Atlantis Reborn

by Gloria Craw

  Ian shook his head. “All this time, you never told me,” he muttered.

  Hating the disappointment in his eyes, I continued, “The day my mother took Linton was the same day I escaped from Maxwell. He’d cut off two of my fingers. I knew I couldn’t go home to the McKyes missing fingers. They would have freaked out when they grew back. I opened a portal again so my mother could heal my hand. She wanted to give me a little while longer with my human family.”

  “Holy crap,” Ian said. “Is that the only time she’s…visited?”

  “Yes, but I hear her voice sometimes. The first thing she told me was to trust you.”

  It took a moment for him to process the idea. “When was that?” he asked.

  “When you tackled me in your front yard and told me you had been looking for a dewing thoughtmaker,” I replied. “You asked me to trust you. She told me I should.”

  He let out a long breath. “I suppose that explains the look that crossed your face that day. It was like you’d seen a ghost. Turns out you’d just heard one. Does she talk to you a lot?”

  “Not really,” I said. “It generally happens when something bad is about to go down. I was jogging on the beach the day after I arrived here, and she told me to hide and listen to a conversation the Vasitass chiefs were having. That’s when I learned they were going to present an offer at the roundtable. The next day she spoke to both me and Theron. She said that if the chiefs agree to make hybrids, it will be the beginning of the end for our kind.”

  Ian ran a hand over his eyes and sat next to me. “So, Theron sees and hears her, too?” he asked.

  I nodded. “My mother called us conduits.”

  We sat quietly for a moment, and then he gave a cynical chuckle. “Do you know what bothers me the most?” he asked. “Theron knew about all of this, and I didn’t. Jealousy is a new feeling for me.”

  “Don’t read things into my relationship with Theron that aren’t there,” I responded. “We mean a lot to each other, but there has never been anything romantic between us.”

  Ian raised an eyebrow. “Maybe there has been, but you didn’t notice.”

  “I would have noticed,” I assured him. “Anyway, I’m in love with someone else.”

  “Well, that’s good,” he replied, folding his arms across his chest.

  My heart broke a little more. I’d given him good reason but hated it when he was angry at me. “Are you going to be mad for a long time?” I asked.

  He looked me up and down. “I should be,” he replied, “but we’ve got bigger problems right now. What we just watched goes against a fundamental rule our kind has always followed. We don’t interfere with human life.”

  “It seems to me that changed when Sebastian came along,” I said. “Like it or not, the Vasitass are going to show that video tonight, and the chiefs are going to vote on creating a trial hybrid.”

  “You could use thoughtmaking to disrupt the meeting,” he suggested. “Get everyone pissed off at one another, so they’ll have to reschedule.”

  I shook my head. “The Vasitass are so sure they’ve got the answer to our population problem that they’d get the word out somehow. If not at the roundtable tonight, it would be at some other time soon.”

  “Maybe we should show the video to my parents,” he suggested.

  “Why?” I asked with a shrug. “They’ll see it soon enough.”

  He gave a resigned sigh. “So…what are you going to do?”

  “Take a shower, change my clothes, and go to the roundtable meeting. I just hope something brilliant occurs to me before I get there.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Theron had returned and was talking to Ian when I entered the living room in my long rainbow dress. I was glad to note there was no lingering tension between them. They seemed to be in a conspiratorial mood and were talking in low tones.

  Joining them, I said, “I’m ready to go down to the Pradnium, I guess.”

  Theron’s eyes filled with unusual tenderness as he looked at my face. My discouragement must have been obvious because he remarked, “There’s nothing like the feeling of going to war without a weapon, right?”

  I gave him a nod.

  Ian stood up. “I’ll walk you down,” he said.

  “Thanks,” I replied as we headed for the door, “but I’d rather go alone. I need to get my thoughts together.”

  “I’m not mad at you anymore,” he whispered. “Well…maybe I’m a little mad, but I’ll get over it.”

