Council of Peacocks (29 page)

David frowned. “Didn’t do what?” He wanted to
tell her how beautiful she looked, how he envied her strength, but
his instinct told him to stay quiet. He took another step toward
her.

Elaine leaned against the wall, a genuine
sparkle in her eyes. “Nothing,” she said. “Forget I said anything.
I should sleep.” She turned from the window and slid her back down
the wall until she was sitting on the floor. “Do me a favor? Just
stay awake for the next little bit. Wake me the second you see or
feel anything strange.”

David stared down at her. She raised her
head, smiled and winked her left eye.

‘What the hell was that all about?’ He shook
his head and left Elaine. He heard a cough and a curse from the
nearby room. He walked briskly down the hall and arrived in time to
see Todd help Jessica to her feet. There was blood on her lower
lip.

“I don’t know about this.” Todd looked at
Jessica with wide wet eyes. His face was pale and, despite the cool
air, he was sweating profusely.

“You don’t have to ‘know’ anything. Besides,
Ms. Ryerson put me in charge. That means you have to do what I say,
right? So stop being a baby and just do it already.”

“God! How did you get to be such a witch?”
Todd grunted as he helped Jessica move to the center of the room.
His voice, though still a sort of whisper, was much harsher now
than it had been. “Ms. Ryerson put you in charge for like ten
minutes. Elaine’s here now. As far as I am concerned, that means
she’s in charge. Let’s run it by her before….”

“We don’t have time for that. I told you.
Twice. I’m bleeding inside. If I don’t stop it, all my blood is
going to end up in my stomach or someplace like that. If I don’t
have any in my veins, I’ll die, right? So you’ve got to close up my
wounds with your PK. I’ll mind-link with you, tell you what to do.
It’ll be that simple. I’d do it myself if I could, but you have way
more control and finesse than me. Don’t smile like that. It doesn’t
mean anything. Not really. And don’t even say what you are thinking
because I can tell what you’re thinking and it’s not something you
should ever say to me. Ever.”

David felt his eyes go wide. Any second now
he expected her to say ‘I’ll tell my mother on you.’

“Don’t you start, Mr. Ross,” Jessica said. “I
can hear your thoughts, too. Would you like me to tell Elaine you
want to sleep with her?”

“Hey! I never said that.”

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t say
anything. Sadly, I think she wants to sleep with you, too. Adults
are just ridiculous. Now if Todd here doesn’t stop being so
Todd-like and do what I’m telling him to do, I won’t be able to say
much of anything much longer.”

Todd frowned. “What does that mean, ‘so
Todd-like’?”

Jessica coughed. More blood came to her lips.
Todd became even paler. “You know, you’re right, Todd,” she said.
“Maybe if you just whine enough, my internal bleeding will stop.
Now get over here and help me get this shirt off.”

Todd hesitated a moment longer, then walked
over to Jessica. He slipped the tattered shirt over her dislocated
shoulder and off her body. Seeing such serious wounds on such a
small body reminded him of made-for-TV movies about child abuse.
What kind of person was Wisdom that he could put someone so young
in a position like this?

“Jesus,” Todd said. “You’re nothing but
bruises. I’m afraid to touch you anywhere.” He handed the torn
shirt back to Jessica. She grabbed it like a towel in her left hand
and used it to wipe sweat from her forehead.

“Is it the bruises or are you just afraid to
get more blood on your delicate hands? Besides, who said anything
about touching me? Keep your hands to yourself. Just hold them out.
Yeah, that’s right. Point them at me. It will help direct the
power.”

“What if I use too much power? I could snap
something by mistake. This is too dangerous.”

“It’s not as dangerous as doing nothing. I’ll
let you know how much to use. We’re mind-linking, remember?”

“At least lie down. What if you slip?”

“If I lie down you won’t be able to move the
bones the way you need to. You could end up pushing a bone down
into the floor instead of back into place.”

“Fine. Just don’t blame me if this goes
badly.”

David felt a buzzing in his head, like a
television turned on playing only static. He pressed the heels of
his palms against his temples, trying to block out the sound. Black
spots flew past his eyes and he felt nauseous.

