Council of Peacocks (18 page)

“Something’s coming,” he said. Even as the
words left his mouth, the darkness appeared. The steam on the
mirror was wiped away by an unseen hand. It created a murky hole
that reflected nothing of the real world. As the hole spread
further, the sound grew louder. Then, things started to flow out of
the darkness, impossible shapes with horns and tentacles wielding
swords. The male Edimmu screamed as one of the dark shapes slashed
at it. Blood shot from the Edimmu’s throat, splattering the walls
and floors. David squealed but the blood did not touch him. It flew
through him, covering the rest of the room. He watched as more and
more shapes streamed out of the mirror. Something killed the female
and then flew out the window into the city.

Then David was back on the rooftop. All
around him, dark figures poured out of every mirror and reflective
surface in sight. They slaughtered every Edimmu they found. Flying
shadows, crow-like monsters the size of large dogs filled the sky.
He watched as they tore the flesh from the three Edimmu playing the
discus game. Silent explosions rocked the city. Flames erupted from
every quarter and the scent of blood grew thick in the air. A
female Edimmu ran toward David, a small baby in her arms. She
screamed for help, desperation in her eyes. He reached out for her
and….

He was back in the bedroom. When he reached
for the female, he had removed his hand from the wall. When he lost
contact, the images disappeared instantly.

“What the hell was that?” He lay back down in
bed.

As frightened as he was, he still was
self-aware enough to realize the headache was gone.

***

He left his room and followed the sound of
voices to a dining area. Echo and the other Anomalies sat around
large glass tables eating breakfast. He was the last to arrive. Two
servants, women with dark brown skin, moved around the room. One
poured coffee while the other dished out scrambled eggs. Bethany
had saved him a seat near the head of the table where Echo sipped
wine from a crystal glass.

Jessica took a sip of the coffee before her.
Her face twisted around her lips like she had just sucked on a
lemon. “That’s gross. Do you lose your taste buds when you get
older?”

Echo smirked. “No. We just learn to
appreciate different tastes. How old are you, Jessica? If memory
serves me right, you would be 13, correct?”

“I’m 12.” Jessica reached for the cup of
coffee again, her face firmly set. “And a half.”

“Of course,” Echo laughed again. “That half
is very important.”

Amy stirred her eggs with a fork. “How old
are you, Echo?”

“Amy!” Todd nearly spat out the eggs in his
mouth. “You know it’s not polite to ask that kind of question.”

“Oh please, children,” Echo said, the laugh
still thick in her voice. “I’m well past worrying about my age. In
fact, I’ve stopped counting. You do after awhile.”

“You can’t be older than Bethany.” Jessica
took another sip of coffee. Once again, her face contorted but she
forced herself to keep drinking. “She’s ancient.”

“Hey!” Bethany said. She threw a napkin
across the table at Jessica.

Echo turned to Bethany. “Behave, now. To a
child’s eyes you would be ancient. To me, you are just a babe.
Let’s just say when I was 12 there was no such thing as
Christianity and the Jews still worshipped a god and a goddess.
Well, I can see from the looks on all your faces you don’t really
believe me. Why should you?”

“What are you?” Todd leaned forward, elbows
on the table.

Echo leaned back in her chair and studied
Todd. “I was human, once. That changed when I was sixteen. I paid a
price. You could say I sold my soul but I don’t regret the price.
Not often, anyway.”

David cleared his throat. “Is Wisdom like
you? Did he sell his soul, too?”

“If you have questions about Wisdom, ask him
yourself.” Echo put down her wine. “But enough questions about me.
I’m sure you have all sorts of questions about what you are.”

“We know what we are,” Jessica said.

“Do you?” Echo motioned for one of the
servants to clear way her plate of eggs even though she’d barely
touched them. “So what has Wisdom told you?”

Amy glanced at Jessica before speaking. “Ms.
Ryerson and Wisdom tell us we’re a little…evil.”

“Evil?” Echo laughed. “Hmm. I didn’t expect
that. Not from Wisdom. Listen, there’s one thing I’ve learned over
the years. One person’s devil is another person's god. Literally.
Have you ever heard the name Azazel? If you buy one of those
pretentious books on angels, he’s listed as a demon. Yet the people
in this area worshipped him as a god, represented by a black
peacock. The only reason he’s seen as evil is because of a cultural
battle between the Hebrews and the Yezidi. In every war I’ve seen,
it’s important for morale to demonize your enemies. Make their gods
into things of darkness and evil. It’s almost as if two people on
different sides of the same conflict can’t possibly worship the
same god.

