“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Circus at the Edge of the World!”
Father was dressed in a red tailcoat with gold cufflinks and a green top hat. I’d never seen him in such an outfit in my life. But when he cracked the long, black whip in his hands, the audience of guests cheered. They were packed into the first few rows of stone bleachers in the Sky Shrine. Tim stood beside Father in the pit below. He wore black trousers and a green shirt and mouthed along to Father’s lines.
My job was to “ensure the guests’ safety” up in the stands. But it was just a polite way of sparing me from having to address the crowd.
I made sure to situate myself far from where the Bradshires were sitting but watched Olivia out of the corner of my eye. She was faced forward the entire time, enthralled with the circus.
“You’ve journeyed a long way,” Father bellowed. “You’ve seen the splendors of the jungle. You’ve experienced the sights and sounds of its strange and entrancing animals. Now prepare to see them uncaged!”
Father signaled to Zargo and Manray, who were standing at the back of the pit. With one great heave, they swung open a wooden door, and Longsnout and Bottlebee, our two tapirs, came in. A tapir is a jungle animal that looks like a tall pig but has a short, movable snout similar to an elephant’s. The gentle creatures looked scared, and the tail of the whip struck Bottlebee as he rushed forward.
“Please welcome the Talented Tapirs!” Father shouted. It wasn’t clear what talent they had, as they were merely being chased around the pit by Zargo and Manray.
“Why are they doing this?” Kenji asked from my shoulder. “They’re just running in a circle.”
“I don’t know, Kenj. The guests seem to like it.”
“Yeah. How come you’re not sitting with that girl?” Kenji asked. “She’s right over there. You want Kenji to get her?”
“No.” I grabbed her by the tail before she could run off. “Not right now.”
The tapirs disappeared out the back door and Dreyfus, the elephant, entered trumpeting.
“What did he say?” Kenji asked, looking confused. Dreyfus’s sound didn’t make sense to me either. It seemed like a noise he was forced to make, so it didn’t have any meaning. It was strange learning how this all worked.
Tim snapped his fingers and the elephant went down on one knee. He placed his boot on Dreyfus’s leg and took hold of his trunk. Then Dreyfus swung him up onto his head, where Tim sat between the elephant’s ears. The crowd loved this, and even I couldn’t help but be impressed. I didn’t know Tim could work like that with an animal. Dreyfus’s eyes rolled up in his head, trying to keep track of Tim’s swinging boots, which were carelessly dangling in front of his face.
The elephant seemed worried, but Tim was exultant. The guests cheered him on. I even caught Olivia applauding. I wondered if she thought knowing Tim would be just as exciting as knowing me. He was a Rackham too. And he could actually talk to her.
The other acts were all the same. Animals were ushered in, made to run around or be stood on, and then ushered out again. I’d never seen a real circus, but I’d read about them, and they seemed like more grand affairs, with clowns and acrobats and bears that rode unicycles. Our circus was just a circle where animals were let out of their cages.
Later in the show, Father stepped to the center of the pit. “Clear the stage!” he bellowed, and everyone left, even Tim.
“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen,” he called above the crowd. “I like to think you’ve enjoyed yourselves, but I know the truth.” He bowed his head sadly. “Our circus is but a little thing.”
The crowd whistled at this.
“No, no, it’s true,” Father repeated. “We can’t compare to the big top at Banister and West or any of the touring shows in England. We have no special acts, and our animals are trained to do little more than run in circles.” Murmurs of laughter from the crowd. Father smiled.
“I also know that you good people did not travel to the countryside for your holiday. You journeyed here, to Guiana, and that makes you a different breed. You came to find something that no longer exists in the old countries. You came to the Zoo at the Edge of the World. Here, we aim to impress.
“And impress we shall.”
The door at the back of the circus pit opened and the audience fell still. In the silence could be heard the creaking of metal on metal and the shouts of men.
A black iron cage whined its way through the door on rusty axles. The wheels were chipped and uneven, and the entire cage rattled with each turn.
Inside the mobile carrier were the three apes: Trébone, Blue Boy, and Screecher. Trébone sat there silently while the others climbed the bars and pounded the ceiling.
