Royal Heiress (19 page)

“Wait,” she said, putting her hand on his
arm. “What if this isn’t supposed to be your home anymore? What if
you are meant to be somewhere else now?”

He shook his head. “There is no other place
for me.”

“You’re wrong,” Gaius interrupted them.

With a jerk, she looked over her shoulder and
saw Gaius, Octavia, and Julius. “What are you doing here?” she
asked.

“Helping you prevent him from making a
horrible mistake,” Gaius replied. “Infer, we come from the same
future that you and Queen Amanda do.”

Pallid looked uneasy but took his hand off
the door. He walked to the side of the building with them so they
could have some privacy.

“You know we don’t lie,” Gaius reminded
him.

“Yes. I know,” Pallid agreed.

“The change you propose to make will be
detrimental to those who live in the Underworld. Take your mirror
and see for yourself. I’m sure you will be as alarmed by what you
see as we were when we saw it.”

Pallid hesitated for a long moment, glancing
from each Augur then to Amanda who encouraged him to do what they
wanted. Despite his reluctance, he took the mirror out of his
jacket pocket. He selected the alternative future he was about to
create in the mirror. Curious, Amanda stepped close to him so she
could see what would happen if he followed through with his
plan.

As the images played in front of them, her
heart sped up in dread. It went from bad to worse. When it got to
the point where the leaders voted to euthanize everyone in the
Underworld, she felt sick to her stomach.

If her sister lived in this kind of world,
she would also be condemned to death. And for what reason? Just
because she wasn’t as beautiful as they thought she should be? She
continued to watch the scene, tears filling her eyes as she watched
countless numbers of people being injected with poison so they
would no longer be a problem. It was a scene of death and despair.
Their protests and cries to live tormented her the most. How could
the leaders and citizens of the above ground nations justify such
madness?

“I can’t watch anymore,” she finally cried
out as she turned away.

Pallid didn’t say a word as he stopped the
program. His face was unusually pale.

“Despite what you think,” Gaius softly began,
“you do have a home where you belong. There is a place waiting for
you that is much better than this city.”

“And that would be…?” Pallid asked.

“Up to you to find out,” Gaius replied.

“Even after all these years, you Augurs are
hard to deal with,” Pallid muttered.

“We cannot reveal too much, or else we’ll
disrupt the balance of time. Things must not be altered. They must
continue as before, unless the change is for the better of
others.”

Pallid nodded. “I expected that kind of
answer from an Augur.” He sighed. “You win. I will not follow
through with my plan.”

Amanda breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you,
Pallid,” she said, feeling better now that those people wouldn’t
die.

“What now?” Pallid asked the Augurs.

“Get Katherine and Jake and go to the
location of the replacements,” Gaius instructed him. “The password
will stop their development.”

“What password?”

“The one all Infers were entrusted with.”

“That’s the problem. I had no idea there were
even replacements. How am I supposed to know the password?”

“Look carefully at the replacements’
incubators. We do not know the password, but we know the leaders
embedded the clue in there and revealed this information to the
Infers. They did not reveal it to anyone else, and they cannot
remember it like you can.”

“I’ve seen the replacements developing, and
no password came to my mind.”

Gaius smiled, as if he’d expected such a
response. “You will. You cannot help Amanda destroy Atlantis
without remembering the password, and we have seen her succeed in
her mission.”

Amanda gulped nervously. Suddenly, she wasn’t
as confident as she had been before. She began to doubt whether she
could actually do this great feat or not. What if they were wrong
about her? What if she did something along the way to change the
course of history? After all, the future wasn’t written in stone.
It could be changed at any time.

“We will get Katherine and Jake then,” Pallid
said, finally accepting what Gaius was telling him.

Amanda’s thoughts returned to the matter at
hand. “Yes. We should do that.”

“Our work here is done,” Gaius replied. “We
must return to Aug. The Olympians will be waiting for you when you
return to the future. They have already begun to drive the
Earthlings away from this city so that when you return, you will
not risk killing anyone.”

The Augurs left, quietly and discretely. It
seemed that no one else noticed them. Amanda marveled at their
ability to blend so easily into the crowd of people.

“To the Underworld we go then,” Pallid said
as he turned from the building.

“Your sacrifice will not be in vain,” she
quickly assured him. “You will find another place to call home. The
Augur said so.”

“Yes, I suppose I will.”

They walked in silence down the streets.
Amanda hated the way the puddles felt as she walked through them.
Her feet and the hem of her dress were completely soaked.

“It’s really not a big deal after all,”
Pallid spoke up. “I was actually disappointed to be here.”

She glanced at him in surprise.

“It’s hard to explain,” he continued. “Let’s
just say that I am seeing this city for what it really was. It’s a
selfish place.”

She paused before making her own confession.
“I can’t blame you for wanting to be here. I was enchanted with
this place when we first arrived here. I mean, it really is
beautiful. I can’t think of any other place that is so
breathtaking. Well, besides Aug, but Aug is a replica of this
city.” She cleared her throat when she realized she was rambling.
“Anyway, I was flattered so many men were interested in me. I
didn’t even care that my own sister was overlooked. I wish I could
say I wasn’t that way on Raz, but the sad truth is I secretly liked
the fact that all the available men pursued me instead of her. How
is that for selfish?”

He stopped to take a good look at her.

She stopped, too, wondering if her confession
disgusted him.

Instead of rejecting her, though, he smiled
at her. “You might be alright after all.”

She grinned. “Everyone is entitled to their
moments.”

“It’s more than that. You’ve come a long way
in a short amount of time. You just might be a good queen after
all.”

She blushed. “I appreciate the
compliment.”

They started walking again, this time in
silence.

