The Abandoned City of Gorgos

Aquaman dived into the icy waters from the deck of the uninhabited boat. It had the belongings of Marlene Simmonds, the oceanologist that he hunted, but she seemed to have taken to the water before he’d arrived. In the murky depths, the mariner struggled to see more than ten feet before him and he hovered for a moment in the water to collect his bearings. Aquaman had spent most of his “heroic” career battling against the corporations and subsidiaries of Governor Mason, but now he chased a woman on the advice of the suspicious Dale Conroy. So far it had panned out but there was something about the situation that made him uneasy and he was almost positive that it wasn’t just the source of the tip. Diving further, he landed in the sand at the bottom of the ocean and looked around – it was a fairly unremarkable segment of the ocean.

He trudged forward. The weight of the ocean quite literally pressing on his mind. His steps were slow and so he took to swimming slightly above the sand, his eyes scanning the area around him for signs of the woman or clues. It worried him that he considered the possibility of this being a simple suicide attempt from a lonely woman to be good news, yet the thought crossed his mind. Rounding what appeared to be the opening of an underwater crevice, Aquaman witnessed the movements of neon flippers descending into the naturally formed canyon. He held back for a moment, observing her and ascertained it could only be his target – and not the red-haired woman that frequented his crime scenes. He gave pursuit, closing the gap with a rapid pace.

The Marine Marauder, the name that came to his head, turned to face him in the decreasing distance.

Halting, suspended amidst the blue depths of the Atlantic Ocean, the mariner watched with caution as the aquamarine-clad figure continued to dive further into the darkness of the chasm. He’d grown up amongst the ocean, a child of land and sea in more ways than he truly understood, but his longing to explore was now replaced with a peculiar sensation . . . dread. Fear seemed to wash over him as he made to follow the oceanologist. Aquaman, never one to be easily deterred, pushed through the increasing paranoia and descended.

Marlene Simmonds, the Marine Marauder, had disappeared in the murkiness of the chasm. Even for Aquaman, visibility was challenging but still, he went deeper until a blast of light blinded him and he crashed through a barrier of some sort. Marine Marauder was nowhere to be seen but Aquaman found himself faced with more pressing matters in the form of the Giant Jellyfish. Three bulbous pink creatures hovered ahead of him, their violet tendrils swaying with each movement of the tide.

“Well, that’s new,” mumbled the mariner as he landed on the strangely golden sands. Strutting towards the jellyfish, he remained on the offensive.

Without warning, the previously lifeless jellyfish became alert. They caused the young fisherman to step back and trip over an exposed rock. Energy crackled in the eyes of the creature and their tentacles, once swaying aimlessly, hardened. Narrowing his eyes, Aquaman swum upwards and balled his hands into fist but, despite the aggressive wakening, the jellyfish did not attack. They simply watched, puzzling the hero. His attention moved towards the sloping caverns and mountains that created the landscape. Simmonds wasn’t in sight.

He moved and simultaneously, the jellyfish attacked. Aquaman rolled his body to the left, narrowly avoid the strike of a violet-hued tendril as taut as a knife. He allowed a movement of levity as he turned to face the aquatic creatures, running his fingers through the blond hair that blocked his vision as he barrelled forward, and making a mental note to visit a barber when he was done. It was rare that he found a moment to smile. Since the death of his father, Arthur Curry had been a vigilante, a terrorist and a hero but he’s not found the time to simply be Arthur. The weight of two worlds and the mysteries of his abilities rested squarely on his broad shoulders.

“Stop,” they chorused. “Leave this place.”

He smirked. “Sorry, but I got business to attend to. Maybe after.”

Focusing, Aquaman slammed his fist into the stinging flesh of the jellyfish. It rippled under the pressure but seemed to sustain no damage. His eyes darkened. The mariner’s enhanced strength was his primary aid, and it wasn’t affective against a creature that was mainly composed of water. Go figure, he thought as he flipped backwards to avoid the blast of energy that burst from the jellyfish’s eyes. The two others, which flanked the first assailant, shot equally lethal attacks but Aquaman avoided those. He soon learned that they hadn’t been attacks but a ploy to position him correctly as a tendril of the first jellyfish snaked up his leg, thrusting him into the sand and encasing his body further.

