by Gloria Craw
Katherine looked stunning in a sleeveless crimson gown. A bracelet with rubies and diamonds alternating through it sparkled on her wrist. Spencer was wearing a black tux with a crimson tie. His gold hair was slicked back, and his eyes were bright with excitement.
“You look lovely,” Katherine said, giving me an encouraging smile. Spencer offered me his arm, and with Katherine on the other one, we made our way into an assembly hall that adjoined a super-fancy dining room.
All my senses came alive at once. Women in bright-colored dresses and men in black tuxes stood in stark contrast to the white of everything else in the room. Laughter and conversation created a type of background music, and unfamiliar signatures vibrated against my skin. The smell of delicious food wafted through the air.
“I’ll introduce you to everyone,” Katherine said, leading me toward a woman in a deep-green dress.
What followed was a whirlwind of smiles, gracious questions, and polite answers as I mentally associated the chiefs with where their clans came from on the island of Atlantis.
The Dawning, Vasitass, Stentorian, and Ormolu clans originated in the northern hilly regions. The Illuminant, Bethex, Calyx, and Klamant came from the east and southern coasts. The Thanes, Elysis, and Truss inhabited the middle plateaus. The Falco and Gallem lived in the western forests. The Hezida and Laurels occupied the west coast.
It was a relief to find most of the chiefs were genuinely welcoming. Even the Ormolu were kind and said encouraging things about my upcoming naming ceremony. The exceptions were the Illuminant chiefs, Ivan and Eleanora.
The two of them looked so much alike they could have been siblings. They were pale, fair-haired people with ice-blue eyes. Ivan had a very pointy chin, and Eleanora, an overly long neck. For some reason, they reminded me of Dracula and his wife, Ilona. They said all the right things, but Ivan’s smile seemed more like a sneer, and Eleanor never really looked me in the eye.
As Katherine led me away from them, she whispered, “Don’t take their cool manner too personally. Ivan and Eleanora take a while to warm up.”
There was more to it than reserve, though. Even without Logan’s warning, I would have guessed they didn’t want me there.
By the time Katherine had performed all the introductions, my head was spinning with new information. It was a relief when she stepped to the side of the room for a breather. It was then that Phoebe, dressed in a canary-yellow gown, stepped into the room.
One by one, the chiefs turned to survey her.
Then a few furtive glances were cast my way. Since the Truss clan had obliterated mine, they were probably concerned how the two of us would react to each other. Only a few of them knew Phoebe and I had met before.
Walking forward, I offered her a polite greeting. I could almost hear a collective sigh of relief in the room.
“When did you get here?” I asked as their attention turned away from us.
“Literally minutes ago,” she replied. “My aunt barely had time to fix my hair and stuff me into this dress.” She patted the back of her head where her fuzzy brown hair was pinned into a twist. “Is it okay?” she asked. “Has it started falling out of the clip thing yet?”
I checked. “It’s fine,” I replied with a smile. “You look really nice.”
She did, too. She was wearing something that fit her small frame for a change, and she’d outlined her eyes with a shadow that made them look darker and a bit mysterious. Her hooked nose would always be memorable, but instead of trying to camouflage it, she’d swept her hair back in a sleek style that lent some dignity to the feature.
Phoebe and I had a lot in common. Not only were we the newest and youngest clan chiefs, we’d both suffered family losses. Her father and brother had died the previous year and her mother, Yvonne, would soon follow them. I never liked Yvonne. She was a conniving thief and nothing but critical of Phoebe, but I felt bad my friend was going to lose someone else she cared deeply about.
“How’s your mother?” I asked.
“Not good,” she responded. “She’s terribly weak now. It won’t be long.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, giving her arm a squeeze.
When Katherine and Spencer joined us, Phoebe was the first to hold out her hand. In a voice that may have been a little too loud, she said how happy she was to reunite the Truss with the rest of the clans. I saw a spark of respect in Spencer’s eyes as he watched her. If the chiefs gave her half a chance, she’d win them all over.
