Atlantis: City of Mages

by M. Arcturus

  He landed softly on the steps outside of the main entryway to the palace and extinguished his flame. Not much had accumulated on the steps, but Aros watched his footing as to not slip on the freshly fallen snow. The cold winter winds had not picked up yet, but he could tell that the frost dragons were working on it. Slowly kneeling to the ground, he laid her across his knee. She had been crying so hard that she shook all over and gasped for air. He brushed the hair out of her face, allowing the tiny flakes of snow to land on her. Tears welled up in his eyes when he saw what had happened to her. “No, this can’t be!” He gasped.

  “Aros what is it?” Hermetrien had landed, walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Icarus wasn’t far behind her. As he tried to get a closer look, she blocked his advancements with her wings.

  “Her eyes, they’re burnt closed. She can’t see!” He cried with a greater force than he had ever before. “Selené, are you alright? We’ll fix this, I swear to you!” Selené didn’t respond, and the tears kept falling. Addressing Hermetrien, he added, “She trusted me. I’m so sorry, Selené!”

  Hermetrien peered over his shoulder to look at Selené herself. Blisters had already formed on her eyelids. Now feeling the sympathy, herself, she quietly asked, “If your flame did that, I wonder if your screeching hurt her as well. Do you think she can hear us?”

  Hermetrien was right. She never did respond to him. “I’m not sure.” He lifted his head to face Selené and tried to calm her down, “Can you hear me?” Other than her frantic gasping cries, no response was given.

  “No!” shouted Icarus.

  Hermetrien felt useless and sank to the ground, no longer feeling the strength to hold Icarus back. To keep Icarus at bay, Aros encased Selené as well as himself inside of his golden wings. Within the cocoon of his wings, Selené thrashed around wildly as he mustered all the spare energy he had on stilling his mind. Using a form of energy healing, he drew the life force of the Universe down through his crown charka and out through his hands, emanating a calm stillness that nestled inside of Selené. As the energy flowed into her, she still couldn’t hear, and her eyes were burnt shut, but the ringing stopped, and the pain from her eyes ceased.

  He walked up to the edge of her mind and whispered, “Selené, I am so sorry! I didn’t know that my flame would hurt your eyes or that my cry would hurt your ears. Please forgive me.” He reassuringly ran his fingers through her hair, “You are among friends, and it may take some time, but there is a way to heal this. I will not leave Atlantis until you are healed, just please relax.” Her mind was too frantic to hear him, but the calm energy she felt made her unwind. She gave one last gasp, and then she laid still. For the first time in many painful hours, she was at peace, breathing calmly.

  They stepped out of the safety of the woods and into what was left of the palace gardens. The flowers, shrubs, and earth were charred to a crisp. Some bushes were still ablaze, and bodies were lifelessly scattered about as a few dragons periodically flew high above. They ducked every time they saw one fly over. Sticking closely to the shrubbery, they stayed as low as they could, advancing toward the palace. At first, they thought it was just ash floating around in the air, but snow had started to fall lightly from the sky.

  Like a vortex opening up to a new dimension, dark clouds formed and started to turn black, moving in a circular rotation eating up the smoky haze along with the last bit of daylight. Lightning flashed, and thunder rolled along the flatlands as Pandora leaned in closely to Seth’s ear and whispered, “Thundersnow! I wonder what caused the weather to change?”

  Seth eyed the dragon circling high above, “I’ll give you three hints. It’s big, angry, and loves to flame Atlanteans.” The others looked up to see the dragon Seth was staring at. They all stopped at once, hoping that they were overlooked. Taking a quick breather, they saw two phoenixes fly over and land in front of the palace.

  Once the patrolling dragon flew away, they started onward toward the next charred shrub. Pandora approached Seth with another thought, “I’ve never seen phoenixes here on Atlantis before. I wonder why they are here?” Seth just shrugged and gave her the signal to keep quiet. Though Seth didn’t answer her, she did get the attention of an onlooker who flew away unnoticed. The onlooker didn’t waste a moment to gather reinforcements. In no time, the group was being followed by what looked like a miniature dark wave of smoke rolling along the ground.

