The Dawn of Redemption: The Hakima's Tale, #3

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The Hakima's Tale: The Dawn of Redemption

E-Book Edition

The Hakima’s Tale®

is a registered trademark of Dedra L. Stevenson.

Copyright © 2014 by Dedra L. Stevenson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication, including but not limited to characters and content may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN  978-1-942735-02-1

eBook Layout and Editing by:  Rodney W. Harper

This book is dedicated to all children of the world.  We are all part of the human family, every race and every culture.  It's up to you to show them the way.

Foreword

This book has been much more than simply finishing a trilogy.  It's been the result of many influences and the completion of a circle that began a long time ago, symbolising a personal and professional journey.

Sometimes the journey was pleasant, and sometimes it was painful.  Sometimes I felt like giving up, but something inside me pushed me to complete this mission. Just as Phoenix went through her growing pains and discovered who she is in the world, so have I..

However, I didn't reach this milestone alone.  I must again thank my family for being there for me, and my cousin Rodney Harper in particular, for his tireless help in getting this out to the world..

Jinn are believed to be real by a large number of people in the world, and it's important to mention that this book is a work of fiction, and Jinn in reality are not as I portray them in the book.

BOOK THREE

The Dawn of Redemption

He examined the vase and shook it, to judge of its contents by the sound. He could hear nothing; and this, together with the impression of the seal on the lead, made him think it was filled with something valuable. To decide the question, he took his knife, and cut it open without much difficulty. He turned the top downwards, and was much surprised to find nothing come out: he set it down before him, and while he watched it closely, there issued from it so thick a smoke that he was obliged to step back a few paces. This smoke by degrees rose almost to the clouds, and spread itself over sea and land, appearing like a thick fog. The fisherman, as may easily be imagined, much surprised at this sight. When the smoke had all come out from the vase, it again collected itself, and became a solid body, taking the shape of a Genie, twice as large as any of the giants. At the appearance of this huge monster, the fisherman wished to run away; but his fear was so great he was unable to move.

1001 Arabian Nights (The Fisherman's Tale)

Prelude

The Invasion and the Invisible Enemy

The human world was in peril, but only Phoenix and her army understood just how much danger they were in. The Marid, now at full strength, began their vicious and merciless attacks, and not even children were safe from harm. The human world seemed defenseless against an invisible enemy, and most people didn’t believe in the unseen dimension or the supernatural. The Blue Jinni had anticipated this as he watched human behavior decade after decade. He knew that, slowly over time, mankind was losing the ability to believe in anything they could not see or touch or explain scientifically. Most of humankind didn’t even know what a jinni was, and had even less knowledge of how to fight them or kill them. In a faithless world such as this, defeating them would be easy because only by faith could they fight. The Blue Jinni had counted on this for centuries.

From the first day of the war, many children fell sick. The feeble minded of the human species were said to have gone completely insane, screaming that they were seeing creatures and hearing voices telling them they should do terrible things. Along with the illness and insanity, there was also a large number of freak accidents occurring across the globe. It seemed that the world was in the clutches of an evil spell and no one understood how or why.

The destruction and death toll rose each minute but it would have been much worse had it not been for the brave Arwaah and the Baraka who fought to protect the humans at each attack point, preventing as much murder and mayhem as they possibly could. However, try as they might, the Marid were strong and relentless in their quest to utterly exterminate the human world.

Phoenix provided brave leadership and led offensive attacks but, no matter how much bravery she showed, her guilt was eating her alive. No other Hakima before her had allowed the Jinni to escape, and the fact that she was the only one to allow this to happen was a source of insecurity for her. To compensate for this feeling, she worked harder than anyone else to fight and plan offense. She worked out constantly and focused all of her energy on strategy and defense.

If she could just infiltrate the constant guard around the Blue Jinni, she could trap and bind him. But even the Sirens couldn’t get close enough to him because his elite guards had found a resistance to their charms.

Although Sophia always fought bravely with Faisal by her side, he began to notice a change in this girl warrior that he dearly loved. She was becoming consumed by her hatred for the Marid. Smiles had disappeared from her face entirely, and the gracious and sweet hearted girl they all knew before was quickly becoming hardened by the circumstances that surrounded her. She shouted orders to subordinates and talked to her friends less and less. Faisal missed the old Phoenix but realized that the years of training and the pressures of her position must be taking a big toll on her.

Yacoub was still in a coma after his encounter with the Generals and no one knew what his fate would be even if he awoke since he had suffered such a terrible blow to the head. Faisal, Azizi, Kadira, Shala, and Bakit were all doing their part, trying to lighten Phoenix’s load as much as they could; however, the lack of family around her was a big factor. Dana filled in as her liaison on many occasions, but Uncle Heesham and Sophia were supervising the constant guard over Ben and Leila, particularly since Leila was nearly ready to deliver her child.

The Sirens, the army of the Sand King and the Time Jumpers all did their part, but how long could they carry on this way? No one had anticipated just how powerful the Marid would be. Phoenix and her army would need to get the upper hand soon, or lose many more human lives. Already so many had died, become disabled, or lost everything. How many more would have to suffer?

