Hamish X Goes to Providence Rhode Island (10 page)

He strode forward through the mighty gate. After a moment's hesitation, Mimi and Cara followed him, leading the rest of the Hollow Mountain refugees.

Mimi stepped through the gate, blinking in the sudden glow of sunlight overhead. She stopped short and let her eyes adjust, but when they had, she almost refused to believe them.

Considering all the amazing adventures Mimi had enjoyed up to this point in our story, you might not credit that she could still be amazed. Sadly, you would be underestimating the human capacity for wonder. She had never seen anything so beautiful in her short life. Granted, her early experiences had been severely limited: she grew up in a tiny Texas town and then travel led straight to the remote and miserable wasteland that was Windcity. Still, she had trekked across the Arctic ice and witnessed the glory of the northern lights. She had soared via airship across the North Atlantic and watched the sun rise over the grey ocean waves. She had lived within the Hollow Mountain, the product of centuries of brilliant human engineers.

None of those sights could have prepared her for the majesty of Atlantis. She found herself standing in a huge paved square. The flagstones were fashioned from the same stone as the corridor, irregular in shape and fitted together with painstaking precision like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The musical rush of water drew Mimi's eye to the centre of the square, where a fountain towered above her. Crystal-clear water gushed up towards the sky in a single, graceful column to then fall in glittering drops into a circular pool below. A mist of cool droplets moistened Mimi's upturned face, gently caressing her skin. At the base of the fountain, a stone cluster of dolphins, octopi, shellfish, and
mermaids sheltered under the broad arms of a man with a giant fork in his hand pointing high at the ceiling. The statue's face was grim and bearded, a layer of grime darkening the recesses of his features, making him seem dour and serious.

“Hettakarus,” Xnasha said. “You know him as Neptune, god of the sea!”

“My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather,” Xnasos said, puffing out his chest. “He was a mighty king in his day. Built most of what you see around you.” He spread his arms wide to indicate the towering structures crowding in around the square. “The city of Atlantis.”

Mimi stood dumbfounded, taking in the impossible city. Proud marble towers and colonnades lined the square. She looked to Cara and found her companion similarly impressed. Vast porches of stone carved to look like fronds of seaweed braced broad marble balconies. The towers stood at odd angles and were of varying sizes, lending the whole city a strangely natural feel, as if it had grown out of the seabed rather than having been built by humans. Thousands of windows faced onto the square. Some of them held beautiful panes of stained glass, but an equal number were gaping and empty, their panes shattered.

On closer inspection Mimi saw that many of the towers were cracked and leaning precariously. Some had already fallen into neighbouring structures, leaving stumps like rotting teeth in the otherwise beautiful skyline.

The more Mimi looked, the more she saw signs of decrepitude and rot. The magnificent buildings were in desperate need of maintenance, as if this whole civilization had seen better days.

Arranged around the square, a crowd of Atlanteans stood watching them. Their pale eyes and drawn faces did not look friendly. Mimi smiled at them and waved. They merely stared back, eyes filled with suspicion.

Mimi was so mesmerized by the vista before her that she hadn't noticed the arrival of Mrs. Francis until the housekeeper spoke.

“Oh my word!” Mrs. Francis cried. “Look at the sky!”

Mimi followed the housekeeper's gaze and couldn't help but gasp in wonder. She hadn't registered the sky as anything unusual because, as a surface-dweller, she always assumed there was a sky overhead. The sky above Atlantis wasn't a sky at all but a crystal dome that covered the entire city. The crystal was completely transparent, tinted a soft blue by the sea above it. Schools of colourful fish lazed by like clouds of stars illuminated by a soft glow that emanated from the crystal barrier. The schools scattered as the cold, pale body of a shark waded through their formation, its bullet head thrashing side to side in an attempt to snap up slowpokes in its razor-sharp jaws.

“Ain't that a sight to make ya sit down hard and stand up quick?”

“You have a strange way of speaking.” Xnasha laughed.

“Yeah.” Mimi smiled. “I've been told that b'fore.”

The other children from the Hollow Mountain arrived at the gate and began to file in. They looked about at the bizarre undersea city. From the legendary home inside the Hollow Mountain, they had fled to find themselves in another hidden, mythical land. Their faces registered the confusion and awe at their new surroundings.

The children's reaction was predictable. What Mimi didn't expect was the Atlanteans' reaction to the children. They stared as the refugees flooded into the square. From their open-mouthed, wide-eyed reaction Mimi guessed they'd never seen so many surface-dwellers before. The Atlanteans began to whisper among themselves in their own language. Mimi tugged at Xnasha's sleeve.

“What's with them?”

Xnasha smiled. “It has been a long time since they have seen any children. We don't know why, but we can't seem to have any of our own. I was the last child born and that was more than three hundred of your years ago.”

Now it was Mimi's turn to gape in astonishment. Being a child herself, she found it hard to judge how old adults were relative to herself.
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She had guessed that Xnasha was an adult, maybe as old as her mother when her mother had died. Her mother had just celebrated her thirtieth birthday when the tapir
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had plummeted from the sky and taken her life. So far, all the Atlanteans had pale white hair and their stunted stature made them appear older, but never would she have imagined she was off by several centuries. “That ain't possible! How can ya possibly be so old? It ain't natural.”

“It's natural for us. We age differently from you. It has something to do with the environment we live in and our diet, too. And, of course, the Crystal Fountain in the temple.”

She pointed towards a large, imposing building directly across the square. The temple was held up by ancient
stone columns carved in the shape of human figures. The figures were inlaid with coloured gemstones that almost made them seem alive. An archway pierced the front of the building, flanked by armed Atlantean guards wearing heavy plate armour and holding long spears. The archway glowed with a soft pearly light that spilled down the steps, bathing the paving stones with luminescence.