She was beginning to see Pallid in a whole
new light. He wasn’t easily impressed by her looks and charm, as
other men had been. He was more interested in who she was, and that
made her realize he was better than the others. For the first time,
she considered the possibility of taking him to Raz with her and
making him the king. Her feelings were so new, though, that she
didn’t dare speak them out loud in case the spell between them
would break. She just wanted to enjoy this time when they were
actually getting along.

Chapter Eighteen

Present Day

Atlantis

The gods and goddesses who came from Olympia
were busy driving the military forces of the Earth away from
Atlantis.

Demeter found her weather machine behind the
picture on her office wall and sent a terrible thunderstorm through
the city. Zeus applied his awful thunderbolt and lightning for
added effect. This prevented the planes from making it to Atlantis,
so the pilots turned back their course for safer skies.

Poseidon released a couple of sea creatures,
such as the great leviathan, to terrorize the people on ships.
This, in turn, made the captains turn around and go back home.
Hades released the creatures of the deep Underworld, such as
gigantic snakes and thousands of locusts, to drive the people out
of the city. Ares sent out a group of powerful fighting robots
whose mission was not to kill anyone but to threaten them enough so
the people would have no choice but to flee from them.

Once the people realized they could not
defeat the robots and were being pursued by locusts and snakes,
they decided it was time to evacuate the city. The entire time,
Athena kept watch over the city and notified the other Olympians of
their progress.

While they did this, their energy was
starting to dwindle, for their replacements were beginning to
mature and would soon be ready to take over Atlantis. Athena and
Ares were the only ones who were not affected since they were not
part of the original six leaders who had established the thriving
empire.

Athena hoped it wouldn’t take Queen Amanda
and the Infer too much longer before they returned to the present
time. She didn’t like the way Zeus was beginning to fade in front
of her. Time was running out…and fast.

***

Thousands of years in the past

Atlantis

Pallid led Amanda to the entrance of the
Underworld and opened the door. She glanced down the stairs and
shivered in dread. This wasn’t going to be the most pleasant place
she ever went to.

“I’ll go first,” he told her, noting her
apprehension. “There’s nothing to worry about until you encounter
Cerebus.”

“Cerebus? The three-headed dog?”

“You know a lot about the leaders and the
creatures in this city. Are Razians and Olympians good
friends?”

“The queen and the Olympians are,” she
clarified. She couldn’t tell him about the Special Alliance they
shared since that knowledge was privy only to the queen and, upon
her judgment, the king of Raz.

“So the Olympians don’t concern themselves
with the people of Raz?” he asked.

“Not unless they are in danger. And there are
more than just people on Raz. There are other species with human
intelligence. We have fairies, centaurs, goblins, fauns… It’s a
pretty diverse place.”

“Earth has many species on it, but none of
the animals are as advanced as humans, though there are times when
I have to wonder about some people,” he joked.

Amanda tried to figure out why he was
laughing, but she didn’t understand his meaning.

He grinned. “Your mother would know what I’m
talking about.” He began his descent down the steps.

She carefully followed him, holding onto the
ivory rail. “You speak fondly of my mother,” she noted. “Do you
still wish to be with her?”

“No. I know she is much better off with your
father. I do admire her for her strong convictions. Actually, in
that way, you remind me of her. Your parents did a fine job in
raising you.”

After a few seconds of silence, she asked,
“Did you have parents?”

He shook his head. “Infers were created in a
laboratory. We lived in a common house with nannies who cared for
us. The leader, Athena, was the one who gave us our instruction.
Once we grew into adulthood, we were paired up for marriage and
given our own apartment to live in.”

“It sounds like a lonely childhood.”

“I didn’t know any better, so it didn’t feel
that way. In many ways, it prepared us for living the life we were
meant to live. We were the keepers of memories, so we never did fit
in well with other people.”

They reached the bottom of the stairs.

She frowned at the dismal corridor. “How long
do we have to go before we find my sister and Jake?”

“A little ways. It’s not the walk that will
bother you. It’s the sound of misery from the people who groan that
will put a chill down your spine.”

She didn’t like hearing this, but she had no
choice but to walk with him.

The silence was deafening at first, but as
they continued to walk, she began to notice a sound in the
distance. To her surprise, the sound she heard wasn’t the sound of
pain and misery. Instead, it was the sound of joy and laughter.

Pallid frowned. “That’s odd. I don’t recall
hearing this before.”

“What does it mean?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. It has to be
good though. If you were here with me when I came down here last
time, then you would know this is a major improvement.”

“Was that when you went to be with your
wife?”

He nodded.

“And you would have spent the rest of your
life down here, even in a miserable place, to be with her?” she
asked.

“That was the plan.”

“Wow. I can’t think of any man who would do
something like that for someone he loved except for my dad.”

“Yes, well, my wife died a long time
ago.”

“Do you miss her at all?”

He glanced at her and shook his head in
amusement. “You never tire of asking questions, do you?”

“How else am I supposed to learn
anything?”

“Your point is well made. To satisfy your
curiosity, I did miss her for many years, but then I realized it
was better to be by myself than married to someone who didn’t love
me. So really, I guess she did me a favor without realizing
it.”

“I want to marry for love. I know you will
think it’s silly, but there is a tremendous amount of pressure for
the queen to marry as soon as she receives her title. The entire
planet depends on her for its survival, and as soon as she assumes
the throne, there is a sense of urgency for her to have a daughter.
That daughter will be the next Queen of Raz, and she’ll put
everyone at ease because the planet will be safe for another
generation. It doesn’t make it any easier when you know the only
reason so many men are courting you is because they hope to be the
next king. The king is the most honored position. His duties are to
give the queen a daughter and serve her.”