Cy turned to Aten. ‘I’ll come back,’ he said. Fear grew in Aten’s brown eyes. ‘Do not leave me.’
The dwarf tugged at Cy’s sleeve. ‘Look at your torch,’ he said. ‘You’re losing your energy.’ Cy looked down. He could barely feel the torch in his hand, and its light was growing dim. ‘Leave now, Cy! This very instant! Immediately! At once!’
Cy shook his head trying to clear his thoughts. The Dream Master’s voice was getting fainter. ‘My dream cloak is fading, I must leave. If you do not come with me now, then I cannot help you.’
Cy felt his strength ebbing away. There was a place where the dream had thinned out and he could see his bedroom. He tried to focus his eyes. Yes . . . there was the chest of drawers, the bed, walls and carpet. They were all moving slowly, with a gentle swaying motion. And then Cy realized what was happening. His dream was drifting away, and if he stayed he would be carried off inside it. He had to return to his own room in the next few seconds, or he would never get another chance. And now in front of him there was a tear, a ragged hole in the fabric, which he could pass through. Cy stretched out his fingers.
‘Do not depart, O great God Osiris,’ begged Aten.
‘I am not a god,’ Cy said wretchedly. He moved towards the space in his dream and then stopped. He turned to the dwarf and shook his head. ‘I can’t go.’
‘Oh, yes you can.’ The dwarf stepped forwards to give Cy an almighty push in the back.
As he did so, Aten suddenly noticed the amulet looped around Cy’s wrist.
‘My ankh!’ he cried. ‘You must not take away my spirit! Give me back my amulet!’ And, at the very instant Cy fell through the gap in his dream back into his own bedroom, Aten lunged forward and grabbed hold of his wrist. The two of them landed in a desperate tangle of bedclothes, and tumbled onto the floor.
‘Cy!’
‘Shhh!’ Cy told Aten as they struggled to their feet.
‘I did not speak,’ replied Aten. He looked around him in disbelief. ‘This is your home?’
‘Cy!’ came the shout once again, more urgently, and Cy recognized his mother’s voice. She was right outside his room!
Cy glanced around wildly. ‘The cupboard!’ And opening the door of his bedroom cupboard he bundled Aten inside.
‘Cy, we’ve all overslept,’ his mother said as she came into his room.
‘Uh-huh,’ said Cy, his head still inside the cupboard. ‘I was just getting my gear together.’ He grabbed a hanger, and slamming his cupboard door shut, he turned with his back against it and a manic grin on his face. ‘I’ll be right there.’
‘Good boy. It’s all your dad’s fault. He said he had an odd dream. That he was a Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt . . .’ His mum peered at the hanger. ‘Haven’t you got a clean school shirt?’
Cy looked down at the hanger and the Frankenstein T-shirt draped across it. ‘Yes.’ He flung the hanger on the bed and snatched a shirt from among some clean laundry which his mother had placed in his room days ago. ‘Got it right here. Absolutely, no probs,’ he babbled.
‘Right, fast as you can. I’ll make you a sandwich to eat as you walk to school.’
Aten stepped slowly out of the cupboard, and gazed in bewilderment at Cy’s bedroom. His look took in the piles of clothes, books, magazines, CDs, tapes, spaceships, models, boots, games, rucksack and, in the corner, a sportsbag spewing football kit.
‘The priests have lied to us,’ said Aten. ‘This is not the Afterlife as they said it would be. The land of the gods should be peaceful, with green oases, running water and fountains.’
‘Well,’ said Cy, rushing around trying to find his trousers and tie. ‘This isn’t the afterlife, exactly. It’s more the . . . the . . . forward-life.’
Aten stepped carefully over a stack of comics. ‘Why do all your garments lie upon the ground?’
‘You sound like my mother,’ said Cy, pulling on his trainers.
‘Why do you have so many clothes?’ asked Aten. ‘Why are they so heavy? Are your winters very cold?’
‘And the summers,’ said Cy. ‘Look, don’t ask me so many questions. It’s nearly time for school and I haven’t a clue what I’m going to do with you. You’ll have to stay in my room today. Hide in the cupboard until Mum and Dad leave for work and then you can come out.’ He looked at Aten’s short linen kilt, and started pulling open drawers. ‘I’ll need to find you something to wear in case anybody sees you.’ He held up trainers, a sweatshirt and jogging bottoms. ‘What about these?’
‘The shoes are a good size,’ said Aten. ‘But the clothes will not fit very well. I am a bit taller than you.’
‘CY! HURRY UP, WILL YOU!’
Cy leapt in panic as Lauren’s voice screeched right outside his room door.
‘Don’t come in!’ Cy shouted, but he was too late.
His bedroom door crashed open, and his sister Lauren stood there. ‘Mum says—’ She broke off in mid-sentence, then she pointed a bright blue fingernail at Aten. ‘Where,’ she demanded, ‘did he come from?’