We followed as the other chiefs drifted into a stunning dining room. Two of the four walls were mirrored from the floor to the ceiling. The ceiling itself was decorated with intricate moldings, painted with white gold. The table was a work of art. It wasn’t particularly wide, but it was very long and sat on a carved base. The white top had been glossed to the point I could see my reflection in it. Thin napkin rings in our clan colors delicately accented the table settings.
Since our colors were at opposite ends of the table, Phoebe and I parted ways.
I took my place next to Luke Stentorian, a painfully thin man with bags under his eyes and a light sheen of sweat on his forehead. Like Phoebe and me, he was young and hadn’t likenessed. He was dressed in a black tux like the other men, but his bow tie was purple, the Stentorian color.
I’d once accused Luke of spying for Sebastian Truss. It turned out not to be true. The master of evil had pressured Luke to do some dirty work for him, but Luke refused even when faced with imminent death. Logan’s warning that the other chiefs didn’t take Luke seriously was understandable. He was unattractive, awkward, and insecure, but there was a steel in him the others didn’t know about. I’d underestimated him once. I wouldn’t again.
“How are you, Luke?” I asked.
He cleared his throat and responded, “Nervous.”
“That makes two of us,” I remarked. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“I’ve been traveling,” he replied, “but not for pleasure. On clan…business.”
The way he said “business” made me think all was not well. “Is there some sort of problem?” I asked.
“You could say that,” he replied. “I’ll explain after dinner. I just hope it comes out the way I rehearsed it.”
Luke was as intelligent as any other dewing, but he got nervous in social situations. He tended to say too much or not enough.
After we ate and the plates were carried away, Spencer closed a set of double doors, the only way into the dining room and assembly hall. He tapped something on a security panel beside them, and I heard a loud click indicating they’d locked.
“Did he just lock us in or someone else out?” I whispered to Luke.
“It’s a ceremonial type of thing,” he whispered back. “It used to signify that what was said at a reporting ceremony wasn’t to be shared with anyone. The rule has been relaxed, but the tradition continues.”
I nodded, and Spencer began a generic introductory speech. Welcome to this glorious occasion…blah, blah, blah.
According to an ancient order, the clan chiefs stood to report the number of dewing in their clan. The Hezida, Bethex, and Elysis clan chiefs went first. For the most part, the number of births and deaths evened out, but that would change when I gave my report.
Feeling a few butterflies as my turn arrived, I stood up. “The last time the Laurels were at a roundtable was fifteen years and six months ago,” I said. “At that time, we numbered thirty-five. There have been no births and thirty-four deaths since then. The population of the Laurel clan is now one.”
It’s not like the information came as a surprise to anyone, but it made for a glum atmosphere. In the silence that followed, a Gallem chief raised his glass. “Welcome,” he said. “We’re pleased the Laurel chair at the roundtable will be filled again.”
I nodded at him, grateful for the gesture.
Luke stood next. After a nervous cough, he said, “Six months ago, the Stentorian clan numbered four hundred sixty-two. There have been three births
and fifteen deaths since then. We are now 450. ”
Murmurs of dismay followed.
“Are you certain?” a Calyx chief asked. “That’s a loss of fifteen dewing in six months.”
“I’m certain,” Luke replied before sitting down.
Profound silence followed.
After a moment, Phoebe rose to her feet. “Let me first say,” she began, “my father’s hope was that one day the Truss clan chief would return here. He was killed in the chaos after Sebastian’s death, but he would have been pleased that you’ve welcomed us back.” She cleared her throat before continuing, “The last time the Truss reported to the clans, our population was eight hundred three. I’m saddened to say, as of yesterday, we number four hundred eighty-nine.”
There were more murmurs and a few gasps of astonishment.
She must have expected such a reaction because she explained, “Some of the deaths were natural attrition, and some resulted from fighting within my clan after Sebastian died. Others are…undetermined. I have people working to gather more information about the causes of death for several younger dewing. I plan to report everything I find out at the roundtable meeting.”
