ARROW
ARROW
HEX, CURSE, OR CHARM?” Hetty asked as they strode down Barclay Street. “Don’t say that hex and curse are the same. There are nuances, you know.”
“Of course there are,” her husband replied. Benjy took a moment to consider the question before replying. “I think it’s a jinx.”
“That wasn’t a choice!”
“Should be. There’s got to be a reason that place is still standing.” Benjy pointed to the only house on this end of the street. Despite its neighbors being reduced to piles of rubble, this home was untouched by the fire. A state that was quite unnerving given that even the still-standing homes of the street had shown some signs of the fire.
Since the end of May, news of a fire had reached their ears twice a week, and sometimes more. While small fires around a single home or a building were not uncommon, these fires were different. They engulfed both sides of a street, and once they started they raged until they burned themselves out. Such fires led people to craft charms and potions to keep their homes safe. And the ones that didn’t make their own bought them from charlatans who touted fire-proofing potions that could barely quell a candle’s flame.
While reports of this fire would have brought them to this street anyway, Hetty and Benjy got word of it in a somewhat different matter.
Just after midday, Hetty had found a card left in their postbox. A card with a sun and a crescent moon drawn on one side, and on the other a brief message:
Last night a fire took eight homes on Barclay Street and scorched more than a few, but one home stands untouched by the flames.
Such a message wasn’t just odd. It was downright peculiar.
And peculiar was their business.
Although the day was still young, the fire itself was a distant memory, with only traces of smoke left in the air. What it left in its wake was still evident.
Buildings here were mostly made of wood, and were home to several families both large and small. While this wasn’t the slums, neither were the people rich. Some homes were divided so that as many as six families occupied a building, and most people rented out a spare room to any interested boarder.
While only eight houses had burned down, every building on the street, save the one miraculously spared, was damaged. This meant of course the street was filled with people. There were those who lived on this street, making light repairs to their home and casting spells of protection. There were people tending to the dead and wounded, people checking on neighbors to see what survived the fire, and others jealously guarding piles of recovered possessions.
As Hetty and Benjy walked the length of the street, several people called out to Benjy for help. This was not unusual. The blacksmith shop Benjy used to work at was not far from here, and he was generous with his time and repairs. It wasn’t surprising that so many recognized him on sight as the person likely to lend a helping hand. Not that he was hard to forget, in Hetty’s humble opinion. He cut a handsome figure, even in plain attire of shirtsleeves and suspenders. Although, more appealing was the easy air of competence and unsatiable curiosity in the world. While Benjy often pretended that other people’s problems held no interest to him, they had gotten involved in mystery solving because deep down he couldn’t help but care.
“You take this end of the street, and I’ll take the other,” Benjy said to Hetty. “We’ll meet at the still-standing house.”
“Why not go there first?” Hetty asked.
“Because there are plenty more interesting questions to ask before we do.”
With that, Benjy crossed the street to assist a man dragging a trunk out from the rubble, already asking about what had happened last night.
Hetty should do the same, but she was a bit reluctant.
It was never easy asking questions about the fires.
People lied to her face, or were too wearied to give a proper answer. A handful were rude, and quite a few were wondering why she even cared.
A fire was a fire.
A tragedy that ruined what strangled hopes they had for a better tomorrow. A fire that pushed them to move in with friends, with families, with strangers, or finally convince them it was time to leave the city. What caused the fire and why mattered little to people who had more than their fair share of things to grieve.
However, not all fires were accidents.
Something more than a mere fire occurred here. She could feel it in her bones.
At the end of the street, two dozen bodies were stretched out in neat lines. Most were badly burned and bearing mortal injuries that no healing magic could cure. The rest were people who died from breathing in too much smoke and fell unconscious. The group was mostly adults, and the youngest person was on the edge of adulthood. No children. Good fortune, one would think, until you remembered what happened to orphaned children. Babies and the very young would find new homes easily, but the older ones would have a much harder time of things.
Hetty saw a handful now, huddled on the corner, and she wondered if any of them had lost family in the fire.
As Hetty looked on, she found a trio of elderly women sitting on the steps of a nearby building, watching her closely.
So closely that even when they realized Hetty had noticed them, they kept on staring. They reminded Hetty of a gossiping trio that was the bane of her existence at church. But gossips weren’t all bad. Gossips always had the most interesting news and were more than willing to share. It was no surprise at all that when Hetty approached the small group, they started talking before she asked a single question.