His body was electrified and Aquaman screamed in pain.

The pain eased and then disappeared, leaving only the expected tenderness as he looked towards the jellyfish and saw her. The mermaid, for lack of a better term, that haunted his every adventure and acted as a slow form of torture. Mera was surrounded by the creatures, having drawn their attention from the weakened Aquaman, but as she floated in the water, her red hair billowing against the pale blue sea, she looked like an aquatic goddess. The water around her hands swirled and hardened into two daggers as she rushed forward, tearing through the delicate body of the giant jellyfish.

Aquaman didn’t want to let her have all the fun, or credit, and sprang into action. Ignoring the sting of the attack that continued to spasm within his body, Aquaman pulled the rock he’d tripped over from the sand and hurled it through the air, striking the creature that had assaulted him. For an unknown reason, Aquaman inhaled heavily and held his breath as he mimicked the red-haired woman and forced his entire body through the jellyfish’s watery body. It exploded behind him, but the energy inside surged through his body as he screamed. It took moments but he recomposed himself, recovering from the pain.

In unison with the mariner, Mera quickly created a wall of hard water as the crackling energy ushered from the jellyfish’s eyes. Her eyes looked towards the hero as he ploughed forward like a whale in a castle, and she smirked. The shield dispersed into the water around her as she formed a bow and arrow, launching a single arrow into the eye of the jellyfish. It seemed to disperse before contact but Mera was nothing if proud, an opportunity for flare in the method of warfare could never be turned down. Discarding the bow, she slammed her hands together and the jellyfish exploded – the water of the arrow shooting skyward like a great wall. Smiling, she descended to the golden sands, unperturbed by the chaotic mass of tendrils that surrounded them.

“What are you doing here?” gurned the mariner as he landed beside her on the sand. His rubbed the remains of the jellyfish from his gold and black wetsuit. The jovial spark in his eye had faded, replaced with an air of unfriendliness and suspicion.

“I followed you, obviously.”

Screams snapped the attention of the pair as they looked in the opposite direction of where they had found the giant jellyfish. It was the undersea mountains, the walls of the chasm he’d descended, and they seemed to shield some more . . . horrors. Marine Marauder had to be his top priority, Mera would have to wait until he stopped the oceanologist from whatever she was trying to achieve. He didn’t know what it was but he knew that it couldn’t be good.

“Why are you always around?” Aquaman grunted as he swum towards the sound. “It’s like I can’t breathe without you appearing.”

Mera followed. “A thank you would suffice.”

“Not likely.”

Aquaman landed, climbing over the mass of rocks and into a clearing. Shadows seemed to dance and sway as he observed the area. Immediately, the maritime hero noticed the aquamarine tuft of hair atop Marine Marauder’s garish wetsuit. He was about to give chase when a delicate hand grasped his shoulder with surprising strength. Frustrated and angered, he turned to face her but Mera hushed him before he could even spoke. Doe-eyed and watching, she looked around the clearing.

“We’re not alone.”

Aquaman growled. “I know. I’m trying to chase her.”

“No. Not your mortal from the boat,” whispered the princess. Her vision settled on the shadows to their left, a cave at the base of a mountain. “Although, in her credit, she has played you for a fool. She’s led you to the home of something much . . . older.”

“Hello.”

Both watched as a mermaid glided towards them. Her perfect body was exposed to them and she was more beautiful than all of the angels in heaven combined. Aquaman was instantly entranced but Mera was weary, narrowing her eyes at the approach of the raven haired beauty. Slowly, two more mermaids swum from the mouth of the cave and flanked her – each was as beautiful as the first, but blonde and brunette. Aquaman shrugged, brushing off the eerie lust that seemed to form within him mere moments after witnessing the women. It wasn’t like anything he’d ever known. Lightheaded and dizzy, Aquaman stumbled slightly as Mera caught him.

Mera frowned. “You’re not mermaids.” Nipping his back and snapping him to full alert, she stepped forward and allowed him to stand on his own. “I’ve met many mermaids. Stupid, frivolous creatures with more beauty than brains but never have I seen a man so easily overcome.”

