Ring of Aandaleeb: The Hidden Ones (The Djinn Chronicles Book 1)

by Hutchins, S. S.

  Then she couldn’t feel her arms or legs. She looked down at her body. It was gone, replaced with a multicolored, scaled, snake-like body. Sarah panicked and startled herself into waking up. She opened her eyes and she was still sitting with the little girl.

  “That does not have to be your destiny.” The little girl looked over at Sarah, smiling.

  “There are reasons why the Nephilim look like that and worse, primarily because of betrayal.”

  A huge lump formed in Sarah’s throat. While she thought Henry was cute, she had ignored it because of her mission and her focus on saving her father and his brothers.

  “It’s so different in the real world, so much more complicated,” she said, more to herself, than to her companion.

  “You are not a slave to your circumstances. Come walk with me.”

  The little girl stood up, brushed the front of her dress off and reached out for Sarah’s hand.

  “Where are you taking me?” Sarah looked concerned.

  “To let you see more of the truth. To help you gain peace of mind.” The little girl held Sarah’s hand firmly.

  Sarah found herself in the vastness of outer space, then a rush of light followed by sound washed over her. This was the beginning of the universe as we know it. This was truly when things were young, totally new and completely fresh. Then she saw planets and moons form, as well as entire galaxies.

  “They say that all carbon based life has the same chemical makeup as the stars in the sky. In fact, they and the stars are brothers in no uncertain terms. This is why men gaze up at the stars; they feel the kinship, the connection between themselves and the stars.”

  Sarah reached out her hand and a meteor just glided through it. She looked at the stars and thought they were beautiful. But she felt no tug in her chest, no sense of connection and belonging.

  “Even the djinn feel a connection with the stars; they are made from the heart of the flame of a smokeless fire. The stars are nothing but smokeless fire.”

  Little Sarah took Sarah by the hand and pulled her through the stars, landing her in the past. People wore sandals and the homes were little more than fancy mud huts. Sarah then looked to the sky. Huge meteors were coming to destroy this village. Man after man came out of the huts and looked to the sky. The leader raised his hands and energy poured from them to destroy the meteor. It failed. The meteor still came down.

  One of the men looked at the other, “Samyaza, stop! All we can do is protect the children.” Samyaza looked over his shoulder, “Why us, why now? We just wish to be left alone.”

  Then an image appeared before the crowd and Sarah saw herself, taller more beautiful. “Samyaza, you deceive yourself. You broke the oath, you must bear the punishment and the sins of the father are visited upon the son.”

  Out from behind Samyaza’s legs stepped a small boy, no older than five. He saw Sarah and pointed. “An angel.”

  “Yes son, an angel of justice, not of mercy. Close your eyes; I cannot bear for you to watch this.”

  In that moment, something in Sarah broke. She had always obeyed the creator without failure, but in the eyes of the child she saw innocence, not an abomination. She saw what she had been trained to see and there was no justice for these children, they had not been asked to be born, and there was no justice in killing them, regardless of the creator’s plans. That day it went from 200 Nephilim to 201 Nephilim that defied the creator.

  “Go!” yelled Sarah, “I will stop these meteors or at the very least slow them down. “ Her aura flared and she pulled out her sword, she reached out with her sense and felt the weak spots in the meteor. Her glowing wings expanded almost to the same width as the meteor and she flew towards it. In a matter of moments, she expanded her sword and sliced into the meteor. A blinding flash of light engulfed Sarah she was gone, along with the meteor.

  Little Sarah looked at Sarah as she watched the scene. She could see there was recognition and, slowly, the scene faded to the same area they were sitting in before.

  “I cannot leave you with the full knowledge of this, it isn’t time.” Little Sarah looked at Sarah. “This you need to discover on your own, but realize in your heart, you are not one to betray anyone. You are an angel of justice. You know what is right.”

  “Why can’t I know this now?” Sarah said, almost pleadingly.

  “There are divine plans afoot that even I cannot interfere with. When the time is right, all will be revealed, I promise.” Little Sarah looked away sadly.

