Maiden of Atlantis

by Maidenofatlantis(Lit)

  She gasped, too weak to hold her head upright, allowing it to drop back as her head began to swim from the simulation. Abruptly, her body clenched all over as ecstasy exploded through her in a blinding climax that sucked the last morsel of energy from her body. Drained, she collapsed weakly against him, fighting for breath.

  It was me they set to guard you, Claire, in the many months since they found you, I who have watched you, wanting that which I had no right to want. I am a man and I am of no mind to play games with you, Claire. Do not offer what you are not willing to give, for I may well mistake second thoughts as no more than maidenly protests and ignore them in favor of my own needs.

  Swaying, she gaped at him blankly as he released her abruptly, turned and strode away from her as if he needed to put distance between them quickly, again walking through the bars as if they weren’t there. She closed her eyes, shaken to her core. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. None of it. She didn’t understand what was happening to her, but she knew suddenly and without any doubt that it couldn’t be real.

  Whirling, she fled, straight into the bars he’d walked through only seconds before. That was when she discovered they were way too solid to be nothing more than illusion, or a figment of her imagination.

  * * * *

  Do you think she was trying to destroy herself?

  She seemed to think she could escape. I believe it was only that she could not understand that the cell was real. She seems to believe that she is hallucinating her capture.

  She heard a rustle of movement, as if the two men moved away. Do you think you can convince her to help us willingly?

  Given time.

  We don’t have a great deal of time. Seduce her to our cause by whatever means necessary. Soon, the Guardian will detect her presence. Once he realizes—if he realizes—what she is capable of, he will have no choice but to try to destroy her to prevent us from freeing Atalantium..

  It would be easier if I had some idea of how you plan to use her. She is a healer—Her powers are strong, but how could such powers as that be used in our endeavor?

  That is need to know, Eros--and you do not need to know.

  It has to do with the device the scientists developed, does it not?

  You are dangerously curious, Eros. You may have convinced the others that your heart is with us, but I am not convinced of this so called disenchantment you have developed so lately. You were one of Thor’s captains, one of his most trusted … that makes me wonder where your loyalties truly lie.

  You were loyal to the council once, yourself—as were all of the rebels. If everyone who comes to your cause is to be questioned, I see no possibility for growth in numbers--That is the objective? To win all to your way of thinking?

  Our way of thinking, don’t you mean? In any case, we have the numbers we need. We only await the opportunity now.

  There was silence in her mind after that, but Claire continued to feign unconsciousness, listening intently to the footsteps she could hear crossing the great, echoing chamber where her cell was.

  Finally, a door closed. Letting out a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding, Claire opened her eyes.

  Her guard was standing over her.

  She jerked reflexively, staring up at him in wide eyed dismay.

  "I thought you were unconscious overlong for such a small bump."

  Claire gave him a blank look of incomprehension, but she couldn’t prevent color from rushing to her cheeks, more from the reminder of her humiliation than from the discovery of her subterfuge. "My head hurts," she said plaintively.

  He sat on the bunk beside her. "You will be fortunate if you do not have two black eyes—unless, of course, you heal yourself?"

  Claire studied him a long moment, remembering his earlier comments about her ability to heal, wondering how he could know. "I can’t—how did you know I could heal?"

  "They were searching for one such as you for some time, from what I understand. I do not know how you were found, only that you were … and I was given the task to watch you."

  "Why?"

  "They had to know for certain that you really could heal, otherwise there would be no point in taking you. When no opportunity seemed likely to arise, I suggested we manufacture a situation."

  Claire studied him a long moment, fighting a sense of betrayal. It was absurd, really. He was a stranger. She had no reason, or right, to expect any sort of consideration from him. And yet, inexplicably, it hurt. "Why would you do that? I don’t even know you. I know I couldn’t have done anything to you to make you hate me enough to want to do something like this to me."

  His lips tightened. "I do not hate you, Claire—far from it. But I had to prove myself to them to earn their trust."

  Angry tears pooled in her eyes. "So it just didn’t matter, right? I’m just some—guinea pig? I’m so unimportant it doesn’t matter what happens to me?"

  He was silent for several moments, as if debating whether to speak or not. "They know you have no family. When they learned there was no leverage for them there, Mercury hatched a plot to injure one of your friends in order to draw you out. I could not allow them to use your friends. I did not devise the plot to hurt you. I did it to protect you in the only way I could … and still retain my honor … by protecting those who mattered to you from harm."

  "Why should I believe you?" she demanded, irritated by the wobble of hurt in her chin. "You just said it was to earn their trust."

  His gaze moved over her face almost like a caress. In the next moment, however, his face hardened. "It is not your trust that I want from you, Claire," he said harshly. He rose abruptly then and left, striding from the room.

  Chapter Three

  Claire stared warily at the woman as she unlocked the door to her cell and opened it. It was the woman from the beach, she realized.

  The woman smiled, but there was no warmth to it, no friendliness. "I am Diana. Come. I am here to take you to attend your needs."

