The Last Atlanteans

by Katrina Ryan

  What is that about? Victoria wondered. She hoped Athelea wasn’t putting too much faith into her ability to restore Atlantis. At the moment, the most she felt she could do was perhaps fill the empty canals with rowboats, but even that wasn’t going to bring the Atlanteans back. Something needed to change in their approach to helping Atlantis, but she wasn’t sure what or how.

  “I feel we’ve cleared up as much as we reasonably can, ladies,” Athelea said after they had eaten lunch in the Plaza. It was early afternoon, and from what Victoria could tell, they’d made their way through every main street in the city. “Thank you both so much for all your help. Shall we rest on the beach for a while?”

  “Yes, please,” Sarah answered, while Victoria looked at the sky. The morning had been warm, and even though the day was hot now, it felt humid, like it could rain later. Her body ached, even though Athelea had invoked various dexes to prevent sunburn and keep her and Sarah from tiring. She had never imagined she’d work so hard in Atlantis.

  “Don’t worry about the weather,” Athelea said, following her gaze. “Every day since the Atlanteans disappeared, it’s been sunny in the day and rainy at night. I don’t know exactly why, but the weather never seems to change. I call it the Night Rain.”

  “That’s probably the only predictable part of Atlantis,” Victoria said, fighting a smile. She and Sarah followed Athelea out of the city and walked along the coastal path for a few minutes, until they reached the enormous beach with the shipwreck in the bay.

  “What happened here?” Victoria asked. “I’ve always wondered about the wreck.”

  “This is Shipwreck Beach,” Athelea said. “Legend says that a drunk Atlantean sailor took his lover here on his ship on a summer night and accidentally crashed it when the tide went out the next morning. The wreck has been left here ever since.”

  “I’m so glad you’re here to tell us these stories,” Sarah said, voicing what Victoria had been thinking. Victoria realized they could easily spend all summer in this amazing place, though she wasn’t sure how such a long stay would work logistically. Aiden and Andrea would worry, even if they thought she was safe somewhere in England. Even if today was the only day I ever had here, she thought, it was worth it.

  “I will leave you here for an hour, if you wouldn’t mind terribly,” Athelea said, interrupting her thoughts. “There are a few more errands I must attend to before evening.”

  “Of course,” Victoria said. She was used to Athelea disappearing and returning like breath. “I could spend the whole day here.”

  Athelea said goodbye and disappeared down the coastal path. For a moment, Victoria wondered where she was going, but before she could speculate, Sarah had stripped to her swimsuit under her dress and splashed into the water.

  “This beach is amazing,” Sarah said. “Atlantis is amazing.”

  Victoria followed, happy to be doing something so normal for summer. The water was a perfect temperature, and the fine sand felt like a cloud under her feet. She walked nearly halfway to the wreck before the water became too deep, and she followed Sarah in swimming the rest of the distance.

  “Is the ship made of diamonds?” Sarah asked as they pushed themselves onto the deck. “It’s glittering.”

  “Probably Atlan stone,” Victoria said, touching the door leading to the cabin. It swung open to reveal a large room which the captain had probably occupied. “It looks and feels like the stone around the city. It’s amazing that it could float.”

  “It’s completely empty,” Sarah observed from over her shoulder. “I wonder why?”

  Victoria shrugged. “Someone probably emptied it after the accident. I bet it was carrying valuable cargo.”

  Victoria led the way out of the room to the bow of the ship and sat on the deck. There was enough breeze here to make the warmth of the afternoon comfortable, and the view out onto the rest of the bay was spectacular from this height.

  “Wouldn’t it be amazing if the boys were here?” Sarah asked.

  Victoria’s heart skipped a beat at the thought of Tom laying shirtless next to her on the beach. “It would be. Tom would adore the architecture and the dexes, and Nick would love all the history Atlantis has to offer,” she said after a moment. For a second, she considered asking if Sarah had thought much about Nick these past few days, but decided against it. “But I couldn’t imagine them ever being here. I’m still amazed we managed the journey ourselves.”

