by G. K. Lund
“Why didn’t you tell me you had Guardians following you?” he said while he attempted to sit up. A lazy kick sent him back down again. The guy sighed like this was a mere nuisance.
“Tell you?” I laughed at that. “Help you, you mean? Like you so graciously helped me with your little light up there?”
“Come now, Chastity, you’re acting like I stole your beer or something.”
“I, what?” I made a growling noise at that. “It’s not Chastity, and you used me to escape the Guardians, didn’t you? That’s why you let me come through the Veil.”
Loki shrugged, or at least tried to with his hands tied behind his back. “Price of admission.”
“You’re an asshole.” I couldn’t find a better description.
Loki only rolled his eyes. Then his attention moved elsewhere, and I noticed it too. The sound of an approaching carriage. Yes, fun fact about Atlantis. The city had never caught up with everything the modern world Earthside had to offer, cars being one of them. There was electricity, but since magic was a disturbance, it required quite a lot of it to keep the electrical grid going. Not everyone in the city even had access to it. Television was a no-go, though the city had several radio channels. Atlantis had still not entered the computer age, so I was not surprised to see a horse-drawn carriage approach. What made my stomach tie into knots was the sight of the bars on the little window in the door on that carriage.
“All right, boys,” one of the Guardians shouted above the chatter. “Let’s send them to the big place.”
No-no-no-no was all I could think as I was manhandled into the carriage with Loki. The big place was, of course, the Pyramid. And after that? Prison or banishment.
Not again.
The ride through the city was quiet inside the carriage. I had nothing to say to Loki, and no way to escape. Guardians were placed on top and would stop us before we even got the door open.
The sounds of the city passed us by. I could hear the hum of multitudes of voices; people going about their day, haggling, arguing, shouting, gossiping. The smells of perfumes, meat, fish, and horse dung blended, reminding me of home, despite the overwhelming sense of it. I hadn’t been used to these sensory images in a while. Cities Earthside always stank of exhaust and urine, with the occasional bakery interrupting with the most tempting smells. There was nothing of that now, though.
Those sounds and smells lessened a bit when we drew nearer Titan Heights with the Pyramid at the center. The closer one got to the literal center of the city, the richer the citizens got. The cobblestones were also more even, making the carriage ride marginally more comfortable.
Not long after, the motions of the carriage got smoother, and I knew we were too close for comfort.
“Been here before, I see,” Loki remarked, eying me.
I didn’t answer him, but he was not wrong. When the carriage finally stopped and the Guardians escorting us came to take us outside, I could feel the megalithic monument looming over me as if to crush me where I stood. Once, I had looked up at it with joy when I entered, but that had been another life. A life where I used the main entrance. Now, I was escorted in via a side door. I glanced up anyway then. I didn’t know if I’d ever see it again. The stepped levels looked gigantic from so close, and even though I craned my neck back, I couldn’t see the top.
Then I was pushed inside a door, and the cold stone walls of the Pyramid enclosed on us. For how long was a question I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to at that point. The Pyramid also housed dungeons below.
“Move your feet,” one guard told us and gave us both a push to make his point. The problem was, we had no idea where we were going, so this happened many times while we were herded through long corridors. Everything inside and outside the Pyramid was stone; all kinds, granite, steatite, sandstone, even marble in some places. Whoever had built this thing had needed more than one quarry to provide the building materials, and so it was a mishmash of rock minerals. Some said it had been built over long periods, because there were different techniques and materials, but the overall impression when looking at the building was only of a cohesive megalithic construction of such a magnitude that the various colors of the stone seemed to meld together into a dark hue, even in daylight, though it could appear slightly more dark gray then.
I sighed and tried for the umpteenth time to wriggle my hands out of the bindings. It only earned me a shove forward, and I had to focus not to stumble and fall. The long corridors showed nothing but doors leading into what had once likely been chambers but now served as offices. The cold down here was another clue. We were on the lower levels where public servants and suchlike worked. At the top was where the ministers, one magic and one non-magic, and the council of second ministers would be. At least I assumed that to be the case by now. When last I’d been here, it was the army that had been in charge.
“Wait here,” the surly guard told us when we stopped in front of a brown wooden door. It was as plain as any other door down here. The man knocked and stepped inside after a muffled “come!” sounded from within.
The last guard had Loki and me press back against the wall, and with the cool temperature so far down in the pyramid, and standing against the cold stone, I was again grateful for my warm jacket.
“I should have taken my chances with Reginald,” I mumbled, but apparently ex-gods have good hearing.
“Yes. Human sacrifice seems to be your thing.”
“Says the guy who killed three people with the flick of a finger.”
“Now you just sound like my wife. They were trying to kill me, you know. I find that disagreeable.”
“She has my heartfelt sympathies.”
“What?”
“Your wife. Poor thing, having to deal with your crap.”
“Hey. That’s not nice. If I remember correctly, they were going to kill you too.”
“You know what? I—”
“Will you two shut up!” The guard said, his voice dry as kindling. It was not a question.
