The lid went silently up and inside he found a neatly folded letter and a crimson gemstone the size of his thumb knuckle. A ruby that size would be worth a fortune, so he doubted that’s what the stone was. He smoothed the letter and started reading.
Dear Professor McDoogle,
I’m a huge admirer of your Merlin book and wanted to make a suggestion for your next project. I assume a man as learned as you has heard the legend of Atlantis. The lost island is an obsession of mine, but much like the legend of Merlin, most people don’t take it seriously. I hoped that if a person of your stature were to discover the truth, the world would be forced to take it seriously. If you’re interested in learning more, you’ll find a map on the back of this paper.
Angus turned the letter over and found nothing but a blank, white page. He frowned and returned to the message.
To reveal the map, you need to take a flashlight and shine it through the crystal. The red light will make the image clear. Please forgive the secrecy, but I wouldn’t want anyone else claiming this find before you.
Your devoted fan,
M
Angus wasn’t usually keen on this sort of cloak-and-dagger business, but he couldn’t deny a certain excitement. He’d never given Atlantis much thought. As the letter said, it was regarded as a legend. He overlooked it just like everyone else. Given his past, maybe he shouldn’t have.
Excited now, he hurried out to the kitchen and rummaged through his junk drawer until he found a flashlight. With the letter on the counter and the stone held to the flashlight’s lens he switched it on. Red light spilled over the paper like a puddle of blood. Immediately the outline of a map appeared along with latitude and longitude numbers.
Angus grinned like a little boy at Christmas and rushed back to his office to find an atlas. He had his project now. Everyone would see that he was more than just a one-trick pony.
After his conversation with Jemma, Conryu returned to the floating island. It was only midday, so he had plenty of time to begin scouting. The problem was, the True Face of God cult controlled a huge territory. He wasn’t sure where to begin. If she was so worried, you’d think Jemma could have given him an address at least.
He stepped out of the library near his workshop and took three steps before Kai appeared and bowed. His bodyguard was dressed in all black as was her habit, the hilt of her sword jutting over her shoulder. At least she hadn’t bothered with a mask. Long hair framed a pale, narrow face.
Kai bowed. “Chosen, you appeared troubled.”
Despite his best efforts, Conryu had yet to convince her to call him by his name rather than his title. She’d tried for a while but looked so uncomfortable he stopped asking.
“I got some news today and I’m not sure what to do about it. No, that’s not right. I know what to do, I’m just not sure how best to go about it.” He looked at Kai for a moment and nearly slapped his forehead. “You said there are a bunch of ninjas where you come from, right?”
“Nearly a hundred when I left, all devoted to serving you should you wish to call on them. You never gave any indication that you did.”
“Up until this moment, I didn’t. Now I don’t have a choice. Can you take me to them?”
“Of course. We’ll have to travel through Hell though. It’s the only way I know to get there.”
Conryu shrugged. He hadn’t gone for a ride on Cerberus for a while. It would be a nice change of pace.
An hour later they were racing through the black emptiness of Hell on the back of his guardian demon. Cerberus followed Kai’s directions perfectly. After a rough first meeting, the two of them now got along well. Since they both wanted to protect Conryu, it made sense for them to be friends.
“Stop here, Chosen,” Kai said.
Conryu slid off Cerberus’s back and looked around at the endless nothing. How did she know for sure? He neither saw nor sensed anything to indicate where they were.
“Are you sure?” Conryu asked.
“Yes, I have been here many times. Focus on the darkness and reach out. If I can feel the presence of my sisters, you will be able to as well.”
He’d never been very good at this sort of subtle magic. His specialties ran toward blowing things up. Maybe just thinking he was bad at it was what blocked him. Conryu frowned and focused fully on the flow of dark magic through the area. The gem on his staff turned black in response to his request.
A few seconds later he felt them, dozens of weak, dark aligned wizards just beyond the veil that separated the mortal realm from Hell. He really needed to practice more.
