“If we should become separated, you must continue east for three cycles of the moon.” Amaza led the way down the slight incline and into a thicket of trees. “Look for a fortress of wood that sits on an island where three rivers meet. The locals will know it.” She turned to me and gave me a fierce look. “You must get there, Princess. You must survive. You are our last hope. You know that.”
I knew it. Any descendent of Atlantis could access the knowledge of the amulet to at least some degree and with a special ritual access some of its power, as well, but only a member of the Royal Bloodline could access its complete knowledge and control its full power. And anything less than full access would lead to absolute power without the knowledge and wisdom to temper such power with mercy.
To ensure this never happened, I was to be broodmare to the future. It was a duty for which the High Priest had prepared me since childhood. Until recently, I did not even question my fate.
“Who shall I ask for? What shall I say I’m looking for?” Part of me hoped we’d get separated. A lifetime of being locked away had left me longing for adventure and freedom, to be an ordinary person just for once.
She cast a quick look back over her shoulder at the fire lit sky then turned toward the east, her face hard with resolve. “Tell them you seek the Amazons. “
I bolted upright in bed. “Jack! Jack!” Dammit, my feet were all tangled up in the duvet again.
Jack stirred next to me. So I hadn’t imagined him crawling in to bed. “What is it? Are you OK?”
“I know why Darroch wants the amulet.”
“What do you mean?” Jack tried to wrap an arm around me, but I pushed him out of the way impatiently. I needed to get up, get going, now.
I slid out of bed and probably would have slid all the way to the floor if Jack hadn’t grabbed me. Damn, my legs were jelly.
“Slow down, Morgan. You expended a lot of energy tonight. You are in no shape to go running around the city.” He kept one arm around me and I was suddenly very aware that not only was I not wearing a bra, my left breast was squashed up against his very firm chest. I really hoped he couldn’t feel how hard my heart was pounding.
“I have to. No choice. We have got to get that amulet back from Darroch before he uses it.” I shrugged away from him and started scrambling about the bedroom. Where were my pants? Where were my damn pants? I finally found them folded neatly on the chair in the corner. Kabita’s work, obviously. She was the neat freak, not me. I would have never folded my clothes, neatly or otherwise. The only reason my house wasn’t a complete disaster was that I knew myself well enough to hire someone to come in twice a week to clean.
I jerked them on, nearly falling over in the process. “There’s a reason Darroch has the amulet Jack, and it’s not because he wants you dead. I mean he does, but that’s not the main reason.”
“I agree. He wants the knowledge the amulet contains. It will allow him to become even more rich and powerful than he already is. We already knew that.”
I shook my head. “Wrong.” I stuffed myself into a clean T-shirt. In the dark I couldn’t tell what color it was, but frankly, I didn’t care. “He doesn’t care about the amulet’s knowledge; he wants its power.”
He didn’t answer at first, but his brow wrinkled. I figured he was scanning through what he knew of the amulet and coming up blank. “Surely, that’s not possible. Unless he’s a member of the Royal Bloodline, which he obviously isn’t, he can only gain power through knowledge. Did you dream this?”
“Yeah, I did. I’ve been dreaming of it little by little, seeing bits and pieces of the puzzle, and tonight I finally got all the pieces, or at least enough to know why the amulet was created and how it can be accessed.” Shoes, shoes, shoes. Why can you never find a matching pair of shoes when you need them?
I scrounged around on the bottom of my closet, tossing footwear left and right. I finally came up with a pair of black Chucks that matched. Well, I hoped they matched. There was always the off chance one was dark blue. I knew this from previous experience in the matter. I should probably just settle on one type and color of shoe and buy twenty pair. That would solve the problem.
“I know why it was created. It holds the knowledge of Atlantis.” He folded his arms and watched me hop around, trying to get my shoes on.
“True.” I flashed him a grin. “But it holds a lot more than that. It holds the power of Atlantis.”
He frowned as he handed me my jacket. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you know this Kissing business? Kissing the Dark and so on? It turns out it was something only the most powerful Atlanteans could do. The High Priest, the Royal Bloodline and all that, that’s where the Elemental Mages came from until the bloodlines got too weak.”