Protector of Children - 10. Chapter 10: Synergy Part 4: Norns

Protector of Children

Synergy Part 4: Norns

Calvin

I told Kevin who Uncle George really was. I felt Kevin’s disbelief, then his understanding and acceptance. Then, I felt his fear. I hugged him.

“Please don’t be afraid, and I know you’re afraid,” I said. “He’s my … he’s our Uncle George, and I love him. I love him and I love you. He doesn’t go around killing people … ” I thought of Fred-the-Dead. “Not often, and only if they’re really, really bad. Sometimes he saves lives.”

“Like mine,” Kevin whispered.

I nodded, and kissed his cheek. “Like yours,” I said. “And I’m so very, very happy he sent me to bring you to him.”

Kevin’s emotions burst from his mind. He was crying, now, but I could feel that he was crying because he was happy. He was happy that he hadn’t jumped off that bridge. He was happy that he and I… I blushed when I saw just what it was that he was happy about. It wasn’t just the sex, though; he was happy that he had a friend, a real boyfriend. He was happy because he knew someone loved him. Kevin felt what I was thinking, and giggled. Yeah, he was crying and giggling at the same time. What was it Dolly Parton said in that movie about laughter through tears being the best feeling of all? I felt all of what Kevin was feeling, and felt better than I had in a long time.

The tears and giggles both had stopped but we were still hugging.

“What happens, now?” Kevin asked.

“You know,” I said. “You know that you and me and Bobby … we’re going to be a team, and we’re going to do good things.”

Kevin thought. His thoughts were dark, at first, but before I could do anything, I felt something in his mind click.

“The bad things that happened to me … if they hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be here with you … I wouldn’t be here to do the good things,” he said.

“Um hum,” I mumbled through our kiss. Kevin pulled me in so that we shared his happiness. He looked at me, and saw Uncle George. And he saw Uncle George and me, and he gasped.

“You do love him! And you and he… like you and me …”

There was a question in his voice.

“Yes,” I said. And then I gave Kevin the “you can love more than one person” talk. I told him that Bobby was going to come to the ranch in two days and we’d grow to love him, too, and that Uncle George and I were going to keep loving each other, and having sex, even though I loved Kevin, and that someday, Kevin and Bobby might grow to love Uncle George that way, too.

If Kevin hadn’t just had an epiphany about his new life, I don’t think he would have been able to accept that; but, he did, and he knew with an unshakable surety that it would work out okay.

Kevin

Uncle George had been working a lot. He’d usually spend the morning at the ranch, and then turned things over to his crew while he took Impala to his other job. On most days, he didn’t get back to the ranch until after supper. Calvin explained that even though Death could move around in time, there were limits, and that he had to catch up on a lot of what he missed while we were in Chicago.

“Is it my fault?” I asked.

“Oh, no,” Calvin said. “If it’s anybody’s fault, it’s Anubis’s. And, speaking of ancient Egyptian gods, we need to check on him … or on that rock star we think is he.”

I was way better at using the computer than Calvin, and knew a lot of music sites that he’d never heard of. So, I did the search, and found a whole bunch of videos that fans had taken at performances, and posted.

“Here’s a good one,” I said. “Let’s clip it … at this frame. That’s the best one for his face.”

I opened a photo editor that Calvin didn’t even know was on the computer, and enhanced the picture. When the pixels quit dancing around, Calvin and I both gasped.

He was the picture of evil. I know, we were looking at a picture, and that’s a cliché, but there’s got to be some truth at the heart even of a cliché, and this guy was it.

His head would have been shiny, like totally bald, not just shaved, except that it was mostly covered with tattoos. All in black ink. We could see part of what was surely a swastika, and a piece of a double-lightning bolt. There wasn’t enough of the others to recognize. His eyes were totally black—no whites—and surrounded by eye shadow, or maybe permanent tatts. His lips were curled in a sneer, and the teeth that were visible looked like they’d been filed to points. My mouth hurt just thinking about it.

“If he’s Anubis, the real one, like we think, it wouldn’t have hurt. Or, maybe it did hurt and he likes it,” Kevin murmured. I was getting used to him knowing what I was thinking.

Anubis was wearing a black sleeveless vest. Laces crossed his chest. The vest covered other tatts, and there were more on his arms. His arms were moving in this frame, so I couldn’t figure out what the tatts were.

“I’ll grab some other frames and see if we can get more of the tattoos,” I said.

Three hours later, we had a couple of good photos of his face, and a file full of tattoo images. I’d uploaded the images we didn’t know to a pattern-recognition program that found all but four of them. More Nazi stuff, of course and some Egyptian stuff—bad stuff.

