Royal Heiress (20 page)

“I can’t imagine many Earth men being
satisfied with that arrangement,” he said. “Men on this planet like
to be the leaders. They don’t relish the idea of serving a woman.
Though, not many women like the idea of serving a man either. So I
guess it balances itself out.”

“My dad says that service to the queen is not
a chore but a labor of love.”

“I suppose that is what makes a good marriage
then. You can do something for the other person, and it comes from
the heart.”

“Exactly. That is how it should be.”

“You are close to your dad.”

She nodded. “Yes. My sister is closer to my
mother. My brother pretty much fits in with them equally.” She took
a deep breath, her heart pounding as she asked the question that
would test her theory. “Would you find it demeaning to serve a
woman?”

He thought her question over before
answering. “Not if she was the right kind of woman. Infers spend
their lives serving the leaders, so service is almost second nature
to me. Love is the crucial ingredient, as you already pointed out.
There’s nothing worse than being married and finding out your
spouse doesn’t love you. So when you choose the king, make sure you
love him and he loves you.”

When they arrived at Cerebus’ lair, she
cringed at the sight of the three-headed dog. She had seen pictures
of him, but he was imposing in real life.

“I remember him well,” Pallid whispered to
her.

Cerebus growled at him.

“I see he remembers me too,” he dryly
added.

“Cerebus, we need to get my sister,
Katherine, and her friend, Jake, out of here,” Amanda informed the
dog. “We have crucial business to tend to.”

The dog seemed to consider her statement.

She sighed in frustration. It wasn’t as if
she could tell the beast she was on a mission as the Queen of Raz.
She didn’t even exist in this time period.

“Let her pass,” the old man told the dog.

Cerebus immediately backed away, his posture
no longer threatening.

“Thank you,” she told the old man, glad for
his interruption.

“You, however, must stay here,” the old man
told Pallid.

“He’s with me,” Amanda said. “We need to go
see my sister, Katherine, and her friend, Jake.”

“I have dealt with this Infer before,” the
old man began, “but I will allow him to come because of you.”

Amanda wondered at the old man’s hesitation
to allow Pallid passage through the Underworld. She glanced at
Pallid for any clues, but his face was expressionless. She sighed
and obediently followed the old man into the boat. Pallid sat
beside her, his cane firmly in hand. She sensed his unease. She
shifted uncomfortably in the boat, too aware of how close he sat
next to her, their arms slightly touching each other.

“Your sister,” the old man said. “You said
her name is Katherine?”

“Yes,” she answered, glad for the
distraction.

“Katherine has been a blessing to us down
here. We will miss her, but we know she is due to return to the
world above ground.”

“She’s been a blessing?” Amanda asked.

“She brought laughter to this place. What was
once a world of misery and despair has become a place of joy.
Persephone is the one who made it work, but Katherine was the one
who gave her the ideas of what to do to make this a better place to
live.”

Amanda didn’t know what to say. She marveled
that her sister could accomplish such a tremendous feat. From what
she had heard of this place, it was nearly impossible to bring
anything good here, yet her sister had done just that. She recalled
that the Great Magician had told Katherine she was meant to do
something great on another planet, and the Augurs insisted
Katherine be the one to accompany her on this mission instead of
Matthew. Perhaps Katherine had come with her for this very
reason.

She took note of her surroundings. The place
was dreary on the surface, but she noted the happiness on people’s
faces as they sat outside their dwellings and talked with each
other. Women and men took care of children. One child in a
wheelchair was playing ball with another child. She even noted that
several men and women seemed to be in the stages of falling in
love. She saw several people planting flowers along the sparse
gardens, which had a couple of trees for food.

“Wow,” Pallid whispered in her ear. “Your
sister was responsible for all of this?”

“Is it that different?”

He shook his head in wonder. “This isn’t
anything like it used to be.”