  Sarah was quiet. She had not expected this, yet she knew. She knew she had been uneasy with her talents and with who she was being forced to be. She also felt strength.

  “I am ready to be a part of the plan. I have been a dreamer, now I have been awakened, so I can now dream again.”

  “Good… Because someone is trying to kill me.”

  With that, Sarah stepped out of the tree, just as a giant phoenix spit fire at it.

  Chapter Seventeen: Rings and books

  Wally knew this was bad. Mount Ararat, the mountain of pain. It was in Turkey, a beautiful country, but few knew the level of djinn presence there. More importantly, few knew the number of gargoyles that roamed that land. The war had been a large toll on the grotesque and gargoyle communities. They had scattered to places where they felt safe—central America, Egypt, India, and Malaysia primarily—but a strong concentration of gargoyles had set up a stronghold in Turkey. Wally also knew that Qaf overlapped Turkey and, by extension, the Marid awaited them. Wally began to realize that he and his group may try to avoid a fate in such a way that whatever they had intended to prevent, Armageddon, may actually come to fruition.

  Wally had known it would be a bad idea to find Silas, but he also knew that he could not do it alone. This was going to be one of the most difficult tasks, getting the book, if it was even there. Wally looked up and saw Silas staring at him with those green piercing eyes. The green eyes, the mahogany skin, the semi-faded, healed scars and the tattoos, they were all haunting. Wally could tell Silas had been through a lot, he could also tell he was not ready to go back.

  “Silas, are you ok?”

  “No I am definitely not ok. What you and Yoshi are telling me is that the greatest book of our lifetimes, the book of Asmodeus—”

  Yoshi chimed in, “—Suleyman.”

  Silas looked at Yoshi with venom in his eyes “…Asmodeus, the traitor and his half-brother, Solomon, collaborated on a book that could enslave all the djinn. This same book sits amongst our most feared enemies, the Ifrits and the Ghouls, in a place that sits on the veil of the Marid empire, who have no love lost for the grotesque or gargoyles or fugitive djinn. Of course everything is fine.” Silas turned his face away in disgust.

  Wally knew that his race had been vilified by many of the djinn. The djinn had made it an actual point in some cases to hunt down some of the seemingly most dangerous Grigori. If they could, they would extinguish the life of every Grigori descendant. When the grotesque worked together in numbers, it was difficult for djinn to accomplish the killing of his brethren. Scattered like this you had to rely on the kindness of strangers or, in his case, former friends who could keep him safe. Even in Ubar Wally was sure that there were assassins, but he had to ignore it if he hoped to help Henry.

  “What’s so important about this book?” Wally chimed in.

  Yoshi spoke up, “The book of Solomon…”

  Silas quickly piped in, “Asmodeus, or the book of Asmodeus, is the only book that has the true names of all djinn. You open it and the djinn’s true name will appear. He who controls the book is master of the djinn. “

  “Who is Asmodeus?”

  “He is a traitor! “ Silas shouted, “The worst kind. He actually believed that he was doing something right by sharing this book with his human half-brother, the last Suleyman. Of course, those who have good intentions are often returned the favor in kind. Suleyman used the book on Asmodeus and enslaved him along with rest of the djinn.”

  “But o
f course the book is nothing without the ring.”

  “What does the ring have to do with this?”

  “The ring is the key. The ring of Aandaleeb. This ring is a seal made of metals that are harmful to djinn and a seal symbol designed to keep us enslaved.” Yoshi, for all his girth, looked frightened.

  “No one wants to be enslaved, Wally,” Silas chimed in. “If my nephew is the key to ending this madness and getting rid of or destroying these artifacts then we must get them.”

  “Suleyman blood runs in his veins, Silas, he can just as easily become the worst one yet. The last Suleyman and the last King of the Djinn.” Yoshi spit on the ground, obviously angry at the prospect of there being another one.

  Silas stood up, “All of this is moot if we cannot enter Mount Ararat. Our task is to go to Mount Ararat, but I used my strongest Sihr to get out of that place. They will recognize my teleportation work, it got me out, but it won’t get me in.

