Protector of Children - 24. Chapter 24: Lucas and Mark, Part VIII

Lucas

“Mark doesn’t know where he is . . . or when he is?” Eddie asked. “That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Eddie, we’ve talked about how the gods—and Mark—can go from place to place just by thinking about it. We’ve never talked about time. Some of the gods can make time stand still. They say they slip in time. One of them, who Mark met, can travel in time. We’re afraid that Mark may have traveled in time, too.”

“That’s a reasonable assumption,” Ben said. “Especially since no one seemed able to locate him.”

“But we know where he is! And we know that he’s in the now ’cause we saw streetlights. They didn’t have those in ancient Egypt. And we’ve got to tell him!” Eddie said.

“We’ve tried to talk to him,” Ben said. “We’ve tried to talk to—”

“But you weren’t asleep!” Eddie said. “You have to be asleep!”

Ben and I looked at one another, and nodded. Eddie’s innocence had discovered what we could not. I hugged Eddie tightly. “Are you sleepy?” I asked. “Want to go to bed?”

Mark

Set came back into the room after I had eaten. “You have slept; you have eaten. You must now make a decision.”

“You promised until tomorrow!” I said. “You promised.”

I thought for a moment. “How can we be friends if we don’t keep our promises?”

Set looked at me. Then: “Will you promise me your decision, tomorrow?” he asked. The hisses when he said promise and decision were long and scary.

“Yes,” I whispered. “I promise.” I felt really cold. My stomach felt empty, and my mouth was dry, even though I’d just eaten. I was shaking, quivering. I had just made a promise, and I would to keep it. I would have to keep it even if Set didn’t keep his promises. I had to decide if I would live or die and, if I wanted to live, would I be Set’s friend or his slave. No matter what, I had to keep my promise. It wasn’t fair! I knew that, but I also knew that it was right.

Set nodded, and left the room.

I was pretty sure I’d really been talking to Eddie when I dreamed. I didn’t believe the dream about Morpheus, though. I still didn’t have any powers, and I still couldn’t translocate, and I figured any god who was that important wouldn’t give me his powers, anyway. But I did believe that the only way I could talk to Eddie was to dream. So I tried to sleep.

It was hard. The light in the room stayed bright. I wasn’t sure how long it had been since last night, but thought for sure it was night, again, and the light should go off. Set knows! I thought. He knows and he’s trying to keep me awake!

I put my arm over my eyes, and finally fell asleep.

Eddie

I wasn’t really sleepy, but I knew I had to sleep. I lay on my side. Lucas was behind me, and I was snuggled up against him. His arm held me. He was gentle, but I felt his strength. I felt his breath on my neck. It got softer and slower, and knew he was asleep.

My leg cramped. I needed to move it, but was afraid I would wake up Lucas. Was he already dreaming? Has he found Mark? I wondered. I slowly straightened my leg. The pain went away, and finally, I fell asleep.

Ben

I had remained in the living room when Lucas and Eddie had gone to bed. I wanted to be here if they manage to bring Mark home. I wasn’t sure what Eddie meant about having to be asleep, but Lucas seemed to understand, and I knew he was much more than a god. I had to trust him.

I lay on the couch and thought about what we knew, and wished I knew more about Egypt and her gods. I looked at Mark’s computer, and wondered if I should Google something. But I was exhausted, physically and emotionally. I closed my eyes and fell asleep. And found myself in a place I knew to be Mark’s dream.

Mark

I dreamed I was in the tunnel, but this time, nothing was chasing me. I knew it was a dream, ’cause every time I’d been in the tunnel it was a dream or I was translocating, and I knew I wasn’t translocating. There was a light moving toward me. I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t.

The light got closer. It was Eddie! We ran toward one another. We stopped, only inches from one another. Eddie was faster than I was: he grabbed me in a hug.

I heard him, but it was in my mind. “Mark! I’m dreaming! You can talk to me!”

“I’m dreaming, too,” I said.

“What if one of us wakes up?” Eddie asked.

“That won’t happen,” I said. “We’re between one breath and the next. Time doesn’t exist for us, here. I don’t know how I know that, but I do. I think it was something Set said, about this place being somehow outside of time.”

But Set had lied, and I was wrong. There was something pulling me away from Eddie and the tunnel. “Set! He’s waking me up! I . . . ”

Eddie

Mark disappeared just as another light appeared in the distance, and moved toward me. I knew who it was: Lucas.

Lucas was wearing a tunic. But he also had on armor: a breastplate, and thingies on his arms and legs. And he held a sword.

