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As the lights went up on the tiger act, Dali breathed a sigh of relief. They had just a few acts left, Cloud was still in her purse, Batcat was with Tirzah, Blue was in the dressing room, and the show had gone almost without a hitch.
She refused to think about what would happen after that.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fausto bolt out of the left-hand tunnel and rush outside, but she didn’t think much of it. People were constantly running around backstage; their whole delicate balancing act of substitutions often required split-second timing.
Nor was she concerned when Merlin came pelting out of the same tunnel a few seconds later, carrying a coffee cup with his hand pressed over the top so it didn’t spill. Then she caught the look at his face as he stopped and looked around wildly. Something was wrong.
She hurried over to him. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Fausto!” Merlin said. The inspector glanced up, and Merlin lowered his voice. “You were right all along. He tried to kill me—he poisoned my coffee—he dropped the trapeze on us!”
Dali felt an odd shock of alarm and relief combined. An attempted murderer was on the loose, but at last, they knew who it was. There was no more need to jump at shadows. “I just saw him run outside.”
Merlin started toward the door, but Dali grabbed his hand. “Don’t go after him alone! He might have a weapon.”
“Right.” Merlin nodded decisively. “I’ll get a group together. You warn everyone else. And find someone who can do trapeze to take his part. The show must go on!”
“Okay,” Dali said, feeling a little dazed.
“And if anyone doesn’t believe you, send them to the men’s dressing room. I’m going to leave the coffee there. They can smell it themselves.” Merlin strode to the birdcage where Janet was watching everything as a parrot, opened the door and held up his arm for her to hop on, then went with her into the dressing room.
His confidence and quick planning made Dali feel better. She immediately got on headset with Kalpana.
“Fausto?” Kalpana said incredulously. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Merlin emerge from the men’s dressing room with three strong men, then knock on the door of the women’s dressing room. “Who else can do trapeze?”
“With Fausto out? Nobody. They’re all stuck in their shifted forms. We could cut the act to two, but they’ve trained with four. I’m not sure they could go to a two-person act on the fly.”
“You keep thinking about it,” Dali said. “I have to warn everyone.”
As she hung up, Merlin and his group, which now included three strong women, headed outside. Janet flew from his arm and perched atop her birdcage, her feathers fluffed up and her beak clacking.
Mr. Varnham waved at Dali. Reluctantly, she went to his desk.
“Er, can someone escort me to the bathroom?” he asked.
“Yes, of course,” Dali said, uncertain whether this was the greatest stroke of luck ever or the worst. “Hang on, let me get someone.”
She found Bobby Duffy, who was scowling at not having been included in Merlin’s team, and whispered, “Can you please take Mr. Varnham to the bathroom and back? And make sure he doesn’t see... anything.”
“Sure,” said Bobby, perking up a bit at having something to do. He collected Mr. Varnham and went out a side door.
Dali went around warning everyone who hadn’t already been warned by Merlin. She felt slightly silly crouching down and explaining a murder plot to a bunch of cats, but it was nice to not have to worry about Mr. Varnham watching.
“Hey!” whispered a girl’s voice. It was Caro, still in her spangled elephant rider outfit. “I heard you telling Kalpana you need another trapeze artist.”
Tirzah chimed in before Dali could. “You are absolutely not doing trapeze. For one thing, Pete already said no. For another thing, you don’t know how.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean real trapeze,” Caro assured them. “I mean I could pretend to be on a trapeze.”
“How do you pretend to be on a trapeze?” Dali asked, baffled.
At that moment, one of the doors that led outside opened, and Fausto came in. Before anyone else could react, Janet let out a screech of rage and flew at his face. Fausto went over backward with the parrot clinging to him, clawing and pecking. Dali lunged forward, sat on his chest, and pinned his arms, one with her right hand and one with her left forearm.
Then the solid man’s body she sat on was gone. Dali hit the floor with a painful thud. A flying squirrel wriggled out from under the heap of clothes and leaped upward, flaps of skin spread to glide away.
Tirzah snatched him out of the air and popped him into Janet’s birdcage. The squirrel that was Fausto chittered angrily, flinging himself against the bars.
“Can he shift and break it?” Dali asked.