The Blue Jinni was enjoying his chance to cause destruction, the first chance he’d had since his uprising against the King. Each Hakima before Phoenix had known how to prevent his release but, just as he’d anticipated, the modern world was much more out of touch with legends of the past. Defeating people who did not believe in the supernatural would be easy since they had no idea of the kinds of attacks that jinn could launch and they would scramble about trying to find a scientific explanation. But there would be none and, in the midst of their terrible struggle to explain everything scientifically, they would not survive, thereby further proving their unworthiness to live.

The Blue Jinni was counting on this outcome. He had silently observed the shallow, selfish and wasteful nature of mankind grow with each decade and, this time, he anticipated their utter destruction. They had become parasites and their only motivation was greed and the satisfaction of their vulgar pleasures. The Blue Jinni considered that they were no longer worthy of the earth because they had lost their respect for it, and were completely ungrateful for the position they had been granted by the Almighty. He anticipated an easy victory over such shallowness.

Phoenix could feel this, and with each day she grew more and more weary. She became more aware of how utterly unprepared she was for such responsibility. If only the stories of the Hakima had been kept alive, she would have been trained from birth for her task. It did seem a shame that early cavemen carved stories on walls to pass information from generation to generation, but in a modern age such as this, much of the past was lost in the race to the future.

Her team struggled to help her keep her fighting spirit alive, but they had a hard time just keeping up with their own. The Marid Invasion felt overwhelming to the Arwaah, and their infestation left the smell of death in their wake.

For now, this enemy was focusing only on the general population. There wasn’t much need to attack military targets, since no one was aware that an attack was in progress and, even if they wanted to fight, this was an enemy they couldn’t see.

Chapter 1

The Elements and the Offensive

The tribes of the elements were not the most powerful of the Marid tribes, but they were certainly the most efficient in causing human suffering. Buildings and homes caught fire spontaneously, or so it seemed to the occupants. Little did anyone imagine that the fire breathers were about, cursing the world with their destructiveness. The Fire Tribe could easily move about through the fires and rejoiced in the damage they caused, finding it most amusing when the people tried to put out the fires only to find the water hoses in knots, cut, or disconnected. Of course, even if they managed to douse the flames, the fire would start again almost immediately as if by magic.

The Water Tribe caused many freak accidents by car, bus, and aircraft. These jinn delighted in how easy it was to spray a burst of water at an oncoming vehicle and cause the driver to skid off the road or crash into another. Buses were helpless as water would spray from each direction, as if out of nowhere. The attacks were systematic, planned in all major cities of the world as a first strike, and the intersections chosen were always the busiest to ensure maximum death and destruction.

The Earth Tribe wielded their destructive power by causing minor earthquakes, splitting the ground open and swallowing people into the abyss. The constant tremors were terrifying to people unfortunate enough to live in earthquake-prone areas of the world because they were unrelenting.

The other elemental tribes were not as strong or capable of such mass destruction, but they did their parts to assist the cause. All in all their damage was devastating, and many believed that the end of the world was upon them. The religious of the world were in an uproar, predicting that this was indeed the end of the world. At nearly every street corner, clerics of one religious denomination or another stood before their followers announcing that they should prepare for the day of reckoning.

Coulda flew over the destruction to monitor their progress. How long we’ve waited for this! he commented. Look at them! They will cower beneath us and tremble with fear! The earth will be for those who can appreciate it and help it flourish, not destroy it with their amusements! Soon we will have done enough for the Master to begin the global storm that will finish off the work we are doing.

Bafeemus had heard him say that before but, this time, he didn’t leave it without a comment of his own. How do we know that his storm will finish the earth? I’ve never seen him wield a storm that strong! I overheard him talking about a ‘power’ once. I think he’s got a plan that he hasn’t told us about.

Coulda was appalled! In his eyes, Bafeemus was always such a buffoon but, unlike Angrit, Bafeemus usually accepted that, so Coulda snapped back, One more sign of insubordination and you’ll be sweeping the human carcasses off the street with our slaves! Don’t question his plan again; just do as you’re told! Who let you believe that you are intelligent? You wouldn’t even be a General if I didn’t urge the Master to accept you!

Bafeemus held his head low. He’d always been intimidated by Coulda, unlike Angrit who dared to challenge him.

Because the Marid believed that they loved the earth more than human beings, they never allowed any weapons of mass destruction to be fired, so the earth would not be punished for the sins of the treacherous humans who had been in control of it. In fact, this was one reason that the Marid hated the Human race so much - for their unrelenting desire to destroy each other. Even the animals of the world were not so vicious. The Marid planned to return the world to a more natural order by destroying and removing all of the so called, progress. Industrialization had hurt the precious environment and thinned the ozone layer so much. The Marid had known this immediately because their missions to the lower heaven were easier. Even though they were vicious in their contempt for humanity, the Marid loved the animal and plant life of the planet and held great respect for it.

The Blue Jinni knew that, in order to rid the earth’s surface of the vermin of the human world, he would need to stir up Mother Nature, so he used his storm-wielding power to start hurricanes and