As the brides walked down the aisle and downhill back towards the hospitality tents by the castle entrance, the guests took pictures of them whist throwing biodegradable petal confetti over them. Amelia towered over Tara, but they seemed blissfully happy holding hands.
When Diana looked around at her other sister Aphrodite, she saw that she too was holding hands with her new friend Sian. She smiled. Perhaps that was why Aphrodite had never found the right man. It seemed that she also needed to find the right woman.
The caterers served bucks fizz as the guests filed past the brides and their families to congratulate them. Aphrodite was still holding hands with her girlfriend as the other guests passed by them.
The photographer called up the various family groups and friends’ groups to get the best pictures she could. She had a young assistant who was flying a camera drone up and down to catch the best angles. The castle backdrop plus the guests and band turned out to be the best view of the day and stayed as Tara’s Facebook header image for a long time afterwards.
When all the photographs were done, it was time for the wedding lunch.
The top table had to be slightly rearranged to accommodate Aphrodite’s new beau – or should that be belle – next to her. Diana sat next to her husband and a little away from her sisters.
There were no big revelations during the speeches. Everybody was nice about each other. Tara thanked Diana and Stan for coming along so soon after the birth of their baby Ruby. And Diana was encouraged to stand up and show off Ruby to the guests, who gave the baby a round of applause.
The toasts to the bride and bride were made, and the various courses were served out. There were chicken and vegan tofu main courses as a buffet followed by jam roly-poly with custard. There was a gluten-free option, but it seems that this was Tara’s favourite pudding from her school days.
At the end of the meal, the food was cleared away, and a dance floor was put in place over the grass inside the main tent.
As that was happening, the two brides threw their bouquets of matching yellow and purple crocus flowers into the crowd behind them. An already well-oiled Aphrodite and her girlfriend Sian caught both of the bouquets. Aphrodite shouted out “This time next year, stay tuned!”
Diana sighed. “Not again!”
The first dance, of course, was reserved for the two brides, but they were nowhere to be seen. They ran back panting wearing matching hot pink tops and tight leggings in the style of the girls from ‘Grease’.
Sure enough, the first tune was ‘Summer Nights’ from the movie soundtrack, with Tara and Amelia singing along.
The disco then came out with many of the classic tunes from Tara’s gay club outings in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The celebrations went on until nightfall and the time that the castle grounds had to close. At that point, a stretched white limousine arrived as close to the castle grounds as it was able to get. The two brides had brought up their suitcases when they went back to change, so got the chauffeur to place them in the boot of the car. They then got in as the guests threw what remaining confetti they had at them. The car then sped off with horns blowing, the just married signs on the back window, heading off for destination unknown.
Diana turned to Stan and gave him a big hug and a kiss. “Back to normality, I guess, whatever that is.”
No sooner had she said that then the figure of Tallulah appeared from the other side of the bridge. In the coloured lights of the disco, her slim frame and Givenchy jacket with jeans set her apart from the other revellers.
“Hello, Diana, Stanislav and this must be Ruby?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Diana replied, cooly.
“Thank you for your discretion at the press conference back in Miami. It was all for the greater good.”
“Really?” Replied Diana.
“Yes. We are on the same side. We both want the truth to come out and for us to stay alive in this dangerous world. Well, you will be pleased to know that one of my pseudoscientific writer friends has just penned a book about his theories on Atlantis with just enough of your real Cuban scan evidence to drop another nugget into the hands of the public. It’s a step forward that should allow you to make the announcement you wanted to back in Miami round about the time you both retire. I brought you a copy as a present for you and your baby. Enjoy!”
And with that, she turned around and left as suddenly as she had arrived.
A few minutes later, Diana and Stan left the party to take Ruby and themselves back to their lodgings. As Diana passed a bin, she casually dropped the book, ‘Wrath of the Gods’, into it.
XXVIII – Lines
That night, as Ruby and Stan slept, Diana had a dream.
A year after settling in the village in Peruvia, the Shaman-Healer Messima and her companion Néma were permitted to take a concubine of their own. Sidma was the son of the new chief Selema. She had become chief on the death of her mother. A poisonous snake had crept into the woman’s tent and bitten her during her sleep. By the time she was discovered the next morning, it had been too late. Even with Messima’s attempts to revive her, it had been the end for the older woman. As was customary her youngest daughter had been proclaimed the new Chief as her mother was cremated upon the funeral pyre. The sons of the new chief were bonded or married to the single women of the tribe to help ensure the survival of the clan. So it had been decided between Selema and Messima that Sidma would be bonded to her and Néma as joint possession. Néma was more reluctant to take a male lover but did crave a child of her own.
As the bonding ceremony was taking place, the embers of the funeral pyre were starting to die down. Torches had been lit, and a wild boar was being spit-roasted for the celebration.