“It’s wrought iron,” Janet squawked. “He’d squash himself. Stick him in the dressing room closet. I’ll go tell Merlin’s team we caught him.”
A clown took away Fausto’s cage. Dali held the door open for Janet, and she soared out into the moonlit night.
Pete came in a moment after Janet left. The massive cave bear was being led in on a leash by his “trainer,” growling softly to himself. Dali was somehow unsurprised to see Spike, his prickly green flying kitten, fly in after him through the open door.
With the same practiced ease that had allowed Tirzah to grab Fausto and get him in a birdcage before he could shift, Caro captured the cactus kitten and passed him to Tirzah, who resignedly held him with one hand and Batcat with the other.
Caro ran to her father. “Dad, I don’t know if you heard but Fausto tried to kill Merlin, so we locked him in a birdcage. That leaves us one trapeze artist short, so I was thinking—”
Pete growled loudly and shook his shaggy head.
“Not of actually doing trapeze,” Caro said hastily. “Of course not! I don’t know how. Um, and also you said no. But Moonbow showed up a little while ago, no idea why. Moonbow!”
Her miniature pegasus fluttered out from a shadowy corner, his opalescent wings seeming to glow in the dim backstage lights.
Only on a night like this would I not notice a miniature pegasus flapping around, Dali thought.
“So if we open a panel in the tent to let in some moonlight, he can go full-size and I can ride him, but the audience won’t see him because he’ll be invisible to them, so I’ll look like I’m floating in mid-air. And I’ll pretend I’m on a trapeze,” Caro concluded. “It’ll be completely safe. I ride him all the time! Please, Dad?”
Pete made a low rumbling sound that meant either Oh I guess so but be careful or Absolutely not.
“Dad?” said Mr. Varnham, stepping back in. “The bear is named Dad?”
Caro gulped, then said, “Yep. The bear’s name is Dad. It’s ‘cause he has a dad bod.”
Pete growled again.
“Is it safe for you to be so close to him?” asked Mr. Varnham. “He sounds angry.”
“No, Dad loves me.” Caro petted him. “Right, Dad?”
Pete nuzzled her with a tenderness that convinced even Mr. Varnham.
Merlin returned with the group he’d left with, with Janet on his shoulder, just as the tigers exited (Mr. Varnham shrank back into his chair as they passed him) and Pete grumpily climbed on to his unicycle and rode it into the spotlight.
Much as Dali would have enjoyed watching Pete’s act, she was distracted by Caro tugging at her sleeve. “Ask Kalpana if we can get moonlight inside the tent!”
“I’m not sure your father said yes,” Dali whispered.
“Well, I can’t ask him to be more clear,” Caro pointed out. Rounding on Tirzah, she said, “He really does let me ride Moonbow.”
“That’s true,” Tirzah admitted. “But...”
“Merlin, I can take Fausto’s place in the trapeze act by riding Moonbow while I hold on to the bars and—”
“—and he’ll be invisible, right,” Merlin said. To Dali, he said, “The big top panels do open.”
Dali got on headset with Kalpana and began hurriedly updating her on Caro’s idea.
Music began to play, and there was a burst of laughter. Dali glanced onstage. A very annoyed-looking Pete was now dancing on his hind legs.
“Oh, I wish I had my phone to video this,” Merlin said. Since few of their costumes had pockets, phones were stashed in the dressing rooms.
“I’m sure Pete will be extremely glad you don’t,” said Tirzah, then snickered. “Though I do have mine.”
“I have to get up in the rigging before Dad finishes dancing if I’m going to do this,” Caro said to Tirzah, her voice rising as she got increasingly frantic. “Please, please, please!”
Moonbow hovered in mid-air, madly flapping his wings. He gave a hopeful whinny, making Mr. Varnham glance around curiously; there were no horses backstage.
Tirzah gave a huge sigh. “Merlin, you’ll take care of her, right?”
“Of course,” he promised her.
“Go,” said Tirzah. “If it turns out Pete didn’t give you permission, it’s on me.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Caro flung her arms around Tirzah, then practically flew up the ladder.
Merlin kissed Dali, then ran for the ladder at the opposite end of the stage. The music stopped, and Pete ambled offstage in the scene shift lights. He glanced at Tirzah, who tilted her cell phone to display the message:
CARO RIDING MOONBOW. I SAID OK. HOPE YOU DID TOO.
