Atlantis Unleashed (27 page)

Tiernan opened her mouth as if to respond but then snapped it shut. After a moment she grinned, and a flash of the carefree woman she might have been in easier times shone out at them. “You do have a point.”

Then her smile faded. “Your other friend . . . the one who went kind of crazy in Boston. Is he okay?”

Alexios looked to Conlan, who nodded. “Brennan is fine and has no memory of any uncharacteristic behavior. We find that we must keep him some distance from you, however, since there is clearly something about you to which he is reacting . . . adversely.”

“Gosh, you boys sure talk pretty,” she drawled, eyes sharp. “Reacting adversely. Interesting way to put it.”

“We don't have the
time
to explore it now, even if we had the inclination,” Ven snapped. “Brennan stays away from you. You stay in Atlantis while we check you out.”

Before she could utter the protest that was so clearly forming on her lips, Ven shot a wicked smile her way. “Fact-check, fact-check, fact-check, right? From your lips to my ears.”

“Fine,” she said flatly. “I guess I'll agree, since I don't really have any other options. I don't even know how we got here, and your castle staff aren't exactly forthcoming to the human prisoner.”

“You are our guest, Lady Tiernan,” Conlan said, and once again the royal bearing was in evidence. “Not our prisoner.

But we would be remiss if we did not verify your story, as you yourself do understand. Give us a few days, and we'll return you to Boston to continue your work.”

“If you're telling the truth,” Alexios felt compelled to add.

“Truth. Always truth, shining in the shifting sands of nuance, intent, and deception,” Tiernan murmured, staring off into the distance. “I tell the truth in ways you wouldn't even believe, Atlantean.”

A shiver snaked across Alexios's spine. Definitely something off about Tiernan Butler. Perhaps something they should investigate.

Conlan inclined his head. “We hope that is the case, for all of our sakes. If vampires have progressed to actual human brain-pattern destruction, then we must step up our response.”

The prince bent his head to study the map again. “Perhaps you will have your Pulitzer yet.”

Tiernan began to respond, but Alexios had recognized the dismissal in Conlan's words. “If you'll come with me, Tiernan, I'm sure we can find you a comfortable—”

“Erin wants to see her,” Ven interrupted. “She's at the Temple and said she'd give Tiernan the tour.”

“Temple?” Tiernan's eyes brightened with what Alexios was beginning to recognize as journalistic zeal. “What Temple?”

“The Temple of the Nereids,” Alexios said, gesturing to the door. “More of those mythological beings you were talking about earlier.”

As she fired questions at him, Alexios managed to herd her toward the door. He held it open for her to exit before him and then turned back toward Conlan and Ven. “I stand ready, for whatever you decide.”

They nodded in unison, looking in that moment more like identical twins than mere brothers. “We know,” Conlan said. “As soon as Alaric returns, we'll plot out our next steps.”

“Justice first,” Ven said, and the determination in his voice had the resonance of a vow. “Then Anubisa and the Apostates.”

Alexios nodded, in total agreement with that plan. He pulled the door shut behind himself and went to rescue the guards from Tiernan's interrogation, repeating the vow in his mind.

Even the reporter would like that. It had the ring of a front-page headline.

Atlantis, the cavern

Justice forced himself to do willingly what he'd fought against for hundreds of years. He opened the shields in his mind and released the Nereid half of his soul. At first his response was only silence, as if the Other mocked him.

As if he'd waited too long.

However, ever so gradually, power curled like liquid fire through the resistant spaces of his mind. Heat filled his body, sparkling and shimmering through his veins and arteries like champagne-filtered blood.

Finally. Finally you call to me, and invite me to demonstrate my power.
The Nereid's voice resonated through his mind with the thundering of percussion drumming out a triumphant march.

“I call on you to
share
your power,” Justice said aloud. “If we can't escape this cavern, it does you no more good than it does me.”

Keely's forehead furrowed as she gazed up at him quizzically, and he realized what his half of the conversation must sound like.

“I'm not crazy; I'm only talking to myself,” he offered. “The only way we'll get out of here is if the Nereid half of me can teach me powers I've never known. It wasn't an Atlantean gift that transported us down here. I'm not sure what I did or how I did it. The Nereid knows, and so I will learn.”

“This is probably a subject for another time, but it doesn't seem all that healthy that you're talking about the other half of
yourself
in the third person. Of course, earlier you were referring to yourself as ‘we,' so I guess it's all relative,” she said, smiling weakly. “I'm good with whatever gets us out of here.”

Justice smiled at her in a way that he hoped was reassuring, and then he closed his eyes and sank into the duality of his consciousness. Swirls and spirals of shimmering color danced in the darkness inside his mind, as if his Nereid half were a prism reflecting the brightest gemstones in the cavern.

Though he didn't understand the scope of the power released, he could certainly feel the magnitude of it. He'd always been possessed of superior usage of the Atlantean magics, but this was different. Darker. Not more powerful, but simply
other
. Clay shaped by a sculptor with mysterious intent.

