A Sorcerer of Atlantis: with A Prince in the Kingdom of Ghosts by Shirley John

Author:Shirley, John
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hippocampus Press
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

PART THE THIRD

The Destiny of Atlantis

Chapter Twelve

Thirty days after the destruction of King Glaban and his keep . . .

Half an hour after dawn, a woman wearing a dark, hooded cloak came skulking around the back of the sprawling stone and wood barracks that served as quarters for Brimm, Selinn, Snoori, and the guardsmen of King Squelos. The woman in the cloak moved with an eerie silence through long shadows thrown from the rising sun, easily avoiding the sleepy sentry leaning on the fence behind the building.

She saw that a window to the commons room was open. The sentry’s back was turned; he leaned yawning on the low fence about thirty paces away. She touched the dagger at her belt, as if considering consigning him to eternal silence, so that he could not turn at an inopportune moment and cry out a warning. But as he stood there scratching his groin, the sentry seemed so completely unaware of her—unaware of almost everything—that she turned away and slipped with noiseless ease through the open window, into the sounds of sleeping guards snoring; the earthy smells of spilled wine and unwashed men.

She picked her way silently past the snoring men, moved down the corridor, and found the wooden stairway slanting without handrails across the back wall.

She breathlessly climbed the squeaking stairs. Upstairs were two rooms: from one came the snores of men; from the other she heard a woman’s soft voice—a scornful tone, the words muffled through the pinewood door.

She drew her dagger and silently opened the door. Inside, in the soft light of a guttering oil lamp, her princess was lying helpless in the grip of a barbarian. Grinding her teeth in fury, the hooded woman stepped through and cried, in the language of Ur, “Princess—hold still and I will free you of him!”

But Selinn sat up, naked and angry. “Grindla! What do you here!”

More bemused than afraid, Brimm sat up, yawning. “Who is this, brandishing a knife at us?”

“She is my servant, come across the sea!” Selinn said, in the language of Atlantis. “Answer me, Grindla! What are you about?”

Frowning, Grindla lowered the knife. “Do you not require rescuing?”

“I do not!”

Grindla sheathed her dagger. “You do know, princess, that if this man has taken your virginity, your status in Ur is compromised and your marriageability is—”

“Silence!” Selinn snapped. “Why have you come?”

“We were told you needed to be rescued from a northern marauder, who held you prisoner! I volunteered to rescue you. I was nearly raped myself, on the way, and had to kill a sailor on the ship, who—”

“Who told the lie that I was a prisoner here?”

“Why, it was sworn to by a traveling priest of Atlantis, one Xervis, who serves the high priest of Poseidon here in Eumalosa!”

“Ah—a follower of Nestor!” Brimm said, his voice a growl. “Now the mystery is solved: Nestor hoped I would be assassinated by an outsider from Ur, so he would not be blamed. As I have the favor of the queen, he was reluctant to attack me more directly.

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