Council of Peacocks (41 page)

Jan was inches away from him when she faded
away. Her absence hit him like a stone. Like fog dissipating, all
the people disappeared. It was dark in the kitchen now, and the
apple pie was gone.

Wisdom walked over to the table and set the
wine glass down. He snapped his fingers and the lights came on.

“That’s better. Now, let’s go find your
father.” Wisdom walked up the stairs to the second floor.

“Wait a minute.” Josh tried to run after him,
but he could not make his legs work properly. He moved very slowly,
followed by a sudden burst of movement up the steps that almost
sent him flying into Wisdom. “What does my father have to do with
this? You can’t think he knows anything about those demons, can
you?”

Wisdom turned around as soon as he got to the
top of the stairs. “Of course he knows about the demons, Josh.
That’s his job. The group he works with, Candleworks, their sole
function is the study of nonhumans, like the Orpheans, and the
search for ways to fight them.”

“I thought you said there was no way to fight
them.”

“Are you going to hold me accountable for
everything I say? Well, in that case I’ll have to make sure I say
less. There are ways to fight them, if you can find the right
energy fields through magic or advanced science – half a dozen of
one, six of the other – but it’s not what your father knows about
the Orpheans I’m most interested in. It’s what he knows about the
Council. Which door is their bedroom?”

Josh pointed at the first door on the right.
“But, that’s… I mean, it’s just not possible.”

Wisdom stopped, his hand on the doorknob, and
spoke over his shoulder. “You say that a lot, you know. After the
things you’ve seen recently I would think you would have a better
appreciation of exactly what is possible.”

“Point taken. It’s just, my father couldn’t
keep that kind of stuff from me. From us. Hey, I have an idea. You
said I have another father, right? A demon. He has to be the father
those Edimmu knew. That makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“Yesterday I’d have agreed one hundred
percent. Ten minutes into your head and I knew differently. Those
Edimmu knew you. They have interacted with you in the presence of
your father. It’s highly improbable they were talking about a
non-material creature like Ehpslab. Like I said, things are getting
very clear to me. I have a few questions for old Richard
Wilkinson.”

With that, he pushed the door open.

Josh looked in on his parents in bed. His
mother was fast asleep, dressed in a flannel nightdress. Josh
wanted to rush over and cover her so that Wisdom could not see the
way her breasts rose and fell with each breath, but he fought the
urge. It was not real, after all. This was just a dream. His father
sat propped up in bed reading a thick white book by the small pool
of light coming from the lamp on the night table. He wore the
wire-framed glasses he had needed for reading since his last
birthday. Richard Wilkinson did not look up as they walked into the
room.

“Go ahead, Josh.” Wisdom waved his hand
forward.

“What?”

“You’ll have to say something to your father
or he’s not going to see us. Once you get it going, I can take
over.”

“You’re not going to hurt him, are you?”

Wisdom rolled his eyes. “Again, not real,
remember? That is not really your father, just your memory of your
father.”

“Then how can he…?”

“Smart question. How can he provide
information that you don’t know if he’s just a figment of your
imagination? Don’t know. Maybe he won’t. Who can say what
information you have tucked away in your head? Let’s just think of
him as a focal point to get the information we need and take it
from there. Come on, ask away. I don’t have all night, you
know.”

Josh looked back and forth from Wisdom to his
father several times. Then, with a shrug, he took two steps toward
the bed. “Dad? Hey Dad, can you see me?”

Richard Wilkinson looked up from his book.
“Of course I can see you, son. What’s the matter? Can’t sleep? I
told you not to have that last piece of pie. You just can’t handle
the sweets.” When he started speaking, his voice was very faint,
but as the words continued, they grew steadily louder until they
reached a normal volume. There was still a strange quality to them,
though, an echo as if his voice was reverberating around a very
large room.

“It’s not that, Dad.” Josh looked back at
Wisdom. “It’s kind of serious. I need to know about the Council,
Dad. The Council of Peacocks.”

Richard put the book down and took off his
reading glasses. “Maybe I should be the one asking what
you
know about the Council of Peacocks, Josh. Who have you been talking
to?”