  “I will never keep stuff from you again,” I promised.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” he replied with a small smile. Wrapping his arms around me, he added, “At the moment, I wish I was the Thane clan chief. Not that I’d like it if my parents were dead, but so I could vote against the Vasitass’ offer.”

  Laying my head in the crook of his neck, I closed my eyes and breathed in his minty scent. “We’d make a good team,” I remarked.

  He kissed me lightly and stepped back.

  “Thanks…both of you,” I said. “For supporting me.”

  Theron gave me a salute. “Good luck, Alison,” he replied. “We’ll be here when you get back.”

  The Arx was strangely quiet as I went down the stairs. My eyes were drawn to the glass ceiling and a view of gray clouds billowing across the sky. Rain swirled in the wind and pounded down on the glass. The tumultuous storm mirrored my internal feelings.

  The stairs suddenly seemed like a great place to think. Since no one was around, I sat down and tucked a stray hair behind my ear. My mind turned to what I knew about our history.

  I’d been told humans and dewing shared an ancestor in the distance past, but at some point, evolutionary speed picked up on our side of the family tree. We quickly outpaced them physiologically, intellectually, and socially, which put us in a position of dominance. But the dewing developed a strong moral conscience along with everything else, so they abided by the law Ian mentioned…dewing didn’t interfere with human life or free will.

  According to everything I’d read, the people of Atlantis lived a peaceful existence for thousands of years. They sailed to port cities to trade with humans, but mostly they kept to themselves. By all accounts, they led happy lives. There were no rich people or poor people among them. Everyone had food to eat and a place to lay their head at night. They were devoted to their families and used their remarkable intelligence to create, discover, and innovate for the greater good.

  Then one day, a dewing named Tenebroses came along. No one knew why, but there was something about him that seemed a bit off. His fellow dewing noticed it and weren’t particularly surprised when he packed up his satchel, or whatever they used to travel with back then, and left the island to tour around the Mediterranean.

  The reality of living among humans must have been a slap in the face after growing up in egalitarian Atlantis. Humans lived dangerous and uncomfortable lives. Tenebroses made an important observation about that time. Wealthy humans lived easier lives. He liked the easy way and knew exactly how to make a lot of money.

  He was a sensationmaker, which meant he could join humans’ minds and give them feelings of euphoria. They could get addicted to those feelings, which turned him into a sort of drug dealer. He used his joining and was soon indispensable to several of the wealthiest people in Greece.

  He was doing quite well for himself when he had another lightbulb moment. He realized that if he could live well off one or two humans, he could get rich beyond his wildest dreams off a city of them. In his mind, dewing were the superior race anyway, so manipulating and controlling humans was just the natural order of things. He was sure he could convince the clan chiefs of Atlantis of the same thing.

  By this time, he could afford better luggage, so he packed up his designer Greek satchel and sailed home. There he started preaching the benefits of mentally enslaving humans. He gained enough supporters to have his idea put to a vote, but it didn’t pass.

  Still, he’d gained a substantial numbe
r of supporters. A band of readers, sensationmakers, drawers, futureseers, thoughtreaders, shapeshifters, thoughtseers, and thoughtmakers accompanied him back to Greece, where they began manipulating generals in the military. Soon they had control over a sizable Athenian force.

  Tenebroses ordered several ships loaded with soldiers back to Atlantis, where he planned to overthrow the chiefs and make himself king. The peaceful people on the island never anticipated he’d go so far. Taken unawares, they didn’t have time to rally or defend themselves against the invaders. After a great slaughter, Tenebroses gained his ambition.

  A lot of dewing were forced off the island. Calling themselves the Rorelent, they gathered in Cornwall. It quickly became clear to them that Tenebroses wasn’t content ruling over Atlantis. He planned to become emperor of the known world. Fearing for themselves and humankind, they debated what to do.

