Lars Sveen - Children of God

David noticed a temple guard standing some distance away, and when nobody was staring in their direction, David went up to the boy with the scar and dropped the coins he’d brought with him in the bowl. Then David ran straight to the guard, shouting, “Thief, thief, he took my coins.” The guard turned toward him.

“He stole my money,” David shouted. “He stole my money.”

The guard moved and came over to David. “Where, boy?” he asked. “Where is he?” David pointed at the boy with the scar, who realized only now what was happening. He got up, picked up his bowl of money, and ran off, barking. But the guard was already after him. The boy disappeared into the crowds, but then another guard emerged, holding the boy tightly. The guards lifted up the boy, took the money, and threw his bowl on the ground, smashing it. They called across to David, and David went over to them. The Temple Dog they were holding between them stared at David, but before he could say anything, the guards asked David how many coins he was missing. David told them how many. One of the guards bent down and gathered up all the coins that were lying there from the smashed bowl. He gave David the ones that were his and ruffled his hair.

“Go to your father and your mother,” the guard said. “Tell them that no wrong happened that wasn’t righted again.”

“Liar,” the little boy yelled now. “Liar.” But one of the guards slapped the boy on the face, shutting him up.

“Thank you,” David said to the guards. “My mother and father are waiting for me, they’ll be pleased when they hear how you helped me.” And to the boy, he said softly, “Nobody touches my queens.”

The guards took the boy with them. David knew that they would hurt him, they would lock him up, and eventually they’d throw him in the pits with the thieves and rebels. But before that, maybe even there and then, the Temple Dogs would find out, and Saul would learn what David had done, so David hurried back to his own kingdom. He ran through Jerusalem, all the way to Joseph, who yelled at him, asking him where he’d been and why he was wearing his clothes. David said sorry, but Joseph hit him and sent him out to empty and clean out where the adults did their business.

When he was finally allowed to go to bed, his band were waiting for him. They cheered and praised David; indeed, David was received as the king he was. The rumors and stories of the deeds he’d carried out had reached them all. Even Bathsheba VII got up to sing his name.

That night, David dreamed that he was standing on a plain that reached out as far as the eye could see. The grass beneath him was green, and the wind made it rustle and ripple. When he lifted up his eyes, he could see that the night was coming in over the plain like a fluttering blanket. But behind the immense darkness, he could see something blinking faintly, and he reached out his hand and said something. He woke up and couldn’t remember what he’d said, or why he’d said something to the small, blinking light.

Bathsheba VII stayed with David and Joseph for the next while. Joseph didn’t want to have her in the tavern, and she had to stay at the back of the kitchen, where nobody could see her. David told her everything that had to be done, and Joseph praised them for getting everything done so quickly these days. But one evening, Joseph took David aside and told him he wanted to speak with him.

“Listen here, little one,” said Joseph. “I’ve got no problem with you having all this lot here, but that girl, the one helping out now, she’s got the mark of the beast on her. I know, I know, you probably think it’s weird for us men to be talking about it, but we do. My customers can’t see me having all these children here, and then one of them’s got the mark of Satan himself. You see what I mean?” David nodded.

“So you understand what I’m saying, little one?” said Joseph, ruffling David’s hair, kissing him, and sending him off.

That night, David couldn’t sleep. He lay awake, while all the others snoozed quietly like small animals hibernating around him. It was only when morning came, and he was about to drop off, that he realized David IV was missing. He got up, woke up the others, and asked them all if they knew where David IV was. Had anybody seen David IV the day before? The evening before? Nobody could give him a clear answer, so David sent them all out looking, all the Davids and all the Bathshebas, except for Bathsheba VII.

Later, when the band had come back and explained what had happened, David was struggling to breathe. There was something in his throat, down in his body, something tight tying itself onto him, and at the same time, all that darkness flowing out of the walls, out of the eyes of the ones around him.

“Get away,” he started shouting. “Away, go away, get away from me!”

The light only came back when Bathsheba VII washed his face and stroked his hair. He managed to sit up, but Bathsheba VII said he should lie down. She told him that all the others were helping Joseph, and he, their king, should just lie down. She would take care of him. While David lay there, being cared for by Bathsheba VII, he began to think through everything that had happened, and everything that had to be done. Everything that had been built, everything that had been torn down, everything that would be destroyed, and everything that would be rebuilt. Kings and wars, queens, but no voice of God yet. Just darkness.

The night before, while David had lain awake, listening to the others, David IV was lying hidden behind the corner of a building down in the Tyropoeon Valley. It was Bathsheba I and Bathsheba II who’d reported what had happened to David. They’d gone out in the morning, on David’s orders; they’d searched and searched and spotted some soldiers running off in the direction of the Pool of Siloam. Several adults stood there calling out above them, as a child was lying there for all to see. The soldiers took the child, lifted him up, and carried him away with them. Bathsheba I and Bathsheba II recognized him as David IV, and they realized that he’d been killed, as his eyes and mouth were open, although he couldn’t see and wasn’t breathing, and his whole body was dyed and wet with all the fluids that had run out of him.

While Bathsheba I and Bathsheba II had stood there, staring at David IV being taken away from them, several youngsters gathered around them. It was the Temple Dogs, and out of their ranks stepped a boy who was a head taller than the others. It was Saul, the king of the Temple Dogs. He pointed at the Bathshebas and said to them, “Go up to your king and tell him what you’ve seen here today. Tell him that it was me who took one of his warriors from him, just as he took one of mine from me.”

When David heard those words, darkness came, and he couldn’t breathe.

“What have I done?” David whispered, lying there.

Bathsheba VII leaned over him. “My king,” she said, “just lie still.” David looked up at her, his eyes coming to rest on her bright red wound. It looked as if her skin there were made of something else. “It’s the mark of the beast,” said Bathsheba VII.

“I know what it is,” said David, as he’d been told by others what had made that mark. Children who’d been left out in the wilds or left to die in the water could be found by the Devil. Then the Devil would make the child his own, putting his mark on it and sending the child back out into the world, bigger and stronger, but damaged, to show what people were in his eyes.

“Have you met the Devil?” David asked her.

“It was water that burned me,” she replied.

“Water burning?”

Bathsheba VII nodded.

“What happened?” David asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I just remember that it burned.”