by Katrina Ryan
“I give up,” Victoria sighed. She buried her face in her hand, on the verge of tears.
“Don’t worry, Vic,” Sarah said. She yawned and pulled Victoria in to a hug. “If you can’t control the boat, there’s nothing we can do. Let’s just try to go to sleep and see what the situation is in the morning.”
Victoria grumbled. Sarah didn’t sound upset or worried, but that didn’t make her feel any better. Her only consolation now was that they were safe here. Seeing that her clothes were dry, she let herself drift to sleep, trusting the boat would protect them, even if she had no idea where she would wake up in the morning.
Chapter Eleven
WISHES
Atlantis was spectacular.
This wasn’t the deteriorating Atlantis that Victoria had visited, or even the beautiful Atlantis she’d seen in her first dream before the wave had destroyed it. This was New Atlantis.
The most skilled masons had rebuilt the city, working the beautiful silver stones so that they glowed. The buildings were even stronger than before, but somehow more modest and elegant. People filled the streets with life and business from sunrise to sunset. Society thrived, people respected the new laws, and the country prospered again righteously.
Out of the city, the Eternal Forest was once again home to the most beautiful trees, the leaves of which reflected sunlight everywhere. They seemed to sing in the sun, whisper at night, and dance in even the gentlest of breezes. The air carried the fragrance of fruit and spices and baking, and a sense of peace.
Atlantis had not fought in a war for thousands of years.
Victoria and Tom stood together on the highest steps in the Plaza, holding hands as they admired the harbor. Tom looked to be in his thirties and was dressed in Atlantean couture with a simple gold wreath on his head, matching hers. A giggle sounded as a beautiful young girl peeked out from behind Victoria’s long, white dress. She had her mother’s silver eyes but her father’s fair hair. Laughing, she pulled at her mother’s free hand, asking to play on the beach. Victoria and Tom exchanged smiles and let their daughter sweep them away.
Everything was perfect.
This was New Atlantis.
Chapter Twelve
RESOLUTION
“We’re going to Atlantis,” Victoria announced with a smile when Sarah woke up the next morning. She missed Tom desperately after her dream, but she knew what she had to do. They were still on the boat and had been journeying for hours. She was convinced she would see land any minute, but she couldn’t help but worry that the boat had listened to her desperate pleas last night. Without any way to determine where they were, Victoria could only pray that the boat had seen her soul and knew what she really wanted.
Sarah responded with a blank expression. “I thought you wanted to go back to England?”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
Sarah sat up straighter, looking interested at this news. “Why?”
Victoria had spent the past hour watching the sunrise, and she could only think about the beautiful little girl and the amazing life she’d seen herself living in Atlantis with Tom. Even if she could find the words to explain this vision to Sarah, it was so personal that she wasn’t sure she would want to. All she knew was that everything had changed. None of the threats or fear of the past week mattered anymore. “Atlantis is important to me,” she said finally. Very important. “I didn’t realize until now how badly I want to see this through. We’re so close anyway that we should at least try.”
Sarah stared at her like she’d spoken in a foreign language, then held out her hand. “Could I see the map?” she asked, catching Victoria by surprise. Victoria handed the papers over, and Sarah spent a minute looking at them before she pointed to an island around the middle of one of the more detailed maps.
“This looks the same shape as the island we were one yesterday. We must be getting close to where Atlantis is supposed to be,” she said. “I have no idea how fast we’re going, but if we’re going the same speed as the other day, we should be there soon.”
The next hour was one of the slowest Victoria had ever endured. Eventually, she stopped looking at her watch and set her sights on the horizon. When she felt that she couldn’t stand another minute of suspense, a dark outline appeared in the distance. It could be a cloud, she thought, her heart racing. But after a few minutes, she could distinguish the shape of a mountain, and she would have recognized the island anywhere.
She had found Atlantis.
“Oh, my god,” Sarah breathed, looking at Victoria with astonishment and apology in her eyes. She must have seen the truth in Victoria’s expression. “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you sooner.”
“I told you Atlantis isn’t underwater,” Victoria said, smiling. She was exactly where fate intended, and doubt belonged in the past. The next hour seemed to be even longer than the previous as they neared the island. Both time and the boat seemed to slow, and Victoria was sure it would have been faster to jump off and swim to shore. After what felt like an eternity, they approached the biggest beach Victoria had ever seen. In the middle of the bay was an enormous shipwreck, the bow of the ship pointing to the sky. After what felt like an eternity, the boat finally bumped onto the white sand of a beautiful beach and came to a stop. Victoria took off her shoes and jumped onto shore.
“The sand is as soft as it looks,” Sarah said as they dragged the boat out of the water. “This is amazing.” She sounded nothing like the skeptic who hadn’t believed in Atlantis over the weekend, and Victoria smiled halfheartedly, feeling disappointment consume her. This wasn’t the paradise from her dream, lush with trees and flowers and beautiful scents. This was the desolate, lifeless Atlantis she hated.
“Let’s explore,” Sarah suggested, pulling Victoria inland. “We might find people.”
