The Last Atlanteans

by Katrina Ryan

  Victoria nodded automatically. She knew she should have been excited that Athelea had used her initiative to figure out how to restore Atlantis, but Athelea had missed years of making a genuine effort. Victoria felt like they were wasting time still, though she couldn’t see what more they could do.

  “What about the people?” Sarah asked, turning to look at Victoria with a hopeful expression. “Is there no way of getting them back? They could really help us.”

  Athelea looked at Victoria, too.

  They’re gone, Victoria thought. You can’t magic them back to life. She knew better than to say any of this out loud, but she wasn’t sure what else the others expected. They were putting too much faith in her for no reason. She gave a noncommittal shrug and retreated behind her tea, hoping somebody else would speak.

  “Until recently, I thought I had tried everything possible to bring the Atlanteans back,” Athelea said, seeming to take the hint. “But then, Victoria told me about her journey to Atlantis. She said that she had found some sort of monument or temple. There are many remote Atlantean islands with these features, so I didn’t think much about the location at the time. But last night, I remembered you said you had fallen onto something in the dark. Could that object have been an hourglass?”

  Victoria closed her eyes, thinking back to that moment. She had felt something gritty in her wound that could have been sand, even if she hadn’t realized it then. “It might have been,” she said, careful to not express too much confidence. Athelea and Sarah didn’t need higher hopes than they already had. “But why would that be important?”

  “One island in Atlantis, called the Isle of Time, was rumored to house special hourglasses under its temple, called the Domain,” Athelea said. Victoria noticed triumph flicker in her smile, matching the sparkle in her eyes. “Atlantean legend says that the island was home to countless thousands of what we called Lifeglasses, each of which was linked to an Atlantean soul. A new Lifeglass formed with each birth and expired when its corresponding Atlantean died.”

  A long silence punctuated the conversation. Victoria waited, though she sensed where this conversion was going.

  “Do you think the Lifeglasses are broken?” Sarah asked after a long pause.

  “Perhaps. They may be broken or frozen, but I believe something catastrophic must have happened to disrupt them,” Athelea said. “You can decide yourselves whether you believe the legend, but it’s the only theory I have presently.”

  “I need to learn more Atlantean mythology soon,” Victoria said, barely following what Athelea was saying. Lifeglasses sounded impossible, but if they were real, they could be the key to getting the Atlanteans back. She felt a flutter of excitement. “Have you ever been to the island?”

  Athelea shook her head. “The thought didn’t occur to me until late last night. The Isle of Time was forbidden to everybody except the few Watchmen who protected the Lifeglasses. Until yesterday, I had not considered it could be relevant to our efforts.”

  “That must be what the strange building was,” Victoria said to Sarah. The ghosts in the lake made sense now, if the home of Atlantean souls was so close. For a second, she considered telling Athelea about them, but the mere memory sent a shiver of terror through her body. There wasn’t much point discussing the ghosts until they knew the Lifeglasses were even real, and there was only one way to find out. She turned to Athelea. “Could you take us there?”

  Athelea hesitated for a second too long, and Victoria felt her hopes crash. “Eventually,” Athelea said, “but not yet. Sarah and I should go to the Isle of Time first to make sure it’s safe. If Caelan has been there again, we could be walking straight into a trap.”

  Victoria felt her heart sink further. “Without me?” she clarified.

  Athelea nodded, barely meeting her eye.

  Victoria found herself blinking back tears. She was tired of Sarah and Athelea leaving her out of everything they did, tired of laying around while the others explored interesting places and did important work. For a moment, she felt a flare of anger with both of them, even though she knew they weren’t doing it to hurt her. She wanted to decide for herself what was best, though nobody in Atlantis or England seemed to understand.

  “Until we know more about the Isle of Time, it would be wise for you to stay in Atlantis,” Athelea said directly to Victoria, more gently now. “Sarah and I can scout first to confirm that it is safe and hopefully see whether the Lifeglasses are there. Your time will be much better spent studying dexterity than sitting in a boat.”

