6: Fools Rush In

"You must be Bandy," I said. "Looks like we've come to the right place."

"It's the last place you'll look, anyway," the dwarf said.

"I couldn't help but notice that you have some fine performers, but that there is no real organization to their shows. It is just act after act that people watch until they are bored and then leave. I believe that by joining forces, we might bring a certain je ne sais quoi to the show. We could generate real excitement. Bring people in to see something and stay until they do," I said.

"And what would you have to add to my circus?" he demanded.

"Magic, music, and dance for our performance end. Good direction and organization are our management skills."

"I'll try you in one hour. You'll perform in the circle. If I like what I see, we'll talk. If I don't ... Let's just say you should hope I like what I see." He turned and slammed the door of his wagon closed behind him.

Our guards pointed us to our wagon and we went to prepare the show.

"He's a filthy little pig," Legs grumbled when we started getting ready. "Are you sure this is where she is?"

"If we find she's not here, then we'll have to convince him to tell us where she is," I said. "Lees and Thorin, I hate to say it, but be prepared. Bandy does not like competition."

"His guards have reach on us," Thorin said to Lees. "We need to move quickly to get inside of them where their advantage is only strength."

"Let's go," I said. "It's show time."

We needed to pull out all the stops. We rolled the wagon into the center ring and in a flourish unfolded the stage side. Bandy entered in front of us while we set up, accompanied by some crawling creature that slithered beside him on a leash.

"From the frozen reaches of the Far North to the Southern Climes of this fair city, Bandy's Exotic Exhibition brings you the first performance in this area of Il Troupo di Stupo for Music, Magic, and Mayhem." I guess we had a new name.

We launched directly into a lively and somewhat bawdy song with Legs dancing as I drummed with my canes and the twins added their eerie vocalese behind my voice. Legs and I turned in opposite directions to bow and one of my canes rose to lift the back hem of her skirt. This got a number of hoots and howls. From there on, it was magic. We'd made up a number of props as we traveled, including what looked like a barbell. Of course, it was made of the lightest wood we could find and was hollowed out as well. Lees and Thorin carried it to the stage, making a big deal out of how heavy it was. Their stomp as they set it on the floor shook the wagon, emphasizing the weight. I flexed and went through a routine of trying to bend over while still supporting myself with the canes. I finally got them out of the way and set about to lift the weight, but couldn't budge it. I limped to the side holding a hand to my back.

Up on the stage came Saul. He was growing, but still looked pretty scrawny, especially dressed in the ridiculous caveman outfit Lees and Legs had made. There was a lot of laughter as he approached the bar and made a show of flexing his muscles. He bent to the bar and strained to much laughter. Then the bar moved and rose into the air as he lifted it above his head. There was applause and hoots. Saul took one hand off the bar and gestured to the audience. They gasped. The bar stayed steady. More applause. Saul stepped out from under the bar completely and bowed to the audience as the bar remained in the air. He stepped to the side and gestured to me where I was making mystical motions with my hands and finally lowered the bar to the stage. Saul and I both bowed. The twins ran from either side of the stage and leaped at Saul who caught them on his arms and held them up. It was a good thing they were so small, but it was like looking at a miniature strongman.

Legs and I went back into a routine of music and dance with some sleight of hand and slapstick thrown in. We did our finale and took our bow.

I saw the apple launched at us from my left. My sword was in my hand and the apple skewered on it as I snatched it out of the air and launched it directly back off the tip of my sword at the person who had thrown it. I noted it was one of the acrobats who had performed before and was satisfied when the apple hit him in the forehead. My sword was back in its sheath before most people had registered what had happened.

We jumped from the wagon, closed up our stage and rolled the wagon out of the little arena.

The last of the crowd had gone for the night when I was summoned to Bandy's wagon. Lees went with me while Thorin watched over our family. Bandy's big guards did not want to let Lees in, but I refused to enter without him.

"I'll deal with the mock guard later," Bandy called from within. "Let them in."

Lees and I entered the wagon. A lantern lit a bizarre scene before us. Bandy stood at the far side of the wagon, completely naked. His body and head were near normal size, but his arms and legs were short. His huge cock dragged on the floor in front of him.

"Suck," he commanded the slithering creature, also now naked. She looked up at us with a mournful expression on her face and then crawled across the floor to lick his cock up off the floor and into her mouth.

