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

by Hutchins, S. S.

  He needed to convey this to his fallen brothers and prepare them for a war that they had never seen before.

  Samyaza slithered to the center of the room. “Brothers, the time has come for us and our children to redeem themselves.”

  The crowd roared and hollered.

  “Our plans in the past have been to no avail, starting wars, ending wars, good deeds, bad deeds, indifference. They have all backfired and we have never gained traction in any way. This has been one of the few times that we have taken control of the situation and have brought the fight to those who have disobeyed far worse than we.”

  A creature pulled up out of the crowd and walked over towards where Samyaza stood. He had the torso of a man, but the rest of his body was that of a giant spider.

  “Ah Penemue, come brother and speak.”

  A roar from the crowd overtook the cave.

  Penemue raised his hand, “You all know me as my creation name, but I prefer Anansi!”

  The crowd broke out in cheers, Anansi, Anansi, Anansi!

  Anansi raised his hand again, “Our crime has been love for humanity, and our sentence has not fit the crime!”

  The crowd roared again.

  “Please let me finish. While humanity and the djinn have walked the earth freely, our children have been hunted and murdered into extinction. “

  Silence fell across the room.

  “Every race knows our contributions, the cycles of the moon, the incantations and the ability to speak and write, and so on. We gave these gifts asking little in return except for acknowledgement. They called us gods; we did not name ourselves this.”

  Acknowledgement from the crowd erupted.

  “But now we have purpose once again, we feel strong and powerful. It is time for you to reach out to your children and send them the message that we are going to destroy the djinn once and for all. On the equinox in the djinn city of Petra, we will lay siege. We will regain favor at all cost, because the prophecy has come to fruition. The Book and The Ring will be reunited once again!!!”

  A roar went up amongst the crowd.

  A nest of winged serpents appeared to receive a message and, if winged serpents could feel jubilee, these did.

  Stone statues throughout Europe began to smile. Howling could be heard in the Carpathian mountains. On the plains in Kenya giant men began to walk. In padded rooms across insane asylums around the world men and women began to claw and scratch at the walls, then they would vanish.

  The equinox was fast approaching and the Nephilim and the descendants of the Nephilim and their descendants, those who were still connected felt pure joy and began to crawl, slither, fly, float and possess their way to Armageddon.

  Chapter Twenty-Six: More agendas

  “Why do you do this to yourself, Asmodeus?” Lilith ate a grape from a platter as a servant floated by.

  Asmodeus looked at her. On so many levels he understood why Adam had rejected her in the end. It wasn’t her strength that he feared, but her inability to play as a team. Asmodeus knew she had her own agenda, he had seen it in her so-called children, the mischief they made on man and the sheer malevolence of most. If not for the special wards that protected male children, she would have murdered them all.

  Yet, at the same time, he understood her in a way that none could. To be rejected for your blind faith and obedience was not good either. As an apostle of the Shaytan, Asmodeus was there when the djinn refused to bow down to man. Made from the heart of the smokeless fire, made shortly after the Watchers had been commanded to worship no others, to only be told otherwise when the mud men showed up. That was where the fraction began and has continued ever since.

  “What do you mean, Lilith? I am not tortured.” Asmodeus enjoyed his throne room at the Alhambra, open with strong architecture. He was forever impressed.

  “You are too much like that djann Ibn-Al-Tariq. He burned the boats leading back to Africa, so his men could not retreat and they would be forced to takeover Spain. You have hung your hopes on a boy to retrieve and correct your mistakes. You have burned your ties with many djinn tribes allowing him to kill and fight his way through them. You are their king.” Lilith lay back on the chaise longue chair.

  “I know I am their king, this needs no reminding.” Asmodeus stood up.

  “Send word to the Ifrit, the al Ghul, our loyalists among the Marid and the desert tribes that have forgotten. I will be in possession of the book and the ring shortly. They can come to the Alhambra here in Grenada within the next day to pledge their allegiance, or they will be bound by the book.”

  Lilith could sense the fire in Asmodeus. She called the servant over and made arrangements to invite the chiefs of the tribes immediately.

  “It is done.” Lilith still stood, but a smile spread across her face. She knew that this was the end for humanity.

  “Now we must prepare to head to Petra to awaken the four horsemen. They will be elated that the time has come for them to be free. Prepare my steed.”

  “What if the boy does not make it out of the labyrinth?” Lilith said, uncomfortably.

  “His success is unimportant; we just need him to soften up King Djoser. Once that is accomplished I can walk right in and take the book. We let him do the heavy lifting and we begin the war. Humanity has no idea what’s in store for them, but I am ready to be counted. And when all is said and done, once and for all we will inherit the earth.”

  Lilith clapped her hands excitedly; the thing she had been waiting for her entire life was going to finally come to pass. She felt such joy that the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve were finally coming to an end.

  Asmodeus walked over to Lilith and lightly kissed her lips, “Wear your best, the end of the world is almost at hand.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Not quite yourself

  “Agri Dagh, The Mountain of Pain,” Silas stepped out into the base of the mountains, “That is lesser Arart, one of two that exist on the border between Turkey, Armenia and Russia.”