Josh looked over at Wisdom. His father still
had not reacted to him. Somehow, Wisdom was invisible. “I talked
with a man named Wisdom. More importantly, I talked with these
things called Edimmu. Sometimes they look like humans with wings,
but they’re really more like lizard people. And they say they know
you. I mean, I know they know you. That’s how they know me. The
only thing is I don’t know how
you
know them. I don’t know
why they respect you, like you’re their boss or…Oh.”

Richard folded his hands together on his lap.
“What is it you think you know, son? You think that maybe I’m a
member of this Council of Peacocks and I’ve hired these Edimmus for
some reason?”

“Dad, please…”

“No, don’t hold anything back, son. I’m
really curious now. What else do you think you know?”

Wisdom leaned forward and whispered into
Josh’s ear. “Ask him about Propates.”

“Dad,” Josh said after a moment. “I know
about Propates. I saw the factory and the demons. I just don’t know
why. Tell me what’s going on. What’s the connection between the
Orpheans, the Edimmu and this Council of Peacocks?”

His father lowered his head. A smile crossed
his lips unlike any expression Josh had ever seen on his father’s
face. The light from the nearby lamp flickered and dimmed, the
shadows bled forward, filling the room with animated darkness. It
was just like back in Quebec. Suddenly, despite appearances, his
father was really not his father anymore.

From behind Richard’s face came a strange
voice. “Wisdom, you should know better than pulling a stunt like
this. I should fry the kid’s brain just to teach you a lesson.”

Wisdom squared his shoulders and squinted his
eyes. “Propates, is that you, you little snake?”

“Careful with the name-calling, Wisdom. My
patience is very thin nowadays.” The image of Josh’s father jumped,
twisted and changed, as if someone had changed channels on a
television. There was a different man in bed with his mother now, a
man with shoulder-length black hair and dark, Mediterranean
features. His eyes shone neon blue, like a fire was trapped in his
skull. “You’re making it very difficult for me to stay civil, you
know.”

“Civil?” Wisdom flicked back his cloak to
free his arms, a motion that held such violence in it Josh thought
instantly of blood flying from a bullet wound. “If you had any idea
what I’ve been through recently, you would realize how incredibly
civil I’ve been. I think you’ve forgotten who I am. But then, you
seem to also forget who you are.”

Propates snapped his fingers and the bedroom
disappeared. He now stood, legs spread in a defiant stance, dressed
in a double-breasted black suit with a neon orange tie. In his
hands was a pitchfork, orange flames dancing along the tines. “I
know exactly who I am, Wisdom. I’m your son. I am what you made me,
just as you’re what your father made you. Despite evidence to the
contrary, I believe deep down you are a reasonable man. Let’s call
a truce, shall we?”

Wisdom gave a sort of short cough that
sounded like laughter. “That would be a ‘No’. I’ve seen the future.
It’s time for me to stop you once and for all. So why don’t you
head home, get a good night’s sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow. Oh, and
for the record, the pitchfork is a bit much.”

Wisdom waved his hand before him, like he was
wiping frost from a window and...

***

Josh sat up in bed, a scream of shock in his
throat. He pressed his knuckles against his forehead. Whatever
Wisdom had done, throwing him out of the dream like that, it left
him with a killer headache. He sat there rubbing his head for a
long time before he was able to lie back down.

No matter what he did, he couldn’t force
himself to go back to sleep.

***

Wisdom came back to his body with a jolt.

‘How did he do that?” He wiped sweat from his
forehead. “I never taught him how to walk in the Dreaming. When did
he get that powerful?”

Only the sound of Echo’s deep breaths
prevented him from flying into a rage. He looked down at her body,
saw the peaceful expression on her face and wondered if everything
he had done would be enough. Could he stop Propates from killing
her?

He slipped out of the covers and went to this
closet. He grabbed the first suit his hands fell on and left the
bedroom. Getting dressed in there might wake her. He would get
dressed in his office upstairs. Then he would spend a few hours
calming down. After that, he was going to shatter every bone in
Propates’ body.