  Continuing on, Pandora followed Seth to the next bush. She looked back at the rest of their party to make sure they were keeping up. Sorbek looked a little too big for this mission, but he remained as graceful as possible. Giséi did her best to keep him in line. Anthony and the two palace guards had decided to match Seth’s speed and run parallel with him just one row over. She still didn’t notice the dark smoke following the group. While crouched down, she looked at the ground and gasped, which unnerved Sorbek and caused him to lose his footing and step on a branch, producing a loud crack. The dragon circling high above heard the commotion and cocked its head to look downward. When peering down wasn’t enough, it decided to swoop back around. Seth scurried back to the bush where Pandora was hiding to see what had happened.

  “Pandora, are you alright?” He followed her stare to the dead man lying on the ground, which was looking back at her. His eyes were so lifeless she barely recognized that it was Raydorian. “That’s what this is about?” Seth’s voice was edgy.

  “I’m sorry he scared me!” She replied to Seth still staring at Raydorian in disbelief. Because they had been on the run since the beginning of the war, she understood the severity of the situation, but felt removed from the death surrounding them until that very moment. Reality sunk in and tears began to well up in her eyes.

  “You could have cost us our lives! Keep quiet,” he whispered forcefully. “I need you to collect yourself and do your best to stay strong.” Seth pointed to Raydorian, “That could be anyone of us if we don’t stay quiet and hold it together.” Pandora drew in a breath trying to calm her nerves. She knew she had better keep her mouth shut for the remainder of the distance until they reached the palace. For the time being, mourning for her friend would have to wait.

  After the dragon’s second round of circling and not seeing anything out of the ordinary, the dragon flew back into its original patrolling orbit. Sorbek released a sigh of relief. That’s when he heard it—a soft chorus of chirps. He looked behind him and Giséi to see a dark wave of smoke headed toward them. As he squinted his eyes, he noticed that the wave was actually a flock of little black dots. He could almost make out a pair of tiny little legs carrying each little black dot. As the blob got closer, the chirps got louder. It was a herd of Bennu!

  Before he had time to react, they ran past him and Giséi. Some even ran him over. They ran up his back, over the top of his head and jumped off the tip of his nose. He was in such shock, he didn’t move and didn’t know how to react. The little feet of the Bennu tickled him, and he tried to keep from laughing, hoping that they would stop soon. Giséi crawled out of the way, watching the spectacle. It was amusing her to see the strong, brave wolf-man allow the little birds to use him as a runway. Even Giséi had a hard time trying not to laugh.

  The herd of Bennu made a beeline straight for Pandora. Surrounding her, they all hopped up and down chirping. On occasion, their flames would ignite them, making them seem more opaque than their usual shadowy forms. One even perched on a twig in the bush right by her head. It puffed up its feathers, spread its wings out and lifted its head to demonstrate a high level of pride. The little Bennu almost looked as if it was mimicking the phoenixes, which had just flown overhead. Seth’s face lit up with anger. Anthony watched from the next row of bushes and knew he had to intervene before Seth backtracked to Pandora’s location.

  Anthony pulled the two palace guards together. “I’m going over there to help,” he said to the guards. “If anything happens, stay put, and don’t make a sound!” He cr
awled in the dirt, making his way over to Pandora. With success, he made it to her before Seth did, but that didn’t deter Seth’s rage.

  “What do you think you are doing?”

  “It’s not like I asked them to come and make loud noises,” Pandora said to Seth as she looked him square in the eyes and continued in a hushed voice, “I understand why you were upset with me when I was loud, but I cannot control the Bennu. I love you very much, but back off!”

  “I would love to hear you two lovebirds bicker all day, but I think we need to see if the Bennu are trying to tell us something.” As Anthony spoke, Sorbek and Giséi joined the group.

  Pandora directed her attention to the little Bennu, “Please quiet down. One at a time please.”

