Mark of the Fool

Selina looked at Alex solemnly, earlier warm feelings draining away as she thought about the story her brother had told. What he’d said was horrifying, a tale of monsters she could barely imagine, invisible dangers and enemies so powerful, they’d even given Baelin pause.

And she’d always looked at the chancellor as invincible.

Then Theresa had told her story: of darkness beneath the earth’s surface, of powers trying to crush her and their friends…but also of wonder and triumph. Selina’s eyes were drawn to the mirror-sheen sparkling across Theresa’s blades as they leaned against the door frame to her and Theresa’s bedroom, catching the sun’s rays and the eye. She could see that something was different about them, something had changed.

Change…

She frowned at the bed she shared with the huntress; she was growing, but the bed wasn’t. With each passing night, it seemed to grow more cramped, leaving her wondering when she’d find herself on the bedroom floor as Theresa sprawled out and encroached on her side of the bed.

Maybe she could pretend to be asleep and kick her out of the bed a few times, maybe then she’d go and sleep in Alex’s room.

They’d probably like that, and she could end up with her own room and a bed all to herself. Mr. and Mrs. Lu’s angry faces appeared in her mind. No, they wouldn’t like that idea if they found out…

But then again—her brow furrowed as she schemed—they wouldn’t be mad at her, now would they?

“Why do you look like you’re hatching evil plans over there?” Her big brother asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She looked away from the bedroom, blinking innocently.

“Oh yes, you do. That innocent look didn’t work on me when you were five, and it won’t work on me now.”

“Alex, what are we going to do?” She asked sincerely.

“And changing the subject won’t help you either. Face it, Selina, I’m too clever for y—oh, oh wait you’re serious.” His big, stupid grin dropped. “What’s the matter? What are we going to do about what?”

“About the Ravener and all those monsters?” She leaned against Claygon. Clutching the hem of her shirt, she took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. “They’re going to hurt you—no, all of you—one day.” Her large green eyes looked from Claygon to Alex, then to Theresa and Brutus. “They’re going to hurt Khalik or Thundar or Najyah, Isolde…they keep getting worse, don’t they?”

“Yes but, we keep getting stronger,” Theresa insisted, patting Brutus’ head as he feasted on the beef strips. She strode across the room, taking her swords in hand, she spun them in her grip. “Remember those Silence-spiders in the cave? My sword couldn’t cut through their shells. I couldn’t do anything to that damned, Hive-queen. But now?”

She cleaved the air twice with the blades as each caught the sunlight. Selina blinked. Was it a trick of her eyes or did the air…look funny when Theresa slashed it?

“Now I can split Ravener-spawn armour that’s twice as thick as hers was,” the huntress said firmly. “Maybe three times as thick. Great-grandfather’s twinblade cuts twice for every slash, and it can also deflect magic. I can defend us.”

There was a scritching noise as Claygon wrote in his notebook. I am stronger. Will protect father. Will protect all.

“Yeah, Claygon’s stronger than ever,” Alex agreed. “I’m learning better summoning spells and other ways to defend myself and our friends. We’ll be alright, Selina.”

“Will we?” Selina asked. “Every time you tell me a story about the Ravener and its monsters, things keep getting worse. More people are dying, more monsters attacking, and they’re getting stronger too. You said Watchers died, and they’re so strong!” Her voice rose. “If they can get killed, why can’t you?”

“Not going to happen,” Alex tried to reassure her. “If anything tries to kill us, we’ll just kill ‘em right back. A lot of things have tried so far, but nothing’s succeeded.”

“I’m worried,” Selina said. “I wish I could help—”

“Don’t even think about that.” Alex pointed at her. “This isn’t some bard’s roadside story where the princess gains the magical power of friendship and destroys the evil dragon.”

“I don’t believe in that kind of stuff, Alex,” she said, more than a little offended. “But you learned spells in like a year and now you can fight. I can do the same thing.”

“Listen, the answer’s a hard no,” Alex was unyielding. “You’re eleven years old. The scariest thing you should have to worry about is whether you’re going to study for a test or not. That’s how it is, and that’s how it should be.”

She frowned. “No. No, you’re wrong. That’s not how it is, Alex. Ever since we left home, monsters have been trying to eat me. Those Silence-spiders, the demons, those clawed monsters at Isolde’s cousin’s ball. My friends tell me stories all the time about dragons and sea monsters attacking places that they’re from.”

Selina folded her arms across her chest. “If I’m old enough to be eaten by a monster, aren’t I old enough to fight back? Aren’t I old enough to kill monsters?”

Alex and Theresa looked at each other for a long moment.

Her brother sighed, an uncomfortable look on his face. “I…look. You know what’s funny? Baelin told me the same thing once.”

“Really?” Selina frowned.

“Yeah, remember last year when I brought you with me to the Art of the Wizard in Combat for a bit?” Alex asked. “Well, just before that, Baelin told me this story…well, the story’s a bit gruesome so I don’t think I’ll be repeating it here.”

“Awwww, I want to hear the story!”

“Well, ask him, then,” Alex spread his hands helplessly. “But the point is, it involved children facing some pretty grisly fates—as I said, gruesome—anyway, after he finished the story, he said something very similar to what you just said. That children can die whether or not they know how to defend themselves. You remember some of those lessons, right?”

“Yeah,” Selina said.

“Well, maybe a few more might be in order,” Alex admitted. “Now, I still can’t teach you magic yet: I’m not going against your teachers on that, and you need a good foundation of the theory first.”

“Okay, but what about after?” She pushed.

