Council of Peacocks (36 page)

“Hate me all you want. This is for your own
good. Come away now before my limited patience is exhausted.”

“I would rather die than go back to the Kaz
with you.”

The Djinn hung his head. “As you wish.” He
pointed the fiery sword at Wisdom, using the blade as a focal point
for his magic. Though the sun was still in the sky, the sword
seemed to steal all the light out of the air, turning the jungle
into a twilight place. He shot a bolt of white light, brighter than
anything a mortal eye could see. Wisdom didn’t run, did not turn
aside. Instead, he opened a portal directly in front of him. The
fire sped through the portal like a spear and appeared on the other
end of the spatial distortion – directly behind the Djinn’s head.
The magical attack staggered the Djinn, knocking him to his
knees.

Wisdom saw his opportunity. He ran.

Bloodied and wounded, he stumbled back to the
village, vaguely aware he wasn’t alone. Propates was there.

“Run,” he advised Propates. Then he was
gone.

***

On occasion, Wisdom was very lucky. Africa
was one of those times. Echo – or Andromeda, as she called herself
then – was not a fighter by nature. She sensed the Djinn’s presence
just before he sucked Wisdom away. She hid in a nearby stream,
waiting until she felt Wisdom’s return. Then she opened a portal
and transported them to the home of a druidess in England. It took
nearly two months for Wisdom to recover from the battle, two months
of being unable to hide his weakness and need. Echo saw his
weakness and she did not laugh. She did not take advantage of him.
She helped him heal.

He had never felt more ashamed in his
life.

***

Wisdom recuperated in a shallow cave near a
small waterfall. It was summertime in England and the shadows were
pleasantly cool. The druidess was off performing a hand-fasting
ceremony in a nearby oak grove. Andromeda wiped the perspiration
from Wisdom’s fevered brow and lifted the bowl of hot liquid to his
mouth. He drank the medicinal broth, unable to tear his eyes away
from her.

“Why do you stay?”

She smiled and put the bowl down. “Where
would I go?”

“I’m serious.” He reached out and touched her
forearm. “The things I’ve done to you…to your family…to everyone.
If you left me now I could not stop you. So why do you stay?”

She turned away and started to rise. Then she
stopped and looked at the ground. “Like I said, where would I go?
Everyone I loved is dead. All my family, my whole village – dead.
Even Propates is gone now. This is the only life I know. You are
the only life I know. So I stay.”

“Do you forgive me?”

Andromeda turned to face him so quickly that
for a moment Wisdom thought she was going to strike him.
“Apparently your fever has made you delirious. I don’t forgive you.
I do not love you. And I never will. Never.”

***

Wisdom opened his eyes. Instinctively he
tried to sit up, but pain paralyzed him. A quick look at his
surroundings confirmed he was at Echo’s island home. He felt the
fear filter out of him. Once again he had run from a fight with his
father and Echo had saved him. No matter what words she used, her
actions were transparent. She did love him, nearly as much as he
loved her. It made everything else worthwhile.

A thought solidified in his mind and he
caught his breath.

“Why couldn’t I kill him?” He whispered the
words. He needed to say them aloud, to give solidity to the fear
and doubt now churning inside him. Experience told him he had the
power and wiles to defeat his father. Somehow the old Djinn had
defeated him. He needed to understand how that was possible. He
replayed the battle in his head, going over every minute detail.
Then it hit him.

His father had help.

***

Several days ago, he confronted his father
in a forest clearing. The Djinn took a step forward, the heat of
his body pushing Wisdom back.

“
Something is coming, son. Something
beyond anything you can handle. I’m here to take you back where you
belong before the end-game starts. For once, live up to the name
you’ve chosen and come with me.”

“
We’ve had this conversation before.
You’re not my father. You stole me. I still remember what you did
to my mother. You raped her.”

The Djinn sighed. “I apologized for that.
What more can I say?”

“
What more can you…? It’s not something
you can apologize for! It pretty much puts you in the bad guy
column for all time.”

