Firebird

Chapter 10- My Family

Chapter 10- My Family

   I walked alone through the camp. I hadn’t paid much attention until now to how everyone set up their tents. The same groups set up on the same side with the same neighbor. Most of them at least.

   I had rarely been this far in. There were so many tents and the camp was bigger than I’d always thought. It was amazing that all this could be packed up in only a couple hours and put up in the same amount of time.

   I wanted to check in on Pheller. It was hard to get reliable information when it was being passed through so many people. I gathered that it was a game that someone through the line of telling others changes the story then when everyone has heard, they try to figure out who changed it. Basically, I had no idea how he was.

   His hadn’t been the only accident in the past few days (maybe longer, I wouldn’t know). A girl fell off the human pyramid. Calvin dropped a knife while juggling and has a nasty, deep cut down his leg. A tightrope walker stumbled and fell but, thankfully, caught herself by catching the line but not without popping her arm out of socket.

   Everything was a mess. Nor only with injury, but many performers were sick with colds and some, the flu. I’d gotten off fairly well so far. I only had a slight cold. Unfortunately, I could feel it slowly progressing into something worse.

   Pheller was staying with Gallagher and Miriam. It wasn’t hard to find them. I just followed the sound of a fiddle. This was normally the loudest corner of camp. But it wasn’t this time.

   A few red headed performers sat outside around a small fire and talked. Their conversation wasn’t as cheerful and they didn’t laugh consistently. Calvin played he fiddle slowly instead of his regular impossibly fast songs.

   I wasn’t sure which tent was Gallagher’s but I soon found out. Miriam came out looking flustered and exhausted. She smiled when she saw me though.

   “Hello, Bella. How are you?”

   “Fine.” I answered. I glanced toward the tent. She bit her lip.

   “He’ll be alright soon. He’s got a few broken bones but nothing that won’t heal. Don’t worry lass.”

   “Miriam!” Gallagher called from inside. The panic in his hardy voice was apparent. I followed Miriam as she rushed back in.

   Pheller was laying in an extra cot. He didn’t look much older than me but that didn’t mean he wasn’t. His sandy blonde hair stuck to his sweaty forehead. One leg was splinted along with one arm. He had bruises almost everywhere. That wasn’t what Gallagher was worried about though.

   Pheller was awake, squirming in pain. His breathing was laborious. Gallagher rested his hand on the side of his face and gently turned his head to where Miriam and I could see the back of his neck.

   I didn’t notice anything unusual at first. As Miriam gasped, I saw what was abnormal. His neck brand wasn’t the deep purple everyone else’s was. It was black.

   Miriam’s eyes filled with tears. I didn’t understand but a certain fear welled up in me as I stared at the deadly black mark.

   “He’s letting me go isn’t he?” Pheller asked. His voice was strained and raspy. He caught his breath and calmed, laying back.

   Gallagher met Miriam’s eyes then turned back to Pheller. “No. We’ll take care of you.”

   Let him go. That meant Chalavar would kill him? Fargus had told me we were bound to him… So that meant he could do that.