  The Bennu next to her head squawked at the others. In response, they stopped chirping and looked at the Bennu in the bush. Once again, he took his pose. Its little flame sparked up, and its true colors came shining through. The Bennu’s yellow and cerulean-blue flames sparkled in their eyes.

  “Oh, that’s what you’re trying to tell us.” Seth and Anthony looked curiously at Pandora as she spoke, “The Bennu are phoenixes. Since the appearance of the larger phoenixes, they’re getting their strength back.”

  About that time, there was a distinct thud that hit the ground right behind Anthony and Seth. Pandora, Sorbek, and Giséi looked up with wide eyes. As Anthony and Seth turned and stared up in response, they saw it too. It was a young adult, not the largest they had seen, but still intimidating. The dragon peered down at them sizing them up. Its green reptilian eyes stared at them as the navy-blue scales on its back became rich with color as blood raced through its veins. The yellow ocher scales on its torso as well as the inside of its wings magnified in color as its blood pressure rose. Letting out a loud, screechy growl, it contemplated its attack.

  The Bennu huddled around Pandora and the group. Even though Anthony had advised the two palace guards to keep quiet, they whimpered in panic, hopped up on their feet and ran. The dragon turned its head seeing the two run off. As it turned its head back to look at the group sitting on the ground, the Bennu fluffed up, ignited and, in a rainbow flash, the group appeared to vanish right before the dragon’s eyes. Slightly blinded by the flash, it sniffed around, but with all of the ash and snow flying about, it couldn’t pick up their scent. Going after the only targets left, it went after the two guards who were still running and screaming in terror.

  Soon, one guard was pinned under one front claw as the other guard was held up to the dragon’s jaws by the other front claw. Even though the dragon was quite a few rows away, Pandora and the group could hear the guard screaming followed by the popping and cracking sound of his body being ripped to shreds. They felt bad for the living palace guard pinned down to the ground. His fate was next, and they knew it was too late for him. As much as what they wanted to save him, this was their only chance to get away. The Bennu released them from the vanishing spell. Pandora kissed the little head of the blue Bennu bird.

  “Thank you for letting us know your secret,” she told the Bennu. “I can honestly say that I feel honored.” The group took off the rest of the way to the palace as all of the Bennu took flight, causing another distraction to preoccupy the dragon. Once the Bennu had cleared the location, the dragon looked to where the group had been sitting on the ground, but there was no trace of them, so it greedily continued its feast.

  They made it to the base of Mt. Caspen. Most of the group believed the main entryway was the only way into the palace. In order to reach the main entryway unnoticed, they would need to climb up the rock foundation of the marketplace. Once they reached the top, the main entryway would be right there off to the left. From the ground, the foundation looked like a massive stone wall bordering the market’s platform, which stood at least sixty feet high.

  Dreading the climb, Seth silently held on to his reservations. Only Seth knew of the possibility of another entrance. Once again, hoping against all odds, he desperately looked around for an access point into the Comand Center. The others looked at him for a moment, wondering what he was looking for, but he didn’t want to get their hopes up by telling them that the Command Center was right there on the other side of the wall. If they could just get into the Command Center, they could waltz right on into the palace with no walls to climb. Realizing that all of the access points were on the other side of the marketplace, he knew that if he survived this, he was going to have a word with the engineers. This was a serious design flaw! Giving up his search, he paused and stared up at the wall. Scaling the wall was not going to be a piece of cake, but seeing no other way, he gave them a head nod to assure them he was ready. Despite his quick resolve to his own dread, the others were still more uneasy about the climb than he was, but with determination, they started their grueling ascent.

  When they tried to look up to see where they were going, falling ash and snow threatened to get in their eyes. The wind rolling off of the falls under the causeway had become arctic blasts, turning the snow, which had landed on the rocks, into an icy, slushy mess. As Pandora reached for rocks to climb, her leather corset revealed her stomach, exposing it to the bitter cold. Her arms were already frozen, and the metal swords and axes she carried chilled her when they touched her flesh. Even her fingers had become numb, causing her grip to slip from time to time. She did her best to summon any form of plant life from the earth below, but it appeared that the cold weather not only kept her from concentrating, but also kept the plants in a state of hibernation.

