Carnival Souls

A Visitor in the Night

The pain in Lira's hand woke her. She fumbled in the dark for a candle, air hissing through her teeth as the action of striking a match caused the agony to intensify. In the flickering light, the burns on her hand looked even worse. She cradled them in her lap, wondering if she could go wake Atlas, when a scratching at the door made her look up. It was faint, almost lost in the sounds of the creaking funhouse and thick silence that descended in the early hours of the morning, but Lira heard it. At home she would've dismissed it as mice nestling in the walls, but in her four years here she had never once seen a mouse in the spirit world.

The scratching got louder and then became a tapping, like the first few hesitant drops of a rainstorm. Her door squeaked open. A small, dark shadow stood on the threshold and Lira raised her candle to cast the pool of light wider. Wide, gray eyes stared back at her. It was Lydia.

"What are you doing here?" whispered Lira. The little girl glanced over her shoulder and back at Lira. Her lower lip was caught between her crooked front teeth and the hem of her pale blue nightgown was twisted around one hand like a dish rag.

"You can come in if you want," said Lira. She set the candle down, wincing, and patted the bed beside her. Lydia closed the door and shuffled over, her bare feet rasping against the stone floor. Lira was struck again by how young she seemed. While she was only a year or two younger than Atlas, she carried all the uncertainty and naivete of a child that Atlas did not. When she sat down on the bed beside Lira, it barely sank under her slight weight. She held out a lumpy cloth. Lira took it on reflex and almost dropped it. She hadn't expected it to be cold; it was full of ice that clacked as she gripped it.

"I thought it might help your hands," Lydia whispered.

Lira smiled, feeling warmth spread through her despite the ice. "Thank you." She gently placed the cloth wrap on the back of her left hand and sighed as the cold soaked into the burn. "Thanks," she sighed again. The wyvern Bebinn had tried to get Lira to tame that morning had four claws on each foot, a vicious barbed tail, and mouth full of serrated teeth, but it was the gout of flame that spilled from its mouth that was truly terrifying. And though the crippling fear had forced her to subdue the creature-duress it seemed was still the only way she was able to control anything-it wasn't enough to avoid the last lick of flame that reached just far enough to caress her hand and leave behind a spray of angry blisters. Bebinn hadn't offered to heal them, saying it would sharpen her learning curve.

"Your music is beautiful," said Lydia, sitting beside her. "I've never heard you play before."

The corners of Lira's mouth lifted out of her grimace of pain. "It's funny isn't it, after all the time we've spent here you've never heard it."

Lydia nodded, mimicking Lira with a girlish grin of her own. The gap of her missing tooth stood out in the brightness of her smile. "Bebinn keeps us busy."

Lira sighed and shifted the ice to her thumb. A bead of water slid down her wrist and plinked on the floor. Everything always came back to Bebinn. But, as Atlas had pointed out, she now had her chance to talk to Lydia and find out where she stood in the carnival.

"And how is your-work-going?" Lira had no inkling of what the girl did or even where she came from. Frankly she knew nothing about her at all.

"Very well," said Lydia. "Bebinn says I'm improving all the time." Lira shivered and hoped Lydia would attribute it to the ice. She didn't like the sound of that.

"Can I ask you something?" Lira prompted gently. Lydia nodded and relaxed her grip on the nightgown, letting it spool at her feet. Her hands, now clasped in her lap, caught Lira's eye. They were stained. Big splotches of color dyed her bronze skin, almost as if she hand been finger painting and used the backs of her hands and arms instead of a towel. Were they spirit marks? Lira wondered. They didn't look like any of the others'. So, did it have something to do with her work?