“You are wise, maiden.”

She gave a loud tut. “I won’t ask your names. I don’t care. Aquaman, now.”

Simultaneously, the pair struck out but the creatures they faced were no longer beautiful. The illusion had shattered to reveal green scales that encompassed their entire bodies, and their long arms extended further as the tentacles of an octopus. Sparkling eyes had been replaced with dark holes that seemed to bear witness to the depths of hell, and Aquaman wasted no time in smashing his fist into the horrifying features of the maiden who had greeted them. She buckled, bending backwards, and snapped her arms towards him. They shifted as if they were elastic and coiled around his body but Aquaman didn’t allow himself to be caught for a second time. As her grip tightened, the mariner snapped his arms from his sides and tore through the tentacles. The raven haired creature, screeching, fell to the sands as Aquaman reached forward and snapped her neck. She was silenced.

Narrowing his eyes as Mera’s assailant and the observing third maiden scurried towards their cave, pausing in the entrance, he spoke. “Return to your cave and no one else need die. Fight us and we will destroy you as we did your sister.”

They hissed and squawked like feral cats but they didn’t challenge the pair. Instead they returned to the darkness of their cave.

Without speaking another word, Aquaman crossed the remaining space and noticed a second clearing with a freshly created cave but no Marine Marauder. Mera rested by his side.

“I’m in need of your assistance.”

“No,” he snapped. “I needed to catch her and whatever she was after but now she’s disappeared and I have no idea where too start.”

“There are things more important than–”

He turned to her. “Stop. I have no idea what she’s made off with, or what amount of damage it can do but if it’s created by some god then it can’t be good. This is important without–”

Mera grimaced. “I know a man who can help.”

Again, the shadows moved as the pair ascended from the depths of the chasm.

RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

Part V

By

Paige McMahon

Beachcove

“I’m still not sure that I should trust you. Either of you.” His watery eyes narrowed and focused on the red-haired woman who seemed to have the uncanny ability of being found exclusively at crime scenes. Her surly guardian, the man who had identified himself only as Rodunn, did little to intimidate the heroic fisherman. “I seem to recall you making this much more of a mess than it needed to be less than twenty minutes ago.”

Mera rolled her eyes. “You speak like you have a choice in these matters. The world you know will change around you and it already has done, perhaps you should just accept it and follow the tide.” She stood by his side, her body covered in a green and black wet-suit. Arthur could’ve done without the arrogant snarl that passed her lips as she spoke. “Just be quiet. Or don’t you care to learn what you actually are?”

“Mera.”

Rodunn’s tone offered a stern reprimand to the overzealous young princess. He loved her in a way a father loved his child. Years had conditioned him to do so. He still managed to see her for the flaws that made her as human as the man she tormented with cryptic messages of fate and destiny. Mera’s intolerance stemmed from her own past, the death of the kingdom she had known at the hands of the family she was now expected to marry into. There was an unending fear residing behind her glazed vision, an irksome fear that she would not survive but, even worse, that she would not succeed in avenging her fallen kingdom. Xebel had transformed into ash and ruin but the young princess stood with her trustworthy protector to fight in her name, and Rodunn had only himself to blame for the way in which she desperately held onto her past. He had allowed himself to offer her a sense of hope she’d never forgotten.

Frowning, he knocked on the door of his old friend and former ally. Sounds echoed from the room, shuffling and the fall of a book, as the elderly and slightly bald Vulko appeared in the doorway. He was illuminated by the light of a candle that burned behind him. Vulko’s upper lip twitched as his hazel eyes moved from the aged face of the Atlantean Captain to the youthful pair that stood further back. Heaving a sigh, Vulko closed the door behind him and stepped into the rain. His cold, dark eyes watched along the whirring waves against the sandy beach as if he expected a war to race against the home he had built for himself in the many years since his exile. Crossing his arms against the rise and fall of his chest, the once Atlantean doctor allowed his uneasiness to be seen by all those who stood before him.

“I’m sorry, old friend–”

Vulko looked at Rodunn pointedly. “As you should be.”