“There is no evil. Not any absolute evil,
anyway. Killing babies could be seen as evil, the slaughter of
innocents. Or it could be seen as ridding the world of a threat in
the making. It all depends on the spin you place on it. Depends on
who writes the story and who reads it.”

Echo took several slow breaths. “But I
digress. What has Wisdom told you about the Council of
Peacocks?”

David looked around the table. Everyone
looked as confused as he felt.

“It’s a pretty amazing bird, the peacock.”
Echo leaned back in her chair. “Have you ever heard its cry? It
sounds like a person screaming in pain. It was the sacred bird of
Hera. Let me tell you a little story, the myth of the peacock.”

“Oh, dear god, she’s going to give us a
history lesson.” Jessica pushed her coffee away and turned to Amy.
“Can we please leave?”

“No,” Amy said. “I want to hear this.”

“If I may,” Echo said. “Hera learned her
husband, Zeus, was having an affair with a young nymph. So she hid
the nymph in a cave and stationed a hundred-eyed giant as her
jailer. The giant, Argus, was a hero. The stories say he slew
Echidna, mother of monsters. They also say he was killed, in turn,
by Hermes when Zeus decided he wanted his mistress back. But it’s
just a myth. See, the myths about Argus actually refer to a
religious cult, a group of worshippers. They worshipped Hera and a
giant, all-seeing god. The Argusites were at war with the
worshippers of a water goddess – Echidna. When the war was over,
the followers of Echidna were either killed or banished. Another
cult rose in their place, a group of magicians who worshipped
Hermes. Unfortunately for the Argusites, they weren’t as lucky
against the Hermetics. One religion fell to another. Symbolically,
the god Hermes ‘killed’ Argus, just as Argus ‘killed’ Echidna.

“When their temples were destroyed, the
Argusites were forced to flee north to underground cities like the
one we’re in now. The locals also worshipped a peacock god, Melek
Taus. The two gods were very different but the Argusites adapted.
They became the Council of Peacocks.

“During the middle ages, the Council spread
all over Europe. It wasn’t a popular time to be a pagan, so they
kept very quiet. Then they gained a powerful ally, a very annoying
man named Propates. He has access to dark powers. He’s capable of
things even I can’t explain. Propates has led the Council for
several hundred years now.”

“Is everyone immortal?” David asked as he
rubbed his temples. His migraine was returning. “I mean, seriously,
how many of you people are there?”

“I’m not immortal. Neither is he. We’ve just
been alive for a very long time. All you need to know is that the
Council of Peacocks sent the Edimmu after you. They’re the ones
Wisdom has been training you to fight.”

Amy looked up from her plate. “What exactly
is an Edimmu?”

“That’s a long story,” Echo covered her mouth
as she yawned. “And I’m through with history lessons for today.
Please excuse me.” She stood up from the table and walked briskly
out of the dining room.

Amy looked around the table. “Do any of you
know what an Edimmu is?”

Everyone shook their head.

David thought back to his vision of the
Edimmu city. “I think that’s one of the many questions Wisdom is
going to have to answer when we see him again.”

Chapter Thirteen

August 4
^th

Josh stared out the window at London. He
couldn’t see any landmarks he recognized. Having never been here
before, he wondered how far he was from Big Ben and London Bridge.
Lights shone from vacant offices in concrete buildings all around
him. They gave the city a sense of life, but it could just as
easily have been New York, Toronto, Tokyo or Chicago. He’d seen so
little of the world that it all looked the same.

His living quarters were comfortably
ordinary. Dark-stained wood and plush green furniture filled the
carpeted room. The closets were filled with presents: dozens of
Armani suits, well-tailored pants, high-quality shirts, belts and
ties, all pre-packaged, creating an artificial sense of home. The
building was quiet now that the workday was over. It would have
been peaceful if not for his constant fear that the world was going
to explode.

He had arrived in London two days ago. The
first day was filled with doctors. They drew blood and placed him
in large magnetic chambers to take pictures of the blueprints of
his body. He ran on treadmills and did three-hour-long I.Q.
tests.

