Thoth, the Atlantean

by Brendan Carroll

  Mark was startled by the Djinni’s sing-song voice. He’d forgotten that his unlikely son was still there with them.

  “Lemarik, my son, please,” Mark spoke to him without taking his eyes off of his wife. “Would you mind, I don’t want to be rude, but I would like to speak to Meredith… alone.”

  “Ohhh.” Lemarik inspected the bristles closely. “But do not tarry long, my father. Time is flying and the sun is coming. The birds will be singing their morning arias very soon. Others will be coming here to view the area.”

  “I know!” Mark snapped at him and then smiled. “Please… just a few moments. I swear.”

  “Do not swear, Adar. It is dangerous.” Lemarik dropped the brush on the counter and left them alone.

  “Meredith!” he said as soon as the door closed. There were millions of things he wanted to say, but here he was in the bath and she sitting there, looking at him expectantly and all he could do was say her name.

  “Meredith.”

  “You sound like John Paul,” she told him. “I’ve missed you.”

  He nodded and looked down into the water.

  “You had this in your pocket.” She held up the little photograph in the worn silver frame.

  He nodded again.

  “I believe that says enough,” she said and reached to squeeze the hand he had draped over the edge of the tub.

  “Why didn’t you come back?” He looked up at her. “You have no idea…”

  “I have every idea,” she told him. “I have been nothing but trouble for you. What happened was the best thing for everyone. I am happy with John Paul.”

  “But I miss you. John Paul is… John Paul is not…”

  “Nothing is forever, Mark.” She squeezed his hand.

  “Aye, tis true,” he agreed. “There is no time…” How could time be so very cruel. Of all the billions of moments in the Universe, how was it possible that none could be spared for them? Why was it all their moments had to be shared with others? Why…

  “You should hurry now. Lemarik is right. The sun will be up soon and I believe that we should be away from this place before long. I’m afraid there is a lot of damage out there. They will probably have to close down to make repairs. Lemarik corrected some of it, but he was quite exhausted after besting the Ifrit.”

  Mark climbed out of the tub and she helped him with his clothes.

  “There was someone calling to me in my sleep. I thought it was a fish… a dolphin,” he said. “But I couldn’t hear him well enough.”

  “A dolphin is not a fish. It could have been Lemarik.”

  “No, it was not his voice until the end.” He frowned.

  “Then who?” she asked as she helped him with the buttons on his shirt.

  “Luke Andrew perhaps…”

  “Possibly.”

  “Omar.”

  “Maybe. Is there trouble there as well?” she asked. “John Paul said there was trouble in Italy and also in Lothian. Something about Lucio and the Holy Grail. I don’t know. You know how John is.”

  “Yes, I do know and I'm goin' t' break 'is fockin' neck!” He pulled on his boots and turned to face her.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and he kissed her forehead, trying to push down the anger he felt toward John Paul for not telling him about Meredith.

  “Meredith, please come home. You are not dead!” he pleaded with her. “I knew you were not dead. I just never had time to learn where you were.”

  “That is always the problem, isn’t it?” She looked up at him. “You have all the time in the world and it isn’t enough. Even now, we have to go.” She echoed his own thoughts almost precisely.

  Mark Andrew nodded to her and she pushed the photograph in his hands.

  “As long as you don’t forget me,” she told him and he kissed her only once before following her down the wide staircase to the grand entry hall.

  Meredith pointed the way to Levi's room and left him in the foyer. The place was too big for him. When he reached the bottom step and stopped, his heart seemed to keep descending into the bowels of the earth. He went first to check on Levi. The priest reclined on a brocaded silk chaise lounge, draped with an elegant blanket made of pink lamb’s wool. He looked very discomfited in the bloody Jewish robe and pink blanket, but he looked much better over all than Mark had expected. He did not try to get up, but nodded to Mark Andrew as if to say ‘I’m all right.’