“We–”

Rodunn interrupted her. “Mera.” His expression softened. “Nuidis, there was nothing else we could do. I had the two of them come to me with news of a human raid on the fallen kingdom of Gorgos. A woman, a mortal, stole an object from beyond the sunken cities wailing maidens and the jellyfish that guard it. No one knows the myths and legends of Atlantis and her kingdoms as you. Your practice was so steep in the mystics and cultures of old that I knew we could come to you for answers.”

“Orm will have my head.”

Arthur stepped forward. “He need not know.”

“Perhaps if we moved out of the open,” scowled the princess. “And the rain.”

The elderly doctor glared at the young woman. He’d never easily abided insolence and he could sense her attitude was more than he could allow. Still, her point was valid. Offering a curt nod, Vulko pushed on the door and entered the premises. He stood to the side, silently enabling the others to follow him into the warm glow. The change in heat was quickly felt, goosebumps slithered up Arthur’s arms. There was something quaint about the home. It carried the heir of an academic office more suited to a grand college than the seaside abode. Vulko pointed them begrudgingly towards some seats, removing clutters of books from those that were mounted high, and he sat beside the open fire.

“What were you doing at Gorgos?” he snarled at the young hero. “No good comes of sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong, and this is a perfect example.”

“I got a . . . tip,” he replied, trying not to allow his internal anger over being fooled by Dale to erupt. “It was a human matter, a case of piracy, and I thought . . . I thought I could handle it. I’ve handled worse, I mean–”

Vulko scoffed. “You’ve handled worse? You’ve dealt with disgruntled little men in suits, and blown up manmade machinery. You aren’t prepared for the secrets hidden in the depths of the oceans, or the monsters they relate too. I think we’ve seen that today.” His expression was sombre. “I can’t say that I expected better of you, but I know your father would have.”

“Wait, what?”

“Who do you think taught Tom all he needed to know? A man of the land doesn’t suddenly learn how to raise a half-Atlantean boy,” spoke the doctor. “No matter how in tune with the sea he may be. I knew Tom, as I knew Atlanna, and I knew him up until the moment he died . . . I took responsibility for you then, and I’m ashamed to say I haven’t done a very good job.”

Arthur’s jaw slackened. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“As I intended. I was a lurker in the shadows. You had no need for a friend, you had those, and when Torres took you in, you had no need for a father. I watched, swearing to step in when you needed me, but you were . . . you were a runaway train, and the momentum hasn’t quit since.”

“I . . .”

“Do we have to do this now?” interjected Mera. “I mean, isn’t the theft at Gorgos a more pressing matter than the guppy’s daddy issues?” The unfeeling coldness seemed to shock even her mentor as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “What? Vulko, that’s your name, right? Vulko started his whole rant with how dangerous it is to be nosy, and I’m a tad more curious about that pending danger than his father.”

“What did I ever do to you?” the hurt that echoed in his words seemed to strike even her. “It must have been something really bad for you to hate me so much. I’m not sure how it is where your from but up on land, we still give a shit about our . . . our dead. They still mean something.”

Mera cleared her throat. “And what about the living? What are they worth to you?”

“Shut up!” he snapped to his feet as he towered above her, his hands balled and his shoulders posturing aggressively towards the princess. “What is your issue? I’m here now, aren’t I? I’m trying my damn best.”

“You’re here now,” she snarled. “Now. When the damage is done and irrevocable, here you stand. The saviour of the Atlanteans, the promising young prince ripped from the arms of his pleading mother. The myth and the legend. But what about before now? What about all that have died at the hands of your mad brother before now? You’ve spoken of that note, the one that your father left, telling you that Atlantis was real and you never came looking . . . No, you spent all of your spare time blowing up oil rigs and protecting the land-dwellers. There wasn’t a thought for us.”

Mera paused, breathing heavily as she backed up. She shrugged off Rodunn and adjusted the diadem across her forehead.

“Don’t expect me to be grateful that you’re here now, when you could’ve been here long ago. I’ve fought this on my own,” she shivered. “With the assistance of one man and your incarcerated mother. I didn’t need you. If I could do this on my own, I would, but when we destroy Orm, there’ll be a vacuum and you need to fill it.”

