The Atlantean Chronicles: Call of the Sea

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Asherah balled her hands into fists, green light flickering in her palms. Jacin tensed beside Diana, threatening to yank his arm out of her grasp as Reith remained hunched over biting back cries of pain.

Asherah took a step towards Meison, the light brightening in her hands. She got within three feet of him before the former queen cried out and staggered away from him, the light vanishing.

She looked down at her palms with wide eyes, then back up at Meison, whose wicked grin was tugging at the gruesome scar running along the side of his face. Diana gasped as Jacin finally managed to pull out of her grasp and rushed towards his mother.

Meison turned to him, eyes glowing violet. Asherah's knees buckled as violet light shot from Meison's hand and wrapped around Jacin. He bared his teeth in defiance, even as he was forced to his knees beside his brother.

Asherah staggered back another step, bracing herself against one of the pillars lining the hall to keep herself from falling. "Ho-how?" she asked, looking up at Meison with wide green eyes.

Diana found herself unable to move, too filled with doubt and dread as she saw the fear in Asherah's eyes, the pained defiance in Jacin and Reith's. "You haven't figured it out yet?" Meison purred, feigning surprise as he stalked towards the former queen.

Reith and Jacin writhed uselessly against their restraints as their uncle approached their mother. More of the shark-toothed warriors emerged from the throne room, grabbing the princes and dragging them to their feet.

Asherah lifted her chin as Meison stopped before her and gripped her elegant face in his strong, pale hand. "Why do you think I kept you all these years?" he sneered, looking her up and down.

Diana suppressed a shudder of disgust as she looked on, feeling completely useless. She was the weakest among the four of them, now she was the only one without restraints and Meison seemed to possess the ability to wield Atlantean magic after all. Oh, they were so fucked.

Asherah searched Meison's gaze. "What are you talking about?" she snarled, her back pressing against the pillar as Meison leered over her.

Meison lifted his other hand towards her face, examining it as that pale violet light appeared in his palm. Asherah and Diana both followed his gaze. "Surely you've noticed by now that you aren't nearly at your full strength," Meison pressed, his dark eyes flicking back to her.

Asherah frowned and Diana could see the gears turning in her head as she tried to make sense of what Meison was saying. She realized it a moment before Diana, her pale eyes widening as she looked back at Meison.

"The energy shield..." she said, her gaze hardening. "It wasn't a power dampener was it?"

Meison smiled. "Well... yes, but it was more than that. I think you're getting the gist of it though," he purred, his claws digging into her cheeks.

Diana clenched and unclenched her fists, looking between Asherah and the princes. She had to do something! But what? She was useless, a liability, she should never have come here with them.

"But how?" Asherah gasped.

Meison threw her head to the side, releasing her from his grasp. Diana lunged forward as the former queen of Atlantis began to collapse. Diana wrapped an arm around her waist, gently guiding her to the floor. They both knelt there, Asherah leaning against the pillar, glaring hatefully up at Meison as he paced the hall in front of them.

"It was actually much simpler than I could have ever dreamed. It only took some collaborating between some of my best scientists and mystics to create a sort of siphon between you and I," he drawled, stopping to stand before the princes. Diana narrowed her eyes as she noticed Meison examining a metal cuff on his wrist; it must have been what had been connecting him to the energy shields around Asherah.