Conryu patted Cerberus on the flank. “Good job, boy. I’ll try to visit more often. Maybe next time we can hunt some demons.”
Cerberus gave an eager bark and licked his face. At least the demon dog’s tongues were dry.
Conryu opened a portal and he and Kai stepped through.
The first thing he noticed was the heat and humidity. They were in the center of a clearing marked by a ritual circle. Palm trees towered over them and a narrow, winding path led into the jungle. A sweet perfume from unseen flowers filled the air.
He didn’t have a chance to enjoy it as ten women dressed like Kai appeared out of thin air all around them, swords drawn and crackling with dark magic.
“Trespassers are not welcome here,” one of the women said. “Prepare to return to Hell.”
Not exactly the greeting Conryu had expected. He tapped the ground with his staff and released a pulse of dark magic that sent the women flying.
Before they could recover Kai said, “You dare greet the Reaper’s Chosen with bare steel? Be grateful he doesn’t kill you all for such disrespect.”
Conryu winced. Kai knew him well enough by now to know he’d never kill anyone over such a small thing. With his power, there was no chance they’d actually hurt him. But maybe she knew her audience better than he did. The ninjas scrambled to their knees and touched their heads to the ground.
“Forgive us, Chosen,” the one who made the threat earlier said. “We did not know you at once.”
In unison all ten raised their heads and leaned back, exposing their throats. “Our lives are yours.”
“Thanks, but I need live help not corpses. Who’s in charge anyway?”
“That would be Grandmaster Narumi,” Kai said.
“Alas, it is no longer,” the spokeswoman said. She waved her hand and the other nine vanished. “The grandmaster fell in battle three weeks ago. I have taken her place until a new grandmaster can be elected.”
Kai fell to her knees. When she spoke, her voice trembled. “Impossible. How? The illusion protects us. If you don’t know the way here, the island is inaccessible.”
“The barrier fell a month ago. A week after that, the first wave of the Iron Emperor’s stone soldiers marched out of the ocean and onto the beach. We’ve been fighting them off and on ever since. Fully a third of our order has fallen, including the grandmaster.”
“Who are you?” Conryu asked.
“Forgive my rudeness, Chosen.” The woman removed her head wrap. “My name is Kanna. Grandmaster Narumi was my mother. In her name and my own I pledge our service and if need be our lives to you.”
She was older than Kai by about fifteen years. Her eyes were dark and hollow from worry. Sunken cheeks and thin lips gave her a drawn-out look. Clearly the stress of her current situation had taken a toll. Conryu suspected under better circumstances she would have been beautiful.
He was about to ask another question when a gong sounded repeatedly.
“They come again,” Kanna said. “On the north beach. I must go.”
She vanished into the borderlands.
Kai leapt to her feet. “We should help.”
“We will. Then you’ll have to tell me what the grandmaster meant to you. That was the strongest reaction I’ve ever seen you make.”
Conryu raised his staff and summoned the winds to carry them skyward. He turned north and soon after reached the beach. Stone statues car
ved to look like medieval warriors dressed in armor and carrying spears marched out of the surf. Kai’s sisters met them with black steel. Their dark-magic-charged blades sliced easily through the stone soldiers, but the loss of a limb didn’t bother the constructs and more came every second.
“Let me down, Chosen,” Kai said. “I must fight with my sisters.”
“No need. The core of those constructs is filled with magic. I can dispel them all in a moment.”
Conryu slashed the staff and a wave of darkness rolled out, washing over the ninjas without effect only to slam into the statues and snuff out their cores. The dark magic kept going, driven by his will, until he had destroyed all the constructs underwater as well.
He and Kai landed on the beach and everyone immediately took a knee.
Conryu glanced at Kai. “Are they going to do this every time I show up?”
She actually cracked a smile. “At least until they get used to you.”
“Is anyone hurt?” he asked.