  There was a brilliant scientist among them who’d learned how to produce energy by splitting the atom. He’d developed the technology as a forerunner of electricity but knew it could also be applied to weaponry. He was given permission to build a bomb that would destroy Tenebroses and his followers…but there was a catch. The island of Atlantis would likely be destroyed by it, too.

  The Rorelent weighed their options and made a hard choice. They waited until Tenebroses ordered the majority of his human force back to Greece, and then they launched a nuclear bomb at their beautiful home. When the dust cleared, Tenebroses, his followers, and Atlantis were gone.

  All that death and devastation came about because Tenebroses used humans to further his self-interests. It seemed to me, things were coming full circle. Creating hybrids would bring us right back to where Tenebroses left off, and this time, it would probably mean our final destruction.

  With that happy thought in mind, I got to my feet.

  Looking up at the ceiling again, I whispered to myself, “How can I possibly stop this from happening?”

  Remember, I told you destiny hadn’t decided everything, I heard my mother say. The outcome of this roundtable meeting will depend on your willingness to sacrifice for the greater good.

  Feeling like the fate of my entire species rested on my shoulders, I stumbled across the foyer to face whatever destiny had in store.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  For some reason, the electric lights had been left off in the Pradnium. The only illumination came from dozens of candles spaced around the room. The effect was pretty, but it made tripping a real possibility.

  From a shadowed place at the roundtable, Phoebe said, “I saved a seat for you, Alison.”

  Grateful for her friendly voice, I made my way forward.

  “I could use some moral support,” she remarked as I sat down. “I’m feeling nervous. A lot depends on getting a loan for my clan tonight, but I’m worried the chiefs won’t believe in me enough to invest.”

  “I know Spencer and Katherine are in favor of giving you the loan,” I replied quietly. “They seem to have a lot of influence, so that works in your favor. How are you going to break the news about the virus you suspect of killing your clan members?”

  “I’ll barrel straight into it,” she replied, tapping a folder that probably held her report. “I don’t plan to spare any of the disgusting details in here.”

  I was about to ask what they were when Luke came stumbling down the platform into the Pradnium. He regained control of his feet just in time to save himself from running into the table. Holding a bony hand over his heart, he squinted in the dim light. “Over here,” I called, indicating the empty chair beside me.

  With a grateful grimace, he headed for us. “Just a warning for the two of you,” he said, sitting down. “The last roundtable went on for eight hours. If you need a drink or a bathroom break, you’d better get it now.”

  I was already dragging from twenty hours of yacht travel. The idea of doing mental and verbal battle with the clan chiefs for eight more made me give a disheartened groan.

  “What’s wrong?” Luke asked, anxious concern evident in his watery eyes.

  Glancing from one to the other of them, I considered how much to say. Settling on a warning, I replied, “The Vasitass are going to present an offer tonight. It’s going to appeal to everyone on some level, but I promise the consequences would be devastating for our kind. Don’t let the Vasitass or any of the other chiefs bully you into voting for it.”

  Both Phoebe and Luke nodded.

  There wasn’t time to say more because the other chiefs started pouring into the room. All of them showed signs of weariness. Even Spencer, who usually had boundless energy, looked tired as he stood to call the meeting to order and announce the Vasitass were going to make the first presentation.

  Suppressing another groan, I watched Valentine attach his laptop to the projection system. Smoothing her skirt, Helen made eye contact with everyone and smiled her too sweet smile. I wanted to hate her, but I could only get as far as really, really disliking her. The offer was barbaric, but she believed it was the key to our salvation. As a clan chief, I shared the responsibility of protecting our species from extinction now, too.

  Valentine finished getting things ready and gave her a nod.

  “There are a lot of ways we could introduce what we have to show you tonight,” she said, “but nothing could really prepare you for the magnitude of it. We think the footage speaks for itself.”

  I couldn’t quibble with her there. I almost wished I’d brought something to throw up in.

