Shadow in the Snow

Midnight Flight

    Some semblance of organization had been formed in the circus before the day was out, though there was still not a lot of rhyme or reason to it. A few frustrated people with loud voices had just started yelling and telling people what to do and everyone, desperate for some kind of order, had just obeyed. La had been too focused on trying to find Crow again and figure out what was going on that she didn't much care who yelled what at whom and did whatever she was told.

    "Have you seen Crow?" She would ask anyone who would pause their work for half a second or looked like the sort of person that might know him, but they shrugged and turned away. One or two of them even spat at her. It wasn't until evening when the rain was putting a stop to most work that she found someone who was both able and willing to tell her something. An old woman that the circus had taken on a few years ago and who had always been kind to La, compared to most, and when La approached and asked her if she knew anything about Crow the old lady shot her a toothless smile.

"Aye, lass! I overheard everything." She stopped there and La waited for a moment, but the woman seemed to be reveling in her information and was in no hurry to give it all away. La bit back an impatient retort and instead sat down nearby, forcing a smile.

"What happened? Please, Olga, tell me. I can't find him anywhere."

    Olga was practically wriggling in her seat with excitement. "Ah, tis a sad tale! I'm afraid I heard not everything, but I have heard enough, child, yes yes indeed." Again she paused, but only long enough to take a drink. Half of it spilled down her chin and she smacked her lips together afterward before continuing. "He was working, your friend, and I was nearby. The Master came -- with men, mind you, some of his guards -- and said some very strange things. About snow, though bless me I don't know why they'd be so powerful upset about the weather."

    La didn't interject. If Olga's failing memory made her forget who Snow was then all the better since she didn't think it would be good for anyone if word got out that Snow had died. Least of all, good for Snow himself.

    "He also told your friend he failed the circus. Mighty risky thing to do, angering the Master, but I suppose Crow managed it somehow, aye. He said Crow had a few minutes to say goodbye and then he'd have to leave."

    "Leave? What do you mean, leave?" There was a sinking feeling in her stomach -- she had a feeling she was not going to like wherever this was going.

    Olga grinned. "After the Wyvern, of course. Master isn't going to let something go so easily, oh ho, no! He will have his revenge against the beast for what it did, mm."

    "Who did he go with?"

    "Oh, he's going alone, child."

    Alone? La stood up and slowly walked away, ignoring Olga's mad laughter behind her as she left, and she walked through the circus without even paying much attention to where she was going. Her mind was on the brothers. Crow had approved what they did to Snow, to bring him back from the dead, and that was surely too dangerous of information to keep him around. No one here would approve of necromancy and it would bode ill for the Master if his workers found out about it, so the Master had to get rid of Crow. There was no other reason she could think of to do something like that. Not when the brothers were so valuable to have together; manipulating one off of the other.

    'I'll see you later, Crow, hang in there.'

    Bitterness twisted her gut. Were those to be her last words to him? Snow had been granted a goodbye, if he really was alive now, but she had not been allowed even that. She was a simple slave, a caravaner, and her life meant nothing to the Master.