The Perfect Sun

by Brendan Carroll

When he reached the kitchen, his assumptions were affirmed. The small lab he had built in the basement was completely filled with webs as solid as rock. The wine was kept in the storeroom near the back door. Again, he tried to open the door, but it would budge only a few inches and he could see the webs outside the house. He searched quickly for the purple robe, but could not find it. He had at least bought a little time, but if Marduk did not come for him soon, there would be a new menace unleashed on the unsuspecting creatures inhabiting the underworld.

  And horror upon horrors! She knew of Undal, of Atlantis, of the Flower of Flame in the Halls of Amenti where the Seven Lords of the Cycles rule. And she wanted to go there. Wanted him to take her there. His question to himself was how could she have trapped him so easily? Of the ancients he had learned of the great powers from the darkness beyond all space and time, and he had traveled there to the edge of eternity once or twice in folly. Once he had been chased and almost caught by something from the beyond. He now wondered if perhaps it had been Huber who had sensed him there and come after him. Had she still harbored some vestige of that long ago desire to catch him and make him one of her minions? It seemed entirely incredible. Impossible!

  Was it possible that his sins from long past could have followed him for so long? Impossible! Or was it? She’d not taken long to bring up the subject, not taken long at all and the whole thing had been a farce. She had tricked him. She’d had no intention of allowing her children to feed on him in the first place. She intended to feed on him herself, if not physically, then mentally.

  He slammed the heavy green bottle on the kitchen table and then collapsed on the bench.

  “Turn thy thoughts inward, not outward. Find thou the Light-soul within. Know that thou art the Master. All else is brought from within. Know that thou art the Master. All else is brought from within.”

  He spoke the words told to him by the Lords of the Cycles in the time before Atlantis sank beneath the waves. In the time when he had been but a man, a human, not yet born of the cycle above when he had become an angel and yet still before he had become an archangel and chosen again to remain with the cycles below him, as teacher, as guide, as…. He dropped his face in his hands. Why had he lost his way? Why had he reverted to the lower cycles? What had impelled him to fall from grace? He had worked so hard to become one with the Light, giving up everything he had once thought important, but then he also remembered a time when he did not think at all, but allowed others to think for him. He picked up the bottle and walked slowly down the front hall toward the stairs, repeating the words of Thoth in his head: ‘Know thou art the Master. All else is brought from within.’

  He stepped onto the first riser and found himself sitting in the front seat of a black Mercedes Benz.

  “Is that the house, Master?” Christopher leaned forward over the steering wheel and looked up at the red brick mansion trimmed in white. The yard was well kept, lush and green against the backdrop of the dry, rocky hills rising behind it.

  “Yes, that’s it,” he answered slowly. “That’s Meredith’s home.”

  “It’s huge. I wonder how many people live here,” Christopher said and then turned off the engine. “Shall we?”

  Mark sat staring up at the house, confused, wondering how he had come to be here and where he had come from. The front door was standing open, beckoning him to come inside. He could hear Merry’s voice, sweet and innocent as it had been in her awful younger days when she had not known who and what she was. When she had not known who and what he was. When death had come knocking at her door and she had met him with open arms.

  “Come on in here, Mark Andrew Ramsay!” She called to him from the porch. He had missed her arrival. Her hair was cut short, curling around her face under a broad straw hat. Her dress was a wispy film of fanciful flowers and she wore no shoes on her feet. “I have something to show you.” She crooked one finger at him and smiled as if it was commonplace to see him and his apprentice sitting in her drive.

  Christopher was in front of him now, practically dragging him from the car and up the walk. The white gravel crunched under his boots just as he remembered. The smell of the roses growing around the front door drifted on the warm air and a million birds or more chattered in the cedar trees.

  When they reached the porch steps, Merry stepped down quickly and took his arm.

  “You look hungry, Mark,” she told him as she escorted him inside. “I bet you’d like one of my special sandwiches with roast beef, ham and turkey, wouldn’t you? I’d let you make your own like old times. I’m a vegetarian, you remember? After we eat, we can go upstairs and have a nice long bath.”