Lucas

I knew I was dreaming, but I was still surprise by what I was wearing . . . a tunic like the one I’d worn when Zeus took me to visit the Fates, but also armor, and a sword. A breastplate was hooked with leather straps that went over my shoulders and around my back. My arms and legs were protected with armor: greaves, I thought. And something else. The name escaped me. Eddie grabbed my hand.

“Mark was here! He was dreaming, too, but Set woke him up! We’ve got to find him.” Eddie tugged at my arm.

“We will, Eddie,” I said. “That’s why we are here.”

Eddie looked at me, and then closed his eyes for a moment. His pajamas changed to a tunic. His breastplate and other armor mirrored mine; and, he had a sword.

“Eddie? How—” I was almost afraid to ask.

“It’s a dream!” Eddie said. “You can do anything in a dream!”

“But you’re not to fight!” I said. “You must stay behind me.” I was afraid. How was I going to protect him? I’d never before used a sword, not even in a dream. Why did I think I could use it here? Where had the sword and armor come from? I remembered that Mark had said he dreamed it. Maybe, just maybe, he was still part of this dream.

Some of my fear abated when Ben appeared. He was no longer the preppie cop, but a London Bobby armed only with a nightstick. I saw the energy that surrounded the nightstick, and knew it was something more than a normal weapon. I also saw Ben’s glow. It was golden. I remembered something about that—his being golden and mine being silver. I pushed that thought aside.

“Ben?”

“I . . . I fell asleep on the couch,” he said. “We’re really here, aren’t we?”

“No, it’s just a dream,” Eddie said. “And we’ve still got to find Mark.”

Eddie pointed. “He’s that way.”

I didn’t question how Eddie knew, or how there could be any direction in a dream, but began walking down the tunnel. Light seemed to follow us—light that we had brought with us, I guessed.

Mark

Set was angry. He frothed and spit as he spoke. “You summoned your friends here! They will be stopped. I have waited too long for a new body. Soon you will be weak enough that I can take yours. And take it, I will!”

“Take my body?” I asked. At least I had the presence of mind to question him. “Take my body?”

“Fool!” Set spit. Even though there were no esses in that word, he managed to hiss. “You are a godling who does not know his power. And you are weak. When you are weak enough, I shall take your body . . . I see that you do not understand. No matter.”

I wanted to strike at him, even though I knew it would probably do no good, but I couldn’t. He was right. I was weak. I could barely lift my head to look at him.

Lucas

The light we took with us was bright enough to illuminate the walls of the tunnel, but we had left the tunnel and entered a huge room. We stood in an island of light amidst a sea of darkness.

“We need more light,” Ben said.

I knew he was talking to me. I knew he was pushing me to find and use the powers that had been promised. I remembered what Paul Kendrick had said about dark energy. It was everywhere and everywhen. Did it exist in dreams? I managed to convince myself that it did, and reached out for it and twisted it into light and we were standing in a huge cavern facing men—men with the legs and claws of a giant bird, a roc or moa. And they had spears with wickedly curved and barbed points that were pointing directly at us.

“Eddie! Get behind me!” I said.

“No Daddy,” Eddie said. “This is my fight, too.”

My chest tightened. I was afraid. I was afraid for Eddie, but also for Mark. Set must know we were close. If we didn’t reach Mark soon there was no telling what Set would do.

Ben stepped to the right, and raised his club. One of the bird-men turned his spear toward Ben. Ben’s club came down on the shaft of the spear, breaking it. Ben didn’t raise his club, again, but struck the bird-man straight on. The creature collapsed.

I saw that out of the corner of my eye, and didn’t actually think of it until after the fight. I was otherwise engaged. With a thought, my sword, which had been in its scabbard, was in my hand. I swung, awkwardly unaccustomed to its weight, but managed to deflect the spear of the second bird-man. Eddie stepped forward. Afraid for him, I rushed the bird-man with my sword level and pointed at his stomach. He doesn’t have a navel, I thought, but aimed where one would be on a human. The sword sparkled when it hit, spewing lightning among the black ichor that flowed from the creature’s wound. The bird-man shriveled as he fell, and then disappeared.

I thought to clean my sword before returning it to the scabbard, but none of the ichor remained on it. The second bird-man, the one Ben had dispatched, had disappeared, as well. Save for three people breathing heavily and—in at least my case—shaking nervously, there was no sign that there had been a battle.