“If he’s not Anubis,” Uncle George said when we showed him, “he’s sure got the act down pat.

“What’s his band’s schedule?”

We hadn’t thought of that, and it was already late. Oh, and I sort of looked in Calvin’s mind, and then told him, “Calvin? I’m kind of tired from looking at the computer all that time. Would you sleep with Uncle George tonight?”

Calvin grinned and gave me a big kiss. I love you! he sent.

Calvin

I do love Kevin, and I’m so glad he understands. I hadn’t slept with Uncle George in three nights, and I was going into withdrawal.

Uncle George is bigger than Kevin, and a lot more experienced. He knows how to make me feel good, and vice versa. And there was a lot of vice versa that night.

The next morning, Uncle George took Kevin and me to work with him. It wasn’t a bad day: I think Uncle George picked easy deaths to show Kevin what he did. Still, after a few hours, Kevin was pale and fidgety. We squeezed together in the front seat of the Hummer, and I hugged him.

“Am I going to have to do that?” Kevin asked. I looked at Uncle George.

“No, Kevin,” he said. “That’s my job. Not even Calvin has to do those things; he helps in other ways.

“No, your job—and your powers lie elsewhere, but they are somehow related to death.”

“You told me …” Kevin hesitated. “You told me the first day that you wanted me to help. You also told me it would be dangerous, and that I might die. Is that what you mean?”

Death was startled by the question, and it took a minute before he could answer. I hugged Kevin tighter and tried to send just a little reassurance. I didn’t want to send too much and give him a false sense of confidence.

“I cannot say when someone will die,” Uncle George said. “Until very recently, I almost never felt a summons until someone was dead or their death was a certainty.

“You and Calvin, and Bobby, have something important to do. I think it has something to do with death. Calvin has told you that the words of the gods sometimes shape reality. That is why I cannot and will not say more.”

Kevin

I remembered that Uncle George had asked about the schedule for Anubis’s band. Calvin had ranch things to do, and invited me to ride along. I laughed.

“Calvin, I’m a city boy. The only horses I’ve ever seen were mounted policemen. I do, someday, want to learn about your ranch and what you do, but not today. Besides, I’ve got computer work.” I explained what I was going to do.

I found the schedule. They were booked into clubs and a couple of amphitheaters in a dozen cities in Europe and the Balkan countries. I also found more videos of their performances. I was watching one when I felt my blood run cold.

Yeah, another cliché. Sorry. I’m a musician, not a writer!

The band had pulled some kid onto the stage. He looked like he was about twelve years old. He stumbled a little, like he was on something (likely) or maybe scared (almost certain). The band was screaming some song about death and darkness, when Anubis pulled out a knife and … and cut the kid’s throat. Pulled the knife across the boy’s throat! Blood gushed onto Anubis. The kid fell, face down. I couldn’t see the stage floor because of the angle, but Anubis stomped his feet, and I could see blood flying up.

The audience went crazy, and demanded more, but the band knew something about showmanship. The instant the song ended, the stage lights went dark and bright lights from the proscenium arch shown into the faces of the audience. The show was over.

That couldn’t have been real, I thought.

Uncle George didn’t agree.

He came home in time for supper, and said he’d caught up and wouldn’t have to be away so long. After supper, I showed him and Calvin the video.

“Good special effects, right? I mean, that couldn’t have been real,” I said.

“If this guy really is Anubis, and it’s looking more and more like it,” Uncle George said. “Then it could have been real. He would draw an immense amount of power from an audience that size and that hyped up by the performance. He could hide a murder not only from the police, but from me.

“Boys? We need to bring Bobby here so the three of you can find out your Authorities and Attributes.”

“So we can go after Anubis?” Calvin asked.

“You know I cannot answer that,” Death said. “And you know why.”

Because the words of gods shape reality, I thought. I know I’m right.

Bobby

I had heard Dike say that Calvin and Kevin and I were going to become something new, and that she wouldn’t say what it was. Nemesis took Benji and me back to Erewhon, that night, and then spent the night cuddling us. He knew I was worried, but told me, promised me, that he and Gary would always be there to protect me.

“Sometimes, bad things have to happen so that good things can happen,” he said. “At least, it seems to be that way.

“A lot of bad things happened to you … but Gary and I found you. You’ve helped do good things for people. Now, you’re going to get powers to do more good things.”

It was easier to understand Nemesis than Dike. I guess it was because he’s a kid, like me. I liked it when he said I would be able to do good things. It’s been fun, being a kid at Erewhon and with Gary and Nemesis and Benji and all the others. But I wanted something more. I wanted to be like Gary, like Nemesis.

