Atlantis Reborn

by Gloria Craw

  “Humans outnumbered us even then,” my mother said. “Incensed by the loss of their comrades, they managed to turn the tide of battle. Soon it was our people who were being slaughtered and driven back. When Queen Rea saw it, she realized that she’d made a terrible mistake and that because of it her people would be destroyed.”

  “But she was a conduit like Theron and you,” Brandy added. “She traveled through a portal and asked the keepers to turn fate.”

  “They agreed,” my mother said. “Queen Rea lived long enough to see humans lose interest in fighting and return to their own lands, as well as tell her story.”

  “But Alison didn’t cause any of this mess,” Theron said with a shake of his head. “It’s not her mistake to fix.”

  “Does it really matter who caused it?” Brandy asked him. “If she doesn’t get the keepers to turn fate, our kind will suffer and die…all of them.”

  I looked from my cousin to my friend and swallowed the lump that had risen in my throat. I’d taken an oath to protect the greater good. I owed it to the dewing to at least try to change the course of destiny. I owed it to humankind, too. If destiny wasn’t rerouted, a lot of them would also die.

  “What are you going to do?” Theron asked me.

  “I think you know,” I replied softly.

  “What makes you think you’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the keepers of destiny to turn fate?” he grumbled.

  “Maybe I’ve got zero chance,” I replied, “but I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least ask.”

  He sighed and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “There’s no talking you out of it, is there?” he remarked.

  “No,” I confirmed, “I’m going.”

  “Then if someone will tell me how, I’ll hold the portal open so you can come back,” he grumbled.

  “I always knew I liked you,” Brandy said, smiling up at him.

  “You never liked me,” he replied, “but it doesn’t matter. Tell me what to do.”

  “You’re going to have to internalize a lot of the energy around us,” my mother said. “Gather it inside yourself. Your body has to become like an energy containment system until she comes back through the portal.”

  Theron nodded. “And it’s going to burn like hell, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “If you hold it for too long, it will kill you.”

  “What a super-cheery thought,” he muttered.

  I grabbed his hand. “If you feel you can’t hold it anymore,” I said, “just let the portal close. There’s no guarantee I’ll make it back anyway, and I don’t want both of us to end up dead.”

  Stoically, he replied, “I’ll hold it until you’re safely back.”

  “No,” I said, giving him a shake. “Whether I’m back or not, let it go before it kills you. I need you to get Alex out of here if I can’t. Promise me you’ll do that, Theron.”

  We stubbornly locked eyes for a moment, and then he muttered, “I promise.”

  Standing outside the swirling energy, Ian had watched us intently the whole time. The fear and confusion in his eyes was heartrending, and the very real possibility that I was leaving him forever made a choked sob rise up my throat. I had to ask the keepers to turn fate for his sake as much as anyone else’s, though.

  Knowing he couldn’t hear me, I mouthed I love you and gave him a small wave.

  Then I followed my mother and Brandy into the unknown.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Traveling through the portal was almost instantaneous. I entered a gray abyss with one step and exited it with the next.

  I found myself walking between Brandy and my mother in a meadow, or what once had been a meadow. Brown grass crunched under our feet as we headed toward a group of leafless trees in the distance. Like grasping arms, their branches rose to the sky while rotting vegetation around their trunks steamed and gave off a moldy stink.

  It seemed like I’d stepped into a bad version of Alice in Wonderland, but the weirdest thing of all was the air. It didn’t move with me or around me. It stayed perfectly still. I’d never thought air could be dead, but that’s what it seemed to be.

  Remembering the danger Theron was in, I quickened my step and asked, “Where are we going?”

  My mother pointed toward the tallest of the leafless trees. “There,” she replied.

  I stumbled on a clump of dried wildflowers and nearly face-planted on the stinky ground. “Is this the dewing version of hell?” I asked, righting myself.

  Brandy laughed. “We exist here, so I hope not,” she replied. “Our homes are on the other side of the valley where it isn’t so dry.”

  “It’s getting to be, though,” my mother commented. “This place is connected to the living. When the descendants of Atlantis exist in harmony with one another, the world, and humans, it rains here. When they don’t…there’s drought.”

  Looking at the great expanse of wilderness around us, I asked, “Don’t you get bored?”

  My mother chuckled. “In a lot of ways our existence is the same as it was before we died,” she said. “We associate with our clans and our families. We continue to learn and innovate. Eventually, we’re supposed to progress to the next level of existence, but since William sent the living world into a tailspin, no one has moved on. It’s starting to feel like a prison here. In that regard, maybe it’s becoming a type of hell.”

  Brandy slowed her pace and pointed. “That’s where they are,” she said.

  Two figures in brown robes were sitting under a tree with their legs crisscrossed. Their eyes seemed intensely focused on something, but I couldn’t tell what. A shiver ran down my spine at the oddity of it all.

  “The woman is called Medea,” my mother said. “Her likeness is Eon. They won’t talk to the dead, so it’s best if you go on without us.”

  Mindful of Theron’s struggle to keep the portal open, I nodded and continued toward them.

  “Good luck,” Brandy called after me.

