Back to Atlantis

by Bar Sagi

  ‘Watch out, Yasmin! The beast will do anything to get to you, and because of me, he has a way into your head!’

  Am I going crazy? Yasmin thought. Or crazier? Do all mages have two voices that aren’t theirs arguing ins their head?

  She didn’t have a lot of time to think about it though, because just then the first dance ended and the queen announced, “Now introducing the guest of honor. The person my son, David, personally trained for months to fight the rebellion, our secret—not anymore—weapon! Please welcome, the mage!”

  Applause filled the ballroom as people searched for the mage. Yasmin wanted to hide. Something wasn’t right.

  “My Son?” The queen’s voice sounded strained. “Where is this mage?”

  Yasmin’s cheeks burned with anger. She was more than just ‘this mage!’ But she kept silent as David searched the room for her, his eyes dark, as if they had no light in them.

  “There is the mage.” David pointed at her. There was no emotion in his voice, and Yasmin felt farther apart from him than she had ever felt.

  The queen’s voice was light, though it had an undertone of warning. “Come forward, my dear. Why didn’t you tell me you were the mage?”

  Yasmin walked forward, getting a good glimpse of the queen for the first time. She had light-blond, almost white hair, large, ice blue eyes, and pale skin. Her eyes were similar to David’s right now, emotionless.

  The queen’s dress was pale blue, fading to white. She had a crown that resembled a king’s, but made of silver. It was covered in diamonds and looked very heavy. Yasmin understood why Princess Amanda would want to take hers off.

  “It’s good to meet you.” Yasmin said, holding out her hand.

  She could feel the rest of the court staring at her because she didn’t curtsy, nor address the queen formally.

  The queen smiled tightly. “My name is Queen Andrea. We have been awaiting your arrival for quite some time. You could be the key to squashing the rebellion.”

  “And stopping the beast?” Yasmin’s voice echoed around the quiet ballroom. People gasped at the mention of the name, looking around afraid.

  This time, Queen Andrea frowned. “We don’t mention his name. It’s bad luck. Besides, how would you even know his name? Did my beloved—the word sounded strained—son, David tell you the most top secret matters?”

  “It’s hardly top secret if everyone knows. Was I the only one not supposed to know?”

  “That doesn’t matter! Who told you! David said he taught you with no problem, and mentioned you are very obedient. This… are you sure you are the mage?”

  “Abby Silvertree told me. The second mage, whose magic now resounds inside my body.” Yasmin looked at the queen, matching her hard stare. “She was possessed by the beast for her power, and he tried to kill us. She imprisoned my family but they were able to escape. David had nothing to do with it,” Yasmin said, feeling an urge to protect him.

  “There was a second mage?!” The queen’s voice rose two octaves. “She must have been evil, to ally with the rebellion. She is a traitor to the world. Abby Silvertree is better off dead.”

  Voices around the ballroom sounded in agreement.

  Yasmin looked at David, unbelieving. He had been there. He understood more than anyone what had happened. Yet he was just standing there, letting Abby’s spirt be blamed for a mistake that cost her more than her life?!

  I hate them all! She thought suddenly. They are just spoiled brats ruled by an icicle with no real feelings!

  ‘Yeah! Go Yasmin!’ Said a voice in her head. ‘Make them pay for what they said about me.’

  This time Yasmin wasted no time on confusion. “I believe you are mistaken,” she said, keeping her voice even with difficulty. “Abby Silvertree suffered grief, more than all of you put together! Her mother hated her, she didn’t have any real friends, and she suffered a fate worse than death.” She was fighting to keep her voice steady. She wasn’t sure where those words came from, but deep in her heart she knew it was true.

  “Yes, yes. All right. She wasn’t all that bad. Now, tomorrow, David will be appointed your official teacher, and you shall have a strict diet. We can’t have our mage getting chubby.”

  That’s it! Yasmin thought, exploding. She could only see David, and Queen Andrea’s words echoed in her head: ‘We can’t have OUR mage getting chubby.’ Like she was their pet! From the beginning she had been treated as a tool.

