Gates of Neptune (6 page)

Sarah noticed that, at this last statement, Jere suddenly turned her head away and stared out the window, so that none could see her face.

Deneor went on to speak for several minutes about his loss of Aramis. Sarah found herself curious about this man who had risen so high and yet had led a revolt against the very people who seemed to love him the most.

The king suddenly asked point blank, “Lord Deneor, I ask you, can the kingdom survive? Can we hold off the forces of Aramis?”

Lord Deneor lifted his head, and tears glistened in his eyes. “Your Majesty, I must in all honesty tell you that the only way we can survive is if some kind of miracle takes place.”

A hush came over the room, and Deneor let it run on for several moments. Then he said, “I must tell you this, for I would not raise false hopes. Many of our best sailors have joined in the revolt with Aramis. He is a mariner beyond compare, as you all know. Brave beyond any of the men that followed him, strong, and above all a strategist and a sailor of utmost ability. When he leads his navy here against us, we will do our best, but we are weak, and he is strong.”

For almost an hour the talk went back and forth across the table, as the Sleepers listened, saying nothing.
It was obvious that Aramis, who had been the Lord High Admiral, was high in the favor of the king and queen—and Jere as well, Sarah saw. He had been the pride of the royal kingdom, and somehow he had fallen.

Lord Deneor explained his plans for defending the kingdom, and they sounded weak, even to Sarah.

Finally, Womar rose again. “Let us hear from the Sleepers.”

At first, none of the Sleepers responded, and then Dave dug his elbow into Josh's ribs. “Get up, Josh. It's up to you.”

* * *

Feeling very weak, Joshua Adams stood before the elders of Atlantis, the king, the queen, and the princess. He had no idea what to say and finally began by confessing, “Of all those qualified to speak, surely I would be the last. We are all mere youths. We have been brought to this world from an older world that is now gone. All we know is that we are the servants of Goel, and we have been told, according to many legends and many old songs, that when the Seven Sleepers awake, the House of Goel will be filled.”

“Yes, yes,” Womar said. “We have all heard the songs. That is why we have brought you here—or rather, shall I say, Goel has brought you here. Can you tell us, have you any idea of how we can meet this critical hour?”

Josh hesitated, then asked, “Before I answer, may I ask one question?”

“Of course,” the king said at once. “What is it, my boy?”

“Well, from all I hear, Aramis was a man of great ability, and no man could have gained the confidence of the elders and of Your Majesties unless he had good qualities.”
He paused again. “How could such a man revolt against his king and his country?”

Queen Mab answered, “Only through the powers of the Dark Lord could such a thing happen. We do not know what came to pass—all we know is that something happened to Aramis. He is no longer the child or the young man or the strong warrior that we knew and loved. He has become our enemy, and it can only be because the Dark Lord has in some way used his forces to cloud the mind of our former admiral.”

Joshua nodded, understanding. “We have seen what Elmas, the Chief Interrogator, can do with minds. As a matter of fact, he has used his power on us. Now as to your question, I must say, Your Majesty, and to the council, we have no notion of why we have been brought here.”

Silence fell, and everyone looked glum. Then Joshua raised his voice. “But Goel has never failed. He has used the men and beasts of Nuworld to save us. And I, for one, believe that he has saved us for a purpose. So I say to the Council and to you, Your Majesties, that the Seven Sleepers are here, and now there is no choice but to wait for Goel to speak.”

The king slammed his fist on the arm of his throne. “Well spoken, young man.” His face appeared noble and his eyes clear as he looked at the Sleepers. “We will hold our honor dear—and wait for Goel to speak.”

T
he next day, very early, all seven young people were awakened at what seemed an inordinately early hour. Valar herded them down the corridor to the mess hall, where they were seated at a long table.

At once, servants brought in food, and Valar sat down across from Sarah with a grin. “I would advise you to eat heartily. You have a hard day in front of you.”

“A hard day?” Josh demanded, glaring. “What sort of day are you talking about?”