  Selwig sat on the carpet near the chair with his bright yellow bag in his lap. In the light of the billiard room, Mark could see that the healer’s once brightly colored, feathered cape was tattered and faded, missing scores of feathers, exposing bald brown spots on the leather. There were also patched holes in his boots. Had it been so long since they had been in the underworld? His anger flared slightly at the sight of the mistreatment the healer had suffered for accompanying him into the Abyss at risk of his very life and limb. He would definitely not be going back with the good King!

  “Selwig.” Mark Andrew jerked his head toward the door leading into the adjoining room.

  Selwig got up obediently and followed him into a dim hallway.

  “Look, my friend.” Mark leaned down to look into the Tuathan’s eyes. “You know you are my hostage, but you also know that our work here is finished. It will soon be time for the others to return home. I will make you this offer. If you will stay with me in this world, I will provide a home for you with every comfort I can bestow. Not out of charity! Out of gratitude. You have earned a place in my heart and a bed at my hearth any time you should wish it. I am honored to have received your services for my kith and kin and I will always be in your debt. The choice, of course, is yours as I release you from your status as hostage.”

  Selwig narrowed his eyes and pressed his lips together. He had lost everything in the underworld. Friends. Family. Home. Everything. There was nothing to go back to except a long, miserable existence in the woods as an outcast.

  “I will accept your offer only in service as healer for I would not wish to live as your honored guest indefinitely. I am used to making my own way, Lord Adar. I would give honest work for honest pay on the condition that I may change my mind at any time. If I should decide to return to my world, I will give you reasonable notice.”

  “Done!” Mark Andrew shook his hand and the Tuathan frowned at the strange custom.

  “Done!” He smiled and then resumed his somber air.

  “And please… call me Mark.”

  Mark Andrew turned on his heel and went back through the billiard room and out onto the porch where the others waited for him.

  “Ho, Adar!” Lemarik greeted him as if they had not seen each for days. “It is good to see you up and about and smelling much better. I would like to remain for the meeting but I must be off. There is something that requires my immediate attention.”

  Mark allowed his son to kiss him on the cheek warmly and then watched as he swayed down the steps and out across the lawn beyond the line of Tuathan horses.

  “They will be leaving at sunrise.” Konrad joined him as he stared out at the silvery lawn. “There is little time remaining to us here. We must be away before anyone comes and finds what we have done. I should think we would not want to answer any questions.”

  “There will be no questions… only bills.” Mark smiled ruefully and turned to Meredith who had rejoined them bearing steaming cups of coffee. “Will you be leaving as well?”

  “I’m afraid so.” She nodded.

  Mark took the coffee and sat down in an empty rocking chair. Marduk, Nergal and John Paul sat in a rough semi-circle on the porch. It seemed an unlikely place for such a conference to occur, but then most things were unlikely these days. Meredith sat down on the porch at his feet and Konrad dragged another chair into the circle.

  “This was your call, John Paul,” Mark Andrew addressed his son. “What would you say to us? We have, in our infinite capacity to fail, failed again. What we have lost here tonight was possibly the most importa
nt artifact in the world at this moment.”

  He glanced at the two Lords of the Abyss with a disgusted look on his face.

  “You cannot blame us, Lord Adar!” Nergal spoke up. “How could we have known that the Ancient One would come here?”

  “Why did you come here if not for the treasures? Why would he not also come here?” Mark asked them. “Surely he came for the same reason you did. In fact, he probably followed you here!”

  “Not true,” Marduk objected. “We have not seen him in ages.”

  “That does not mean he has not seen you. You are a fool!” Mark shook his head. “You always were.”

  “Now, look whose calling who a fool?!” Nergal growled at the Lord of the Seventh Gate. “You are both fools. I have watched these proceedings for only a little while and I can see that you are both ignorant asses, consumed by your lust for human women and greed for power and jealousy.”

  “Jealousy?!” Mark Andrew’s eyes widened. “Why would I be jealous of him? He is an idiot. He accused me falsely from the beginning. I did not steal Semiramis from him. I merely released her from your Gate. She came to me!”

