by E. G. Foley
They introduced Sapphira and Lil as locals from a “fine family” who had spent the day showing them the best spots the tourists didn’t know about. The mermaid princesses managed to curtsy to Miss Helena without tipping over on their new legs. The governess gave the two newcomers a quick, assessing glance, in turn, and must’ve concluded from their bearing that they were acceptably highborn.
Thankfully, she didn’t notice that the girls were wearing borrowed clothes from Isabelle and Dani. Small as she was, Nixie was closer in size to Liliana, but the little pink mermaid refused to don the witch’s gloomy black garb. Dani had offered her a lavender dress instead, which had made the little blonde happy.
When Jake asked Miss Helena if they could dine on the patio that night, wanting to continue their conversation in private, she said that would be acceptable. Their supper would be sent up.
After that, they were left once again to their own devices.
Dani brought Teddy over to meet Liliana, and that also helped cheer the younger mermaid up after being held hostage, seeing her home bombarded, and then having to endure the painful Landwalker’s spell. Lil had screamed and cried piteously as her tail had changed into legs, but meeting Teddy had fascinated her. She’d never seen a dog before.
It also seemed to give the younger princess some comfort that her seahorse had remained close by, swimming around the cove. Wallace was clearly quite curious about Archie’s submarine moored there. He kept nickering to it, as though he expected the metal “whale” to say something back.
Still, Liliana could barely walk on her new legs, so Maddox had given her a piggyback ride up to the villa, and this had amused the girl greatly. As the kids had gathered on the rooftop patio at sunset, Red had also joined them, flying down from where he had been napping in the garden trees.
The visiting mermaids cried out in amazement at the sight of him. Jake had greeted his large pet warmly, an arm around his neck as he introduced him. Both girls had stared, slack-jawed, at the Gryphon.
But while Liliana held Teddy on her lap and stared at Red, Jake had set the Atlantean orb on the center of the table in their midst and then turned to Sapphira.
“Out with it,” he had ordered. “It’s time you finally told us the rest of the story and whatever else you’ve been hiding. The truth this time, if you please. I think you owe us that much.”
Sapphira had glanced around at them uneasily, but seeing that her and her sister’s safety depended on them now, she let out a large sigh and finally gave in.
For the next half-hour, they listened intently as she described her confrontation with the rock monsters, her tutor’s reaction to the orb, her decision to hide it in the sunken temple, all the way to the arrival of Davy Jones.
Isabelle in particular watched her like a hawk; she gave Jake a subtle nod when Sapphira was finished, signaling that this time, she had sensed honesty rather than deception from the princess.
For a long moment, everyone was silent, mulling her story.
Jake’s mind churned.
But Izzy couldn’t hold her tongue. “So,” she said coldly, “this object could’ve caused millions of people and animals to drown, and you were just going to let Davy Jones have it?”
“He took my sister! What would you do if he had kidnapped Archie?” Sapphira shot back.
“Ladies, please,” Maddox said, apparently unaware that he was a large part of the reason the two older girls seemed to have decided they didn’t like each other. “Fighting amongst ourselves isn’t going to solve anything. We need to figure out what to do. Besides, the important thing is that Liliana’s safe now.”
“But we’re not,” Dani said quietly. “Truthfully, I’m still in shock to hear that Atlantis was actually real!”
“Me too,” Jake agreed. “But my question is, who could’ve known there were Atlantean artifacts hidden away at the bottom of the Calypso Deep in the first place?”
Sapphira shook her head. “I have no idea.”
“Well…the rock monsters sound like some form of golem or servitor to me,” Nixie said. “But it takes a wizard of considerable power to create and control multiple servitors like that. Which way were they going?”
“Before they started chasing me, they were headed toward the Greek islands. After they tried to kill me, I didn’t stay to find out which one, and since there are six thousand of them, that doesn’t help us much.”
“I should think their maker built them out of rock so they could endure the massive water pressure at those depths,” Archie mused aloud.
“Yes, but like Jake said, how did this wizard even know that the artifacts were down there?” Maddox persisted.