The Djinn shook his head and sighed again.
“Fine. Have it your way. I’ve tried, but you’re still a
disappointment. Weak and short-sighted. A complete waste of life.
If you won’t come home willingly, I will beat you into
submission.”

Wisdom called forth the fire inside. “Old
man, that’s not going to work anymore.”

And the battle began.

This time, Wisdom struck first. Over the
centuries he’d refined his control over the five elements. This
time, when he reached out for elemental earth, it was not with
clumsy hands – it was with the refined touch of an artist. Instead
of stone spikes, he bent the forces of magnetism and gravity to his
will. Lightning sparked through the air around his hands as he
negated all inertia around his father. Humans seldom think about
how quickly the Earth moves through space as it circles the sun. A
native of the Kaz, a dimension without stars, the Djinn knew little
about the higher astrophysics. The move caught his father
unprepared. Freed from the protection of the planet, he stayed in
place as the planet sped by him at over 67,000 mph. Within a
heartbeat, he was thousands of miles away from the planet in the
vacuum of space. An instant later, Wisdom was there.

The sudden change in location disoriented
the Djinn. Wisdom took the opportunity to alter the inertia field
once again, reversing the velocity so that the Djinn slammed into
the nearest planet. His father smashed into the molten surface of
Venus. The impact threw up lava and stone, polluting the atmosphere
in a mushroom cloud. Wisdom waited and smiled.

His father flew up from Venus, quickly
recovering from the initial shock. He had a sword in his hands now,
the same sword he had once used to impale Wisdom. This time there
was a difference. This time there was fear in the old Djinn’s
eyes.

“
Didn’t see that coming, did you?” Wisdom
opened a portal behind him and stepped out of space. His father,
caught in his rage, rushed through the portal after him and found
himself on an elemental plane of water. Cool liquid crushed down on
the Djinn, cooling the superheated gaseous form until it appeared
nearly human. Born on Earth, Wisdom was not affected the same way.
Humans, after all, are nearly 83% water. As his father struggled to
rebuild his power, Wisdom opened another portal – this one directly
behind the Djinn. Using elemental spirit, Akasha, Wisdom pushed his
father out of the elemental plane high above the Gobi desert back
on Earth. The Djinn fell quickly, his wet body pounding into the
cold sand of the Chinese desert. Wisdom flew through the portal.
Hovering in the air, he brought down bolt after bolt of lightning
upon the Djinn.

In the distance, a portion of sand gleamed
gold under the light of the lightning.

“
I am not the weakling you believe me to
be, Father.” Wisdom touched down on the sand, reached down into the
pits of the planet and called forth a pillar of crystal. Clear
quartz shot up through the sand and impaled the Djinn. “Unlike you,
I’ve grown over the years. I’ve learned. This is what you can
accomplish by doing instead of just thinking.”

The Djinn’s body flickered, disappeared and
reconstituted several feet away from the spear of quartz. “Tricks.
You offer me tricks. You cannot possibly hope…”

“
You’re right. I don’t hope. I know. I’ve
already done this, remember? I’m going to kill you, kill you with
my little ‘tricks’.” He reopened the portal to the plane of water,
a rush of cool liquid spilling out over the desert. The
carefully-constructed tsunami slammed against his father with a
roar of sound. Pain contorting his face, the Djinn struggled to
stay upright. Inch by inch, his body of solidified fire gave way to
the deluge, steaming under the flow of water. Wisdom knew he had
won.

Then something changed.

Pain evaporated, leaving an expression of
rage and concentration. The Djinn pushed back against the tide, and
the elemental water stuttered like the image from a faulty
projector. The water’s momentum slowed and then reversed. Wisdom’s
eyes went wide as his weapon was snatched from his grasp and tossed
aside. In an instant, the surge of water bled back into the portal
and returned to the elemental plane.

“
Didn’t see that coming, did you?” His
father smiled now, an expression of intense violence. “Where is
your confidence now, boy?” The Djinn swung his fist, hurling a
stream of superheated gases like plasma from the surface of the
sun. Wisdom stumbled away from the attack. The move threw him off
balance and he fell on his back. “Where is your bravado now? Maybe
you thought this was going to be a fair fight. Well, you’re right.
It’s not fair. I outclass you. Did you really expect to dispatch me
like this? By the Heavens, I’m a Djinn. I’m older than this planet.
And you? You are nothing but an aberration, a diversion, a toy of
mine that has forgotten his place. Give up now. This is not a fight
you can win.”