  “I know what you mean. I can see you miss him, though,” Sarah said.

  “I do miss him,” Victoria said. She felt a stab of regret that the he and Nick would never know about Atlantis, but she understood now that it would have to stay a secret forever. “We’ve never been apart this long. I don’t feel complete without him.”

  Running her fingers along the deck, Victoria noticed a frosted glass panel on the floor. She stared at it for a few seconds, debating whether it was safe to touch. “Steering system, maybe?” Sarah guessed over her shoulder, echoing Victoria’s thoughts. It didn’t look like a window into the lower decks.

  Victoria ran her fingers along the panel, applying pressure in a few different directions. With even the slightest motion, she could swear that the ship shifted in response to her touch. Victoria looked around the deck of the ship again. There wasn’t any sort of helm in sight.

  “Definitely a steering system,” Sarah said, watching with interest. A hissing sound recalled their attention to Victoria’s hand. The stone underneath seemed to be dissolving. Victoria pulled her hand away, leaving a glowing blue imprint of her palm with a small, glittering key in the middle.

  “Sarah, do you see any locks around here?” she asked.

  Sarah looked around the boat for a few seconds, then shook her head.

  Victoria hesitated, then picked up the key. The metal was smooth and perfectly preserved, and the head had a beautiful design that looked like a bird. “This could go anywhere,” she mused. “Why do you think it was hidden?”

  “No idea. Can we keep it?” Sarah asked, staring at the key with longing. Victoria hesitated before handing it over. Sarah looked at her impatiently. “It’s a key, not a bomb. We can ask Athelea what she thinks.”

  Looking back at the island, Victoria realized what the problem was. She wanted to leave everything exactly where it was until the Atlanteans returned. Moving any of their belongings around doesn’t seem right, she thought. She was disappointed that Sarah didn’t feel the same way. But before she could say anything, Sarah dove into the water and began to swim away. Victoria followed with a sigh. They stayed in shallow water for another ten minutes and had nearly dried off when Athelea appeared on the beach, holding a few large bundles of fabric.

  Sarah bounded up to her, holding out the key. “We found this on the ship when we swimming. It was in the middle of the deck.” Athelea set the fabric down and held out her hand, and Sarah gave her the key. “We were wondering if you knew what it’s for.”

  Athelea laughed. “There are a million locks in Atlantis, and you would be lucky if you ever found the one meant for this key. Since you found it on the ship, I would assume it belonged to the sailor or his crew. This key was probably to his home or somewhere else on the boat.”

  “Can I keep it?” Sarah asked.

  “Of course,” Athelea said, taking Victoria by surprise. “I doubt the previous owner has any need for it anymore.”

  Sarah laughed, but Victoria didn’t find their banter the least bit funny. The Atlanteans were missing, and she and Athelea weren’t getting any closer to bringing them back. With growing agitation, she watched Sarah unclasp her necklace, feed the chain through the holes in the head of the key, and secure it around her neck.

  Avoiding Athelea’s inquiring gaze, she sulked off to her towel without waiting to hear what else Athelea had to say. They’re both as bad as each other, she thought. After a few minutes on her own, she began to feel less annoyed. It was a beautiful day, and she could only imagine what the beach would have been like wh
en Atlantis was at the height of its glory. Parents would have gone out with their children to play in the water, young couples would have fallen in love during romantic walks on the sand, and friends would share secrets with each other when nobody was listening.

  Down the beach, Sarah began building a sandcastle, and Athelea contributed a few dexes to make it stronger. Victoria stopped paying attention to their conversation, but she could still hear their occasional bursts of laughter as their castle grew grander. Sarah gets so much of Athelea’s attention, she thought. She could admit to herself that she was jealous, but she knew it was irrational and she didn’t have any claim to special treatment just because she’d been to Atlantis first.

  Sarah’s my friend, though, she thought, torn between regret and happiness that she’d brought Sarah to Atlantis.