“Why, the Council and His Royal Majesty have commanded that you be trained in the skills and arts of Atlantis.”

“We've done fine by ourselves so far,” Josh snapped. He looked at the plate that had been put in front of him. The food smelled delicious, but he said churlishly, “I never eat much breakfast, and I think we've done fine alone!”

Valar stared at Josh. A smile played around his lips, and he winked at Sarah. “Yes, I'm sure you have. Sarah's told me about some of your adventures, but you will have to admit that our country is different from anything you have ever known. I understand that some of you cannot even swim.” There was wonder in his voice. “We'll remedy that first.”

Wash had been stuffing food into his mouth, but at these words he looked up and said, “But Mr. Valar, I can't swim a lick. Never could. And I'm afraid of water.”

Valar laughed, his white teeth flashing, and he looked very sure of himself. “Don't worry about that. I'm a good teacher. All of you will learn to swim. It's not like it is on
the surface, I assure you. And there will be some other things that will be—oh, a little more difficult.”

The Sleepers did eat heartily—though some of the items were not even recognizable—and for the next hour, while they waited for breakfast to settle, Valar gave them a tour of the defenses of the city.

As they walked along the parapets, he waved at the windows. “Now these are all sealed, of course. There are only four entrances into the castle itself, and these are heavily guarded. But if the enemy throws all of his force against them …” He shrugged, and doubt came into his eyes. Tm not sure that we will be able to hold out.”

He led them down to a room that had an air lock and fitted them out again with the clear plastic diving suits that they had worn before.

“You've already become accustomed to these. But before, you were doing nothing but riding. This time you'll be doing the swimming.” He glanced over at Wash and at Abbey, who looked very frightened, and said, “Don't worry. We'll have plenty of help. There's nothing that can happen to you.”

Valar assisted them in adjusting their suits and explained how the compressed air worked. If one chamber failed, there were four others, and they had plenty of air for more than eight hours outside the city itself.

“Besides,” he said, “you won't feel the pressure of the water because the oxygen inside pumps up your suit. You won't even know you're deep down under the ocean.” He explained again the use of the radios. “All right, we're ready to try it. Now this is what makes all the difference.” He reached into the equipment box and pulled out a pair of flippers. “You've all seen these, I suppose?”

“Yes, I have,” Dave said. “I went snorkeling once off the coast of Belize, in the reefs. That's what we used, all right.”

“I don't know about Belize, but you can certainly use them in Atlantis.” Valar looked at Wash, picked up a pair of the smaller flippers, and said, “Put these on, young fellow, and I'll show you how simple it is. Suppose we let you go first while the others watch.”

Valar—Josh was sure—had picked the weakest member of the team, knowing that if he could teach Wash, then they all could learn.

Wash slipped on the huge black fins and looked down at them. “I look like a frog.”

Valar laughed. “Well, you'll be about as awkward as a frog on dry land. These things are hard to walk with. Come on, and I'll give you a lesson.” He reached down and assisted Wash to his feet, and Wash stumbled across the room towards the water in the exchange tank.

“Now,” Valar said, as Wash stood up to his waist in water, “I'll come with you, and the rest of you can watch through the ports. You see, Wash,” he said, “you don't even use your arms to swim. All you do is kick your feet, and you'll be surprised how you go right along, just like a fish. Don't be afraid.”

Wash did look afraid, but there was determination in his bright eyes too. “I'll try. If I get drowned,” he said with a faint grin, “I don't guess I can drown but once.”

Valar laughed again. “You won't drown. Just kick your feet. To turn right, kick your left foot. To turn left, kick your right foot. Come along, now.” He fastened their helmets, led the small black boy farther into the tank, and they both ducked under.

As Josh looked through the window, he saw at once that Valar was staying right beside Wash.

“Look,” Reb yelled out. “He's got it already! He's swimming like a fish!”

And sure enough, Wash was. For the next fifteen minutes, Valar led him through various maneuvers. Once
he brought him up to the porthole, so that Wash could look inside and see his friends smiling out at him. He grinned broadly and motioned for them to come on out and join him.