We both eyed him, considered our bonds, his insanely bulky stature, and did exactly that. Not long after, the door opened and the other Guardian stepped outside with a knife ready in his hand. Well, it looked like a sword, but to him, it was likely a long knife. I exhaled in relief moments later when I realized he was cutting us loose, not into pieces. The door stood open behind him, revealing an office in there. A man sat behind a desk and he waved us in. I followed Loki and noticed, when the door closed behind us, that the two Guardians were not walking away but remained out there.
“Welcome,” the man said, and I turned to see him properly. He arose a bit awkwardly from his chair, not bothering to push it back fully because he was sitting down again quickly. “Have a seat,” he added, and indicated two wooden chairs that faced his desk. We both sat. Though we were free of our bonds, we were unarmed, deep in the Pyramid, with two Guardians nearby, and a man we had no idea who was; I.e. how dangerous he was.
“My name is Agaton Groth. I am the Senior Security Officer in the Office of Domestic Affairs,” he told us. He sat leaning forward, his hands folded on the desk. The man was hard to describe insofar as he was, in a sense, indescribable. He was neither handsome nor ugly, not old or young, not thin or fat. His hair was a darkish blond, his skin tan, and olive, his eyes a light brown. My first impression was that he’d make a great spy. It would be hard to remember him properly. Given our current whereabouts, spy was not that far-fetched. He wasn’t military, that was for sure. He wore no uniform, and Lantean soldiers loved their uniforms.
“So,” Agaton said after he’d stared at us both a moment. Since it was clear we weren’t up for making introductions he sat back a little, still with his back straight, and opened a paper folder on his desk. “It’s been about two years since most of the trials by now,” he said, and I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“We’ve been having extra guards stationed in the mines for a month now. You two are not the first ones to
have tried coming through and being quiet about it.” He shook his head like this was some folly he couldn’t understand. Of course he couldn’t. He hadn’t been banished, had he?
“So,” he repeated as Loki and I stared at him. It didn’t bother the man in the least. “Emerald Chastity Morgan.” He read my name out loud, slow, and with purpose. Then he skimmed down the file and gave me a long look. “Yes. You match the description.” He looked down into the file again. “You go by Emery?”
I could only nod at this.
“Yes,” he nodded and went on. “By the account here, you’ve been gone Earthside for seven hundred and thirty-one days. Two years and a day.”
“That’s should put me well outside the limit,” I said, a bit of defiance in my voice because I knew I was right.
“Banished for…” Agaton went on like he hadn’t heard me, “not treason, I see. Interesting. But aiding and abetting the Red Kin in their short-lived reign.”
I didn’t think six years was all that short, but in a city that was thousands of years old, even I had to admit that it could all be written off as a footnote in the history books.
“Hah!” Loki laughed. “I knew it. A little Kinswoman.”
“Shut your face!”
“Ahem.” Agaton cleared his throat at this childish display. I looked everywhere else for a moment, embarrassed and angry. There was nothing to look at except more stone, a couple of filing cabinets, and the simple yet sturdy desk and the non-descript man behind it. He put my file aside for a moment and opened another one. It wasn’t lost on me that it was a lot thicker.
“Loki Leeighhh… um, Mr. uh, Leeevee… leeouuf, uh…”
“Oh, for crying out loud!” Loki snapped. “It’s Leufey. It’s not that difficult—”
“I thought you said your name was Loft,” I interrupted.
Loki shrugged. “I have many names and—”
“Very well,” Agaton broke him off. “Loki Loft it is,” he declared and pointedly crossed out the first surname and replaced it with the other one.
Loki sighed as if the world was a place filled with people of lesser intelligence, poor him, and so on.
“What do we have here?” Agaton said, skimming the first couple of pages. “Dear me,” he shook his head and tsked at Loki. “The most recent thing though is aiding and abetting the Red Kin.”
“What?” I blurted and sat up straight. I glared at Loki. “No you didn’t. When?”
“Pfft,” he waved his hand in front of his face and blew my question off. “A favor here and there, and they banish you like you’re one of the actual traitors.” He cocked his head sideways and considered me. I hadn’t known him long, but somehow already braced for an insult. “I thought you were one though, Red.”
Exactly.
“No,” Agaton said, apparently coming to my defense. “Ms. Morgan here, was too young when she joined the organization—”
“Organization? Is that what we’re calling it now?” Loki asked.
“Well, cult. It’s so crass though, but there we are.”
It wasn’t crass. It was hard, difficult, and the sad truth. I huffed and slumped back against the uncomfortable chair.
“As her position within the, ah, cult never seemed to result in actual crimes, we couldn’t convict her of any. Except, of course, the fact that she helped and worked for an organization that staged a coup d’état and took over our beloved city-state.”
“We didn’t” I began, but he held up a hand to silence me.
“Your trial is over, Ms. Morgan. You were found guilty and exiled for two years. We are not here for a repeat of your former and unfortunate life choices. What we have to deal with now, is the crime you committed today. Both of you,” he added to Loki in case it wasn’t clear.
“If I’ve calculated correctly,” Loki began and swung one leg to rest the ankle on his knee while he leaned back, “and I am excellent at arithmetic,” I pointedly rolled my eyes, “I have also been away for exactly seven hundred and thirty-one days. The banishment was for two years. I remember it well.”
