Council of Peacocks

by M Joseph Murphy

  “I really am a monster, aren’t I?”

  “Yes.”

  David’s eyes went wide at the voice. It was grating and ephemeral, not in the least bit human. If ice and stone could speak, it would sound like this.

  “Who are you?”

  From out of the darkness came another figure.

  ***

  Todd opened his eyes and found himself speechless. He was back in Alaska at the oil company work yard. Dozens of trucks, doors open, burned. Oily black smoke rose from orange flames. Charred bodies lay everywhere, still smoking.

  He looked down at his hands.

  They were covered in blood.

  ‘It wasn’t like this,’ he thought. ‘It wasn’t this bad.’

  “Of course it was.”

  Todd turned quickly at the voice. Even though he recognized it, he refused to admit what his eyes were seeing.

  “Bethany,” he said. “You’re dead.”

  “Not in this place.” Her slightly-wrinkled face broke open in a smile. She was dressed in a loose grey gown. Her hair flowed impossibly long behind her in a gentle wind that Todd could not feel.

  “I have to get out of here, Beth. Wisdom needs me. Wisdom….”

  “Wisdom can suck my arse.” Her hands slid slowly down her dress until they reached the hem. “Or even better, maybe you can.” With a deliberation that was uncomfortably seductive, Bethany pulled the gown up over her body until she was naked to the neck. Todd wanted to turn away from her grey pubic hair and wide hips but found himself stuck. He started to shake as she turned around and bent over.

  Todd took a step forward.

  “Come on, Toddy.” Bethany reached behind her and spread her butt cheeks. “I know you want this as much as I do.” Then something gushed out of her behind – a dark green liquid shot through with gold flecks. Todd screamed but found himself still walking forward. When he was next to Bethany, he knelt down. The green liquid splashed into his face. He opened his mouth to scream and it poured into him.

  ‘Not like this, not like this, not like this.’ Something inside him started to gurgle, then things blurred and the darkness returned.

  ***

  Echo looked down at herself.

  “What the hell?” She found herself in a frilly hoop skirt, her torso choked by a corset. Her hair was done up in an impossible mockery of the style of the Southern states during the War of Independence. She was in a ballroom, immaculately decorated in rococo gaudiness. Dozens of crystal chandeliers shone candlelight down on a ghostly orchestra and delicate phantom women. Transparent shades of men in British uniforms drifted between marble pillars that went on as far as she could see.

  “Wisdom, is this your idea of a joke?”

  The sky darkened. “Wisdom isn’t here, little Andromeda. Or should I call you Echo?”

  She looked around and saw nothing but ghosts. Even though she had never met the owner of that voice, she knew who it was.

  “Oh my. I…”

  “Silence.”

  Echo licked her lips and looked around for some sign of help.

  “Like I said, little Echo, my son is not here. This little conversation is just between the two of us.”

  “What do you want with me?”

  The sky darkened even more.

  “It’s unnatural. You. Wisdom. The others. You shouldn’t exist. I’ve allowed you to go on for a time because it amused me. But I’ve been told that I can’t allow you to exist any longer.”

  “Told by whom? I thought you were like….”

  “The end of the chain?” The temperature dropped and everywhere she looked, Echo saw the world taking on more shades of blue. It was as if the air itself was freezing. “Is that what Wisdom told you or did you just think of that one by yourself? I’m still accountable to my superiors. Nothing of the Djinn can be on Earth much longer. It is too dangerous. Tell me, child, what is it about you that makes you so special? Why is Wisdom going to all this trouble just to...?”

  The voice stopped.

  “To do what?” Echo stared up at the sky, not sure she wanted the answer.

  “Of all the nerve,” the voice answered. “The boy has gone crazy.”

  “The boy?” Echo swallowed. “Wisdom? What is he…?”

  “Leave me. I’ll deal with you later.”