  Mark stopped and closed his eyes tightly before screaming ‘No!’ at the top of his lungs. When he opened his eyes again, he was standing at the foot of the stairs in the shrouded house in the Seventh Gate, looking up at Huber, who was standing on the first landing, gazing down at him curiously.

  “What are you doing, Lord Adar?” She asked.

  “I’m sorry,” he said and continued up the stairs. “I just remembered something. That’s all.”

  “It must have been interesting.” She caught his arm when he reached the top of the stairs. “Won’t you tell me about it?”

  “I just remembered I left the coffee pot on,” he muttered and then held open the bedroom door for her. She seemed to glide across the room before his bleary vision, still hazy from the burst of anger on the stairs. The sheets were crumpled and damp, but she didn’t seem to care one way or another as she lay across the bed he had shared with Meredith in ages past.

  “Come and lie down. You look exhausted.” She patted the mattress in front of her. “Why do you and your kind exude this liquid film? Do you not find it inconvenient and slick? Water, I find, is hazardous and impedes the ability to grip properly. I prefer to remain dry.”

  Mark could only nod. Yes, he had to admit he’d never seen a spider or its unlikely cousin, the crab, sweat. He turned up the wine he had brought from the kitchen and drank directly from the bottle. Even though it was only as cool as the downstairs storeroom, it tasted cold in the hot, stuffy confines of the bedroom.

  “Your daughter had this same problem when we were without air conditioning at the palace in New Babylon. She paraded around in front of the servants practically naked.”

  “She is a product of her times,” he commented sourly.

  “She could have done away with the inconvenience any time she wished.”

  Huber rolled onto her back and placed her hands on her bare stomach. “This skin is very smooth, I have to admit, but it is very fragile. Too easily cut and pierced. When we have restored our realm, we will need tougher skins. Tell me Adar, why do you prefer this flimsy shell?”

  “I’ve been asked that question many times,” he told her truthfully. “And I have yet to answer it to anyone’s satisfaction. Let us just say that some people like red… others like blue.”

  “Ahhh, just a personal fancy then. Nothing important.”

  “Nothing important.”

  “Good,” she sighed and rolled over to face him. Her movements made a decidedly clacking sound that sent more cold chills up his spine in spite of the heat. “Now let me ask you some serious questions, Lord Adar. There are some things we need to agree to before we consummate our relationship.”

  Mark sat straight up in the bed and took another drink of the wine, spilling it on his chest.

  “What do you mean ‘consummate’? Wot th’ divvil air ye talkin’ aboot? We’ve olready done thot!” Mark choked out the words and she laughed before sitting up next to him. She ran her hands over his shoulders and laid her cheek on his upper arm. “I do like these drawings on your skin. They add what I believe is called character. I’m not sure what that means, but I know I like them. Jozsef… Sabaoth… had some very interesting drawings on his body as well. I thought of having my own skin painted, but I never found the time, and Bari did not want me to do it.”

  “I’m glad to hear that,” he mu
ttered. At least Bari had some sense of propriety. “I prefer ladies with clear skin, myself.”

  “Oh? Well, all that will soon be a matter of no consequence.” She pulled him back down on the bed and laid her head on his chest. “Now for the questions.”

  “Wait. You haven’t told me what this consummation will consist of.” He spilled more of the wine on his neck trying to drink on his back, and she took the bottle from him.

  “You, of all people, should know what I mean. You spent a great deal of time in the past disjoining consummated pairs.”

  “What th’ divvil air ye talkin’ aboot?” He asked and then caught himself.

  “You know how it works, Adar. Ereshkigal and Nergal? She was once a part of Enki, himself, before she joined with Nergal. Marduk and Semiramis? Nanna and Meredith, though I have no idea who she might have been from ages past. Sabaoth told me about you. Watcher of the Seven Gates to the Beyond. I know a great deal about you. How do you think I trapped you so easily?”

