Atlantis: City of Mages

by M. Arcturus

  “When she pulled herself out of the water and climbed onto the deck, she realized where the spear had come from. They had cut down the main mast and used it as the spear. She looked at the egg, which she held in her arms, and then at both of them. They didn’t make eye contact with her. Staring down at the deck, they could feel their stomachs fall to their feet. Both of their cultures honored dragons, and they were ashamed for what they had done. Not only did they kill a dragon, but saved the life of the one who had stolen from the dragon’s nest.

  “It took a long time before they reached the shores of Srivijaya without a mainmast, and not a moment had been wasted. The two warriors prayed every day to their gods for forgiveness, but they knew that they were doomed to serve the female captain on a cursed ship. A new ship had been built from the salvageable parts from the old ship, the omen of the damned. Knowing the Emperor of China would pay handsomely for their find, the captain set course for China to deliver the egg. The old shaman and the Tahuni Lingah warrior did not obsess over the price tag on the egg. They knew the real condemning price for their actions. They were bound to a ship that would torment every crew member who dared to man her sails. The ship still sails on haunting winds, ending her crew’s life painfully, one by one.”

  The old man stood up to leave, and the other crew members held their chuckles under their breath until he left. Then, as one group, they broke their silent effort and busted out into hysterics.

  Trying to not blow his cover, Seth held his glass up and leaned back in laughter even though he sat there stunned on the inside. In a way, he knew there was some truth to the old man’s tale. There was a sinking sensation in his gut. Seth looked up, and pure horror crossed his face. Right behind the drunken sailor across from him stood another crew member with his sword drawn, looking right at him. Seth stared back at the guy he was hiding behind and realized the guy had passed out and was slumped over himself. Seth knew it was too late, but couldn’t resist the temptation. He too slumped over, pretending like he hadn’t been caught. It didn’t work. The other sailors stopped laughing when they became ambushed by their own mates. Mutiny had started. The one crew mate looking right at him attacked and drove his blade through Seth, the rogue shadow on the wall. Seth chuckled at the turn of events and slid his shadowy form onto the deck.

  “How about some shadow boxing?” Seth asked the best he could, in their native tongue.

  The sailor pounded his fist on Seth with no luck. Seth slipped away from the pirate and reformed himself near the ship’s railing with his swords drawn. Like a melon, Seth chopped the man’s head in half vertically with one sword; then he slashed through the neck with the other. The pirate’s head rolled around on the deck starting to separate in half before the rest of him had a chance to fall over. Due to the bloodshed, the other pirates had already cut their numbers down by half when Seth confronted three of them near the stern. By now, Seth uncovered his face and the crew froze. They had not seen a creature like him before. Seth was taken back. No one had ever responded to him that way. Because he didn’t know how to take their reaction, he froze for a moment, and that was his big mistake. From behind came one last crew member who brought down a barrel lid on Seth’s head. Crashing to the floor was the last thing Seth remembered.

  Through blurry vision, he squinted his eyes from the yellow glow produced from the lamps. The blaring light echoed off of the surrounding planks of wood and the steel cage he found himself in. His head throbbed as he sat up and rested against the back wall of his confinement. For the time being, he couldn’t think of a way to get himself out. Too many thoughts roamed his head. Pandora had been in her cage for a day and a half by now, and he wouldn’t rest until he got her out!

  A soft shuffling sound passed by his cell. He looked up to see the backside of the old Chinese man he had seen before.

  “Wait!” said Seth standing up. The old man paused, but didn’t turn around. “The story you told. It’s true, isn’t it?” The old man turned around in response to Seth’s comment, but something didn’t look right. Seth couldn’t believe that it was possible, but the old man looked older by at least five more years.

  He hobbled over to Seth’s cell and looked up at him with weak eyes. “Yes, every word is true,” he squinted at Seth for a moment and lightly ran his fingers over the scales on Seth’s face. Seth could feel the old man’s icy touch. “You don’t belong here. You are not one of them. It may not be too late for you. Her sails have not been touched by your hand.”

  Seth looked at him questioningly for a moment, and then the old man continued, “I have done all I can for them. The warning has been sent numerous times, yet they laugh. My price is to fade away while trying to get them to listen to me. They are the only ones that can see me now. The captain and Jarrah stopped seeing me a long time ago.”

  “Jarrah,” said Seth deep in thought. His mind flashed back to when the cargo was being unloaded. He didn’t think too much of it at the time, but the captain was female, and on board was a huge man with dark skin covered in black tattoos. Suddenly, the crew from the old man’s story had faces. It was more real now than Seth had realized.

  Seeing the acknowledgment reach Seth’s face, the old Chinese man continued, “To them, I died a long time ago.”

  Seth didn’t quite understand this comment, but another question stood in its place. “Since they’re not listening, what will happen in the meantime?”

  “I have no choice but to keep trying until I can try no more,” he said. Even this comment was heavier than how the old man said it. The old man’s soft voice made his horrible fate sound like a peaceful day at the park. “Or, if I’m lucky, one of their kin will release me, though I don’t think that will happen. I have a lot to repay. They may not come for me.”