  “What is wrong with you?” she shouted at the queen, causing her to step back. “Are you stupid? I am a human being, and I don’t lie. I REFUSE to have David as my teacher, I refuse to let you treat Abby Silvertree as anything less than what she was, and I most certainly refuse to be treated as a TOOL!” She glared at the Queen, breathing heavily.

  “Guards!” the queen said with distaste. “Take this mage to her room, and let her come out only when she begs. She would be thrown in the dungeon had we not needed her so much.”

  Ten guards came in, carrying swords, and her anger grew. They had swords, did they? Well she did too!

  Yasmin reached out, and the mage’s sword appeared in in her hand. She held it in a fighting stance, her eyes nearly glowing with anger.

  “You thief!” The queen’s voice rang around the ballroom. “You have stolen a sacred heirloom, the mage’s sword! Give it back under the life of your friends!”

  The guards came closer to Miriam and Daniella, circling them with swords. They seemed confused when Yasmin only grinned.

  “Honestly!” Miriam’s voice rang around the ballroom. “You could have at least waited for desert before picking a fight with them!”

  She looked at the surprised guards. “What? Did you expect me to scream and beg for my life? Besides, Yasmin’s been in such a mood all day, I’ve been waiting for her to explode. I had hoped she would do it in a quiet, secluded area, but of course she had to make a scene.”

  Yasmin blushed lightly and felt like laughing. “Sorry!” she called to Miriam. “Next time I scream at the queen, or at royalty in general, I’ll try to be quieter and let you eat in peace.”

  “Now that’s more like it!” Miriam got into a fighting stance. “Are these guards going to attack or stand there like idiots?”

  “Hey!” shouted one of the guards.

  The others attacked Yasmin, Miriam, Daniella, and Jon.

  Yasmin parried one guard’s attack with her sword while twisting around and kicking another guard in the gut. She wished she could use magic, but there wasn’t enough room or time to get a spell ready.

  Miriam came up next to her and dodged an attack with almost inhuman speed and punched him in the ribs. She grabbed another guard and spun him toward the first, being careful never to do anything permanent.

  Daniella looked at the group of guards surrounding her and sighed. “Honestly, Yasmin. You create way too much drama. Can’t you let matters slide?”

  “Kind of busy over here!” Yasmin shouted, trying to get enough room to do a scary spell that would make them back away and give her some breathing room. Fighting wasn’t very comfortable in this dress. And smelly guards… eww!

  “Fine. Just leave us over here, poor and defenseless,” Jon called.

  Nobody was attacking him, but that was because of his reputation as Atlantis’s most powerful art spellcaster. The guards hesitated, but they were getting ready to strike.

  “Don’t even pretend you don’t have a pen and paper handy!” shouted Miriam, breathing heavily as she judo-flipped an attacker, silently cursing her dress.

  “You could at least be nice about it!” Daniella said, grinning wickedly as she pulled an artbook seemingly out of thin air.

  “I’ll give you manners when I have a good mood!” Miriam shot back, her forehead dripping with sweat. “We could really use a distraction here!”

  Daniella smiled, and started drawing. Her pencil
flying across the paper. One of the many sounds in the room, along with the fighting and the frightened nobles’ whispering.

  A minute later, she leaned over the paper, her forehead glistening with sweat as she concentrated.

  Daniella could hear every sound in this world, she could see every color, but that wasn’t her goal. She needed to see her drawing. Concentrating on the art, she mentally pulled at the drawing with her magic, careful not to smudge it. She had a reputation to protect, after all. Smudged artwork would just not do.

  Daniella leaned back against Jon, exhausted after doing so much magic, and a day spent drawing Miriam’s dress, Yasmin’s dress, as well as her own.

  Everyone else, however, yelled, screamed—in a high pitched voice, both male and female—or in Miriam and Yasmin’s case, raised an eyebrow, impressed.

