She climbed down and then up the base of the sarcophagus a number of times. “Any changes?”
“Nothing,” he replied.
“There must have been something,” she said, and then saw it. Along the base of the cradle for the missing scepter, stood a small wheel, with a number of jagged edges, giving it the appearance of the cog on a bicycle. She counted the edges. There were thirteen in total. She gave it the slightest of turns, and the largest of the twelve stone spikes now pointed in another direction. “Anything?”
“Yes, what the hell did you do?”
“Not much. I just rotated this stone dial. Why, what do you see?”
“It appears to be a giant cave. There are markings on the walls, but nothing that means anything to me.”
“Interesting,” she said, turning the dial again, “and now?”
“Another tomb.”
“The first one we saw?”
“No, this one seems smaller. And the markings are different.”
Suddenly, she no longer saw the wall of the sarcophagus as a number of indiscriminate pictographs, from seemingly random places and cultures throughout history. Now, it appeared as though it were a map, with the power to see different parts of the world.
She quickly examined the other images on the wall. There was a petroglyph of the Congo River, the pyramid of Giza, and a Siberian rune with an inscription.
Rotating the stone again, she asked, “What do you see?”
“Another room. Only this one is definitely bigger. It appears to be the final resting chamber of three separate kings.”
Her eyes then spotted a pair of Atlantean rings and bar.
She turned the dial again so that the stone spike and the image perfectly aligned. “What about now?”
“You’re not going to believe this,” Tom said.
“Try me.”
“It appears to be the remains of a ruined city… and the city is submerged. The water is clear, and appears shallow, the sunlight from above sprinkling through, as though from the ripples of the waves on the surface. There are structures in the distance and they’re covered in —”
“An orange metallic material,” Billie finished the sentence for him.
“Yeah, how’d you guess?”
“Because I just pointed the dial towards Atlantis.”
Billie took a step back and then ran at the sarcophagus. With two nimble paces, she was standing on top of it and said, “I have to see it!”
“See what?” Tom asked.
“Atlantis!” she screamed.
“I thought you weren’t interested in Atlantis?”
“No, I said that I wasn’t searching for it, which is very different than not wanting to see it when it literally appears before you.”
She moved closer towards Tom, trying to get as close to the looking glass as possible. On the tips of her toes, her hand gripped his for balance. She felt his other arm instinctively wrap behind her.
Closing her left eye so that she could focus on the looking glass, she saw the little blue light. At first it was opaque, but then her eyes began to make sense of the turbid vision on the other side.
A ruined city appeared.
It was submerged by water, and appeared close to the surface, as though it had remained hidden all these years in no more than thirty or forty feet. Glimmerings of light from the ripples of the ocean above could still be seen. And on the walls of the remaining structures, an orange metal.
“My God — it is Atlantis!” Billie said, and then, kissed him on his lips.
“What was that?” he replied, an attractive smile, bordering on absent confusion, radiating fondly.
She was still holding on to him and noticeably let go before explaining, “See this orange material?”
“Yes… it looks kind of like bronze and copper.”
“Only it’s not. It’s Orichalcum!”
“What the hell’s that?”
“Orichalcum is a kind of fabled metal, described in a number of very old writings, most notably, the Critias Dialogue recorded by Plato. Orichalcum was considered second only to gold in value, and only ever found and mined in Atlantis. A vibrant orange in color, it was thought to be an alloy, containing a unique combination of gold, copper, zinc, iron and lead, with gold the highest percentage.”
She saw the pupils in Tom’s beautiful hazel eyes swell.
Few, she noticed, were immune to the allure of Atlantis. “If it was an alloy, can’t people simply mimic it?”
“No. What made Orichalcum so unique was that it wasn’t a manmade alloy, at all. Instead, it was a naturally occurring ore, which was mined. Despite knowing the mix, the alloy can’t seem to be reproduced, artificially. One theory is that volcanic activity molded the combination of raw materials into the unique alloy. This, in turn, has led many archeologists to search for Atlantis where ancient volcanoes are now submerged. But there has never been any real proof that it or Atlantis even existed — until now.”
Tom stared at her perfect face.
It was only for a couple seconds, but maybe, just too long. Billie, he decided, had the rare combination of an almost demure smile, perfect teeth, and brown captivating eyes. Right now, those eyes sparkled with excitement, making her even more attractive, if that were possible.
How such a face could harbor an intelligent mind yet explode with such offensive language simply baffled him. Nonetheless, he would have paid a very high price to kiss those lips again.
“Do you understand what this means?” Billie asked, stepping back. Tom reluctantly let go of her firm back.
“Hmm…That you’ll forgive Sam for dragging you away from Antarctica?”
“Yes. Wait, no. I’m still pissed as all hell about that. This means we just discovered something that’s been lost for more than two thousand years!”
Tom noted that she made no reference to the kiss. It was an accident, brought on by her excitement, and nothing more. Trying to focus on their discovery instead, he said, “There’s just one problem.”
“What’s that?”
“We still have no idea where that looking glass has been taking us.”
She stopped looking, and looked back at him. “You’re right. But there must be some way to find out. I mean, it isn’t electronic. It’s just some form of translucent crystal. Atlantis must be close.”
“Are you sure?”
For the first time since he met her, Billie looked uncomfortable, as though there were a crack in her certainty. “Yes, of course. Why?”
“Because you told me that the map below showed images from Siberia through to Africa. Which means, apart from now seeing the image of that ruined city, we’re no closer to discovering it than the rest of the world in the past two thousand years.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she said.
“How so?”
“Because we know that it’s real.”
The two spent the rest of the day exploring the thirteen ancient visions through the looking glass. Billie thought she must understand what Alice felt like when fell down the rabbit hole. Her entire world had changed in the space of a few hours. She had just about given up finding any more leads on the Master Builders, and was ready to return to the surface, when the discovery of the looking glass occurred.
It wasn’t until well past midnight that she finally went to bed. Unable to sleep, her mind kept returning to the events of the day.
The discovery would change everything.
She had hoped it would be there too, but despite looking throughout the entire map, there was no evidence of what she’d really been looking for.
The Lost City in the Clouds
Billie had been looking for it since she was just six years old. Ever since her grandfather first introduced her to the myth, but like him, she knew that it was real. One day she’d find it, but this tomb wasn’t going to provide that answer.