  Seth felt his heart gain an extra pound. So much was not being said. All the heavy sorrow was woven in between the lines of the old man’s words. The old man presented Seth with the keys to the cell door. “May you be free. May they all be free.” Again, Seth felt like crying, but he held it in as the man continued to speak, “They have not sailed too far away from the coast. The ship’s course will not change until they get the cargo back from the Atlanteans. Your boat is where you left it. For some reason, it stays close to the ship.” The old man helped Seth unlocked his cell door, and he was free once again. The old man added, “Don’t worry; the captain will pay her dues.” Seth gave him a strange look, but dismissed his words and walked toward the ladder to the main deck.

  The old man was right; his boat was where he had left it. No one seemed to notice him leave. He looked back up at the junk, and there was the old man, peering back down at him. Almost like a song on the wind, the answers to his questions appeared before him. The original crew was from Malaysia. Judging from the age of the ship and the clothes the crew wore, he could tell that they came from the era when Srivijaya was the most famous seaport ever known, at least until it was replaced about two years ago with the Melaka Empire. Just knowing the origin of the Kinnowwa told him how the crew was able to accept each other even though they were of different descents. Malaysia had many different cultures under her belt including Arabs, Chinese, Indians, Siamese, and Proto-Malays, but Jarrah was still a mystery to him. He didn’t remember Africa being a part of that group of people. The old man mentioned the Devil’s Land. Where was the “Devil’s Land”?

  The captain and Jarrah were the only remaining members of the original crew. The old man must have died a long time ago. He was nothing more than an apparition now, one of the most powerful ones Seth had ever run across. No one had a clue that he was slowly fading out of existence, giving up a piece of his immortal soul with each telling of his story, trying to get the new crew members to see their chosen path. That was his fate, to fade out and never be reborn.

  Still, only one question remained. What was so precious about Juron’s cargo? Then again, who or what was the Chinese man waiting for to save his
life? The knowledge of the crew being cursed was not the type of music he wanted to have floating in his ears. Knowing Pandora’s luck, she would be right there beside them, if not sharing the same cell. He started up the engine and set a course for the palace.

  Selené woke up in a puddle of her own slobber. She wiped off her face the best she could. Still dizzy, she sat up to see what was going on. No longer in her quarters, she found herself in a spotlight in a very dark room. She tried to strain her eyes to see past the curtain of light and into the darkness, but failed. The light was too bright. The diameter of the spotlight was at least thirty feet wide. She was obviously in a very large room. It didn’t take long to notice that she was not alone. The girl she was sent to find hung before her in a net of chains. The chains didn’t have a set structure like a net, but it did its job. She looked like an unfortunate victim in the tentacles of a jellyfish.

  Selené walked up to the blindfolded girl. She didn’t see the point in letting the girl keep the blindfold on, but she was too scared to take it off of her. “Do you have a name?” No response was given. “What is your purpose here?”

  The girl just hung there without making a sound.

  “Are you here to destroy us?” Selené was not surprised when the girl didn’t respond the third time.

  “This is stupid,” whispered Selené. She tried to walk out of the spotlight and into the darkness, but was knocked violently back down onto the floor. She rubbed the side of her hip trying to ease the pain. Realizing she was in a cage of light, anger rested beside panic in her mind. She was sure they had poisoned her food, and just in case she didn’t eat, they poisoned her water supply too. Why were they keeping her here? Taking a closer look at the edge of the light, she noticed that the division of light and dark was like an invisible wall. There was one thing she could see in the darkness, a doorway of light. There was a guard on each side of the door. She eyed their silhouettes.

  Juron had no intention of letting her stay in her quarters. She now understood that she was in the Council room being held prisoner until the Council members gathered. Looking back at the girl, she got up and cautiously approached her. The girl’s long, white, wavy hair framed her face. The underlayer of her hair was black. Just by looking at her, she seemed so much younger than Selené. Figuring the girl felt more alone than anything, she decided to give talking one last try.

  “I’m sorry for asking all of those questions. If I were in your situation, I wouldn’t want to be confronted by them either. My name is Selené. I’m an oracle, as well as a Council member, here on Atlantis. As you can see, our legal system seems to be a little tainted as of late. Your presence here has made a few of us a little jumpy, so we are not being ourselves. Due to the present circumstances, in a way, I’m like you—a prisoner here when I have done nothing wrong. I was asking why you were here, so I could understand where you fit into all of this mess. It will be difficult to help you if I don’t know your side of the story. I don’t expect you to answer me. I’m just lost and asking you for help. Feel free to talk if you change your mind.” The girl did not even show signs of acknowledgment.

  Selené sat back down on the floor with her back resting against the invisible wall. It seemed like hours had passed since she had spoken, and the girl still had not uttered a word. She even noticed the guards change shifts at the door and wondered if food was going to be brought. Deep inside, Selené knew the answer was no. She should have eaten the poisoned food while she had the chance. It was Juron’s new form of wicked punishment. If she was hungry, she should have eaten the food brought to her, would probably be his new response.