Their home had not been impacted by the fire. Not by luck, they quickly assured Hetty. The building was owned by someone who knew his magic. Spells were put in place to repel flames, and were replaced regularly. The other buildings didn’t have that in their favor.
“What happened here was an accident,” one of the women, Paula, assured Hetty. “Started from a candle that got knocked over. No mystery here.”
“Not even that we had to deal with the flames ourselves,” grumbled Emmeline.
“No fire company showed up?” Hetty asked.
“Nobody showed up, legitimate or otherwise!”
Until last December, volunteer fire companies had the run of the city. They put out fires, but usually for a fee, and they often took their time arriving. And more than a few were aligned with gangs to such a degree that the only difference between the groups was access to hoses and water. Which was why when the city finally set up their own fire company there was great rejoicing. But the volunteer companies were not going away quietly, especially not when elected officials didn’t mind them running amuck in Black-majority neighborhoods. While some, such as Moyamensing Hose, were notorious for sparking riots and violence, the worst group in Hetty’s opinion was Beatty Hose, which targeted magical practitioners. Rumor had it that Beatty Hose was behind most of the fires that had sprung up without a clear cause, and used Sorcery to ensure that flames did not die easily.
“How do you know a candle started the fire?” Hetty asked.
The gossipy air of the trio changed then, as they looked over at Hetty rather keenly.
“What it’s to you?” Iola asked. Her lips, already thin with suspicion, flattened even more with undisguised scorn. “You don’t live on this street.”
“And you don’t look like you will anytime soon,” Paula added, eyeing the delicate embroidery on Hetty’s pale green dress.
With ease Hetty replied, “I make it my business to know about odd things. Have you heard about the sparrow that lives on Juniper Street?”
While Paula and Iola blinked on in confusion, Emmeline’s eyes widened.
Hetty hid a smile.
There was always one.
Emmeline sputtered as she addressed Hetty with new admiration in her eyes.
“I’ve heard the stories. You take care of things. Clean up messes. Make sure the dead aren’t forgotten,” Emmeline said. “You’re the Sparrow!”
“And my husband is the Finch,” Hetty said. “We’ve been looking into these fires and hope to do something about them.”
These words got Hetty more stories from the trio. They were similar to what they’d already told Hetty, but the missing details that Hetty suspected earlier had now quietly been slipped back in.
Overall, nothing tugged at Hetty’s curiosity, except for one thing:
“You saw a stranger last night?”
“Yes,” Iola said. “My hip was bothering me again. I was up trying to find something to settle these old bones. Then I heard it.” She rapped her knuckles against the steps she sat on. “A knock on the door. At that hour I wasn’t opening the door for anybody, not even kin, but I peeped out the window. There was a man out there I hadn’t seen before.”
“As I told you,” Emmeline interjected, “that was the new neighbor!”
“Ain’t nobody new on this street!”
As the women began to argue between themselves about the veracity of this fact, Hetty gently cut in.
“What can you tell me about the house that didn’t burn down?”
The arguing stopped midsentence, and Emmeline answered:
“A fellow owns it. Haven’t seen him much lately. Although I don’t think it’s the man going inside right now.”
Hetty spun around to look.
She didn’t see whoever stepped inside, but she saw a door slide shut. While that was fine on its own, less so was the ripple of magic that followed.
“You look like somebody stole the flowers off your grave. Something the matter, child?” Iola asked. “What do you know about the house?”
“Not much, but I plan to find out more.”
Leaving the trio behind, Hetty crossed the street, taking care to go slowly to avoid drawing any more attention than she already had.
Standing on its own, the house appeared much like a lost, lonely duckling missing its siblings. Although from a distance it seemed untouched, as Hetty climbed the front steps she saw she was wrong in that regard. Soot dusted the exterior of the house, turning the house gray, and left the windows looking dusty and forlorn. Even the flower box, devoid of any growing things, had a fine layer of ash. The door had scratches along the doorknob and scuffs on the lower portion as if someone had kicked in the door when they couldn’t unlock it.
“Aren’t you going to come inside?”
Benjy’s voice called out to her.
Hetty pushed the door open and found Benjy standing in the hallway frowning at the florid wallpaper before him.