  “And who are you calling greedy, you baneful dog?” Marduk turned on his companion. “I should think you would have been content with your great pits and fires. The Fifth Gate is enormous. And you thought to take control of my army as well. You and your vile queen!”

  “My vile queen?” Nergal turned his eyes slowly on the Lord of the Sixth Gate. “Lord Adar created her. She is his, if she is anyone’s.”

  “Would you both just shut up?” Meredith asked them in aggravation and then smoothed down her white gown about her feet. “We don’t have time for this.”

  “Oh, isn’t that just so typical?” Nergal raised his chin defiantly. “And I had thought you such a gentle creature!”

  “You're disgusting,” Meredith said. “You are the reason that I cannot go home.”

  “What? Me?” Nergal frowned at her and then looked at Mark Andrew. They were treading on dangerous ground here. “I did nothing. It was your potion! Besides, had I known who you were, I would have…”

  “Never mind all that,” John Paul interrupted them. “We are not here to discuss old grievances. These tablets which were lost tonight must not remain lost. Their value is beyond measure as Lord Adar has said. However, some of the contents of them are known to you, Lord Marduk. Specifically, the information Lord Adar wished to learn from them. It was once known to him, but he has forgotten the words he inscribed on the tablets with his own hand.”

  All heads swiveled in unison as they looked at Mark Andrew. He kept a poker face and did not return nor acknowledge their stares. Had he truly written the Emerald Tablets? If that was true, then he was not only Myrddyn and Adar and Uriel, he was also Thoth, the Atlantean. He turned his eyes on Konrad instead.

  Konrad smiled slightly, shook his head and clucked softly under his breath.

  “And what information is that?” Marduk asked after a moment.

  “Lord Adar wished to learn the Word. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was within God and the Word was God,” John Paul told them, quoting the New Testament scripture, John, Chapter One, Verse One. “The Word that would banish the Ancient One back to the beyond.”

  “Ahhh.” Marduk nodded. “But simply knowing the Word will not assure success. It would be very dangerous to attempt such a thing against his power. One might find oneself banished to the beyond instead.”

  “And if the attempt is not made, we may all be banished to the beyond.” John Paul raised both eyebrows. “It is time to put aside these old arguments and work together against the common enemy. It is not as if it has never been done before. It is an old and well-proven strategy. We must rid the world of this evil and then we may get back to our petty disagreements, if we survive.”

  “We?” Nergal looked about suspiciously. “I simply wish to return to the Fifth Gate and take up my watch. I caused none of this! I should not be asked to put myself in danger to correct what others have done.”

  Marduk laughed softly at Nergal’s words. “That has always been your way, brother. Nothing is ever your fault. You are simply a victim in all of this.” Marduk spoke sarcastically and Nergal growled at him.

  “We will need to stand together.” John Paul told him. “All the Lords and Ladies of the Abyss must stand together or else we will have no chance of success.”

  “What about Semiramis?” Marduk asked in astonishment. “She will not stand with us. Lord Adar has seen to that.”

  “How so?” John Paul frowned and leaned forward.

  “After what she did to him?” Nergal laughed. “He banished her to the Hesperides and threatened to throw her in the halls of dust and ashes if ever she ventured from there again.”

  “I did not,” Mark Andrew objected. “I threatened to lock her in the Third Gate. That is a far cry from the halls of dust and ashes, and you would have done the same. Besides, if you had not left me at her mercy, that unfortunate incident would not have occurred.”

  “Awww. Poor little Adar. The object of a woman scorned. Tsk. Tsk.” Marduk crossed his arms over his chest.

  “What of Nebo?” Mark Andrew ignored his adversary. “He may not wish to participate. He has other worries.”

  “We all have other worries, Adar. I will speak to him.”

  Mark Andrew was having a hard time accepting that John Paul could actually be Nanna, Lord of the First Gate, but the facts were certainly pointing to the proof. Had he always been so stupid? He wished desperately he could just summon his old friend Ashmodel and take him up on his offer. Go off to Egypt and then on to Saturn. Go back. Go back. Go back. Go… back. Remember. Remember.