Ben

The bird creature facing me was no challenge. He was, I think, as surprised as we were by the encounter. On the other hand, I hadn’t been a Chicago cop for more than 100 years without developing some quick reflexes. It took little effort to draw the creature’s attention, break his spear, and drive my nightstick into his stomach. I wasn’t prepared for the results, however. The creature seemed to dry up—like a mummy, perhaps—and then disappeared. By the time I turned to the second creature, Lucas had dispatched it.

“That was . . . that was almost too easy,” I said. “I wonder—”

I didn’t get to finish asking what else might be in store. It was there. The head and about thirty feet of the body of a giant snake slithered from a hole in the center of the chamber.

“Lucas! To the left. I’ll go right,” I said. I thought Eddie would follow Lucas. I was wrong. He stood, either petrified with fear or lacking instructions, directly in front of the snake. The snake’s tongue, dripping some liquid that smoked as it touched the floor of the cavern, lashed out at Eddie.

It was not fear. At least, whatever held Eddie in place did not prevent him from side-stepping the tongue and slashing at it with his sword. The sword connected. And cut. And the tongue fell to the floor.

That did not distract either Lucas or me; Lucas swung his sword at a point just behind the snake’s head at the same time I struck on the opposite side. An arc of fire? lightning? power of some sort linked our weapons. The snake’s head, severed, fell. The snake’s body dropped back into the hole, but the head remained. Golden blood oozed from its mouth, and flowed from the severed head.

Lucas

I wasn’t shaking quite as badly, now. I saw the power that helped Ben and me kill the snake. It gave me courage.

“Eddie? You must take us to Mark,” I said. “Mark was here, and Set took him away. Where did he take him?”

Eddie looked confused. His eyes swept the cave. The only entrances were the one we used and the hole through which the snake’s body had slithered away. “I don’t know,” he said. “There aren’t any doors but the one we came in.”

Eddie looked toward the hole. “And that,” he said.

I took Eddie’s hand “Ben? Take Eddie’s other hand, please.”

Ben did as I asked, keeping his right hand with the baton free.

“Now, Eddie, we’re all dreaming. You said you could do anything in a dream that you can imagine. Set took Mark somewhere. Take us there. Open a door for us from this cave into the room where Mark is. Make a door, Eddie!”

Eddie smiled. I felt something pass through me without leaving any trace except a memory, and a door opened in the air beside Eddie.

Eddie

I thought the door would open into the room where I had seen Mark in the dream—the bright room with the white walls and the huge bed. But it didn’t. The room was dark, until Lucas did something and light poured into it.

It was a tiny room. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, and the floor was strewn with stone blocks. Lucas stuck his sword into its holder and clambered over rubble. Ben and I followed.

“That’s why I couldn’t translocate here,” Ben said. “There’s hardly any room between the rubble. What’s that?”

Ben pointed. It was a coffin. I recognized the shape—it was like the Egyptian coffins in the museum. All I could see was the legs part. The head part was hidden by rubble. Then I saw Mark. He wasn’t lying on a bed. He was draped over rubble and lying next to the coffin.

Lucas

We were in a burial chamber of some ancient tomb, scores—perhaps hundreds—of feet below the mosque. I reached over the rubble and felt Mark’s throat for a pulse. It was there, but it was weak. His breath was shallow, and rasped. He’s been here all this time, I thought. He’s been without food or water. It’s amazing that he’s been able to breathe!

“He’s not asleep,” I said. “He’s unconscious, perhaps in a coma. Ben! Can you get us out of here?”

“No,” Ben said. “We’re all dreaming, and I’ve never heard of anyone translocating while they’re asleep!”

That’s probably a good thing, I thought. You wouldn’t want to translocate yourself into a world of your imagination.

Mark stirred but he did not wake. His eyes fluttered open. “We’ve got to get out of here. We’re dreaming, but this”—I gestured to the room, the sarcophagus on the stone bier, and Mark’s body—“this is real.”

“As am I, little man!”

Mark

I woke up. I knew that voice. It was Set. But he didn’t look like what I had seen, before! He was naked, his skin was black and wrinkled. I remember one summer, seeing a dog that had been hit by a car, and its body flung to the roadside. I found it. It must have been days later. Set’s skin looked like that dog’s.

The room appeared to be dark, full of rubble and stone blocks. Then, it was the white bedroom. Then it was dark, again. Then it was the white room. I decided I liked the white room, better. But I finally knew that the white room wasn’t real.

Lucas and Eddie and Ben stood beside me. Lucas and Eddie were wearing identical armor, like I’d dreamed of once on Lucas. Ben looked like an old policeman, from a movie or something.

“Who are you?” Set demanded. He was looking at Lucas. “You are silver—the others are brass.” He sounded puzzled.

