Chapter

Twenty-Seven

Hogg had a cellar in his house, and he didn’t let Brin sleep in it. Quite rude of him, although the need to sleep underground in the cold in order to feel safe had been fading. He barely thought of Travin’s Bog at all anymore.

It turned out there was a [Cellarman] in town, and he was the one who dug cellars for everyone. He had the Skills to dig quickly and could do limited enchantments for cold, protection against pests, and to keep water out even with the town’s extremely high water table. Brin had doubted that the town would have enough work to keep a [Cellarman] employed. After all, wasn’t everything already built? But apparently he was one of the busiest people in town, with a backlog more than a month long.

Brin didn’t need any of the food in the cellar, but Hogg’s cellar was extra large and he kept other stuff down there as well. Shelves were piled with souvenirs, memorabilia, not a small amount of treasure, and what Brin was looking for: old adventuring gear.

There was a big hiking backpack, the same one Hogg had been wearing when he’d rescued Brin. It was too big, but Brin found a smaller black one nearby. Inside both backpacks were lots of divided sections, padded so that the things inside wouldn’t clink around. It made Brin wonder why Hogg would need that, but he supposed that even if you weren’t a thief, there were lots of times when you’d need to be stealthy and not have the things in your backpack clink around. What did it say about Hogg that he still put this much effort into being stealthy, even when he could make magic muffle sound?

He took the smaller backpack and put pliers, scissors, a file, and a small saw inside. He was hoping to do this without breaking or vandalizing anything, but better to not need something and have it, rather than need something and not have it.

The one thing he didn’t take was any kind of weapon. This was going to be an exercise in cat-burglary. As much as they aggravated him, this was still more or less his hometown. He wasn’t going to hurt anyone. If he got the choice between hurting someone and getting caught, then he’d get caught. End of story.

He considered a black mask. Would that help? Probably not. If anyone saw him at all tonight, they’d identify him by his build or his clothes even if they couldn’t see his face. No, his only chance to get away with this was if no one saw him at all. He was banned from town, so he had to consider this a hostile encampment. Even one witness would end with him at the pillory again, and this time he’d deserve it.

Was that why he was so willing to do this? He’d never stolen in his past life. Never, not a pack of gum, nothing. Not even a single time. So why was he so ready to throw that away and turn into a thief, not even at a suggestion but only the barest hint that there could be a reward?

It wasn’t even that he was angry at the town. Well, maybe a little, but that didn’t factor into this. No, the only reason he was willing to do this was because… he wanted to. He’d never done anything bad in his old life, and where had that gotten him? It was possible to live a safe, unobtrusive life, and then still die of a car crash out of nowhere. It wasn’t like he wanted to be evil, but it did seem strange that he’d never been just a little bit naughty.

He paused at the grappling hook. He needed to decide how he was getting into town.

The obvious answer was to go through the gates. They didn’t close them at night; he’d never seen them closed. People usually went inside when it got dark outside, so there was little chance anyone would spot him if he waited until a few hours after sundown.

But few people didn’t mean zero people, and the areas around the gates were the largest streets in town. The chance was too high.

That left another question. Prefit Elmon had all sorts of “town” Skills. Was knowing when someone crossed through the gate or over the wall one of them? He should’ve asked Hogg. Well, probably not. He already knew monsters didn’t really go into the Bogs, that’s why they settled here in the first place. What was the chance there was a town Skill on top of that? It was probably something he would’ve heard of. Also, Hogg wouldn’t have put him up to this if he needed to worry about something like that.

No, he just needed to worry about being seen. He should go over the wall. And that meant the grappling hook.

Did he even know how to use it? It couldn’t be that complicated; it was just a rope on a head with four hooks that could catch from whatever angle it landed on. It was still before sunset; he had some time to burn.

He went out to the trees and threw the grappling hook on one of the branches. It hooked on his first try, with only two slight problems. One, it was just a bit too loud. Hogg had left his sound circle up, and it went into the yellow. The other problem was getting it back down.

He pulled on the branch a couple times, bending it and shaking all the leaves, until he managed to scrape the hook off the branch and back to the ground, where again it made too much noise.

He tried again, trying to throw it softer, but it still made too much noise when it landed. This time, Marksi darted up the tree to check out what was happening. When Brin started pulling to loosen it, Marksi helped by nudging the grappling hook up and over, letting it fall. Brin caught it carefully, and this time the sound circle didn’t budge at all.

“Marksi, come down here,” he whispered. What was he doing? They didn’t need to be quiet yet.

Marksi slithered down the tree and Brin looked at him in his little snakey eyes. Marksi had just been a pet when Brin got him. A happy, cute little thing, but not smart. It hadn’t been until he’d fed the little guy a steady diet of magic, supplemented by Hogg’s illusions more than the man probably admitted, that Marksi had started to be more.