  If she meant by that a bathroom, Claire was of no mind to argue with her and got readily to her feet. "Where am I?" she asked as she followed the woman out of the cell.

  Diana glanced at her with a look of surprise. "You must know I can not tell you precisely. It is a safe place—a place that frees our minds from intrusion. It has some drawbacks, of course, for we can not share our thoughts easily—some of us not at all, depending, naturally, upon the individual."

  Claire thought that over. "Telepathy—you’re talking about telepathy?"

  "Of course."

  As if it was the most natural thing in the world. "But it doesn’t really work for you here?"

  Diana shrugged. "It is the price for security, but well worth it since it prevents the Guardian from learning of our plans."

  "Who is this Guardian everyone keeps talking about?"

  Diana sent her a searching glance. "Who has been talking about him?" she asked sharply.

  "I don’t know anybody around here," Claire pointed out. "I don’t remember anyway. Only that I’ve heard the Guardian mentioned."

  The woman didn’t look as if she believed her but apparently she wasn’t able to read her thoughts for, after a moment, she seemed to shrug again. "Thor. In time, if all goes as planned, you will meet him."

  Claire didn’t particularly care for the way the woman smiled. There was malice in it, but she couldn’t decide whom the malice was directed toward. "Thor? And you are Diana?"

  Diana nodded. "The one who guards you is Eros. The other two you met on the beach were Mercury and Zeus. Zeus leads us—He is the elder of the three men."

  The names finally clicked in her mind and Claire chuckled. "These are like … aliases, right? Military code names or something like that?"

  Diana’s smile turned wicked, her expression almost nostalgic. "I had almost forgotten those childish games. Outworlders still believe in that foolishness?"

  Claire looked her over curiously. "I was talking about the ancient myths—Good God! Nobody’s believe
d in those for centuries."

  Diana’s lips flattened, but in a moment she seemed to shake her displeasure off. "Just as well. It was amusing to tease the savages for a while, but it grew tiresome long ago."

  Claire said nothing else, but it made her uneasy. Maybe she’d gone off the deep end after all? The place looked horrible enough to be some sort of mental hospital. What she couldn’t understand, though, was why they’d give this nut case the key to her cell.

  They went through the same door Eros had used before and Claire found herself in a long, tunnel-like corridor. Diana stopped at the first door they came to and gestured for Claire to enter. She looked the room over blankly.

  "This, I believe, will be somewhat familiar to you," Diana said, pointing to what must have been a toilet, although it looked rather more like a throne carved from stone. "Here, you will clean your mouth and teeth. Just rest your forehead against this, and open your mouth wide."

  Claire looked it over with a mixture of curiosity and uneasiness. There was nothing more than a tiny hole in the wall—like a spout?--with some sort of head rest projecting from it. Beneath that was two fairly sizable holes—large enough to insert one’s hands for cleansing?

  Claire was still studying the oddity, wondering if she actually wanted to use it, when Diana moved away from the devise and stopped beside a small cubicle. "To cleanse your body, you need only discard your clothing and step inside. It is activated by movement." She demonstrated by waving an arm inside. Immediately, gleaming particles surrounded her arm, almost like a shower of fairy dust. The particles vanished as she removed her arm once more and Claire studied the arm, which was completely dry, but looked unharmed. "When you are finished, you may wear the robe hanging there—I know outworlders are uncomfortable with their bodies and prefer to cover themselves. I will wait for you outside to allow you some privacy."

  Claire stood where Diana had left her, staring at the door. It was some sort of elaborate joke, right? Cameras hidden in the walls, people ready to jump out and shout, smile! You’re on camera!

  Or maybe it really was a loony bin and she’d just been given the grand tour of Diana’s fantasy bathroom? Which was actually a closet or something like that.

  Maybe it would be safest just to go with the flow? At least she’d been let out of the cell. If she pretended she believed everything they told her and just smiled and looked stupid, maybe she’d get the chance to see some way to escape?

  The ‘throne’ wasn’t really a problem and she was too desperate, in any case, to quibble over it. The particle cleaners were downright frightening. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel clean after she’d used them, or even that there was any pain associated with it, but she had the really unnerving feeling that she’d just exposed her body to something invisible but deadly—like radiation or gas clouds of poison.

  The ‘robe’ she discovered, was the next thing to wearing fog—and not very thick fog at that. She discovered when she looked around, however, that the clothing she’d discarded had vanished.

  That bitch! She’d just been waiting for Claire to fall for her ruse so she could snatch her clothing!

  She was tempted to just stay where she was. Diana’s remarks about outworlders being such prudes had rankled, but the truth was Claire was a prude. She couldn’t even bring herself to walk on the beach in a skimpy bathing suit! She couldn’t leave the room in this…. Filmy thing! She didn’t need a mirror to tell her she was next door to naked. She could see her hand through it!

  It occurred to her finally that she’d been given no choice. Just as she hadn’t had a choice in whether she wanted to go with them or not.