  “This is known as the birthplace of the djinn.”

  “Noah’s ark is said to be found on the mountain peak. We djinn travel there from time to time to amuse ourselves.”

  Yoshi looked at the massive mountains and could see why they were called the mountain of pain. He could hear and see lightning strikes at the top of the mountain and when he smelled the air, a funny odor permeated it. He realized that it was carbon dioxide. The volcano underneath was beginning to act up. Too many outside djinn were encroaching on the territory. This was a big event.

  “It would appear that our own arrival has produced an adverse reaction, we have triggered the lightning and the volcano is belching and we have yet to even meet the volcano on the border with Qaf.” Yoshi let out a long whistle. He knew it would be difficult to enter these mountains; he could see why Silas had ridden the lightning to escape.

  Djinn bandits most likely roamed the hillside and looked for trouble. This was a vibrant city, by the amount of energy producing haze around the mountains, but the reality was that most likely they would be killed before they ever reached the entrance.

  “So how do you plan that we take the mountain?” Yoshi asked, more accusatory than inquisitive.

  Silas looked at Yoshi, incredulous that he would ask. As a Ghilan he had a few tricks up his sleeves that would be to his benefit. The last time he was here he had used the clouds to bring down the lighting; this time he was going to use those same clouds to pull in fog. Mount Ararat was known for fog.

  Even amongst the djinns, fog could be of benefit if you were attempting to steal your way into the city.

  The fog pulled in and drifted down the side of the mountain engulfing both Silas and Yoshi. Simply flying up was not an option. Yoshi and Silas began to trudge up the mountain. They needed to get to the midway point or an opening in the mountain to gain access to the Qaf or borderland version of the city.

  “Stop,” Silas whispered to Yoshi.

  They had reached the edge of the city. A pa
trol of animal headed ghuls were patrolling the perimeter. Silas thought he recognized the crocodile and the camel headed creature, the other two, hyenas, were not familiar to him.

  “It is ridiculous how the Ghuls use animal heads and shapes, they are still djinn.” Yoshi snickered at the thought.

  “It’s not for us,” Silas whispered.

  “What do you mean?” Yoshi looked puzzled.

  “It’s for them. When they eat human flesh, it makes them feel better; they can pretend that somehow they are not related.”

  “Madness.”

  “That’s what I have been dealing with for the past 8 years. As part of the Sila Tribe I cannot shape shift. So many of these scars were not solely from being bitten.”

  Yoshi tried to imagine the horror and thought to himself it may be time to shut down the sushi restaurant.

  The patrol passed with no problems. Silas climbed up on to the path, Yoshi followed closely. No matter his girth and size, Yoshi was always light on his feet. They both looked up the hill and the fog parted, then they saw the mirage heat haze that always surrounds djinn cities and the Ifrit castle came into view, looking like a cross between the Taj Mahal and an eastern European medieval castle, all roughly hewn and carved from stone right into the mountain with several towers that rose into the dusky sky.

  Standing on the ramparts were a horde of ghuls intermixed with the ifrit. Where ghuls were proud to represent themselves as animals the ifrit were completely the opposite. They reveled in showing their heavenly nature. Many of them were tall and skinny with long flowing hair. They tended towards the intentionally androgynous and made sure they morphed wings of some sort. Their wings came in all styles, light and soft as doves or hard and thick like batwings. But they all maintained a burnished copper color.

  They had been mistaken as angels in the past, the error of many a nomad tribe. They had little use for humanity other than as chattel. Enslavement, food, or amusement were the norm when the Ifrit came across humans.

  Silas had understood the danger in coming back, but he also knew that he would need to be strong in these end times—even if he could not survive, he would save his sister and her family. It was the least he could do; she had taken care of him when their parents were extinguished.

  “We are going to have to do the forbidden to make it through.” Silas glanced at Yoshi and grimaced.

  “You know I hate doing that. The last time we did that we were in the war between the gargoyles and the grotesque. I almost got stuck as a stone statue. “Yoshi stomped his foot and a pebble fell off the road and fell down the hill, tinkling all the way. The noise echoed across the mountain.

  Silas and Yoshi could hear a pack of hyenas do their laugh howl and begin to tear down the upper road.

  Silas looked at Yoshi, “Now we don’t have a choice.” Silas ran forward and thought of the image for possession; he then threw a copy of the image back on the bounding Yoshi. Yoshi’s butcher knife increased in size, if that was possible, and they ran into the pack. Silas’s brass and iron sword sprung into his hand and he swiftly beheaded two of the hyenas. Four attacked Yoshi all at once, surrounding him like hyenas do in the wild. They cut at Yoshi’s form with similar swords and ripped at his flesh with their oversized hyena heads.

  “We cannot kill them!” Silas yelled at Yoshi.

  “Bastards,” Yoshi muttered under his breath.

  Yoshi bashed one with the handle of the butcher knife and smacked another with the flat of the blade, they passed out immediately.

