Atlantis: Devil's Sea Read Online Free PDF Page B

were many who had made the journey, as the portents were dark in many places. Even though Rome ruled the Mediterranean now, the influence of the Greeks and their beliefs was very strong. There were noble men and women from Rome waiting, even those from Persia and Kingdoms beyond the border of the empire. She had listened to the tales many brought before retiring to the cave, knowing that something serious was happening to the world. She isolated herself to listen to her inner voice, which could make contact with the gods.
    On the morning of the seventh day, the oracle appeared at the mouth of the cave and spoke only two words to the priestess on duty: “The Defender.”
    *****
    The young woman who climbed the path was covered with a thin sheen of sweat. Her tanned skin glistened, and her short red hair was plastered to the top of her skull. She wore a pair of cloth trousers and a tunic with no sleeves, a dagger stuck in her belt and a pack on her back. She had broad shoulders and was tall, towering over the priestesses escorting her. Her face had broad cheekbones and a sharp nose separating blue eyes. The priestesses paused at the entrance to the cave and indicated for her to go in alone.
    She entered and paused just inside, allowing her eyes to adjust to the dimness. She saw the omphalos, the navel stone, deep blue in color, which sat in the center of the cave. On the other side, the oracle was on her stone throne, near the crevice that went to the very center of the Earth according to some.
    “Priestess Kaia.” The old woman’s voice was very low but carried a sense of power.
    Kaia knelt on the near side of the omphalos and bowed her head. “Yes, Oracle?”
    The oracle tapped the stone of the throne. “I have been listening to the Earth and the gods. All your life you have been ready to take a journey, but I never told you why or where. I know where now, and I will tell you why.”
    The oracle gestured for Kaia to sit. “I must tell you the truth, and then you must decide. You are a priestess, not like the girls who serve me here, but of the true bloodline. You are a Defender. You sense things others cannot and you have powers they cannot imagine. It is why you have been isolated all your life. You are my granddaughter.”
    Kaia’s head snapped up at the last words. “Why was I never told?”
    “It was never time.”
    “And my mother?”
    “She died giving birth to you.”
    Kaia could sense the truth of what the oracle was saying, and she caught a brief glimpse of a woman—her mother—coming from the oracle’s mind. She did not have time to dwell on her sudden sense of loss as the oracle continued.
    “Our line stretches back many, many years. And it is always the women that carry the pure blood. The men we choose to mate with are picked by the inner circle of oracles.”
    “My mother—” Kaia began, but the oracle waved a hand.
    “I do not have time to assuage your feelings or explain that which is not important right now to you. It was the will of the inner circle, and such will is our law. It has been that way since we were forced to separate and pretend to be something that we aren’t.”
    A muscle rippled on Kaia’s jaw, but she forced herself to remain under control. What do I defend?” She asked.
    “Everything. We are not from here. We came from a place called Thera. The island that is there now is just a fragment of the kingdom we once had. Before Thera, our people lived in Atlantis.”
    Kaia shook her head, her anger still a knotted fist her chest. “Atlantis is a myth. I have read Plato and his writings—as you made me. According to Romans who read him now, it was a device he used to make a point.”
    “Atlantis is where we came from,” the oracle said simple. “I assure you it was most real.”
    Again, despite her anger, Kaia knew the oracle spoke the truth. “How was it destroyed?”
    “It was destroyed by the Shadow.”
    “What is this Shadow?”
    “A darkness upon the Earth and