Hiding her relief that the stranger the old women had seen was only her husband, Hetty jabbed a finger at the door.
“Did you do this?”
He looked over at her, barely glancing at the doorway. “Why would I do that?”
“Because no one lives here.”
Hetty gestured around the hall, not bothering to point to any specific spot. The evidence was all around. From the debris that stirred as she walked in the hall, the musty air of a room that had been shut up too tightly, and the old water stains in the corner. Not to mention the chandelier above their heads that held sunlight in the cobwebs stretched between its candle posts.
“Someone does,” Benjy corrected her. “They just haven’t been around in a while.”
Hetty stopped at the foot of a staircase. She stood there with one hand on the railing, frowning up at the shadows that swallowed up most of the upper level. “Let’s hope they’ll be gone for a while. It’ll be hard even for me to spin a tale explaining things.”
He didn’t answer her, and when Hetty looked back, she found he had vanished.
But he hadn’t gone far.
In the next room, Benjy had his ear pressed against the wall. The tiny blue bundles of flowers framed by golden double rings was perhaps the ugliest wallpaper Hetty had ever seen. Distracted by the overwhelming urge to rip the wallpaper from the walls, she had to force herself to notice anything else about the room. There were a few stiff-back chairs scattered in the room. While they were made from the same dark wood, they were all vastly different, sitting higher or lower, with different arched backs that made it clear they had come from different dining sets. There was a rug on a floor, its colors faded from the dust, and sunlight attempted to stream through the closed curtains. But the most interesting bit was a table holding slightly melted candles sitting in a dish. They appeared to be more ornamental instead of used for magic protections, but their placement was still rather unusual.
“There’s something here,” Benjy said as he tapped the wall.
“Does the wallpaper cover a door?” Hetty asked, not bothering to rap the wall as well. “I wouldn’t be surprised. That would be just about the only reason I would put up something so ugly. Who could notice anything else?”
“There’s no door. The wallpaper covers the sigils carved into the walls.” Benjy pressed his hand down against the wallpaper so the form of a circle could be seen through it. It was nearly as big as his fist.
“Sweet stars above,” Hetty whispered. “Maybe it was a bad idea to come in here after all.”
“I think we’ll be fine. I spoke to a neighbor who witnessed the owner carving the walls one night and then papering over them with this horrid wallpaper. It must be to ward against fire, but it’s hard to say for certain. But ever since then the neighbor has heard noises at the oddest of hours.”
Because Hetty could never pass up a chance to tease him, she quipped gleefully, “Sounds like a ghost to me!”
Benjy rolled his eyes skyward.
They’d been hearing stories about all manner of ghosts around the city, even more since they got into the undertaking business. Strange rattles, cups knocked over on a table, unexplained patches of cold air. People who said they saw the faces of the dead, both loved and hated, staring out at them from windows. Tales of ghosts entering a store and walking through the shelves. And the whispers of the dead leading the living through crossroads and into the great beyond.
Hetty didn’t fully believe a spirit would want to linger on this bitter earth, but she had seen enough of this world to know that anything was possible.
Benjy, on the other hand, had far greater reservations.
“Ghosts don’t exist. It’s more likely there’s a curse on the house that’s causing trouble,” he said as he resumed his tapping.
“Well, we won’t find it dithering away in here.” Hetty gave the room one last look. “I’m going to go explore the rest of the house.”
“Don’t go upstairs without me,” Benjy called after her.
Hetty was tempted to do so anyway just to be petty, but when she stepped back into the hallway a partially open door caught her attention.
The door creaked slightly as she stepped inside. Like the other room, the curtains were also drawn tightly closed. While there were many beautiful things in the room, Hetty’s attention went straight toward the desk. It was a hulking thing, more like a piano than a desk. The hutch loomed overhead, its countless tiny shelves filled with nothing more than dust. The shiny drawer knobs seemed to wink as she walked passed, calling to her like a siren hidden in the seas.
Hetty tapped the cloth band at her neck. The choker had two purposes. It satisfied her vanity by covering the old jagged scars that ran around her neck. And it kept her magic in reserve.
With a single finger, Hetty traced the delicate embroidery and stirred to life the Dove star sigil she had hidden in her stitches.