“A vacuum . . . Wait,” his eyes widened. “Are you expecting me to take over as the King of Atlantis? Yesterday I wasn’t sure this was real, I would appreciate a bit of time to process that before you . . .”

“See?” she snapped. “Even now, you’re here but it’s like you’re not involved.”

“Hold on a minute . . .”

Vulko stood. “Can we stop this incessant fighting? I don’t have time for childish hormones. Call me old fashioned but as a prince and a princess, you might want to conduct yourselves with a little more decorum. If you pursue this war and Arthur, a mixture of both land and sea, is to be the king, then both of those worlds are going to collide. You’re already bringing a complicated plan to life. I recommend you try to agree.”

Rodunn nodded. “And the object?”

“I assume you chase the Crown of Enlil,” continued the doctor. “It was worn by the royal King Atlan and it was buried with him. Poseidonis is the capital city of Atlantis now, but it was once the city of Gorgos and that was where Atlan ruled. He wasn’t a mad king but he was a temperamental one and his reign was particularly bloody, especially for his wives. He could be considered something of a Henry VIII. He was eventually overpowered by the last of his wives, Ganymede, and imprisoned by powerful magic in the Caves of Gorgos. The Maids of Gorgos and the giant jellyfish are obstacles to protect that enchantment and leave the resting king undisturbed.”

“Resting?”

“Yes, Arthur. Ganymede was a powerful sorceress, even by Atlantean standards, but even she couldn’t kill a man who was possessed by the monstrous Enlil.”

“He was possessed? A possessed king?” asked Mera.

“The Crown of Enlil is a conduit between the storm-god and his vessel, in this case Atlan,” sneered Vulko. “Do you teach your children nothing in Poseidonis, Rodunn? The Crown will grant the wearer–”

“I knew it had something to do with a god.”

Arthur’s phone rang.

“Sorry. I need to take this.”

“Are you serious?!”

Mount Sandynose, Comstock

“I don’t see why we couldn’t meet at the Clinic,” grumbled the thirty five year old oceanologist as she walked against the rain to reach the top of the steep slope overlooking the peer. Her tawny hair was pulled back severely from her shrewish face, and her thin lips pursed as she approached the woman who she’d been working for. Her tattered old brown rucksack swayed in the wind, repeatedly striking her back. Although physically unattractive, it couldn’t be said she was unfit – her body was athletic and toned, perfect for a swimmer of her calibre. “At least there it would be dry.”

Dale turned with a smile across her rosy cheeks, her blonde hair billowed against the wind and rain as she moved to close the gap between them. In a moment, the warm and friendly greeting turned formal and Marlene was faced with the harsh reality of her situation – her world was bountiful in the numbers of associates and work colleagues she’d amassed, but replete of friends and loved ones. She should have expected as much from the young woman, Dale was frivolous and as wild as the weather, but Marlene had wanted so much more from the transaction. Turning on her own shrewd professionalism, Marlene widened the space between them.

Dale stopped. “Have you got it?”

Marlene gave a laugh. “And have you do to me what I did to the old man? I think not. The Crown is safe, and it’ll fetch a pretty penny on the markets. I’d like a couple of days–”

“You don’t have a few days,” reminded the younger woman. “This is a time sensitive transaction. My buyer wants it and he’s going to pay us generously. Aquaman won’t stay down for long. He’s like a bad smell. He’ll come looking this and he’ll come looking for me.” Dale grinned. “The wounded pride of a man can be a dangerous motivator.”

“All the more reason not to hand it over,” Marlene smirked. “He’s going to come looking for you and he’ll take it back and then what? I could use it myself . . . I don’t need a third party. With the Crown of Enlil, I’d have the very oceans at my command. I could rob as many banks and be as rich as I wanted.”

Dale furrowed her brows. “Of course. As long as the bank was beside a beach.” She barely masked a small snort. “No. The Crown is not meant for small bank robberies. There’s a war coming, Doctor Simmons, and it’s my role to ensure that it does. You have no idea what we’ve accomplished here today. You’ve lead a monster straight into the openness of the world again, and the Crown will allow my buyer to control him.”