  Medea and Eon stood up as I approached them. Their wrinkled, sagging faces and their brown robes were exactly as they’d appeared in the books. They were small, only about four feet tall, and they moved with surprising agility.

  Suddenly nervous, I stopped and cleared my throat.

  Medea looked at her likeness and said, “She’s quite ugly, isn’t she?”

  In a rapid movement that reminded me of a squirrel, Eon tipped his head to the side and responded, “It’s her eyes. They’re too wide for her face.”

  “Yes, ” Medea agreed.

  My nervousness was replaced by amusement that the two of them, who were the square root of hideous, were criticizing my looks. “My name is Alison,” I said, trying not to laugh. “I was told you’re the keepers of destiny.”

  The woman tipped her head as her husband had done and eyed me up and down. “We are,” she confirmed.

  “I’ve come to ask for a favor,” I said.

  “No one ever comes to visit,” Eon protested with a sorrowful expression. “They always want something.”

  “We give it to them, and they never return,” Medea added, looking just as forlorn.

  I had the fleeting thought they were putting on a performance and laughing about it in their minds.

  Making a sweeping motion with her hand, Medea said, “We should just send her away.”

  Fear that they wouldn’t let me stay long enough to ask my question made me desperate. “Don’t send me away,” I begged. “I need you to turn fate.”

  “You need us to turn fate?” Medea asked with a blink. “Like you need air to breath, or you need food to eat?”

  “No, not like that,” I admitted. “I need you to turn fate for the greater good.”

  “Do you decide what the greater good is?” Eon asked.

  “I’m the Laurel clan chief,” I responded. “I’m supposed to be the guardian of the good, so I guess I have to sometimes.”

  Medea seemed pleased with my response. Eon…
not so much.

  Rubbing his fleshy nose, he asked, “What do you need us to turn fate away from?”

  I figured if they were the keepers of destiny, they already knew. But if putting it into words was a requirement, I could do that. “Since Atlantis was destroyed, a likenessed couple hasn’t been able to have more than two children. We’re slowly becoming extinct. Someone trying to prevent that made a terrible choice, and now we’re going to be destroyed a lot sooner and with a great deal of violence.”

  Eon shook his head, like it was too much for him to comprehend. “It’s all very complicated,” he complained.

  Medea nodded, but I caught a flicker of intelligence in her eyes. The two of them were acting like children, but in reality they were as sharp as tacks.

  “One good deed deserves another,” Medea said in a singsong voice, “but what you’re asking for is no light matter. What have you done to earn such a favor?”

  I thought about all the times I’d been asked to risk my life for the greater good and gave a cynical laugh. “To start with, I faced a dewing much older and much stronger than myself to keep him from exposing our kind to humans. I risked my life to find Nikki Dawning and make sure the Truss clan appointed a good leader. I left my human family to become a clan chief, and I came here to ask for your help, knowing I might not return to those I love.”

  “Brave deeds,” Eon affirmed, “but did she actually accomplish anything remarkable?”

  “Sometimes the outcome doesn’t matter as much as what they’re willing to sacrifice along the way,” Media told him.

  Almost frantic, I explained, “I’ve done everything asked of me, knowing I might have to give up my friends, my family, and my life for the greater good. I don’t know what more I could have willingly sacrificed.”

  The two of them seemed to ponder what I’d said. Then Medea smiled. I had to hold back a wince of disgust. She had no teeth, just peeling pink gums.

  “Done,” she said.

  Like the squirrel he’d reminded me of, Eon quickly climbed the tree and broke a branch off. Holding it in his gums, he dropped to the ground.

  “Is fate turned?” I asked with a wave of excitement.

  “Not yet,” he said, stabbing the sharp end of the branch through the skin of his palm.

  He proceeded to smear blood all over one end of the stick and then he handed it to Medea to do the same. When she finished, she offered the branch to me.

  With great effort, I overcame my revulsion and took it from her. “So, destiny has been redirected now that the stick is covered in blood?” I asked.

  “Our blood is pure,” Medea explained. “Study it and learn how to reverse the change that keeps your kind from having more children.”

  I looked at the branch with respect and awe.

  Eon shook his head. “You should go now,” he said. “Your ugly eyes are too much to bear.”

  I could have told him I felt the same way about his face, but I was too relieved and grateful to care. “Thank you for this,” I said, raising the stick.

  “Go away, go away,” Medea replied.

  I allowed myself a final glance at the strange pair, and then I turned and ran back the way I’d come.

  When I reached Brandy and my mother, a drop of water fell on my nose. I looked up to see clouds rolling across the sky.

  A drop must have fallen on Brandy, too, because she laughed and held her hands up, “It’s raining,” she said. “It’s finally raining.”

  As we hurried back across the meadow, my mother said, “You won’t be able to open a portal for a while. After coming all the way to our side, it will take time to build back the special type of energy it takes to open one.”

  I went from feeling elated by success to panicky at the idea of losing all contact with her. “Will I be able to hear you?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said, “but on the new course of destiny, I don’t think you’ll need me that much.”

  I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t like we had a normal mother-daughter relationship, but it was better than nothing.

  “Don’t be sad,” she urged. “I think you’ll find a lot of happiness awaits you.”

