Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

finest emerald, shading into nearly a dark teal beyond them.
    Beyond that? Wondrous. Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole amazing. They stood on a worn, circular marble platform near the edge of the very same dome she‟d seen in her vision.
    Only deepest blue beyond the dome. A touch of claustrophobia strangled her for a moment, her scientific mind calculating the water pressure per square inch that must be pressing against that dome.
    Thickly leaved trees clustered in small groves near the edge of the clearing and, in the distance, she could make out the tops of the same elegant domes and delicate spires she‟d seen in her vision.
    In spite of her deliberately measured breathing, her lungs hiccupped out her next breath.
    Atlantis.
    It really was Atlantis.
    Or at least someplace like none she‟d ever been or imagined. Unbelievable. Even the scent of it was different. Exotic. Delicate floral hints overlay deep, lush greenery. Flora and fauna as imagined by ancient hedonism.
    Except it was real.
    Liam now held what looked like ancient daggers in his hands, although she had no idea where they‟d come from. Hidden in his clothes, probably. It‟s not like the portal had been armed with a metal detector. Fascinated, she took another look at the daggers. The intricate scrollwork on the hilts dated from probably—Focus, idiot. Now is not the time to try to place ancient weaponry, when a whole lot of the same is drawn and pointed at me by men who look like they know how to use it .
    After Liam, she should have been prepared, but what could have prepared her for this? Five towering men, each one of them more gorgeous—more menacing—than the one next to him.
    Plus the requisite damsel in distress standing behind them.
    “It‟s like I‟ve wandered onto a film set,” she ventured out loud, hoping to defuse the tension so evident in the air. “Which one of you is riding to the rescue of the hapless maiden?”
    She forced a slight smile and indicated the bruised woman with a nod of her head, as though it were an everyday occurrence for her to find heavily armed men surrounding a half-naked woman. A woman who‟d clearly been beaten or else had been in a seriously bad car accident.
    While wearing a sheet.
    Yeah, lots of women head out for a drive wearing nothing but a sheet. A drive in, let‟s not forget, Atlantis .
    Did they even have cars? Before she could scan the area for any evidence of Atlantean transportation, the sheet-wearing woman snorted, her mouth quirking up into a half smile.
    “Tiernan Butler, not hapless, definitely not maiden,” she said, with too much dry humor to be a victim. Something else, then.
    Keely‟s tension lessened slightly, and she smiled in return. “Keely McDermott, lately of Ohio State. Go, Buckeyes, anyone?”
    Years of anthropological studies, which complemented her archaeology, had shaped Keely into an astute student of body language. A certain nearly unnoticeable lessening of the tension in the men‟s stances signaled that maybe, just maybe, she wasn‟t about to get skewered on the point of one of those swords.
    One of the men stepped forward. He was as tall as Liam, well over six feet, and had the same silken black hair. This man had the unmistakable bearing of command, however, and the aristocratic facial features to match. A general or leader of some sort. He was clearly as beautiful and as deadly as the weapons he carried and, although modestly dressed in a deep blue shirt and black pants, he may as well have been wearing king‟s robes or an admiral‟s uniform.
    “I am Conlan, high prince of Atlantis,” he said, and she felt the small warmth of expectations met flare inside her. “I bid you welcome, Dr. McDermott. As you may have surmised from our . . . appearance, we find ourselves unprepared for guests.” His deep voice was courteous and surprisingly unruffled, as if he hung out with his friends, fully armed, all the time.
    Which, for all she knew, he did.
    Before she could speak, Prince Conlan turned his attention to Liam, dismissing her. “Please take Dr. McDermott and Ms. Butler to the palace.”
    A second man, who looked a heck of a lot like the prince, stepped forward, shaking his head.
    “Better if Liam stays. Depending on what‟s lurking in the Void to follow Justice, we may need another set of blades.”
    Liam bowed to them both. “Prince Conlan and Lord Vengeance, I am honored to serve as you wish, of course. However, you should know that Dr. McDermott saw