“What of you? The war broke out between the grotesque and the gargoyles and then I didn’t see you for 50 years; even for us that’s a long time.”
A dark shadow crossed Wally’s face.
“It didn’t go well; we scattered. We grotesque have no home and the gargoyles have shut us out. Many of us are carrying wounds, seen and unseen.”
Yoshi shook his massive head, “War does none of us any good. If this prophecy is real then the Ifrit and Ghouls will be emboldened to tear what little we have down.”
“I know. That’s why I’m here. I need your help. Silas has been missing for the past 8 years.”
“Amirah’s brother?”
“Yes, I have been told that he may be back in the city. He’s part of the key to stopping the djinn war.”
Yoshi’s face went blank. “I haven’t seen him.” Yoshi stood up and began to clean the station. Wally popped the last piece of isonade in his mouth.
Yoshi yelled over his shoulder, “That’s going to be on your tab! Just because you have a long life doesn’t mean you can freeload.”
“l wish I could help you…” Yoshi paused, “What are you calling yourself these days, mongrel?” Yoshi walked back, wiping his hands off on his apron.
“Wali’”
“Wali … guardian, hmm. That’s different for you. Your old name was “Wahash, beast.”
“I can no longer carry that loneliness in my heart, Yoshi.”
Then an arm swiftly wrapped around Wally’s neck and a blade was pressed into his rib. The hot breath of the desert blew across his ear.
“Long lived, does not mean un-killable. Like us, grotesque, you can die. If you try to change here this blade will puncture your lungs and you will be stuck in your stone form once again.”
Wally knew that raspy voice, Silas.
“Listen to me, Silas. I need your help.”
Silas pressed the knife harder, “I told my sister you could not be trusted, you had her and her children murdered and I saw you talking to my captors when I was in chains. You have 3 seconds to say your prayers to whatever God you believe in, Wahash.”
“One, two…” Before Silas finished saying three, his knife had already begun to pierce Wally’s side.
Chapter Fourteen: The Haoma Tree
Anka hovered a moment above the tree, looked down at Sarah and Henry with a knowing nod and opened his claws. Henry tapped into the familiar warmth in his stomach and floated himself down to the ground. Sarah’s aura flared up into a familiar glow and her ghost-like wings spread behind her. They both landed. Anka touched down at the White Haoma Tree.
The boys were gone.
Henry took his time and walked slowly around the tree. The trunk of the tree was tiny, about the width of his forearm. He had imagined such a tree would be massive, similar to the massive redwoods he grew up seeing. The branches of the tree were thin, with golden leaves, with a hint of green. The fragrance of the tree was floral without being perfumed, similar to the plumerias he was familiar with. He loved the tree. There was no real reason why, but in his soul he knew the tree was his friend.
A slight breeze blew across the Vasha Sea.
“I see we scared off the spirits.” Anka shook his mane and spread his wings out. “That’s them now, running away. No worries; more will come.”
Anka sat back on his claws and settled in.
“What do we do now?” Sarah asked as she began to pat the tree, unconsciously.
“The tree will tell you. I am taking a nap.” Anka tucked his head under his wing and fell fast asleep.
Henry thought it unusual how the twilight feeling of the city below could not be felt, it was almost normal up there. He could feel the warmth of the sun on his face. It was no wonder the White Haoma Tree enjoyed it here and thrived.
Sarah looked at Henry and shrugged her shoulders. Then a single golden leaf dropped into Sarah’s hand. She looked at it and walked over to the sea, dipped it into the water then popped it in her mouth. She smiled at Henry. Henry watched as a little ghost-like girl, no older than ten, stepped from the tree. She was golden in aura, similar to Sarah. Then Henry looked closer, it was Sarah, just younger. They looked at one another and they held hands and the both of them walked into the tree.
Henry was flabbergasted. He had been amazed all day, but now the tree had taken one of his only friends. Henry touched the tree and the love he felt for the tree became more intense. Then a single leaf dropped from the tree and landed on Henry’s shoulder. He picked the leaf from his shoulder and felt a compulsion, a message of a sort, directing him to dip it in the sea. He did as he was instructed. He put the leaf in the sea water, pulled it out and lightly crushed it between his thumb and forefinger, then placed it in his mouth.
Images after images flashed through his mind. A seed, rain, soil, feeling of safety underground, good nutrients, then light, a need to reach up, then a feeling of knowing. Henry looked up and he saw a little ghost boy step out of the tree, and Henry recognized him at once. It was Henry. The boy smiled at Henry and took his hand and they both stepped into the tree.
Henry and the boy who looked like Henry were in a living room. Henry was on the floor by the fireplace, Aunt Sadie was sitting in her rocking chair reading aloud to him.
“You remember this?” The ghost boy looked up at Henry, smiling.
“Yeah, of course, this is a couple of years after my family passed. Aunt Sadie had insisted on reading Arabian Nights.”
“Watch.”