Marlene was confused. “What do I care for war? I want money and riches. I want a chance to live a life that’s beyond my current means. I don’t care for war and death and loss.”

“You played your part well,” said Dale. “I never would have gotten this far without the help of the old man and you. It was his knowledge, of course, that laid the groundwork and you’re . . . ruthless amorality that allowed us to claim it. You’ll get your money and you’ll live like a queen. I’d just say do it inland.” She took the flyaway hair behind her ears. “But I’m going to need you to give me the Crown now.”

Marlene Simmonds shivered against the cold front that seemed to hit her like a wall yet the blonde woman didn’t seem affected in the slightest.

“I know you have it.”

It took a moment, a beat, but Marlene ran as the young blonde rolled her eyes and gave chase down the sweeping slopes of Mount Sandynose towards the beach and tumultuous sea.

Beachcove

“I’m not ignoring you. This just . . . it isn’t a good time.”

Kako’s voice rang through the phone, sounding more fragile than he’d ever known her too. “It feels like we’re drifting apart, AC. I mean . . . I get that I left and I can’t expect you to chase after me like that but you didn’t even bother to call me to make sure I had got here all right?”

“You wanted space, Kay.”

“I didn’t want this much space.” He could hear her breathing heavily, as if she’d been crying, and it caused pains in his chest like no foe could. “I can just picture it, you and Eva talking about me now that I’m gone. Laughing at my expense.”

“It’s not like that. I’ve just been busy,” he reasoned. “But this whole thing with Eva, Kay, when’s it gonna stop? She’s my best friend and she’s here to stay. I want to include you in that long term plan but . . . you gotta budge a little to make this work.” Arthur sniffed. “She actually asked after you, after she seen you at the store. I know she’s a bit rough ‘round the edges but she’s not a bad girl.”

“So I’m the bad one?”

He groaned. “No but you’re definitely the irrational one. Stop being an idiot and just come home.”

“Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.”

“What are we doing then? What is this?” Arthur was growing frustrated. He had a missing crown of power and crazy woman out there with it, not to mention the so-called Marine Marauder seemed to be associated with Dale Conroy who had been pulling the mariner’s strings since she’d blown into town. To top it all off, he’d just learned he was half-Atlantean and a prince of Atlantis. Relationship drama was of low priority to him. “What about your job? If you’re not here, how can we expect to resolve anything? This gonna be it, you flouncing off to Alaska every time I disagree with you?”

She was silent.

Arthur placed his hand on his forehead. “Look, Kako . . . I’m real busy. I have a bit going on here and I need to go. Call me when you actually have something to say.” He paused. “I love you.” Arthur hung up and placed the phone back in his jacket pocket.

He turned to find Mera.

“Trouble in paradise?”

He grunted. “Can you just not? I’m not in the best of moods and I don’t want to punch you, as hard as you make it to resist.”

She laughed as she tied up her hair. “You have a temper. You’re very like your mother and surprisingly, not at all like your brother.”

“What kind of a name is Orm?”

“It’s a pretty standard one,” said the princess. “I think there was a king before Atlantis fell into the sea called Orm, so it’s old but not entirely uncommon. Arthur might be your name up here and I’m sure your father was just thinking about practicality but it’s not how Atlanna knows you.” Mera noted the curiosity in his eyes but equally, she recognised his stubbornness. “Orin. Your name is Orin.”

“My name is Arthur Curry.”

“It’s also Orin.”

He shrugged. “You know my mother? Atlanna.”

“The deposed queen. She was pleased to hear that you lived,” continued the red-haired beauty. “It might help you to know that she was equally as saddened by the passing of your father. It appears he was a great man to have earned so much affection while he lived.” Arthur recognised her words as the white flag she intended them to be.

“Apology accepted.”

Mera smiled coyly.

“It’s a lot to process.”

“It is, and you don’t have a lot of time to do so, but time is something that we cannot waste,” she said. “If we’re to strike then we need to start setting the pieces into motion, and the last step will have to be the trident because there is no way to claim it before the end without alerting Orm to our plan. Your mother mentioned other items that would assist us, and we can get to those . . . after we deal with your human problem.”

He looked at her.

