Him Standing (5 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

I
spent that night at Amy's for the first time. It felt good. We cooked supper. Then we sat on her balcony and watched the sun go down. After that we sat in candlelight and listened to music. Then we went to bed. We snuggled. We held each other. We fell asleep in each other's arms.
For the first time since all of this started I didn't dream.

Amy had a photo shoot in the morning, so we got up early and went our separate ways. I took a long, leisurely ride through the city. The story Sally had told us made me jittery.
But the ride through the city calmed me.

When I got to the rooming house, Gareth
Knight was waiting in my room. I knew he
would be there, but I faked surprise.

He was dressed like a punk. He had on black sneakers. He wore tight black jeans and a torn-up old black T-shirt. There was a black kerchief at his throat. He wore black eye makeup and black lipstick. His hair was spiked with gel. His arms were covered in tattoos made with black ink. They were of symbols I'd never seen before. He was sitting at my work table, drumming his fingers.

“Where have you been?” he asked,
tilting his head and arching one eyebrow.

“Had to get out,” I said. “Been working hard.”

“Yes. But I need results, Lucas. Vacation on your own time. Now, where were you?”

“I told you I just needed to get away,
that's all. I didn't go anywhere special.”

“Ah. Ms. One Sky's, I take it. Where does
the dear girl live, anyway?”

Sally had told me that he would want to know. “She has a place by the river,” I said.

“It's a long river, Lucas.”

“Well, she's becoming a famous model. She doesn't want just anyone knowing where she lives.”

Knight smiled and rubbed at the tattoo on his forearm. “Don't get cute with me, Lucas.”

Sally had told me that dark shamans existed on pride. They would never ask a question twice. It would mean they were weak. It would mean they didn't have power over someone. So I took a risk in order to protect Amy. “He
y, I'm not being cute. I'm just saying that you don't need to know where my girl lives. That's all.”

“Ah, rebellion. I so love that energy. It feels
so good to control.” Knight stood up and stared at me. He raised a hand. I felt invisible fingers at my throat. Then I was lifted off the floor. I hung suspended three feet in the air. Choking.

Sally had told me too that anger was a dark shaman's weakness. If I could get him to express it, to reveal himself, he would have less of a hold. The grip he had was strong. I was scared. But knowledge is a weapon, and I held on to Sally's teaching. I waved a hand weakly in surrender. I was lowered to the floor.

I gasped and bent over to catch my breath. I could feel Knight waiting. I fought to get my breathing back. But I was happy to see him lose control. The other thing Sally had said was that it was important to get him to declare himself. If a wizard admitted who he was, he lost even more power.

“Neat trick,” I said hoarsely. “Where
'
d you learn that, at some cheap magic school?”

“Cheap magic?” Knight asked. He sat back down on the chair and folded one leg over the other. “What I possess is not some party magician's bag of tricks. I'm not a buffoon, Lucas.”

“What are you then?” I asked. “I know
you're not just some moneyed-up art lover.”

He smiled and scratched at his chin. He studied me intently. He nodded his head slowly.

“I'm a member of a very special club,” he said. “Elite, really. There aren't a lot of us around.”

“Big deal,” I said. My voice was coming back. “I could say the same about me. There aren't a lot of guys like me around either. That's why you want me. I'm—what did you say? Elite?”

He laughed. “You're common. A dime a dozen. I could find someone like you on any street corner or any boardwalk. In fact, I did.”

“Yeah? So where do elite dudes like you hang out?”

“Hang out? We don't hang out, Lucas. We exist.”

“So where do you exist then?”

Knight stood up. I could tell he was irritated. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head and then spread his arms wide. He shook his hands. The room started to shake. My dishes rattled on the shelf. A few books tumbled. The air got hot, and it was hard to breathe. He rose slowly off the floor and spun lazily in a circle. Then he floated to the floor again. The room returned to normal.

He took a quick step toward me, and I shrank back against the wall. He smiled. He leaned in close to me. I could feel his hot breath on my face. His eyes locked with mine. They were dark and glittering.

“We exist on your fear, boy. We exist in your dark corners.”

I grinned. I could see the rage in his eyes.

“Kinda vague for the elite. Don't you think?” I said.

Knight fumed.

“I am a shaman, if you must know. I am a grand wizard.”

“So grand you gotta get a common person like me to do your work for you? Carve your own mask then, Merlin.”

I felt the invisible grip on my throat again. I was lifted off the floor again. He shook me, and I thought he was really going to lose it. I could see how far gone with anger he was. He fought to regain his calm, and I slid back to the floor.

