ATLANTIS

The Ones Before

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 

Water washed over the top of Dane’s boot, soaking it and going up to his waist as he stepped into the moat. He looked at the slime covered water. The ground underneath his boot was smoothly cut stone. He could see that the moat extended for four hundred meters before ending at the crumbled wall that surrounded the city. Numerous trees and plants had taken root in the moat, making it part of the jungle, but Dane wondered what it must have looked like when the city was newly built and the moat full of clear water. 

The air crackled and swirled overhead, dark streaks in the midst of the greyish-yellow clouds that blocked the sun. Jagged bolts of lightning lit up the sky in all directions. 

He splashed forward, Freed and Beasley following closely. 

* * *

To the south, wading through the same water, Ariana and Carpenter also saw the city walls. They no longer sensed forms around them and both felt more at ease now that they could see and weren’t surrounded by the mist. But the golden beam coming out of the center tower of the dead city and the ominous sky overhead produced its own share of anxiety. 

Carpenter looked over her shoulder, back toward the massive ridge that surrounded the city. “Think the snake has a way through?” 

“I hope not,” Ariana answered. 

“What do you think is in the city?” Carpenter asked. 

“I don’t know,” Ariana snapped. 

“I do something to you?” Carpenter asked. 

Ariana halted in surprise and looked at the other woman. “No.” 

“Well, you sure act like it,” Carpenter said. She wiped a hand across her forehead and flicked away the sweat. “I’m just a minion, doing what I was told to do. I didn’t screw up your mission and I sure as hell helped you get this far. If you’re pissed at your father, pissed at Hie-Tech, pissed at God-knows-what, that’s fine, but we’re all we got, so let’s try to treat each other a little better, OK?” 

Ariana slowly nodded. Carpenter reached out and gripped Ariana’s forearm and squeezed. Ariana wrapped her fingers around Carpenter’s, feeling the muscles rippling under her fingers. 

“Let’s find out what’s going on,” Carpenter released her grip. 

* * *

Chelsea eased under a bush, her nostrils flared wide. She edged forward to Sin Fen’s unconscious body, battered and bruised from the fall down the ravine. Chelsea dipped her head and ran her rough tongue along Sin Fen’s cheek. There was no response. Chelsea whined, wishing for her master. 

She leaned forward, this time pushing her soft muzzle against the woman. 

* * *

There was a hole in the stone wall. The blocks, each about four feet square, were blasted apart, as if a large hammer had come down on them. Dane climbed up some of the rubble and began working his way over it. Freed followed, giving Beasley a hand. 

Dane felt his skin tingle as he crossed the center of the wall and entered Angkor Kol Ker. He paused, letting the other two catch up. 

“Feel that?” Freed asked. 

“Yes.” Dane stood perfectly still. “This is the heart of it.” 

Dane looked left and right. A broad road ran along the inside of the wall. Directly ahead streets ran between stone buildings, which the jungle had battered but not completely obliterated. And above them, a kilometer away, the golden beam reached into the dark sky from the tip of the Prang.