Cathy! She was crippled and reduced to crawling around servicing this bizarre little man. Once she was actively sucking his appendage, he relaxed and looked at me.

"I will pay fourteen shells for all your contracts and equipment," Bandy said. "You will be my indentures for seven years at which time you will receive an additional fourteen shells in severance. That is my standard contract. Take it or leave."

"I had heard you were a reasonable man. My sources were mistaken. We are not indentures but free men and women. We own our equipment and horses. We will work in partnership, granting you a majority ownership of sixty percent and collect the remaining forty percent as our fee for managing and improving your show," I said.

"All my performers are indentures. I own this circus. It is mine. Mine!"

"No wonder their performance is so lackluster. You stole their lives and even if they outlive their contracts they will have nothing to show for it. Do you run a business or only your ego?" I snapped.

"Do you really think you can walk into my circus and make demands on me? My guards will cut you in half before you are down the steps of my wagon."

"You forget that they are outside and you are in here with us," I said. "If you are dead, they belong to me." For the first time he showed some hesitance. There was a catch in his breath and he thrust his hips forward, gagging the damsel.

"Watch your teeth or I'll knock them out!" he snarled, grabbing her hair. Having someone weaker than him seemed to bolster his courage again. "Until we leave this city, you have a deal," Bandy said. "If there is no improvement in the revenue in three days and better crowds attending, you will turn and go North while my circus continues its circuit."

"Three days," I affirmed. He grunted and his eyes rolled slightly. Sperm trickled out the corner of Cathy's mouth.

"Lick it up, snakeslut!" he commanded. "Don't leave a drop on the floor." He turned back to us, suddenly very pleasant. "Shall we drink on it?"

"I only drink with those I trust," I said, bowing slightly. I looked down at Cathy. A tear trickled from her eye. Lees and I turned and left.

"Is there no end to how disgusting this world can be?" I asked. Our guards had not accompanied us from Bandy's door. I was constantly on the lookout for someone else.

"He owes his life to the Marquis de Sade," Lisa whispered. "If I had not seen what the last man I killed had done to those children, I would think Bandy was the vilest creature on Chaos." Lees and I made a wide circuit around the encampment, so we could talk in hushed tones. I was surprised there were no other guards around the camp. Only the two behemoths that guarded Bandy.

"We need to figure out how to get her out of here," I said.

"In three days."

"I think it is time to show a little more magic."

Whipping the circus into shape was not an easy task. The operating procedure was that performances went on all day long. People came to the roped off area, paid a pinch, and stayed to watch as long as they wanted. The acts cycled three or four times a day. Performers kept performing until they were either exhausted or the audience grew tired of them.

I zeroed in on one acrobat. He was the only one I'd seen who showed some real life. He'd thrown an apple at me.

"What makes you think you can change things?" he asked. "In three days you will be gone and we will still be indentured to travel and perform. Nothing will change."

"What would you do if you were not indentured?" I asked. He looked at me puzzled.

"I would perform. It is what I do. It is what I was doing when I fell on hard times and signed my contract. I have regretted it for over three hundred days and will continue to regret it for six more years," he said. "Better to have been sent to the mines."

"So, he beats you."

"No."

"He starves you."

"No."

"He forces you to do manual labor."

"Well, of course. We have to maintain our equipment and move from place to place."

"What is it that is different about being indentured to him and performing on your own? You would still perform every day. You would still have to maintain your equipment and move from place to place. You would be worried about food. You would need money. You would have no protection in numbers. Why is your life in the circus so bad?" I asked. He puzzled that for a bit.

"It's him," he said, finally. "He is despicable and lords it over the performers and servants. We are his cocksuckers, as he refers to us. His warriors keep us in line and are a constant threat. And finally..." He stopped and looked at me. "Finally, there is that poor woman. She can't walk, so he makes her crawl on the ground behind him on a leash. He calls her the snakeslut. She is fortunate his little legs can't carry him too fast for her to keep up. He makes her suck him whenever he is addressing us. We look at her and we see ourselves. Humiliated and used and bound to that evil little toad."

I nodded and we continued to walk around as I asked him questions about the acts and how long various people had left on their contracts. I was surprised to find that no matter how miserable, most performers planned to sell themselves again at the end of their contracts. They had no other way to exist.