Gary and Nemesis visited a lot over the next few days, and took Benji and me to Dave and Busters, and then took us and Benji’s new boyfriend, Ahan, to an Indian restaurant. I know Gary was trying to make sure someone was with me in case I got scared, again.

The Indian restaurant was a lot of fun. Ahan spoke Hindi to the waiters, and was careful to describe what he ordered for us. I don’t think he told Gary how hot his food would be. It looked like Gary was blowing fire out of his ears! Then, he ordered beer, and got a little … a little tipsy, I guess. It was a lot of fun.

After Nemesis drove us home from the Indian restaurant, Gary asked me if I’d like to visit Calvin and Kevin at the ranch in Texas. I think he was sober, by then.

“So we can start becoming whatever it is?” I asked.

Gary nodded. “Yes. But Calvin will be there for you. So will Uncle George. And you can call Nemesis or me any time you need a hug or a cuddle.”

Calvin

Gary either forgot about the time difference, or figured that since we were on a “farm” we got up with the chickens. Uncle George and I felt it, and woke up, when Gary, Nemesis, and Bobby popped in at 6:00 AM. I elbowed Kevin. He grumbled. He stretched, like he always does. I tickled him when his arms went over his head, like I always do. He giggled, like he always does. Then, he sat bolt upright.

“Bobby’s here! What time …?”

“Like, six o’clock,” I said. “Even the rooster is still asleep.” Yes, we had a rooster and yes, he crowed every morning. But not until the sun came up. Which, in the canyon, was sometimes pretty late. Poor mixed up rooster!

It didn’t take any time at all to integrate Bobby into the household, and into bed with Kevin and me. Bobby was on the edge of being old enough for sex stuff. Gary and Uncle George both told us to follow our feelings, to be loving and gentle, and not to do some things until Bobby was older. It worked. And, with Bobby and Kevin able to entertain one another, I had more time with Uncle George.

It was only a week later that we decided we all should get into Uncle George’s bed in the morning. Even if none of us had slept with him the night before (unlikely as that might have been), we’d all traipse in, crawl under the covers, and snuggle. He always hugged us, and he always was in his teen-age persona, the cute, Revolutionary War soldier.

It was about that time that Kevin and Uncle George had sex. Kevin and I were wide open to one another, especially when we had sex. I wasn’t surprised that he saw what Uncle George and I did. I was surprised one night, when we were alone together, that he would ask me about it.

“Uncle George … he’s better’n me, isn’t he?” Kevin asked.

“You mean, he’s bigger than you?” I teased, and then realized Kevin’s question was serious.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I know what you mean.

“No, Uncle George is not better, just different.

“He’s bigger, but that’s because he’s older. He knows more, but that’s because he’s older.

“Kevin, you are you, and I love you who are you. Please don’t make me compare you with Uncle George. It’s not fair to either of you … or to me.”

“Do you think he’d teach me things? Things to make you happy?”

“Yes,” I said. “And he’ll teach me things to make you, and Bobby, happy, too.” I was starting to understand the “love more than one person thing.”

Death

I knew what the boys were becoming, but I couldn’t say it, yet. Not until they were as certain as I was. They would be the Norns, the Norse version of the Fates that had been adopted by some early Germans. Their powers would be similar to that of the Fates, and would include power over all the gods except, perhaps, Zeus. Their Aspects would remain that of teen-aged boys. In fact, it appeared that they would be locked into the appearance they had when they got their powers, except when they chose to morph into something else, just as I appeared to be—and was—an eighteen-year-old ex-Colonial-soldier except when I was working or being foreman of the ranch. Then, I was a mid-twenties adult.

I found information on the Norns in several places, including some of the neo-Nazi web sites. Seems some of these new skinheads admired the Norns. Admired their power and the symbolism, that is. I had a feeling at least some of them were going to be disappointed when they found out just who their heroes were.

One thing concerned me: when the three boys were together—as in within a hundred yards of one another—they seemed to broadcast power. I could sense it, and was afraid that Anubis would sense it before they could reach him. It took several sessions with Dike before we found a way to control that. It involved Nemesis and something that Kevin seemed to understand about the how the frequency of Nemesis’s power and the frequency of the Norns’ power blanketed one another.

“How come we have the Attributes and Authorities of Norse and German gods, and not Greek ones, like you?” Bobby asked the question that all of us wanted answered.

Dike could only speculate. “Are the people of this world creating new gods? That is one explanation. Are you receiving the power of elder gods or spirits who have left or been removed from this plane? That is another. I cannot be sure. All I am sure of is this: you have Authorities and Abilities that have not been seen in centuries, perhaps millennia.

