"If your pursuers come here, Dasha, you know that you have the allegiance of the carnival and its denizens. I offered you sanctuary here, and I mean to deliver sanctuary. You will not be harmed while I am alive to oversee this tribe."
He shook his head, his dreadlocks whispering like serpents over the shoulders of his suit coat. "She is in agony always over her past... turmoil she will not discuss candidly even with me. I am at a loss of how I can help her heal."