said Damla. Caina adjusted the leather satchel she carried, the strap digging into her shoulder. “They are,” she said, “Master Cronmer’s Traveling Circus Of Wonders And Marvels.”Caina had stayed in more inns that she could remember, and the Inn of the Crescent Moon, despite its Istarish architecture, looked a great deal like many other middling inns she had visited. It stood five stories tall, with the usual whitewashed walls and arched windows of Istarish buildings, though mosaics of gazelles and lions ornamented the doorframes. A wide courtyard surrounded the inn, ringed by a low stone wall.Currently, Master Cronmer’s Traveling Circus Of Wonders And Marvels filled the courtyard to capacity. Caina had not expected there to be so many of them.Captain Qalim’s vessel had been large enough for many passengers and cargo, but Caina had been so wrapped in her own misery that she had failed to notice. She rebuked herself. She was about to go into deadly danger, and failure to notice a single critical detail could mean her death. Or, worse, that she would not find a way to free Bayram and Bahad. So she looked over the Circus’s assembled performers.She saw jugglers tossing balls into the air and catching them.