  Everything around Echo whirled and melted together like a fresh oil painting submerged in boiling water. Before she could react, the sensations stopped. She was back in the storage room.

  “What the hell?”

  Echo turned at the voice. Todd, his face and chest covered in green goo, stood next to David. The others were gone. She looked down at herself and saw she was back in her pantsuit.

  “I think Wisdom just bought us some time,” she said. “Let’s put it to good use.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dark, but Wisdom knew immediately he was in the right place. He was back in the forest where the stranger had transported Josh and his cousin to another world.

  The air smelled different now. Without the influence of his father to cover up the natural scents, Wisdom sensed within seconds what had never occurred to him before.

  “There’s a doorway here.” With an exertion of will, he altered his perception. Not only could he see perfectly well in the dark now, he could also make out lines of energy and force beyond human sight. Many of the lines were magnetic in nature. Like veins of the planet, they pulsed and flowed with life. But there was another system here too, a subtle network of power he had seen in few places on Earth. “That’s why the stranger chose this place. The walls between worlds are thin here.”

  There are many ways you can spend your life, especially if you are immortal. Wisdom had spent his life amassing every kind of power. In a civilized world, the greatest source of power is information. Aside from military strategies and the secret world of finance, over his long life Wisdom had learned quite a bit about the nature of things. He had learned most of it only after coming back to Earth. Whatever knowledge the Djinn had, he never bothered teaching it to Wisdom.

  Parts he had gathered from the Akashic Records; others by talking with mystics and scholars around the world. He knew that, for the most part, solidity was an illusion. True reality was made up of energy. Thought patterns and the collective consciousness of all living things maintained the illusion of reality.

  Like pressure points in a human body, certain locations were naturally weak. A small exertion of pressure in the right spot could split open the whole thing. Others, like Stonehenge or the Vulture Antechamber, were manufactured weak points: piercings like a badly healed break.

  Wisdom followed the lines of energy through the woods. To his eyes they looked like interchanging webs of mauve and navy blue lights. The scent of the stranger was strongest where the light of the web was brightest.

  He walked further into the woods through knee-high grass. The trees, lush and green, filled the sky above with healthy leaves and branches. The air was warm and humid but a cool breeze blew shadows under the trees.

  He saw the opening long before he reached it. The mauve and blue streams of lights converged on one spot. “It’s like my portals,” he whispered to himself. “It’s a rupture in time and space, but it spreads out nearly a kilometer in all directions. And it’s permanent. Lines of force anchored it like the roots of a tree. Judging by the thickness of the lines, this doorway’s not new. It must be centuries old.”

  He approached the center of the door and ran his fingers along the surface. Nothing happened, which confirmed his knowledge of this type of portal. Mere contact was not enough to travel through it. It would require an exertion of will.

  “Here goes,” he said. He channeled his willpower down through his arms and out through his fingertips. The portal and its roots responded immediately. They swirled. Wisdom stood back to watch the change. The colors intensified and the air under the trees became slightly cooler. Wisdom touched the surface again an
d his hand disappeared. He quickly withdrew it and centered himself. “Here’s hoping he’s nearby. I’d hate to have to search the entire planet.”

  He stepped through the portal and noticed the difference immediately. The trees on the other side were taller, their leaves and bark different from any tree he had ever seen. The quality of light changed, too. The forest in Windsor had been dark, deep in the middle of night. Here the sun shone, its light more orange than anywhere on Earth. One thing this place had in common with the other forest was a complete lack of animal life. The only thing that moved in the trees and underbrush was the wind.

  He did not have to go far before he heard the roar of the waterfall. It was louder than Niagara Falls; it distracted him. He did not notice the figure until it spoke.

  “You’re not supposed to be here,” it said.

  Wisdom whirled around quickly and snapped an elemental barrier around him. His fingers erupted in fire, but he held it in check. He focused on the stranger before him. He was here to talk, not to fight.