“The crime is entering Atlantis and then not reporting to the nearest Guardian at once. You tried sneaking in and then gave our brave men quite the chase. That is a serious crime.”
I knew it was. But the chance of being banished again, or given an added punishment, wasn’t really what I wanted, nor what Loki had wanted for that matter, considering he’d tried to do the exact same thing. I had planned to return home and keep my head low until things died down and people moved on. It was usually how these things went. Not when you got caught too early, of course.
“What do you want?” Loki asked. I stared at him in shock. Was he attempting to bribe a public officer?
“I want nothing, Mr. Lll-oft.” Agaton drew a composed breath as if he hadn’t stumbled at all.
“Of course you do. If you didn’t, you’d have already thrown us into the dungeon to await our new trials.”
Agaton stared at him, no fear in his eyes. He had to know about the guy’s past. The thing about gods in Atlantis though, whether ex or not, was that their powers were severely diminished. Oh, there was magic all right. There was a lot of magic, but not for the gods of old. I had no clue what caused it, but Loki was likely not much more than a mid-level mage here. The show he’d pulled off back in Alaska? That was likely only a fraction of what he could do Earthside. And Earthside was the place the gods of old had their powers to begin with. So, no, Agaton had little to fear. The presence of the Guardians and our presence inside the pyramid made it impossible for Loki to do much before he was snuffed out.
“As you can both surely understand, there was a chaotic time after the fall of the Red Kin,” Agaton said. “The army had to step in and create order. There has been a two-year transitioning period, and we now have a government ready to step in and take over. There will probably be a new queen elected, so you see—we have been cleaning up the mess, as it were.”
A Queen? I couldn’t say I was surprised. It was the habit of the Lanteans to elect queens after times of turmoil; strong, level-headed regents to guide the city through hard times. The kings had always been considered a little too hot-headed, and usually to have caused the turmoil in the first place. Still, it sounded like things had gotten back to normal quite fast.
“Well, not entirely,” Agaton reluctantly admitted when I mentioned this. “There is an issue with the coronation of whoever is elected.”
“Why do I sense this will become my problem?” Loki muttered.
Agaton ignored him. “After the unfortunate reign of the Red Kin, several valuable and dangerous items disappeared from the Pyramid.”
“Items?”
“You don’t need to be concerned with the specifics, Ms. Morgan. Suffice it to say, your cohorts made a mess of some of our beloved city’s most treasured objects.”
“And that’s where we come in, is it?” Loki scoffed at the thought. “Because you lost your trinkets?”
“Not trinkets, Mr. Loft. Symbols of our great empire. Our history. I’d like for you two to get some of them back for us.”
Loki shook his head yet smiled. “This is a joke.”
“Not really. I’m not laughing.” Agaton’s face was void of mirth of any kind.
“Why us?” I asked, my mind finally beginning to catch up to the fact that we were not going to the dungeons, or back Earthside.
“Because we are expendable, I’m sure,” Loki said.
“Quite right,” Agaton agreed. “Very much so. Neither of you were convicted of treason, but you did not do the right thing. This is your chance. Also, I have no interest in sending good, honest people to do such a task.”
Meaning, he did not want to risk anyone else’s lives. Only our worthless ones. I sighed. The knowledge stung. Even though I had expected nothing less.
“And if we say no?” Loki asked.
“Who’s we?” I countered. “What choice do I have?”
“Exactly,” Agaton agreed. “You don
’t. Either of you,” he added with a pointed look in Loki’s direction.
“What do we have to do?” I asked.
Agaton looked down at our files for a moment, his hands on top of them, fingers splayed. Then he looked up at me. “It’s simple. We have a problem. There is an impending coronation. Unfortunately, there is a problem with the crown jewels. More specifically, the crown.
I had seen none of these jewels. I’d never attended a coronation either, despite the fact that they were open to the public.
“A few jewels are missing. Some of them are of less significance and we can have them replaced. But there are three missing that, well, let’s just say their disappearance is an inconvenience.”
“You mean it’s an embarrassment and a reminder of the coup when foreign dignitaries notice?” Loki asked.
“I want you to find them,” Agaton went on as if Loki hadn’t said a word.
“But… I don’t know how to find things,” I protested, my voice unable to hide my confusion. I was a nobody. A former secretary with some added fighting skills. That was it. I knew how to follow a leader, not find missing relics.
“I want you to find them,” Agaton repeated, ignoring me too. He leaned down and retrieved an envelope from a drawer in his desk. After a moment to think about it, he handed it to me. “This is what we know. Use it and don’t come back without the gem.”
“But—”
“Do you want another trial and banishment, Ms. Morgan?” The man raised his eyebrows while staring at me, obviously not expecting me to answer.
“Three gems?” Loki said.
“Yes.”
“And we can go after?”
Agaton shook his head in disbelief. “Let’s see if you can even bring back one. Alive.”
Loki did not seem impressed. “Do you know—”
“If you were just about to say do you know who I am?” I interrupted him. “So help me, I’ll—”