  “I need to know if we can count on each other when the time comes,” John Paul continued. “We must flush him out and he is already amassing a new following in Haiti. Even Prime Minister Renaud Tremelay is already in his sway and the people are flocking to him in their ignorance. He performs miracles for them and makes them more powerful than the gods they worship. He is also behind several insurrections within Omar Kadif’s sphere of influence and is working to undermine everything that the Prophet has achieved in the way of world peace. Omar is not even aware of his machinations and is in grave danger.”

  “Does Lemarik know this?” Konrad spoke for the first time.

  “I have spoken with the Djinni and he has told me he once tried to warn his son of the danger of bringing unplanned offspring into the world of men. It is not a good thing as we all know quite well!”

  “I beg to differ with you on that point.” Nergal spoke up. “I have never brought any offspring into this world or any other, planned or unplanned!”

  “That is simply because you are too lazy” Marduk derided him. “You only just now emerged from your vapors and discovered this world existed. And if I am not mistaken you have shown a great interest in the female…”

  “Watch your tongue or find it on the floor.” Nergal started out of his seat.

  “Hold yourself!” John Paul raised his voice. “As I was saying, Lemarik has tried on several occasions to warn his son of the dangers he faced in his endeavors to bring peace to the world, but his son, like all sons, considered him to be old fashioned and unwise. A sad mistake, but common even among the immortals. I will speak to Nebo and I have already spoken to Shammash. The Lord of the Second Gate has assured me of his support. My question to you, Lord Nergal, is where is your wife?”

  “My wife?” Nergal raised both eyebrows. “She is not a watcher. She is simply…” He faltered. He did not exactly know what she was or where she had come from other than Lord Adar. Her realm was within his own. He had simply discovered her there and she had complained of everything since.

  “She is simply one of Lord Adar's creations as you said, brother,” Marduk told them again. “Much like his wyrm, Inanna. We do not need her help.”

  “Ereshkigal is nothing like Inanna,” Nergal objected. “Inanna is part of Semiramis. Even I kn
ow this. I remember when Lord Adar first separated Inanna from Astarte. They were one and the same! Another of his meddlings.”

  “And do you remember when Lord Adar separated Ereshkigal from you?” Marduk smiled at him. “No, I daresay you do not. You were probably fast asleep in your fetid pit!”

  “What are you saying?” Nergal’s mouth fell open in shock.

  “I am saying that Lord Adar took your feminine side from you while you were asleep, just as the Great One took Eve from the ribs of Adam. And you are simply too dim to realize it.”

  Nergal turned his attention to the Knight of Death, who had remained strangely quiet during this entire exchange.

  Mark Andrew sat in the rocking chair, staring blankly into space.

  The Lord of the Fifth Gate snapped his fingers in front of the deep blue eyes. Mark Andrew did not flinch.

  “Mark?” Meredith looked up at him and then got up in alarm. Konrad joined her as she bent to stare into his vacant eyes. He was no longer with them and time was running out.

  ((((((((((((()))))))))))))

  “I don’t understand.” Mark Andrew was on his hands and knees beside the distraught figure of his grandson. He could do nothing in this form to help him. Omar lay on his stomach on the cold floor, bound hand and foot. “How could he have done this? So soon?”

  “He is exactly what my father said he was! Trouble.” Omar was having difficulty speaking or even breathing. “He has convinced the police chief and the Prime Minister I am, in fact, Martin St. John and, further, I have somehow orchestrated the demise of the Prophet, Omar. That I have stolen his power and usurped his position, even taking his wife and his son. I don’t know how or when he did it, but he did.”

  “It must have something to do with Jozsef Daniel,” Mark Andrew told him. “He is still out there. Still after the skulls.”

  “I know.” Omar turned his head to the other side and Mark crawled around him. “I saw what happened in my scrying dish. That is when I ran downstairs to tell Ruth we had to do something to help you. That is when they took me by surprise and shot me. They shot me in my own palace, Grandfather! My own palace guards shot me! And Bari! Bari and Ruth.”