some
arrogant stranger’s ass. Now he saw determination on their faces.
To kill or to die.

“
Bravo, Lazarus, I see you’re
prepared,” the Judge said. “Your friend has decided to help you.”
The Judge sounded anything but frightened. “I’m sure it was her
idea. But for me, women are just troublemakers.” He looked around
the circus. “By the way, speaking of women, I do not see the tiny
blonde. The lad is here, though, but I swear to God, he was as dead
as yesterday during our last meeting. Surely, magician, you could
not have saved her, eh?” Caius looked at Greg. The magician was
ready to burn the Judge alive. But a voice inside told him that
this was not the time, and Greg calmed the flames.

“
Well, both sides are armed and
very dangerous,” the Judge said, his voice full of mockery. “We can
play war games, if you so desire. It will be fun.” Caius gave an
exaggerated wink with his surviving eye. “I confess that I was
counting on it. But I’m afraid that losses on both sides are
inevitable. My friends and I are not against it, but you, Mr.
Bernardius, something tells me you’re a pacifist and it is unlikely
you would agree to leave one half of your circus here to save the
other. “So my proposal is this: give me the boy, and my friends and
I will forget about your circus forever.” Caius turned to Ino and
leered at her. “Although this lady will long remain in my
memory.”

“
Judge Caius, I run this circus,
and everything that happens in it is my responsibility,” said
Bernardius proudly, firmly, and loudly, as befits a real
ringmaster. “I offer myself as your prisoner if you let the others
go.”

“
You’re crazy,” Ino hissed at
Lazarus.

“
Honey, I know what I’m doing,”
the tentmaster replied, staring at Caius. “They can’t hurt
me.”

Caius began to applaud slowly. “Oh, very
generous of you, Mr. Bernardius. Please, please, come to us.” The
Judge made an inviting gesture. Lazarus did not play for time.
Sighing, he moved toward the Judges, holding his cane. When the
ringmaster came up to Caius, the Judge smiled an almost sincere
smile and patted him on the shoulder. “How honorable. I did not
expect this from a mongrel. Alas, prudence is not your thing.”
Caius pushed Lazarus behind him, toward the other Judges, two of
whom instantly grabbed Bernardius by the arms.

Caius turned to the rest of the
circus perform
ers. “However that may be, I’m still waiting for you to
give me the magician, too.”

“
What?” shouted Ino and Pietro at
the same time.

“
We agreed, Caius,” Lazarus
growled from behind the Judge.

“
I do not recall, Mr.
Bernardius,” the Judge said without turning to the ringmaster. “You
offered yourself, and I agreed. But I haven’t canceled my previous
condition.” Mr. Bernardius could see only part of Caius’s burned
face, but he knew the Judge was smiling.

“
Well,” came the voice of Greg.
“I’ll go with you.”

“
Attaboy.” Caius could hardly
restrain himself from not crying with joy. Greg moved toward the
Judges, sparks flashing between his fingers, a smile on his
face.

“
Whoa!” cried Caius, putting up a
hand to stop Greg halfway. “Not so fast, fuckhead.” The Judge
pointed a finger at the magician, like a teacher rebuking a
bully.

“
Now!” Caius shouted. Behind him,
the door of one of the vans slid aside, and two Judges came out,
holding a hose. “Charge, boys!” Caius’s cry bore little resemblance
to a human voice, sounding more like a predator’s roar at the sight
of his prey. A stream of water thick as a human leg shot out of the
hose with a loud hissing sound and hit Greg in the chest, knocking
him to the ground. The Judges continued to shoot water out of the
hose, nailing Greg to the ground, making it impossible to stand
up.

“
So, gentleman, leave not a
single dry square inch on this bastard!” Caius said. “Let’s see how
he will do his fire tricks now.”

Greg rolled on the ground,
trying to avoid the powerful jet. It felt like an elephant was
trampling on him.
The pressure was so intense that he couldn’t breathe, and
his lungs felt as if they were on fire. Greg tried to get up, but
the ground beneath him had turned to mud, and he slipped and slid
and fell face down. The magician could not have imagined how much
pain water could cause. The world had turned into mud splashes,
angry cries, ogres’ growling, and Judges’ laughter.

Finally, the water
pressure
slackened and then turned to a trickle. Greg lay on his
belly in a mud puddle, unable to rise. His whole body hurt, and his
mouth and nostrils were stuffed with mud. Two Judges grabbed his
legs and dragged him along the ground as the other Judges
laughed.

“
Damned bastard!” Ino screamed.
The water in Greg’s eyes made it difficult to see what was
happening, but he could hear the bikers’ motorcycles roaring, and
the Judges’ weapons rattling.

“
Ino, no!” Lazarus’ shouted. “No,
we can handle it. Take the rest away.”

Greg heard the voice of
Caius
whispering in his ear. “Simple precautions. To equalize our
chances.”

Greg felt the
Judge
’s boot
on his head.

“
Now I am satisfied,” shouted
Caius to the circus performers. “I got even more than I wanted. You
all can get out of here. Fast. Before my boys decide they also want
trophies.”

Greg was dragged
to the big top and
made to kneel in the center of the arena. Mr. Bernardius entered
behind him, driven by a shotgun in his lower back. To the
ringmaster’s astonishment, Caius had kept his promise. He and the
other Judges had watched as the ogre brothers hustled the demionis
into vehicles. Ino had spat curses and threats at the Judges, who
responded with bawdy jokes directed at her. The lights of the
vehicles had finally disappeared over the horizon, accompanied by
the bikers. Caius left a pair of Judges on guard and went with the
rest in the main tent.

