They filled the big tent twice in Ulm and might have stayed for a third show, but Giovanni made them move on. It was the first place they said they would try and come again. It was also the first place where the local bishop showed some hostility. Fortunately, they did nothing to accuse them of, and his spies actually enjoyed the show, so he did nothing to prevent them moving on. Most of the circus did not know this. They left happy and optimistic about the journey. Leonora asked if maybe Nameless or Junior did something on their behalf to fill the tent. Giovanni said absolutely not.

“My other lives are not allowed to interfere in that way. This is my life to live it well or screw it up all on my own. There are strict rules on how any life in the past or future might interfere with the present, but even stricter rules as far as the gods are concerned.”

“We have an elephant,” she said, and neither of them could think of any good reason why Junior would do that.

‘I guess when I was a kid I promised Otto I would show him an elephant. I think Junior did it mostly for me because I should know better than to make those kinds of promises.”

“What kind of promises?” she asked, sounding as innocent as possible.

“The kind where I have to depend on others to deliver.”

“Oh…” She tried not to sound disappointed, but she nodded that she understood. Then she had another thought. “I can’t believe you are friends with the Holy Roman Emperor.”

“Worse than that,” he said. “I may be his only real friend and everyone needs at least one real friend.”

“You are my one real friend. I don’t have any others.”

Giovanni laughed. “You have no friends in the circus?”

“Like friends,” she said. “More like family, like you told me. Oh, honestly, I love them all, well just about, and that is certainly like family, but it is different. You know what I mean…”

He hugged her and laughed again.

Giovanni and Leonora were soft and tender with each other in those days. They often touched and sometimes even kissed. When they got to Breisach on the Rhine, Giovanni said he had a surprise for her. He took her into the village. It was not what Leonora expected and hardly what she hoped for. Giovanni traded places with Genevieve who took Leonora all around the town, pointing out many things that had changed since her day, but many things that were the same. She talked to Leonora as woman to woman. Genevieve liked to talk and, after getting over her initial shock, Leonora got to where she opened up in a way she would never open up to a man.

In the end, it came down to one thing. “I want to be with him and no one else for the rest of my life. Why won’t he marry me? I dream about our children.” Leonora cried a little because he was not there to see her cry.

Genevieve thought about it before she answered, a habit she only picked up later in life, though she appeared to be around eighteen, maybe Leonora’s age. “One of his oldest and most sacred rules is he will never be with one of his little ones in that way, or even half and half’s down to the tenth generation. No matter how tempting that might be, he never will and I never did. I never even thought about that. You see, more than four thousand years ago, he, or rather she became a fairy for a period of time for reasons I won’t go into. She accomplished what she wanted, but during that time she fell in love with a fairy prince and they had a son. When she returned to herself, she spent the next four thousand years kicking herself because, while her son was ninety-nine percent fairy, he had just enough of the goddess in him to be immortal. And I don’t think he ever grew out of being a teenager, if you can imagine four thousand years of that.”

“Goddess?”

“No need to go into that. The point is, he made a rule and he has kept to it. The rule about circus people is like a reflection of that rule, I think. Others may violate the rule. That has to be judged on a case to case basis, but he will not violate his own rule. You are circus now and so he just won’t go there.”

She cried some more and Genevieve just had to say something. “You know, whatever you share with me he will also hear and see. This is his time and place. I’m just a guest. I was born in the year of our Lord 755. Want to know when I died?”

“What?”

“It is funny that I remember it now. I think it is because it happened in the past. It was around 820 because that is when I was born in Wessex as Elgar the Saxon. Would you like to meet Elgar? Wait, I know.” Genevieve vanished at that point and another woman took her place. She still had blond hair, like Giovanni had blond hair, but Giovanni’s hazel eyes that turned medium brown in Genevieve now turned striking blue. This woman’s blond hair was also much lighter, almost like a platinum blond. She said. “My name is Kirstie. I was born after Elgar and I’m not going to talk your ear off like Genevieve. Let me just say Giovanni’s a fool if he loses you, and that is all I am going to say.”

Leonora hugged her and they walked slowly back to the circus. After a while, Leonora did have a question.

“What makes you think he might lose me?”

Kirstie always thought before she spoke, or almost always. “Girls talk about forever all the time, but that is not realistic. Maybe he will get killed. The Kairos is not guaranteed to live a long life. I died young. Maybe your father will find you out. Maybe you will find someone else who will give you those children, not on purpose, but it happens.”

“No, never happen,” she said, and Kirstie was not going to argue with her.

Kirstie stopped their forward progress before they got back into the crowd. Leonora had another question. “Where are you from?” She heard all about how Genevieve was the Countess of Breisach before she married and became the Margravine of Provence. Kirstie said nothing so Leonora asked.

“Norway,” Kirstie said. “I’m one of those terrible Norsemen you heard about.” She smiled and vanished as Giovanni came home and added, “A real Viking who sadly died young.” he held his arm out for her to take. “Lind and Gruden were the assassins. Lind was a short one and Gruden a great big man with a sword. I killed them twice now.”

“Twice?”

“Kirstie killed them, though it cost her life to do it. Actually, she had a busted side and many broken bones and still managed. Then Yasmina after Kirstie killed them again when they were trying to mess up history.”

Leonora nodded. “You said keeping history on track was the main thing. but how could they have been in both places?”

“The Masters, whoever they are, have learned how to give their servants another life. Through them they can really mess things up if I am not careful.”

“The Masters?”

“Demons from the pit of Hell is what I think.”

“And they want to change history?”

“Well, let’s just say they certainly don’t want a good outcome. Don’t worry about it. Look, it is after noon. We have a performance to get to.”

“Oh!” Leonora jumped. “I have to get in costume. I have to get my face on.” She ran off.

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Monday

The circus heads to the capital of the Hoy Roman Empire and Leonora fears she will be caught. Until Monday, Happy Reading

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