From the menagerie of creatures, five monsters climbed, slithered and crawled over to Samyaza. Big, medium, little, they all were foul and disgustingly smelly. Sarah tried to hold her breath from the stench. The smell of rotted flesh, decay and stagnant water wafted from the group.
“Sarah, these are my best generals, they have served me well. While you can get here instantly during our dream meetings, we are far from you right now. I will send these five to help you obtain the book. You will not recognize them, but you will know who they are when you see them.”
Sarah knew that there was no way to get away from these handlers. Samyaza had never done this before and she knew that this meant, regardless of anything she had said today, he didn’t believe her, he had decided to keep an eye on her nonetheless.
“Father…” Sarah stumbled on the word, “I can do this, I can retrieve the book and we can destroy all of the djinn and restore you to glory.”
Samyaza hesitated; Sarah could tell he wanted to honor her request.
“Okay daughter, one more chance before I send them to you. But the equinox is fast approaching; this is our time to bring an end to them and to our exile. Go now, waste no more time.”
Sarah woke; for a moment she was disoriented. The bed, the dresser, the fixtures—she was in Wally’s apartment. She had stalled Samyaza for a little while, but she realized keeping this secret wasn’t working. She needed to speak to Henry as quickly as possible. Sarah hopped out of bed and ran to Henry’s room—the bed was made and not slept in. She went to the bathroom—the door was open, no Henry. She ran to the front room, as Yoshi and Silas were slowly gaining mass and form, no sign of Henry in the front room. She went to the balcony and looked up; Wally was transformed from a stone eagle into himself. Still no sign of Henry…
Trying to hold back the panic in her voice, Sarah said it as calmly as she could, “Everyone, Henry is missing.”
Chapter Twenty-Two: Book return
Sarah’s dream form had faded from the cave and left Samyaza and his five generals standing there.
“And, to Gabriel, said the Lord: ‘Proceed against the bastards and the reprobates and against the children of fornication; and destroy the children of the Watchers from amongst men…”
What passed as voices became a cacophony of sound.
“We will be redeemed, my brothers. We may have fallen, but we have never turned our backs on the Lord. The destruction of the djinn will be our salvation. Sifra di-Shelomoh Malka, The book of Solomon, will give us the names of every djinn, the ring of Aandaleeb will let us bind them to the book, and Sarah’s sword will be plunged into the book right at dusk, killing all djinn everywhere at the border of dusk and day. We will be redeemed!!!”
The voices rose up as one; the generals beat their chests, and in unison they said, “Send us,” and again, “Send us,” and again, “Send us.” Then the crowd picked up on their voices and began to chant, “Send them. Send them. Send them.”
Samyaza looked at them, “You know you cannot leave here one by one. As a legion, you may have enough strength to carve your way out. “
Samyaza touched each one of the generals on the shoulder, arm, claw, imbuing them with more power. Then they each began to shape shift and merge, making an amalgamated creature, loosely resembling a man, with a claw here, a tail there and spikes. Most importantly, they began to glow, a glow similar to Sarah’s but much more powerful. Samyaza handed them a ceremonial knife.
“I am Legion,” the creature said.
It swiftly traced into the air the symbol for ‘free’ in Angelic. At first nothing, then the rock opened onto a desert scene.
The crowd roared.
“I am Legion and we will not fail,” the eerie sound of five voices speaking at once silenced the crowd and they stepped into the desert.
Chapter Twenty-Three: North Star meeting
Henry had mumbled the song to himself as he opened the portal for Asmodeus, “Follow the drinking gourd, follow the drinking gourd.” He had understood the wording because Aunt Sadie had explained to him what it meant, that the big dipper had two stars that pointed in the direction of Polaris, the North Star. He had hoped to be drawn to it, the place of power, whatever. Nothing happened; he had ended up putting himself and Asmodeus in the desert.
Asmodeus did not look surprised. In fact, he looked up at the stars and he could tell where they were. Asmodeus decided to set up camp for himself and Henry.
“Henry, I am not a bad guy,” Asmodeus said.