  It was obviously the same man Josh had described. Long, dark grey hair hung down his back in a ponytail. His features were sharp and somehow birdlike. His nose was long and sharp, cheekbones high and severe. Upon closer inspection, Wisdom noticed the pale green tinge to the skin and the vestigial gills at the base of the man’s neck. He was barefoot and topless, wearing only loose raw-hide pants. His chest was covered in scars. Strangest of all was the man’s left arm. Just below the elbow, a ridge of thick scar tissue separated two skin tones. Above the scar, the skin was the same pale green as the rest of the man’s body. Beneath it, the skin was as white as new-fallen snow. His forearm also seemed to glow with an internal light. The hand ended in long, thin fingers completely unlike the fingers on the man’s other hand. Wisdom spent a long time looking at the fingers of his left hand, especially the one adorned with a gold ring.

  “If you know anything about me, this visit shouldn’t be a surprise. Or did you really believe you could keep screwing around with my life and I’d just stand by and let you?”

  The man chuckled and shook his head. “I wasn’t screwing with your life, Wisdom. Not any more than you screw with the life of an ant when you water your garden. Whatever happens to you is of no consequence to me.”

  Wisdom looked at the ground. “Oh, of course. That must be why you helped my father kick my ass a few days ago. That makes complete and utter sense…in the way of not making any sense at all. Whatever you may have heard, I’m not an idiot. You have something to gain or you wouldn’t be involved. Or do you expect me to think you are some sort of dispassionate saint?”

  “At one point, some would have called me a saint.” The stranger blinked. “Not anymore. I do have something to gain, Wisdom, but not from you. I really couldn’t care less if you live or die, but the people I am working with do. They want you off Earth. It will be better for their plans. I’m just trying to assist them.”

  “Why? Oh, don’t give me that look. I’m not in the mood for diplomacy. This planet, you call it Maghe Sihre, right? Well, since this is not my home, I don’t really care what happens here. See that sun up there? I can open a portal right now that would blanket this whole area in molten plasma. Actually, I can do that a few times. It won’t take long before this whole planet isn’t what you’d call inhabitable. From the way you just went three shades paler, I’m guessing that’s something you would like to see not happen. So stop the silent act before I lose the last bit of patience I have left.”

  For several minutes, the stranger glared at him with his pale blue eyes. Wisdom could almost hear the man’s internal conversation; he knew the man was going to be reasonable.

  “So much like your father,” the man said, finally. “So much power and so little regard for it. Fine, Wisdom. I’ll tell you what I can. It’s too late for you to do anything about it, anyway. My name is Gaysun Defksquar and…”

  “I’m not really looking for a biography, here, my friend.” Wisdom pointed a flaming finger at the man. “Give me the condensed version, the one without all the unnecessary back-story. You probably already know this, but I am on a tight deadline.”

  Defksquar smiled. “Ah, your legendary charm. Fine. The condensed version. I have something I need to get rid of. The Council of Peacocks has agreed to take it. End of story.”

  Wisdom rolled his eyes. “Okay, you can be a little more back-storyish than that. What exactly do you have to get rid of? Why did the Council agree to take it? And what does all of this have to do with my father? Please remember I’m not stupid. Try lying and see what happens to all these pretty trees.”

  “I underestimated you, Wisdom. If I knew you were going to be this annoying, I would have killed you when your father beat you down. The exact nature of the device I want to get rid of isn’t really important. Some call it technology, others call it magic. What it does is the important thing. Think of it as a sophisticated terra-forming machine. It alters the reality subnet of a planet, reshaping it in the image of the person who activates it. My world is at war. Both sides want it. I don’t trust either side to use it properly, so I’m getting rid of it.”

  Wisdom trained his senses on the man, analyzing his facial expression and auric emanations. “You’re telling the truth. And I can see why the Council would want something like that. They can reshape the world to make it whatever they want. I wouldn’t mind one of those myself. So why not just give it to me?”