Soon Valar had led them all out of the air tank, and they were swimming along smoothly underwater. Sarah said later that she knew fear for a moment as the green water closed about her, but in five minutes she found that it was the most delightful experience of her life. She had no trouble at all breathing, and the water was so clear she could see for many feet. As for movement, it was the easiest thing she had ever done. She clamped her hands to her side as Valar taught her, kicked her feet, and went along as smoothly as any fish.

For the next hour, they trained themselves on how to make turns, how to go up, and how to go down. Finally, Valar said, “All right, that's enough for one session. We'll go out again later.”

When they were inside, Reb said, “Shoot, that was more fun than riding a bronco. I wish I'd of knowed all this time I was a good swimmer. I'd of had more fun at it.”

Valar smiled. “You'll be a little sore after a while. You're using some muscles you don't ordinarily use, but you'll grow strong quickly.”

This proved to be the case. They were all sore the next morning, but by the time they had trained four days, they had worked the soreness out, and all had become adept at the rudiments of swimming.

Valar was pleased and said so. “You've done very well. Now we get down to more serious matters.”

He led them to a room that was lined with lockers. In each was one of the strange-looking spear guns that Josh had seen the mariner guards carry.

“This is what you'll use as your primary weapon,” Valar said. He pulled down one gun and a quiver of arrows.
Basically, the gun looked much like a rifle, except that it was made of some very lightweight metal.

“Really, it's very simple. You put your spear in like this—” Valar demonstrated carefully, sliding a spear with a three-foot shaft into the chamber made for it “—then you put your weapon off safety.” He raised the spear gun and aimed it at a wooden, rounded figure down the hall. “Then you pull the trigger.”

Zing.
There was a hiss of air, and when Josh looked, he saw the spear quivering in the wood figure.

“If that had been an enemy, he'd be dead,” Valar said in an offhand fashion. “We'll practice in here, loading and unloading. That really is the hardest part. Actually, all you do is point your spear gun at the enemy and pull the trigger.”

For the next two days, they trained as hard as they could, learning the use of the spear guns. Josh discovered that there were different types of spears and that the best mariners carried some of each. There was the armor-piercing spear, which had a tough tip on it, very sharp and keen enough to pierce the hide of a hammerhead shark. There was another that had a strange-looking lump at the tip.

“That's compressed air in there,” Valar informed them. “The spear passes through the fish, usually a big one, and instantly the compressed air explodes, forcing the end of the spear out into jagged shreds that'll cause concussion and instant death.”

Jake picked up one of the compressed-air spears and looked at it carefully. “I wouldn't want a thing like that stuck in me,” he said.

Valar smiled. “No, but sometimes we have to protect ourselves and our country by using such weapons.”

That night the Sleepers had supper with the king and
the queen and Princess Jere. The elders were not there— only Valar.

“And how are our young friends doing, Valar?” King Cosmos asked.

“Oh, very well, Your Majesty. They've taken to swimming like native Atlantians.”

“I'm so glad to hear that.” Queen Mab had a sweet smile, but there was a sadness about her that was never quite gone. “But I hate to think about them being subjected to war—so awful.”

Cosmos leaned over and patted her hand. “I know, but it must be done, my dear.”

Valar said suddenly, “Tomorrow, you'll have a rather unusual day.”

Sarah asked at once, “What is it, Valar? Tell us.”

Valar shook his head and smiled mysteriously. “You'll find out soon enough.”

The next day, they did find out soon enough, for Valar took them to a different air lock. “This lock,” he explained, “is where we keep your mounts.”

“Mounts? What kind of mounts?” Reb asked with keen interest. “More porpoises?”

“No—” Valar smiled strangely “—a little bit more active than that.” He took them over to a chamber and pointed to a porthole. “They're out there in what you might call a corral, I guess, Reb, from what you've told me.”

Josh and the other Sleepers crowded to look through the glass, and when they did, Sarah gasped. “But… but Valar … those are
sharks!”