Henry thought to himself otherwise.
“This is the beginning of a plan thousands of years in the making. I am now finally seeing it fulfilled in the most elegant of ways.”
Henry was at a loss for words, he wanted to simply get away from Asmodeus, but he couldn’t quite figure out how to do it.
“I know you are trying to figure out how to get away from me, nephew, but I believe it is best if you listen to me and gain an understanding of why I am doing what I am doing.”
“Why do you keep calling me your nephew?”
Asmodeus smiled. “That is a simple story. You are a descendant of the last Suleyman, who was my half-brother. Thus that makes you my great, great, great, etc. nephew, so I figure nephew, without the greats, is a lot easier.”
Henry swallowed hard; he knew that this was odd yet all familiar at the same time.
“You are a djann, like me then?” Henry piped up.
“The last Suleyman was a djann, that’s why you are so important. He booby trapped both his hiding place, the book and the ring. Only a djann can access any one of these items, but not just a djann, a “Ghilan” a djann sorcerer . That means you.”
Henry had hoped there was more to this. But he realized he was a pawn like any other pawn and he needed to gain the upper hand.
“So is the book entitled the Book of Solomon or the Book of Asmodeus?”
Asmodeus looked at Henry, indignantly. He was obviously accustomed to dominating conversations when he held court.
“This was a gift of mine to my brother. At the time, we both had lots of hope and promise. We had planned to change the world. As a djinn sorcerer, a Ghilan, I had a particular set of skills that he needed.”
Asmodeus began to pace the camp. It was obvious that Henry had hit a nerve.
“In the beginning we would talk of a better, more just world, one where humans, djinn, the children of the Nephilim, would work and live together. However, as they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Solomon used what I told him to bind me, captured both good and bad djinn and forced us to essentially do his bidding.”
“Like you’re doing to me now.” Henry spat the words with venom.
Asmodeus laughed.
“Come now, little nephew, you don’t have to obey my will, but some part of you wants to. You wish to be led down a path even your conscious mind cannot comprehend.”
Henry did not know how to process this, but he knew he did not want to be here.
“So what is your goal with these items? Won’t this absolute power corrupt you absolutely as well?”
Asmodeus stopped pacing.
“My goal is simple. Look at the environment—the pain, the strife, the hate, the evil in the world wrought by humans. It leaves little room for love or compassion. They don’t deserve to continue to be favored when they have squandered it. I simply want them to be held responsible for their actions.”
“So why not let it happen in due time? Why are you forcing Armageddon?” Henry had become frustrated by his uncle.
Asmodeus turned towards Henry and, uncontrollably, showed his true form—huge, horned and winged. He immediately calmed down, transforming into a pleasant human form; but it was too late, Henry had already seen his true form.
“We waited for millennia to inherit the earth, our original birthright, before the humans came along. In my possession, the book and the ring will help me rise up the djinn in solidarity and shake this planet down to ashes.”
Henry coul
d feel the heat emanating from Asmodeus as he spoke, he could feel the conviction.
“Once and for all, the book and ring will solidify my place as the “Suleyman” and all djinn will unite under me. No matter their tribe, they will rise up and follow me. Then this farce that has been perpetrated on you and everyone else will be called into question.”
Henry had been searching around with his Sihr looking for a weakness in the binding that Asmodeus put on him. He found it and tugged at it with his mind, like a thread pulled on a worn t-shirt. The spell was unwinding itself. Henry needed to stall.
“So where do I fit into this grand plan?
Asmodeus looked at Henry and smiled. Henry could swear he could see three rows of teeth in his mouth, like a shark.
“You and me Henry, we will get it right where the last Suleyman failed. We will bring in the golden age that was missed, oh so long ago, and we will gain favor in the face of the heavens.”
Henry could feel the spell getting weaker, he just needed more time.
“So if I am supposed to be so important, why hasn’t anyone taught me how to use these powers and abilities?” Henry said with some frustration.