Chapter Thirty-One

The sun had been up for some time. Josh
stayed under the covers, unwilling to move. He found it hard to
focus on anything. His joints ached from hours of twisting and
tossing in bed. Still, it was warm under the sheets and his room
looked cold. Pallid red light filtered in through the tinted
windows and the shadows seemed far too solid for his liking.
Something was going to happen today, something that would make the
horror in the Laurentians pale in comparison. So he stayed in bed
for a long time. He knew once he got up, events would start rolling
toward an ending.

God only knew what kind of end was waiting
for him.

Eventually he surrendered and threw back the
covers. He knew they were no real protection from the things
waiting for him. After last night, he realized there really was no
place where he was beyond being touched by others. Not even in his
dreams.

He walked to the bathroom, stripped and
turned on the shower. He kept the water cold, hoping it would help
him shake off the sleepiness under his skin. He stayed under the
stream of water for about twenty minutes. Only when his teeth
started chattering did he turn off the nozzle and step out. He
dried off and wrapped a large white towel around his waist and went
to the dressers to decide what to wear.

On top of one of the dressers was a jewelry
box. He opened it and pursed his lips at what he found. There were
dozens of gold and silver rings with different types of jeweled
settings, at least ten different chains and four different watches.
While his family had never lacked for money, they did not have the
kind of wealth Jan’s family had. Yet these pieces of jewelry spoke
of wealth on a completely different scale. Josh was not the type to
steal, but, if he was, he could probably pawn off one of the
diamond-rimmed Rolexes and live comfortably for a year or two.
There were two of them, one with a platinum wristband; the other
had alternating rows of platinum and diamond studs.

“Is every room here equipped like this?” Just
how rich was Wisdom, anyway?

He decided on a silver Movado watch. Though
not a cheap watch, it was the least expensive he could choose. The
thought of losing or damaging any of the other watches tied his
stomach up in knots.

He was just slipping the watch on when he
noticed a dark blur over his shoulder. He spun, expecting to see
shadows and wings. Instead, his eyes focused on Jared. He started
to relax, his face breaking into a smile. Then, slowly, the smile
died. There was something about the look in the young boy’s eyes,
the way he stood. The way he repeatedly clenched and unclenched his
fists.

The way the light slid away from him and
shadows pooled around his feet.

***

David stood in front of the vending machine
in the lunch room trying to decide between a chocolate bar and a
bag of chips when the feeling hit him. He took a deep breath and
looked around. The corridor outside the lunchroom was empty. It was
still too early for most of the staff to be here. So far the only
other sign of life he’d seen was Garnet. She was dressed in a
form-fitting emerald-green suit. She smiled at him as she passed
by, making a comment about meeting up with Wisdom.

‘Something is wrong,’ he thought. He turned
his back on the vending machine and went to the doorway. He looked
up and down the corridor but there was no sign of anyone. He shook
his head and tried to get back to his hunger, but the feeling would
not go away. It reminded him of the prom, back when he'd had the
sudden impression of Ramona cheating on him in the parking lot. He
walked back to the vending machine and decided on a chocolate bar.
He bent down to retrieve it when Todd and Jessica rushed into the
lunchroom.

“Where’s the fire?” he asked as he unwrapped
the Big Turk.

“Quiet!” Todd spoke in a whisper. His hair
was uncombed and wild, and he was still dressed in a pair of blue
silk pajamas. There was a nearly-identical pair in David’s
room.

David started to speak again, but Todd just
raised his open hand in the universal signal for ‘Wait’. A moment
later a Chinese man in a dark blue suit passed by the doorway. He
barely paused to look up at Todd. Jessica, also still dressed in
her pajamas, bit her nails and paced back and forth. Todd watched
the man disappear from view. Only then did he turn back to David
and lower his hand.

“What the hell’s going on?” David asked.

Jessica stopped pacing and looked up at him.
“Can’t you feel it? God, why do you have to be such a newbie? I
wish Amy was here instead of you. I wouldn’t have to explain
everything to her.”