Photo courtesy of Christopher Grant

An excerpt from my novel ATLANTIS:

Atar kisses Miria’s hand, and walks to the edge of the cliff. The billowing fog parts, revealing the pyramid shaped tip of a tall, lean, structure, nearly on level with the temple mount.


“Atar?”

“Yes?”

“Remember what I said… about the crystals - they trust you.”

Atar nods, then steps off the cliff and onto a steep path. He winds down the hillside, picking up speed along the way, and enjoying the moist air on his face. He stops suddenly, when a great gust of wind rolls up the hillside, cutting the fog, and offering glimpses of Poseidia, the City of Golden Rings, laid out below, and surrounded by the sea.

“One, two, three, four, five….” he whispers, counting the alternating rings of land and water that make up the city - a habit he had begun as a boy that he could never bring himself to break. “Nine, ten, eleven, twelve... twelve, plus the center, makes thirteen. Just as it should be.”

Atar continues down the hillside. Along the way, to the east, he counts seven islands in Lemur Island chain, then to the west, the remains of thirteen great stone dolphins that encircle the warm waters of Dolphin Cove. He turns back to glance up at the Temple of the Goddess, sitting peacefully on a bluff, the greater Mt. Poseidia towering overhead, its tallest peak, capped with snow.

Finally, the fog clears, and the rest of the pyramid tipped structure comes into view, rising like a beacon out of the center of the city, its true identity concealed behind a protective cloth cover that billows in the wind. Atar feels a twinge of anxiety, when he sees waves of people pouring into the Central Plaza, and toward the mysterious building.

Beneath his feet, the rugged trail turns into a manicured, stone path, then it levels off, and he steps onto a moving walkway that carries him seamlessly through the city.