  After a while, the others’ laughter became easier to ignore, and Victoria began to wonder what Caelan was doing. The uncertainty of whether he was staying somewhere in Atlantis or planning his next attack from a distance made her nervous. She jumped when a hand gently touched her back, and she realized Sarah had snuck up on her while she’d been lost in her thoughts.

  “Athelea and I are going to throw kites. Want to join us?”

  Victoria had no idea what Sarah meant but nodded.

  “Are you okay?” Sarah asked. “You look upset.”

  Victoria nodded again. It was easier to pretend than to bother everyone with the truth. “Just tired.”

  Sarah frowned, apparently seeing through the lie. “If you want to talk, I’m here for you. And so is Athelea.”

  Then why is Athelea ignoring me? Victoria thought. She stood up, ending the conversation, and followed Sarah past a magnificent sandcastle to Athelea. Three triangular objects were on the sand, looking nothing like the kind of kites Victoria had imagined. Athelea smiled at Victoria in greeting and picked up the kite with the yellow ribbon tail. Victoria could see that the kite was no thicker than a few sheets of paper, and she had no idea how it could fly. Athelea probably made them herself out of the fabric, Victoria reminded herself. She probably used a dex that defies gravity.

  Athelea stepped back into what appeared to be a throwing stance, with her back to the ocean and her shoulders forming a line down the beach. “Throwing kites is one of the most popular competitive sports in Atlantis, but it is very simple,” she said. “Hold the kite in one hand, aim slightly upwards, and throw it very gently.”

  With the slightest flick of her wrist, she sent her kite off. It flew parallel to the beach for a few seconds, picking up speed, before it began to rise, spiraling up towards the sun. After twenty seconds, Victoria could no longer see it against the bright sky.

  “That’s amazing,” Sarah breathed.

  “Thank you,” Athelea said. “You should try.”

  Sarah glanced at Victoria, seeming to ask for permission to go first. Victoria shrugged, genuinely indifferent now. Sarah picked up the green kite, held it slightly higher than Athelea had, and used her whole arm to throw. Victoria could tell her form wasn’t right for this sport. The kite flew a few feet before diving straight into the sand.

  “That didn’t look right,” Sarah said, laughing as she ran to pick it up. “What did I do wrong?”

  “You held it slightly too high and threw it too low,” Athelea said, with a faint smile that only Victoria could see. “Hold it at your shoulder and aim just above the horizon.”

  Sarah nodded and got into position again. This time, she seemed to take a few seconds to aim, and the kite flew along the beach. It stayed parallel to the sand for ten seconds before it began to rise, slowly turning into an upwards spiral.

  Sarah turned to Athelea, sporting an elated grin. “Not as fast as yours,” she said, “but so cool.”

  “Still a respectable throw,” Athelea enthused. “Would you like to try, Victoria?”

  Victoria picked up the last kite and was surprised by how light it was, exactly like the paper she’d imagined. Taking her stance to throw, she didn’t bother to ask whether the kites could break. Brilliant Atlantean engineering was apparent in its firm frame and soft yet sturdy fabric. Feeling slightly absurd, Victoria aimed just above the horizon, took a breath, and flicked her wrist like Athelea had done. The kite rolled off her fingertips and began to fly parallel to the beach. After a second, it started to gain height and began the same spiral dance that the others had, but it was easily the fastest out of the three. Half a minute passed before it was out of sight, flying enormous circles over the island with the other two.

  “Very impressive,” Athelea said. “It’s like you’ve been throwing for years.”

  Victoria smiled, secretly flattered. “Thank you. What happens now?”

  “We should be able to see them again in an hour,” Athelea said. “They’ll descend slowly and hopefully land right where we threw them.”

  “Nice,” Victoria said. “What will we do until then?”

  “What would you like to do?”

  The question caught Victoria by surprise. Athelea does doesn’t just care about Sarah’s opinion, Victoria scolded herself. Although she’d only been in Atlantis for a little while, she knew her answer. “Could we look at the Broken Portal again?”

