The Marked Girl

by Lindsey Klingele

  Liv had meant it as a joke—sort of—but Cedric didn’t smile. “I suppose he has his reasons to act as he does. As a second son, Merek will not take over his father’s place as duke. Without superior fighting skills, he will never lead a guard, either. Still, he is royalty. And my responsibility”—he paused—“‘dick’ or not.”

  Liv pursed her lips to swallow her laughter at Cedric’s labored pronunciation of the word. They sat in silence for another moment. Liv batted a fly away from her leg as she tucked both her legs up underneath her in the flimsy chair.

  “What’s it like, where you’re from?”

  “Caelum . . . ,” Cedric started, his voice turning softer, “is not as bright as here. We have a sun, but it is not so big, nor so intense. It is also colder there, though not in a bad way. Everything is . . . clearer. And cleaner. Bigger and yet . . . sharper, somehow.”

  “No smog, huh?”

  Cedric shook his head, though Liv wasn’t quite sure he even knew what smog was. “It is both simpler there . . . and more complicated, in some ways. We ride in carriages to get from the palace to the town, and we hunt in giant forests with trees that reach as tall as that.” Liv followed Cedric’s finger to where it pointed at a series of hills. “Taller, actually.”

  “What do you do for fun?”

  “Besides hunting? We go to feasts and dances on high holidays, but we also just . . . spend time together.”

  “Like hang out.”

  Cedric shrugged. He was still staring at the sky, but it didn’t look like he was really seeing it. His eyes were much farther away.

  “And what about Kat?” Liv asked, trying to keep her voice light.

  “What about her?”

  “Well, the whole lifelong betrothal thing . . . it’s just, it’s kind of difficult to understand. We don’t really do that here. Not in LA, anyway.”

  “Kat and I . . . that is simply the way it has always been for us.”

  They were silent again, and Liv could hear crickets chirping from the trees. The air around her felt thick.

  “What about love?” she asked, her voice low. “Doesn’t that exist in Caelum?”

  “Of course it does. But Kat and I, we are different. We have responsibilities to our families, to our nation. Our union will make our entire kind stronger against the rising wrath forces.”

  “Oh,” Liv managed. She wasn’t sure what else to say. It seemed like a lot for a teenager to take on.

  Cedric’s eyebrows stitched together as if he was trying to work something out. “Kat and I are lucky. We have always cared for each other, which is more than a lot of people in our position can say. I trust her. More than anyone.”

  Liv tried to think about the people in her life she really trusted. Just Shannon, really. Joe, too, although she didn’t really want to think about him right now, or the half dozen voice mails he’d left on her phone.

  “I get it,” she said. “But do you think you two will still . . . I mean, if you don’t get back—”

  “We are getting back.” Cedric’s voice was firm.

  “Right, sorry. I didn’t mean . . .”

  “Of course.” Cedric shook his head, but his tone had changed. He stared off into the distance again, his expression hard. Liv felt something strange, then, just an all-consuming need to make him feel better somehow, to erase the past few moments.

  “I can help you, if you want.”

  Almost startled, Cedric looked over at her. “You have already helped.”

  “I mean, I can help you track down the MacGuff—the scrolls. I assume you’ve Googled them already . . .”

  Cedric just raised an eyebrow, and Liv took that as a no.

  “Right. Well, we can start with that. Tomorrow morning, we’ll go pick up my car—it has my laptop in it—and we’ll do some research. Can’t promise anything, but there’s all sorts of crazy stuff on the internet. Who knows, some of it might even be true.”

  Cedric still looked confused. “The internet?”

  Liv didn’t think she was up to the task of explaining how computers worked to someone who’d never even used a cell phone before. “I keep forgetting how much I have to teach you.” She tilted her head and put on a mock-condescending voice. “So innocent.”

  Cedric smiled. “Not so innocent. I am sure I could teach you a thing or two, as well.”

  “Um.”

  Cedric’s eyes widened, as though he’d just realized what he’d said. “I only meant . . .”