Nobody had an answer; the patio got very quiet, except for Liliana murmuring to Teddy in delight.
“Hmm.” Dani stared off into space for a moment. “If the orb can be used to start a second Noah’s Flood, maybe we should talk a bit about the first one. What do we know about that? Aside from the ark, I mean, and two of every animal.”
Nixie snorted. “That’s just a story.”
“Hardly,” Archie countered in a grim tone.
Even Jake was surprised to hear this statement from his scientific cousin, of all people.
“There are some three hundred Flood accounts from ancient cultures around the world: China and India, Egypt and ancient Babylon, and on the other side of the Atlantic, as well, the Mayans, even the native tribes of North America. What most of these stories have in common is the notion that the world before the Flood had grown extremely wicked, and when the waters came, it was divine retribution that wiped out the evildoers, sparing only a virtuous few.
“It was the Greek philosopher, Plato, who brings the Flood together specifically with Atlantis in his work called the Critias, written about 300 BC,” Archie continued. “Plato heard the story from his teacher, the famous philosopher, Solon, who had learned it from the priests of ancient Egypt when he traveled there to visit the Great Library of Alexandria.
“The priests respected the famous old Greek teacher, so they shared a secret papyrus scroll with him, one of the oldest they possessed. The scroll claimed that Egypt itself had started out as a mere outpost or colony of a far vaster and more sophisticated seafaring empire with worldwide reach. It even hinted that the knowledge they had inherited from Atlantis enabled them to build the pyramids in the first place.”
“Really?” Isabelle murmured, staring at her brother in fascination.
He nodded. “Certain pharaohs get credit for the pyramids today, of course, and they claim they’re supposed to be tombs, but the truth is, nobody really knows for certain who built them, or why, let alone how.
“One thing is certain, though. If the tale is true, and pyramid-building was this lost civilization’s calling card, it would lend credence to the notion that Atlantis really did wield global influence, for we find ancient pyramidal structures literally everywhere.”
Dani looked perplexed. “But—I don’t understand. How could people who lived thousands of years ago be smarter than us? We have trains, telegraphs, gas streetlamps, vaccinations! The grownups are always talking about Progress, that mankind keeps getting better all the time.”
Jake snorted. “Doesn’t look like it to me. Does anybody actually believe that?”
Maddox rose to pace. “Never mind the philosophical questions. I’d be happy with a few basic facts. Who made these rock monsters? How did they know the artifacts were there, and what do they want them for?”
“It makes you wonder what else they made off with,” Jake murmured. “If one little orb can cause a whole Noah’s Flood, and these rock fellows carried off two sacks full of Atlantean gadgets, I shudder to think what the other pieces in the collection are able to do.”
“Not good,” Dani mumbled, shaking her head.
A silence followed as they pondered ominous possibilities.
“Let’s take this in order,” Archie said in the same professorial tone he used when teaching their lessons. He pushed his spectacles up
higher onto his nose. “First things first. Maddox is quite right: the maker of these golems. How could he or she have known there were Atlantean artifacts waiting to be collected in a place that is currently inaccessible to man? Ideas?”
Sapphira shook her head. “The information couldn’t have come from my world. It’s too deep for merfolk. We wouldn’t have known it was there. The whales can’t even see to the bottom.”
“Well…you know,” Nixie said, stroking her jaw, “it could’ve come from supernatural sources. Remember, it was a demon who snitched on Jake, after all, and told the Dark Druids it was he who killed Garnock.”
“You killed someone?” Sapphira exclaimed, turning to Jake in surprise.
“Eh, he was dead for centuries before I met him. All I did was make sure he stayed that way. Me and Isabelle.”
“And Dr. Celestus,” Izzy reminded him with a smile.
“Right.” Jake smiled back at her, for it was quite true. “Had a little help at the end there, finishing the job.”
“Hmm,” Archie suddenly said, furrowing his brow.
Jake looked over sharply at his cousin. Such hmms from the boy genius usually proved portentous. “What?”