  Selené was getting used to the silence and was entering a deep meditative state when there was a bloodcurdling scream. At first, she ignored it and thought it was an echo off in the astral plane, but then there was a second scream, even louder this time. Her eyes snapped open, and she looked to the door in the darkness for an answer. The guards at the door didn’t move, but a group of guards jogged past them in the direction of the staircase leading down toward the jail cells. Selené sat back down, and the lights started to flicker. Soon all the lights went out except for the bright spotlight in which she was encased. It flickered, but it remained strong. The Destroyer’s head shot up from looking down at the ground and was focused right on Selené. The movement caught her off guard, and fear shot through her every nerve. How the girl could see her through the blindfold, Selené had no clue, but she could feel the girl’s piercing stare. Selené was too scared to move.

  Far beneath the Council room, in the jail cells, Pandora looked over at Kajaka, who was now being tormented by the shaded Bennu aroused by the drugged she-demon down the hall. The lights had been flickering for hours as more shadows kept flying through Kajaka’s chest every few seconds, tearing out his energy. His own agonized yells were getting louder with the female’s screams down the hall.

  Pandora couldn’t take it anymore, “Kajaka, what’s going on? Why do they do this to you? Can’t they see that you’re one of them? You are both a form of Bennu, kindred, family.”

  He briefly lifted his head between waves of pain and through clenched teeth, he replied the best he could, “Yes, they’re my family; we are as one, but they are confused and in pain. They sense my blood is a part of their suffering, so they’re sharing their plight, trying to get me to stop. What they don’t understand is that I have no control over what happened to me nor do they understand that I don’t control the situation down the hall. It may be my blood, but it’s not my bidding.”

  Tears rolled down Pandora’s face as she started to scream at the massive shadows, “Stop! Can’t you see he’s chained? He’s in pain, too. Please stop!” Kajaka’s head slumped back down toward his chest. “Kajaka, please don’t give up!”

  Kajaka kept his head down, and his eyes squeezed shut even harder as another shadow burst forth from his chest. Pandora looked around for some sort of window or access to the outside world. She had never summoned plant-life without any earth around to use as a foundation or energy source. Focusing with everything she had, she tried to summon the only thing she could think of to lure the Bennu over into her cell: a pomegranate tree. When nothing happened, it wasn’t that much of a surprise to her.

  Then it hit her. “Kajaka, I know you’re not doing too well, but I need you to think about something. The female down the hall was injected with your blood, or that’s at least what we think. Bennu are creatures of blood, are they not?” She waited for a response before continuing. He lifted his head ever so briefly, so she continued, “Blood is a very powerful source to them. Is there a chance that you could control the very smallest drop of your own blood? Could you tame your raging blood in her veins?”

  As Kajaka started to concentrate on subduing his blood in the woman’s body, there was an instant when time seemed to stand still. Then, with a flash of energy, everything that was in motion when time stopped reversed about five steps. The shadow that was halfway through Kajaka’s chest was sucked back into him and pulled out through his back. When time returned to normal, everything was at peace. The Bennu stood on the floor as silent as could be, and the woman down the hall had stopped screaming. Kajaka and the Bennu remained still out of exhaustion. They were still in discomfort, but it was nothing compared to what they had been through. Pandora wondered about the woman down the hall. Was the female just a few cells away as peaceful as they were, or was the rage inside just waiting for the opportunity to emerge and express itself?

  The lights never did come back on in their cell, but Campanula stopped struggling and hung loose in the chains that fastened her to the wall. Her head was low as the pain subsided. She breathed out loud in relief, but for the first time in hours, she was no longer screaming. Resheda looked at her companion. They hadn’t known each other for very long, but they were like sisters. Not once did it ever cross her mind that she would be afraid of her friend. Never did she know her friend had it in her to
be that animalistic. True, through the hours of her friend’s tormented screams, her fear had finally abated, and now she watched, relieved, to see Campanula at ease.

  There were cracks in the wall from Campanula pulling on her chains. The chains were attached to metal plates, which were screwed to the wall. The marble wall underneath the metal plates had hairline-fractures from where it cracked under Campanula’s strength. For a few moments, Resheda and Campanula hung in silence. The veins on Campanula’s arms and face dived back down below the surface, revealing her beauty.

  Resheda’s crew watched from their cell across the hall. Even they felt more peaceful toward the situation, but not one of them envied Resheda. No amount of riches could lure them into the cell with Campanula. Though things seemed quiet, the last few moments filled with happy thoughts had only begun to replace the horrid hours they had witnessed.

  Resheda looked down at the floor, closed her eyes, and started to rest. A small crumbling sound broke the silence along with little bits of rubble hitting the floor like sand behind Campanula. The chains had held her taut throughout all of her frantic physical strain, but under her constant sagging weight, they were giving way. Campanula had loosened the screws’ grip to the wall, and now her concentrated weight was too much for it to handle.