“I am Mark’s daddy,” Lucas said. “That is all you need to know.”

Set spread his arms. “Mark is mine! He rejected you and I have claimed him . . . .”

Lucas pointed his sword at Set. “You cannot claim Mark, for I have not rejected him. He is mine, now and forever.”

Set sneered. “Your claim is worthless. He is mine, and his body will become my new body.” I felt his power, and I was afraid. Then Eddie spoke.

“He didn’t reject me, you dickless asshole!” Eddie shouted. Eddie’s sword was in his hand. He lunged, and the sword slid into Set’s chest. “This is my dream, too!”

Set’s face lost the shape that horrified me. He looked like that famous painting, you know, the one with the melting man with the O for a mouth? He’s screaming. Set put his hands on his chest, and looked at Eddie. “You are mortal! You cannot . . . .”

Then, Set fell to the floor. Eddie’s sword slid from his chest.

Eddie must have realized only then what he had done: he had killed someone. Not just someone, a god. He dropped his sword and grabbed Lucas. And I blacked out.

Ben

Lucas hugged Eddie. “It’s a dream, Eddie. You said so, yourself.”

“Not any more,” Eddie said. Lucas jerked back in surprise, and bumped his head on the ceiling.

“Ow! That hurt. And you’re wearing pajamas!”

I was first to understand.

“So are you, Lucas,” I said. “Set’s dream died with him. We’re awake, and we’re in the crypt, and if you can hold the boys, I can translocate us away from here.”

Lucas

I grabbed Mark. He was unconscious again—or still. In either case, he couldn’t stand on his own. I needed both hands to hold him. “Eddie, grab me around the waist and hang on tight,” I said.

“Tightly,” he said, and locked his fingers in front of my tummy. “And you owe me a pizza!”

What is he thinking! I wondered, and then realized that Eddie was releasing some of the tension we all felt.

Before I’d completed that thought, we were standing in the living room of my apartment. Mark fell to the floor. I wouldn’t turn loose of him, and was pulled down with him. Eddie wouldn’t turn loose of me, either. The three of us lay, exhausted, helpless, on the floor. And then Apollo appeared.

His hands flew over Mark. I saw the power.

“Mark is dehydrated and starved. His electrolytes . . . never mind. He needs liquids, he needs . . . do you have any Gatorade?”

I didn’t, but I knew what Apollo meant. I managed to stumble into the kitchen, and prepared a glass of water with salt and sugar. I added some orange juice. And brought it to Apollo, who held Mark while the boy drank.

“This will do for now, but he needs rest and nourishment.”

“And a bath,” Eddie giggled. “Mark, you stink!”

Lucas

Mark was terribly weak and nearly unconscious, but Eddie and I washed him, dressed him in his pajamas, and put him into his own bed.

While Eddie sat with Mark, I called Alice. I told her that Mark was back, but that he was weak and tired, and that Apollo had treated him.

Her reaction wasn’t what I had expected. She spoke very matter-of-factly. Her voice had only a little more emotion than the voice at an ATM as it said, “Please insert card.”

“I’ve agreed to work twelve-on eight-off for the next week,” she said. “I’ll not be home until after that. I assume you’ll take care of Mark?”

I agreed, and said that Mark would call her when he woke. Her thank you was perfunctory, and she hung up without saying good-bye.

For the next two days, Mark stayed in his bed except for bathroom breaks. Eddie fed Mark Gatorade, soup, yoghurt, and gelatin desserts—and sat with Mark, and read to him. When Mark fell asleep, Eddie crawled into bed and snuggled with him. I often stood in the doorway between my apartment and the boys’ bedroom, looking on. I don’t think either boy knew I was there, so I left them alone. I did not feel left out; rather, I felt good about what I saw happening. The crisis, the adventure, the healing, Eddie’s caregiving: these things created a bond that both boys would need to rely upon in the future. I was no longer worried that they might be separated, for this bond would be with them as long as they lived.

Apollo visited every day. On the third day, he told me Mark was fit enough to leave the bed, and to eat solid food. I brought Mark’s braces and canes into his bedroom.

“Mark, Apollo said that you might get up and eat some real food.”

Mark surprised me with his response. “Lucas? Are you still my daddy? I know what I said—and what Set said. I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

I dropped the braces and canes onto the bed and sat beside Mark. I pulled him to me, and hugged him as tightly as I dared. “Mark, I am now and always will be your daddy. Nothing you can say or do will change that. Well, unless you ask me not to be. I would not deny you that.”