  “I have no idea,” his voice was almost gone now, barely a whisper. She intended to join with him in an extremely inclusive manner. They would no longer be two individuals, but one monstrosity, sharing one hideous form… forever. “What other questions do we need to discuss?”

  “First, I would like to know what I was supposed to learn from our little tryst here,” she told him. “You are certainly much more experienced than your grandson, Bari, but I still find it a bit bland. What sort of mating practice can be said to be satisfying if both partners remain alive and distinct after the fact? What better way to die can there be? But as I have said, of the creatures in your world that practice the art of the deathmate, only something called the praying mantis comes close to perfection. If she could join her being with that of the male at the moment of his death, she would be complete and his life force would not be wasted. I believe there may be a few spiders, but… There can be no other way to attain perfection.”

  “I can think of a few, but I have no intention of dying just yet. I’ve lived too long to give it up so easily. So you thought it was bland?”

  He frowned as the meaning of her words slipped into his head in spite of the danger he was in. A slow burn began in his neck and built up pressure until it reached the top of his head. She had no idea how difficult it had been to even touch her. It had been perhaps the most extreme sacrifice of his entire existence. The most disgusting, the most horrendous, the most emotionally painful…

  “Yes.” She turned her back to him. “I think men put far too much importance in such a fleeting thing. There are many other methods of procreation, and I believe that most of them would score higher marks in a contest.”

  Mark was astounded. The anger turned to rage. How dare she abuse him and use him, and then insult him in such a manner?

  “You want consummation?” He asked after a few moments.

  “Not before we agree on the terms,” she answered and then shrieked when he grabbed her arm and yanked her on her back.

  “I will make the terms,” he told her. “You will pay the price.”

  “Why do men insist on making promises they cannot keep and threats they cannot carry out?” She asked and smiled at him. “We have plenty of time.”

  Meredith placed one hand over her mouth to keep from crying out as she drew back from the open door. The heat in the corridor was oppressive, there was very little air to breath and she had no idea how she had gotten here. One moment she had been pouring a glass of lemonade in her room at the villa and the next she had been standing in the heat of the darkened hallway. She recognized the place immediately as the house that Mark had built in the Seventh Gate, but something was dreadfully wrong with it. The sight of Mark with the hideous specter of Ruth in their bed was more than she could stand. She forced herself to remain calm and went over the words she had heard before gathering the courage to look inside the room. What was he thinking? Why would he be with this horrid creature, making love to her? But there was more here than met the eye. Consummation. Huber wanted to join with him, become one with him and not just in a sexual sense. She actually wanted him to become part of her. Unthinkable!

  Though she had long since left off feeling jealousy where Mark Andrew was concerned, a twinge of something very near to it surfaced momentarily as she tried to sort out the mess. Mark had never been the model of fidelity, but his voice, which she had become very attuned to over the years, held the hint of something she had heard only once or twice in all their years and tribulations together: He was terrified. Whatever was happening inside that room was not of his design. She tiptoed down the hall and then hurried down the stairs. Perhaps there were others here.

  The library door stood open, dark and forbidding. Two of the oil lamps in the chandelier were burning overhead, casting deep shadows in the familiar, yet unfamiliar setting. Her attention turned to the parlor which was closed up tight and then the back hallway leading to the rooms where Simon and Planxty and a number of others servants had once lived. The corridor leading that way was as black as pitch, and she had no light to carry with her. Not even a candle. She pushed down the brass handle on the parlor doors, and then had to push bodily against the door to get it to budge. A mistake.

  The horde of unearthly creatures that spilled from the room at her feet, made her heart turn to stone and her blood seem to dry up completely. Thousands of tiny spider-like creatures with black, leathery wings spilled into the foyer.