  “I didn’t know you could bring live things out of the drawing. You were having problems with a butterfly, last time you tried,” Yasmin said, eyebrow raised, as she gestured at Daniella’s magic creation.

  The creation was a six foot tall hot coca bottle, which was waving its arms, yelling, “coco, coco,” and spraying hot coca everywhere.

  This was apparently very dangerous, because one of the guards slipped and fell. Everyone in the ballroom was caught between screaming in fear of a manic robot or laughing.

  “It’s a robot,” Daniella said, yawning. “Now, can you finish this? I already gave you a distraction.”

  “Sure.” Yasmin took deep breaths, settling into meditation.

  She reached for her power, unsurprised. Ever since last spring, her color of magic had changed, and now instead of pure blue, it was closer to ocean blue.

  David had thought it was because she had Abby’s magic.

  Yasmin shook her head. Now was not the time to get distracted.

  When she opened her eyes, lightning was flickering across her body. She smiled, because she knew that she had absolute control of it–probably. But she wouldn’t hurt anyone, because no one would dare get close to her.

  “David,” she whispered, her lightning vanishing.

  She couldn’t muster enough anger to glare at him, nor enough sadness to cry, so she just stared at him with dry eyes, a foot away from her and coming closer.

  “Yasmin. Please calm down.” He cleared his throat. He even sounded like a robot. “What you are doing is unworthy of a mage. I, your teacher, will escort you to your room, where you will be taken care of.” He touched her arm gently, a touch that felt ice cold.

  Yasmin slapped him then pushed him away. “Stay away from me!” she hissed. Her anger finally dominating her other emotions. “Why would I trust you now?”

  David’s eyes finally had emotions in them, and it looked like his heart was breaking.

  Yasmin refused to let her body show any sympathy. She needed to be angry right now. More than anything else.

  “Is it because of Violet? Yasmin, I’m sorry but–”

  “It is not because of Violet!” Yasmin was aware of everyone staring at them, but at this moment she didn’t care. “Your… your eyes are lifeless. It’s like I don’t know you. And maybe I don’t!”

  She stood up straighter, hands on her hips. “The David I knew was a kind, brave, and sweet person. Sure, he was mad sometimes, but he was very kind and never tried to hurt the people close to him. You are the opposite of that. You are cold, lifeless, and don’t help your friends when they are being attacked by your mother’s solders!”

  David stepped back, as if these words had physically hurt him. “I need to go,” he said, turning around and leaving the ballroom with Violet on his arm.

  “Listen, Miss Mage.” The queen’s cold voice cut across the now silent room. “I don’t know what problem you have with my son, but I want to know if you have come only to destroy our hope. If so, then leave. If not, then stop treating us this way.”

  Yasmin looked at her, just as coldly. “I am here to stop the beast. And to save innocent people from having the same fate as Abby. No other reason.”

  “Then you need us. You still need to be trained. Even though what you achieved in a few months is impressive, you aren’t using half of your potential. I misunderstood you earlier, and I apologize. But your behavior was even more wrong. People don’t start throwing fits out of nowhere. If you want to beat the beast, then you must train and become the face of the kingdom. Atlantis needs hope. That is the main reason we called you here. Will we come to a truce?” The queen held out her hand.

  Yasmin eyed it warily. “I don’t know. You seem like a good actress. How do I know I can trust you?”

  “How do I know I can trust you?” Queen Andrea asked, an eyebrow raised.

  Yasmin raised an eyebrow too. “You have a point. But if you harm me, or my friends, or family, or even try and use me as a tool again, you can forget about this deal.”

  “Fine.” Queen Andrea sighed, standing up. “If it is for the good of the kingdom, I will do anything.” She looked at Yasmin. “You had better be worth the trouble, young lady.”

  The queen looked around the ballroom. “Everyone! The party is over, and you will be happy to know that the mage has agreed to help us defat the rebellion! Goodbye, and good luck.”

  She left the ballroom, her skirts swishing behind her.