Kanna stood. “Not this time, thanks to you, Chosen. We should have at least a few days and perhaps a week before they strike again. You needed us for something. Please, tell us how we may serve.”
“My problem will keep for a few hours. Do you have wounded from earlier battles?”
“Seven are in the infirmary, too injured to fight. Others have minor wounds that don’t keep them sidelined.”
“Take me to the infirmary.” She started to fade into the borderland. “On foot, please. You can fill me in on what’s happening.”
Kanna returned to solidity. “As you wish. The village isn’t far. Follow me.”
He and Kai fell in beside Kanna. As they walked, she told them of the barrier’s weakening and eventual failure. Not long after, the stone soldiers appeared. They’d been fighting off waves of the constructs ever since.
“Why does the Iron Emperor care about your village?” Conryu asked. “Have you attacked the Empire?”
“No,” Kanna said. “But we do grant sanctuary to any dark aligned girl that wishes to escape. That’s something he can’t accept. It’s a sign of weakness.”
They reached the edge of a small village. There was a longhouse on one side of the clearing, a handful of smaller buildings, and a central well. He’d never seen a place this low tech.
“You seem to know a lot about the Empire,” Conryu said.
“I do. My mother was one of the girls granted sanctuary and she told me all about it. I will die before I allow any of us to be taken back. The infirmary is this way.”
She led him to a thirty-by-thirty building directly across from the longhouse. The only door was a blanket hanging across the entrance. Inside, seven of the ten beds were occupied by women with horrible injuries. One was missing an arm; another had a bandage covering half her face.
When he entered, the sole healthy person knelt and the rest tried to rise from their sickbeds. “Stop that. Everyone relax.”
It was easy to forget that they didn’t have access to light magic healing. Everyone on the island was dark aligned after all. That said, they were all still human and healing magic wouldn’t hurt them.
Conryu went to the nearest woman, really a girl he guessed couldn’t be over nineteen. She’d lost her left arm from the elbow down. Her blond hair was sweat plastered to her head. He reached out and took her good hand. Light magic flowed into her and over the next few seconds her arm regenerated.
When he sensed no more damage, he moved on to the next person. Conryu repeated the process for each of the wounded. When he was finished, he turned to find all of them out of their beds and on their knees, heads touching the floor. Kanna had joined them, leaving only him and Kai still standing.
“Okay, respect is one thing, but I have no wish to be worshiped. Everybody up.”
They stood and Kanna dismissed the newly healed. When they’d gone, she said, “Are you certain you’re the Chosen of Death? I’ve read the histories and all the others were cruel, merciless women that desired nothing beyond power and adoration. Certainly none of them would have gone out of their way to heal the wounded.”
“If I’m supposed to be your leader, I wouldn’t be a very good one if I let my people stay hurt, would I?” Conryu rolled up his sleeve so she could see the scythe mark on his forearm. “I assure you the Reaper marked me. It’s not something I’ll ever forget.”
“I didn’t mean to doubt you, Chosen,” Kanna said. “Will you restore the illusion now?”
“I’m not too good at that sort of magic. Besides, the Iron Emperor knows where you are. Even if I hid the island, his stone soldiers could march right through the illusion. No, we need to find you all a new home. In the meantime, I have an idea about how to hold off the constructs. Prime?”
“Yes, Master?”
“Do you know how I might go about raising an anti-magic wall around the island and making it last for a while?”
Prime sniffed. “Certainly, Master. Raising the wall will be simple enough for you. To make it last, you’ll need to open a Hell gate in the center of the island and connect the dark energy to the wall. You’ll also have to ward it to keep any demons from coming out.”
“You know how to construct the ward?”
Prime just stared at him.
“Of course you do. Sorry I asked.”
“Chosen?” Kanna said. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but will you appoint a new grandmaster to oversee the village?”
“I thought you all voted on that.”
