The Deer and the Dragon

Marlow is a successful novelist, though she’s currently behind on her deadline. She’s writing the Pantheon series, where each new installment focuses on the deities from a different religion. The first revolves around Norse gods, while the second combines Greek and Roman. The third, which she’s writing now, is set in Brazil. She craves a real relationship, but she also realizes that her heart isn’t open to love right now. She feels joy only when she escapes reality. Marlow adds alcohol to her morning coffee, her common practice when writing. Generally, she keeps her use of drugs and alcohol to times when she’s writing, dating, or going out; this is a practice that she began as a sex worker in South America years before.

Marlow feels that her imaginary lover maintains a hold on her heart, making it impossible to love anyone else. She decides that she will tell Caliban—the name she gave him—that he must stop visiting her that night. When he finally arrives, she tells him that he’s not real, though she can touch and smell him. She stopped being able to see him five years ago when she explained that she didn’t want to be like her mother, seeing things that aren’t there. She said that she didn’t want to “see” him anymore, but she never actually said that he had to stay away. He reminded her, “Our word is bond. We’re very literal” (25). Since that night, Caliban has been invisible to Marlow.

Marlow knows now that she can’t have a normal life as long as he’s part of it. He counters, suggesting that he will do nothing she doesn’t explicitly ask of him. Marlow agrees, as despite her fears of “burgeoning psychosis,” she is unsatisfied with anyone but him.

Marlow’s editor, EG, wants permission to mention her sex work in a blurb before someone else reveals it. However, Marlow feels that since she uses a pen name now and had a stage name back then, she should be safe. She enjoyed being a sex worker, found it empowering, and made a lot of money, but she doesn’t like talking about it.

In a flashback to when she was 22, Marlow recalls meeting Taylor in Buenos Aires. Marlow was in South America to teach English, but Taylor introduced her to life as a sex worker. After Marlow’s first client, she was eager to tell Caliban about it. She was treated and paid well and grew to love the high-end lifestyle. Caliban asked if she was happy, and she was.

In this very short chapter, Marlow provides a long list of reasons for her heart’s unavailability, insisting that it’s not because the only person she really wants to be with waits for her at night and refuses to let her go. “That would be crazy,” she thinks (43).

In a flashback to when she was 23, Marlow recalls celebrating when she learned that Julian Asher, an agent with a roster of famous clients, wanted to represent her. That night, Caliban told her that he knew more about her than she realized and that he wanted her for much more than sex.

By age 24, she was number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. She saw a therapist and took medicine for her mental health. She wondered if she no longer needed the “imaginary friend” she created to survive childhood if she’d finally healed from her trauma. She hoped that she wouldn’t need to conjure Caliban anymore, but he kept coming.

At a fan convention, Marlow hears someone calling for “Maribelle,” the pseudonym she used as a sex worker. Though EG is with her, she panics when she sees Richard, the only man she ever walked out on. EG intercepts him and asks “Merit,” Marlow’s pen name, if she’s all right.

Later, when Marlow arrives home, there is no receptionist at the front desk. She feels a chill but dismisses it as paranoia. She remembers her date with Richard, the “twinkle” in his eye when he said he wasn’t sorry when his childhood home burned down, how she realized that he was a killer. She’d feigned illness and cut the night short. Now, upon entering her apartment, she finds him there, and he’s wearing gloves. He’s already collected any potential weapons, and though she tries to placate him, he wraps his hands around her neck.

Suddenly, Richard freezes, and his hands fly to his own neck. Marlow sees a glittering, golden man, with arms outstretched. They lock eyes, and though he is unsure how she can see him, he assures her that this is a dream. She demands to know who he is. He says simply that Richard was marked, and he questions her about the sigil—a mysterious sign—above her front door.

Suddenly, Caliban steps from the shadows and thanks Silas, the golden man, for taking care of his mark. Caliban rushes to Marlow and tells Silas that he owes him. Silas disappears. Caliban carries Marlow to bed and clears the apartment of any traces of Richard.

When he returns, he explains that he “marked” everyone who has wronged her and that he can’t control who responds to those marks. He is more beautiful than she remembers, but she asks why he didn’t come himself. Caliban explains that he and Marlow made a “binding deal” that he can do nothing without her explicit consent, and she didn’t ask him to intercede. She wants to know why she can see him, and he explains that she previously said she didn’t “want” to see him again; however, in the moment before death, there is an absence of want, and he is exploiting that loophole. She is aghast when she learns that he saw what Richard was doing and did not intervene himself; he would have watched her die. He asks her for free rein in her home again, but she tells him to get out and never come back. He tries to explain, but she won’t let him. In the moment when he disappears, Marlow realizes what she has done.

Detectives search Marlow’s apartment for signs of Richard. Her shattered coffee table seems like evidence that what happened is real, which tells her that Caliban could be real, too. The police find no evidence of foul play, and Marlow waits for Caliban to return.

Months pass, and she cannot write. She abandons her friends and ignores the world around her. She goes to the library, hoping to learn more about sigils. She speaks to witches, searches online message boards, and investigates the occult. The longer Caliban stays away, the more convinced she is that he is real. No matter how hard she cries, however, he does not return.

One night, at Nia’s house, Marlow hears Richard’s name on the news. She begs Nia to write down his address, as she has only a piece of paper with the sigil from her wall in her pocket. She’s carried it with her since the night of the attack.

Now, Marlow breaks into Richard’s home despite her overwhelming dread. Her intuition tells her to run, but she descends into the basement instead. It has been waterproofed and reeks of antiseptic. When she tries to leave, she realizes that the door locked behind her. She sees a small, “inhumane child” with a Cheshire-cat smile who makes her feel as though insects are crawling all over her. Though the child has a bright, small voice, there is a “terrible ancientness” about him, and he refers to Marlow as his “food” (96). When he takes a step toward her, Silas appears again, killing the monstrous entity with his sword. Both he and Marlow are shocked to see each other.

Silas admonishes Marlow to stop saying his name and tells her to pretend that she never saw him. She contrasts his golden appearance with Caliban’s silver one, comparing Silas to the sun and Caliban to the moon. He calls the child a “parasite” that was released when he killed Richard, its host. She begs him for help, and he says to use her cell phone, but she has no service. He tells her to ask Caliban to “lift [her] veil” the next time he visits (102), but she says that she sent him away. Silas could, though he refuses to lift the veil for her because, he says, she’ll “go mad.” Also, he doesn’t want the bond with her that this action would create. He decides that it wouldn’t be bad for Caliban to owe him two favors, though, so he frees her from the basement dungeon.

Marlow recalls her first attempt to die by suicide and how her father found her and took her to the hospital. She no longer wishes to die, but she feels she’s lost her ability to deal with the world. She goes home, considering the bond that Silas said would result with whoever lifts her veil. When she enters her apartment, she finds Silas there. He says that he’s changed his mind. Suddenly, a female voice cautions her not to let him. Silas’s frustration is evident.