Children of the Lamp
The Akhenaten Adventure
Summary
John and Philippa never had bad luck till the day they went to the dentist for a regular checkup, and he discovers that they've both grown their wisdom teeth. Since that shouldn't have happened until they were adults. That means general a visit to the hospital, and while they are unconscious, the twins have the most weird experience of their lives.
It's like they are sharing the same dream, walking along a river that runs down to the sea. A man opens a window and introduces himself as their Uncle Nimrod from London. He is tall, dark, dressed entirely in red, and very excited to be seeing John and Philippa again. He invites them to visit him in London for the summer instead of going to a summer school. Their parents will let them fly over by themselves if they just tell their mother that they want to. But Uncle Nimrod doesn't really explain why their mother won't say no, or why it's so important for them to come to London immediately.
When they arrive in London, their uncle dressed in red, is there to meet them. He explains why their mother let them travel alone, why unexpected things happened to them at home and on the plane, why they had grown their wisdom teeth so early. All these things happened, explains Nimrod, because they are descended from a long line of djinns on their mother's side and their powers began when their wisdom teeth were taken out. Uncle Nimrod has brought them to London so he can teach them how to use their new powers. Or at least that's what he intended to do. But an earthquake in Egypt, a crack in John's bedroom wall had changed Uncle Nimrod's plans.
Djinns knew that it was really based on a very careful balance of good and bad luck, controlled by good and bad tribes of djinn. Somehow the earthquake tilted the luck meter to the bad side, throwing it off-balance. Uncle Nimrod has to go to Egypt and find out why. Of course, he takes John and Philippa with him, to give them their first lessons and where it will do the most good. They are going to need all the luck they can get, because they will have to fight Iblis, the most evil djinn in the universe.
Characters
- John is tall and thin, with straight brown hair. He loves to wear black and dark gray. His main interest is sitting on the chair and watching TV.
- Philippa is short with wavy red hair. She loves to wear pink and furry clothes and enjoys reading books and learning to cook.
- Uncle Nimrod likes to wear red and is a djinn. He is the brother of the twins mom.
- Iblis is a evil djinn and the most powerful evil djinn. He wears black and gold clothes.
- Mr. Groanin is a servant to Uncle Nimrod. He is short and has one arm.
- Mr. Rakshasas is a helper and a friend to Uncle Nimrod. He is also a djinn.
- Mrs. Gaunt is the mom of the twins and the sister of Nimrod. She also has djinn powers but doesn't use them.
- Mr. Gaunt is the dad to the twins and doesn't have djinn powers.
- Ms. Trump is the nanny of the twins, John and Philippa.
Setting
Point of View
Theme
Main Conflict
The twins have their own conflicts between each other that they have to work through and learn to work together with their uncle in order to beat Iblis. If they did not set their differences aside and learn to get along their uncle would probably be trapped in the tomb forever and they all could have died at different times during their travels.