Heart of Atlantis

Alaric paced and ranted and swore and raved until Conlan threatened to hit him over the head with the nonpointed end of a spear.

“She’s gone. Unprotected. Every single murderer and thug on the planet will have seen her face by now, and she’s up there all alone because the portal has decided, for the first time in all of recorded history, to do whatever in the nine hells it feels like doing!” Alaric was shouting by the end of it, and Conlan narrowed his eyes and picked up the spear.

“I’m not kidding. I will hand your ass to you on a plate, and you are too busy keeping the Trident from nuclear meltdown, and the dome from collapsing, to zap me with magic, so for once it would be a fair fight,” the pain-in- the-ass high prince of Atlantis said.

Alaric forced himself to take a deep breath. “Fine. I will calm down. I will pretend that the entire continent is not about to be destroyed. I will pretend that the sea god is not ignoring us. I will pretend that I can do this on my own, even though the Trident grows more unstable with every second that passes, and I am nearly at the limits of my strength already.”

He bared his teeth at Conlan. “Don’t we all feel better already?”

His entire body pulsed with the strain of pushing more magic than he’d ever channeled, and the Trident kept increasing its erratic instability. He knew he didn’t have much longer, if something didn’t happen to shore up the balance on his side of the equation.

“We need one for the good guys, as Quinn would say,” he said, flinching as a sharp pain stabbed him in the temple.

Conlan’s eyes widened a fraction, and he reached over to touch Alaric’s ear. His finger came back red with blood.

“Just how much power are you having to expend to keep the dome from shattering?”

Alaric grimly shook his head. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

A shout heralded Marcus’s arrival at the head of an armed contingent of half a dozen warriors surrounding Riley and the baby, Erin, and Keely with Eleni.

Erin and Keely were both furious, and they immediately started letting Conlan know it.

“We are not about to scuttle through the portal like rats abandoning a sinking ship, when we can stay here and help,” Erin said.

“I’m surprised Marcus managed to drag you out here,” Alaric said, before wincing as another sharp pain in his head nearly blinded him. At this rate, he’d be dead before the dome collapsed, anyway.

“He threatened to stab us,” Keely said dryly. “When we didn’t believe him, he threatened to stab that guy.” She pointed to a youngling barely old enough to hold his sword.

Marcus nodded grimly. “And they knew damn well I’d do that.”

The young warrior gulped audibly, but stood tall and tried to look brave. Conlan laughed a little before he pulled Riley and Aidan into a fierce embrace. Alaric tried not to envy Conlan those last moments with his family, even as every fiber of his being demanded that he abandon the battle to contain the Trident and go after Quinn.

“You know, he would have done it. He stabbed me once, in training,” he told the young man, whose eyes grew huge.

Keely took in the situation with her scientist’s keen grasp of a problem, and then turned to Alaric. “Right. Where’s Quinn? You two need to reach the soul-meld, right here and now, or Atlantis isn’t going to survive.”

Chapter 16

Alaric glared at the damnable woman. “What in the nine hells are you talking about?”

“I tried to tell you last night, but nobody wanted to listen. What happened to Nereus was his power increased exponentially when he achieved the soul-meld with Zelia. He became the most powerful priest in the history of Atlantis,” she said. “That’s why the Elders decreed celibacy for the high priest. They decided nobody should have that kind of magic. They were afraid he could gain enough power even to challenge Poseidon, if it came to it.”

“So you just want them to throw down right here?” Riley’s face turned hot pink. “I know this is a crisis, but after all those years of celibacy, I doubt Alaric wants to strip down in the middle of a field and—”

“No,” Alaric shouted. “No, no, no. We are not having this discussion. Quinn is gone, in any event. The portal abducted her, but even if she were here, we would not be having this discussion.”

Ven made a choking noise, like he was strangling on his own tongue, and Alaric whipped an ice ball right at his head, then immediately regretted it, as calling to even that tiny bit of water magic increased the strain on his overtaxed powers.

“Where is my sister?” Riley demanded, and little Prince Aidan started crying.

Alaric closed his eyes and tried to pray for patience, but he realized that he was done with praying to any gods. Poseidon could have his damn temple, just as soon as Alaric saved the people of Atlantis from this current disaster. Atlantis would rise, and he and Quinn would head to a beach. Or maybe mountains, far, far from any ocean.

Maybe the Alps.

“Alaric? Did you hear me?”

Alaric opened his eyes to find Keely staring up at him. He didn’t have the strength to be angry at her.

“He can’t risk it,” Conlan said. “Even if Quinn were here. The Elders say the loss of celibacy is the end of power. If there’s even a chance that they’re right—the Trident would destabilize and we’d lose the dome and everyone in Atlantis. It’s not a chance we can take.”

Alaric closed his eyes again, as rage and humiliation battled for supremacy inside him. He’d be better off if he just let the damn dome collapse.

A piercing whistle interrupted his misery, and when he opened his eyes, everyone was staring at Erin.

“Alaric, you don’t have to have sex to reach the soul-meld. If we can find Quinn, and she agrees, you can soul-meld and expand your power without risking the anti-celibacy oath-breaking thing,” she said, her cheeks flaming red.

“I cannot believe everyone in Atlantis is discussing my sex life,” Alaric said from between clenched teeth.

“Actually, we’re discussing your lack of sex life, dude,” Ven pointed out.

“If you call me dude again, I will drop the dome on your empty head.”

“Can he do that?” the young warrior asked.

“Silence,” Marcus said, staring at the dome, where the warm light of magically created dawn highlighted the water trickling down, now in a small but steady stream.

Alaric tuned them all out and searched for the still, cold center of his being, where he retreated when there was no choice but blood, battle, or death. He reached a conclusion so devastating that it pushed everything else out of his mind.

“Here’s the situation,” Alaric finally said, pretending to be calm, as if the lives of all of his people were not at stake. “Even drawing upon the magical reserves of everyone in Atlantis, I am not quite powerful enough to hold the increasingly unstable Trident and also support the dome. We need Poseidon’s Pride, we need to return it to the Trident, and Atlantis must rise. However, there is no one else who is strong enough to retrieve the gem without being burned to ash by its power. So, as I see it, we have two choices. First, I can do nothing but what I’m currently able to do, and Atlantis will slowly be destroyed as the leaks increase and my magic is depleted. Everyone dies.”

He took a breath and continued. “Second option: I can somehow find Quinn and attempt the soul-meld, if she agrees, and hope that the story of Nereus is true and it gives me enough power to solve these problems. The issue there is that I’ll be channeling my magic at a very long distance, if the portal even takes me to her, which will further weaken me. And if the story of Nereus is false, everyone dies.”

He looked around at the people he could finally admit he loved. His family. He would willingly die for them. And he probably would. Soon.