Page 90 of The Deer and the Dragon
“It’s a permanent marker…” I muttered weakly as he drew with a speed I didn’t understand.
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before,” Fauna muttered, running her fingers through her hair and leaving them bundled against her scalp. “My invite-only wards aren’t enough.”
“Silas wanted to be overheard,” Azrames said, cap still in his mouth. “We don’t.”
He recapped the marker and breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped away from the elaborate design resting just beneath Fauna’s graffiti. His words were cryptic, but his actions were easy enough to understand. Whoever might want to eavesdrop on my apartment no longer had the ability to do so. I looked between my door and window to confirm that thesame thing had been emblazoned on both access points. If I had to guess, I’d assume that every window in my apartment now displayed a bizarre combination of what looked like little more than triangles and intersecting lines. Two symbols of the occult per entrance seemed imbalanced. If we were going to keep defacing my property, I’d have to ask them to add a third.
Now was not the time to worry about getting my deposit back. I hated that they were sitting on their hands while, if the angel was to be believed, we knew where Caliban was. “Okay, let’s go! What are we waiting for?”
Az’s voice was every bit as troubled as his face as he said, “Dagon’s credited with gifting farmers with the plow. But he’s mer. A Philistine fish god.”
“Mer?” I repeated incredulously. “You’re telling me this tiny town has a merman? And, just to be clear, a merman was put in charge of agriculture?”
“A mergod,” Fauna said appreciatively. “Look at the town.” And sure enough, at the center of the town was an enormous circular lake. Its perfect edges informed Marlow and the others in no uncertain terms that it was man-made.
“Wait,” Azrames said, stealing the computer from Fauna’s lap. His lips parted. I could hear the shock escape from him as air left his lungs. The gray of his skin shifted to a nearly silver pale. Every troubled thought seemed to click together all at once as horror crashed over him. “Holy shit.” He turned the screen, eyes wide. “Fauna…I can’t let you come.”
“What do you—” Her eyes widened as she saw it. She gaped at the screen for a few more moments, jaw slackening. She shook her head, “No, Az,youcan’t go! If this is strong enough to hold a god—if this is keeping the Prince—”
“Is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?” I hadn’t meant to yell, but panic bubbled over as I sucked in the palpable stress that pulsed between them.
Fauna opened her mouth to speak, but only a squeak came out. Her finger touched the screen, running along the circular lake. From there her delicate nail traced outward asa green line on the satellite image ran from the water like a spoke from a wheel. She continued to follow the path as the green line widened into a thick hill that curved into a small, unbroken mountain range of perfectly connected hills. The dark, intermittent cluster of trees on the satellite image had kept me from seeing its uniformity until her finger carved the path through the trees. The knolls ran through town in squiggles, hills, and intersecting lines.
I swallowed, hardly able to believe my eyes. The circle had to be miles wide. There would have been no way to see it without a bird’s-eye view. Within the concentric shape were several small hills, each mound creating dots and lines of ornate, intentional patterns. The only thing it had in common with my tattoo was the circle and the eerie sense of otherworldliness. I looked between them, realization dripping through me. “The town is a sigil?”
Voice as low as an oath, she said, “The town is a trap.”
The world fell out from beneath me as I asked, “Silas sent Caliban into a trap?”
No sound beyond our near-silent breathing interrupted the windless night.
After a long time, Azrames said, “I’ve never seen anything like it. To be strong enough to hold a god…”
“Why would he tell you?” Fauna whispered.
“What?”
Her freckles burned like constellations as they furrowed, face bunching in her confusion. “If Silas was trapping Caliban, why would he tell you where to go? Why would he give you the town name? Or the pantheon? He could have left the Prince imprisoned. This gets weirder by the gods-damned second. If it’s kept a god stuck in a town—”
“She can come and go,” Azrames said. “Marlow remains unbound, so the seal won’t affect her. If anyone’s going to be able to save him…”
“But with what power?” Fauna demanded. “How the fuck is a human supposed to save him? How—”
“With a shovel,” I said.
They both looked at me. Azrames folded his arms over his chest and rubbed his chin while he considered my words. Fauna’s fists went limp at her sides.
“Why can’t I just break the seal? Wouldn’t that render it useless? I mean, if Silas is some dark-horse hero who tipped me off to where he stashed Caliban, and it just happened to be a place where only a human can come and go? It’s fucking crazy, but it’s every bit as insane as your existence in the first place. So, if I were to dig a crack into the hills around the town…”
Azrames nodded. “We’ll go now.”
Fauna shook her head. “Let her go,” she said. “She’s human. The seal won’t hurt her. If Caliban is there, she’ll be safe within the seal. We can wait on the other side for her.”
It took him three steps to plant a kiss on Fauna’s head. He reached around to envelop her in a hug. “You stay here, Fauns. I’m not going to let you go into combat in a town you can’t escape. Besides, Marlow may be an eighth Norde, but she’s also the closest thing Hell has to a princess. I can’t let her go alone.”
She looked up with him larger doe eyes than I’d ever seen her use.
He exhaled into her hair. His hands began to unravel from their hold as he said, “I love you.”