“For someone like you the book reveals all. When I compiled the book and created it, it took on a life of its own. Neither I nor the Suleyman could fully comprehend what had happened. The same thing happened with the ring as well. I don’t know if it’s this way because of the huge concentration of magical names, the combination of spells and incantation put into the book. Whatever it is, the book exists on its own and functions on its own. That’s why I need you; together we can tame it and accomplish all that needs to be done to save the world.”
Henry felt the spell unravel and he shot up in the air like a spout. He landed about 10 feet away and began to spin the desert sand around him.
“Whatever this madness is I will not turn over the book, nor let you bring about Armageddon.”
Henry reached out with his senses and rode the desert sand, following North, as his Aunt Sadie had told him. He could sense the pyramids, the labyrinth—he was in Egypt, and he was off.
Asmodeus watched the boy take off and he shook his head. He had calculated the boy should have released himself about a minute earlier, but he was impressed at the crude use of Sihr. He may make a good Suleyman yet.
Asmodeus waved his hand and the camp disappeared. He began to whistle and walked off into the desert. He giggled a little to himself; the boy had no idea what he was up against in the labyrinth. He stepped onto the sands, walked forward about 11 steps and faded away.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Djoser
Wally, Yoshi, and Sarah watched as Silas began to chant. Silas had said that all Sihr left behind some resonant vibrations; particularly, when mandalas are opened and closed they leave behind a haze. Silas waved his hand and they could see Egypt, the Saqqara landscape.
Silas whispered to himself, “Oh, no.”
“What’s wrong?” Wally picked up on Silas’s extremely worried face.
“Two things… Henry seems to have been forced to leave, but I cannot tell by whom. Second, he’s headed to the pyramid of Djoser. The book must have been hidden there.”
“I have vaguely heard of it,” Yoshi said, “Something went wrong there?”
“More than went wrong, it was horrific. It was one of the early grand djinn experiments. The djinn made a true effort to live amongst the humans, we called their tribe “the aamaar”. There are some around now, they do not intermarry and produce djann,” Silas looked around the room to make sure none were here in the room with them now.
“But they live amongst the humans and prefer not to dwell in the long lost cities on the borders between Qaf and Earth. You have seen some of them, a few are Romanii or gypsy tribes. Some are old blue blood families that founded various places, such as America or revolutions in France, or have had to flee revolutions because of their unwanted influences, China, Russia, etc.”
Wally and Sarah looked at Yoshi for confirmation. “This is true, but what does any of this have to do with the pyramid of Djoser?”
“Yoshi and I know him as Imuthes.” Silas locked eyes with Yoshi and Silas saw the recognition on his face.
“This cannot be the place!” Yoshi sat his massive frame down. “We are doomed.”
Wally and Sarah looked at each other, beginning to feel real dread in their souls.
“You may have known him as Imhotep, famous Egyptian mathematician, engineer and architect. He rose from the ranks of the peasantry to be labeled a god. He was a djinn, a member of the aamaar tribe. He introduced King Djoser to one of the secrets of the djinn.” Silas looked at Yoshi, “We know him as Netjerykhet…”
Yoshi finished the sentence, “Netjerykhet, the djinn killer.”
“The djinn killer?” Sarah mouthed the words to Wally.
“The ifrit, the al-ghuls, the Marid, the rogue djinn all steer clear of Netjerykhet… He is the nightmare that nightmares have.”
“Henry is headed into this?”
“Yes.” Silas let the image of the pyramid dissipate.
“Why does he hate the djinn so much, what was the secret that he was introduced to?” Wally’s curiosity got the best of him.
“Barzakh. But this was Imhotep's first attempt at it. King Djoser wanted to be ever surviving like the “North Star”. Imhotep started the ritual to turn him and his people into djinn, but it went horribly wrong, and King Djoser, his court, his harem were turned into something, not human, not djinn, just nightmares. Except for the handful who escaped, the entire djinn population, along with the humans, disappeared. Those who escaped refused to speak of it or went mad themselves.