At the taunting, Wisdom recovered. “Hello?
Have you been watching this fight? That was you getting your ass
kicked a moment ago. You know, the psychologists of this planet
would have a lot to say about the way you carry on.” Wisdom pushed
himself to his feet and brushed sand off his shoulders. “I mean,
the sword speaks volumes. Over-compensating much? And I have to
wonder, are you like this with everyone, or is it just me? Do all
the Djinn get together over coffee and talk about who’s the biggest
baddie of them all? Or maybe, and I’m just putting it out there,
maybe the reason you kidnapped me all those years ago was because
you realized how much of a disappointment you are. I’m guessing
part of the reason you didn’t let me associate with the other Djinn
is because they all knew what I’m just starting to realize now.
You’re a loser. Just a big fat joke amongst the Djinn. Maybe you
just wanted me around so you can point out my weaknesses as a
diversion from your own inadequacies. It’s kind of like picking up
a dog from the pound just so you can kick it when you have a bad
day. When you think about it that way, it actually makes you kind
of pathetic.”

The glare of hatred in the Djinn’s eyes was
answer enough. Distracted by the small victory, Wisdom did not see
the slab of molten lava until it was inches away from his face. The
impact hammered him into the ground, even as his body instinctively
absorbed the heat and flames. Before he could recover, the Djinn
grabbed him by the right arm, just above the elbow. He lifted
Wisdom high over his head and slammed him against the ground.

“
When we get back to the Kaz, Akushula, be
prepared to eat those words. I’m trying to save your life. Whether
you want it saved or not. I will not leave you here on this planet
to face what’s coming.”

Over and over the Djinn slammed him against
the ground. It was far from subtle, but it was effective. All
Wisdom could do was wait for an opening. Finally, his father threw
him high in the air. The Djinn’s hands began to glow with subtle
fire, but Wisdom took his moment. He called upon the power of Air,
increasing the quantity of oxygen in the area around the Djinn. The
gases responded to the flame and, for all intents and purposes, his
father exploded. Pieces of the Djinn’s body showered the
desert.

Wisdom took the opportunity to run.
Something very wrong had happened. The Djinn was an elemental.
Under the treaties of authority, as a creature of fire, his father
should not have been able to manipulate elemental water as he did
with the tsunami. It was physically impossible. And yet the old
bastard had done it. Bloodied and confused, Wisdom’s consciousness
leaked away like blood. His body flew on instinct to the one place,
the one person he knew would make him safe. Then he collapsed.

***

“You almost had me there, old man,” Wisdom
whispered. Thinking back on the fight was all that it took to
convince Wisdom his instincts were correct. Someone was helping the
Djinn. And the only hint of it was a distant gleam of something
under the lightning. “I’m not usually a betting man, but I’d put
money on that ‘thing’ being a gold ring. Looks like the alien is no
longer just a problem for Josh. He and I are about to have words,
as soon as I am whole again.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

David stared out at the ocean without really
seeing it. His ears were ringing, a sound that seemed to bypass his
eardrums altogether to buzz inside his head. His short time with
the Anomalies told him what that meant: power.

“That’s the best I can do,” Todd said from
the couch. He let his bloodied hands drop away from Josh’s head and
slumped forward, his elbows resting against his knees.

“His skull wasn’t cracked, really, but it was
pretty close,” Jessica said. She wiped sweat from her forehead. The
two of them had once again combined their healing powers. Under
normal circumstances, Jessica would barely feel the exertion; but
these were hardly normal conditions. Despite her protests to the
contrary, she was just a child and her little body could only deal
with so much. “We stopped the bleeding and fused the bone.”

“So why doesn’t he wake up?” David moved away
from the window and joined the others. His face was still pale and
somber under his shock of red hair, his eyes moving too
quickly.