Victoria wished she had the same optimism. She followed, confident she would find their boat again by the shipwreck. Sarah took the path that Victoria was sure went all the way around the island, and it wasn’t long before Victoria recognized her surroundings. Wizened, grey buildings at the edge of the city towered above lifeless streets and drained canals. The expression on Sarah’s face conveyed awe that words couldn’t.
“I could make so much great art here,” Sarah said, reaching unconsciously to where her camera usually hung. Victoria smiled. Sarah had no idea what potential existed in the treasures around them. She braced herself when they arrived at the Plaza a few minutes later, and Sarah started to run, pulling Victoria’s arm in excitement. “This place is beautiful. I wonder if the buildings are locked.”
“I’ve only tried the Grand Library,” Victoria admitted, looking at the domed building. “It wasn’t locked then, but I don’t know about the others.”
Sarah took off for the steps at the north end of the Plaza, and Victoria followed. Passing through the main gate of the castle, she was sure Sarah could imagine the Keep filled with people and beautiful flowers and plants, but, it had now regressed to a simple but beautiful structure. Even for Atlantis, it seemed particularly old and weathered. Victoria found herself wandering towards the throne again, once again tempted to sit on it, but before she could, Sarah gasped behind her.
“Did you hear that?” Sarah asked. “I swear I heard whispers.”
Victoria jumped away from the throne, listening carefully. She was sure that whispering wasn’t a good sign. She couldn’t hear anything, but Sarah had sounded convinced.
“It was coming from that direction,” Sarah continued, pointing at the tower to their left. Victoria approached the open doorway cautiously and found a large, circular room. In the dim light, she could see that the walls were lined with hundreds of old books, but nobody was inside.
“It’s another library,” she said. A large table in matching mahogany wood stood in the middle of the room, with a pile of books strewn across it. Victoria felt like there was something important, right in front of her, that she should be seeing, but it was such an amazing room that it was impossible
to tell what. She pulled a few identical black books out of the nearest bookshelf and brought them to table, careful to not damage them.
“We shouldn’t be here, Vic,” Sarah chimed over her shoulder. She sounded nervous. “Something doesn’t seem right.”
Victoria wasn’t sure what Sarah was sensing that she couldn’t, but she didn’t see any problem. At the far end of the room, opposite the door through which they’d entered, was a dark passageway. She ruffled through a few more books before she walked closer to the other doorway, hoping she could see further in.
“We shouldn’t go there,” Sarah said. “It’s bloody dark.”
Victoria couldn’t see anything down the hallway, either, but she felt like she was supposed to go there. As she stepped in, she could hear Sarah sigh. Victoria began to walk, knowing that was probably all the encouragement Sarah needed. A few seconds later, she heard footsteps following her as she led the way through the dark.
“It’s not that bad,” Victoria said lightly. “Our eyes will adjust soon.”
Sarah huffed in response. After a few seconds, Victoria had to slow down. The passageway was growing darker, reminding her of the crypt on the other island. When she could no longer see anything in front of her, she finally stopped. “We could use our phones for light, or turn back,” she suggested.
A second later, a blinding flash of light filled the corridor. Sarah screamed and grabbed Victoria’s hand. Hundreds of torches had burst into flame along the wall, lighting the way forward. Victoria stood motionless for a moment, her eyes adjusting, before Sarah laughed.
“Atlantis is mad,” she said. “Absolutely mad.”
Victoria laughed with her, relieved to see that there was nothing to be afraid of. Atlantis was full of magic, even if she had no idea how it worked. “We can’t turn back now,” she said. She grabbed a torch and resumed walking. As she neared the end of the passageway, Victoria could hear moving water. At the end of the hallway, she found a large wooden door with a key in the lock. Victoria hesitated, reluctant to go anywhere she wasn’t explicitly allowed, though the key seemed a good indication that she could continue.
“Just open it,” Sarah grumbled.
Victoria twisted the key and pushed the door open. The scene in front of her, only visible by the light of her torch, took her breath away. Directly in front of her was a bridge which crossed over a wide, dark river. A stone path ran along both sides of the river. She exchanged glances with Sarah, beginning wondering what exactly this place was, when the feeling hit her. It was a magnetic pull like she’d felt on the other island, which had made her stay away from the temple and go closer to the lake, but it was completely different. This time, it was telling her to cross the river, and she trusted her intuition completely. She began to walk, lighting a few of the torches hanging on the wall along the way. Sarah grabbed one and followed silently and unquestioningly, but when they reached the middle of the bridge, she stopped.
“I don’t like this place, Vic,” Sarah said. “It’s spooky.”
Victoria hesitated, torn between exploring whatever was on the other side and accommodating Sarah. While she waited for Sarah to follow, she looked into the river. In her lingering paranoia, she partly expected to see more translucent ghosts, but what she found was possibly worse.
The water level was rising.
A second later, a thunderous roar filled the cave. Victoria and Sarah exchanged glances, and when Victoria looked up the river, a massive wave was rushing towards her, filling the tunnel. “Sarah, run!” she shouted. She turned around and ran towards the hallway they’d come through. When she stopped to look over her shoulder, she saw that Sarah had run the opposite direction and was at the other side of the river.