  “Well, for one thing I’ve already made a deal. And second, I don’t have it yet. I’m actually in the middle of an expedition right now to recover it.”

  “So it’s somewhere in these woods?”

  Defksquar shook his head, his eyes burning brightly in amusement. “Nowhere near here. You’re not the only person who can teleport, Wisdom. As for the deal with your father, well, that’s complicated. I don’t really know how the Council is going to alter the world, but I do know they are going to weaken the boundaries between dimensions. I believe this has something to do with creating an alliance.”

  Something in Wisdom went cold. “They want to release the Orpheans from the Axeinus.”

  “Yes. Something like that. Only, what they have planned will not stop there. It’s going to weaken all the barriers.”

  “Including the one between Earth and the Kaz.” Wisdom let the fire on his fingertips go out. “Now it all makes sense. He wants the Kaz to stay isolated. He figures if there are no remnants of the Djinn on this planet when the Council uses this device, the barrier will stay strong and he gets to remain the isolationist. If I’m still on the planet when the device is activated, more Djinn will be created.”

  “Like you said. You’re not stupid.”

  Wisdom opened his mouth to say something, then clamped his jaw shut. Several moments later, he tried again. “I can’t let this happen. I’m going to have to kill you to stop it from happening. You know that. And yet I don’t see you exactly shaking in your boots. Why is that?”

  Gaysun smiled again, this time showing his slightly-yellowed teeth. “Because of the nature of the Foramen you just used. That’s what we call these portals between the worlds. Physically traveling through the Foramen sends ripples throughout the world. That’s why I don’t travel to your world physically. I always send my astral form so the players on this planet stay in the dark about what I have planned. When you came here, it sent signals all over your home world. You won’t be alone for long. In fact, your father should be here right about…”

  “Now.”

  Before Wisdom could look over his shoulder, a bolt of fire and earth slammed into him. He flew forty feet in the air before smashing through several trees. Dazed and in pain, he barely managed to get a shield up to block the follow-up attack. He looked around for a sign of Defksquar but he was long gone. The only ones in the forest were Wisdom and his father.

  “Sloppy old man.” Wisdom got to his feet. “You lost the element of surprise. You also lost the ally that helped you win the last time we fought.
Now you’re all alone and I’m beyond exasperated. Make peace with the Eternal Fire. We’re ending this.”

  ***

  Jessica jumped into the air and screamed. Pinkish-white lightning spun around her body in jagged lines and then shot out at the approaching Edimmu. Like the wrath of Zeus, it sliced through the air. For a moment, it seemed that electricity was the only thing in the world. One of the creatures was consumed instantly.

  After that, things moved very quickly.

  Elaine shot an Edimmu in the head. Garnet cupped her hands and focused on the black, oily wings. One by one, the Edimmus flared, screaming as their wings erupted in flame. Still they approached.

  ‘We’re going to have to do better than this.’ Josh looked down at his fists and made a conscious decision. ‘Make my hands as hard as steel’, he thought. ‘I’ve decided not to be wounded by these bastards.’ As the thought solidified in his mind, energy crackled all around his body, inches from his skin. His aura hardened, creating a suit of psychic armor. He jumped into the middle of the Edimmu.

  Claws scraped at him but bounced off the armor. He struck out again and again, cracking bones and stabbing into their reptilian flesh. He was vaguely aware of Jessica screaming again, bolts of lighting and flame flashing all around him. One Edimmu, back a bit from the fray, stuck one hand in a pool of shadows and pointed the other hand directly at Josh. With shocking speed, nickel-sized particles of darkness shot out from that hand and struck Josh square in the chest. He flew backwards and hit the wall. He fell limply to the ground, his armor flickering.

  ‘Can’t. Let. It. Fall.’ he thought. He focused his will. Once again the energy solidified. He stood and looked for a place to re-enter the fight. Elaine shot again and the last of the Edimmu fell. The lights stopped flickering and the shadows retreated.