Council of Peacocks

by M Joseph Murphy

“Why don’t you just go back to your room?” Jessica said. “For that matter, why don’t you just go back home?”

  David made a sound that was part laugh, part cry. “That’s just it. I can’t go home. Wisdom knows that. See, I’m sort of wanted on murder charges. Kind of takes away some of my options. I’ve spent that last couple of days – hell, the last couple of months – trying to convince myself that I wasn’t some sort of monster. Thing is, I really am a monster. Maybe it is because I have this demon blood inside me, or maybe it’s just because I was born wrong somehow. I’ve done bad things. Hurt people.”

  “And your answer to guilt is a death-wish?” Todd’s lips raised in a sneer. “Bathroom’s over there. Take one of the mirror shards to your wrist and get happy. Suicide is stupid. Period. Way I see it, maybe I am quote-unquote evil. Maybe I am damned to hell just because of how I was born. But I think the way you live says a lot more about you than the way you were born. So you’re wanted on murder charges and you feel guilty about it. Boo-hoo. Turn yourself in if you feel so bad about it. Do your time in jail, pay your debt to society and all that cliché crap. Killing yourself or letting someone else kill you is not going to bring anybody back to life, and it certainly won’t make you feel any less guilty. You want to be a martyr, go ahead. Be my guest. But I don’t think you can be a demon and a martyr at the same time.”

  Jessica cut in. “I think what he’s trying to say is quit your whining, you big baby, and focus on the trouble you’re in now.”

  “Actually,” Todd’s face went lax, “that’s not quite what I was aiming for.”

  “Whatever. I’m starting to think that being an adult just means you use more words than you need and pretend you’re thinking something other than what you are. We all know he’s wussing out. What he really needs is a slap across his self-pitying face, not a tough-love pep talk. Let’s forget he’s here, okay? Let him sit in the corner and get all weepy-faced about how he’s a bad man and all. We need to figure out what we’re going to do.”

  “About what?” Josh sat up again and let his hands fall to his side.

  “Hello?” Jessica slapped the bed with both hands. “You were listening, weren’t you? Wisdom is going to take us into a battle with the Council. Does any of this ring a bell?”

  Josh smiled. “Gee, Jessica. You sure are cute when you’re not, you know, killing things.”

  Jessica bit her lip. Blood raced to her face. She looked like Elmer Fudd in a Bugs Bunny cartoon about to blow his top.

  “Look, you guys do what you want. I have to go with Wisdom.”

  Todd lowered his head as if the weight of Josh’s words had pushed down on him. “Say what? You’re going with Wisdom into Hell. Josh, of any of us here, with the obvious exception of Mr. David gloomy-pants, you’re the least capable of surviving something like this. You have no idea what your EFHBs are, let alone how to use them. The Council has Edimmu, not to mention enough mojo power to make Wisdom think twice about taking them on. And so what? You think ‘Oh I know karate so I can take on this secret society’?’”

  Josh chuckled, a genuine smile on his face. “I don’t know karate. I know how to take care of myself, that’s all. And I did use my whatever-you-call-it to throw Jared across the room. I think I’m getting a handle on the power, but that is beside the point. This is about family, Todd. My father. He’s mixed up in something – got me mixed up in something – and I need to know what it is. No matter what anyone says, whatever the circumstances of how I was conceived, my father is not a demon. My father works for a branch of the CSIS, but it also looks like he works for the Council of Peacocks. My real father is very human – a human mixed up in some very weird stuff, to be sure – and I need to find out what he is keeping secret from me. And just so we’re clear here, I may not be able to read minds or levitate books but I can take out a couple of guys with guns before they fire a shot. And let’s not forget that I’m the only one here who has killed an Edimmu before. Until a few minutes ago, I thought I was the only one capable of killing a human being.”

  Josh stopped.

  Jessica and Todd stared at each other, their faces overly relaxed as if their muscles were dead. Jessica's eyes twitched ever so slightly as if she was actually trying to see through Todd’s eyes into his brain. Todd’s eyes glistened as if they were covered in a layer of tears.

