Steadfast by Mercedes Lackey Read Free Book Online

choose from, it was no sort
     of choice at all. There was no place in this man’s act for someone who didn’t put
     out full effort, every time. Or who tried to cheat her way through a performance.
     “Of—of course,” she stammered, and he stood aside for her as she climbed the steps
     and entered a very tall, but incredibly narrow corridor. A young, blond lady in a
     neat green walking dress with matching hat was just approaching them, and the one-legged
     man hailed her with relief.
    “Suzie! This is the dancer who wants to audition for Lionel. Would—”
    The young lady didn’t even let him finish what he was about to say. “The girl that
     wants to try out for assistant? Golly, that’s a bit of all right, you turning up before
     I left! Come on, ducky, I’ll take you right to the boss!” She seized Katie’s elbow,
     even though there was scarcely enough room for one person in the corridor, much less
     two. “I’ll get you to the stage—oh wait, would you have a bit of a costume with you?
     That’ll make it all easier than trying out in street clothes.”
    “Y-ye—” Katie hadn’t even gotten the whole word out before Suzie was hauling her off
     like a mother with a toddler in tow, chattering the whole time. She popped Katie into
     a room crammed with dressing tables, mirrors and hanging costumes, waited while she
     slipped into her gauze skirt, mended tights, and tight bodice, took possession of
     her clothing and bundle, and chivvied her out, further along the corridor, and finally,
     before she was quite ready, out onto a bare stage with a couple of bright footlights
     shining up on it.
    There was the magician, half in, half out of his costume—without the turban, or the
     huge, fierce moustache, and with the greasepaint wiped off, but still in the voluminous
     crimson pants and wide blue satin sash. “Here’s the little dancer, Lionel!” Suzie
     called cheerfully, as the magician turned to see who had intruded. “Hire her quick
     so I can get married!”
    The magician snorted good-naturedly, and turned to Katie. “All right then, my dear,”
     he said in a kind voice that reminded her oddly of her father. “I can see by your
     costume you’re no stranger to performing. What is it you do?”
    “I’m an acrobat, m-mostly,” she stammered, and before he could command her to do anything—or
     she lost her nerve—she went through one of the shorter routines she did for the circus,
     a combination of tumbling and contortion, with a little dance thrown in for good measure.
     She had not realized that there was a pianist still in the orchestra pit until a few
     notes started right after she did; the man was good, he picked up the rhythm of her
     performance immediately, and ended when she did, with a flourish as she pirouetted.
    “Well!” Suzie said, admiration in her voice. “I’m off! I can’t wait to tell—”
    “Not so fast,” the magician said. “Go wheel out the sword-basket, you little minx.”
    With a laugh, Suzie went offstage, and returned pushing the basket in which she had
     been impaled with swords on its wheeled pedestal before her.
    “Now this is how it works,” Lionel said, leading her over to it by the hand. “You
     get in here.” He gestured to the giant basket, as Suzie helpfully pushed a little
     stair up to it. He led her up the stair by the hand, and she stepped into the basket.
     Having seen the act, she dropped down inside. Lionel leaned over and whispered to
     her. “Some of the swords have collapsible blades. Some you can just avoid. See the
     slots for them?”
    When she looked at the inside of the basket from where she crouched inside, she saw
     that, rather than being a real basket made of coiled rope, it was a cunning imitation
     of one, made of much sturdier material that had pre-made slots for the swords in it.
     “I’m going to go very slowly so you can get your skirt out of the way,” he whispered
     in further explanation. “I don’t want to