It had happened so smoothly that Brin couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment he knew that Marksi understood human speech. He’d just started talking to Marksi and the snake had understood. But Marksi had still been content to play the role of the family pet. He’d begged for scraps and scritches, he’d hunted insects and sat on Hogg’s lap, purring after the evening meal.

Was Marksi really happy with this state of affairs, or was he just acting the way he thought he was expected to? And was Brin helping him by treating him this way, or was he holding him back by treating him like less than he was? Perris’ advice about rainbow snakes had mostly been ignored, but never forgotten.

He needed to have a real conversation with his snake. Brin picked Marksi up in his arms, looked him in the eyes, and… avoided it. That could wait for another time. Tonight was about the mission.

“Hey, Marksi, we’re going to play a game tonight. We’re going to town and we’re going to play a game of hide-and-seek. Would you like that?”

Marksi immediately engaged his camouflage, blending in nearly perfectly with Brin’s arms. They’d played hide-and-seek a couple times, but Brin couldn’t find him anymore no matter how long he looked.

“No, not right now. When we get into town. We’re both going to hide, and we can’t let anyone see us the entire night. Even if we know them. Even our friends. Does that sound fun?”

Marksi turned around in an enthusiastic circle.

“Good! When we’re in town I probably won’t be able to see you since you’ll be too hard to find, so you’ll have to follow me. Can you do that?”

Marksi gave Brin an unimpressed look. During their games of hide-and-seek, he’d always been able to find Brin in seconds.

“Well, don’t be so sure. I’ve been practicing. Anyways, I won’t be able to talk to you in town. Maybe whisper when no one else is nearby, but we shouldn’t count on it. So I’ll need to give you signals. For example, say I tap on a door three times like this. That means I want you to go inside and open it. Can you do that?”

Brin tapped the front door, and sure enough, Marksi slithered underneath the closed door and opened it from the other side. He swung open with the door, hanging off the handle.

“Terrific!” said Brin. “Ok, there’s one more thing I want to try.”

He’d been planning to use the grappling hook to get up on a watchtower as a way into town and then leave it there for his exit, but now he thought he could use it for more.

He told Marksi to take the grappling hook and climb up a tree while holding it. It took a couple tries for Brin to explain what he wanted, but when he put it in his own mouth and mimed climbing the tree, Marksi understood.

The problem was that it was much too big. Marksi had a hard time climbing while holding the heavy four-sided hook. He managed to do it eventually, but it banged against the tree so much that it would be quieter for Brin to throw it up there.

He switched out the head for a single hook and had Marksi try that. Marksi climbed the tree with little effort and hooked it into the wood of a branch.

Brin free-climbed the rope, surprised at how easy it was. He’d climbed up and down a rope with Davi, Zilly, and Myra when they’d gone to the snake pond that one time, and while he’d managed, it had been difficult and awkward. This time it was as easy as climbing a ladder. He climbed up the rope, then down again, and then asked Marksi to pull it down.

Marksi had some trouble, as Brin’s weight had dug it into the wood somewhat, but he eventually got it out, and Brin caught it softly. Other than when he’d given Marksi instructions, the sound circle hadn’t moved a single time.

He called Marksi down and congratulated him on a job well done, giving the snake the belly rubs he was coming to enjoy so much.

“Ok, Marksi. When we do it for real, I won’t be able to talk to you. We’ll have to use hand signals. Maybe if I point up three times, it means I want you to put the hook up somewhere. Did you get that?”

Marksi didn’t get it, but after explaining it a few times and miming what he wanted, the snake understood and they practiced getting the hook up and down in absolute silence a couple times.

When they were done, it wasn’t quite dark enough for them to set out. He wanted it to be sundown before he even got on the road.

Marksi started acting weird. He kept turning in circles over and over. Then he would hold up the tip of his tail and twitch it towards Brin.

“You… Do you want to make hand signs you can use to talk to me?”

Marksi spun around in a circle.

“Oh!” said Brin. This was good. They didn’t need to have a big heart-to-heart. They couldn’t have a heart-to-heart. They needed simple communication first.

“Let’s start with that. It must be exhausting to do that every time you want to say yes. Show me something for ‘Yes.’”

Marksi thought for a second, then twitched his tail upwards.

“Ok, that’s ‘yes.’ Now show me ‘no,’” said Brin.

Marksi hissed.

“That’s an angry ‘no.’ Show me a normal ‘no.’”

Marksi thought again, then twitched his tail side to side.

“Great! So that’s yes and that’s no. Are there some other things you want to say?”

Marksi waved his head side to side, tasting the air with his tongue.

“I already know that one. That means you’re hungry,” said Brin.

Marksi spun around in a circle, and then remembering their sign, stopped and twitched his tail up and down.

Next, the snake slithered away from Brin. He made a chirping sound, kind of like the sound he made when he was scared, but it started lower in pitch and rose up. Then he darted towards Brin lightning-fast. He did it a couple times, and grew frustrated when Brin didn’t know what was going on. The next time he made the sound, he looked at Brin expectantly. Brin didn’t know what to do, and Marksi twitched his tail “no.”