  Athelea looked equally surprised by Victoria’s request, but they arrived at the Reflector fifteen minutes later. The Broken Portal looked no different than it had before, though Victoria didn’t know what else she’d expected. She sensed that Sarah and Athelea were generally uninterested, that they believed the portal would never change. But Victoria couldn’t shake her fascination. She was sure the Broken Portal would lead somewhere important if it was working, and she wanted to know more.

  “Were there any portals outside of Atlantis?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Athelea said. “They might have changed over time, but I believe all these portals functioned within Atlantis for many generations before the Destruction.”

  Victoria frowned. Athelea really doesn’t realize the implications of this, she thought. “If the Broken Portal linked Atlantis to the outside world, somebody like Caelan could have access to cause destruction if he found a way to fix it,” she said. “It’s not a risk worth taking.”

  “The Broken Portal has never worked. There is no risk.”

  Victoria held her breath to keep from replying. She would have to research portals herself, sooner than later, especially since Athelea hadn’t. Athelea lit another candle for the lost Atlanteans in the Hall of Divinity before bringing Sarah and Victoria back to Shipwreck Beach. “Those are the kites,” she said, pointing to three black spots barely visible above Mount Theus. As the kites approached, Victoria began to distinguish their shapes and strange yet captivating motion.

  Athelea’s kite was the first to hit the sand. She picked it up with a smile, and Victoria watched as the other two kites approached in wonderful spirals. Sarah ran a few paces to pick up hers more gracefully than she’d thrown it, and Victoria’s landed directly at her feet. She bent down, glad that Athelea had introduced them to this sport, and her fingers had barely brushed the kite when her vision darkened and she collapsed to the ground.

  Chapter Seventeen

  DEXTERITY

  “Are you okay?” a voice asked. Victoria wasn’t sure if it belonged to Athelea or Sarah, or both speaking simultaneously. She tried to nod or to say that she wasn’t in pain, but she couldn’t move her body. Her head seemed foggy, and all she could process was the warmth of the sand beneath her body. Being out of control was strangely blissful, but Victoria knew it wasn’t right. She could hear Sarah’s constant stream of questions and Athelea’s calm responses, but in her state, their words were meaningless sounds.

  She took a few deep breaths, reminding herself that she was unharmed. After a what seemed like an hour, her body seemed to reconnect with her mind. Her vision slowly returned, and she could think rationally again. The spell had passed. Sarah and Athelea were both looking at her with expressions of concern. Victoria sat up wi
th a sigh, sensing that Athelea would probably never stop worrying about her now, would always think she was fragile.

  “What the hell happened?” Sarah asked. Under her newfound tan, she was whiter than Victoria had ever seen her. “That looked horrible.”

  “I don’t know. It was like a fog took control of my body,” Victoria said. “I wasn’t in pain, but I couldn’t do anything.”

  Athelea frowned. “Do you feel better now?”

  “Just shaken,” Victoria admitted. “What happened? Was it Caelan?”

  “It was not,” Athelea said. She sounded certain, though Victoria sensed she was racing for an explanation. “Whatever took control of you was a force of which I have very limited knowledge. If it is what I fear, we must take action immediately.”

  Exchanging glances with Sarah, Victoria realized neither of them wanted to ask what that was. It must be bad if Athelea is worried, Victoria thought. They packed the kites away and returned to the palace without any delay, and Athelea locked the gates to the Isle of the Gods behind them. She prepared dinner somewhere in the castle while Sarah sketched and Victoria drank tea on the balcony. Victoria suspected it was party of Athelea’s scheme to make sure Victoria wasn’t alone.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you vegetarian?” Sarah asked Athelea after a glass of wine. The somber mood of the late afternoon had lifted slightly with food and the sunset, and this question made Victoria laugh for the first time in what felt like days.

  “I haven’t eaten meat since the Destruction,” Athelea said. Victoria and Sarah exchanged glances. “There aren’t many animals left in Atlantis, and I’ve never been skilled at fishing, so my options are scarce.”