“What is your father doing with those guys?” Kenji asked. I could only shrug. No other animals had been brought out in cages.
“The chimpanzee and the orangutan,” Father began. “Marvelous creatures both. Stronger than most men and no less than half as clever, they are the knights of the jungle. They live in clans that number as high as a hundred and will fight wars over territory. They are powerful, savage creatures.”
Manray was pushing the cage around the pit when Blue Boy leaped at him, reaching his thick hand between the bars. Manray dodged just in time to avoid having his vest ripped off by the chimp, and he tumbled to the ground. The audience gasped and applauded.
“Yes, these are indeed the knights of the jungle,” Father said. “But this, ladies and gentlemen, is the king.”
More grinding metal came from the doorway. The crowd’s cheering quieted as they waited to see what would emerge. Even I leaned forward.
From the darkness came the Jaguar, bracing himself inside the bouncing cage, silent.
The guests around me rose to their feet. I could no longer see the pit for all the people in front of me.
“Of course, we all know the zoo’s newest resident,” Father continued. “The natives believe jaguars descend from a god. Take one look and you’ll see what inspires the notion.” He turned and admired the Jaguar. “It’s a terrible beast. This one killed an employee of mine; that’s why we captured him. Once they develop a taste for human flesh . . .” He smiled.
A collective gasp came from the crowd.
“Not to worry!” he said cautiously. “This wall is too tall for him to jump. Once we let them loose, they won’t be able to leave the pit.” A murmur rose throughout the crowd. “Oh yes,” Father said, his eyes growing dark. “This is the finale of our show.”
“Battle of the Beasts!” cried Tim, running through the back door and into the center of the pit. Father turned quickly to say something to him, but I hardly noticed. My heart was going crazy inside my chest. The skin on the palm of my right hand burned.
“A jaguar’s bite is the strongest in the world.” Father kept his calm, though the crowd was wild around him. “It can crack an alligator’s skull. How will it fare against three vicious apes?”
“Battle to the death!” Tim shouted again. I didn’t know what to do. Men were pulling sacks of silver and gold from their belts, making bets on who would win. I didn’t understand; these animals were in our protection. This went against every rule my father had ever given me.
The Jaguar looked calmly into the crowd. Was he searching for me?
The apes were raging against the bars. They knew what was happening. And they knew they wouldn’t stand a chance against a full-grown jaguar.
“Marlin!” Trébone hooted desperately. “Marlin!”
I had given them my word they wouldn’t be hurt, but my word was worthless, just like Blue Boy had said. I couldn’t control my father or anything at all. I couldn’t even save the little capybara.
I steeled myself and squeezed between the two men in front of me. I would jump down into the pit. They couldn’t release the animals if I was in the circle. Father would be furious, but I didn’t care.
An elbow checked me across the forehead and my vision went dim. The guests were packed too closely; they’d all moved to the innermost ring of the stands, and I couldn’t break through. I crouched and made to crawl between a tangle of legs, but a heavy boot crunched my hand and sent me scrambling back.
There was no way through the rabble. I wasn’t strong enough to barrel through them, and I didn’t have the voice to shout them down. I cast about desperately.
The big circus tent above us hung from two tall beams crossing the center of the pit. There were six support beams radiating out from the center to the back edge of the stands. The tent itself was made of wicker weave we’d bought from the tribe in exchange for a few guns.
I’d seen the tribesmen light the wicker on fire in little pits to use as smoke signals. It burned dark and smelly, but very slow. If I could set a small fire in the corner of the tent, it would smoke up the entire circus. I leaped up the stands to the back of the Sky Shrine and lifted the bottom of the wicker tent, rolling out on the ground.
The sun was hot and the sky was clear. The roar of the crowd came right through the tent and pressed me to work fast.
I hopped down the steps of the pyramid to the nearest exhibit, where there were three torches. We had them burning all around the zoo to keep out malarial mosquitoes.
The nearest torch happened to be burning next to the Sloth Cage, where Minxy was hanging upside down on his tree. He blinked at me. “Hello there, Marlin,” he said as I wrenched the torch from the stand.