“This story is crazy, Aunt Sadie, just like those mandalas you are always telling me to look at. Genie flying around like a dust storm and people going to lands where fish speak and mountains move and change. Then you finish up with this Aladdin story, it’s nothing like in the Disney movies. When you said we were reading about genies, I was thinking of that.”
Aunt Sadie laughed and rocked harder in her chair.
“What’s so funny, Aunt Sadie?”
“Well, I’ve told you all about slavery in America?
“Yes … so?”
“So, do you think Aladdin is a good guy or a bad guy?”
“A good guy.”
“A good guy really, then why didn’t he free the genie in the ring and the genie in the lamp?”
“The genies were bad probably.”
Aunt Sadie shook her head, “Sometimes the only thing that makes you bad is the unfortunate circumstance of your birth. You see there’s a reason why they used to put slaves from Africa iron chains.”
“What do you mean?”
Aunt Sadie smile “Iron is one of the few things that can weaken genies. Won’t kill them, but weaken them. Slavers would capture djinn along with everyone else and sell them into slavery along with everyone else.”
“Well the sorcerer was definitely bad.”
Aunt Sadie laughed again, “But he wanted the same thing Aladdin did and he used the genie no differently. Sometimes the evil you don’t see is far worse.”
Henry sat back and thought about what Aunt Sadie had said.
Henry and ghost Henry paused and watched the scene.
Aunt Sadie began to sing to herself:
“Follow the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waitin'
For to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinking gourd
When the sun comes up
And the first Quail calls
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waitin'
For to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waitin'
For to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinking gourd
The riverbank will make a mighty good road
The dead trees show you the way
Left foot, peg foot travelin' on
Following the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waitin'
For to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinking gourd
The river ends between two hills
Follow the drinking gourd
There's another river on the other side
Follow the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waitin'
For to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinking gourd
Wha’ the little riva...
Meet the grea’ big ’un ...
The ole man waits
Foller the drinkin' gou'd.
Henry had forgotten this song. Aunt Sadie had told him about the old Underground Railroad songs and how Peg Leg Pete had taught this song to one her ancestors. He missed Aunt Sadie. Then she looked up right at Henry and the ghost boy Henry holding hands.
“Like I said, you could visit me anytime, but I think we may only be able to see each other one more time after this. Just remember you must get the Ring of Aandaleeb, or all is lost.”
Henry—the boy on the floor—jumped up, startled, and looked at Aunt Sadie, then to where she was staring, nothing was there.
“What’s wrong, Aunt Sadie?”
“Nothing’s wrong, boy.” She turned from looking at future Henry and the ghost boy Henry, “Wasn’t nothing but a haint.” Then she went back to humming her song.
Ghost boy Henry looked up at Henry and they walked out of the tree.
Henry had remembered that scene verbatim; that wasn’t the first or last time he had caught Aunt Sadie talking to herself. At the time he had thought she was crazy or senile. This encounter had shed some light on how powerful Aunt Sadie really was.
The ghost Henry sat down under the tree and beckoned for Henry to follow suit.
“You’re the tree, aren’t you?” Henry said as he sat down.
The ghost boy nodded, “ Yes, I don’t have a human or djinn self-image and, since people really only come to learn about themselves and are never all that interested in me, I use their narcissism and inflated sense of self-importance to mirror them. “
“Why a child-like version though? Why not an image of them now?”
“I typically like how their mind is as a child and it somehow resonates to the healing.”
Henry hadn’t felt that he needed healing, but the tree was right, he felt healed. He felt as if he had answers to questions he did not ask and realized that the questions he wanted answers for were unimportant.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” The ghost boy Henry asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m curious, what do you look like really?”
The ghost boy Henry tilted his head, “Of all the millennia I have lived here, none have asked me this question. Even though I sense fear in you, I also sense genuine interest.”
A blinding flash and Henry saw giant trees, he saw Yggdrasil, he saw a small tree in flames, he saw a huge oak tree at a cross road. He saw a gnarled wooden tree in the desert with one green leaf, he saw huge kelp thousands of feet tall in the ocean, he saw the rainforest, and before him he saw the universe, then a simple seed sat before him.
“I am all trees and plants from the beginning of time until the end of time. All it takes is a seed. Even the seed of an idea, and I am there. Thank you, Henry.”
The tree seed vanished and Henry was left sitting there, Anka lightly snoring. On the horizon, Henry could see a fire floating in the air, flickering in the distance. He stared a little longer and could see that they were flapping wings, completely aflame. Easily a dozen birds were flying towards him on fire. Henry rushed over to Anka to awake him; Anka lifted his head.
“There’s something coming on the horizon, Anka, it looks like birds on fire.”
Anka looked in that direction. He stood up and spread his wings, flapping them wildly.
“Only sacred birds can enter here, but it looks like some djinn have impersonated phoenixes and they are coming for us. Since they are here uninvited, they have to stay in this shape or be destroyed by the magic here. Where’s Sarah?”
“She hasn’t come from the tree yet.”
