The Snake Charm (Vestigial Tales #1) *COMPLETE*

Part 6: Out to Sea

R.H. Ragona's Circus of Magic opened their first performance in Imachara to a nearly full house. The music blared from the gramophone. Bil transformed into the gregarious ringmaster, holding his cane wide as he bowed and charmed the audience into loving him and the circus. The audience gaped, wide eyed and wide-mouthed, at the spectacles before them. The Kymri tumblers slipped onto the stage, flipping with a smooth grace all the clowns envied. Karla jumped onto the back of one of her cantering horses, balancing on one leg as it made a circle around the ring.

The clowns waited in the wings for their acts between the main performances. This time, Drystan was the one with the false wind-up key sticking out from the back of his white and pink motley, and Jive crept out cautiously to wind up the key. The white clown came to life, laughing uproariously in front of the crowd, leading the clowns to their tumbles to applause.

The aerialists finished the finale, and Drystan poked his face through the curtain to watch Arik and Aenea take to the tightrope and the trapeze far above them. They flew over the applause, their costumes glinting in the light. When they flipped, the other was always there to catch them. For a moment, Drystan envied them their easy trust with each other, and how the whole audience fell in love with them. But they each had their own part to play in this circus.

When they took their final bow, everyone in the crowd stood, stamping their feet. Drystan closed his eyes, breathed in the smell of popcorn, candy floss, and sawdust, and smiled.

*

Drystan saw Frit further along the beach that night after the bonfire. He padded over to her. Behind them, the mysterious blue Penglass domes glowed under the light of the full Penmoon, illuminating the granite buildings of the capital of Imachara behind them. Everything had a dreamy edge; Frit's tired face looked softer in blue and silver glow.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked.

"Just untangling the snarl of my thoughts, that's all, Drystan." She glanced down at her long sleeves, making sure they were fully covered. Drystan wondered how many bruises hid underneath the cloth. Bil had seemed kinder to his wife of late, and Drystan hoped that appearances weren't deceiving. He regretted never stepping in to help her all those many times before.

"Why do you stay with him?" Drystan asked. "I don't think he'll stop hurting you. I don't think he knows how."

She shook her head. "I remember what he was like, and who he used to be. Who he sometimes still is, when he's not full of drink and money troubles."

A feeling Drystan couldn't quite place flitted over him. Like he'd already been here, already done this. But not quite. Foreboding, more like. "I'm sorry to say this, Frit, but I don't think he's the man you fell in love with anymore. I think there's too dark a part of him now."

Her eyes met his, fearful. "Do you remember?" she whispered.

Drystan frowned. "Remember what?"

*

Frit paused, thoughts flitting across her face like shadows across the moon. Drystan did not know that she thought of a little snake on a round disc, and that she had discovered what it did. That Bil must have used it on her, all those times she hurt herself and not remembered how the bruises had bloomed on her skin.

She knew she had been as much as a victim of the artefact as both Linden and Drystan.

She remembered how she had pressed the Lethe into Linden's hand and whispered how he could use it to make Bil nicer. Or use it to end his rule over the circus. She'd left the decision to him, not wanting to take any more responsibility. Not knowing which end result she wanted.

And then Linden disappeared and she'd realized what her husband must have done.

It'd been hard to hide her tears. Often, she'd felt as though Linden was her only friend in the circus. He kept telling her to leave Bil. Sometimes, she even thought maybe he'd come with her. But she'd never let herself cross that line, never let herself dream...and now she never could. That guilt would rest heavily on her for the rest of her life.

She remembered coming to a dreadful conclusion about what she had to do to protect herself and protect the circus, and that she could no longer let others take that responsibility.

Frit remembered leaning over Bil while he slept, drunk, and prying open an eyelid, just a sliver, through which the Lethe could wipe his mind that he'd ever owned the accursed piece of Vestige and forget what he had done to the orange clown, who had just wanted to make the Circus of Magic better, and save it from crumbling to dust.

She had to do this before he did it again to somebody else.

It had been strange to operate the Lethe, like picking out a single thread in a tapestry. So many threads to unravel and then tie back together and hope things had not unraveled too much. All of it in her head, in images of bright green, purple, and blue. She hoped that, now he no longer possessed knowledge of how to make her forget, he wouldn't hurt her as much. She'd been tempted to reach deeper, to the older memories, with Bil a scared, powerless boy quailing from the large man above him with the upraised hand. The man he'd become.

But she hadn't wanted to erase too much and possibly unravel the Bil that was still in there somewhere. The man she loved.

Frit reached into her pocket and took out the Lethe. Drystan frowned at it, as if it seemed almost familiar.

"What is that?" he asked.

The ringmaster's wife smiled sadly, wading out into the water until it lapped at her ankles. "Something that does not belong to you, or to me, or to anyone else."

She threw it out into the sea.

**This is the last part of The Snake Charm. I hope you have enjoyed. Thank you for reading! There are more Vestigial Tales: The Fisherman's Net, The Tarot Reader, and The Card Sharp. Pantomime, the first of the Micah Grey trilogy, is on e-book and coming out in paperback in November 2016. Shadowplay is also in ebook and will be back in paperback in December. Masquerade, the finale, will be out in March 2017.**