Before she could say anything, the wave rushed past.
The ledge under her feet was dry and the torches were still on fire when Victoria found the courage to open her eyes. She looked across the river with a racing heart, wondering if she had imagined everything, but it was still too dark to see anything past the bridge. The water level of the river was dropping closer to normal every second.
But Sarah had disappeared.
“Sarah?” Victoria called.
She received no response but the echo of her own voice.
Victoria grabbed a torch and began to run. As she crossed the bridge, another group of torches lit in front of her to illuminate blocks of small, stone buildings that had been hiding in the shadows. An endless path stretched ahead of her, crossed at intervals by perpendicular aisles. Everything on this side of the river was laid out in a massive grid. Each building had an inscribed metal gate, which Victoria didn’t have time to read as she ran and called for Sarah. What kind of maze is this? she wondered. Getting lost in here would be easier than breathing. Finding Sarah would be nearly impossible.
After a minute, Victoria noticed a trail of footprints on the main path. Was Caelan here, too? she wondered. She had no choice but to follow them, hoping they would lead her to Sarah. She stopped running after another minute to listen for Sarah, but she couldn’t even hear the river anymore. Maybe she didn’t go this way, Victoria thought, allowing herself a moment of hope before she set off again. Any other explanation for silence was too morbid to consider.
The path ended at the edge of a small lake. With her heart racing, Victoria finally stopped running. She could hear a river in the distance and realized she was in a series of caves, probably nearing the edge of the main Atlantean island. She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but there seemed to be a light glowing at the other side of the lake, leaving her two options. She could turn back or hope she’d find a way out ahead.
Swearing under her breath, she shoved her torch into the sand and waded into the water. For a moment, she thought of the Atlantean ghosts in the lake on the other island, but this lake felt different. She couldn’t see anything in the inky water, and she began to swim when it was deep enough. Even if Sarah hadn’t gone this way, she had a feeling she was supposed to cross the lake.
At the other end, she found a large hole in the rock through which mute sunlight was spilling into the cavern. She pushed herself out of the water onto a ledge in the stone. The howling wind was warm, and the view of the sea took her breath away. She’d reached the edge of the island, like she’d guessed, and massive waves were looming in the horizon, approaching Atlantis with incredible speed. With a sinking feeling, Victoria realized exactly what was happening.
History was repeating itself.
She was on a dirt path that wrapped along the mountain. Sarah was still nowhere to be seen, and the wave would be here in fifteen minutes. Sarah’s probably safer in the caves than anywhere else in Atlantis, she decided, and she took off running, praying that this path would lead her to the city.
She needed to reach shelter.
A bare forest appeared to her left, and she wondered if it was the same one she’d seen in her first dream. Like the woman in that dream, she was racing for her life, and the dream was the only reason she knew what to do next. The secret steps to the castle were somewhere on this path, if only she could find it.
As the path approached an empty beach, Victoria glanced at the horizon. The waves were only minutes away now. Feeling faint, she ran even faster, until she reached the steps up the mountain. She was relieved to find the ancient castle at the top. The doors of the antechamber to the right of the throne were open, promising shelter, but there was no sign of Sarah. The advancing shadow was swallowing Atlantis, and the hum of the waves was amplifying into a thunderous roar, but the sound of grinding stone was still unmistakable. The entrance to the shelter was closing.
Victoria closed the distance with only seconds to spare before the sliding wall sealed her inside the room. In the silence and darkness, she prayed that Sarah was safe, wherever she was. A second later, the bright light of the orb appeared in front of her, and Victoria crashed to the floor, unconscious, as the wave roared over Atlantis.
Chapter Thirteen
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ATHELEA
Opening her eyes, Victoria wondered if she’d woken up in a parallel universe. She was lying on her back in the middle of a very dead forest. She could see bright blue sky between bare, white branches and tree trunks. It took her a second to remember that she was in Atlantis, and she sat up gingerly, her body aching. After another second, she realized this was the forest from her first dream about Atlantis, but all the beautiful leaves and flowers were gone.
How did I get here? Victoria wondered. Something was wrong. She had no recollection of anything after getting into the shelter from the wave. She looked around, expecting to find herself in a scene of destruction, but the forest was still standing and seemed unharmed.
And a beautiful woman in a black dress was sitting silently against one of the nearby trees. She had brilliant silver eyes, proud cheekbones, and dark hair that fell in waves to her waist. But her most distinctive feature was her air of nobility. Victoria didn’t recoil. She would have recognized the stranger anywhere, but in this forest, it was impossible not to know.
The woman was the princess from her first dream about Atlantis.
“Hello,” the woman said, offering a warm smile. Her voice was soft and her accent strangely familiar. “I’m Athelea. Don’t be afraid. I’m here to help you.”
“What happened to Atlantis?” Victoria asked, looking around the forest. The ground looked dry, and the sky was perfectly blue. “It was flooding, and the waves were coming.”