Drowning Utopia

Chapter 3: Cards of Fate

Tessa tossed and turned on her cot aboard Old Faithful as the circus train rattled down the tracks toward the city of Kenton. She couldn't sleep. Despite her best attempts, her mind kept bringing up Gray, the insufferable man who had ruined her life and betrayed her.

Was the old ringleader Marcus right? Did Tessa really need to face her past? Was it holding her back like he said? No. I'm not holding myself back. But even as she thought as much, she knew she was lying to herself. Frustrated, Tessa swung her legs out from under her blankets and rolled to her feet. Quietly stepping across the planks and the carpeted floor, Tessa turned up the lamp, changed out of her slip into some clothes, and pulled on her boots before wrapping herself up in her heavy coat.

Braising herself, Tessa pulled open the door between the compartments, a blast of cold, snowy air rushing in. Startled, she was instantly wide awake. Pulling herself out, she struggled to shut the door.

Adjusting her grip on the ice-cold iron bar that hemmed in the grated metal platform she stood on, Tessa looked out across the countryside that sped by.

Old Faithful rattled along just crossing over the Cerdon, a massive gorge that separated the northern states of the Republic of New Albion from its central states, a deep river crevasse with all of the majesty and despair of a gaping maw. Tessa knew the Erreou river flowed somewhere down there, but in the low light of the night, there was little more discernible than the faint noise of rushing water over the sound of the clattering train and the howling ice-cold wind.

Beyond the pass, the gap carved back up to the Condor mountains, their most eastern tip looming in the distance to the left of Tessa. It had been a long time since she had seen those mountains. The icy peaks, like hooded shadows in the distance.

Turning her attention back to her path, and with trained efficiency, Tessa jumped from the metal grate of one car to the other. Grasping the next rung of iron bars, she swung over the coupling before clutching the door handle and popping it open.

Car ten was one of the sleeping cabins for the troop. Only a single lamp hung in the center on a hook bouncing back and forth with a low glow. Racks of cramped bunks lined each side of the insulated car as she snuck through, trying not to disturb the occupants. Tessa could hear people snoring from behind several of the curtains, adjusting, one muttering something about the cold— before she made her way to the other side.

Again, Tessa opened the door, crossed the threshold, and found herself in car eleven. A monkey screeched in her ear with displeasure, causing Tessa to jump in surprise. The tiny spider monkey leaped onto her shoulder and tried to push the door closed, using her shoulder as leverage.

"Pompom!" Tessa chided as she closed the door for him, "You evil little demon! You gave me a fright."

Several people called out as Tessa reoriented herself. Her senses were assaulted by cheers and hurrahs; the thick smell of alcohol, food, and the motley of performers and stagehands filled the car with a pungent smell. Rex, the circus's strongman, was at a table to the left, challenging some newcomers and the runaways to an arm-wrestling contest. Marcus and several other men played cards while Donny took shots with Rufus, the animal tamer. Almost everyone in this car was rosy-cheeked and very merry at the expense of a keg of rum that had apparently been brought over from the dining car.

"Tessa!" Rufus belted at her unnecessarily loudly, sitting next to the door Tessa had just passed through, "Good to see you! Come, join in the merriment and festivities!" Rufus was a bear of a man from the old country of Lothian Rus. With his waxed long handlebar mustache and thick hairy build, he only had one volume, loud.

"Just passing through, Rufus," Tessa smiled, peeling Pompom off her shoulder and handing the squirrelly monkey back to its owner.

Donny laughed, holding up a glass. "Ah! But we could use another drinking buddy!"