  Victoria shook her head, refusing to defeat. She didn’t want to miss out on another adventure, but Athelea’s logic didn’t leave much choice. Victoria glanced to Sarah for support and received a neutral shrug. At least I’ll have a chance to research portals, she reassured herself. She was sure she’d dreamt of the Broken Portal last night, though she couldn’t remember exactly what had happened, and she wanted to learn more about the Reflector. “You two can go to the Isle of Time, as long as I can do something useful in the Grand Library,” she conceded. “I don’t want to stay in a Neutral Room all afternoon.”

  Athelea took her to the Library after breakfast without any question. The three enormous floors of books and the massive glass dome were simply breathtaking in the full light of day. The building still reminded Victoria of an ancient theater, and Sarah look enchanted as the group crossed the floor to the main staircase. Victoria was sure she was seeing how many drawings and paintings she could add to her portfolio.

  “This is such a beautiful building,” she whispered as they proceeded upstairs. “I could spend days here.”

  “That’s probably what King Atlas intended,” Athelea said with a smile as they passed the portrait of the monarch. “The most prominent scholars used the highest floor, which also contains indexes, and the ground floor was open to the public at all hours of the day. Access to the middle floor was granted mainly to University students, but I am confident we are now exempt from those rules.” She stopped in front of one of the tables on this level and motioned for Victoria to sit, while Sarah fell behind to admire the painting of Atlas on the staircase landing.

  “Would the Grand Library have any information about where the Atlanteans might have gone?” Victoria asked.

  Athelea looked around the building, her expression thoughtful. “A copy of nearly every book ever written in Atlantis, or by Atlanteans, can be found here. I suspect that anything of such importance would probably be in the restricted section of the Grand Library, which obviously is not cataloged, or in my father’s personal library on the Isle of the Gods,” Athelea continued. “Any sort of prophecy would be archived in the Hall, though I’ve read nearly every document there already. At any rate, finding such information within any of these collections would require quite an extensive search.”

  Victoria sighed. At least there was plenty for her to do in the Grand Library while the others were away, and she wasn’t going to ask for permission to look around. “We’ve got to start somewhere, I guess.”

  “Before we go, I’ll find something for you to do, if you’ll excuse me for a moment,” Athelea said, seeming to read her thoughts. She disappeared among the bookshelves for a minute and returned with a pile of booklets, which she set onto the table gently. From the layer of dust on their uniform, black covers, Victoria guessed that nobody had touched them in a thousand years.

  “These books are called dexologs. They’re nearly indestructible, so don’t be afraid to handle them,” Athelea said. “Some of these dexes are quite complicated, so don’t despair if you don’t understand everything. If you familiarize yourself with the theory, you’ll have a sound foundation for practice once you connect with your dexterity. You can look around the rest of the library if you get bored, but I expect we’ll only be gone for a few hours.”

  Victoria nodded, thankful that Athelea had guessed her plans and essentially given her permission.

  “You should be perfectly safe within the building, Vi
ctoria, but I will lock it for extra security while we’re gone.”

  Victoria knew she was safer in the Grand Library than anywhere else in Atlantis, especially with Athelea’s protections. “I won’t leave the building,” she promised. “Stay safe, both of you. Hope you find everything you’re looking for.”

  Sarah waved goodbye, looking guilty, and she and Athelea headed downstairs and out of the library. Victoria watched them lock the door before she turned her attention to the books that Athelea had called dexologs. She opened the one on top, which looked thicker than the others, and found a tablet of Atlan stone, essentially an Atlantean coloring book for children. She felt tears of indignation sting her eyes. It was so unfair that she was doing this while Sarah went on adventures with Athelea.

  Reminding herself that she’d used dexterity to color the maps she’d drawn in Atlantis, she dried her face after a minute and forced herself to focus on the dexolog. Athelea left them for a reason, she reminded herself. Atlan stone was supposed be the best conductor of dexterity, and she supposed this lesson was the best way to learn how to use hers. She read the instructions that some Atlantean had written thousands of years ago, and then tried the first task.