Pete heaved a huge sigh that blew sawdust around on the floor and made Mr. Varnham give a nervous twitch, then sat down with a good view of the stage. His “trainer,” who had already taken out some kind of bear treat to feed to him, thought better of it and stuffed it back in her pocket.
“Opening panels,” said Kalpana over the headset. Moonlight flooded the stage, and Dali heard the audience go, “Ahhh.”
What followed was pure magic.
Kalpana brightened the stage lights only slightly, to enhance rather than distract from the silvery moonlight. Merlin soared through the air, his hair bleached to silver-gold, the light seeming to shimmer on his skin. He seemed to use the trapeze more for balance than for necessity, as if he could fly unassisted. Every movement was grace and strength and beauty combined. Dali could have watched him forever.
Caro rode her pegasus, now full-size in the moonlight, holding the trapeze bar or releasing it to catch another artist’s hands. She and Moonbow flew like a single being, her long black hair flying out behind her in an echo of Moonbow’s opalescent tail.
The three trapeze artists had to shape their act around Caro and Moonbow, and that meant slowing it down, focusing more on grace and precision, less on speed. The result was that they seemed to be doing a ballet in mid-air. It was the most beautiful thing Dali had ever seen.
When it finally ended to rapturous applause, the trapeze artists climbed down the ladders. Moonbow, again the size of a kitten now that the moonlight had vanished, flew down.
Caro was radiant. She hugged Tirzah, then Pete. Her father nuzzled her and made a sound that could only be interpreted as pride.
Merlin swept Dali up in his arms and spun her around. She felt as weightless and joyous and free as if she was on a trapeze.
Almost the entire company joined in the final act, in which the animals taught the humans to play tricks and tossed them treats. The mood of giddy joy continued as Dali and Merlin crouched onstage, letting a sea lion teach them how to ring a bell.
And with that, the show was over. Dali took her bows with the rest of them, and looked out across the ring to see a standing ovation.
Afterward, Ms. Moore came backstage to join her colleague. She looked completely different, practically glowing with delight. Spotting Merlin, she said, “I absolutely adored the show. I can’t speak for Mr. Varnham’s report, of course, but it’s obvious to me that this is a real circus, not some kind of front. You had a packed house that would easily account for all your income if that’s the number of tickets you normally sell—and I assume you do, because the show is brilliant! I’m bringing my wife and our daughter next week!”
Mr. Varnham also seemed much happier than he’d been when he’d come in. “I enjoyed it too. Your animals are well-cared-for, well-trained, and happy. My report will have all the details, but just keep up the good work and you have nothing to worry about. In fact, I’ll come back too. I’d like to see the show from the audience.”
“We change our acts a fair amount, so people can see it again and again and never get bored,” Merlin said. “So next week’s show won’t be exactly the same as this one. Just so you know.”
“But you’re keeping the flying scarf, right?” asked Mr. Varnham.
Tirzah, overhearing, said, “That’s up to the spirits.”
Once the inspectors and audience had left, the circus company and Merlin’s team gathered in the ring for a meeting. Janet, back in human form, carried in the birdcage containing a furiously chittering Fausto.
An uproar immediately began at her entrance, but was quelled when she raised her hand, looking around the circle with what Dali now recognized as her alpha stare.
“News travels quickly,” she said. “I know you’re aware of two pieces of news, one very good and one very serious. First of all, you were all amazing. We pulled together, we put on the show of a lifetime, and we saved the circus!”
A cheer went up, from which the Fratellis notably abstained, glaring at Janet and Merlin.
“Secondly, Fausto put something in Merlin’s coffee,” she went on. “Normally, I’d assume this was a prank. But he fled the scene instead of laughing it off, and no one who’s smelled the coffee can recognize what’s in it. There was also a previous attempt on Merlin’s life.”
The Fratellis began shouting angrily, but were again silenced by her stare.
“I’m sending the coffee to a lab for chemical analysis,” Janet said. “We need to find out what’s in it before we make any decisions. They should have the results by the end of the day tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m keeping Fausto under house arrest, since he’s already tried to flee.”
She opened the cage. The squirrel scrambled out, and immediately became a very angry, very naked man.