“Temple? Crystal Fountain?”

“Enough!” Xnasos snapped, cutting off any further explanation. Xnasha waited for her brother to turn away before winking and smiling secretively at Mimi. “Later,” she whispered. “I'll show you after you've rested.”

Mimi returned her attention to the group. Now the Atlanteans were moving timidly forward, approaching the children with caution as if afraid these tiny beings might be figments of their imagination, prone to dissolving into air at the slightest touch.

The Hollow Mountain refugees, for their part, were wary of these odd creatures. Cara and the remaining Royal Swiss Guards took up defensive postures, watching the strangers approach. Mrs. Francis tried to look menacing but failed spectacularly. Mr. Kipling stood with his arm around his new wife's shoulders and his free hand resting on the hilt of his sabre. The children didn't know what to do. After the long day they'd had, many were practically dead on their feet. The younger ones hid behind the legs of the older children and peered at the Atlanteans with trepidation.

Mimi caught Cara's eye and gave a quick shake of her head. Cara lowered her fighting stick and the other Guards followed her lead.

One Atlantean, a woman with bright silver wire woven through her hair, approached a small girl about four years
old. The woman knelt so that she seemed less frightening and smiled.

“My name is Axandra,” she said in a soothing, friendly tone. “Who are you?”

The little girl stared for a moment in silence. Screwing up her courage, she said, “My name is Nicolette.”

“Nicolette,” Axandra said, savouring the word. “A strange and lovely name. Hello, Nicolette.”

“Hello,” said Nicolette. Then, shaking off her trepidation, she announced in a very loud voice, “I'm hungry.”

The spell was broken. Everyone laughed, Atlanteans and Hollow Mountainers alike. All suspicion and wariness were dispelled. Xnasos raised his staff and called for silence.

“Of course you are hungry,” Xnasos said. “You have had a long journey and a terrible heartbreak. But have no fear, you are welcome here in the realm of Atlantis. We will honour the pact made with the King of Switzerland. No enemy can reach you here. Tonight we will feast and celebrate the meeting of our two peoples. Our realm has missed the sound of children's laughter for too long.”

He addressed his own people: “Make room in your homes for our guests. Bring food and drink and set tables for a feast.”

To the Hollow Mountainers, he said, “Eat and rest for a while. You are welcome among us. When you are refreshed, we will discuss our course of action in the council chamber of the Temple of the Crystal Fountain. Tonight, let no worry cloud your minds. You are safe here. As in the days of old, when Atlantis ruled the world, my forefathers swore that—”

Xnasha interrupted him. “Enough of your speechifying, brother. They need food, not words.”

Xnasos raised his hands and tugged at his white hair in frustration. “Why can't I make one little speech? How often do I get to make a speech?”

“Once is too often,” Xnasha retorted.

Xnasos grumbled to himself and waved his staff. “Prepare the feast.”

The Atlanteans hurried to their tasks as the Hollow Mountain children chattered excitedly, discussing their newfound refuge.

HOURS LATER
, Mimi finally lay back in a comfortable bed in the house of Xnasos and Xnasha after a long night of merriment and feasting under the great dome of the sea. At first it had been quite disconcerting to sit at the long trestle tables laden with fish, prawns,
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shellfish, and seaweed salads heavily laced with salt and strange spices while the weight of the ocean loomed above, but she soon grew comfortable in the company of the Atlanteans. The odd folk were quite taken with the children, chatting and singing to them as they ate, telling them wondrous tales of the distant past, of great machines and beautiful ships that sailed above and below the sea. They played music on harps, pipes fashioned from the shells of sea creatures, and bizarre stringed instruments with bows of ivory and twine wound from sea plants. Everywhere Mimi looked,
children ate and laughed happily as their hosts looked after their every need.

The music of the Atlanteans fell weirdly on her ear, reminiscent of waves and the cries of sea animals, sad and slow and complex. Mimi studied the Atlanteans, watching their clever little faces and hands as they played, and sensed an underlying sadness, a loneliness born of isolation in their underwater home. Xnasha, courteous and friendly, sat at Mimi's side, asking many, many questions about the surface world.

Xnasha asked very funny questions: she wanted to know what the sun looked like, what the wind felt like. What did a tree smell like? Had Mimi ever seen grass? Was it true that there were millions of people on the surface and that they rode on the backs of animals and in machines over the land and even in the air? Xnasos frowned at Xnasha's open curiosity from his place at Mimi's other elbow. Mimi answered every question as best she could. She realized that the Atlanteans' knowledge of the upper world was quite detailed, considering they hadn't ventured there in what seemed like centuries or even thousands of years. Xnasha deflected Mimi's own questions, saying, “Tomorrow. You will hear everything tomorrow. Don't worry, there's plenty of time for us to bore you tomorrow.”

Finally, having eaten her fill of the delicious food, drunk all the clear, cold, slightly bitter watered wine
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she felt she could hold, and even sampled the ice cream made from whale milk, Mimi began to yawn uncontrollably. The feast
broke up and the children were taken to the homes of the people who would shelter them for the night.

Mimi followed Xnasos and Xnasha to a stone house just off the square. The furnishings were beautifully carved from ivory and dark wood. Xnasha took her to a bedroom on the upper floor. They walked along a hallway, passing other rooms that looked as though they hadn't been used in years, dust thick on the floor. Xnasha took her into a room with a balcony that looked out over the square where the people of Atlantis were busy cleaning up after the celebration. A bed was set out for her on the balcony, and a small table held a basin of hot water for washing. Xnasha bid Mimi good night.