  “What?” Josh went stiff. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Jessica nodded and looked at the ground.

  Todd took a breath and let it out slowly between pursed lips. He licked his lips before starting to speak. “That wasn’t the first time Jessica killed someone, Josh. It’s part of the training we get from Ms. Ryerson.”

  “She trains you to kill people?”

  David stopped pacing.

  Jessica nodded.

  Todd went back to looking off into a corner.

  “Great. The fun just keeps on coming.” Josh covered his mouth with his right hand and leaned forward, thinking.

  For several minutes the only sound in the room was that of people breathing. Finally, Jessica cleared her throat and spoke. “Maybe we shouldn’t have said anything about it. It’s … well, I can’t say it’s not a big deal, because that’s kind of….”

  “Monstrous?” David started chewing on his fingernails again. “Is that the word you were looking for?”

  Jessica shrugged. Then she shook her head. “I don’t know. It was necessary, at least the way I see it. If we don’t know how to kill with our powers we wouldn’t really know how not to kill. It makes sense if you think about it. It’s like, well, the only way you can really know how strong you are is to push yourself to your limits. It was hard for me.” The way Jessica hung her head made it obvious she disliked saying anything was hard for her. “But I got through it. Which is more than I can say for Jared.”

  Josh shivered. “Didn’t look to me like he had a hard time with the idea of killing.”

  “Really?” Jessica said. “Well, maybe you’re not looking at it the right way. He could have snapped your spinal column when you were in the shower or caused a brain hemorrhage. Instead, he had to call someone else to do the dirty work. It’s true what I said. I never really liked him. I think it was those beady black eyes of his. He looked like a seagull with sandy-brown hair. Anyway, he had a few tests and he just wasn’t able to go through with it. He left them wounded, but he could never finish them off. He wanted so bad to get to the next level in class, to catch up with Amy and me, but Ms. Ryerson told him he would have to keep taking that test and pass it before he could go on.”

  Josh fixated on the image of Jared sneaking into the bathroom while he showered and snapping his neck using the power of his mind. He shivered again.

  “Count me in as extremely grateful he wasn’t as good a student as you.”

  Jessica smiled with pride, and Josh felt even colder than before. He went to the closet, took out a sweater and hoped that would help.

  “Okay, you guys do what you want,” he said. “I’m off to see Wisdom.”

  “What?” Todd raced over and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Stop and think, man. He wants to send us off into some sort of war and here you are skipping off to the head of the line?”

  “I think I answered that already. There’s no sense hiding from what you can’t escape.” Josh walked toward the door, stopped and turned back to face them. “David, why don’t you come with me?”

  “Huh?” David went slightly pale, which made his freckles all the more apparent. “Why me?”

  “Because you need it most of all.”

  “Need what?”

  “To confront the beast inside.”

  ***

  “Maybe it won’t be enough.”

  When he first travelled back through time, a calm sort of arrogance filled him. He knew what was going to happen, so he knew how to prevent it. He knew when the Edimmu would attack Toronto, knew they would slaughter or kidnap most of the Anomalies; but all of that was unimportant. All that matt
ered was keeping Echo alive. That and making sure Propates did not get to remake the world in his image. So Wisdom found Josh: a new Anomaly who could perhaps lead to a different string of events.

  Unfortunately, not all of the new string was to his liking. Jared’s betrayal had caught him completely off guard. Maybe it was pride that had blinded him to that threat the first time or maybe, just maybe....

  “The threat wasn’t there the first time.”

  Perhaps he had not given enough thought to just how much influence this visitor from another world was having on the course of events. Ever since he felt the surge of power preceding Jared’s death, Wisdom had been filled with a subtle and recurring emotion. Fear. If Wisdom wasn’t the only one traveling through time, maybe all of his carefully calculated plans were worthless.

  He was still lost in thought twenty minutes later when there was a knock at his door.

