The Beheading Game

Chapter Five

John and the River

John, that was the name of the young man whose hand Anne had held during the bearbaiting, whose arm she clutched gleefully when the dead bear was shoved to the side of the arena and the wounded whipping man—maybe he was dead, Anne couldn’t tell—was carried out on a litter.

He’d whispered in her ear, “I’m John,” after they kissed, but before the musicians flooded the arena floor, dancing and playing joyful songs, joined by acrobats who contorted into crescent moon backbends and walked on their hands, and the same jester who’d thrown bread to the crowd, now dressed in a ruffled shirt covered with bells that jangled as he juggled two, then three, then four brightly painted wooden pins.