will take that advice to heart.” Rudy sighed. “I can only hope I get the opportunity, Cora. This game you’ve chosen to play has put us in a precarious situation.”
“I know.” She rested her head against the temple of the large tiger-moose-thing. It smelled musky like most animals. But she didn’t mind it. She scratched the mother creature’s fur and tried to collect whatever comfort she could from the simple gesture. The animal hooked its head over her shoulder and let out that pruff-grumble that they seemed to make when they were happy. “I could have killed Ringmaster the moment I set foot outside the tower. I could have. But…sometimes how we do something is more important than what we do. If I murdered him then, what would be left to do? Scare everyone into obedience? Kill everyone who disagreed with me and start from scratch? What kind of monster would I be then?”
She kissed the animal on the forehead between its eyes. The creature nosed her again. Probably just asking for more carrots, but she preferred imagining that it cared, even just a little. “I want the people here to be my friends. My Family. I want this place to be my home. And if I’m supposed to—to be in charge of it—” She couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous notion. “Then I want to start it off on the right foot. I want people to know their opinions matter to me. That they matter to me. That I won’t throw it all away because I have some dumb crusade.”
And there she went, tearing up again. She growled in frustration and swiped at her face. If she didn’t heal quickly, she would have easily rubbed her face raw by now.
Rudy’s hand fell on her shoulder and squeezed. When she refused to look at him, he turned her to face him and pulled her forcefully into a hug. “And that is why I will follow you, not Ringmaster. You are able to listen to those around you. You have not chosen to cling to your worldview as if it were the only reality.”
He didn’t smell much different than the animal.
She didn’t mind.
She forced herself not to sniffle as she mumbled into his tattered shirt. “I don’t want to do this…”
“I know.” He held her just a little tighter. “But I know you will. Because it is what needs to be done. And that is why you are meant to lead.”
She would have called him out on more bullshit. But she just couldn’t find the strength. “You’re a good friend, Rudy.”
He parted from her a second later and placed a kiss to her forehead. It was a gesture between siblings. Between Family. “Now, go after that cretin of yours. Left unattended, I can’t imagine the trouble he’ll get into.”
She chuckled once, defeated, and nodded. “Yeah.” She looked to the family of tiger-moose. They were already bored with Cora and Rudy and had returned to munching on hay and going about doing animal things. “Gotta make me a leash for that one someday. Help him stay out of mischief.”
Rudy grimaced. “Please don’t tell me the details.”
She laughed. “I meant it rhetorically, not…oh, never mind.” She started to walk away. “Thanks again, Rudy.”
“Anytime, Cora.”
Twenty paces away, she paused and turned back to him. “If we win—if we get out of this alive—I want that pet dragon, Rudy.”
He laughed. A real laugh. It made her smile. “Consider it done.” He bowed his head to her and walked away, scooping up a broom where it leaned against the wall of a pen as he passed.
Strange man. Weird man. But the world was a better place for having him in it. She walked away with a faint smile on her face. And it certainly was better than the expression she arrived with.
She really should go find the Puppeteer before he got into too much nonsense.
If it wasn’t too late already.
Where was she?
Who was she?
Her fingers were hinged. Metal joined pieces of painted, carefully polished wood. She flexed them again and again, watching them bend. She had hands. She used to have hands. But not these ones. These were different.
But how? Why were they different?
She didn’t remember.
She didn’t remember a lot of things.
“Welcome back, little one.” Fingers brushed her cheek. She saw them, but she didn’t feel them. She didn’t feel anything. She was numb. She felt…like she was dreaming.
That must be it.
She was dreaming.
She turned to look up at the man who was standing over