“No! I’ll never ask!” Mark said.

Mark looked at Eddie. “You saved me . . . .”

“Mark, I am now and always will be your brother. As long as you want me, that is.” Eddie ducked his head as if to hide his face.

“Eddie, I am your brother now and forever. And I dare Set or anyone else to try to come between us!”

We all had a good cry, and even better hugs. Then, “How about breakfast out?” I asked. “There’s nothing here but yoghurt and applesauce, and I suspect Mark’s had enough of both.”

“Waffle Place? Pancakes and maple syrup?” Mark asked. “And can Apollo and Ben come, too?”

“May Apollo and Ben,” I corrected, automatically. Things were back to normal.

Mark

It was three o’clock in the afternoon, but the wonder of the Waffle Place was that it served breakfast 24-7. Eddie put it this way, “My favorite meal of the day is breakfast. Too bad it comes so early in the morning!” It had taken a while, but Eddie finally came to accept Lucas’s weird schedule.

Ben and Apollo joined us. Ben was neither the old-timey Bobbie of my dream, nor the preppie cop of Eddie’s rescue, but a young man dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that read, “If you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.” Apollo appeared as a 12-year-old, in jeans and a T-shirt that read, “In Dog We Trust.” When I said something about it, he just grinned and asked me if I knew how many kids were dyslexic, and how that affected them throughout their lives. I shook my head and decided I should learn more about that.

I hadn’t talked to Eddie or Mark about what had happened, but now that we were all together, it just came out.

“I’m pretty sure that I was dreaming. But it didn’t seem like it, then. I mean, he fed me, but I was always hungry. He gave me water to drink, but I was always thirsty.”

“That was your real body pushing its way into the dream,” Ben said.

“I didn’t know I was dreaming partly because when he let me sleep, I dreamed. I don’t ever remember dreaming inside of a dream! I dreamed about Eddie,” I smiled, and reached under the table to squeeze his hand. “And I dreamed that Morpheus came to me and, uh, gave me his powers.”

“Tell us!” Eddie said.

“He was a cute guy, maybe eighteen. He wore a tunic and a wreath of red flowers—poppies—around his head. He recited a poem about them. I knew it, then, but I don’t know it any more. That’s how I know it was a dream.”

“Yeah” Eddie said. “And then what?”

He said he was Morpheus, the god of Sleep, and that he had come back to give me his powers. I know it was a dream, ’cause I don’t have any powers.”

Apollo smiled. “It wasn’t a dream. He was Morpheus! And he did give you his powers. You’re going to have to find them, and learn how to use them—just as Lucas is.”

Then, Apollo got serious. “Mark? I’ll be here to help you. So will Ben, and others. Please don’t reject the gift that has been offered to you.”

“Um, can we get back to what happened?” Eddie asked. “How was Set able to grab you?”

Apollo answered that question. “Set was dreaming. Without Morpheus to counter Set’s evil, Set’s dream created its own reality,” he said.

I felt something. It was like I’d opened a book and read the whole thing in an instant. I knew it would take a while to understand it all, but I was certain of one thing. “That’s my job, now,” I said. “At least, part of it is to make sure Set doesn’t dream some other evil.”

“But he’s dead! I killed him!” Eddie said.

“He was dead before you killed him,” Apollo said.

I nodded. “He is still dead—but still he dreams.”

“How did we get into the place where Set was buried? The crypt?” Lucas asked. He looked at Apollo, but I knew the answer.

“Daddy? It was your power that brought you there,” I said. “You were able to use Set’s dream to find us, but it was your power that brought you all there.”

The waiter came to take orders for our second, or maybe third plate of all-you-can-eat pancakes, and there was a pause in the conversation until, “Why did you call him dickless?” I asked Eddie.

“ ’Cause he didn’t have one,” Eddie said.

“Eddie’s right,” Apollo said. “Back when he was worshipped, Set had enemies among the Egyptian gods. Two of them, one of whom was, I believe, his sister-wife, killed him and cut his body into pieces which were strewn all across Egypt. Somehow, his body was reconstructed, either by Set’s own magic or by some of his priests. All but his penis. His penis is still missing. It is called by some the Talisman of Set, and is said to be a very powerful magical thing.” And if Set ever finds it, he could become too powerful even for us.

Notes and Disclaimers: I first read of the “Talisman of Set” in a 1934 [sic] book by Dennis Wheatley, The Devil Rides Out. It appears to be out of print, although available from resellers on Amazon.com as well as in a 2012 anthology, “Classic Black Magic from Dennis Wheatley.”

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