Salt & Spice

Chapter 14

The sticky scent of fried food wafted through the air. Humans crowded everywhere, their bodies pressing together to form a moist, sweaty clump.

For the first time in her life, Honor lost the salty smell of the sea. She hadn't even realized that such a smell existed or it was associated with her home, but now a whiff of it would have been comforting.

Men called out to them from the stalls to play their game, buy their food, look at their trinkets. A man held up a string of jasmine flowers, imploring her to buy them. They smelled sweet and clean, far better than the hot oil that permeated the fair. Nassir shooed the vendor away and led her down the midway.

"I want to play a game!" Ismael said, wide brown eyes watching a ring toss.

"Don't tell Nosheen." Nassir handed him a coin. With a grin that showed all his shiny white baby teeth, Ismael ran to the booth. "She thinks it's gambling," he explained to Honor with an eye roll.

Honor desperately wanted to ask more about gambling and Nosheen's objections. Instead, she scanned the fair for any signs of the Sea People, or mermaids, as Nassir called them.

"You wanted to see the freak show, right?" Nassir drew Honor away from her thoughts. "Let's go now while Ismael's busy. They're not good places for children." He gestured at a tent down the way. Honor could make out large drawings on either side of the entryway. One showed a fat woman with wiry curls growing from her face. The other showed a man whose body ended at his waist. Maybe Nassir was right, and it was too gruesome for Ismael.

Her stomach floundered like a fish that had been caught on land. Shimmer might be inside, or one of the other missing people from her shoal, and she could save them. If she could just prove that this escapade wasn't stupid and misguided it would be worth giving up her life.

At the entrance to the tent Nassir dropped a few coins into a man's hand, who held the tent flap out of their way. Money was a clever invention. None of the fuss that came with the Traders and needing to procure an item they wanted in order to pay.

The tent was dimly lit with flickering lights outlining a semicircle as the only way to see. Rows of benches encircled the stage. Shadows danced across a burlap curtain hanging across the back of the tent.

"Go sit with the women," Nassir hissed as he pointed to a bench over on the side. There were only two ancient women occupying it. Honor slid in next to them.

Coral had been in a place like this. They left her with scars, both on her mind and body. Just being stuck in a dim, stuffy tent like this for years on end brought some of it into perspective. Everyone looked so normal. The people lined up to watch the show looked no different from Nosheen and Nassir, who had been so kind.

A man sauntered into the middle of the flickering lights. A greenish light illuminated him as he settled into the middle. He showed them a wide, toothy grin. Honor recognized him for what he was immediately: a shark.

"Welcome everyone, to the most fantastic show in the world! For our first act, from the deepest jungles in the south, I give you the sheep-headed man with no bones!"

Inside the tent sat a white man, or that was how Honor thought of him forever afterward. His hair held just the slightest yellow tinge and was teased into a nest on top of his head, complete with a bird. Skin as white as a cloud contrasted sharply with the sea of brown skin around him. His eyes were blue as the sky and twitched continuously as he gazed at the crowd. Only a loose pair of pants covered his body.

He looked well enough, Honor thought. There were no physical scars she could see. At least they weren't horrible enough to abuse their own kind.

He turned to show them his back, legs spread apart. Red and brown freckles dotted his body, which rivaled Nassir in skinniness. He bent forward until his head was between his knees. Then he kept going. Gasps rose from the crowd as he brought his torso through his legs, resting his elbows on the backs of his knees. He rose up and twirled to face them again.