  I took a deep breath and nodded.

  “Tell Ian hi for me,” Brandy said with a sparkle in her eye. “I think a lot of happiness awaits him, too.”

  I gave her a smile, and then clutching the blood-covered branch, I stepped through the portal and back into the Pradnium.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Flushed and sweating, Theron asked me, “What took you so long?”

  Before I could reply, the energy bubble around us disappeared, his vibration stopped, and his eyes rolled back in his head. Knowing he was going to topple over, I grabbed him around the waist and eased him to the floor.

  Terrified he’d held the portal open for too long and expended too much of his strength to recover, I gave him a shake. When he didn’t respond, I checked the pulse in his neck. For two of my breaths, there was nothing. Then I felt one strong beat followed by another. His vibration kicked back on, and his chest rose and fell with an intake of breath.

  I was so relieved I choked out a laugh.

  His eye fluttered open, and he muttered, “I don’t feel so good.”

  Smoothing his hair away from his feverish forehead, I said, “You did great, Theron. Everything is going to be okay now. You’ll be better after some rest.”

  “Okay,” he replied agreeably, and his face relaxed into unconsciousness.

  Feeling the pressure of several stares, I looked up to find the chiefs watching me with various versions of shocked respect. I’d gone from the lowest rank on the totem pole, and possibly getting kicked off the roundtable, to a force to be reckoned with. Eleanora Illuminant eyed me with wary caution. After she’d seen me fry David, I doubted she’d ever hit me with her essence again.

  Spencer and Katherine were still with Alex. He seemed to be sleeping. Aside from a black eye, I couldn’t see any outward signs of trauma on him.

  Ian had been standing in frozen silence since I got back. I managed a small smile in his direction, and he came out of whatever trance he’d been in. Rushing to me, he lifted me to my feet and hugged me so tight I could barely breath.

  “I thought you weren’t coming back,” he said in a voice raw with emotion.

  I didn’t tell him I’d been worried about the same thing. I just let myself lean on his chest and thanked destiny for giving me another moment with him.

  “You know,” he commented with a chuckle, “you put a new spin on the phrase ‘My girlfriend is hot.’”

  I chuckled, too, and hugged him back.

  “What happened?” Helen Vasitass asked. “Can anyone tell me what just happened?”

  I’d heard enough of her annoying voice to last me a lifetime, but she’d reminded me I needed to explain the branch I was clutching in my hand.

  Gently freeing myself from Ian’s embrace, I went back to my place at the roundtable.

  “What happened,” I replied with a sigh, “is that Theron and I just saved your asses.”

  “You’re a conduit,” the Hezida chief remarked.

  “I didn’t think any of you would know what one was,” I replied. “But yes.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” a Falco chief objected. “Conduits are fictional…they’re fairy tales.”

  Spencer hustled to my side and sent me a look that conveyed I’d have some explaining to do later. “I think we can all agree that what we just saw was no fairy tale,” he remarked.

  Anxious to get the explanation over with, I said, “I talked to the keepers of destiny and asked them to turn fate.” Holding up the branch, I continued, “They gave me this.”

  “Why did they give you a stick?” Phoebe asked, looking it over.

  “It’s not the stick that matters,” I replied. “The stuff on it is blood…pure blood from the keepers themselves. They told me to have it examined, and we’ll find out what caused our fertility problem after Atlantis
sank. They said we’d fix it, so yeah…they turned fate.”

  When Helen reached for the branch, I pulled it back. “Before I give it to anyone,” I said. “There’s something I need to present for a vote.”

  Spencer nodded and looked around the Pradnium. “We’ll resume the meeting, but first the room needs to be cleared.”

  Like a drill sergeant, Katherine started giving out orders. She had Alex and Theron carried to my suite, and David locked up in the storage room until we decided what to do with him.

  As people started bustling around the room, I gave a weary sigh, sat down, and rested my chin on my hands. Though the condition of my dress suggested otherwise, I felt great physically. Mentally, I was overwhelmed by what I’d done that night and with worry for Alex.

  I sort of zoned out, and Phoebe had to poke my arm to bring me back when the Pradnium was cleared. Noting that the chiefs had returned to their places at the roundtable, I gave myself an internal shake and stood up.

  “I hope you witnessed enough tonight,” I said, “to believe me when I tell you we don’t need William Truss’s journal. The ideas in it are dangerous. It’s in our best interest to destroy it, but that’s something we’ll have to deal with later. I’d like a vote of assurance that no one will mention hybrids outside this room. Some things are better kept a secret.”

  “Usually, we open up a discussion when an issue is presented for a vote,” Spencer said. “Does anyone want to present opposition to the Laurel?”

  No one said anything so Spencer continued. “All in favor, raise your hand.”

  The vote carried unanimously.

  When the meeting finished, Spencer, Katherine, and Luke followed me to my suite.

  “I flushed the drugs from his mind and put Alex to sleep,” Spencer explained at my door. “I don’t think any permanent damage has been done, but he’s going to have that nasty black eye for a while.”

  “My parents are probably out of their minds with worry,” I muttered. “First, I die, and then Alex goes missing. I don’t know how much more they can take.”