Yesterday, he spent two hours with a staff
psychologist who made him talk about his parents, his love life,
and the blood-soaked trip to the Laurentians. Then alarms went off
throughout the building. People ran in all directions, faces drawn
and pale. While no one gave him any significant details, Josh
determined something catastrophic had happened in a building Wisdom
owned in Toronto.

During the chaos, he caught his first sight
of others like himself. Dozens of staff members – mostly research
assistants and scientists – from Toronto were assigned rooms on the
same floor as his. Amongst them was a beautiful woman with the most
stunning eyes he’d ever seen. Her name was Garnet. They spoke
briefly in the hallway before she disappeared.

He pulled back the covers of the bed and
slipped under the sheets. Hands folded behind his head, he stared
at the white ceiling. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw
creatures coming out of the shadows. Edimmu. He saw flashes of
himself fighting them in the woods, setting their wings on fire for
what they did to Tommy. What were they? Aliens? Demons? And why
were they after Tommy?

Why wasn’t Wisdom giving him any answers?

There was a knock at the door.

Josh threw the covers off, walked to the
door, and glanced through the peephole. Garnet stood outside
wearing a green summer dress. She held hands with a young boy
wearing a blue t-shirt and white shorts.

“Hi,” he said as he opened the door. “It’s a
little late for visiting, isn’t it?”

“It’s 9:30.”

“Oh.” Josh saw in her eyes she wasn’t going
anywhere. He stepped aside and let her in. “Who’s this?”

“His name is Jared.”

Jared walked straight to the couch and sat
down hard. He folded his arms, grumbled something inaudible, and
stared at the floor. He reminded Josh of his cousin Adrian. There
was even a vague family resemblance he wished he could ignore.

Jared looked up at Garnet. “I told you I
won’t like him.”

“Be nice, kiddo,” Garnet said to Jared. “He’s
had a bad few days.”

“Who hasn’t?” Jared’s face blanched. “I can
still feel those people dying in my head.”

Garnet knelt down by the couch and stroked
the boy’s brown hair. “Me too. Lucky for me you got separated from
the others and never made it to the roof. I need you to give Josh a
break. Don’t pull any of the crap you did with Madeline when she
first came to us, okay?”

“I miss Madeline,” Jared said. “She used to
play Super Mario with me. She didn’t deserve what they did to
her.”

“No, she didn’t.” Garnet frowned, tears
forming in her eyes. “Well, enough of this maudlin crap. We came to
ask you to join us in the common room. It’s far too early to sleep,
and I’m sure we’ll all feel a little safer if we stick together.
Maybe we can even scrounge up a Playstation from somewhere. Just
don’t expect me to be much good, Jared.”

Jared smiled and ran for the door. “More fun
for me if you suck. Means I’ll win.”

“Deal.” Garnet turned back to Josh and
winked.

Josh smiled and followed them out.

***

Below the surface of Thessaloniki, in the
caverns carved out by Edimmu, Paeder Ferris was being prepared for
the third ceremony in the process of Eyeness. Two lower Council
members in unadorned white robes anointed his naked body with
fragrant ritual oil. He stood, legs spread, arms stretched out to
the sides, allowing access to every surface of his flesh. The
markings of previous initiations glimmered under the oil. Five
intricate eyes were tattooed down the side of each leg, outlines of
blue with green irises. Ten similar eyes were tattooed on his back,
placed to form the kabalistic Tree of Life.

“There will be considerably more pain this
time,” Propates said. He watched the process from the edge of the
room while Otto prepared the required chemical injections.

“I can deal with the pain.” Paeder grimaced
as one of the acolytes anointed his inner thighs. “That maggot
destroyed my family.”

The acolytes finished and withdrew to an
adjoining room. Otto injected a syringe filled with a luminous
green liquid into Paeder’s jugular vein. He injected a second
needle filled with a clear solution into his left arm.

Grabbing him by the arm, Propates led Paeder
to the octagonal crystal chamber at the center of the room. It was
exactly five feet in diameter and stood fifteen feet tall. Entrance
was through a crystalline hatch that was raised or lowered from the
outside. When closed, the hatch vacuum sealed the chamber.