Luke stood up again. “I’ll do that, too.”
I pulled on his hand so he’d sit back down.
Spencer’s expression was a mixture of bewilderment and apprehension. “Obviously, this is a serious situation,” he said. “We’ll have a lot to discuss.”
When the meeting concluded, the chiefs fled the room like doves released after a wedding.
Phoebe and I were the last to exit. “That went better than I expected,” she whispered to me.
“What’s really going on?” I whispered back. “Why did you lose so many Truss?”
“It’s complicated,” she replied, with a tired shake of her head. “I don’t have the energy to go into it right now, and I should check on my aunt and uncle.”
“Okay,” I said. “Do you want to talk at breakfast tomorrow?”
“That would be good,” she agreed. “Knock on my door when you’re ready to go. I’ll be waiting.”
With weary steps, she made her way up the stairs.
Katherine came to my side. I noticed her hands were clenched into fists at her sides and her face was tight with worry. “What you just witnessed was very bad,” she said. “Not since Atlantis was destroyed have we lost so many dewing in so short a time.”
Feeling like an invisible jacket of responsibility had settled over my shoulders, I pondered the magnitude of my position. I didn’t have a clan to take care of, but in two days’ time, I would share the duty to keep the descendants of Atlantis from disappearing…without using hybrids to stop it.
Chapter Fifteen
Theron was waiting when I got back.
Sitting on the floor with his back against my bed, he flipped a quarter into the air and caught it. His eyes widened as he looked up at me. “Wow,” he said. “You look nice.”
“Coming from you that must mean I look fantastic,” I replied.
He flipped the quarter again. “You look…semi-fantastic,” he admitted with a smile.
I passed him on my way to the dresser and caught his quarter midair. “Thank you, cuz,” I said, tossing it back to him. “Did you watch the video?”
“Sort of,” he replied. “There was a complication. Your boyfriend is on the way up. I’d rather explain it to the two of you at the same time.”
“Okay,” I said, getting my pajamas out of the drawer. “I’ll change while we wait.”
I’d just stepped into the living room when Ian came striding into my suite.
He pulled up short, blinked, stared, and blinked again. Remembering my reflection in the mirror earlier, I realized why. I looked a lot more grown-up than usual and pretty hot. For the first time in my life, I knew what it was like for girls at Fillmore who made guys drool. I generally had some power over Ian…in that moment I had all the power.
Butterflies took flight in my stomach and adrenaline made my heart pound fast as he came toward me. He pulled me to him, and held my hand so the Vs in our palms overlapped. He kissed my lips and then my neck as delicious sparks of energy flowed between us.
“Hey,” Theron called from the other room. “I can feel you two mingling energy and creeping me out. If you could cool your hormones until I’m gone, that would be super.”
From behind Lillian’s closed door, I heard her tired voice say, “I agree.”
Blushing from my toes to my forehead, I left Ian staring after me and continued to the bathroom.
After changing into my pajamas, I returned to find Ian trying to pry the lid off one of the crates in my room. He wasn’t having much luck.
“I hope you don’t mind me opening your stuff, Alison,” he said. “Curiosity is killing me.”
“Feel free,” I replied. “but all the lids are nailed down.”
“You’ll need a pry bar to get it off,” Theron remarked.
“I’ll ask Logan for one tomorrow,” he said. “I won’t be defeated by a crate.”
“Aim a little higher, man,” Theron said.
Ian rolled his eyes and grabbed my hand. Pulling me toward him, he started to lead me in a waltz. I stepped on his shoe and stumbled. Laughing, he spun me under his arm, and then close to him again.
“If you infants can spare a moment,” Theron said, “I’ll tell you what I found on Valentine’s computer.”
“Right,” Ian said, letting me go. “Back to business.”