“Don’t tell anyone,” I said, and bounded back up the steps to the corner of the Sky Shrine.
The torch flame was big and long, and I guarded it with my hand as I made my ascent. When I reached the corner where the massive wicker tent was pegged into the stone, I crouched and carefully let the flame lick itself upon the fabric.
“Catch,” I whispered. “Catch.”
“Master Marlin! What are you doing?” Kenji bounded to my side and tried to blow out the flame. I pushed her away.
“Are you crazy?” she shrieked.
“I’ve got to stop that show,” I said. “Do you have a better idea?”
“Oh, Master Marlin.” Kenji hopped up and down. “Oh no, oh no.”
The wicker browned. Then smoked. Soon, the yellow fire was dancing on the surface of the tent, growing bigger. I dropped the torch and guarded the fledgling flame with my hands, covering it so closely that it burned the skin on my right palm. But it was stronger now, and a light wind was blowing it gradually upward. Soon smoke would spew into the tent.
I grabbed the now-extinguished torch and raced it back to its place by the Sloth Cage with Kenji following behind.
“Torch went out,” said Minxy.
“Don’t worry, there’ll be enough fire to keep mosquitoes away.”
I leaped back up the Pyramid stone and sprinted to the opposite corner of the Sky Shrine. Once I’d rolled under the tent flap, I could see the first plumes of smoke rising on the other side.
Father and the men were tying lines to the doors of the cages so they could pull them open from a safe distance. They were just about to clear the pit when Father froze. He could smell the smoke.
Then a cry went up from a guest. “Fire!”
The Jungle Look was on Father’s face. He saw the flames now and waved the men away from the edges of the pit. “Put it out!” he shouted. “Cut it down!” But the smoke was everywhere now.
A wall of flames rose up before me. A swoosh of hot air blew my hair back. The entire east flap of the tent was writhing with fury. Black smoke streamed out along the top of the tent, and the flames roared like a demon.
I didn’t know what had happened. The wicker was supposed to burn smoky and slow. I had seen it a dozen times. I was there when Father bought it. Then I remembered a conversation he’d had with Drake Mandrian, a leader of the tribesmen. Father wanted the tent waterproofed so it wouldn’t leak in the rainy season and ruin his shows.
He gave the tribe whale fat to coat it with. The same stuff we used in our oil lamps.
A towering swath of burning tent tore away from its support and collapsed on a cluster of guests. They rolled on the ground and swatted at themselves to put out the burning wicker strands. Ash came down like snow, and the crowd pressed toward the main exit near where I was at the back of the tent.
The stream of guests rushed by me, and suddenly Olivia was there, grabbing my arm. “Come with us, Marlin!”
I pulled away from her and shouted, “G—gg—go!”
A man covered in ash nearly knocked me over, and I moved away from the crush of guests. The air was hot and it hurt to breathe. I crouched low to avoid the smoke and hopped down the steps of the bleachers toward the edge of the pit. The drop was fifteen feet, but I didn’t hesitate. I landed feetfirst and my ankles nearly went numb from the pain.
Father and his men were desperately pushing the apes’ and the Jaguar’s cages toward the great wooden door to the back of the Sky Shrine.
Soon I was at Father’s side, heaving the Jaguar’s cage over the lumpy dirt. I sensed the Jaguar looking at me, but I was ashamed and could not make eye contact.
“You lied, boy!” Blue Boy screamed from his bouncing carrier. His fangs were bared and he smashed against the bars so violently, I feared he’d break out and throttle me. Screecher was next to him, shaking and foaming at the mouth. Trébone just stared at me.
“I’ll kill you for this!” Blue Boy called.
Father didn’t acknowledge me when I joined him, but a piece of smoldering wicker fell behind my ear and he brushed it away.
The men pushing the ape carrier got through the wooden door first. Father and I struggled with the weight of the cage and the uneven ground. My breath was ragged and my arms felt full of blood. Another section of burning tent tore free and landed behind us with a roar.
The Jaguar reclined calmly in his cage, and we finally made it through the doors and into safety and the sunlight.
“So this is a circus,” he purred. “I have to admit, it was very entertaining.”