The old man stopped his boat at a dock in
front of Hades’ mansion. “There is a wedding celebration today, so
Hades and Persephone will be busy entertaining guests.”

“Hades and Persephone just got married?” she
asked, incredulous. She had been used to them being married, so it
was a shock to think it just happened now.

“Another thing Katherine managed to
accomplish.” The old man smiled as he helped her out.

“She was responsible for their marriage?”

“Persephone wanted to marry Hades, but the
misery of this place and her mother’s controlling behavior kept her
from doing so until Katherine solved both problems.”

“Amazing,” Amanda thought aloud, her head
spinning from the revelation. Could it be that Katherine interfered
with the balance of time and was the reason for Hades and
Persephone’s marriage in their future? Amanda had often wondered
why the Olympians often fondly spoke of how Persephone’s presence
in the Underworld brightened things up down there. Now the pieces
of the puzzle were beginning to fit. Time, after all, was a
continuous cycle when someone kept interfering with it. One event
affected another, and one person could make an incredible
difference in the destiny of nations and rulers.

“Are you ready to go?” Pallid asked her.

She blinked. She hadn’t realized he had
already gotten out of the boat. She nodded and quietly walked
beside him as they made their way to the front door of the
mansion.

He knocked on the door.

The servant arrived and greeted them with a
huge smile on her face. “Welcome to Hades’ and Persephone’s home. I
think you will find that it is pleasant to be here. We recently
made some changes, and it has been for the better.”

“Oh, we’re not here to stay,” Amanda replied.
“We came to get Katherine and Jake.”

“The two who made this a wonderful place? It
will be a shame to see them go, but they did tell us they would be
here for a short duration. Please, enter. I will summon them.”

The servant left the room in search of the
two visitors.

“I think my sister’s famous down here,”
Amanda said. “She may not want to come back.”

“Atlantis will sink in three weeks,” Pallid
informed her. “She’ll want to come back.”

She shivered despite the warm atmosphere.
“It’s spooky to know what’s going to happen before it does.”

“Try being able to remember every single
thing that ever happened to you, even the details of dying.”

She glanced at him in surprise. “You
died?”

“Yes. Several times. Of course, this stone in
my cane kept me alive through the experience. Death is not a scary
thing, but coming back can be.”

She wondered how that could be but decided it
was one of those things someone couldn’t explain. It had to be
experienced.

Hades and Persephone followed Katherine and
Jake to the room.

Amanda was so excited to see her sister again
that she hugged her. “I hear that you have done wondrous things
down here,” Amanda said. “Everyone is talking about it.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” Katherine replied.
“Persephone was the one who did the work.”

“She’s very modest,” Hades said, his usual
scowl gone. “Because of her, I have the love of my life and my
domain is a happier place than the one above ground.”

“We owe her a debt of gratitude,” Persephone
agreed. “That is why we would like to send her and her friend away
with these two diamonds.”

Amanda watched as Persephone opened her hands
and showed them the sparkling jewels.

“There are very few of these on Atlantis,”
Hades added. “These were the only ones in my possession, but
Persephone is worth far more than them.”

Amanda sighed at his words. How often she had
longed for the one who would think so highly of her, instead of the
crown she wore.

“I can’t take that,” Katherine declined. “I
appreciate the offer, but just seeing you two together and how this
world has changed is more than enough.”

“I feel the same way,” Jake agreed. “Those
belong with you two.”

Amanda was amazed at their humility. If it
had been her, she would have taken the diamonds.

“If you come through Atlantis again, please
come see us,” Hades requested. “We would like to talk with you and
tell you about the improvements we are making down here.”

“I don’t think we’ll be coming back,”
Katherine replied.

Hades and Persephone looked disappointed.

“We will never forget you two,” Persephone
finally said. “Please, take my special black flowers. I have
created them to be eternal, so they will be with you wherever you
go.”

“We don’t want you to forget us,” Hades said,
grinning.