  Wally knew well enough that if this plan had any chance of success they would have to be unconventional in their approach, they would have to come in such a way as to be undetectable.

  Yoshi cleared his throat. “Mount Ararat borders Qaf. The only way we can really go is through Qaf, past the sleepers, out onto the other side to get the book. But it will not be easy.”

  “The kids are there, Henry and Sarah, they have been searching for answers, but I don’t know if they have made any more progress than we have.”

  Silas stood up, pacing back and forth. He knew he had no choice, but the torture had taken a toll on him.

  “I’m not ready for this, this is too much. This is so much bigger than any of us.”

  Wally placed his hand on Silas’s shoulder, “Calm down, my friend, we are going to get through this, don’t you worry.”

  Silas shrugged Wally’s hand from his shoulder.

  “You are not my friend. I will tell you this, though, Henry is my nephew. While I cannot say I am excited about the prospect of facing the mouth of the dragon again, I will go for him. More importantly, I have to let him know something important.” Silas looked at Yoshi, both with a knowing stare.

  “What is it?” Wally leaned in.

  “I believe we can bring Henry’s family back from the dead.”

  Chapter Eighteen: Standing up to bullies

  Henry was glad to see Sarah out of the tree. While Anka had been fending off several of the phoenixes Henry was well aware that his companion could not last much longer. Henry had been able to either deflect or absorb the fireballs that were raining down on the tree, but he knew that the phoenix bearing down on him and Sarah was not going to let up.

  The phoenix circled around them and shot at fireball at Sarah, which he deflected, then took off straight up into the air.

  “Sarah are you okay? You took a long time to get out of the tree.” Henry looked at Sarah, concerned.

  Sarah had known something important had happened, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. But at the same time she felt more confident and, in that confidence, she extended her senses out and she knew what—and more importantly who—the phoenix that had just attacked them was.

  “Henry, I’ll be back, protect the tree, I’m going to end this.” Sarah lit up and her ethereal wings spread behind her as she shot into the air. The wind melted around her and her body just sliced through the air. Sarah had not been so exhilarated and liberated in a long time. She raced into the air and called forth her sword. The phoenix glanced behind itself, shooting a fireball over its shoulder, towards Sarah. Sarah dodged it, dropping several feet in the air, while the fireball passed right over her.

  Then the phoenix went into a barrel roll and began to spin faster and faster. A wind began to pick up and smelled of the desert. The phoenix abruptly stopped midflight, opened its wings while facing Sarah and flapped its wings down towards her blasting hot desert air and sand straight at her.

  Sarah shielded her eyes as the sand and desert air burned past her trying to sear off her flesh. Without warning, the phoenix was on her, claws, beak and wings. It was a ferocious attack that sent both of them tumbling down towards the small island and tree. Sarah felt a gash cut across her forehead and arm. She kept blocking the attacks and then she bear hugged the phoenix as she plummeted to the ground. The phoenix began to immolate, starting at the tail and Sarah pushed her golden aura out around the phoenix, stopping it, and then they both hit the sand hard.

  Sarah twisted to land on the phoenix and she succeeded in not only landing on her, but knocking her out completely.

  Henry rushed over to help.

  “Wow that was crazy!” He extended his hand and helped Sarah up. Henry was beginning to admire not only Sarah’s beauty but her intelligence. He helped her up and Sarah grabbed the phoenix by the neck like a wrung chicken.

  “Stop!” Sarah’s voice boomed across the water.

  Anka and all of the phoenixes halted.

  “I have your leader here, Amirah. If you value her life you will return to where you came from.” The phoenixes hesitated. Sarah shook the phoenix/Amirah by the neck once again. The other phoenixes backed off and flew outside the sacred area, transformed into djinn and watched and waited.

  Anka flew back to the tree to assist Henry and Sarah. His flight was unstable and erratic and he finally crash landed on the sand. Even from afar, they could tell he had badly singed in his wings, his left foot was completely torn off and matted blood forced his right eye shut. He lay on the sand, battered and bruised, leaking blood like a beat up pickup truck.