“And, it is my belief that you are the right ones to take on this jackal.”

Those were the words the boys were waiting for, and the words Gary and I feared. They were the words that told us the boys would be going to Germany, and would be going after Anubis, without us.

Bobby

Calvin’s car was hot! Of course, I knew by now that his daddy and boyfriend, my “Uncle George,” wasn’t really the god of muscle cars, even though I still teased him about that. However, Calvin must have had some kind of connection to drive a Lamborghini Estoque four-seater super sedan. If there were going to be four of us, I guess we needed a four-seater. If we were going to try to hang out with a hot, European, hard-rock band, we’d need something more impressive even than Uncle George’s Mustang, and way more impressive than the Land Rover that Gary still drove.

We'd also need to be something more than a bunch of kids from Chicago.

Calvin

The plan was simple: we’d pretend to be rich, spoiled, unsupervised-by-parents kids. I looked old enough to be on my own; Nemesis showed how he could appear to be an older teen, too. Bobby and Kevin? We’d call them our “brothers,” and let people draw their own conclusions. As cute as they both were, we knew what conclusions most people would draw. Actually, that turned out to be a useful thing.

The band wore nothing more than leather and tattoos, and it was fun dressing up for our role as groupies. We looked hot in skin-tight, shiny black leather pants; square-toed boots with silver buckles and hobnails; and skimpy, black leather vests. The tattoos were going to be problematic. Gary absolutely forbade us to get tattooed. Uncle George said he had a solution. Then, he disappeared.

When he came back, he brought a dude named Gus Moreau. Actually, he was Gustave, but he said to call him Gus. He had been a great painter, who died in the late 1800s. He painted a lot of Greek stuff. I was pretty sure he was gay, at least bi, because the women he painted were kind of fuzzy, but the guys? Wow? Every muscle on Prometheus showed up. And the guys all had big feet, and you know what that means!

Anyway, he agreed to paint tatts on us, and Uncle George showed how they could be removed, later.

We didn’t plan on getting naked on this job, so he only painted temporary tatts on our chests, arms, and faces. I figured that since I was of age, I didn’t have to obey Gary on this, and asked Gus to give me a permanent tattoo: a rainbow pierced by a sword, on my right shoulder. Below the sword were the letters, “P.O.C.”: Protector of Children. Even though Gary had that title, officially, I figured that was what we all were, and that it was our job, too.

The others saw my tatt, and demanded their own.

I’m of legal age, I thought. This is my place, this is my job. These boys are part of me. Gary isn’t our father. I paused. Gary had been so much to us. I wasn’t sure I should go against his wishes like this. So, I called him.

He was surprised, and then thanked me. “You’re right, Calvin. This is your show. If you and the boys want that, it’s not my place to say that you should not have it. In fact, I’m proud that you want that.”

The next step was to reconnoiter. It wasn’t hard to get into the clubs where “NDB” was playing. The band’s name? NDB stood for “Neue Dopple-Blitz,” meaning “new double lightning.” It wasn’t subtle: the “double lightning” was the old, runic symbol of the SS—the SchutzStaffel—originally Hitler’s bodyguard, but eventually the most evil arm of the Nazis.

Gary called in Aiden. I knew he was a lawyer. Turns out, he was also a pretty good forger. He gave us EU passports showing that all of us, even the youngest, were of age. The passports weren’t for police or border guards—we used our powers and ignored or bypassed them. The passports were more for holding a couple of the American hundred-dollar bills with which we bribed the doorkeepers and bouncers at the clubs where the band played to let us in and to guard the Lamborghini. Heck, the guards didn’t care. And there was a lot more going on at the clubs than a few underage kids listening to loud music!

The next step was to get noticed.

That wasn’t hard, either. Aiden popped over from Chicago with four, forged back-stage passes to an NDB concert in Moldavia. The passes were good, but deliberately not good enough.

It worked. We were caught. We were threatened. I offered a bunch of our hundred-dollar bills to keep the guards from turning us over to the civil authorities. It worked. Our pretty good forgeries plus a lot of cash—plus maybe that we were incredibly cute—piqued the interest of the band’s guards, who told the band, who invited us backstage after the regular groupies had left.

“You guys … you bought some pretty impressive credentials,” one of the band members said. He drew a lungful of smoke from the joint he held.

“Shit,” another said. “You could have bought real passes for that kind of money.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But then we’d have been in with the stupid girls and groupies. This way, we get to see you, alone.”

A couple of the band members weren’t too wasted to pick up on the stupid girls and alone part of what I said. Yeah, we’d figured a long time ago that they were bi-sexual. That worked into our plan.