Selema heated her ceremonial dagger of iron in flames then took each of the left hands of Sidma, Messima and Néma in turn and cut their palms with it. Then she got all three of them to grip their left hands together as tightly as they could to let the blood mingle. She then bound their hands with a vine to signify their mutual bonding. At the end of the ceremony, Messima and Néma kissed before embracing Sidma as ‘Bessma’ – both concubine, husband and possession. He would now sleep in their tent and would have to protect them from any predators or rival tribes wanting to do them harm.
As the feasting began, some strange lights appeared in the sky and overflew the mountains in a triangular formation before climbing very fast and disappearing into the stratosphere. Messima had a brief feeling of dis-ease as they appeared before calming down as the lights went completely. She knew that it had been The Watchers and that they had left for good. The last message she had received from The Waterman was that there would be followers of the Annunaki left on Earth who would only be defeated at the end of the material age to come. He had also previously told her to persuade the tribe to move southwards as the Ice Age had ended and the lush hilltops that the tribe hunted in would become too hot and inhospitable.
At the end of the feasting, the brides and groom were ushered to their large hut where they would all consummate their bond. It was a new experience for all of them, but they grew to accept and even enjoy their intimacies. However, Sidma often found himself sleeping alone in the other cot as Néma and Messima kept up their relationship.
As the months went by both women fell pregnant. The game that the tribe depended upon were themselves migrating south more and more, and the diet of the tribe was becoming largely plant-based from the tapioca found within the forest.
Messima and Néma had become highly proficient midwives. Under their guidance, the death of babies and infants had virtually ceased except for an occasional stillbirth. So when their times came to give birth to their offspring, they were more than ready to share the experience. Néma’s daughter Brinda was born in late November, followed by Messima’s daughter on the morning of the December solstice. Being born to the Shaman on the solstice, Messima was persuaded that her daughter should take her name – Messima. Thereafter the first-born daughter of th
e Shaman would be named Messima.
As winter approached, it was decided that the tribe would migrate to the south. They would follow the mountain streams and live on the fish that were found in the water as they made their way towards the coastal plain many days travel from their village.
Messima carried little Messima on her back in a comfortable sling woven from wool from the alpacas that were found near to the village. The tribe had started to domesticate the animals long before the arrival of the Atlanteans. But it had been Messima who persuaded them to make use of the handy creatures for the task ahead to carry their belongings to their new settlement. Néma also carried her dark-eyed, dark-haired baby Brinda on her back in her papoose.
The half-sisters looked quite similar to each other apart from Messima junior’s piercing blue eyes and white hair. Their father Sidma was a good scout. Alongside his cousin Zed the young men were able to spot danger and keep the party safe. They had managed to navigate around a rival tribe’s village under cover of darkness without alerting them to their presence. Another time a lynx had crept into their camp and killed one of the alpacas. Sidma and Zed had been able to locate the lynx and scare it away from the party before it made any more attacks on them. They lit the tips of their spears that they had covered in tree resin and threw them at the lynx and her cub to persuade her to hunt elsewhere.
After some weary few weeks of travel, the tribe arrived at the edge of the coastal plain with the Pacific Ocean in the distance to the west. The Nazca plain itself was desolate and inhospitable, but the mountains were lush and green with plentiful grasslands for the alpacas to graze and fields of maize gently swaying in the light breeze. There was an adequate water supply, but it appeared that it could be seasonal as it came from meltwater in the high mountains.
The tribe soon set to work to build their settlement here.
Selema allowed Messima and Néma to organise the tribe to build the new village. With tribal knowledge and some Atlantean ingenuity, the new settlement was able to be made at the very edge of the fertile area. Irrigation channels were dug out to expand the area of crops into the arid plain itself. Some aqueducts were also built.
The new village was constructed out of fired mud bricks in a grid pattern around a central square. The huts themselves were square rather than round and were another hybrid concept that fused local materials, tribal building skills and Atlantean technology. There may not have been crystals here to light and power their houses, but their rooves were watertight and kept warm in winter.
As the village developed and prospered into an agrarian town stead, Messima continued to be the Shaman-Healer alongside her young daughter. Néma with her daughter plus her son, who was born in the town, concentrated on developing the agriculture of the area. Wild tomatoes, peppers and chillies were discovered in the hills as Sidma and Zed used their scouting skills to find more sources of food for the tribe. Potatoes or ‘Earth Mothers’ as they became known were discovered under one of the plants that had been mistakenly planted as a tomato. A child had become quite ill after eating it. Messima had been shown one of the fruits by the boy’s mother. She had realised it was the poisonous fruit of the potato plant. The boy was given a herbal poultice for his stomach and made to drink plenty of water. The plants themselves were isolated from the others and replanted in a separate field.