  Turning the tablet a different color sounded simple, but after nearly fifteen minutes, Victoria hadn’t had any success. She read the instructions yet again, looking for any crucial information she might have missed. She wondered if she was supposed to be saying the words in ancient Atlantean language, but she hoped Athelea would have told her. She closed the dexolog, feeling defeated by what she understood should have been a simple task, especially because it wasn’t keeping Atlantis safe. The nearby window had given her a view of the empty Plaza all morning, and she was getting frustrated seeing Atlantis so broken.

  There must be information somewhere in the library about how the portals work or how to restore the dexes protecting the city, she thought. Leaving her coloring book behind, she explored the nearest bookshelves, hoping to stumble across answers by chance. To her surprise, most of the books were dexologs. Victoria skimmed over a few bookshelves before she headed upstairs, deciding she needed direction from the indexes. The top floor was the smallest in the library, containing only a few chairs and tables and shelves, one of which had books that looked worn with use. Opening one of these books, she confirmed that these were the indexes Athelea had mentioned. Finally feeling like she was doing something productive and useful, she brought a few books to the window and began her search.

  After fifteen minutes, she hadn’t found a single mention of portals or traveling within Atlantis. The lack of information made no sense to Victoria, and she hated that her search had reached a dead end so quickly. I’ll have to ask Athelea, she decided. They couldn’t risk leaving any potential route into Atlantis unexplored, or Caelan would exploit it. She returned downstairs and resigned herself to reading more dexologs by the window.

  The proper dexologs were more interesting than Victoria had expected. Each included a summary of the dex, a technical description of how it worked, and information about how to invoke and revoke its effects. The dex for detecting lies seemed easier than she’d expected, and like any other dex, it was about understanding the energy behind an action. Working through the dexologs, Victoria had to admit that many of the dexes were useful for everyday tasks, though others were equally pointless and lazy. She could see easily where Atlanteans morality had been right and wrong.

  What she didn’t understand was why Athelea wanted to her to learn so many dexes when she still couldn’t invoke even the simplest of them. Hoping she wasn’t wasting effort and time, she finished reading the dexologs Athelea had chosen, and then searched for more. At the far end of the middle floor, she found one dexolog sticking halfway out of the shelf, seemingly waiting for her. She pulled it out, wondering whether Athelea had been the last person to read it.

  “Darkness of Death,” she said, reading the heading of the page. Beneath it was a foreign word, which she assumed was the name of the dex. “Desillumentia.”

  Without any warning, darkness consumed the Grand Library, as if the sun had burnt out and all the light in the world had disappeared.

  Victoria managed to cover her mouth before she screamed, her heart racing in a mix of fear and elation. She’d invoked a proper dex at last. But after a few seconds of celebrating in the darkness, she began to realize she’d done something terribly wrong. She couldn’t see anything. She reached forward and felt the bookshelf, reassuring her that she was still in the library, and she didn’t bother looking at the text to see how to revoke the darkness. Slamming the dexolog shut, she stepped away from the shelves and visualized a fire glowing lightly on the palm of her hand. A second later, she could swear she smelled smoke, but she couldn’t see or feel the source.

  “At least the dexologs give accurate descriptions,” she muttered. She closed her hands to extinguish the fire that probably didn’t exist, reached for the bookshelf, and began to grope her way through the darkness, hoping she wasn’t igniting anything in the process. She needed to leave the library, if it was possible to get through the locked doors. After a minute, she found the nearest staircase, thoroughly regretting having attempted dexes that Athelea hadn’t recommended. When the steps ended at the ground floor, she groped her way through another group of tables, but instead of finding a door at the other end, she could only feel more bookshelves. She cursed under her breath.

  As she paused to gather her bearings, she heard footsteps shuffling across the library floor. She froze, her heart racing, as she processed her options. She didn’t need a dex to confirm she wasn’t alone, and it didn’t matter how the intruder had opened the door. Maybe they invoked the darkness dex, she thought. She couldn’t tell if it was Athelea and Sarah approaching, but instinct warned her against saying anything. Either of them would have called out for her, but only someone with darker intentions would approach this way.