It took several tries until Brin finally got it. “When you make that sound, you want me to come running as fast as I can.”

“Yes.” Marksi went away a few paces and made the sound, and Brin dutifully charged towards him full bore. Marksi was pleased.

“Ok, I’ll do it, but you can only use that for emergencies. Understand? Only when you’re scared or hurt, or someone else is hurt. We need a different sound for when I’m supposed to come, but things are normal. I’ll come anyway, but I need to know if it’s an emergency.”

They settled on another rising chirp, but this one didn’t have the note of fear in it from before. Brin demonstrated that he would come when Marksi made the sound, though he would walk instead of run.

The next thing Marksi wanted Brin to learn was a sort of hiccuping sound, which meant that Marksi wanted Brin to pick him up. That was a strange one. Marksi could climb straight up his body easy as pie, but if it was important to Marksi it was important to him.

“Marksi, are we… ok?” Brin found himself asking. Shoot, where had that come from? He’d said it before thinking.

The snake eyed him curiously.

Brin sighed. Why did he do this to himself? He’d already decided to ignore this issue, and now he’d gone and opened the can of worms. Well, no use but to trudge onwards. Hopefully this wouldn’t be as dramatic as his and Hogg’s heart-to-heart. He’d had enough emotions in that one day for an entire year.

“You’re smart, Marksi. I know I say that all the time. Clever Marksi! But you’re smart. Like, really smart. You understand me. Maybe not every word, but you get what I’m saying, don’t you?”

Marksi didn’t respond. He didn’t twitch his tail. His eyes were sky blue and looked like they had scales on the inside as well as the outside, but Marksi could change his eye color as easily as the rest of his body. He didn’t give anything away.

“Marksi, I’m trying to ask if you’re happy. Are you happy with me and Hogg?”

Marksi didn’t answer, but Brin could be patient. He waited for a full minute, for what felt like an hour, until Marksi timidly twitched his tail.

“Yes.”

Brin smiled. “Would you find a way to let me know if there was something I was doing that was making you sad?”

Marksi didn’t answer.

Brin had a thought. Marksi was smart. Crazy smart. But he was a kid. “Pick me up, feed me, come now,” those were all the first things that babies learned how to communicate. He was right to assume Marksi was smart, but wrong to assume Marksi knew things. He needed to simplify.

“Hiss at me if I ever make you sad. Can you do that?”

Marksi twitched his tail. “Yes.”

Brin laughed in relief. He and Marksi were fine. They really were fine. He’d known that, but it was nice to know for sure.

“Anything else?” asked Brin.

Marksi waved his head, tasting the air.

“Hungry? Me, too. Let’s get dinner.” He looked out at the night sky. It was time. “Then, we’ll go play our game.”

Not a long time later, he stood at the edge of the forest, Marksi on his shoulders. He would cross the fields to the town walls soon enough, but he wanted to take a minute and look out at the town.

His memory showed him pictures of breathtaking cityscapes. The view from his hotel bedroom the one time he’d gone to New York City on vacation. The city lights blazing in the night, the sight of the skyscrapers towering into the heavens, all of it looking like a turbulent sea of stars, it was a memory that would always stay with him, even now in another world.

The sight of Hammon’s Bog was very different, but somehow it felt the same. They both gave him a feeling of being grounded, of being in civilization.

The lanterns on the street were much dimmer than the city streetlights, but they still fought back against the darkness, providing order and comfort.

The first time he’d seen Hammon’s Bog had been at night, he realized. Hogg had carried him through on the way home. That’s why he was feeling so nostalgic right now. Hammon’s Bog had been his first real assurance that there was such a thing as safety in this world. Sure, seeing the Heroes had proved to him that it existed, but it wasn’t until he got here and saw normal people living normally that he’d started to feel it.

The lanterns lit up the night, but they couldn’t shine on everything. They failed to reach the shadowy places, and the way the light hit the smoke from the chimneys gave the town a lowly, murky sort of feeling.

It was a complicated place, and it gave him complicated feelings. The town had been good and bad to him, and now he was coming as an invader. It was enemy territory, and he decided he didn’t actually like the way that felt.

Only for tonight. He’d take his toll tonight, and then it was over. He would forgive Hammon’s Bog and love it the way everyone should love their hometown. That didn’t mean he was ready to forgive all the people in it. He wouldn’t pee on Tawna if she was on fire. But the town itself, yes. After taking what he wanted, any bad blood between himself and the town would be over.

The street lanterns seemed to wink a little as if to nod in acceptance. Or perhaps in challenge. He imagined the soul of the town nodding down at him and saying Your terms are accepted. Come and ransack if you dare; I am not so defenseless as I look.

Brin took a step forward, smiling in nervous anticipation.