  Silas activated the possession spell. Yoshi turned into vapor and poured into the nostrils of one of the hyenas. Silas did the same. The hyenas convulsed and fell to the ground writhing. They then stood up and grabbed the collars of the two hyenas passed out on the ground. They began to drag them up the hill.

  One of the hyena headed ghuls kicked one of the headless hyenas over the edge of road, behind the pebble.

  Silas voice came out of one the hyenas, “What did you do that for?”

  Yoshi looked back at him, “These monsters tried to eat me alive, I know these parts, and Tigons roam these mountains undisturbed. They will be our cover.”

  Yoshi kicked the second body and head over the side of the road and hoped they would be eaten before they became fully faded.

  “Halt, what are you two doing there?” A black winged ifrit stood there, rifle trained on the possessed forms of Yoshi and Silas, most likely filled with plum stones or rock salt pellets.

  Silas spoke up, “It was a Tigon, sir. It ambushed us and ate two of our own and knocked these two out.”

  The ifrit put down his rifle.

  “Damn, that makes it a total of thirteen ghuls it has eaten this week. What is wrong with you fools? Come on, you will have to recant what happen to Ornias, he will not like this.”

  The ifrit turned around and flew back towards the castle.

  The two Hyena bobble heads faces spread more into a grin, if that was possible, and began their hyena laugh howl as they walked up towards the castle, comrades in tow.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: Meeting a pharaoh

  Henry thought long and hard about meeting Asmodeus, the one who wrote the book that he was pursuing. How had Asmodeus lost so much control over his own creation? How could the book be alive? He also knew that he would eventually have to fight Asmodeus over it. Henry didn’t believe for one second that he had been able to escape. Asmodeus was one step ahead of him, Henry could feel it, but what else could he do?

  His Aunt Sadie had put him on the path to obtain the book and she would not have sent him to fail. He also enjoyed his new found strength. The desert made Henry feel more powerful, like a surge of electricity. He hadn’t known he could use the desert sands to propel himself over the landscape, it was beautiful. He could feel the warmth throughout his body and he felt as if he was in control. As he bore down on the pyramid, he could see and feel the mirage haze that surrounded djinn dwellings, but he could also sense more, something rotten.

  As he approached the entrance he could see guards posted at the front. They wore a simple tunic and carried spears. One of the spears appeared to have dried blood on the tip. For the fainthearted or sane this would have been enough to deter anyone. Neither concepts described Henry. So he bore down on the guards even harder.

  While it had been alluded to by Asmodeus that it may be difficult to liberate the book, Henry could not imagine it being so difficult as to not succeed and rejoin his companions.

  “Halt!” A guard raised his spear.

  As Henry got closer he noticed that something was not quite right with his face. Where it should be slack it was taught; where it was taught it should be slack. His body was also slightly disturbing. It was odd how he carried himself, almost all joints, no real control or desire to hide it either.

  The other guard stepped forward and crossed swords with the first one.

  “We told you whirling dervishes to stay out of our territory!”

  Henry had never heard of a whirling dervish, but he needed to get past the guards.

  “I promise I am no whirling dervish.”

  “Then what are you, boy? Riding a twister across the stand, coming from nowhere—no easy feat.”

  Henry had not thought this through, but he was here now. He had to make sure that these guards let him past.

  “As I said, I am no whirling dervish. Let me pass.”

  The guards were taken aback by the authority in Henry’s voice. They conferred with each other. Then in the blink of an eye, they had Henry hogtied within seconds.

  “Listen, boy, we cannot let you in here. Since you are not a djinn, you must move on.”

  Henry seized the opportunity and jumped up and said, as he shifted through his bonds, “I’m a djinn, I’m a djinn.”

  Each guard looked at the other and immediately scrambled to help Henry.

  “I am so sorry. Why didn’t you say something in the first place that you were a djinn?”

  “It didn’t oc
cur to me. In fact I didn’t expect you guys to be here.”

  The other guard’s face carried a distorted smile, definitely phony Henry thought to himself.

  “The architect who built this pyramid was a djinn; over the years he has gone by many names, but you may know him as Imhotep.”

  Henry thought back to his schooling and never recalled hearing of Imhotep.

  Both guards caught Henry’s blank face and took it for what it was worth.

  “We are sorry, you don’t know this name. He was famous; he built this pyramid, the first of its kind. A step pyramid, our ascension to the North Star.”

  Both guards looked up at the night sky and made out the North Star in all of its glory.

  “Then I need you to let me in the pyramid, I have to retrieve something. As a djinn I have very important business inside.”

  “We understand. Please, you may enter the pyramid. I suggest you ask for directions to the king’s Hebsed, it is a huge feast in honor of him and his reign. You will enjoy it.”

  Henry smiled, finally he was getting somewhere. The guards escorted him to the only accessible chamber door.

  Henry entered the door. The guards stood back at their places, Henry glanced over his shoulder and they then in turn waved back with their awkward faces. Henry walked on into the darkness.

  The two guards looked at one another and grimaced. Their bones and oddly angled bodies began to crack and creak until they totally lost their three dimensional shape. They completely changed shape into an amorphous two dimensional shape, crawled along the step pyramid wall, seeped into the stone blocks and disappeared.