“I didn’t do anything!” Fausto yelled. Pointing at Merlin, he said, “I never touched his coffee! I never even saw his coffee! And I never ran away! He made it all up just to screw with me!”
“You were right there,” Merlin protested. “In the stage left tunnel. I caught you when I exited after my acrobat performance.”
“I was never in the stage left tunnel in this entire show!” Fausto shouted.
Dali, Caro, Zane Zimmerman, Larry Duffy, a pigeon teenager, and Janet all spoke simultaneously. “I saw you.”
Fausto stared at them, his mouth open. He looked utterly shocked. “But...”
“That’s enough,” said Janet. “Fausto, put on some clothes. You’re under house arrest in your room. Once we find out what was in the coffee, you’ll get a chance to give your side of the story.”
Fausto angrily pulled on a pair of jeans, then was escorted out. The rest of the company broke off into groups and began to wander out or clean up, talking excitedly.
Soon the only people still in the ring were Merlin and his team, Dali, Caro, Janet, Kalpana, and the magical pets.
Merlin hugged his mother. “We did it! We saved the circus!”
“Son, you did good.” Her bright, bird-like glance took in the rest of them. “So did you all. Thank you for helping out. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
“It was our pleasure,” said Roland.
“Speak for yourself,” muttered Carter. Then, catching Janet’s eye, he said, “That is, of course I’m always...” he seemed to choke on the next word, then finally managed to get out, “...happy to help a teammate.”
Janet chuckled. “Not everyone’s cut out for the circus. It means even more that you stepped up when it wasn’t something you’re comfortable with.”
“I’m glad I could help,” said Pete. “And I’m also glad that Dad and his dad bod are retiring to the zoo.”
Caro burst out giggling. “You don’t want to ride a unicycle again? Or waltz on your hind legs?”
“Never again,” said Pete with feeling. “And next time you need to ask permission for something, try to do it when I’m not a bear.” Then he patted her shoulder and said, “I watched your trapeze act from the wings. You were fantastic.”
She beamed. “Thanks, Dad.”
“We’d love to have you and your pegasus step in, any time,” Janet said. “But do ask your father first. And, Ransom, if you ever want to try a new career, we’d love to have you as a juggler. I’m serious.”
He looked at her, his dark eyes wide and startled, seeming to seriously consider it.
“Where’d you learn to do that?” she asked.
A shadow came over his face, and he retreated back into himself. “Nowhere as nice as here.”
“And Dali,” said Janet. “You were marvelous.”
“You really were,” Kalpana said. “Normally Janet runs things backstage, but you stepped into her shoes like you’d been wearing them forever. And they’re very big shoes. Metaphorically, I mean,” she added quickly, casting a glance at Janet’s average-sized feet.
“I do mean to retire, eventually,” Janet said. “Not from the circus, of course! Just from everything but Madam Fortuna and the talking parrot act. So Kalpana’s been looking for someone she can train to run backstage. If you’d like to join us, you’d be very welcome.”
Dali fought down a wave of emotion that threatened to overwhelm her, and managed to get out, “Thank you.”
Merlin, giving her a worried glance, said, “Mom, we’re all tired. Let me take Dali home. We can come back tomorrow.”
They walked to the car in silence, with Cloud in her purse and Blue ambling at Merlin’s heels. Or maybe Merlin said some things, but Dali couldn’t hear them. Her mind and soul and heart felt like they were tearing themselves apart.
Say yes, urged one part of her. Join the circus and stay with Merlin. Maybe you’ll like the life more than you think. You know you loved tonight!
Say yes, said another, darker part. Make him happy. It’s not the life you want, but his happiness is more important than yours.
Yet another dark part said, Say no. Tell him you’ll only stay with him if he stays here in Refuge City. He always puts other people ahead of himself. All you have to do is ask, and he’ll sacrifice his happiness for yours.
“No!” Dali spoke aloud without meaning to.
They were standing in the dark and empty parking lot in front of his car. Merlin already had his keys in his hand.
“Dali, please just tell me what’s going on,” he said.
She wanted to delay, to beat around the bush. At the very least, she wanted to wait until after the car ride. But she’d have to tell Merlin to drive her to her own home, not his, and then he’d know anyway.
“I want to break up,” she said.