There was a little tension among the band members, but not, I felt, from Anubis. Uh, oh, this isn’t working.

Time stopped. That is to say, the mortal members of the band froze. Anubis stepped forward.

He looked like both his ancient and his modern self: a jackal with a shaved head covered with tats, wearing both a kilt-like skirt and torn blue jeans, and carrying a staff that looked like an electric guitar and one of those new “chest putters” they use in pro golf at the same time.

“Who are you?” he asked. His voice was like Uncle George’s when he was being Death: deep, echoing as if he were standing at the bottom of a well.

Before any of us could answer, his eyes opened wide, and he said, “I know you. You are Nemesis! The Greek god of retribution! The one who stole her powers from Ammit! But you’re a boy!”

“Ewwww!” Nemesis said. “I’m so much different from that ugly half-hippo, half-lion bone-cruncher, Ammit. And a lot cuter, too.” He giggled. And switched to his chiton—the thing that barely covered his thing and his butt.

Anubis was startled. While he was paying attention to Nemesis, I was probing.

Nemesis kept up his banter. He cocked his hip in a slutty pose, and giggled at Anubis. I had to admire Nemesis. Of the four of us, he was perhaps the most vulnerable, because he was operating completely outside of the realm of his Authorities.

Bobby and Kevin had grasped my hands. When I finished reading Anubis, and knew that I was right, I signaled them, and we formed our Aspect as the Norns.

I lashed out at Anubis.

“Avaunt, thou dreadful monster! If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds, behold the pattern of thy butcheries.”

The body of a boy appeared between Anubis and us. The boy’s throat had been cut. The body had been hidden until our magic severed the magic of Anubis from the illusion. Anubis looked at the body, and fresh blood poured from the boy’s throat.

“See!” I said. “See the wound opens its congealèd mouth and bleeds afresh in the presence of the murderer.

“Thou lump of foul deformity; it is thy presence that exhales this blood from cold and empty veins. O earth, which drinks this child’s blood, revenge his death! Gape open wide and eat him as quickly as you swallow the blood of this child which his evil-governed arm hath butchered.”

It happened. A crack opened in the floor. Anubis was paralyzed. The crack grew wider. A volcano roared, Anubis fell into the molten lava. The crack closed.

“Uncle George?” I whispered, I need you.” I knew he would hear me, wherever he was. He did; he appeared instantly.

“Where … ?” he began.

“Gone,” I said. “No longer on this plane; no longer a threat to those I love—or to anyone else, for that matter.

“Uncle George, can you reset reality so he won’t be dead?” Now I was crying for the little boy whose blood covered the floor.

Death looked at the boy, and then got a far-away look in his eyes.

“No, Calvin. He came here looking for his older brother. The brother went missing after a concert. His little brother has found him, and they’re together in their good place.”

Uncle George picked up the staff of Anubis. “”This is yours,” he said. “It has no magic, and no power; but it will remind you of the good you did here, today.

“Oh, and you should wake up the band.”

The members of the band were somewhat dazed. They looked puzzled at the absence of their lead singer. Then, they saw Death. I knew he was letting them see him in his True Aspect, overlain with their own imaginations, enhanced by their own evil.

“Thanks, guys, for the visit,” I said. “We have to go, now.”

We popped to Silver. “Want to drive?” I asked Uncle George. He pointed to Impala parked on the other side of the street.

“Thank you, Calvin. Are you guys hungry?”

Of course we were! And Uncle George took us to a pizza place—in Italy!

I wasn’t sure where the words that destroyed Anubis had come from until Kevin was reading King Richard III and showed them to me. I’d never read that play, and have always wondered if Shakespeare hadn’t been like us, and somehow, sometime, banished an evil creature, himself.

Kevin

Neue Dopple-Blitz never appeared on stage, again. Not the band, and not any of its members. Six months after we removed Anubis from this plane, I checked them on the computer. All seven were dead: suicide, mostly, although a couple were murdered, and one died in a bar brawl. The next time I slept with Uncle George, I asked him why he hadn’t told us the band members were dead.

“Their deaths were neither tragic nor unexpected nor interesting. There was no question of their fate; there was no reason for me to be there. There was no reason for me to know.” He bent over me and kissed me while stroking my tummy.

I couldn’t say anything, and not just because my tongue was in his mouth …

Disclaimer

Lamborghini, Estoque, Aventador, Land Rover, Impala, and Mustang are trademarks and property of their owners. Look for Gustav Moreau’s paintings on Wikipedia. Calvin’s words to Anubis are shamelessly plagiarized from William Shakespeare’s Richard III. The movie in which Dolly Parton said the line about “laughter through tears” was Steel Magnolias.