  Liv looked away quickly, hoping her face wasn’t turning strange shades of red. “No, I know. You could probably teach me how to use a bow and arrow, or something.”

  “Exactly, yes. That is what I meant.” Cedric’s voice was still a bit high-pitched, but the worst of the embarrassment seemed behind them. For now. “Do you really not know how to hunt at all?”

  “Not unless you count going through the Fatburger drive-through,” Liv replied weakly.

  “My sister, Emmeline, could hold a bow properly by the time she was seven years old.” Cedric chuckled to himself. “She loved that bow so much—it was a birthday gift from my father. She used to actually sleep with it in her bed. One day I accidentally stepped on it and broke it. When I told her, I was holding it in pieces, and I thought she was going to burst into tears. Instead, she punched me—right here.” Cedric pointed a finger to his nose. “My father just laughed. Said no one would ever mess with his daughter . . .” Cedric’s smile faltered.

  Liv swallowed. “Sounds like a nice family.”

  “They are my home,” Cedric said, his voice almost a whisper. He cleared his throat, as though eager to change the subject. “Though I am sure everyone feels that way about their family.” Cedric looked up quickly, his eyes apologetic. “I am sorry, I forgot . . . your family . . .”

  For a while, Liv didn’t respond. She felt a familiar lump rise in her throat, and then got angry with herself, angry that her body could still react in this way, even after all these years. Cedric lifted his hand up and moved it a few inches closer to where her hand rested against the plastic arm of the chair, but then pulled it back. He didn’t ask, but Liv knew the story was coming up anyway.

  “There was a fire, when I was six,” Liv said, tentative. “Both of my parents died. I had a brother and a sister, too, but we were split up. No foster family wanted to take all of us. I’ve been on my own since then.”

  This time Cedric did reach out and take her hand. His skin felt warm in the cool night air. He wrapped his fingers around hers and held them there.

  “I truly am sorry,” he said.

  “It was a long time ago,” Liv said, breathing in deep. The lump in her throat was almost gone now. “Besides, I just lost my family. You lost your whole world.”

  Cedric looked down at their hands, pressed together in the darkness. “Seems like the same thing to me.”

  They didn’t talk for a while after that, but sat in stillness, watching the few stars that were visible in the sky and listening to each other breathe. Liv didn’t remember closing her eyes, but the next thing she knew, she was waking up and looking around at the backyard, which was full of light.

  She looked down at her hand, but Cedric was no longer holding it. His own hand had fallen down and was dangling against the edge of his lawn chair. It was close enough to reach out and grab, and yet felt very far away. After staring at it for a moment, she curled up in her chair in the sunshine, feeling a small ache in her chest she couldn’t begin to explain.

  THE MAKINGS OF A PLAN

  Later that morning, Liv’s biggest hurdle was trying to convince Cedric not to bring a sword on the LA city bus. He’d insisted on going with her to pick up her car, just in case there were any wraths still in the area. He also insisted on being “prepared.”

  “We can’t just get on a bus holding a deadly blade the size of a baseball bat,” Liv argued.

  “It is a sword.”

  “I know that, I just—” Liv took a deep breath to start again. “I’m try
ing to explain how insane you’ll look.”

  “It isn’t insane to be ready for our enemies.”

  “Okay, sure. But how do I tell that to the kindly bus driver who thinks you might chop his head off?”

  “I doubt this blade is sharp enough to chop anyone’s head off.”

  “Now you’re just intentionally missing my point.”

  Cedric grinned. Eventually, he’d agreed to wrap a large trash bag around the weapon to hide it. He still looked like a crazy person, but one who would at least cause less panic.

  Cedric had hoped to retrieve his few belongings and remaining food from the museum while Liv got her car. When they got to the alley, however, they saw the way was blocked off by a police cruiser and a line of bright yellow crime scene tape.

  “They won’t be there forever,” Liv told Cedric as he narrowed his eyes in the direction of the alleyway. He sighed heavily and got into her car.