“Finish the mask,” he said firmly. “Or feel the force of my magic.”

Then he turned and was gone.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"S
o you were able to get him to rise to anger?” Sally asked.

“More than that,” I said. “The guy lost it.”

“That's good. He needs the mask more
than I thought. He needs it to give him a way to grab more power.”

“He didn't seem to be short of any juice,” I said, rubbing my throat.

“There is far more power to be gained than what he already has,” Sally said.

“I can hardly wait,” I said with a wince.

“What do we do now?” Amy asked.

We were sitting in Sally's backyard. She'd made a strong black tea that she said would give me the mental strength I needed to handle what was coming. That didn't sound so great to me, but I drank it anyway. It tasted awful. But something about the old lady told me I could trust her with everything. I did. Amy did too. We both drank our fair share of that rough tea.

“The good thing is that Knight has not been this way before. He has never found anyone with the gift your grandfather gave to you, Lucas. It means that even he does not know exactly what to expect. That's what our advantage is,” Sally said. “We need to convince him that the spell and the hold of the dreams are working.”

“They are,” Amy said. “You told us that much yourself.”

“Yes, but as long as Lucas comes to places of light, he is safe. The hold is broken for a short time, and that weakens it.”

“So what are you saying?” I asked.

“I'm saying you need to be very careful. If Knight gets any idea that you have found a measure of safety, of light, you will be in great danger.”

“Oh good,” I said. “I thought you meant I had something to worry about.”

Amy took my hand and squeezed it. Sally regarded both of us with concern.

“He may use the power he has now to imprison you, or worse. Dark shamans are soul stealers. You risk everything if you continue.”

“Why don't I just disappear then? Take off. Split. Boogie.”

“You can't,” she said. “You know the truth. You know that the power of Him Standing can be brought into this world. If it is not through you, Knight will find someone else.”

“Because I'm common. A dime a dozen, like he said.”

Sally took both of my hands in hers and cradled them. She looked at the ground for a while. When she looked back up at me, she was crying.

“You are not common, Lucas. You are special. That's why Knight values you. You carry a gift. You are able to see the essence of things, their spirit. That kind of vision is not an everyday kind. But there are others. Knight will be drawn to their energy just as he was drawn to yours. Their fate will be the same.”

“What fate is that?” Amy asked quietly.

There was a long beat of silence. We could hear traffic on the street, the birds in the trees, the wind. Sally raised her face and looked up at the sky.

“This world and the dream world are full,” she said. “What is taken from one must be replaced by something of the other. There must always be a balance.”

“Are you saying what I think you're saying?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “When the spirit of Him Standing enters this world, your spirit, or whoever Knight finds to do the work, will take his place. It will be
imprisoned in the dream world forever.”

“Oh my god,” Amy said. “In limbo.”

Sally could only shake her head.

* * *

That night I had a powerful dream. It started normal enough. But then it changed into something so sharp and real, I could still taste and feel everything about it when I woke up. I was walking across a wide prairie. The wind was blowing, and the sky was filled with clouds. They flew like giant sailing ships across the ocean of the sky. There were a few thousand buffalo grazing in the distance. I could smell them.

It was getting close to sunset. The western sky was on fire with so many colors, it was blinding. There was a fire in a small canyon. I could smell meat roasting. I could hear the wood crackling. I was suddenly very hungry, and I walked toward the fire. There was a man there wrapped in a blanket and poking at the fire with a stick.

As I got nearer, he turned to face me. I stopped dead in my tracks. Nothing moved in the dream then. There were no sounds and no smells. There was only the face of the man at the fire. My grandfather.

“Come sit, Grandson,” he said. “I have been waiting for you. This buffalo roast is nearly ready.”

I felt as though I floated to the fire. I couldn't feel my feet moving. When I got there, he waved me to a seat across from him and handed me a wooden cup filled with tea. It was Sally's tea. He smiled at me.

“How can you be here?” I asked.

“It is the dream world, Grandson. All things are possible here.”

“My dreams have been scary.”

“I know. But there are two sides, just as there are in your world.”

“Light and dark,” I said.

He nodded.

“In all things there must be balance. There are always two sides. Two faces.” He looked at me solemnly as he spoke, and I realized for the first time in a long time how much I missed him.

He turned to the fire to tend to the meat. When he looked at me again, he was a young man. Then I watched as his face aged back to the one I remembered.

“Two faces, Grandson,” he said. “To everything.”