The spell took on the form of a dove, but not a true one. From beak to tail feathers, it was midnight blue and speckled with starlight. When the bird flapped its wings, wisps of magic swirled around it. But that magic stayed a neutral blue and did not change even when it fluttered down to rest atop the desk.
How very interesting.
Hetty snapped her fingers, dissipating her spell. No star sigils were etched in the wood of the desk, nor did she detect any trace of magic. Did it mean it was harmless? Intrigued, Hetty placed her hand on the desk.
Not a moment later, she yanked it back.
It was like she had plunged her hand into ice water.
No, not ice water. Something colder, something stronger. Like going ice-skating and suddenly there’s no ice. Only plunging into the frigid depths with no hope of seeing the surface.
How did touching a desk feel like that?
Hetty put her hand back on the desk.
The chilling cold swept along her palm, inching up her arm.
But she held firm.
Hetty kept her hand pressed flat against the wood, and suddenly light exploded around her.
Protection spells rose up from every stitch in her clothing, encasing her in delicately spun glass. It hardened, buckled, and then shattered.
Hetty jumped back from the desk, and to her horror, an angry mass of bubbling red magic hurtled toward her.
She held up her hands to brace against the attack, but no attack ever came.
The mass of magic hovered inches from her face, held back by a protective barrier.
“I think you have your answer.” Benjy appeared behind her in the doorway, his mild tone undercutting the potentially dire circumstances. “It’s a hex.”
His left hand was clenched into a fist, small sparks of green light jumping between his fingers. Although he should have been watching the orb of dangerous magic, his eyes rested on her.
“What did you do?” Benjy asked.
“I touched the desk,” Hetty freely admitted, and before he could share his opinion, she added: “I know it was foolish.”
“Glad you know that.”
Hetty fumed even though she deserved the rebuke.
She took a step closer to the hex and it moved away from her.
“Look at what it’s doing.” Hetty lifted her hand and the hex followed. “Let it go.”
“That’s a terrible idea,” Benjy grunted.
“Don’t worry,” Hetty reassured him, “I’ll make sure you won’t get hurt.”
He rolled his eyes, but relaxed his left hand in the end.
With the restraints gone, the hex started to charge. Hetty drew sigils in the air, but Benjy was quicker. The Taurus star sigil rammed itself into the hex. Catching it by the horns, the star-speckled bull shook its head mightily and sent the hex flying.
Guided by Benjy, the bull chased after the hex. The spells bounced from wall to wall, the splash of colors mixing and clashing.
At first Hetty watched this heady chase with concern. There was no way to know what sort of hex it was, but it didn’t seem like any intruder spells she’d encountered before. It didn’t act like any she knew, either. Was it trying to attack them or escape to warn whoever set the spell originally?
“Why was this left behind?” Hetty asked.
“You’re asking the wrong question. You should be asking who left it.” Benjy slammed his hands together.
A second sigil that Hetty hadn’t even noticed fluttered into view. Aries. Together, the two star sigils squashed the hex like a bit of heated metal caught between a hammer and anvil.
The light from the collision was dazzling—a piercing white light with the power of a small sun—and once it vanished it left the world even duller.
Except for the patch of bright green under their feet.
A path.
A trail of green moved along the floor, slithering much like a snake down the hall and illuminating the path the caster had taken. Magical residue, revealed by the second spell Benjy had cast.
“I don’t think whoever left this hex is the owner,” Hetty remarked. “It might be the work of the intruder.”
“Why don’t we see where this leads first before we make that assumption?”
This path didn’t lead outside. The trail of magic veered down the hall and into a kitchen until it stopped at the pantry.
Mostly empty shelves greeted them when they opened the door. There were a few dusty cans and jars on the shelves, with scattered mouse droppings nearby.
On the floor, the green line continued until it reached the wall.
“Do we go outside, then?” Hetty asked.
But as she moved away, Benjy brushed past her to step inside the pantry. He placed a hand against the wall and pushed.
A soft click whispered in the air, and the wall and its shelves sank into the floor, revealing a passageway with a set of stairs curling in a downward spiral into the unknown.
Benjy whistled as he peered down into the opening. “I wonder where it leads.”
“Only one way to find out.” Hetty drew Eridanus into the air next to her. The River star sigil twinkled as it spilled through the stairway, lighting the way and warning of any trouble that lay ahead. “You first into the abyss!”