  From the museum, Liv made a trip to the ATM, bought some water and blankets for the house, and dodged more of Joe’s calls. Running errands helped clear her head a bit, and made her feel useful again. Whenever she wondered whether it was a good idea to help out Cedric and his friends—and maybe put herself in danger in the process—she just remembered the alternative plan. Call Joe, get placed in a new home, start from scratch following another stranger’s rules and eating another stranger’s food. Staying at the Echo Park house seemed like a pretty good idea by comparison. At least there she’d be making her own decisions, even if those decisions involved arguing with a cute otherworldy prince about the safest way to hold a sword in a moving car.

  Plus, she didn’t like the thought of abandoning them now.

  On the way back to the house, Liv drove through the In-N-Out drive-through. By midafternoon, she and the others sat sprawled out across the living room, surrounded by red-and-white discarded burger wrappers and soda cups. Liv had changed into fresh jeans, a tank top, and a light jacket, and had lent a T-shirt to Kat as well. The boys still had to wear their clothes from the day before.

  “We should go back to the museum tonight to retrieve our belongings,” Kat said. She was studying the plastic top to her soda cup, pulling the straw in and out. “It will be easier under cover of darkness.”

  Cedric nodded, but his mouth was too full of burger to respond.

  Liv had her laptop open, and in between bites of fries was working to connect to a neighbor’s unprotected Wi-Fi system. Finally one hit.

  “Bingo.”

  She pulled up a search box and typed in Caelum and scrolls. She could feel Merek over her shoulder, looking intently at the screen.

  “It’s magic, then?” he asked as the screen popped up with search results.

  “No,” Liv said, her eyes on the screen. “It’s Wi-Fi.”

  “What is the difference?”

  “Um,” Liv tilted her head. “Electrons? Shh, I’m concentrating.”

  The first few links to come up on the page were obvious misfires; one was for a popular fantasy video game, and one was a fan page for an actor named Tyler Callum, whose name was misspelled on at least three occasions throughout the site. Cedric came to sit on her other side, and their shoulders touched. The heat from his arm radiated out to hers.

  It was a bit distracting.

  Liv tried to keep her arm that was next to Cedric’s still as she scrolled down the list of links. She was afraid that by moving it or calling attention to it in any way, Cedric might move a few inches away and take the warmth with him.

  Eventually, she came to one from the University of California, San Diego. It was a link to a professor’s biography page, but the word Caelum was featured in its two-sentence description.

  On the page, the professor’s name, Leonard Billings, PhD, was in bold type next to a picture of an older man with dark skin, a big smile, and a scraggly white beard.

  Professor Billings taught a class in ancient cultures and myths, from the Greeks to the Celtic Druids. Liv continued to scroll down through a list of the required reading materials for students. At the very bottom of the page was a blurb with the professor’s own qualifications, including the title of a dissertation he had written: “Origins of the Knights of Valere and the Search for Caelum’s Scrolls.”

  “What are the Knights of Valere?” Liv asked.

  “It does not sound familiar.” Cedric shrugged, and the movement of his arm against Liv’s raised goosebumps on her skin. She hoped he didn’t notice.

  She hoped Kat didn’t notice, either.

  “Do you have knights in Caelum?”

  “Yes,” Cedric replied, matter-of-fact. “But Valere? Never heard of them.”

  Liv went back to Google’s main page, and typed the professor’s name into the search box, along with the word Caelum. Only one more site came up, and it contained an abstract from the professor’s dissertation. Liv read:

  The ultimate representation of this ancient belief system exists in the legend of “Caelum,” a fantastical realm that is connected to our own, but that cannot be accessed without a key, represented in this instance by a series of secret or hidden scrolls. Much like the Nordic myths of the mystical land of Asgard, Caelum is a concept brought into being by ancient pagans and perpetuated into the Early Middle Ages. . . .

  There the text cut off. The site went on to explain that the actual dissertation was available for purchase in hard copy from the UC San Diego bookstore.

