Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

inborn arrogance, as though he owns the world. This man may sport his hair in a braid, but that shuffling walk cannot belong to Lord Justice.”
    Alaric, never looking away from the view, replied quietly. “And yet you yourself walked in just such a manner when you were healing from what Anubisa did to you. Near-fatal injuries can stamp out even the most determined arrogance.”
    Unable to form a coherent response to Alaric‟s truth, Alexios clenched his jaw and considered their options. As they watched, the figures trudged closer and closer to the shimmering distortion of the window. “Well, don‟t you always tell us that the simplest solution is usually correct?” he finally managed.
    “Occam may have a prior claim on that teaching, but yes,” Alaric answered. “Your point?”
    “My point is that we haven‟t even tried to get through this yet. Maybe it‟s as simple as walking right through.”
    “Sure. Because there‟s no chance this could be a trap, right?” Christophe said, rolling his eyes.
    “No chance that this could be a „fry the Atlanteans‟ game on Anubisa‟s part.”
    “The female— Tiernan —is correct. If this is a view onto the Void, it cannot be entered without death magic. I have no desire for my own death to become the platform for that entry, by way of touching one of Anubisa‟s constructs,” Alaric said.
    Alexios was tempted, in spite of the fact that he had never known the priest to be wrong.
    Justice was more than friend, more than brother.
    They were the Warriors of Poseidon, and they did not leave a man behind .
    Alexios had spent much of the past months, while ceaselessly searching for Justice, considering what the long centuries of silence must have cost the warrior. What breaking the geas must‟ve done to erode his mind.
    What Anubisa had done to further torment him. The shields Alexios had erected in his own mind to block those memories wavered, and he clenched his hands into fists as he built his shields back into impenetrable walls. “I will make the attempt, Alaric. I will test this barrier.”
    Before Alaric could stop him, Alexios placed a hand flat against the wavering surface of the window. An enormously powerful energy spike slammed into him, knocking him back nearly a dozen feet. As he lay on the ground, blinking, he noticed the smoke before he saw its origin.
    Stunned and speechless, with the air smashed out of his lungs, Alexios held up that same hand that had touched the barrier. The nerve endings screamed in pain as though he held his hand inside the hottest fires of the deepest of the nine hells. Yet the only residual damage was blackened fingertips and smoking fingernails. Still, though, the smell of smoke grew stronger.
    “Fool,” snarled Alaric. “Must I talk to you as though you were the rawest of untrained warriors?” The priest raised a hand, and then sliced it through the air toward Alexios, as though throwing an object. Instead, a stream of icy water arrowed through the air and slapped Alexios in the face, drenching his head.
    He leapt up off the ground, spluttering and wiping water out of his face. “What was that for?”
    Christophe started laughing. “Your hair was on fire, man. Alaric probably didn‟t want you to scar the other side of your pretty face, too.”
    Alexios almost involuntarily ducked his head, so his sodden hair swung forward to cover the hideously scarred left side of his face. “Someday you‟ll go too far, Christophe,” he snarled.
    “Then I will be the one to teach you a lesson.”
    Tiernan, whom he‟d almost forgotten, cleared her throat. “Um, not to break up your frat-boy testosterone party, but your friend is getting closer. If he is still your friend, after spending time in the Void. And, what exactly is that thing walking behind him?”
    Alexios ran back to the dark shimmer of a window and saw what had become painfully clear over the space of the past few moments. “That is Justice!” he shouted.
    A prickling feeling on Alexios‟s neck was his only warning before High Prince Conlan and his brother, Lord Vengeance, shouldered their way to the window. Tension practically vibrated from the pair of them as they caught their first sight of Justice. The warrior who had claimed to be their brother immediately before he‟d sacrificed himself to the vampire goddess.
    Justice had saved Ven‟s life, and the life of the gem singer Erin Connors, who was Ven‟s chosen and a healer. By doing so, he‟d also saved