“Well, it’s just…now that Izzy mentioned Celestus…and Nix just reminded me about Garnock’s demon familiar…it jogged my memory about something else I once heard concerning Atlantis.”
“What’s that?” Dani asked.
Archie hesitated. “Well, I have to warn you, the theory is a little wild. But I think it could pertain.”
Maddox arched a brow. “Let’s hear it.”
“All right, but don’t think I’m mad. Some say the whole empire of Atlantis was originally founded by…fallen angels.”
“What?” Dani exclaimed.
“That’s why they were so advanced,” Archie said hastily. “They used to live in Heaven, y’see. But then they got kicked out for rebelling, right? According to the story, on their way down, these evil angels stole the secret knowledge of the celestial realm and decided to apply it here on Earth. That’s why it seemed so incredibly far ahead of anything humans had at the time. Because it wasn’t from here. It was never supposed to be here,” he said. “It was never meant for our world.”
“Where’d you hear this?” Jake asked, crinkling his nose.
“I sat next to a chap at the Invention Convention from the alternative archeology department at one of the luncheons, Dr. Coturnix. Everyone was all abuzz about Dr. Schliemann discovering the lost city of Troy, but I found this fellow’s area of study even more compelling. Coturnix encouraged me to investigate it for myself in the Apocrypha, particularly the Book of Enoch.”
“English, coz?” Jake prompted.
“Oh—sorry. An apocryphal text means an ancient manuscript that’s related to the Bible, but isn’t officially included in it. Enoch was Noah’s granddad, y’see. He lived to be, blazes, about a thousand years old. His writings are quoted several places in the Bible.”
“Never thought about Noah having a grandpa,” Dani remarked.
“According to Enoch, there was this horrid brigade of some two hundred rebel angels known as the Watchers. They were followers of Lucifer, and after Archangel Michael threw them out of Heaven, they decided to come down here and make a new life for themselves on Earth.”
“Didn’t they go straight to you-know-where?” Dani pointed to the floor.
“Not immediately. Their main punishment at that point was getting thrown out of their home and never being able to see God again. For a time, they were free to roam about, and that’s when they decided to invade the Earth.
“Of course, this was forbidden,” Archie continued, “but if they got an invitation from humankind… Well, just like a vampire can’t step over your doorstep unless you invite him, the Watchers used their celestial knowledge to bribe humans into letting them come into the Earth plane. They pretended like they came in peace, only wanting to help them.
“Naturally, they didn’t appear as horned, red-skinned demons, but still kept their angel looks for a while, plus they still had their superior intellect, superior strength, angelic paranormal abilities. They managed to manifest themselves in human form as ultra-handsome men, even claiming they were gods, like Zeus and Apollo and such. By doing that, they tricked human women into marrying them, and eventually had families. But the children born to them were not normal beings.”
“Obviously,” said Maddox, “if they were half demon.”
“Precisely,” Archie said. “The Watchers’ descendants were flesh and blood like us, but as smart and strong as angels—only wicked fallen ones. Within a few centuries, their clans had grown to dominate mankind and had pretty much taken over the Earth.”
“Yikes,” said Jake.
“The ancient Hebrews referred to these creatures as the Nephilim. Dr. Coturnix speculated that these bloodlines might have made up the different enemy tribes of terrifying ‘-ites’ that the heroes in the Old Testament had to fight all the time, like Joshua and Caleb. The Amalakites and Jebusites and so forth. In places, they are referred to as giants inhabiting the Promised Land that had to be driven out.
“Coturnix speculates that these groups were actually fallen angel descendants—Nephilim. That’s why God would order Joshua and his army to wipe certain tribes out completely—men, women, children—because they were, well, basically demon spawn.”
“Blimey,” Jake said, pondering for a moment. “Wonder if there’s anyone left alive with Nephilim blood today.”
Archie shrugged. “Anything’s possible, but that was the whole point of having the Flood, wasn’t it? To get rid of them all at one go.”
“So…God flushed the Nephilim down the drain,” Dani remarked.