  “It doesn’t say much,” Liv murmured. She clicked back to the main search screen but couldn’t find anything else helpful. She tried typing in Knights of Valere, but kept getting linked to websites authored by conspiracy nuts, with pages that featured white text on a black screen and that focused on alien abductions and robots in the White House.

  “This professor seems to be the best lead,” she said.

  “We should find him,” Cedric said.

  “Well . . . San Diego isn’t that far away. Just a couple of hours. Maybe I could drive you in the morning?”

  Cedric’s hand gripped the sword that lay by his side. “We have several more hours of sunlight left. Let us go now.”

  Liv sighed. “I guess now works, too. But we’re leaving all swords behind. This isn’t a wrath we’re facing, it’s a college professor. And I don’t want to get arrested for walking into some old guy’s office with a two-foot blade in a Hefty bag.”

  “Liv—” Cedric started.

  “No.” Liv crossed her arms. “I’m serious. I’m the one with the car, and if you want to get to San Diego by tonight, we go without an armory.”

  Cedric drew in a long breath. “Fine.”

  Kat gave him a hard, calculating look, but then nodded as well. “Let us go, then.”

  Cedric turned to Kat. “I think it might be best if you and Merek stay here.”

  Kat’s expression was one of disbelief. “What?”

  “You were right earlier, that we need to retrieve our belongings from the museum. But it is more than that. . . . I have been thinking about what Merek suggested, back in the tunnels of the museum,” Cedric said quickly, talking over Kat’s shocked sputters. Merek turned one cool glance in his direction. “Last night was not simply a few wraths tracking our whereabouts. It was a whole group, and they were on the attack. I do not think we can sit back and wait for them to find us again. Now we need to track them, picking up their trail from the museum. And it cannot wait another night, else the trail might fade.”

  Cedric fixed his eyes on Kat. “You are one of the best trackers I know, Kat. If anyone can find a wrath and determine where they are coming from and what they want, it’s you.”

  Kat appeared torn. She was nearly glowing from Cedric’s praise, but her eyes darted back and forth between Liv and Cedric, sitting side by side on the couch.

  “And the two of you will journey alone?”

  Merek smiled. “Ah. And the true purpose of the mission becomes clear.”

  “Merek, enough,” Cedric said. But he got up, moving away from Liv. Th
e cold rushed into the space where he’d been, and Liv tried not to let her disappointment show.

  Cedric walked to Kat and touched her lightly on the arm. “We will be back tonight, hopefully with more information about the scrolls. The sooner we can find them, the sooner we can get home.”

  “And leave this place, forever?” Kat said. Her words had a challenge in them, but Liv had a hard time understanding the conversation that Kat seemed to be having with Cedric just under the surface. Their eyes were speaking a hidden language the way that only two people who had known each other a very long time could do.

  “Yes.” Cedric finally said. “Forever.”

  Something twisted in Liv’s stomach—just for a moment—and she turned her head away. At the same time, the tension went out of Kat’s shoulders. She exhaled and murmured, “Going after the wraths is a good plan.”

  “It’s a brilliant plan,” Merek said, kicking his legs up over the edge of the couch. “Which is what I said when I thought of it yesterday.”

  Cedric and Kat rolled their eyes at exactly the same time.

  “Will you go with Kat and provide backup?” Cedric asked.

  Merek shrugged one shoulder, but didn’t say no.

  Cedric turned to Liv. “Are you ready?” His eyes looked bright and almost fevered, the way they had just before he’d fought the wraths. He had a mission again.

  “Sure,” Liv said, trying to convey an excitement she didn’t feel. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  “Show?” Cedric asked.

  Liv sighed, heavy. “Never mind.”

  THE QUESTING

  Cedric was getting used to riding in cars.

  When Liv first pulled onto the main thoroughfare she referred to as “the five,” one look at the number of cars rushing toward them and past them at such an incredible speed made Cedric regret the second “animal-style” hamburger he’d eaten at the house. But after traveling for an hour, he was getting used to the feel of sitting still while the entire world flew by almost too fast to see.