  Seth and Anthony were already at the top by the time she poked her head over the edge of the rock to announce her victory over the steep stone wall. Giséi was still struggling to help Sorbek up the stony obstacle. His wolf-like fingernails were too sharp and pointed to grasp the icy rocks. Hermetrien, who had landed there with Aros not too long ago, collected herself from the shock of Selené’s state of health and walked over to the rock ledge to help Pandora over as Seth and Anthony caught their breath. She glanced over the edge and saw that Giséi and Sorbek were still struggling to climb the wall. Giséi looked up and gave Hermetrien a sheepish wave.

  Spreading her wings, Hermetrien flew down and wrapped her arms around Sorbek. His weight became strenuous as she tried to lift him to the wall’s crest. Barely making it to the top, the others were there to help pull the large wolf over the rocky ledge. Smiling a silent thank you, she flew back down for Giséi who had become astonishingly fast without her extra burden and was over halfway to the top. Without any warning, Hermetrien snatched up Giséi and flew her to the main entryway to join the others.

  “Cheater,” mumbled Giséi as she was set down.

  “Nice to see you too, Giséi,” replied Hermetrien with a smile. “I like the name you have chosen for yourself.”

  “How did you—”

  “I read it in a Council report,” assured Hermetrien.

  Giséi didn’t reply, for she noticed that the others were gathered around a pile of snow. Icarus was shouting at the mound and pounding on it with his fist. Anthony and Seth tried to pull him away. When that didn’t work, Sorbek walked over, picked Icarus up by the throat and sat down with him on the staircase leading to the palace. Once Aros realized that Icarus had stopped punching him, he shifted his wings, uncovering Selené. Selené’s sobs were no longer muffled by Aros’s wings and could now be heard by everyone. Aros squeezed and rocked her trying to get her to stop. Out of concern, Anthony ran to their side. Icarus tried to join them, but Sorbek’s hold was too strong.

  “What happened to her?” Anthony’s words were caring and innocent, yet they still pained Aros’s heart with guilt as if they were filled with accusation.

  “There was an accident on our way here. A conflict with a dragon arose, and I ignited my flame and screeched at the dragon in hopes to get him to stand down. We assume that my flame burnt her eyes shut, maybe even blinded her. She doesn’t seem to be responding to so
und either. It could be that my screech deafened her. I’m not sure how to heal her. It would take too long given the circumstances.”

  “So, you’re going to leave her like that?” Anthony asked in shock and disbelief.

  “That’s not my intent, but if you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of a war. It takes time for a healing and right now, time is something we don’t have.” Aros then mumbled as if talking to himself, “We need to find those dragon eggs.”

  Anthony took her from his arms, and pleaded, “There must be a way to heal her quickly.”

  Pandora was worried about Selené, but the fascination of the phoenixes distracted her. The pieces of the puzzle locked together in her head as she inspected Hermetrien’s wings. Shadow, Kajaka, the Bennu, they all were phoenixes. Just like everyone else on Atlantis, she thought they either died off or were just a myth. What a discovery this was to her! If only she had a chance to tell her mother.

  A shadow washed over them as a long, slender, beige wind dragon landed behind them. She had the body of an Oriental dragon, yet the head of a European dragon. Her silver armor had a gold sheen that gleamed brightly under the cloudy sky. The helmet covered the top of her nose and came down the sides of her face, narrowing as it arched up across the top of her cheekbone. The part of the helmet that ran the side of her face had a long metal horn on each side that was bent forward, parallel to her mouth. Her suit was adorned with long needle-like spikes. The snow that landed on her armor melted into drops of precipitation, slowly washing off the blood on the armor, one small drop at a time.

  Her body tensed as she mustered up the strength to screech out a loud growling roar. Aros turned to face her. Squinting her eyes, she glared at him through her armor, as if trying to decide what exactly she was looking at. “So, this is what became of our feathered kin. You humanized yourselves! No wonder most of you have gone into hiding.” Her voice held a hidden laugh. “I would hide too if I looked like that.”