The Midnight Circus, стр. 45

Hebanged the crook’s wide bottom on the floor three times. The guard tookthe crook from his hand. Then exhausted by the sentence he had passedon my hand— I hoped they would take the left, not the right—he lay downagain and started to eat.

Iwalked out, through doors opened by the shadow men, whose faces Iforgot as soon as I saw them, out into the early eve, made blood red bythe setting sun. I could hearthe patter of the faró’s sons after me, but such was my agitation thatI did not turn to warn them back. Instead I walked down the streetcomposing a psalm to the cunning of my right hand, just in case.

Thechittering of the boys behind me increased and, just as I came to thedoor of Isak’s house, I turned and felt the weight of wind from above.I looked up and saw an angel swooping down on me, wings fast to itsside in a perilous stoop like a hawk upon its prey. I fell back against thedoorpost, reaching my right hand up in supplication. My fingers scrapedagainst the nailed-up feathers. Instinctively I grabbed them and heldthem clenched in my fist. My left hand was down behind me scrabbling inthe dirt. It mashed something on the ground. And then the angel was onme and my left hand joined the right pushing up against the awful thing.

Angelclaws were inches from my neck when something stopped the creature’srush. Its wings whipped out and slowed its descent, and its greatgolden-haired head moved from side to side.

Itwas then that I noticed its eyes. They were as blue as the Gipt sky—andas empty. The angel lifted its beautiful blank face upward and sniffedthe air, pausing curiously several times at my outstretched hands.Then, pumping its mighty wings twice, it lifted away from me, bankedsharply to the right, and took off in the direction of the palace,where the faró’s sons scattered before it like twigs in the wind.

Twotimes the angel dropped down and came up with a child in its claw. Ileaped to my feet, smeared the top ofmy stick with dung and feathers and chased after the beast, but I wastoo late. It was gone, a screaming boy in each talon, heading towardsits aerie, where it would share its catch.

Whatcould I tell the faró that he would not already know from thehysterical children ahead of me? I walked back to my own house,carrying my stick above my head. It would protect me as no totem hadbefore. I knew now what only dead men had known, the learning whichthey had gathered as the claws carried them above the earth! Angelsare blind and hunt by smell. If we but smeared our sticks withtheir dung and feathers and carried this above our heads, we would besafe; we would be, in their “eyes,” angels.

Iwashed my hands carefully, called the minon to me, and told them of myplan. We would go this night, as a people, to the faró. We would tellhim that his people were cursed by our God now. The angels would comefor them, but not for us. He would have to let us go.

Itwas the children’s story that convinced him, as mine could not. Luckhad it that the two boys taken were his eldest. Or perhaps not luck. Asthey were older, they were fatter—and slower. The angel came upon themfirst.

Theirflesh must have been sweet. In the morning we could hear the hover ofangel wings outside, like a vast buzzing. Some of the People wanted to sneak away bynight.

“No,”I commanded, holding up the Rod of Leadership, somewhat darkened bythe angel dung smeared over the top. “If we sneak away like thieves inthe night, we will neverwork for the Gipts again. We must go tomorrow morning, in the light ofday, through the cloud of angels. That way the faró and his people will know ourpower and the power of our God.”

“But,”said Josu, “how can we be sureyour plan will work? It is a devious one at best. I am not sure even Ibelieve you.”

“Watch!”I said and I opened the door, holding the Rod over my head. I hopedthat what I believed to be so was so, but my heart felt like a marblein the mouth.

Thedoor slammed behind me and I knew faces pressed against the curtains ofeach window.

Andthen I was alone in the courtyard, armed with but a stick and a prayer.

Themoment I walked outside, the hover of angels became agitated. Theyspiraled up and, like a line of enormous insects, winged toward me.As they approached, I prayed and put the stick above my head.

Theangels formed a great circle high over my head and one by one theydipped down, sniffed around the top of the Rod, then flew back toplace. When they were satisfied, they wheeled off, flying in aphalanx, towards the farthest hills.

Atthat, the doors of the houses opened, and the People emerged. Josu wasfirst, his own stick, messy with angel dung, in hand.

“Now,quick,” I said, “before the faró cansee what we aredoing, grab up what dung and feathers you find from that circle andsmear it quickly on the doorposts of the houses. Later, when we aresure no one is watching, we can scrape it onto totems to carry with usto the sea.”

Andso it was done. The very next morning, with much blowing of horns andbeating of drums, we left for the sea. But none of the faró’s people or his mercenariescame to see us off, though they followed us later.

Butthat is another storyaltogether, and not a pretty tale at all.