Justin Fisher - The Gold Thief

There were agreeable rumblings from the troupe, but at the mention of Ned’s parents, Jonny Magik’s easy manner slid from his face. If Ned didn’t know any better, he’d think the man was visibly sweating, and as Ned drew nearer, peering at him, the shaman recoiled. It was a slight enough movement to go unnoticed by most, but it was there nonetheless and Benissimo had spotted it too.

“That indigestion still bothering you, Jonny?” asked the Ringmaster.

“Oh, you know, Bene, it comes and goes,” he winced, now seemingly quite unable to meet Ned’s eyes.

“Why don’t you go and have one of your rests, eh? The two of you can catch up later,” said a concerned Benissimo, before ushering the man away.

As soon as he was gone, the Ringmaster turned his attention to the troupe.

“Right, you lot, back to work – there’s tents need pitching and Darklings that need feeding.”

“But, Ned, boss, we just got him back,” they murmured.

“Well, he’s not going anywhere, is he? Now go on – hop to it!”

Reluctantly the gathered troupe disbanded. Even Alice finally did as she was told, leaving Ned with Benissimo, George and Lucy.

“Ned, we need to talk, alone,” said Benissimo.

Lucy frowned, then pursed her lips into an expression that clearly said, “I don’t think so.” George, on the other hand, let his face fall into a wrinkly plea, albeit a silent one.

The Ringmaster’s moustache twitched. It was a thinking twitch and only a little irritated. He looked to Lucy, then George, then back to Lucy again before settling on Ned.

“Oh, very well. The three of you – my quarters in ten minutes.”

Whatever had just happened with the new guy, Ned was quite sure that it had little to do with indigestion. It had felt and looked much more to him like Jonny Magik was uneasy with the mention of his parents. But why?

Before he could ask anyone about it, they were interrupted by the pattering of two very small feet. Ned turned to see an out-of-breath gnome who had come running over from the Glimmerman’s tent.

“Your friends, sir, the jossers,” he breathed. “They’re awake and I think they would appreciate your company.”

iant apes are generally considered to be quite alarming, especially when they talk. So George waited outside whilst Ned and Lucy went in to see Gummy and Arch. Laid out on two makeshift stretchers and surrounded by all manner of fried and sugared treats were his two pals. Gummy’s eyes were as wide as saucers and his mouth was opening and closing like a mute goldfish. Archie, on the other hand, seemed to have recovered from his fainting spell and was talking to Abigail excitedly.

The rest of the Glimmerman’s mirrors had now been covered up with intricately decorated tapestries, giving the whole dimly lit scene the feeling of being inside a giant Persian rug. Had either of the two jossers the eyes to notice, they would have seen that the patterns in the tapestries were moving, in hypnotic calm-inducing rhythms of colours and shapes.

“Trig-ono-metry, is it, dear?” nodded Abi patiently.

“Yeah, there’s probably loads of stuff you lot don’t know about, like pistachio ice-cream, do you have pistachio ice-cream?!”

“Oh, I think so, dear, yes, I think we’ve got plenty of pistachio ice-cream.” Which was when Abigail turned to Ned and Lucy. “Poor lad, his mind is completely frazzled, haven’t seen a josser this bad since, well, you , Master Ned.”

Her words seemed to have no effect on Archie at all and as soon as he spotted Ned he broke into a manic, over-enthusiastic smile.

“Hello, Ned! I knew you were a wizard. You’re all wizards here, aren’t you? You know, we always knew you were a bit different, brilliant but different. Imagine that, our friend Ned, a wizard .”

“You all right, Arch?”

“All right? Couldn’t be better! Everyone’s been so nice and, and the food’s amazing. Is it magic too?”

“Arch, this is Lucy, she’s a good friend of mine.”

At this point Archie was smiling so much that it looked as though it might actually hurt.

“Hello, Lucy! Are you a wizard?”

Lucy was about to laugh when Ned kicked her ankle. Despite his amusing condition, he was still Ned’s friend.

“Err, no, Arch. I’d probably be more of a witch than anything else, or at least something like that.”

Whilst the two of them spoke, an increasingly concerned Ned turned to Abigail. “Are they going to be all right?” he asked.

“Course they are, dear. Seen this lots of times. The Tinker’s sent over a de-rememberer. I think you should do the honours, Ned, they’re your pals after all.”

She handed him a long thin silver device that looked a lot like a flute, which of course it wasn’t.

“Me?! Can’t Tinks do it?”

“He’s in a bit of a state, love, what with all the trouble we’ve been having. Besides, it’s you they need to forget.”

Ned swallowed. Of course it was. The less they remembered of Ned, the safer they would be back amongst the jossers. By now there was probably a squad of pinstripes doing the exact same thing to Gummy’s parents. He looked at the Tinker’s device. He’d never actually used one before; on its side was a series of numbers from one to ten.

“How does it work?”

“Well, dear, you blow through it, and they fall asleep for just a little while, and when they wake up they’ve forgotten you, and anything that happened with you. Like, say, encountering a bargeist and the Circus of Marvels. A ten’s a total wipe. They’d never even recognise you, not never. After that it gets a bit muddy. If you set it to seven, say, they’d probably only forget you for a year, maybe longer. Just till everything quietens down.”

“But they’re … they’re my friends.”

Abigail put her arm round his shoulders.

“Yes, dear, I know they are, and you need to love them right now, enough to keep ’em safe.”

Archie was still prattling on manically and Gummy was looking more and more like a goldfish by the minute. They were the two best things about his life as a josser. And now, like his mum and dad, he was going to lose them, if only for a year or so. What if they found a new Ned? New Ned or not, though, there were more important things at stake.

“A real friend would want them safe forever,” he said. “Maybe I should just set it to ten and be done with it?”

Ned clicked the dial. He did love them enough to keep them safe, but far too much, he realised, to let them go forever.

“Seven will have to do.” He gently pulled Lucy to one side and got down on his knees in front of Archie. “Arch?”

“Yes, my wizard friend?” answered Archie proudly.

“Arch, I’m going to say goodbye now. This machine is going to make you forget me, but I’m never going to forget you. When all this is over, I’ll come and find you and we’ll start over, OK?”

“Whatever you say, wizard. I think you’re magic!” saluted his excitable friend.

“I think you’re magic too,” said Ned sadly, and blew very softly through the de-rememberer.

Archie closed his eyes and began to snore.

Heart heavy, Ned turned to his other friend and made ready to say goodbye.

utside the tent again, Ned felt his knees turn to jelly. Being separated from the ones you love was not new to him – if anything, it had been the one constant he’d had in his life. But being forgotten? Being forgotten felt empty and cruel, even if he knew that his friends wouldn’t mind. The truth was that they wouldn’t even know. At least he’d get them back, he hoped, eventually. What upset him, what made his blood boil, was that he still didn’t know why . Why had his home been assaulted and why hadn’t he been warned?