Archie nodded. “That was my colleague’s scholarship on the matter, anyway. Oh, and by the way, there were supposed to be a few telltale signs if someone was a Nephilim. Because, you see, the two species—human and fallen angel—didn’t combine quite right. The kids came out kind of…freakish and wrong.”
“Wrong how?” Jake asked.
“Well, they were usually oversized, for starters. Eight, nine feet tall was common. One of those ‘-ite’ kings was supposed to be thirteen feet tall. Oh, and another distinguishing trait was six fingers on each hand. They weren’t all the same. Some also had big, strange, cone-shaped skulls.” Archie gestured to the back of his head. “Coturnix collects them. They turn up all over the globe, but nobody can explain them.
“He said they can’t be human because they don’t even have the right Y-shaped pattern of cranial sutures that we have joining the plates in our skulls. Also, the sheer volume of the brain cavity led him to theorize that this cone-headed variety of Nephilim might’ve had extreme mental or even supernatural abilities, like telepathy.”
“Hey, Archie, what about telekinesis?” Dani flashed a grin at Jake.
“Oh, shut it.” He scoffed. “I’m not a Nephilim.”
Archie chuckled. “Well, if you start getting the urge to drink blood or offer human sacrifices up on top of a pyramid somewhere, do let us know. That was a favorite Nephilim pastime. Dr. Coturnix said some of these freakish skulls they found actually have various dental anomalies, like fangs, for example.”
“Lovely.” Isabelle shuddered.
“Eh, that could be a hoax,” said Nixie.
But Jake grinned. “I wish I could’ve fought some Nephilim.”
“Sounds fun,” Maddox agreed with a faint smile.
Sapphira didn’t look convinced. “So this motley crew of fallen angel offspring are supposed to be the Old Ones who founded Atlantis?”
Archie just shrugged.
Everyone was quiet, and for a moment, Jake mulled his cousin’s account.
“Suppose it were true,” he said at length. “Then that would mean that artifact sitting right there”—he pointed at the table—“was the handiwork of Atlanteans. Who were actually devil-spawn Nephilim. Which would make the orb more or less…demonic in origin.”
“Yes,” Archie said, nodding, “more or less.”
Spooked, Dani stood abruptly. “Let’s get rid of it. It needs to be destroyed,” she said in a tight voice.
“How?” Maddox asked, pivoting to her with a nod of agreement. “Should I smash it?”
“Hold on!” Archie protested. “That’s a real Atlantean artifact! Nobody’s smashing anything! It needs to be studied for its historical significance!”
“But if it could destroy the world—” Maddox said.
“It’s too dangerous!” Dani said, nodding. “If it’s evil, and only bad people want it…”
“She’s right, Arch,” Isabelle agreed.
But Nixie sided with Archie—sort of. “Excuse me! Let’s not rush to judgment here, because after all, there is another viewpoint on Atlantis. The exact opposite view, in fact: that it was a utopia of knowledge and peace, and that their downfall wiped out a golden age.”
“If you’re a demon spawn, sure,” Jake muttered. “Flood must’ve been a bad day for that lot.”
“Or maybe none of it existed!” Nixie argued. “We just don’t know. These could all be legends!”
“Well, Davy Jones believes in it,” Sapphira said, then hesitated. “And to be honest, I’ve seen a small demonstration that it actually does work…”
“Fascinating,” Archie murmured after Sapphira had described how the wedges had unfolded in her tutor’s cave, and the hum and the spinning and the lights.
Archie looked sorely tempted to try to turn it on. “Clearly, we need to do some research—”
“I don’t think you should go messin’ with it, Arch,” Jake warned.
“Of course not—that would be irresponsible until I know more.” Archie shook his head, frowning. “I wish there was some way to consult Dr. Coturnix about it, but he’s somewhere in the jungles of Belize right now—studying Mayan pyramids, as it happens.”
Archie glanced at his fob watch. “Well, the local library should be open for another hour yet this evening. I’ll go see if they have any books on Atlantis to point me in the right direction. At least it’s a start. Eventually, though, as long as it seems safe, I’ll want to put the orb under my microscope and run some tests. Who knows what secrets it might yield?”