  “Some parts are graphic,” she continued. “We apologize for that, but please keep an open mind until the footage ends.”

  She and Valentine resumed their seats, and the video I’d seen on Theron’s computer earlier played in life-size images on a projection screen.

  The first part went down as I’d expected. The chiefs were only mildly interested in the boys playing with word cards and toys. When Maxwell referred to them as hybrids, there were a few mummers of disbelief. Those turned to gasps when they saw the human child on a dissection table and the top of his skull missing.

  Several of the chiefs looked on the verge of being sick, but they recovered as the camera shot switched to Maxwell’s face and his perverted Santa Claus smile again. Like it was simply a matter of putting batteries in, he said, “When the new subject is animated, I’ll do another update.”

  I expected the video to cut out, but a different recording had been spliced in.

  Instead of a sterile laboratory setting, the location was an outdoor garden. Rosebushes, bursting with blooms, ringed a grass clearing. In the center of it was an old-fashioned, iron table-and-chairs set. Someone had recently put a tea tray out. A ribbon of steam rose from the spout of the teapot.

  With his back to the camera, a gray-haired man with a wobbly gait approached the table and sat down. My heart stopped when it zoomed in on his face. His cheeks and neck were puckered with thick scar tissue, but his eyes hadn’t changed at all. They were as hard and full of malevolence as ever. My throat tightened until it was nearly impossible to swallow. The man was Sebastian Truss.

  There were more gasps as the other chiefs recognized him.

  Phoebe’s back went ramrod straight. “It can’t be…” she muttered.

  “He’s supposed to be dead,” Luke whispered.

  On the projection screen, Sebastian’s burned face contorted into a crooked smile. “I wish I could see your expressions,” he said, with a laugh of pure delight. “I can only imagine your dismay at learning I’m not dead after all.” He laughed again and poured himself a cup of tea. “Don’t worry, my old enemies. I don’t plan to contest the new girl’s claim to the Truss clanship. I’m pursuing different ventures now. One of them, I think you’ll find fascinating.”

  The camera zoomed out for a full body shot. Sebastian was wearing an expensive-looking, white suit, but one of the pant legs had been rolled up to the knee, revealing he was missing a leg.

  The clan chiefs whispered their confusion. Before he killed her, my
mother had inflicted an injury that required its amputation. I’d known about that for months, but they were just finding out.

  Sebastian stirred some sugar into his tea. “I’m sure you’re all wondering if what you just saw was real,” he commented. “Let me assure you: it was. You see…I am also a hybrid.”

  “This is nonsense,” one of the Calyx chiefs blurted out, “and a waste of our time. Turn it off.”

  “Please keep an open mind until we conclude the presentation,” Valentine replied from the other side of the table. “We would provide the same courtesy to you.”

  From all the fidgeting going on around the table, I assumed a lot of others wanted the video stopped, too, but courtesy kept them silent.

  “All of you have felt my signature,” Sebastian was saying. “You’ve seen the mark in my palm, and some of you have even felt the strength of my essence in battle. You can’t deny I have the same dewing abilities as you…except, of course, for healing,” he added, motioning to his scarred face and missing leg. “At first, I felt cheated at that deficiency, but then I learned there was a trade-off. You see…I have had five children… None of you will ever have more than two.”

  Everyone perked to attention. The dewing inability to have more than two children was the core of our population problem. That Sebastian had five was astonishing.

  “It was a great disappointment when only one of them lived into their teens…but the potential is there,” he added. Then, leaning toward the camera, he asked. “You see it…don’t you? Hybrids like me are the solution to your greatest problem. We can save the dewing from extinction.”

  Sitting back again, he lifted a book from the tea tray. “My creator, the man I called father, was brilliant, but we disagreed about many things. He became convinced I was a monster instead of a masterpiece and tried to destroy everything to do with my creation process.” Sebastian licked his lips before continuing. “He would have destroyed me if I hadn’t slid a knife between his ribs first.”