  “Come in,” Wisdom smiled and looked at the gilded clock on the wall. At least this was roughly on schedule.

  Josh and David walked in the door and the smile on Wisdom’s face faltered. ‘It was supposed to be Jessica,’ he thought. Maybe this was a good thing. Maybe Josh could bring about something Jessica had been unable to do.

  “We know what you’re planning,” Josh said as soon as he sat down. “The reason Jessica and Todd were in my room was because they couldn’t help but read your thoughts. How exactly do you plan on using us as weapons against the Council of Peacocks? David and I haven’t even gone through your bloody training program.”

  “Though, from the sounds of it, I’m not sure I want to anymore.” David squirmed in his seat. “You know, the whole kill-a-person, win-a-prize thing. It’s a bit too Hunger Games for my taste.”

  Wisdom’s smile twisted slightly. “So I left out a few details. You knew what you were getting into. Look, I’m sorry things worked out this way. I would have preferred to spoon-feed you some of the more delicate material. Despite what the Council of Peacocks thinks, it is not healthy for the human mind to take too much in at once. I could have lied to you. Hell, I could jump through your bones and scramble your brains until you don’t know if you’re skinning a man alive or knitting a sweater. But I won’t.”

  “Thanks,” David said. “That makes me feel a whole lot better.”

  “I could take the Council out on my own. Possibly. Of course, with my power I’m not so good with the whole calculated strikes. You don’t know much about me. Barely anything at all, really. Suffice it to say I have more power at my disposal than almost anyone on the planet. I’m not expecting you to be all Navy Seal-like, nor am I expecting any mystical Neo-Matrix ninjas. I have a plan that will utilize the specific strengths each of you have. You are more powerful than you realize. If everything goes well, we’ll be in and out in half an hour with Propates’ head in a bag.”

  “And what if it goes badly?” David kept his eyes on the floor. No matter how he tried, he could not raise the courage to look Wisdom in the eyes.

  Wisdom sighed. “Do you really need me to answer that question? If it does not go well, we all die. Or I may end up blasting Greece into space. Either case would be unfortunate.”

  “And what about your father? What if he shows up again?”

  Wisdom took a deep breath and turned his full attention on Josh. The young man sank deep into the chair, pushed back by the force of his stare. “My father will show up. Count on that. Things will get messy, but I’ll take care of that. Still, it might be best if you don’t mention my father again.”

  “Wisdom?” David cleared his throat. “Who is your father? Is he a demon? Does that make you sort of like us?”

  “You know, I’m fairly certain I just said ‘don’t mention my father again.’ Now, go get something to eat. We’ll be leaving soon.”

  ***

  While the building’s custodians cleaned up the blood and shattered glass in his old room, Josh got settled in a new one. As hard as he liked to think he was, he couldn’t bring himself to stay even one more hour in that room. Every time he looked at the dent in the wall, he thought of Jared. Thought of how he’d thrown him back with the power of his mind.

  Until that moment, a small part of him had held onto the faint hope that he really wasn’t like the rest of the freaks here. He'd forced himself to believe he was fundamentally different from the others. Anomalies. It was just another word for freak. Since the advent of comic books, every kid over the age of six dreamed of being a superhero; but there was no mistaking Josh for a superhero. He was not a savior. He was not the next step in human evolution. He was a half-demon bastard. He was created by evil to do evil things.

  And now he could no longer deny it.

  He looked out the window at the chaotic streets below. The streets were so crowded it looked like beetles swarming through metal canyons. He wondered how long it would take to lose himself in that crowd. How long before Wisdom found him? How long could he run from the Council of Peacocks and the knowledge that his father had lied to him his whole life?

  “Not long at all.” Saying the words aloud was enough to dismiss all notion of running. He had to find out what his father was doing with the Council of Peacocks.

  He was about to turn away from the window when something caught his eye. A single Caucasian face in the throbbing mess of people. It seemed to look directly at Josh. A feeling trembled in his gut, the building of fear. Then he saw the gold ring on the man’s left hand. There was a flash of light and Josh dropped to his knees.