"Lemiel," I said, using the name he had given me, "I believe we can work together to improve the lot of people in this circus. Though he calls you his cocksuckers feeding from the tit of his manhood, the truth is that he feeds from your efforts. He is verbally and emotionally abusive, but the truth is that you are all doing exactly what you want to be doing. And you are good at it. Help me to make a difference in three days and I will put my mind to improving the lot of the snakeslut."

He was reluctant and suspicious, but eventually agreed to help orchestrate the plan.

The first thing we did was schedule showings. There would be a show at noon, mid-afternoon, and early evening. Performances at night were next to impossible unless we managed to get enough torches to light the performance area. That would take some time to orchestrate. Not all performers would perform at every showing. There would be some difference between the two-hour shows. My own troupe would perform only at the evening show. I encouraged the various acts to also not use every trick they had in every show if they could help it. That meant that the three performances each day would be substantially different from each other and that performances from day to day would also differ. Next, rather than paying to enter at any time and leave at any time, audiences would pay to enter for the noon show and have to leave before the afternoon show. If they wished to attend in the afternoon or evening, they would pay again.

Our first day was less than successful. There was confusion regarding how long each performer should stay in the ring. There was further confusion in getting the audiences in and out of the makeshift arena. It was really nothing more than a roped off area with the circus wagons as a backdrop and a performance area in the center. People could easily stand outside the roped area and look over the top. In fact, a few pulled wagons up outside the arena and sat on them to watch over the heads of those inside. I was going to do something about that tomorrow. And I was going to reward the performers, though without Bandy's knowledge.

After we finished the last show, I circulated around the campfire where the cooks were ladling out stew to the performers and other servants. I quietly thanked each performer and pressed a pinch into his or her hand. Since joining the circus, the performers had received little compensation other than their food and security. The promise of further reward for improvements in our production brought smiles to several of the faces that had been doubtful.

Of course, I hadn't taken any of the reward from today's gate. I provided it myself. But tomorrow, if things worked the way I expected, I would be able to skim the rewards before Bandy ever saw the take.

The second day actually saw an improvement all the way around. First off, we moved our stable to the front of the arena instead of behind the wagons. This fenced off an area twenty yards deep and the full width of the arena that we filled with all the horses, the mules, two oxen, and a dairy cow and calf. People could still pull up a wagon and watch from it, but the increased distance made it scarcely worthwhile. People were lined up to get into the noon show and when two hundred had been admitted, we closed the gate. Sold out until mid-afternoon. When the season turned and we started toward fall, we would have to start the first performance earlier in the day, but for now, lengthening days meant longer performance time. Perhaps Bandy's intent was to move north again as days got shorter in the south.

We had a full house for all three performances, and many of the people who attended the late show had already been to the early one. The performers, having received some reward for their efforts yesterday, put a little more into it today. Some were actually asking for an opportunity to perform in all three shows. I skimmed ten pinches from the take for each show before it went to Bandy. At dinner that night, I distributed them.

Day three was an equal success and after dinner, I joined Bandy in his wagon. I hated to go there, but Lees and I stood as Cathy sucked the long dick of the deformed man while we negotiated. At no time had we managed to separate her from the dwarf.

"I want your indenture."

"No." It was a pretty simple negotiation. "Partnership. Forty percent."

"I don't need your partnership anymore. You've changed the way we did things. We'll just keep doing it the new way," he gloated.

"Do you think the performers will continue to entertain the way they have the past three days without me?" I asked.

"They are indentured. They'll do as I say."

"Precisely why I won't sell you my indenture."

"Your little performance once a day is not worth forty percent and I no longer need you for improving our take."

"I've taught the performers something else this week," I said. He thrust his cock further into Cathy's throat and moaned.

"What?"

"Not to give away everything in the first performance. I have taught you all you know, but not all I know." Bandy was becoming agitated and thrust his hips more violently at Cathy's mouth. I steeled myself to ignore it. Lees fidgeted.

"Thirty percent."

"Forty percent. Non-negotiable."

"Very well!" he snapped. He let out a mighty groan and flooded Cathy's mouth and throat with his spend. When she pulled off to swallow he swatted her head. "Clean it up, snakeslut." She immediately licked off his cock and then licked the floor around him. "Your cut is on the sidebar." I looked at the purse on the small cabinet and emptied its contents into my hand.