Anka launched into the air. “In this form I may have a chance against them; I will try to head them off. You wait here for Sarah as long as you can.”
Anka rushed to the flames on the Horizon and hoped for the best.
Chapter Fifteen: Old friends
“Enough!” Yoshi pounded his fist on the countertop; Silas stopped pressing the knife into Wally’s side. “Let’s go in the back.” Yoshi dropped down a little wooden sign that said closed in three languages, Japanese, Arabic and Celestial Speech.
Silas silently walked behind Wally, his face still covered by the cowl. Wally was upset that Silas had got the drop on him and Yoshi had helped. But it was also understandable; this was the beginning of different times. Yoshi stepped through a beaded curtain, Wally and Silas followed suit. They all stepped through and they were standing on the beach. The water was crystal clear; the sky was still light. He had forgotten how beautiful the djinn cities were and he secretly wished he could stay.
“Okay,” Yoshi looked at Silas, “Each of you have 30 seconds to air your grievances.”
“He left me for dead!” Silas pointed an accusatory finger at Wally.
Wally had known this would come back to bite him. He had seen no other way and had left Silas to fend for himself in the Ghul encampment. It was a dare that brought them there in the first place—replace Ornias’s necklace of thumbs with carrots that had been conjured to look different. It was part prank and part statement, but this had been hundreds of years ago. Wally couldn’t believe Silas still held a grudge.
“They were going to kill both of us, Silas. I figured I’d give you a fighting chance. You should have been able to escape without me holding you back. I can’t teleport or go mass-less like you. I made sure you had your own space.”
Silas shook his head in both disbelief and frustration.
“Why my sister trusted you, I will never know. What have you done with my nephew? Have you brainwashed him, too, just like you did my sister?” Silas pulled back his towel to reveal the remnants of scars on his face that had recently healed.
Wally had been faithful to Amirah and Silas for rescuing him from the thousand-year-old slumber. The three of them had many adventures together. Yet Wally still felt he had to prove something to Silas, as if he were more foe than friend. Yet seeing Silas snapped him back to the gravity of the situation.
“What happened to you?” Wally was afraid to know the answer. Silas was prone to wander the earth alone, doing whatever he did, like so many djinn. He was not surprised when Amirah couldn’t find him. He figured he would show, but he hadn’t and Amirah was dead.
“The Ifrit.”
One word, one title and that was all that needed to be said. Yoshi gave a low whistle. Even Wally understood what it meant. The Ifrit were some of the most powerful djinn and the most sadistic. It was said that the Ifrit never met a torture they didn’t like.
“How did you escape?” Wally asked.
Silas spoke of his months being tortured at one of the Ifrit strongholds. He had discovered that the ifrit were amassing an army that was meant to rise during the spring equinox. They had found him snooping and realized his relationship to Amirah, therefore they kept him, both drugged and beaten. They felt he was useful to their plans.
He had escaped, but it had been too late, Amirah was dead and so was her family. Then he heard the rumors that the boy was alive. So he went there to wait with Yoshi until Wally came, as he knew he would.
“Silas, your nephew is the one in the prophecy, we have been attacked by Marj, the Marid attempted to kill us, and even now he communes with the Haoma Tree to determine the locations of the book and the ring.”
Silas stood up and looked at both Yoshi an
d Wally, “I know where the ring is.”
“Where?”
“Mount Ararat—the mountain of pain.”
“How do you know this?
“That’s what the Ifrit were boasting about while I was chained up.”
“You’re telling me that’s the home of the Ifrit?”
“Yes.”
Chapter Sixteen: Angel’s fall
Sarah had held the hand of the little girl, who looked familiar yet unfamiliar when they had walked into the tree. She knew it was a projection of the tree, but she had not felt frightened, until now. The little girl was gone and she was left in the darkness. She could hear rustling and slithering in the dark but, no matter how hard she tried, her glow could not penetrate the darkness.
“Is it done, daughter, do you have the book?”
“No, not yet, Father.”
The slithering got closer.
“You have failed me; you have doomed us, doomed us all.”
The slithering got closer.
“You are worthless, you are not my daughter. My daughter would help me!!!”
The slithering, scuffling had seemed to have stopped but the breathing was inches away from her face.
“Now you must die!!!”
She felt a rush of air being shoved into her face and she squinted her eyes shut. Then nothing. Silence. She opened her eyes and it was bright and sunny. There sat the little girl, staring at her with a flat effect. Sarah walked over to her, not knowing what to expect, but realizing that she had to face herself at some point. Sarah sat down next to the girl, staring at the horizon with her. They sat there silent for quite some time. Sarah wasn’t sure what she should do next. She slowly and softly began to cough. It then got stronger, becoming an uncontrollable cough. Sarah spit up what appeared to be black blood. She then noticed her tongue was forked. It was a none-too-subtle change, but it enhanced her sense of smell.
Ring of Aandaleeb: The Hidden Ones (The Djinn Chronicles Book 1) Page 6