Page 41 of Myths and Manuscripts
Dain rolled his eyes as he leaned back in his chair. “You’ve visited our town, talked to our people. You know who the Demon Lord is to us. He’s the hero of this terrible story of yours.”
I dropped the pillow, eyes wide. The Demon Lord was the hero? Not just a bad guy for a good reason, but an actual hero? That word meant something in this world. It held power and righteous purpose.
“No way.” I shook my head, holding my hand up. “I mean, I know he’s nice and he’s been good to you, but he’s not the hero. He can’t be.”
“Who says?” Dain tilted his head. “Your human priests? Your government? Your Kings? Who cares about any of that, they’re probably just as evil as the hero.”
My mouth dropped open. If the Demon Lord was the hero, that flipped this entire story on its head. Again. I mean, he was obviously the hero to the demons, but that didn’t mean he was the hero to everyone. There were two sides to this story, but somehow, neither side was making much sense. Which kept leading me back to a plot twist...and what bigger plot twist would there be than the Demon Lord being the good guy all along?
The soft crunching of Cinder chewing a giant mouthful of hay mixed with the crackling of the fireplace as my brain kind of broke. Nothing else had gotten me anywhere, so I might as well let the idea play out and see where it led. Maybe it would spark something.
“Okay, so let’s pretend you’re right.” I pulled a pile of blank paper over, nudging Inkheart to wake up. The poor pen had given up on me after hours of debating without actually letting it write anything. “Let’s make a list of suspects.”
The pen hopped up, scritch scratching across the paper.
Suspects? Now we’re talking. Where do you want to start?
I glanced over at Dain who was reading the synopsis on the back of each book before dropping them on the table in disgust. “Let’s start with Dain’s ideas about the priest and the royal family. If the Demon Lord isn’t the villain, then somebody else must be. I don’t think it’s the hero since there’s no hint of it in the books, but maybe somebody’s manipulating him.”
Ohhh, I called it! Poor himbo hero.
“Really?” Dain’s eyes widened as he pulled his chair even closer. “Okay, I’ll help however I can.”
Seeing him eager to join in felt so nice compared to how stand-offish he’d been ever since the Demon Lord had assigned him as my bodyguard. If we were going to be stuck together fora while, then it would be nice if we could find some common ground.
“Inkheart, are you any good at drawing? Let’s make posters for each suspect and pin them up.” I laid out a few pieces of paper for the magical pen after it nodded. “Okay, first up is the holy priest who first gave the hero his divine mission. That seems like a classic secret villain based on other stories, but it’s almost so overdone that I feel like it would be disappointing.”
Dain frowned. “We worship the same gods as the humans, so I doubt a priest would be sending a hero after us. I’m not sure what it would get them.”
“That’s a good point.” I reached over to add the word motive to the papers as Inkheart drew a fairly accurate depiction of what I thought a priest would look like with billowy robes and a holy staff. “Okay, so if the priest doesn’t have a motive, then who else?”
“The King.” Dain curled his lips. “That family wants our resources for themselves, using our magic to fuel their technology.”
That lined up with what we’d heard around town. I nodded, adding the name and motive to the next paper for Inkheart to draw on. Something about it didn’t feel quite right though.
“From what I’ve read, the King is kind of a father-figure to the hero and has actually tried to stop him from finishing the mission a few times.” I flipped through a few of the books, trying to find the parts I was looking for. “Ah, yes, right here. The hero has some kind of illness that the King’s healers worked day and night to make a remedy for, but even that didn’t fully heal him. That’s why the King doesn’t want him putting himself at risk.”
Inkheart’s feather swayed as it drifted over the pages of the book, apparently reading the passage I pointed out. I hadn’t realized pens could read, but hey, theyweremagical.
Hmmm.....either this King is ultra sus and using someintense reverse psychology or he actually does love the little himbo. I’m rooting for them.
“Well I’m not.” Dain scoffed. “Even if he’s a nice guy, he’s still the one stealing our land.”
“True, but if we’re adding the King, then we should definitely add the Princess too.” I wrote Princess on a new sheet of paper for Inkheart. “She’s the hero’s love interest, but nobody wants them to marry since he’s just a commoner. If he defeated the Demon Lord, that would really raise his station.”
Ah yes, the lover. Excellent, excellent.
Inkheart was moving faster than ever as it drew all our suspects out, barely having time for silly commentary. Dain scratched his chin.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
He shook his head, leaning forward to examine the books. “Wasn’t there another so-called hero before this one? What happened to him?”
Now that was a very good question. He’d trained the hero in the first book, shaping his entire view of how to be a hero. He’d injured himself before defeating the Demon Lord, so his only claim to fame now was helping the current hero. That had to be frustrating, and I could see him bending the narrative a bit to get the hero to make him seem more impressive than he was.
I jotted that down too, but paused as Inkheart scurried over a few book pages, waiting to see what the pen was so excited about. Eventually, it hopped back onto a sheet of paper and drew the most extravagant sword I’d ever seen. I stared at it, trying not to laugh.
“Ummm, are you implying that the sword is the villain?” I asked with only a hint of a smile in my voice.
