Marcus DimascioThe Hurricane Throne

CHAPTER NO.4

    "Come on!" the general bellowed. "Keep up!"

We ran for almost ten minutes, occasionally looking around corridor after corridor, checking if we were being followed. I took in that time to look at my surroundings, because every time I was taken anywhere in the palace or in the city, I was blindfolded the whole time. We passed several large chambers, all of which were made of the same black and grey marble the Throne Room was made of - like the whole palace had been infused with the color of an oncoming lightening storm. 

Then, we came to another set of high doors. As soon as we got them open – they had to be opened by large chains – the first thing I saw was pure daylight.

I had to cover my eyes; due to the fact that's it's been months since I last saw daylight. As soon as I opened them, I was amazed at what I saw.

I stood staring at a city that was floating in the middle of a storm cloud.

The city was full of houses, palaces and mansions, made entirely of grey and white marble stone. The roads were rough cobblestones and a variety of mixed graphite pebbles. It was impossible for a city this huge to be floating in the middle of a seriously big storm cloud – which by the way was covering the city of Denver below, its light's barely noticeable. Old fashioned Greek lanterns hung from the marbled mansions in front of us, their fluorescent lights so captivating. People busied themselves about their normal day routine and business – making new weapons, or building new houses. I saw a group of teenagers making a chariot made of pure cloud vapor, reining horses to the chariot as its second wheel was attached in place. In the distance (which was over two hundred meters away) a golden archway rose up to touch the highest peaks of storm cloud vapor, which made me think that whoever created this place was probably thinking big on his designs.

That someone must've created this city like they were trying to build their own Olympus. Whatever the case, they obviously put a lot of effort and love into this whole project and did a fantastic job of it all.

"My father made this city," I muttered, "didn't he?"

Maximus nodded slightly.

"He did build this city, but he created it with the help of his other son Aeolus, the master of the winds. Don't forget: he built Atlantis, so why couldn't he build another city–" He waved his hands out in front of him, indicating the storm metropolis, "–such as Cyclone City?"

The old general had a point. My father, Poseidon, was also the legendary god and creator of Atlantis. I always loved hearing my dad teaching me about his great circular city in the middle of the Mediterranean Ocean. My father talked about how he fell in love with a mortal woman and had six sets of twin sons and, just to give them a home on the island they were living on, willed an entire city to crash out of the waves and thus Atlantis was born.

What got me most interested was the fact that the legendary city sunk beneath the ocean and vanished forever.

And now I've found out that the Stormbringer had created a city sighted in the clouds of a storm. If he was that powerful, then why isn't he–?

Marcus, a girl's voice echoed in my head. Marcus, what do we do?

I looked at Chloe. She was using her ability to speak telepathically with me. Even before Proculus enhanced it completely, Chloe and I could speak in each other's heads almost fluently.

Maximus came forward. "What do we do now, Dimascio?"

I looked at the weary general and my sister. Then I turned my eyes back to the horses that were still being harnessed to the now fully built chariot.