His mind shuffled through the new concepts. New constructs. A different view of ordering the universe.

Matter transference. The knowledge and technique gleamed before him. It was so simple; of course he
could
do it. Of course he
had
done it.

Of course he could do it again.

It was a simple process. He offered up his being into the fabric of the universe. It was a loan—no more. A momentary return to the energy of creation. He pictured himself and Keely where he wanted them to be, and they would travel through the waves, as particles of that flow.

He could see it. He could hear it, touch it, taste it. Everywhere he looked, energy beams danced and played, sweeping through the fabric of life itself. It would be so easy to sink into the energy. To catch a ride.

He turned toward Keely and, truly
seeing
her, laughed, suddenly joyous. Brilliant oranges, yellows, and reds floated, sparkling, around her. She existed inside a kaleidoscope of all the colors of the sunset, crowned by the flame red of her hair. She was strength and wonder and innocence, and yet there were darker hues, as well. Flashes of sienna fading into deepest mahogany, indicative of some negativity. Pain in her past.

He had no reason to know it, but he did. He was no longer only Justice. Or even only Justice and Nereid. He was part of the web of all existence in the galaxy, and traveling within it would be as effortless as swimming in a quiet pool.

Not so easy as that,
the Nereid cautioned.
You cannot fall into that trap. Limitless possibilities exist to seduce the unwary. If you give yourself to the universe without reservation, there is the chance you'll never return.

Justice recoiled at the idea of limits, but then leashed his denial. Forced himself to listen to the Nereid.

Keely. He needed to protect Keely. Remove them both from this cavern in which they were trapped. Focus on the practical; the magical could wait. He turned to her. “I know how to do it. He told me, and it's so simple—well. It's simple once you have the knowing of it.”

“You can really get us out of here?” Fragile hope shone on her face and for a moment he paused, stunned by her beauty.

“Yes. I would ask where you wish to go, but I believe one destination is mandatory. We have explanations to make.
I
have explanations to make. We'll go to the palace. It must be the beginning, although we don't yet know the ending.”

Keely took a deep breath and nodded. “Part of me wants nothing more than to go home, have a hot bath, and drink a bottle or two of wine. But we need to tell the prince about the Star of Artemis and the Trident. All of Atlantis could be in serious danger if they try to ascend without the full set of gemstones.”

He held out his hand and she twined her fingers in his, and a fountain of sparkling light merged into a geyser around them. Entranced by the hypnotic allure, he almost missed her next words.

“Just tell me this is safe,” she said, attempting a smile. “I know we did it once before, but I can't help but feel a little bit like a guinea pig. I really don't want half of my atoms going to Borneo while the other half end up in the palace here in Atlantis. I watched
Star Trek
on DVD, you know. That transporter was not exactly reliable.”

From somewhere in his past, he found an echo of humor that hadn't yet been beaten out of him by years of battle—or months in the Void. “I hear Borneo is nice this time of year.”

Somehow, against all odds, Keely started laughing. Justice called to the magic of his Nereid ancestors and, holding her in his arms, he stepped off the edge of reality and into the tapestry of the universe. They dissolved into pure energy, and both halves of himself—Nereid and Atlantean—marveled at the brilliance of captured sunlight that he held so carefully in his arms.

Keely melted into nothingness, again—or maybe not. In some nearly indefinable way, this was different. She felt herself more an active participant in the process, although it certainly wasn't her bringing the magic. As a scientist, she tried to observe and catalog. Sensations, reactions, experience as experiment.

But the matter transference defied description. At least, it defied any rational description. Any sane explanation. Magic consumed her, swallowed her up. She could only hope it would spit her back out, whole, when she got to the other side.

Colors and sounds clashed around her, as though she'd taken a mind-altering drug and fallen into the middle of a symphony. It was beautiful and terrible; sensation piled upon sensation until she thought she would go mad.

And then it was over.

They fell, whether down or up was unimportant, but they fell out of the currents—out of the maelstrom—and back into reality. As they landed, ever so gently on their feet, in a room Keely hadn't seen in any of her visions, she wondered why reality suddenly seemed so dull.

Startled shouts rang around her, and before she could get her bearings, the business ends of two daggers and a sword were pointing in her direction. Pointing at Justice, actually.

Justice's arms tightened around her and then he moved to shield her so quickly that he was a blur.

“How dare you raise weapons against us?” His voice was little more than a growl, but she understood the words and intent clearly enough. She could see the trembling in his muscles that told her he was nearly incoherent with rage.

Keely knew she had to do something. The Atlanteans were threatening the fragile peace Justice had brokered with his Nereid half, and she wasn't going to stand for it.

She stepped out from behind him and held up her hands in surrender, looking toward Conlan, who stood slightly in front of Ven. “Hey, I come in peace. Keely McDermott, archaeologist.
You
invited
me
, remember?

“Thanks,” she said, putting a hand on Justice's arm. He was making a low, bestial growling noise in his throat as he scanned the room, eyes narrowed and teeth bared. He looked exactly like the predator she'd thought him to be; but now she knew he was that and so much more.