“I am not surprised the Book of Asmodeus would be there,” Yoshi spoke up. He stood and brushed his pants off. “The djinn have caused so much pain, well intentioned or not. I have often believed the Marid had it right, stay away. The matriarch of my family was one of the aamaar who fled that city. I had heard bits and pieces of the story about Imuthes and I was warned about Netjerykhet getting me in the night, just like human children are scared into doing well because of the bogeyman.”
Sarah was beginning to feel the same about her alleged father and the Nephilim. They had come to help watch and shepherd mankind and then they had married human women and created their own abominations. There was a plan, yet time and time and time again, people had steered it off course.
“Henry’s going to die.” Sarah said it with the kind of certainty which can only be conveyed if there is nothing but a pure resoluteness of defeat.
“Not on my watch.” Wally walked over to Silas and placed his hand on Silas’s shoulder.
“Henry has been dead to me once before. Not again. Sarah, you and I are both children of the Nephilim, whatever they—Netjerykhet, King Djoser and his abominations—did to the djinn, we may be able to overcome it.”
Sarah began to think of the tree and how confident she felt afterward, how she shrunk the fear and faced Samyaza down. Then and there she made a decision; she would not bring him the book. Henry was risking his life to save the world and to reclaim a birthright he didn’t want. Sarah did not need to succumb to her birthright she could defy it. She could find her own way. She looked at Wally and realized it was time for her to be stronger than she had ever been before.
“Let’s go, Wally. It is time for us to accomplish what we set out to do. Save the world.”
“I’m going too.” Yoshi stood up, his butcher knife in hand.
“I need you at Mount Ararat with me,” Silas was emphatic. “I can find the ring, but I cannot break in and break out by myself. I need your help, old friend. We can face the bogeyman another day, if there is anything left.” Silas gave a wry smile to Wally and Sarah and they returned it, none of them knowing if they would be seeing each other again.
“If we succeed, we will meet in the djinn city of Petra. It borders Long Beach on Mount Qaf. This is the city where the djinn will amass for their offense against the humans to st
art Armageddon. We must meet there on the day of the equinox.” Silas opened two mandalas in the air. Wally and Sarah stepped through one, headed to the desert to help Henry. Silas and Yoshi stepped through the other, headed to Mount Ararat.
The mandala folded into itself and disappeared.
Embers slowly began to erupt from the bottom upwards until a complete form could be seen. It was Amirah. She waved her hand across the room and found three portals, two leading to the same location, Egypt, and one to Mount Ararat. She could sense the faint glow of Sarah heading to Egypt. “Sarah,” she whispered to herself. She opened the portal to Egypt and tossed an obsidian rock into the portal and watched as the portal closed in on itself.
She opened a second portal and saw Mount Ararat, then stepped through.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Agendas
Samyaza knew something was wrong. He hadn’t lived so long without having a ninth sense about these things. He kept reflecting back on his last meeting with Sarah and while they had all awoken out of hibernation 10 years ago, she had stayed in slumber. Her confusion upon waking up this time had convinced Samyaza to fool her into doing his bidding as his daughter. In the past, when humanity had hit pivot points in history, she had been long gone when he and the other Grigori had been awakened.
Whatever plans that had been working in the past had decidedly changed this time. Nevertheless, he could sense that things had been planned out differently this time. The White Haoma Tree had not been a player before at all. This time it was an active participant, in much the same way it was in the Garden of Eden when it was known by its original name, the Tree of Knowledge. This was disconcerting to Samyaza. The tree could have given the knowledge fully to Sarah and she could have done what she had done before, chastise and rebound the Nephilim.
This time, each one of the Nephilim had been allowed to evolve into their full power. Many of them reflected the pain of the loss of their children or became the same deformities themselves that their Nephilim children had. Even after Sarah had visited the tree, there was no wrath and beyond some renewed confidence and the sword, she still did not know who or what she really was. This was disturbing. Couple that with the fact that Legion had been able to leave under his own power. He could sense the time was coming.
Ring of Aandaleeb: The Hidden Ones (The Djinn Chronicles Book 1) Page 9