  It couldn’t be so bad. She hadn’t seen a soul besides Diana and Eros. Once she was back in her cell, she could wrap up with the blanket from the bunk.

  True to her word, Diana was waiting outside. Claire squelched her disappointment. She’d known it wasn’t really likely that Diana had wandered off, but she’d hoped—not that she could even consider flight when she was virtually naked, but it would’ve been nice to have the option.

  She supposed that was why she’d been given the ‘veil’ to wear—because they must know she’d be reluctant to attempt to escape naked, even if she had the chance.

  To her consternation, instead of taking her back to the cell, Diana grasped her arm and led her in the opposite direction. "Where are we going now?" she asked uneasily as they reached a door at the end of the corridor.

  Instead of answering, Diana flung the door open and half dragged, half pushed her inside.

  The commotion drew the attention of at least a dozen pairs of eyes. To Claire, it seemed like a wall of them, but she couldn’t get beyond her shock of being dragged among dozens of strangers when she was all but naked. She wore her blond hair long, well past her shoulders, but she was keenly aware that it stopped short of her breasts. Jerking her arm free of Diana’s grip, she covered her breasts with one arm and her thatch with the other, knowing her face was pulsing like a neon sign.

  Eros separated himself from the sea of curious faces, striding toward her. She looked at him helplessly, feeling her face pucker like a baby about to burst into wails of distress. Without a word, he pulled her tightly against him. Shivering, miserable, she huddled close, struggling to regain a semblance of composure.

  Diana’s chuckle of amusement sent a surge of welcome anger through her, stiffening her spine. She lifted her head, glaring at the woman.

  "You should not have taken her clothing!" Eros said sharply.

  Diana shrugged. "Who would’ve thought she was such a mouse—to be distressed over such a little thing?"

  "Come! What is all this commotion? You are among friends!" said a loud, almost boisterous voice.

  Claire had no interest in discovering who’d said it. She burrowed more deeply against Eros, hoping he wouldn’t decide to abandon her. She felt him turn to look at the speaker, however. "She is not likely to be convinced of that if she is to be humiliated in such a way," he ground out.

  "You know there was no intent of that! She must accustom herself to our ways if she is to become one of us."

  "She is too distressed to consider it now, my lord. Have I your permission to return her to her cell?"

  Apparently permission was granted for Eros caught her shoulders and turned her away from him, urging her toward the door. Claire fled the moment he opened the door. She was tempted to keep running, but her cell suddenly seemed like a refuge. Rushing inside, she grabbed her blanket and scrambled into the bunk, curling herself into as tight a ball as she could manage. The tears she’d managed to squelch before burned her nose, and she sniffed.

  The scrape of his feet against the stone floor alerted her to the fact that Eros had followed her, but she didn’t want to see him either.

  He refused to be ignored. Sitting on the bunk beside her, he scooped her up, blanket and all, and dragged her onto his lap. "You have no reason to feel shame. You are beautiful … so beautiful you take my breath."

  Claire sniffed. Was that supposed to make her feel better about being paraded around naked? Totally exposed and vulnerable? Stared at by all those strangers? It embarrassed her that they ran around naked—or the next thing to it.

  "No one intended to make you feel ill at ease," he tried again.

  Claire lifted her head and looked at him. "She intended just that!"

  He frowned. "Diana? I am certain you misunderstood."

  Anger revived her. "I am certain I did not! She’s a total bitch. She knew I’d be upset. She made a point of talking all snotty about the way outlanders were so self-conscious about clothes then she left me this… this tissue to put on. And then, when we got there, she shoved me through the door before I even realized the room was full of people."

  His lips tightened. "Mayhap she thought to play a prank?"

  "Mayhap she’s just a nasty bitch who gets her jollies out of humiliating others to make herself feel superior!" If she’d had any doubt about who’s side he was on, she no l
onger was. It made her feel stupid to have allowed him to even to pretend to offer comfort, and it made her angrier. How pathetic was it that she’d clung to him as if he was her safe harbor, when she’d heard him and that other man talking about winning her over? She tried to shove him away, but his grip only tightened. "I hate her. I hate all of you and I want to go home!" she ended furiously. She didn’t care how childish it sounded. It was the way she felt.

  His face paled slightly. "You are frightened."

  "You’re damned right, I’m frightened! I’ve got every right to be scared silly. And you can bet I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near that damned beach if I’d known there were lunatics running loose!" She covered her face with her hands. "I should’ve stayed with Mark. He swore it wouldn’t happen again. If I’d stayed, I’d be OK now."

  "You would not. They would have killed him, if necessary, to take you."

  Claire looked up at him wide eyed, but, as shameful as it might be, she was far more frightened for herself than upset about the possibility that Mark might have been killed. It was truly terrifying to have him voice such a possibility when she was their captive. In the back of her mind, she’d known she was in danger, but she hadn’t allowed herself even to think of the possibility that she might be killed.

  He caught her jaw in a firm grip. "You are among some very dangerous people, Claire. It is vital that you convince them that they have won you over to their way of thinking. Do you understand me?"