“Well, after that, we’ll see about getting you to the point where you can turn any demon that wants to make a meal out of my sister into ground meat.” His jaw clenched.

“And then!” She pushed, leaning forward. “And then I can come to Thameland, and—”

“Absolutely out of the question.” He firmly waved her suggestion away. “And you can’t blame me for that one because it’s out of my hands. Baelin, Professor Jules and the other administrators of the expedition only let qualified researchers and fighters join. And their standard for who can get in is probably going to be even higher after this latest incident. That won’t include little sisters, I’m afraid.”

“Ah, bah!” She frowned. “Maybe I’ll ask Baelin.”

“He’ll say no.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Trust me, I think I do…” he paused. “...at least I hope so. So! Your lessons on how to defend yourself are going to be restricted to training, and only in proper places.”

“I’m not going to blow up the insula, Alex,” Selina said. “I’m not stupid.”

“I know you’re not,” he said. “You’re many things, dear little sister, but stupid’s not one of them. But, the thing is, learning magic can go wro—Ah! You said the insula! That reminds me of something.”

He looked at Theresa, waving her over to a chair. “Honey, could you come here for a minute? I’ve got something I want to talk about. Something important.”

The huntress paused. “What…is it?” She frowned. “You’re not saying that you’re about to go off and do something dangerous all by yourself, are you?”

“...” Alex froze, like a deer caught in lantern-light. “Alright…so I have two important things I want to talk about.”

“Alex!” Selina snapped.

It is okay…I will protect, Claygon wrote.

Alex paused again. “Okay, three important things.”

“So, let’s get the parts out of the way that are going to get me yelled at,” Alex sighed, looking at the golem, the huntress and his sister.

Selina watched him closely. It’d been a long time since she’d seen him this nervous.

“Right, so there’s no easy way to say this, Selina, but we’ll be going down to the hells for a while,” he said.

“What?” She demanded. “What’re you talking about?”

She listened as her brother explained how he, Theresa, Claygon, and their friends would be heading to the hells with Baelin to learn to fight demons. Selina wasn’t sure which feeling was stronger: fear or jealousy.

“That sounds dangerous…” she said, when he’d finished. “But you’ll be with Baelin, so that should be okay.”

“Yeah, Alex, I’m not sure why you looked so anxious,” Theresa said.

“Yeeeeeah, yeeeeeeaaah, well…then there’s the part where I might have to go and uh…” He ran his fingers through his stupid-scraggly looking beard. Selina did not like that beard. “Well, look, I might maybe sort of kinda have to go down to the hells uh…without Baelin’s help. And uh…without uh…Claygon.”

“What?” Theresa and Selina exclaimed as one.

The golem flinched, staring at Alex.

“Yes…I know, buddy, I know,” the Fool said. “Yeah, I know, buddy. The problem is that one of the things I need to do down in the hells needs…a subtle approach. Baelin tells me that I won’t be able to bring many of my friends down there with me, and I won’t be able to bring Claygo—Yes, yes I know it’s dangerous, but I—”

“No, you have to take Claygon!” Selina pleaded. “He’s so strong, and he’s saved all of us!”

“Yes, but if I need subtlety, then that’s the one thing that Claygon doesn’t have. I can’t exactly go somewhere without you being noticed, buddy. And that’s not all,” Alex said grimly. “It’d have to be a small team that comes with me, and they’d have to be people that could go unnoticed.”

He scratched his scraggly beard. “And—I’ve been giving it some thought—if I go alone, I’d feel a lot better.”

“Alex, you can’t defend yourself as well as you’d need to,” Theresa insisted. “You need someone at your side.”

“I did think of that, you know,” he said. “Seems a bit foolish to train myself in all these group tactics just to muck it all up by going to hell by myself. But, you all mean the world to me—” He looked at the golem, the young woman and growing girl seriously. “—and so does the cabal. Hells, I’d feel like utter garbage if I got Grimloch killed on some dangerous mission. This isn’t like when we fight in Thameland, where we can just blow up all of our problems. It might involve sneaking and all that, possibly not bringing our full power to bear.”

He sighed. “But I was thinking about my summoned monsters. They fight by my side, they can appear out of nowhere and they’re expendable. Of course, I’ve got to summon them and I might not always have enough time for that. So…I thought, what if I get some people that were, oh by the Traveller, this sounds awful: expendable? Folk that I wouldn’t mind working with but—if something happened—I wouldn’t be getting half of my friends killed. Maybe mercenaries or something. I don’t know.”

Silence hung in the air.

“Alex, I’m not sure that’s the best idea,” Theresa said. “I understand you want to protect us, but the people you can rely on most to watch your back…well, that’s us.”

“Yeah, you should all go together, it’d be safer,” Selina insisted.

“Well, that’s the rough part, I can’t take everyone with me, so anyone that comes along could be in for a rough time of it. We’d be dealing with moredanger than we’d normally have to since there’d be less of us. It…just doesn’t sit right with me.”

Theresa put her hand on his. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out together.”

He smiled. “Thank you.”

“Gross,” Selina wrinkled her nose. “Now you have me super scared about what the third thing is. Are you going to tell us that you have to be demon food? Everything you’ve already said is awful.”

“Well, this one’s a bit different,” his eyes twinkled as they scanned the room, his mouth took on a wistful smile. “What would you say if I wanted to get us out of here?”

“Like go and get some lunch?” Selina asked. “I am getting hungry.”

“No, I mean, out of this apartment…out of the insula,” he said. “I’m asking if you guys would be open to an…upgrade in our living arrangements. Not right away, but soon. I’m asking if you might like living in our own place.”