  Caelan or Gryffin.

  Victoria sank to her knees and silently crawled to the nearest table. Without moving the chairs, she hid herself the best she could and closed her eyes to listen. The footsteps slowed a few paces away from her, and she stayed perfectly still, not even daring to breathe. Her heartbeat seemed loud enough to announce her exact location, and the footsteps stopped directly in front of her, confirming her fears.

  Chapter Nineteen

  VISITORS

  “Enough, darkness,” a female voice muttered. Sunlight streamed into the library through the dome and windows, blinding Victoria with its brilliance. Athelea stood a few paces away with an apologetic expression on her face. Victoria would have collapsed in relief if she hadn’t already been on the ground, and she felt slightly ridiculous now for having hidden.

  Athelea extended a hand to help her up. “I see you have taken the liberty of exploring the Grand Library,” Athelea said steadily, “And you finally invoked a dex. Congratulations are in order.”

  Victoria nodded, trying to calm her racing pulse. “I invoked the dex? It was an accident, so wasn’t sure if it was someone else.”

  “You did invoke the dex, and I see you have also learned an important lesson about the potential dangers of dexterity?”

  “Don’t invoke a new dex without knowing how to revoke it?” Victoria sighed, embarrassed that she hadn’t considered that herself earlier. She’d seen that type of information in all other dexologs, but she hadn’t thought she would need it when she simply said the name of this dex.

  Athelea offered a gentle smile. “Precisely. It is important to understand every modification of the dex you are working with before you use it. It is equally important to know how to invoke it and how to revoke it.”

  “I’ll remember that,” Victoria promised. “How did you break the darkness? Nothing I tried worked.”

  “I revoked whatever you had done to invoke the darkness,” Athelea said after a moment of obvious deliberation. “I can override all your dexes. In the hierarchy which ensures dexterity is not misused, bo
th royalty and elder blood relatives have the ability to trump most dexes.”

  “Are there any other rules I should know?”

  Athelea nodded slowly. “Enough to fill an entire book. If we had more time, I would have asked you to read it, but until then, you can only learn them by mistakes and experience.”

  “Wonderful,” Victoria groaned, looking at all the books around her. They seemed to glare back, promising to exceed her limits. “I’m never going to understand any of this.”

  Athelea smiled sympathetically. “You are at no more of a disadvantage than any Atlantean discovering her dexterity, except for when you attempt dexes you don’t fully understand,” she reassured her. Again, the slight smile crossed her lips, and Victoria felt she was missing a joke. But Athelea simply nodded in the direction of the staircase and began to walk. “Let’s join Sarah outside. Follow me, and we’ll tell you about our expedition.”

  They made their way through the books and tables to the font of the library, which Victoria had spectacularly overshot in the dark. Sarah was waiting on the Plaza steps and smiled in greeting. Her expression gave no information about whether her excursion with Athelea had been successful.

  “How did your search go?” Victoria asked.

  “The island you and Sarah visited was indeed the Isle of Time,” Athelea said. There was a flicker of genuine excitement in her eyes. “Sarah showed me the Domain, but I couldn’t find any way to enter the crypt you had mentioned. You must come with us next time, now we know that the island is perfectly safe.”

  “Really?” Victoria gasped. “Could we go now?”

  Athelea glanced at the sky and frowned. “Unfortunately, it’s too late to go back tonight. It will be dark in a few hours and the Night Rain will come, but we can visit in the day tomorrow.”

  Once again, Victoria couldn’t argue with Athelea. She was annoyed that Sarah seemed to spend more time with Athelea than she did, even if their excursions were more dangerous than anything she did in Atlantis. Athelea is sincerely trying to protect you, she reminded herself as Athelea lit a candle in the Hall of Divinity. They continued to the palace from there, and after they had eaten another soup for dinner, Victoria had a feeling she knew what was next on Athelea’s agenda.