Chapter Eight

 

 

“This feels biblical,” Teharon—the Mohawk God of Healing (and Toby's nephew)—murmured.

“And the Lord caused the sea to go back, and maketh the sea into dry ground, and the waters are cleaved,” Pan intoned dramatically.

“I guess we'll be calling you 'Lord Toby' from now on.” Azrael smirked at Toby.

“'The Lord of Water' will do,” Toby said with an arrogant sniff.

“Seriously, man, this is amazing!” Torrent said as he stared up at the glassy wall of water beside him. “Look; a fish!”

Torrent poked at the liquid barrier and it indented like jelly.

“Yep; lots of fishes in the sea.” Artemis—Torrent's girlfriend—rolled her eyes before taking Torrent's hand and leading him away.

“It is pretty cool,” I said to Toby.

“You could have done it too, Lady Moon,” Toby said. “You have an influence over the tide and a pull on water in general.”

“Shut up,” I whispered. “Really?”

“I believe so,” he said. “Our magic works well together, remember?”

“Yes, Lord of Water, I remember,” I purred.

Horus groaned, and Hekate smacked him in the gut.

It didn't take long for us to reach the ruins and the location where Sekhmet had felt the magic originating from. She pointed out the general vicinity, and then Re gave her a stern look. Sekhmet headed back to shore with a grimace. After she left, Toby widened our dry zone to include a good portion of the ruins, and we spread out to investigate.

We had several shapeshifters with us, and I had the best sniffer in the bunch, but I couldn't smell anything beyond the briny decompositional scent of the sea. The ruins were covered in sand and seaweed, but you could still see the obvious bumps and curves of pillars, walls, and statues. They were crumbling and worn, and it was hard to imagine what the city had once looked like.

“So, this was the city of gold and silver palaces?” I asked Odin dubiously.

“Five-thousand years ago,” Odin said.

“Five thousand?” I asked with surprise. “You said that you visited Dvārakā.”

“Many times,” Odin said calmly.

“That would mean you're over five-thousand years old,” I pointed out.

“We all are,” Horus said drolly. “How did you not know that?”

“Well, not all of us,” Macaria huffed. “I was born after the Great Splash.”

“Macaria,” Hades growled, “how many times do I have to tell you to stop referring to the Fall of Atlantis as 'The Great Splash?'”

“Whatever.” Mac rolled her eyes.

“I guess I've never thought about it,” I blinked in shock. “Five thousand; wow.”

“We're older than that,” Re said. “Atlantis fell in the year 5086—Atlantis time—which equates to...” He frowned and looked to Odin for help.

“3966 BC,” Odin supplied immediately. “Vervain, I lost track of my age long ago, but it's probably around six-thousand years.”

“I think I need to sit down.” I plopped onto a seaweed coated wall; it went squish beneath my butt.

“Oh, get over it.” Horus rolled his eyes.

“Age is only a number.” Torrent patted my shoulder. “Isn't Arach like twenty-thousand years old, or something like that?”

“You're not helping,” Trevor whispered to Torrent as he shoved him away. Trevor sat down next to me and took my hand. “We're all the same men we were this morning, Minn Elska. Nothing has changed but your own knowledge.”

I looked over at him and smiled. “Yeah; you're right. It's just surprising.”

“If you're over your human insecurities now, perhaps you'd like to come and take a look at this, Godhunter,” Eztli said.

We all looked to where she stood with Blue; both of the Aztecs staring down at a piece of crumbling wall that was at the lowest point of our location. Blue looked up and nodded grimly; his jade eyes flashing within the deep tan of his skin.

That was all the prompting we needed; we hurried over—across the foot-sucking sand—to peer at the spot Eztli was pointed at. The rock had been cleaned and the base of the wall excavated. A channel had been dug in the sand—down at least a hundred feet. Whoever had done it must not have had a water god with them; the ditch went straight down, without any way to climb down it. When you're swimming you don't need ramps, but we did. Persephone motioned with her hand and manipulated one wall of the channel into a ramp. We tromped down the sandy ramp to the bottom of the wall. The wall was about twenty feet tall; beneath a slab thicker than I was tall; I assumed it was the city's foundation. Between the wall and the foundation there was a crevice about four feet wide; just wide enough for someone to slip through.

“Re, would you mind shedding some light on the subject?” I asked.

Re crouched beside the crevice and set his palm within it. A glaring light emanated from his hand and illuminated a metal column. We gathered around Re and peered past the first column; into a cavernous space filled with more of the metal cylinders.

“Looks like someone found the hydraulics,” Blue noted.

“Can we disable them?” I asked.

“Perhaps if we could find the pressure lever,” Odin said.

“Can't we just blow the lifts to bits?” Finn asked.

“The resulting crash may be similar to an earthquake,” Torrent mused. “It could have dangerous repercussions on the entire world.”

“Fuck,” Brahma growled. “We need to handle this carefully.”

Brahma slid into the space.

“Brahma!” Sarasvati shouted. “What are you doing? You don't know if it's safe to go under there.”

“It's held for thousands of years, Sara,” Brahma said. “I think I'll be fine.”

“Let's get in there and help him.” Thor climbed down into the cavern too.

Re went in after Thor; casting his light across the ceiling of the cavern. The rest of us followed him inside and then stopped to stare around us as the enormity of the space was revealed. The metal lifts were set in orderly lines and stretched as far as I could see.

“How big was this city?” I asked Odin.

“Easily twice the size of Manhattan,” Odin said. “Perhaps twice that.”

“Sweet city of gold,” I whispered. “It's enormous; and these lifts have been supporting it for all this time.”

“The controls could be anywhere,” Mr. T said. “They could even be above this level. In fact; that would make more sense.”

“Shit; you're right,” Brahma said from a spot forty feet away. “Sara, do you remember anything about a Control Room?”

Sara frowned thoughtfully. “I don't, but knowing Krishna, it would be somewhere in his palace; that was located in the center of the city.”

“Why don't we just ask Krishna?” Morpheus suggested.

We all looked at Morpheus in surprise.

“What?” Morph huffed. “It's logical.”

“And so obvious that none of us thought of it. Well done, Morpheus,” Odin said.

Morpheus grinned.

“Does anyone know where we can find Krishna?” Blue asked.

We turned to stare at Brahma and Sara, but it was Karni Mata—Teharon's girlfriend—who answered.

“I do,” Karni said softly.

We all looked at her hopefully.

“You do?” Teharon asked in surprise.

“We were close once,” Karni said gently. “He wanted to disappear for awhile after Dvārakā sunk, and I gave him sanctuary.”

“Was that all you gave him?” Teharon's usually-kind face hardened.

“It was a long time ago, Teha,” Karni whispered. “We all have a past.”

“Yes; you're right.” Teharon sighed. “I'm sorry; I don't know what came over me.”

“It's called jealousy.” Brahma grimaced. “Take my advice and deal with it internally.”

“It's already gone.” Teharon lifted Karni's hand to kiss it sweetly. “I have you now, and that's all that matters.”

Karni smiled adoringly up at Teharon. “Good; because he's in my temple. He never left.”

“What?!” Teharon roared.