Marduk’s Mark [14]
Divided
Reysha was worried. She paced around the room as Karlos breathed quietly and rhythmically while sleeping. She looked out the window, noticing the first rays of the sun cutting through the clouds as a new day began to break through the darkness of what had possibly been the longest, most heart-wrenching night of her life.
She kept staring out the window, worried for her mother and her brother. She couldn’t help feeling a deep sense of worry but she did her best to remain calm. She went back to Karlos and rested the left side of her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, comforting herself in the knowledge that he would soon recover, but also frustrated that he was so sound asleep! “I shouldn’t have given him the tille and e’hal infusion,” she whispered to herself.
Meanwhile, Gerhalt found himself at a loss. He had managed to escape from the guards, hiding behind a pile of construction supplies that had been left on top of a half-constructed lighthouse by the harbor. They were some eight or nine blocks away from their house. That wasn’t the main problem though. He looked to his right, where his mother was sitting, breathing slowly, still dazed from her encounter with the guards.
“I should know you,” she said. Gerhalt grimaced as they replayed the scene for the third time. “You remind me of Gerald,” she said.
“I’m Gerhalt,” he said. “Gerald’s son; your son!” he protested, eyes welling up as he did his best to hold tears back.
Xandra stared at him, trying painfully hard to recognize him. Gerhalt felt so frustrated! How could the Mark had advanced so quickly! Karlos had told them; he knew a victim of the Mark would suffer mental damage, that memories would be uneven and untrustworthy, that they may even forget those dear to them. He knew it was supposed to happen but why did it have to occur so quickly? He looked at her, then at the Mark that had appeared on her forehead. That’s probably the reason, he thought to himself. The Wayward Deelamn say that the Mark has different effects and that it progresses differently depending on where it appeared. In Xandra’s case, the Mark had appeared on her forehead, right where her mind should be. Gerhalt couldn’t contain his frustration and punched the rough cement where they were sitting, hurting his knuckles, his blood staining the floor.
Xandra was startled by the rough motion and looked in his direction. “You’ve hurt yourself,” she told him. Gerhalt looked at her again and smiled. Whether she could remember him or not, she was still his mother and he didn’t want her to worry for him.
“Just get some rest,” he told her. “I have some bandages to apply back home.” Xandra looked at him quizzically but didn’t press the issue. Her body felt too heavy for her, too slow. She sat with her arms hugging her knees in a childlike manner with her back against a wall and rested her head between her kneecaps. Her eyelids felt as heavy as the rest of her body and she really couldn’t think of a reason to fight the urge to close them.
Gerhalt was trying to come up with some sort of strategy. He kept tracing the streets in his mind, trying to remember as much detail as possible about all the features, every nook and cranny, every stall and every rooftop. He knew the guards were probably looking for them right now, or at the very least, they were probably organizing themselves for a big hunt. Just perfect, he thought to himself. This big old mess just had to happen on the pre-Inspection night, right when they had a Threed to help them out.
“This is just great,” he said out loud. Xandra heard his remark but didn’t even lift her head to look at him.
Back in the Neeves household, Karlos opened his eyes slowly, trying to figure out why the back of his head hurt so much. He felt some weight on his arm and an odd fuzzy texture on it. As he became able to focus, he noticed Reysha laying her head on his arm, passed out from exhaustion. He wasn’t too sure how to proceed without bothering her, but he didn’t have to worry about that as his small motions woke her up from her light sleep.
She rose to her feet quickly and suddenly, quite agitated for one who was resting just a second ago, or so Karlos thought to himself. He felt around his head, noticing the bandages that had been applied by her.
“What happened last night?” he asked. She didn’t reply immediately and just stared out the window.
Give me a sign, Reysha thought to herself. She studied the walls of the house directly across from their window, then looked at the ceiling, then the ground. Some tracks, anything. Then she hurried out from the room and immediately checked her room, Karlos’, and Gerhalt’s. No sign, nothing. She felt her heart sinking in her chest.
