Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis Read Free Page A

up until a few hours ago she
would have said that pretty much everything she’d experienced so
far was beyond the realms of possibility.
    “ What is this place?” she
asked, more to herself than to him. “It doesn’t look like any of
the islands I’ve seen before.”
    “ It is not an island, not in
the strictest sense of the word, at any rate,” he responded,
sounding tired.
    She turned to look at him. He looked
tired, too.
    How odd that her figment had human
failings. If this really was a dream, would he get
tired?
    She had a bad feeling that he
wouldn’t, but decided that she just couldn’t handle any more mental
calisthenics at the moment. She was tired beyond belief and her
head was throbbing as if it might explode.
    She dismissed it, tried not to put a
great deal of effort into thinking at all, instead merely watching
as they drew closer and closer to the strange city.
    As they neared the shore and she could
see more clearly, an odd sense of disorientation swept over her.
The place … every building, was in a style strongly reminiscent of
ancient Greece … except these weren’t ruins. Some of the buildings
looked old, perhaps a bit time worn, but none were crumbling. Most
seemed to be single story buildings, with perhaps a handful rising
two or three stories. In the distance, in what looked to be the
center of the city, stood a cluster of buildings on a hill, or
rise. These came the closest to resembling the multistoried
buildings one would expect to see in a city of this size. In the
midst of them, a tower rose well above everything surrounding it,
almost like a lighthouse, or maybe an observation tower.
    “ It’s beautiful,” she
murmured.
    The sense, almost of weightlessness
the buoyancy of the water, had given gave way to a feeling of
heaviness, cool air brushing her wet skin, bringing her to the
realization that they were emerging from the water. She frowned,
aware that she’d lost a sense of logic again. The guy carrying her
was half fish, a merman. How could he just stand up and walk out of
the water? She craned her head to see the merman’s tail and fin,
but, even as she watched, they disappeared.
    He set her on her feet and she leaned
forward to peer at him in the dim light, watching in amazement as
his iridescent scales gave way to skin, his lower body dividing to
become two legs.
    Well, two and a half.
    He was stark naked.
    Alexis straightened abruptly, blushing
as she met his grinning face.
    “ Down boy! I don’t care how
glad he is to see me, I’m not shaking hands!”
    His expression became
quizzical.
    “ Never mind!” She turned
away, surveying the area, and realized they were standing on what
appeared to be a stone pier. Steps led upwards to a beautiful stone
house that looked very Mediterranean.
    A wave of dizziness washed over her
and she swayed, grasping his arm for support. “Where are we?” she
demanded.
    He scooped her into his arms and
jogged up the stone steps to a verandah. Without pausing, he opened
the door and stepped inside.
    “ My home.”
    “ I gathered that,” she said
dryly as set her on her feet, steadying her by pulling her close
against his side. Finding her land legs at last, Alexis pulled
away, looking around the marble tiled foyer, her gaze skating over
beautifully carved tables, chests … vases made of gold … none in a
style she recognized. “But where is your home? And who are you? You
never did tell me your name.”
    “ I am known as Adonis,” he
said, and bowed in a quaint old world way that looked oddly
gallant, given the fact that he was naked.
    Alexis suppressed an urge to
giggle—nerves or embarrassment, she wasn’t sure-- resolutely
refusing to look at anything below his neck. “I wouldn’t doubt it
in the least, but don’t let it go to your head. Pretty is as pretty
does,” she added primly. “And we are where?”
    “ Atalantium.”

Chapter Two
    Alex stared at him.
“Atlantis?”
    He shrugged. “Outworlders call