“Go,” Jessica, said. “Now just like in class,
let me into your mental activity. Release that thought pattern.
It’s creating interference.”

A moment later, the buzzing in David’s head
relaxed. He let his hands drop from his temples.

“That’s better,” Jessica said. “Can you feel
me in your head now? Don’t use words, just think, okay? You can
feel my pain now, too, right? Let’s start with that rib that’s
poking into something or other. No, I don’t know what that organ is
called. Does it matter? Just grab hold of it with your PK and put
it back into place. Let me guide you.”

David held his breath. There was a long
period of silence. Then Jessica moaned. David caught her before she
had dropped more than a few inches.

“Not. So. Hard.”

Todd helped her back to her feet and they
stared into each other’s eyes. The buzzing returned and grew
progressively louder in David’s head. He felt like he was going to
pass out soon, himself.

“What the hell are you doing?” David
moaned.

“Not now.” Todd stood, arms outstretched,
fingertips hovering a few inches away from Jessica’s skin.

Jessica clamped her hands over her mouth,
stifling the scream. She was crying freely now. When her hands fell
away, her teeth were bared and covered with blood.

“That hurt,” she said.

“I did what you told me to,” Todd said. His
voice had the tonal quality of a dog that has been whipped.

“I know. It still hurt. Just one more. Please
be quick. I think I’m going to pee my pants.”

“I think you already did, sweetie. Hold
on.”

Jessica threw back her head, her mouth opened
in a silent scream. Her eyes rolled back until all you could see
was their whites. David grabbed her by the shoulders and helped
keep her on her feet. The buzzing in his head was so loud now his
vision blurred. He hoped, whatever Todd was doing, he got it
finished quickly.

As suddenly as it began, the buzzing stopped.
It left behind a very sharp headache. All of his muscles felt sore,
as if he had run a marathon.

Jessica’s legs finally gave out underneath
her. David lowered her gently to the floor. Her lower lip trembled
and her tiny limbs shook as she sobbed silently.

“What did you do to her?” David stroked
Jessica’s forehead. Her skin was almost too hot to touch and she
was covered in oily sweat.

“I couldn’t have done it on my own. She used
me in a way. Used my power to lift a couple of bones back into
place. Then she, or we I guess, fused the torn flesh together. It
was kind of like pushing pieces of wet dough together until they
form a whole piece. I felt everything she felt. I don’t think,
hell, I know there is no way I could have put up with it. Whatever
I felt, she felt it a hundred times worse. But she never lost
control of her power. Not once.”

“That must be why Ms. Ryerson put her in
charge.”

They jumped at the voice. As David spun,
lines of fire danced on his fingertips. Then he relaxed and the
flames disappeared. She was only a few feet away, arms folded
across her chest. The machine gun hung at her side. Her face seemed
as cold and solid as the gun.

“That was a stupid risk.” Elaine sighed,
turned and walked back to wherever she had come from. “All that
power you used, even I felt it. Any Edimmu within a few miles would
have as well, let alone anything worse. Now get some sleep. I think
we’ve all had enough excitement for one day.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Echo opened her eyes to the darkness.
Surprisingly, she was still alive. It took her several moments to
remember exactly what had happened. Memory hit her about the same
time her eyes adjusted to the dark.

“I’m back on the island,” she said aloud. She
pushed herself up and looked around. “Damn you, Propates.”

After sending Elaine away with the Anomalies,
she had made her way to her bedroom. Propates was there, seated at
her vanity, flipping through her most recent diary. When she
entered the room, he looked up and smiled.

“Really charming the way you describe me in
here, Andromeda. Sorry, sorry, I forgot. Echo. I had no idea you
still held a torch for me. I thought we quenched that flame in
Jerusalem.”

“We did. Chalk it up to too much wine.”

Propates closed the book and stared at the
cover. “It doesn’t have to end this way.”

Echo flicked her wrist and her diary flew out
of his hands. “You know there are about four hundred and fifty ways
I hate you. Don’t you think you should stop while you’re ahead? You
come in here, destroy another of my favorite homes, kill my
servants and kidnap a bunch of kids I’m supposed to be taking care
of, and now this? But reading my diary? You must have a death
wish.”