“Usually, we would, as long as there was no Chosen to appoint one. Since you’re here…”
Conryu glanced at Kai who nodded. “Fine, you seem to be doing a good job. If no one objects, I’m okay with you continuing to do it.”
“I am honored by your confidence. Will you oversee the ritual of investiture?”
He badly wanted to say no but sighed and nodded. “When will you have it?”
“Midnight tonight.”
“Alright, that will give Prime and me time to prepare the anti-magic barrier. But tomorrow we leave for Europe.”
Chapter 3
Jonny Salazar grimaced as his black leather boots sank into the sand up to his ankles. Somehow the miserable stuff always found a gap. He’d be itching for hours after his patrol. And the heat, goddamn. His desert camo uniform felt like an oven when the sun was pounding down on him.
The beach stretched for miles in every direction, beautiful, fit people as far as the eye could see. Beach patrol was everything he’d ever imagined and then some, minus the sand. And he had Conryu to thank for it. The brass had heard how helpful he’d been in taking down the crazy wizards that attacked Sentinel City and after he graduated offered him this sweet post.
He’d been on duty for a month now and hadn’t shot a single zombie. He also hadn’t gotten a single date. Everything you heard about women liking a man in uniform turned out to be bullshit, at least in his experiences so far. Jonny remained ever hopeful that given the sheer number of babes down here, he’d find one that was interested. He certainly wasn’t going to stop looking.
Speaking of looking, a bronze beauty went bouncing by, her bikini barely covering her lean body.
“Private Salazar! We’re here to look for zombies not to drool over the tourists.” Corporal Keen, his training officer, bawled Jonny out at least three times a day when his gaze wandered. The guy was in his midtwenties, looked like a model, and had a general for a father. He probably didn’t need to look for girls, they no doubt threw themselves at him. Must be nice.
“Sorry, sir! The scenery is distracting. I’ll try to do better.”
“You’ve been saying that every day since you arrived. Time to stop talking and start doing your job.”
Jackass. “Sir, yes sir!”
They’d barely taken a step when a high-pitched scream rang out from the waterline. Jonny drew his service pistol and ran after Corporal Keen.
He dodged around fleeing men and women, for once taking no notice of the bodies pass
ing him by.
Jonny’s heart raced and his breath came in ragged gasps.
This was it.
His first contact with the monsters that he was sworn to destroy.
He scrambled to a stop and stared at the two rotted creatures shuffling up out of the surf. Their eyes had long since been eaten by fish, the sockets now filled with an unnatural glow. Sections of bone were exposed in their arms and face. What little clothes they wore hung off them in torn strips.
His pistol snapped up and he took aim.
“Steady,” Corporal Keen said. “Let them get away from the water. The burn crews will thank you for it.”
The zombies finally noticed Jonny and his superior. The creatures let out a low moan and stumbled toward them.
Jonny backed up until they were clear of the surf and put a bullet in each of their foreheads. The zombies dropped and didn’t move again.
“Kind of anticlimactic.” He holstered his pistol. After the crazy shit he’d seen with Conryu, this was nothing to get excited about.
“Yes, well, the real terror comes when we get back to base and have to fill out all the paperwork. Keep watch and make sure no more show up. I’ll call in the burn crew.”
Jonny kept his hand on the butt of his pistol for the hour it took the burn crew, which consisted of a guy with a flamethrower, a guy with a shovel, and a guy with a box of heavy-duty black bags, to arrive, but the bodies never twitched. A bullet to the head was enough to kill a zombie just as well as a man after all.
The nasty stink of highly flammable fuel filled the air along with a stream of flames. The whole process, from incineration to cleanup, took another two hours. By the time it was taken care of, Jonny and Keen had reached the end of their shift. They caught a ride back with the cleaners.
In the back of the truck with the burned-up remains Jonny yawned and stretched. Somehow he’d imagined his first encounter with the undead would have been more exciting and less ordinary. It seemed impossible to become jaded in a month, but he was working on it.
Atlantis Rising Page 3