Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine, Kiri Moth

than done, Jonah.”
    Jonah flinched, and Ayar tried again. “She said there’s nothing to fear. We’ll look like fools if we run.”
    “Just because someone says there’s nothing to fear doesn’t mean you shouldn’t run,” said Jonah.
    That stopped Ayar in his tracks, and for a second the two of them stood in the middle of the yard under the yellow toadstool of the umbrella, with the rain coming down around them like it was going to wash them away.
    “I hope you’re right,” Ayar said, and went into the trailer, where I knew he would change into his regular clothes and come out to save anyone he could.
    Jonah looked calmer after that, though even from where I was sitting Ayar’s words had sounded mournful, as if he was convinced that they would be dead without Boss. Seemed foolish to me; who would challenge Ayar and live?
    I thought about Ayar’s clockwork spine. Would Boss have made him imperfect, so he would have to come to her for repairs? Did little breakdowns happen no matter what she meant to do?
    (I was closer than before, by accident; only because I was waking up. I was no closer to understanding anything about what Boss had done. You can never know someone else’s reasons. You barely know your own.)
    When Bird and Stenos went into the tent, a single umbrella hovering over them (he carried her), I couldn’t take it any more. I left my post and slid my way around the camp to the trailer where the aerialists lived.
    I knocked on the door. “Ying? Is Ying in there?”
    Fatima opened the door and stepped aside. I thought it was to invite me in, but then I saw Elena and knew Fatima had moved just so Elena could get a look at me.
    “What’s happened?” she asked.
    It was the least rude she had ever been to me, so I must have managed to look important despite myself.
    I had wanted to talk only to Ying (tell her to forget the troupe and get in the cook truck with Joe and drive out already, keep going, hide and wait until there was a new government that didn’t know her), but looking at Elena I said, “The government man is here. Boss is putting on the full show. He’s seen everything.”
    Penna gasped. Nayah and Ying stood up, like there was something to be done.
    Elena said, “Sit down and be quiet.”
    They obeyed.
    Elena crossed the trailer in five long steps, and a moment later she and I were outside on the rickety stair that hovered just above the ground, half-covered by the roof. I wobbled and was sure I would fall any moment. She stood with one foot on top of the other, arms folded, looking out over the camp like she didn’t even notice the narrowness of the ledge we were standing on.
    “What did Boss say?”
    “That there was nothing to fear.”
    Her lips were a thin line, and, suddenly brave, I took a guess and asked her, “Is this the first government man who’s done this to us?”
    She looked at me, surprised, like I was an infant who had suddenly mastered human speech.
    “No,” she said.
    “What happened, before?”
    Elena pressed her crossed arms into her chest until the metal groaned.
    “I have to get ready,” she said. “Some people don’t have the luxury of running around banging on doors and worrying people for nothing.”
    “So something happened,” I said, but she was gone and the door was closed behind her. Inside, she was snapping at the others to either powder their legs properly or join the dancing girls, who didn’t care if you looked sloppy.
    I met the government man on my way back from the aerialists’ trailer.
    He and his bodyguard (who held a black umbrella over the gentleman’s head) were coming out the front entrance. I was surprised—we were only half-finished—but too relieved to see him leaving to wonder at it.
    “Did you enjoy the show, sir?” I called. “You’re going too soon! You haven’t even seen the Grimaldi brothers yet, and the aerialists—”
    “Does your master always look for lunatics?” the government man asked, too sharply. His