  Memory washed over him, more forceful than ever before.

  ***

  “I can’t control him anymore.”

  Josh was sixteen years old, standing at the top of the stairs eavesdropping on his father.

  “The subject is not open for debate, Lucius.” His dad spoke in a hushed voice, but the anger behind the words came across clearly. “He got into a fight at school today. Nearly tore the arm of a kid right out of the socket. By the time I got there, Josh was…I know I should have expected some differences. … Yes, I know that, Lucius. I’m not an idiot. But I’m telling you, he’s different. He’s not like the other ones….Whatever. Stop being a prick. I’m bringing him to Propates tomorrow. There has to be something….Look, I don’t care how it’s done. I need to have control of this boy until the army’s ready. Even with the technological help of our friend from away, without the muscle to…I am not ranting. And I’m telling you because you’re putting too much importance on the half-breeds. There’s only a hundred or so we know about. Even if we take half of them, Wisdom will…Humph. There’s really that many? Doesn’t matter. It’s still not enough to…I don’t care how much demon is in him. There’s no way Josh could win that type of war.”

  For several minutes his father was silent. Josh didn’t understand half of what his father was talking about. By demon, did his father mean Wisdom? Or was he talking about the Edimmu? Josh had seen the scaly reptoids only a few times in his life. Most of those times were not pleasant. They’d tortured and eventually killed one of his best friends. As a child, Josh vaguely remembered several trips with his father to a meeting place somewhere underground, a place filled with hundreds of Edimmu, some with wings, others in almost human form. He remembered a lot of grownup talk but he hadn’t paid any attention to what they were actually saying at the time. Now he wished he had.

  “Fine,” his father continued. “I’ll send him and his mother to Windsor. But this had better work, Lucius. There’s too much at stake. With what’s coming, we can’t afford to have the half-breeds fall into Wisdom’s hands….No, I don’t care about that. We’re going to remake the world, turn it back to what it should have been all along. I can’t let my personal feelings get in the way. If Josh has to die, so be it.”

  ***

  Josh felt nauseous and his head was swimming and he felt nauseous. How could his father do that? For the last several days he’d assumed the stranger with the gold ring worked for his demon father. Now that he had all his memories back – and
this did, somehow, feel like the last of them – he saw his father for what he really was: a single-minded man on a mission with no concern for anyone hurt in the process. His father was a monster.

  Getting back to his feet, Josh looked back out the window and searched for the man with the gold ring. He was nowhere to be found.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Wisdom watched Echo pour a drink, studying the moment. A picture in a scrapbook. He placed it beside the image of the first time he saw her: a young woman carrying water back from a stone well in a wood bucket. Back then, she wore the same drab clothes as the other village women but there was something about her that cried out to him. In the distance, snow-capped mountains rose to pale blue sky. In that moment, Echo appeared as distant and untouchable as those mountains. That’s why he took her. Forcefully.

  Centuries passed but he still saw her that way. Untouchable. No matter what he did, she was beyond his control. In those first years, he tried to force his way in. He used power to prevent her from leaving, controlling her mind and body. But she never submitted.

  Years passed, centuries passed and old pains dimmed. Their relationship changed. While she never forgave him, he knew she had feelings for him. It wasn’t until he’d lost her that he realized how much he loved her.

  ‘And I’m going to lose you again,’ he thought. ‘No, not this time. This time it will be different. It has to be different.’

  “Echo, please don’t go.”

  She shook her head and downed her drink. “We’ve been over this. I’m going with you. Period. I want this to be over. I need it to be over so I can get back to my life. That won’t happen until Propates and his puppet army are taken out of the picture. After that, I intend on spending a century developing a truly excellent wine collection and enjoying my accumulated wealth.”

  “But….”

  “I’m serious. I don’t feel safe anymore. Not when I’m away from you.”

  Wisdom fought the tears in his eyes. It wasn’t the first time he had heard this speech. The last time he'd heard it, Echo ended up dead.