When I woke up, I knew exactly what I had to do.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

T
he next time Knight saw me, I was in horrible shape. I hadn't eaten. Hadn't washed. I was still wearing the same clothes he'd last seen me in. The bones jutted out from under my skin, which was yellow and sickly-looking. My eyes were red. They bulged like a madman's in a very haggard, worn face. I could hear the rattle of my breath in my chest. In spite of this,
he smiled when he saw me.

“The work goes well, I see,” he said. He was dressed in a black tuxedo with a black shirt. His shoes gleamed with a glossy sheen. His black cane rested on his thigh when he sat down to look at me.

“May I see it?”

“No!” I shouted and stood up quickly. I waved a fist in the air. “No one can lay eyes on this before it is finished. No one can see the doorway but me.”

“My, my. You have been getting on, haven't you?” Knight said.

“I dream all the time,” I said. “The vision gets clearer and clearer, and I can't stop working.”

“Good. Good,” he said. “You're under the spell of it.”

“Yeah,” I said and slumped back into my chair facing the work table. “He's so strong, so powerful. His face is incredible.”

“He was a leader like no other. He was a magician. He could do things never seen before or since.”

“A black shaman,” I mumbled.

“That's what the fearful called him. What they call those of us who follow his teachings.”

“He admires you,” I said. I was staring at the cloth that covered the mask. I didn't blink. I stared and didn't move. I could feel him watching me.

“Does he now? And why would that be, Lucas?”

“No one has ever tried to call him forward before. No one has ever thought it was possible. No one was ever a grand wizard like you.”

“Well, I am truly honored to be held in such esteem,” he said.

I turned to look at him. My face poured sweat, and I wiped at my eyes with a sleeve. I sat back in my chair with my legs spread wide. My hands dangled between my knees. My mouth hung open and my eyelids were half closed.

“He wants to live in you,” I mumbled. A thin line of drool leaked from my lips.

“In me? I expected his power to reside in the mask.”

There was a sudden chill in the room.
It crept out from the walls, and we could see
our breath. The lights flickered. They grew dim. The shadows in the corners seemed to move toward us. I could see Knight growing anxious. When I spoke again, the voice that came out of me was hollow. I didn't recognize it, even though I could feel my lips moving. “The boy was a poor choice. He is weak. He has no knowledge. There is no power in him.”

“Master?” Knight asked. He leaned in to peer at my face.

“Whom else did you expect? The boy's hands have opened the doorway. It is as you wished to be.”

“When, Master? When will you step through?”

“He inscribes a spell within the wood. The spell is the source of my power. It is the source of your own. The mask will contain it. Whoever wears the mask owns the power. When it is finished, I will come.”

“Does he know? Does he have any clue to what we do?” Knight asked.

“Look at him. Does he look like one who has any wisdom?”

Knight studied me. He stared for a long moment, then waved a hand slowly in front of my eyes. I did not blink. I was locked in a trance. The only motion from my body was a twitching and another slide of drool from my mouth.

“He is not here,” Knight said.

“He will not be. His dreams are my dreams. I send them to him. Even when he is awake, I send them. He lives in them now. This is how I give him the words to the spell he carves into the wood. He does not know anything.”

“You're sure?”

There was a sudden roaring in the room. It was like the howl of an animal. But it was also like the screams of a horde of people in agony. It flew around the room in a circle. It echoed off every wall. It gained speed and volume. It became a tornado. Cupboard doors flew open. The closet door smashed against the wall, and the windows rattled in their frames. The lights went out, then flickered back to life. The room was a mess. The roaring died down.

Knight's face showed amazement. He looked at me where I dangled in the air, my arms hanging limply at my side. Then I spun in a slow, lazy circle, just as he had done. It seemed to take forever. Finally I was set down in my chair, and my head slumped forward onto my chest. Then my head snapped up again, and I stared hard at Knight. He cringed a little in his seat.

“You dare to question me?” The voice that came from me was savage.

Time seemed to stop.

“Who you are is because of me. What you know is what I have taught. Your power is my power. Do I need to convince you of this? Do you doubt who has power here?” The voice
was huge and thundered in the room.

“No, Master,” Knight said quietly. “I do not doubt you.”

“Then leave me be. Let the boy finish what he has begun. I will summon you when the time is right.”

“Yes, Master,” Knight said and stood up.

He looked at me. I was slumped back in the chair. I heard him close the door, and then everything was silent. It was a long time before I could get back to the carving again
.