Marak Sixfinger

Marak Sixfinger is a fictional character in the Hollow Kingdom trilogy. He debuts in the first book and appears in Close Kin and In the Coils of the Snake as the goblin King. He marries the protagonist of the first book, Kate Winslow and is the father of Marak Catspaw. Known for his cleverness, he enjoys jokes, creating schemes, and taking goblin revenge.

Character background
Marak Sixfinger is the son of the human Adele Roberts and the goblin King Marak Dogclaw. When he becomes King after his father's death, he marries a human woman named Annie. He kidnaps her immediately after seeing her for the first time and brings her down to his kingdom. She goes insane during the King's Wife wedding ceremony and never regains sanity. Since magical formation of the Heir has to have input from both King and Wife, Annie and Marak are unable to create a child together. He blames himself for her condition and takes care of her until her death. He then finds a new bride in Kate. To avoid the mistake he believes he made last time, Marak takes his time before kidnapping her. He tells Kate who he is and what he intends to do with her. She responds by trying to thwart his plans. When she finds out that her younger sister, Emily, has been kidnapped, she believes Marak did it and offers to marry him in exchange for her sister's safe return. Marak reveals that he did not take Emily, but agrees to rescue her. Kate and Emily's guardian, Hugh Roberts, is the one who took her as part of his scheme to steal their inheritence. Marak gets revenge on him for Kate's sake by putting the stamp of truth on him and enchanting him so he can only walk on the ceiling.

Marak brings Kate back to his kingdom and marries her. During the ceremony, they discover that Kate is part elf through her ancestor, Elizabeth, the friend of Marak's mother, Adele. Over time, Kate comes to love Marak and settles into life in the goblin kingdom. A sorcerer kidnaps a goblin guard and uses his blood to summon the spirits of other goblins in the kingdom, including Marak. He uses them to do his bidding. With the help of the King's Wife Charm, Kate goes after the sorcerer and defeats him. She frees Marak, the other goblins, and the prisoners, including a baby Charm names Matilda or Til. Kate and Marak raise the little girl as their daughter along side their son, Catspaw.

In Close Kin, Marak helps guide a grown up Emily and Seylin through their journeys and marries them to each other once they return to the kingdom. They bring catured elf brides with them named Sable and Irina. He marries them to Tinsel and Thaydar, respectively. He also insists on their education in magic, math, weaving, and elf culture.

During In the Coils of the Snake, it is revealed that he has raised a human girl as a bride for his son, Catspaw. The girl is Miranda, the daughter of Til and Jack Richardson, a man raised in the goblin kingdom. Marak oversaw her rearing and wove spells through her as she grew up. During the first scene of the book, he is explaining to Miranda that he is going to die. When goblin Kings are approachnig natural death, their magic tells them. When Marak finds out, he decides to make arrangements and walks into the coffin under his own power after saying his goodbyes to Kate, Catspaw, Seylin, Emily, and Miranda.

Physical description
Clare B. Dunkle compared Marak's appearance to that of the orcs in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. She says he has "nasty, been-drowned skin, the awful, bony skull, the graceless horsetail hair, the pointed teeth" of the orcs in those films. He also has one green eye, inherited from his mother, and one black eye, inherited from his father.