The shadows in the room swirled and collected
in the corners with implications of something fluttering in their
depths.

“I’m starting to think you’re the one with
the death wish.” He rose to his feet and the shadows stretched out
toward him. “I warned you to stay out of this. You chose
differently. I didn’t want to do this but I have no choice.”

Echo prepared to respond but never got the
chance. A bullet of shadow shot at her and sliced through her
shoulder. Before she could scream in pain, another piece of
darkness sliced through the air. Then another. And another. She
turned in circles, trying to anticipate each new attack, failing
each time. Within a minute, every inch of her skin was covered in
blood. She opened a circle of light and prepared to jump.

“Tsk tsk,” Propates said. “Not so fast. “ He
blew a kiss at the portal. Shadows poured out of the corners and
recesses of the room, filling the portal, blocking her exit. “Can’t
let you get away this time, pet. Bad example and all. This should
send the kind of message that even Wisdom can’t ignore.”

The bullets of shadow were larger now,
foot-long jagged shards. They sliced through her skin like shears
through rose petals. The pain grew to a numbing heat.

‘Move quickly or die,’ she thought. Then she
couldn’t think. In the end it was instinct and luck that saved her.
A little trick, really. A simple thing. The underground tunnels
were lined with a psycho-luminescent mineral that was the source of
the ever-present light. It reacted to the presence of sentient life
and hummed with soft light. Echo understood the reaction, if not
the chemistry behind it. Her will provided the energy for the
light, so she funneled as much as she dared into the ceiling.
Bright light flashed from corner to corner, melting the shadow
weapons in mid-air. Propates took a step toward her, cockiness
replaced by fury. Before he could react, she opened a second circle
of light below her and let her body fall.

Now on her island, Echo took several deep
breaths and cleared her mind. Then, for the first time in a decade,
she sobbed hysterically.

‘He would have killed me,’ she thought. After
the fit passed, she walked to the bathroom, paying no attention to
the bloody footprints she left behind her. She healed herself,
closing the wounds. She didn’t feel clean, however, until she
showered off the blood. She stayed under the spray until the water
ran cold. Then she wrapped a robe around her trembling muscles and
walked to the kitchen.

The house was empty now. Annisa and Roma’s
bodies lay somewhere in the rubble back in Turkey. She rummaged
through the cupboards for canned goods, allowing herself a moment
of fantasy. Maybe they really were all dead. Maybe Elaine had
failed and the Anomalies had fallen to the Edimmu. Maybe even
Wisdom had got himself killed. Then she would be free.

As much as she would have liked to believe
that, she knew it was not true. She felt it.

She ate a sparse meal of mushroom soup and
chocolate ice cream and turned her mind to other things. Even from
literally the other side of the world, she could feel Propates back
in his squalid little Grecian encampment.

‘Why didn’t he follow me?’ She scratched her
chin and stared at the ceiling. ‘Maybe he’s giving me one last
chance to stay out of this. If I was smart that’s exactly what I’d
do. But Elaine and the Anomalies are waiting for me to rescue them.
This is the last thing I’m doing. Then I’m done.’

Leaving the dirty dishes in the sink, she
opened another gateway.

“You owe me one for this, Wisdom.”

***

David screamed at the flash of light and
nearly pissed his pants again. It was not until Echo stepped
through the portal that he started to breathe again.

“Where the hell have you been?” he said.

Echo raised her eyebrows and lifted her hand
as if to smack him upside the head. Instead, she waved her hand at
the portal. It disappeared as quickly as it had come.

“Way to show your gratitude, David.” Elaine
walked toward Echo. “Forgive the pretty body. He’s an idiot. Glad
to see you made it. We were worried.”

“I’m sure you were. Let’s get out of this
dead city. The sooner I hand you back to Wisdom, the better. I want
nothing more to do with this whole fiasco.”

“What about the other Anomalies?” Todd
grimaced as some inner pain racked through his body. “We have to
rescue them or something. We can’t leave them with Propates.”

“Not my concern,” Echo said. “Not even on my
radar. Wisdom created this mess. He can fix it.”