Marcus Vesper's Arc

Chapter 6 of 7

Serqet led Marcus past the shallow water where dragonflies hung in a bright cloud. Her people sat in the open, tails curled, plates bare in the sun. No one hid. Marcus tucked his pincer against his side and looked at the ground. He had hidden this arm his whole life. Here there was nothing to hide from, and still his shoulders bent inward. "You flinch," Serqet said. She did not sound angry. "You crossed the water with your pincer bare. Now you fold it away." "I don't know how to sit still with it," Marcus said. "I've spent forty years pretending it wasn't there." She studied him a moment. Then she pointed to a low mud-brick building with a rounded door and a tiled roof. Steam drifted from a small window. "The bathhouse. Go in. You cannot fold a thing away in there. Everyone is bare." Marcus went. Inside, warm water filled a wide tiled pool. Others sat in it, their plates and tails plain in the steam. They glanced at him, then went back to talking. Marcus stood at the edge with his pincer pressed to his ribs. A small thing padded across the tiles toward him. A kitten. Its fur was soft and striped, but a jointed scorpion tail curled up from its back. Two pink bows sat by its ears. It stopped at his feet and batted at his pincer with one paw. Not afraid. Curious. Marcus knelt. The kitten climbed onto his forearm, right onto the plate he had hated all his life. It settled there and began to purr. Its own tail brushed his. The kitten did not see a monster. It saw a warm place to sit. Something loosened in Marcus's chest. He lowered himself into the water. The kitten rode his arm down and sat on his shoulder. For the first time, Marcus let his pincer rest open on the surface. He did not tuck it. He did not cover it. The steam wrapped him. The voices around him did not stop or change. When he came out, Serqet waited by the door. She watched him walk toward her, arm loose at his side, pincer plain in the light. "You stopped folding," she said. "I did," Marcus said. It was true. He could stand among them now without pulling into himself. Serqet nodded slowly. "Good. Now you can be of use to me." She turned toward the water. "I paid your debt. Tomorrow you will hear what I want in return. It concerns one of my own who left. Someone who could not do what you just did." Marcus stood straighter than he had in years. The shame had let go. But her words settled a new weight on him. He had come to the Long Walk to find one person who could love both his shapes. Now the queen who had freed him was about to ask for something, and he did not yet know if he could give it.