Ancients

sword.

'You have my apologies, old friend.' The elder knew that with his words he had wounded the general, the very last of the great Titans.

The general blinked and then looked at Androlicus. He slowly placed his helmet with its long plume of blue feathers and trailing horsehair on the long, curved marble table before him, then allowed his bearded face to soften.

'You are tired. How long has it been since you slept?'

The old man turned and looked at the large tapestry on the council-chamber wall. The weaving of threads showed the great plain and deserts surrounding their tiny inland sea. Their small continent was at its exact center situated between the four great landmasses to the north, south, west, and east. It also depicted the almost endless western sea beyond the Pillars of Heracles, named after the barbarian Greek hero to the north who was even now leading his monkey-people to the very gates of Androlicus's home city.

'My lack of sleep is but the least of what ails me. Besides, I foresee my long-needed rest is very close at hand.'

'Don't say this thing. We will prevail. We must!'

Androlicus uncovered the third Key. 'This will fail. The tone grooves mean nothing. The pitch is all wrong and the weapon will be uncontrollable. The Key and its tones will only enhance the Wave to a level that is far beyond the science to keep it caged.'

He saw the look of confusion upon the face of this simple but brave Titan.

'The illusion has been perpetrated by testing on plates that are weak and old. Ah, but the crust beneath our own feet?' He wagged his finger at Talos. 'Well, they are new, deep, and strong. It will surely end our world. This diamond has the ability to store and increase power; and coupled with that fact, the plate diagram is wrong and will assuredly destroy everything and everyone.'

'You are a great scholar, but the sciences, they--'

'They are wrong. I have studied the Tone Key and the plate diagram and have discovered it will only work on the smallest of scales. Once the realignment of active plates begins, nothing in our science can control the result. If I am right and the diagram lies--if the fault lines and plates are all interconnected--this Key and her sisters will not control the earth's rage, but put a sword point to an already wounded beast. There is a reason why the gods have made the blue diamond so hard to find--it may generate more power to the Wave from the stored energy of light, heat, and the very electricity generated by our very own bodies. As I said, it's uncontrollable.'

'Then why do you sign the order for the weapons use, My Lord?'

The look on the old man's face told the general everything. He knew then that the fate of their civilization was sealed. This great man was going to allow the world to have its way. The barbarians' freedom from their grip was at hand and Androlicus was going to allow it to happen because it was their time. From many nights of talk by warm fires, he knew Androlicus to be an advocate of the barbarians. He philosophized that they just needed a start to become as themselves, an advanced, thinking people.

Talos saw the old man relax.

'Tell me, what of your defense, or should I say preemptive strike to the south?' Androlicus asked while turning once again to look at the tapestry map of the north of Africanus.

'The Gypos prepare their voyage across the inland sea, possibly on the morrow,' he said and then lowered his head.

The old man caught his friend's awkward silence after the brief report and turned to look at him.

'Your armies were defeated in the Egyptian Delta?'

'They were slaughtered to a man. We were no match for the combined force sent against us. There were not only barbarians from the west; our former allies, the Nubians Africanus, allied with the Gypos.'

'How many are dead?' Androlicus asked, closing his eyes before he heard the answer.

'Six thousand citizens we sent into Egypt will not be joining us for the final defense of the inner circle. That, coupled with the defeat of General Archimedes by the barbarian Heracles on the northern outer ring and that damnable Jason upon the sea ... five thousand more of our men will not be defending the second ring. The Gypos have also poisoned the Nile, so I have ordered the destruction of the great aqueduct; it has already fallen into the sea. There will be no more fresh water to our shores.'

'We have lost eleven thousand soldiers in this one day alone?' The elder turned, as if by looking the general in his eyes the statement would not--just could not--be true.

'It seems our ancient enemies have learned the ways of war well from us.'

Talos's face betrayed his sadness as he told the rest of the story. 'Arrayed against us are Heracles, who is barely above the mentality of a cave dweller, and also Jason of Thessaly, who is but a thief of the ship and oar designs of our science. The allied armies still bear mostly stone axes, wooden swords, and sharpened sticks, but they have defeated the greatest nation the world has ever known.'

'I would say the gods have turned on us, wouldn't you, my great Titan?' murmured the old man in reply.

'The past will always find a way to punish the present.' Talos smiled sadly. 'The sins of the fathers will always curse the young.'

Androlicus nodded in agreement.

'Our greatest treasures, they have been hidden well?' he asked.

Talos had the slightest trace of a smirk etching his hard mouth. 'It was difficult, as we lost thirty-two screening ships to Jason in the Poseidon Sea, but yes, old friend, the greatest of treasures is safe along with the histories, our heritage, science, and the libraries. Shipped to the farthest reaches of the western empire, not even our followers will know where they are buried.'

'Good, good. Now I am as weary as I have never been before.'

'You are sure the weapon will fail?' Talos asked, wanting just a glimmer of hope, not for himself but for the very people he was sworn to protect.

'It is as uncontrollable as we are arrogant. Who are we to believe we can manipulate the very planet we walk upon? We can only hope that the secret of its use will never be found. The bronze maps, the plates, the disks, they are all destroyed?'

'Except for the single plate map and dimensional disk sent with the treasure ships.'

'The plate map should have been destroyed,' said Androlicus angrily.

'Lord Pythos loaded the plate map himself as a safeguard in case we needed the second Key.'

Androlicus placed his hand on the cool surface of the large blue diamond. 'No, he won't need a second or third Key. It ends here. It ends today.'

Androlicus slowly pushed the order forward without removing his eyes from the Titan.

'Give this to that madman below the earth and may the gods have mercy on us. I am sorry you will die by the side of that fool.'

'I am also. What of you, My Lord?'

'I have my devices.' He lowered his head, a move that made the general feel desperate for his old friend. 'These old eyes have beheld too much. I have seen that which I was not meant to see. I choose not to witness our arrogance of science at work.' His voice broke. 'We could have been such a great people. We wanted to be, at one time ages ago.'

The elder looked around the great chamber within the safety of the Crystal Dome; the wonder of the ages.

General Talos took the order and, with one last glance at the covered third diamond, turned away, feeling as if he were leaving a dying father behind. He slowly walked through the great bronze doors of the chamber, closing them behind him, leaving the chamber once again in darkness, as well as the great Empire of Atlantis.

The great tectonic-plate chart was carved directly into the stone walls of the giant and ancient volcanic cavern one mile beneath the city of Lygos, the centermost island in the rings of Atlantis, a mountainous plateau the barbarians thought of as Olympus. To the ordinary citizen the wavy lines and circles of the chart were but a meaningless jumble of scribbles. The only recognizable feature on this strangest of maps were the three great circles of Atlantis.

The diagram was five thousand years in the making and was the great achievement of their time. The Great