  Chapter 3

  Training

  It was seven in the morning when Yasmin woke up. Yawning, she looked out the window. It was Sunday, and from her room in the palace, she could see the gardens, blooming with winter flowers as the golden leaves fell.

  She got out of her huge bed, and sighed. Last night she had cried herself to sleep. She missed her family, and even with this huge, amazingly perfect room, filled with everything a girl could ask for, it just wasn’t home.

  Yasmin didn’t regret her actions. That was for sure. She knew what she was doing, but she did it anyway. She wasn’t sorry, but angry her temper had gotten away like that. Smiling ruefully, she prepared for the day, knowing it would be useless to sleep with all the things on her mind.

  Wearing a red shirt and jeans, Yasmin walked through the corridors, quickly becoming lost. As she made her way through the various hallways, she had a feeling of déjà-vu.

  Last night she had no memory after the guards escorted her away, because she was exhausted and hurt. Her body had been exercised so much mentally and physically that she just collapsed into bed, without even looking around.

  But looking around, she knew she had been here before, either in dreams or in real life, since it most certainly wasn’t because of yesterday that she had this feeling. Yasmin’s stomach rumbled, ending all thoughts but her need for food.

  Yasmin followed her nose and found the kitchen. They were large, and filled with wonderful smells from all the food. As she ate a small breakfast given to her by the cooks, she looked around. While she sat on a stool, there were tons of people working around her in the kitchen. And it was a great place for gossip.

  “The queen was angry,” said a female voice that sounded frightened.

  “She has ruled peacefully for years. We have no need to worry. The rebellion will end soon,” a soothing male voice said, though it shook.

  “But what about what’s happenin’ now?!” someone to her left said. “A village raided by the rebellion had half of it burned down, and some people lost their lives!”

  Yasmin burned with anger but continued to eat. There was no point in screaming in rage. The best she could do now was train, and bring people hope.

  “I heard the new mage is downright coo-coo,” a nervous female voice whispered to her right. “They say she fell in love with the prince, but he dumped her after using her.”

  Yasmin stood, knowing that if she stayed she would probably scream. But at least now she had a good place for gossip. Thanking a kitchen boy who showed her the way to the courtroom, she set for it, wondering what
she had to do, and if she could keep her mouth shut.

  On the way there, while she was daydreaming as usual, she thought about home. Was Digdig all right without her? She had missed him so bad the summer she went to Greece, but now she missed him more because she wanted a hug. Yasmin shook her head mentally. No, she thought. People get nothing from crying. It is useless. I can find my way without tears, and without help.

  “Watch out!” someone called. Yasmin saw a big, yellow-brown head of hair before they crashed.

  “Ouch!” Yasmin and the unknown person said at the same time.

  Yasmin got up, rubbing her head.

  “Who are you?” Yasmin asked. “And can you point the way to mage training? I’m kind of lost.”

  “No watchers. I don’t care if you want to see me teaching the mage magic, people crowding around will make this look like a fair. This is the future of the kingdom.” the woman said without looking at Yasmin as she picked up her fallen books.

  When she finally looked up, she gave a start. “Oh, you must be Yasmin, right? Nobody else looks this lost. My name is Stargazer. Gloriana Stargazer, best teacher known to spellcaster. I will be your new teacher from this day on. We will train your power to its maximum potential.”

  Gloriana Stargazer was around five foot six, without heels. She was a friendly looking woman in her thirties, with brown-blonde hair, and honey-colored eyes that showed a large amount of intelligence. She wasn’t scary, but Yasmin didn’t want to cross her at the same time. She had a feeling that Gloriana was a lot stronger than she looked.

  “Hi, nice to meet you,” Yasmin said, a bit nervous at meeting someone new. Better late than never. “Gloriana, right? I suck at names. But I think I will remember yours.” She smiled. “Hopefully.” Yasmin added under her breath.

  “Great. I have a busy schedule, and I want you in top-notch shape. What can you do so far?”

  “I can draw, and I’m great at math, and I love creating things–”

  “Not that!” Gloriana interrupted, looking annoyed. “What magic can you do?!”