  Henry and Sarah ran over to him. They both knew that he would not last long.

  “I am sorry to have dragged you into this,” Henry cried as he frantically tried to wipe blood from his face. If birds could smile, Anka came as close as one could.

  “Henry there is no need to weep. No matter what they say you are the Suleyman, the King of the djinn to me. I would gladly give my life again to protect and aid you. We cannot allow the evil of the world to win. Remember, not all of the Suleymans were hard on the djinn and there are two sides to every story.”

  Anka coughed and shook violently, more blood poured from his side.

  “Take three of my feathers. Think about where you wish to be and they will take you there. On sacred ground, many of your djinn tricks will not work; only Sihr, the magic that connects us all will be of any use.”

  Anka coughed and shook violently once more. His un-matted eye closed, he breathed in deeply and breathed out for the last time. A crackling noise, like rustling leaves, could be heard from his body. Sarah and Henry jumped back. Embers began to erupt all around the edges of his body and then flames began to dance from the embers, rushing towards the center of Anka’s body from all directions until he was entirely consumed, and then he was gone—leaving three solitary feathers in his place.

  Sarah dropped phoenix/Amirah in the sand and rushed over to grab the feathers. Henry could not move. He felt as though all his life was death and pain. His one connection to a past that he didn’t understand was gone. It was as if he were bad luck. All the people on the bus who may have been maimed or dead; his family; Anka… Who next? Sarah, Wally, only God knows who else. How could he even push on in the face of such blatant destruction and he only had two more days until the world would be brought into Armageddon.

  Sarah went over to the Phoenix and drew a star and a triangle then drew a circle around her. She then had Henry stand next to her and she drew a smaller triangle for them to stand in.

  “What are you doing?” Henry asked Sarah; she looked at Henry and shrugged her shoulders.

  “I am not sure exactly, it’s like after I came from the tree I have access to a vast library of knowledge. I can’t necessarily access it voluntarily, but I know what to do. Like when Anka went up in flames, I knew the feathers would be there.”

  The Amirah/Phoenix woke up in the circle and triangle, confused. She then transformed into her djinn form. “I am going to kill you, little girl.” She attempte
d to send a fireball and it hit a force field and dissipated. “I see the little Grigori knows some of the ancient Sihr used by your predecessors, the Nephilim. This won’t keep me long.” She looked over at her djinn companions on the shore. “They will figure out a way to rescue me.”

  “I know you are telling the truth, because you cannot lie within this symbol.” Sarah said with intensity. “So I have three questions for you, where is the Book of King Solomon?”

  “I do not know.”

  Henry said, “Sarah, you wasted a question. I have an idea of where it is already.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?” Sarah asked, frustrated. The lines of the star symbol faded away.

  Amirah smiled. “This is truly an ancient spell, truth at the risk of life. Go ahead little one, ask me another question.”

  “What is she talking about?”

  Sarah was concentrating, but explained as best she could, “Since I don’t know Amirah’s true name, I can only bind her for a limited time. Each binding symbol disappears when each question is answered truthfully.”

  “Let me ask the next question then… Do you know where the ring of Solomon is?”

  “Yes.”

  “Aargh! You shouldn’t ask a yes or no question!” Sarah was so angry at Henry for wasting his question too. The triangle dissolved. Amirah turned into a giant black panther.

  “Go ahead, sweeties,” she said with a toothsome smile.

  Sarah handed one of Anka’s feathers to Henry, “Get ready and start thinking about where you want us to be.”

  “Where is the ring of Solomon?”

  “In the last place you would expect to look.”

  As the circle began to dissolve, Henry thought of Wally’s place in Long Beach. Embers spread up from the bottom of the feather and did the same on Wally and Sarah’s bodies, spreading from the feet up.

  The circle dissolved and Amirah leapt at them, but it was too late, they were gone. While in midair, vines shot out of the tree and snatched Amirah into the tree.