“Among Valentine’s home movie crap,” Theron began, “I found an encrypted video file. I couldn’t crack it with the program running on my phone, so I downloaded the file. The code is a work of art. I’ve only dealt with one like it before. That pain in the ass Ashlee Stentorian wrote it.”
“Who’s Ashlee Stentorian?” Ian asked.
“A computer genius like Theron,” I replied. “She’s the one who reported his hack into the NSA. He has a nerd crush on her.”
“I do not,” Theron grumbled. “I’ve never met her. She could be as old as Lillian and likenessed to a donkey. Come to think of it, I hope she’s likenessed to a donkey.”
“Even if you couldn’t see the video, at least we know one person on the other side of this mess,” Ian said. “That’s progress.”
Theron shook his head. “She might not be involved. All we know is that someone used an encryption program she probably designed. I hate her with the fire of a thousand suns, but I’ll reach out to her. Maybe I’ll be able to get some idea who she’s done freelance work for recently.”
“Will she give you the code to decrypt the file?” I asked.
He choked out a laugh. “No way. She’ll take it with her to the grave. I can’t blame her. I’d do the same thing.”
“Can you break the encryption yourself?” Ian asked.
“Yes, but I’m going to have to tweak some of my current algorithms and run them against the file.”
“And…you’re going to need actual computers to do that,” I added.
“I have two laptops with me,” he replied. “They’ll do the trick.”
“You travel with two laptops?” Ian asked.
Theron shrugged. “I work when I’m on the road. If we’re lucky, it will take me a couple of hours to break the code. If we’re not, it will take a couple of days.”
“The roundtable is the day after tomorrow,” I remarked. “I was really hoping to see the video before then.”
“Which is my cue to get to work,” Theron said, rising to his feet. “Keep your fingers crossed for luck.”
We watched him leave, and then Ian sat next to me on the bed. With a smile that was almost shy, he said, “You looked really beautiful tonight. I mean, you’re always beautiful, but you looked a different level of beautiful in that dress.”
“Thanks,” I responded with a blush. Wondering why we were suddenly acting like we were on an awkward first date, I remarked, “I suppose it’s as close to a prom dress as I’m going to get.” Thi
nking about it, I pulled a face. “Which means your parents were my prom dates.”
He laughed at the idea. “When this is over, I’ll take you to a real prom,” he said, recovering his old confidence.
“Sure you will,” I replied. “And which high school will we be crashing?”
“I’ll figure it out,” he assured me.
“How was your date with Rose?” I asked.
With a devilish smile, he replied, “It had one glorious moment.”
“Why do I suddenly feel bad for her?” I asked suspiciously.
He chuckled. “When she leaned in for a good-night kiss, I faked a juicy sneeze,” he replied. “My aim was perfect. It hit her right in the mouth.”
“Ugh…disgusting,” I muttered.
“From her expression,” he responded. “I’d say that’s exactly how she felt about it. I wish I’d thought of it sooner. Every time she sees me, she’s going to remember that sneeze hitting her full force. I think I’m finally free.”
“That’s sort of genius,” I remarked.
“I think so,” he replied proudly.
The next morning, Ian drove Phoebe, Theron, and me into town to have breakfast. The pub we stopped at was a lot like The Gull except the fish smell wasn’t as strong, and it had a dartboard in the back.
“Come on,” Ian said after I’d won three games of darts. “What’s your secret?”
I shrugged. “I’ve just always been good at it.”
Theron let a dart fly. It missed the bull’s-eye by a ring. “These must be weighted wrong,” he grumbled. “No one ever beats me.”
Heading back to join Phoebe at our table, I said, “I’ll leave the two of you to lick your wounds. Let me know when you’re ready to get beat again.”
I sat down, and Phoebe sighed. “They’re so beautiful,” she said. “I could watch them play this stupid game all day.”
I silently agreed with her. Ian and Theron were opposites in a lot of ways, but both were great to look at. Ian was tall, fair, and handsome with a positive outlook on life and a magnetic personality. Theron was a tall, dark, and handsome cynic with an edge that was irresistible to some girls.