With the onset of Brinda’s first reproductive cycle, the young girl was nominated to be Selema’s successor as chief. A great feast was held in the town square to celebrate. In honour of her family’s Atlantean side, the settlement was named ‘Medina’ after their former home. Members of the tribe were allowed to go up in one of the alpaca skin hot air balloons that Néma had constructed to aid her in setting out the fields and buildings of the city.
On the last balloon ride, an ageing Néma took her wife up to show her a special surprise. As the balloon reached tens of metres in the air, Messima could make out the shape of a monkey set out in the dusty plain of Nazca. Neither woman had seen a monkey since they had left Atlantis for the last time many years ago. Long lines stretched out many kilometres into the distance, lightly etched into the desert plain.
Medina continued to prosper over many years. Selema became elderly then passed away in her sleep of old age. Her grand-daughter Brinda became queen of Medina. Selema’s body was embalmed and preserved in a vault at the edge of the town, as had been agreed by the council of elders with her blessing. Néma also succumbed to a chill that Messima could not cure with her healing knowledge. Only the dolphins could have saved her, she thought.
“Goodbye, my love. I do not think it will be long before I join you.” Messima lit the flames to consume her best friend, wife, lover, companion and concubine. She acknowledged the Atlantean traditions and gave thanks to Amun-Ra with the Great Invocation. The temple that had been Néma’s final project was a fitting place for her funeral pyre to be lit. It was a modest stepped pyramid reminiscent of the magnificent smooth monument once present in Atlán. The Priestess was once more at the Temple of the Sun. The Temple to the Moon was being constructed at the other side of the town square.
That evening Messima hugged Sidma and took to her bed. In the morning, little Messima brought her mother a beaker of herbal tea as she had done for many years. But this time her mother did not wake as she set it down.
Diana awoke from her dream. A tear rolled down her cheek. Stan wiped it off and kissed her.
The End
Diana Garry will return in ‘The Heiress’
Epilogue
Juggling family commitments and her job was still relatively new to Doctor of Archaeology Diana Garry. It used to be work before all else. But that was no longer possible. At least a short dig season to rescue a possible Celtic temple of Bridget from the developers who were turning the industrial waterside of Belfast into luxury flats should be straightforward enough. No mythical cities or dashing knights here next to Harland and Wolf's remaining shipyard. She chuckled to herself as she thought ‘unless I was on the Titanic in a past life!’ She had never had a great fear of water so that could certainly be discounted.
Acknowledgement
My thanks go out to Tiras Verey for producing such excellent cover graphics for this book and the others.
Thanks also need to go to Annie for her initial proofreading. I am sure that the final text is all the stronger for her checking it.
Thanks also to my many friends who humour me over my love for the legend of Atlantis.
Thanks to Sue, Dawn, Steve and my other friends who revived my interest in crystals and skull babies.
And thanks to Philippe for writing such an enthusiastic Forward.
Glossary
Atlán – The capital city of Atlantis with its distinctive concentric rings of islands around a central plaza. The main ports were situated just outside the capital at the junctions with the four great rivers
Atlantis Minor - modern-day Antarctica but before it was covered with ice, and when it was not at the South Pole
Crystal Cutter – a crystal powered ship whose silhouette we would describe as being similar to a Greek galley or a Viking longship, both its linear descendants
Crystalmancer – a specialist geologist who doused and searched for the best seams of crystal formations deep under the ground.
Crystal Stack – the primary power source within Atlantis, networked together and also used to enhance telepathic communication
Great River Delta – The River Plate in modern-day Argentina. Not inhabited and generally feared by Atlanteans
Joslin’s disturbing dark image of a figure standing in a state of heightened anguish we might equate it to ‘The Scream.’
Natural Hot Spring water – geothermal water piped across Atlantis to households from underground volcanic springs
Orichalcum – a very golden brass alloy used as a cheaper substitute to gold. Its modern-day counterpart would be ‘Composition Gold Leaf’ or Schlagmetal - imitation gold leaf made from brass and a combinati
on of copper and zinc, but much thicker
Peruvia – Peru, Chile, Ecuador – a wide coastal strip of modern-day western South America. The Amazon and the East Coast were not inhabited by Atlantean colonists.
Pillars of Heracles/Hercules – Gibraltar. Atlantis was clearly described as being beyond them in the Atlantic rather than in the Mediterranean.
Tuning Rods – used as an aid in tuning into crystal stacks, in much the same way that a suitable aerial strengthens a radio signal in our modern world today
Turtle Shell Lacquer – natural polish made from turtle shells cast-offs from turtles found off of Antarctica
Further Reading
Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly
Edgar Cayce’s Atlantis by Gregory Little and John Van Auken
The Skull Chronicles series by D K Henderson (Fiction)
Critias by Plato
The Priestess Page 13
