“That could have been anything,” Thor noted as he took a seat beside his father.
Artemis was right; Odin did look like Thor's hotter, younger brother. It was a little unsettling since I had been Thor's girlfriend before I wound up with Odin.
“Yes; that's exactly what I thought,” Sekhmet said. “I ignored the flutters. But then they grew stronger, and I decided to investigate them.”
“You investigated flutters?” Macaria asked with a scathing tone.
I gave her a hard look.
“Sorry,” Mac mumbled.
“I followed the magic down to the beach,” Sekhmet ignored Macaria. “My private beach is about sixty feet from the ruins, and that's were the flutters were coming from.”
“The ruins?” I asked.
“There was a series of events which led to the sinking of Dvārakā,” Odin explained. “Humans began to take the luxury and advances for granted, then they began to fight over them, and finally, Salva attacked Dvārakā.”
“Who is Salva?” I asked.
“He was another Atlantean,” Odin said. “Krishna and Salva were both from Atlantis, but there was such a large influx of Atlanteans to the area that not all of them reached godhood; Salva was one of the Atlanteans who were left out. When Krishna built Dvārakā, and the humans praised him as a supreme god, a lot of the overlooked Atlanteans grew jealous. And then the humans abused Krishna's gift.”
“And this Salva guy used it as an opportunity to get one over on Krishna,” I finished.
“Exactly,” Odin confirmed. “Salva attacked the city using Atlantean technology and magic provided to him by the god, Shiva.”
“We used to have these flying palaces with projectile weapons stronger than human missiles,” Brahma said. “We flew them about freely; it was yet another way to convince humans of our godhood.”
“They were like Rudra's palace,” Sarasvati—Brahma's wife—said. “And we also had flying chariots called vimanas.”
Brahma sighed. His wife had an affair with Rudra. It had been a long time ago, but Brahma had only found out about it recently, and it had caused a huge drama between the three of them. Love triangles are especially tricky with the gods.
“Awkward,” Pan said in a sing-song tone.
“You were saying, Odin?” I tried to steer us away from that train wreck... or flying chariot wreck.
“Salva was killed in the battle,” Odin went on smoothly. “But Krishna had lost hope in humanity and his fellow gods. He sank the city.”
“As all Atlanteans know; once sunk, a city cannot be saved,” Brahma finished. “There is no way to raise it.”
“That's not exactly true,” Sarasvati said with a frown. “Krishna lifted the city's foundation from the seabed when he created Dvārakā. I recall there being Atlantean supports below it; like those moving poles they use to lift cars.”
“Jacks?” I asked.
“No; the one's in automotive shops,” Sara said. “Large, metal tubes which move up and down.”
“Hydraulic lifts,” Torrent whispered with a tone of wonder. “Holy hamburgers! Krishna used the ocean itself to lift his city.”
“Yes; hydraulics,” Sara said in a smug tone. “It was brilliant, but so were most of our advances.”
“I recall it now.” Brahma nodded. “But how Krishna lifted it doesn't change the fact that it's now submerged.”
“My darling husband,” Sara said with a sigh. “Krishna lifted it up and then sunk it down; which leads us to the conclusion that... ?”
“It could be lifted again,” Brahma murmured. “Jhaant ke pissu!”
I looked at Sara askance.
“It means...” She made a pained expression.
“The translation of 'jhaant ke pissu' from Hindi to English is; Bug of pubic hair,” Torrent offered helpfully.
Artemis burst into laughter, and the rest of us followed.
“He basically shouted 'crabs,' didn't he?” I asked Trevor.
“You're damn straight he did.” Trevor chuckled. “I need to learn me some Hindi.”
“Please do not,” Kirill drawled. “You are annoying enough in English.”
“Even without the lifts in place, there is always a way when you have magic,” Sekhmet said. “But I'm not convinced that raising the city is the goal. Perhaps there's another reason for gods to be releasing magic in Dvārakā. They could be searching for Atlantean technology that Krishna left behind.”
The God Squad looked at each other and grimaced.
“We've had enough of assholes excavating Atlantean machines from the sea; it's not happening again,” Morpheus declared; the blue mist in his eyes swirling angrily.
“We need to get down there and take a look around the site,” Blue said with less passion and more reason. “Then we'll have a better idea of what's happening.”
“Yes, but how do we do that?” Eztli, Blue's vampire bride, asked as she waved toward the sea.
“If only you had a god of water on your side,” Toby mused with a grin.
Chapter Seven
We waited until nightfall and then walked down to Sekhmet's strip of beach. She lived on a little hill overlooking the water, and the beach was at the base of the hill. Including Sekhmet, twenty-six people would be making the trek to the ruins. That was a lot of bodies for Toby to provide safe passage for. I didn't doubt that he could, but I was a little nervous for Sekhmet; who was human now. If something went wrong while we were out there, she could die.
I wasn't the only one this occurred to.
“Perhaps you should wait on shore,” Re said to his daughter.
“Father, I was the one who felt the magic,” Sekhmet pointed out. “I can lead you to the precise location and save you the headache of searching the entire ruins.”
“I assure you; she will be safe.” Toby waved his hand toward the shallows and a path formed in the water.
The ocean simply split; pulling back to create a corridor lined in walls of water that went straight out to the ruins of Dvārakā.
“Sweet!” Trevor strode forward eagerly.
