“Go,” Pri Tor ordered, and the priestesses made their way down the stairs, then scattered to the twelve positions on the walls that Pri Tor had chosen as a result of the vision she had been given. Meanwhile, Pri Tor took a dark red cloth from her pocket and draped it over her shoulders. It had runic writing on it, a gift from the Ones Before, one of the few substantial things received via a gate, the name given by the Ones Before for the darkness. As near as Pri Tor could tell both the Shadow and the Ones Before used the gates, although no human had ever entered one and come back to tell of it, and no representative of either side had ever come out of the darkness of a gate into light.
Pri Tor walked to the slab and climbed onto it, standing tall, where she could see all of the capital of Atlantis spread out around her. She saw the chosen thousand on the walls. Would they be enough? she wondered briefly, and then dismissed the doubt. It was one of many decisions she’d had to make in the past week as the inevitable drew near. They had to be enough. The plan she’d “heard” from the Ones Before had indicated a thousand should be sufficient and she had to trust in it.
Her eyes were drawn to a long, slim ship tied at the nearest dock. It was a hundred meters long by five wide. The hull was of black metal, open to the sky with no docking. A single thin mast of the same black metal poked into the sky, almost twenty meters high. In the rear was a raised platform on which rested a black box two meters cubed. There were rows of seats inside, manned by sailors. In the prow of the ship was a golden sphere about a meter in diameter. The surface of the sphere writhed and moved, each strand pulsing as if alive.
The ship was a gift from the Ones Before. It had come out of the darkness with no one on board two days ago and been brought to shore by Atlantean sailors from a nearby warship. The warship had been waiting in the correct spot; because Pri Tor had had a vision, telling her what was going to happen. She had also had a vision as to what was to be done with the ship and that which was onboard it. The metal tube had been on the ship, and she knew it needed to stay with it.
Pri Tor saw her daughter on the dock, then cross the gangplank onto the ship. The ship immediately began moving, although there was no apparent propulsion system. As it cleared the harbor, the ship paused. As she had been instructed by her mother. Pri Ker placed her hands on the golden sphere. A black hole opened in front of the ship, and the prow entered the gate.
I love you. Pri Tor used her mind to send the message to the ship, and she “felt” the message returned by her daughter, Pri Tor saw several dolphin fins appear near the prow of the ship and she felt some relief that their brethren of the sea were escorting it as it disappeared into the gate. As soon as the stern of the ship was through, the gate snapped out of existence. Where her daughter was now, Pri Tor had no clue. The vision had only shown her this far. But she had to trust that the Ones Before would take care of her daughter.
Pri Tor raised her gaze beyond. The Shadow was closer. Pri Tor looked at the fortress walls. The thousand warriors were ready. At the twelve designated points along the walls her priestesses stood.
Pri Tor felt a tremble come up out of the ground. The earth itself was unsteady, a result of the Shadow’s power. Several islands to the south, where colonies had taken root, had disappeared over the past several years due to disturbances in the earth.
She signaled and the two warriors came up the stairs and joined her.
“Be ready,” Pri Tor ordered. One of the warriors put the spearhead into a slit next to the slab. His steady hand rested on the snakeheads.
Then Pri Tor lay down, her body fitting into the outline. She felt more tremors. High above, all she could see was blue sky. A single seagull flew overhead. She felt a tremendous wave of sadness knowing this was her last day. There would be no more beautiful dawns and wondrous sunsets. No more playing in the warm surf with her daughter. The simple joys and the pains of life were all to be ended, and she didn’t understand why. Why was the Shadow doing this? She didn’t even know who or what the Shadow was or who or what the Ones Before who had aided them were. The only contact with either had been through the gates. Among the Defenders, there had been much discussion, both about why they had been chosen and who had done the choosing. Were the Ones Before gods? Was the Shadow a demon force? Were humans’ just pawns in a battle between heaven and hell?
“How close?” she called out.
“Just about to touch the walls,” the warrior informed her.
She could feel the sheer evil of the darkness that approached. Of that, there was no doubt. Theological questioning and reasoning aside, there was the reality of the threat that had proven itself again and again over the past decade.
“At the walls,” the warrior announced. He was the father of Pri Ker, a brave man, and one who heard the whispers of the Ones Before, not anywhere near as loudly as a Defender, but enough to let Pri Tor know he had something of the sight and make her decide to mate with him. She briefly wondered how powerful their daughter’s sight and voice would be.
Pri Tor could hear the screams of the warriors as the darkness slid over them and they encountered what was inside. She closed her eyes. She “felt” the wave of bravery mixed he closed her eyes. She “felt” the wave of bravery mixed the despair from the warriors. It was a bolt of high-power energy into the right side of her brain.
With great effort, Pri Tor lifted her head and looked toward e walls. Darkness had encompassed the southwest part of it ‘St, but she could see the two priestesses who had been overrun as deep blue silhouettes in the blackness, a beacon of positive power. Their skulls were absorbing the same thing her mind was feeling, the raw power of the warriors’ emotion, and e energy was pouring through them to the pyramid.
A third and fourth Defender fell into the darkness. Bolts of blue flickered from the four now covered out to the others arranged around the wall, but mostly to the pyramid.
Pri Tor felt the power in her head building, almost unbearable. ‘Now,” she ordered.
The warrior turned his spear.
The pyramid began to vibrate. A blue glow suffused the.lab and Pri Tor’s body. Energy from the outlying Defenders came toward her, adding to the power. Her mouth opened in a silent scream. The skin on her face began rippling as if there were something alive beneath it. Then her flesh began peeling way as her eyes turned into two blue glowing orbs.
The darkness was closer now on all sides. Seven of the twelve Defenders were covered, sucking in power from the doomed warriors’ minds. Pri Tor had a moment of clarity when she realized what was happening-the absolute desperation of the warriors, combined with their bravery in the face of it, was tapping something primeval and very powerful, and the nearby Defenders were able to channel it to her.
Still the Shadow closed in.
Deep inside Pri Tor, she felt the darkness slide over the top of the pyramid and her body. She was still alive, her head the focal point of the twelve skulls-the skulls of twelve priestesses, the twelve Defenders, who had already given their all in the battle against the Shadow.
Her body felt faint and far away. She distantly heard the warrior shout something and then scream in agony. More power flowed in. All the Defenders were active now.
Bolts of blue shot out of Pri Tor’s head into the encompassing darkness.
Again and again, blue lightning seared off the top of the pyramid into the darkness. The consistency of the darkness began to change. Swirls of blue mixing with the black. The blue and black spun about the top of the pyramid.
Pri Tor’s head was now a clear crystal, suffused with blue. The power from the twelve Defenders still poured into the pyramid, their heads also crystallized now, still channeling the raw emotion from the dying warriors.