  Merry stifled another scream as she ran down the hall toward the kitchen. The entire house was dark and stuffy, airless. The sounds of the scuttling creatures behind her spurred her on through the kitchen where a dull glow from the window over the sink predicted a full moon, perhaps. No time to stop there, she rushed on into the rear hall. She hit the back door and pulled on it with all her strength. It edged inward a few feet and then she plunged through the crack into the night, into the shroud of webs covering the house. As the stuff engulfed her and covered her face, she began to scream and fling her arms about wildly, but the more she struggled, the more entangled she became. She slowed her movements and tried to calm her heart, get hold of the panic before she lost her mind completely, but the first of the winged spiders reached her, crawling easily over their mother’s webs. Meredith turned slightly and saw one of them snapping its forelegs only inches from her face.

  “Oh my God!” She shrieked and began her struggles again, “Mark!!” She screamed, but her voice was muffled by the webs.

  Another of the spiders dropped down on her head, and she grabbed it in her hands, ripping it apart, screaming continually as more of the things climbed out through the open door. She ripped another one apart with her bare hands, and then renewed her screams as something grabbed her feet, dragging her down into the mass of sticky filaments. She was still screaming when she was pulled free of the mess and dragged across the yard by her feet. She was still fighting the now invisible spiders she felt crawling all over her when something heavy fell on her, and a rough hand covered her mouth.

  “Be still! Be quiet!” A man’s voice hissed close to her ear. “You’re safe for the moment. Hold still.”

  With great effort, she stopped fighting and opened her eyes. In the muted light of the moon, she recognized Marduk Kurios’ face very close to her own.

  “Be quiet! Shhhh!” He told her again and then helped her to her feet.

  When she was standing on her own, he helped her brush off the clinging webs. Her heart was still pounding, but there were no more spiders on her. Then she saw how he had managed to reach her. A gigantic spider funnel opened out of the web near the ground. A hideous new entrance into what used to be Mark’s secret home away from home. She sagged against her rescuer as her remaining blood drained from her head.

  “My God,” she whispered, but could not stop shivering. When she dared to look again, one of the strange spiders with wings approached the mouth of the funnel. It looked out cautiously from stalked eyes, which moved independently, turning in all direction
s cautiously, but did not venture out onto the grass.

  “What were you doing in there, Meredith?” Marduk asked her and looked up at the hideous nest.

  “I don’t know…” she shook her head and then grabbed him by the shoulders. “Mark! Mark Andrew is in there!”

  “Ooooh.” Marduk wrinkled his nose. “That is most distressing.”

  “With her!” Meredith added quickly.

  “Her? You mean, Huber?”

  “Yes! Huber,” Meredith whispered the name. “We have to get him out of there.”

  Marduk bit his bottom lip and signaled with one hand toward the shrubbery near the wash house. Another monster, almost as hideous of Huber, stepped into the clearing.

  “What is that?” She hissed.

  “That is my old friend, Zaguri,” Marduk told her and took her arm, shoving her behind him.

  “What is your wish, Master?” Zaguri’s red eyes sparkled as he leaned around Marduk to look at Merry.

  “Can you climb up there and have a look around?” Marduk nodded his head toward the house.

  “What am I looking for?” Zaguri asked and then snatched up one of the spiderlings that had ventured into the grass. He held it by its wings and looked at it closely. The thing let out a high-pitched screech before Zaguri popped it in his mouth.

  “Oh, God.” Meredith clamped her hand over her mouth and turned away in disgust.

  Another of the spiders came too close and Zaguri plucked it from the grass as it tried to scurry back to the funnel.

  “Wait!” Marduk grabbed his companion’s arm before he consumed his next snack. “Let me see that.”

  Zaguri held it up by its wing and Marduk leaned close to it, examining its body and what appeared to be its face or head.

  “Well, I’m truly damned!” He smiled and backed away. “Abaddon, you old devil you.”

  “You’re both disgusting,” Meredith told them and Zaguri looked hurt. “We need to get Mark out of there.”

  “Yes and we will, but first some reconnoitering is in order.” Marduk had to look away as well while his beast crushed the spider between his teeth. “Zaguri, go up and see what you can see. I want to know what is in every room on all three floors. Do not kill anything, but report back to me immediately.”