Karlos noticed her worry and also that they were alone. He wasn’t too comfortable with the whole situation. As she stormed out of the room, he sat up on the bed and grimaced as he got his bearings. For some reason, he was in Xandra’s room instead of his. He started replaying what he remembered. He had been in the same room as Xandra as she rested, staring out that very window Reysha had been looking out of when he suddenly heard her scream. Sudden pain, that’s what he remembered, and then waking up alone with Reysha. He moved his legs to the side as he turned his body, his feet touching the ground. That must have been a good hit, he thought to himself as the back of his head seemed to beat from the pain. He remained still for a moment, hoping that it would help the pain subside.
Reysha returned to the room and went to his side immediately. “What’s the hurry? You should rest some more,” she told him.
“Probably,” he replied as he held to the back of his head, trying to calm the pain somehow. “Will you tell me what happened?”
Reysha took a deep breath. “Mom smacked you pretty hard,” she said.
“With a jar or something similar?” he asked. Reysha couldn’t help but chuckle; she thought she deserved the slight release in tension. “But why?”
Reysha looked at him and paused, then took a deep breath as she replied. “I think it must have been the Mark on her,” she said. “She left through this window shortly after attacking you,” she added. Karlos shook his head.
“That’s not good. What about Gerhalt? Did he go after her?”
Reysha nodded. Karlos got up immediately, though the sudden movement made him lose his balance. Reysha rushed to his side and held him so he could steady himself. “Take it easy there! You just woke up and have a nasty knock on your head.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Karlos said as he straightened himself and gently pushed her off. “We’re wasting time here.”
Reysha nodded at him and took a step back. “We can’t just go out there today though,” she said.
“I can’t,” he said. Reysha looked at him in disbelief.
“You can’t possibly mean,” she replied immediately, in an exasperated tone of protest.
“My eyes betray my race; yours don’t,” replied Karlos in his usual, even tone whenever he points out the hard facts that need to be faced.
“What about my hair and my ears?” she asked. Karlos stared at her for a moment.
“They won’t notice as long as you somehow conceal your ears. They’re more obvious than your hair color,” he said.
Back in the lighthouse, Gerhalt checked around the perimeter of the half-constructed building. He peered around the corners and put his ears to the floor, checking if he could hear anything out of the ordinary, like the coordinated footsteps of a group of city soldiers. Everything seemed in order though. Suspiciously so, he thought to himself. Did he risk leaving their hiding place, or did he just wait it out until the Inspection day was over? Maybe they’d lose interest. He glanced at his mother, still sitting with her head between her knees and he hesitated. He couldn’t forget his main goal: he needed to get her to safety first, and safety probably meant away from Incantirl at this point. Nagging thoughts entered his head though as he considered Karlos and Reysha.
Would they be safe? Maybe some soldier got to recognize him or Xandra? Would they expose themselves to danger just so they could find them? He was pacing left to right, looking at the floor, looking at the sky. He would pause for moments, take a deep breath and try to focus. He’d place the tip of his index finger in his mouth, getting it a little moist, and then would raise his hand with his index finger outstretched, feeling the direction from which the wind blew. He just had to come up with an answer somehow, and he was trying every method he could think of. He felt like all of that uncertainty would drive him insane. It already was!
Xandra had been watching him for a while, observing his odd movements and his lack of focus. She didn’t know what to do, what to say, who the young man who paced from side to side was. It frustrated her to no end.
About half an hour away from their location, Reysha wore a green hooded cloak covering her head, hiding her ears and causing a deep shadow to hide her hair and eyebrows. She held the cloak locked in position by grasping it below her neck with her left hand as she walked through the streets, now a full block away from her home. She was approaching what is usually a crowded intersection in the streets where many street vendors tend to show off their wares. However, this being such a particular day, the streets were empty and the vendor stalls closed. She thought it all looked so drab, as the vendors usually arranged their products in such a way as to make the colorful fruits, vegetables, flowers, and garments contrast against the dull walls of old concrete with little to no paint on them.
She walked past a few guards which looked at her with suspicion, but which she managed to dissuade by making direct eye contact. Karlos was right; if she just hid her ears and showed them the whites of her eyes they’d ignore her. She was quite thankful that there were no guards close to their house, so they probably thought that she may not be a Deelamn district resident. She knew that some humans did live in the area though, but those were rare. The challenge was now finding a way to move around the place, looking for Gerhalt and Xandra while not giving the guards any reason to suspect anything about her heritage.