“If you’re to be the King of Atlantis and a man of the land, then both will have to be integrated,” Mera said. “The Crown of Enlil is in the hands of a mortal, normally not an issue I’d concern myself with, but it’s dangerous and it means something to you that you retrieve it. I will help you do so.” The rain danced around her fingertips and formed a hard water umbrella that shielded them both. “I have gifts.”

“They’re something.”

She smiled. “Not quite talking to jellyfish but they have yet to fail me, Arthur Curry.” The use of his name – his human name – seemed foreign on her tongue, but she indulged him.

They were disturbed.

Vulko appeared. “Whoever has that Crown will have the powers of a god. That’s not the most dangerous part of what occurred at Gorgos today, though. The Crown was stolen, but it wasn’t all that was in those enchanted caves. I don’t suppose you closed the entrance before you made your way here?” Their vacant expressions answered his questions. “Congratulations, you’ve successfully unleashed the once king of Gorgos on the Atlantean people. Somebody might want to get . . .”

His eyes followed the rattle of thunder and the flashes of lightning that hovered above the island colony of Comstock.

“Never mind.”

Mount Sandynose, Comstock

Marlene fell gracelessly into the damp sand of the beach. Dale came running behind her, her feet hit the ground with a repetitive thud as she came to a stop above the panting oceanologist. Rolling her eyes as she moved into a walk, the Southern Belle approached.

“Seriously? Just give me the bag, you dumb bitch,” she snarled. “I don’t want to have to hurt you. I’ll give you your money, I have more than enough of it. Just give me the Crown and this will be fine.”

Marlene snapped. “I don’t trust you.” Tears formed across her cheeks but the endless rain of the raging storm hid her emotions. “I found it! I went down to that hellhole and risked my neck to get it, the Crown is mine!” Her words, harsh and guttural, seemed to echo for a moment, resounding on the window only to be lost in the emptiness. In the heat of the exchange, neither woman noticed that the area in which they had come to stand was void of the rain that had ceaselessly berated them beforehand. Marlene’s tight knot was frayed and tangled as she took each step away from the approaching blonde whom had been her employer only moments before. It was strange to think an ally could so rapidly become an enemy but Marlene, although a great thinker in her field, tended to be somewhat short-sighted.

Dale furrowed her brows as she strutted towards the quivering scientist, prepared to exact what she believed to be justice. “Your loss, shark food.”

“No!”

Lightning crashed above them, causing the two women to be diverted from the dark undertaking on their minds. Dale, the more agile and youthful of the two, bounced backwards at the sight of what lay before them but Marlene, uneasy on her feet through fear, slipped and landed on her ass. Her bag slipped from her shoulder, scattering her possessions and revealing a glint of the Crown of Enlil – it was not unnoticed by Dale. However, the woman maintained her distance, watching as a man who had so clearly come from the thrashing waves of the sea. He spoke in a language that neither woman could understand, his voice as low and rumbling as the storm. His face was hidden behind a mass of white hair, trailing to his chest.

Dale whispered. “You shut the cave, correct?”

“I . . . I–”

“Of course.”

The man she knew to be Atlan roared as the rain began to fall again. Dale wasn’t knowledgeable in Atlantean lore but the man who had employed her, he was well educated, and Marlene had failed in more ways than one. Quickly, she rushed forward and grabbed the back, disappearing over the mounds of rock before Marlene could even utter a word. The oceanologist gulped and for a moment, she believed Atlan – the man she had forgotten to contain – would follow her former employer. It didn’t even concern her that the Crown was gone when her life flashed before her eyes. Lain on the wet sand, she looked into the face of a man who recognised her and screamed.

Before she could scuffle to freedom, the ancient Atlantean was atop of her body, tearing her limb from limb. It happened so quickly that even her screams didn’t have time to fall from her quivering lips. Marlene Simmonds, a great mind driven mad in desperation, was no more than scattered pieces of flesh along the beach by the time the angered king was walking away from her. He marched to the edge of the sea, aware that the presence and mystical energy of the Crown had faded into nothing when the other girl had disappeared. He had taken his revenge but forgotten his priorities, allowing himself to once again be ruled by his temperament.

Atlan, the once King of Gorgos, roared.