Greg
’s body ached, and he was soaking wet
and cold in the night air, but he tried to calm the trembling, not
wanting to appear weak. He attempted several times to call the
inner fire, but the water that covered his body and soaked his
clothes was a reliable barrier. He needed at least a spark to turn
into flame. One of the Judges near Bernardius, bald and incredibly
tall, took out a cigarette and held it to his lighter.

“
Hey, shit, drop that!” Caius
shouted a moment before his fellow Judge threw open the lighter
cover. “I don’t want to give that bastard a chance. No open fire
here!”

That’s for sure,
cowards
,
thought Greg. He was kneeling, with his hands tied behind his back.
Two Judges stood beside him, their crossbows a few inches from his
head. Next to Greg’s overseers were water canisters. Two more
Judges were next to Lazarus. Caius walked about the arena, his
hands clasped behind his back, smiling. His lips moved slightly, as
if he were practicing a prepared speech. He finally stopped
abruptly and looked at Greg.

“
You know, when I recovered my
senses, I was so angry I thought I would kill you as soon as
possible. I thought the only thing I wanted was your death. It
didn’t matter how you died. I was not going to talk to you before I
killed you, like the villain in some shitty movie. I just wanted to
put a bullet or arrow in you. Cut your head off. Kill you quickly.
It didn’t even have to be face to face. But then …” The judge
paused and sighed, his arms out to the side. After glancing at the
gathered Judges, he went to Greg, grabbed him by the hair, and
threw his head back. Caius leaned toward the fire mage so closely
that their faces were separated by barely an inch. The magician
smelled a whiff of burnt flesh. Perhaps the Judge wanted to scare
him, but Greg had seen worse sights, and he had often been the
cause of them. So he just smiled, and for a moment, the confident
expression on Caius’s half-face cracked. Greg could almost hear the
gnashing of the Judge’s teeth, but Caius pulled himself
together.

“
Then I thought that I needed not
just your death, but also vengeance.” The Judge released Greg’s
head and stood over him, looking down. “You gave me too much
trouble to get off so easy.”

The Judge smiled, and
in the next moment
the toe of his boot hit the magician’s chin, sending Greg reeling.
White flashes exploded and died before his eyes. His lower jaw was
numb, as if immersed in cold snow. Greg rolled over and took two
more blows, in the groin and abdomen, and found himself on his back
again. The Judge stood over him on one knee, one hand grabbing
Greg’s hair, the other hand raining blows. To Greg’s surprise, the
first few hits hurt, but then he seemed to lose sensitivity. He
just saw a small bloodied fist, a big bloodied fist, white flashes,
a small bloodied fist, a big bloodied fist, white flashes, over and
over again, but he felt no pain.

I’m s
orry, but that’s all I can do now.
Kill the pain.

“
Thank you,” croaked Greg. Caius
raised his hand for the next stroke, and froze.

“
You talking to me, Greggy?” The
Judge smiled, but his eyes expressed bewilderment. “So, you’re a
masochist bastard. Well, I’ll be generous and give you a bit of
fun.”

“
Enough!” Lazarus shouted. Greg
had never heard such anger in Mr. Bernardius’s voice. Caius stopped
beating Greg and laughed.

“
You want to take the place of
this magician, old man? Wait, I’ve been on your show, and now
you’re a guest on mine.” The Judge theatrically shook blood off his
fist.

Lazarus moved forward,
to
ward Caius
and Greg, who still lay on the ground. The bald Judge tried to stop
him. Lazarus whipped his cane through the air and knocked the
shotgun out of the Judge’s hands. The bald Judge rushed the
ringmaster. The two men, both lanky and lean, grappled, looking
like praying mantises, and after a short exchange of blows, fell to
the ground. Lazarus landed on top of his enemy and pressed his cane
against the Judge’s throat. The second of Bernardius’s guards
slammed the old man in the head and threw him to the ground. As
Lazarus tried to regain consciousness, the two men pushed him to
the ground and held him there.

Caius approached Mr.
Bernardius.
“Nice, old man. I could kill you, but I’ll let you watch
the show to the end.” The Judge pushed the cane away with his boot,
turned around, and went back to Greg.

Though his eyes were filled with blood and
sweat, Greg clearly saw Lazarus smile at him. It was the smile of a
poker player holding cards that would let him drop the mask of
equanimity.

“
I may need your
help.”

“
Anything.”

“
Who are you talking to, Greggy?”
Caius was amused and almost danced with excitement. He was two
steps away from Greg when something flew past him and fell in front
of the magician with a faint clang.

The cigarette lighter.

For Judge
Caius
, time
stood still for a moment. Behind him, Lazarus was grinning, and the
bald Judge, stunned, was checking his pockets. In front of him on
the ground was that damned magician, laughing raucously and
spitting blood and about to flick the lighter. Caius rushed toward
him, intending to kick the lighter away. He almost reached it, but
it suddenly sparked, and just as quickly, the spark grew into a
huge flame, as if the lighter had turned into a dragon spewing
fire. Caius recoiled from the flame.

“
Shoot!” the Judge screamed to
his colleagues, who were staring in horror at Greg. But instead of
shots, he heard heart-rending screams as a thick flame rose around
the magician and streamed toward the Judges. Caius did not see Greg
behind the veil of fire, did not see how his fellow judges were
burning alive.

“
Get the old man!” ordered Caius.
Lazarus was their only chance for salvation.