“That could never happen,” Jake replied.
“This has been an amazing journey. I know I’m better for it.”

Katherine nodded her agreement.

Amanda wondered how much happened here, but
she realized she would never fully know the story. For the first
time, she saw her sister in a whole new light. In this place, her
sister was more respected than she was, and Amanda got a sense of
what her sister must have gone through on Raz, living in her shadow
all those years. It was about time Katherine got the chance to be
first.

“You see, Katherine. You can do some things
better than me,” Amanda said with a wink.

“I’m so glad you’re my sister,” Katherine
told her.

Amanda teared up. “I’m glad you’re my sister,
too.”

They hugged again.

“We better go,” Pallid gently told them. “We
don’t have much time.”

Amanda recalled their mission. “Right.”

Katherine and Jake thanked Hades and
Persephone for their hospitality before they left. As they departed
from the Underworld, it became clear to Amanda that Jake had fallen
in love with her sister, and for once in her life, it was Amanda’s
turn to envy something that Katherine had that she didn’t:
love.

Chapter Nineteen

Present Day

Atlantis

Athena stood at the top of the arc. She
could see that the leaders were slowly losing their energy. Even
Zeus, who had been the pillar of strength for centuries, had left
because he needed to rest for a moment in his old office.

It was getting more and more difficult for
them to fight the Earthlings as their replacements were getting
closer to completion. She wondered how much longer they had left
before they would cease to exist. She also wondered why Queen
Amanda and her friends were taking so long to get back to the
future. She hoped they hadn’t run into any trouble. Just as she was
about to go to the large mirror at the top of the arc to see what
they were up to, they appeared before her.

“Thank goodness you’re here!” she exclaimed,
running over to Queen Amanda. “The replacements will be waking up
very soon. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and Demeter are already in the
process of dying.” She turned to the Infer. “I don’t know how you
managed to elude death all these years, but I’m glad you did. We
need you to stop the maturation process on the clones. What is the
password to override that system?”

“I don’t know,” Pallid said. “When did you
teach the Infers this password?”

“In your advanced lessons,” she told him. “I
discussed the possible backup plans the six leaders established if
Atlantis ever got attacked.”

“Did you actually say the password?”

“I know I did, but I had to encrypt the way I
gave it in case the enemy caught one of you and extracted your
memories. When you go to the location of the replacements, you must
study the panels along the incubators. Each incubator has a
pattern. When you combine the patterns, then you will have your
password. I taught you where to look in each pattern, but my memory
was wiped of the password for security reasons.”

“In case the enemy got a hold of you,” he
said.

She nodded. “We did everything we could to
preserve and protect Atlantis. Perhaps, we did too good of a
job.”

“How much time do we have?”

“Thirty minutes. The others are failing fast.
They won’t last much longer. Once the replacements open their
incubators, the Stone of Immortality will cover them. You see, when
we created them, we thought the original people would already be
dead, so we never worried about the stone transferring its power to
the new leaders.”

“We don’t have much time then.” He glanced at
Amanda, Jake, and Katherine. “Is it safe for us to leave the
building?” Pallid asked Athena.

“Yes and no. We managed to clear the city of
the military personnel, but the machines Zeus, Demeter, Hades,
Poseidon, and Ares were operating are out of control. I would turn
them off, but only their owners know how to do that.”

“Another security measure?” Amanda asked.

Athena nodded. “We thought it was the wisest
thing to do at the time.”

“Where are the others now?”

“In their offices. I’ve been trying to
contact them through my telecommunicator, but only Ares will
respond. My guess is that the others are unconscious. I was ready
to check on them when you arrived.”

“What else do you need besides my finding the
password?” Pallid asked.

“Help with the spaceship and getting everyone
back on it.”

“This place must be destroyed once and for
all,” Amanda said. “Now that I’ve seen its past, this type of
civilization shouldn’t exist. People should be appreciated for who
they are instead of how they look.”