The DeCadia Code (The DeCadia Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

sipping, and staring into the tavern’s blazing fireplace. She’d even ordered him a meal to share with her, feeling in a giving mood. They’d just come back from a long run and her share of the profits was good. Why not share her wealth with a crusty, old codger who made her smile?
    He’d nodded his thanks and then started asking her questions. Simple questions, things like; whether she worked on the ships since she’d come in with some of the crewmen and what type of work she did on board. They’d sat for at least a couple hours just talking about ships. He knew his vessels and had told her of some of the older designs and why they were better. Her own ship had been built upon his advice. She’d designed it herself and he’d approved her plans. Carrow was the first to tell her about her birthmark.
    “Thought ye’d love ships,” he’d nodded, staring into the fire. “Your people always did love their ships and the sea.”
    “My people?” she’d asked.
    “The Atlanteans,” he’d clarified. “Our airships today are modeled after their ocean vessel designs. When our world was new, we traveled the oceans like we do the skies today: when our waters weren’t toxic.”
    There had been a catastrophic war that encompassed every part of the world of DeCadia a millennium ago. Great nations had fallen. The survivors had vowed to never again create such destruction. The people had moved away from that type of technology to a cleaner, more stable source of power, focusing on alchemy and steam. Sometimes Val wondered whether they were truly better off living stuck in a world where technology wasn’t allowed; except by a select few, where it couldn’t grow and thrive. DeCadia wasn’t changing and all things needed to change. It was a belief she had held that day and still did today.
    “Who were the Atlanteans?” she’d asked, sipping on her beer. She’d never heard of them.
    “Old, ancient ancestors,” he muttered. “They disappeared from this world just after the war. They gave us the building blocks of machinery and taught us how to build upon them. Atlantis was our mother in a sense. When we took the knowledge they’d shared with us and started to harm them and each other with it, they left. It is said they’re still here, hidden away, remorseful they gave us the means to destroy each other in the first place.”
    “Still here?”
    He’d nodded. “Aye. Some say they have a world all their own and travel here through a portal, a doorway, between our two worlds. Others say they remain here, secluded by their technology in places we can’t find. They are a tricky people to learn, to understand.”
    “I’ve never heard of them before,” she’d said. “How is it you do?”
    “The birthmark on your back,” he’d looked her straight in the eye. “It’s their mark. All of their people have it; some tattooed, others branded, and a very select few are born with it. It’s to ensure they can always find their way home.”
    The birthmark on her back was a symbol, one she’d never been able to discern. It was a maze of twists and turns. At first glance, it looked like a sort of twisted knot. However, the closer one looked, the closer one stared, the more intricate it became; until it became a maze of pathways, of roads. The birthmark was a map, yet a map to what she didn’t know.
    “I’ve met one other in all my time who had that mark. His name was Tobias Blood. Good man: loved his ships just like you. He told me the story of the mark one night when we were both three sheets in the wind. He said that it’s a map to Atlantis, the Lost City. I asked him if he’d tried to decode it, to go there, and he’d nodded. He’d been there once. Said it took him nearly twenty years to unravel the meaning and another ten to find it.”
    “He didn’t stay?” Val had asked.
    Carrow shook his head. “They were sea people and we’ve all become air people. Tobias missed his ship, his home, his family. He’d