Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

their weapons, identical expressions of shock on their faces. They exchanged a glance she couldn‟t decipher, and then Ven tossed his sword on a table.
    “You‟re here, and you‟re safe,” Ven said fervently. “Thank the gods you‟re both safe.”
    Conlan bowed his head, and Keely saw his lips moving but couldn‟t hear the words. When he looked up, he smiled at Justice. “I, too, thank the gods that you have returned safely from the Void, my brother. And my apologies, Dr. McDermott. Are you well?” He sheathed his daggers and took a step toward her, and Justice‟s growl ratcheted up a notch to an actual snarl.
    “I‟m not hurt,” she said. “Although I wouldn‟t turn down a hot meal and a bath. But we need to talk first. Justice is having a hard time, as you can see. I don‟t really understand it entirely but he had to make a deal with the Nereid half of himself in order to figure out this matter transference thing that allowed him to transport us here.”
    “From where? Where did you go?” Conlan ran a hand through his hair in a gesture of pure frustration. “We cannot begin to tell you how sorry we are for this. Certainly we did not mean for your visit to Atlantis to be marked by kidnapping. Are you sure you are unharmed?”
    Keely noticed that Ven never took his eyes off Justice. Ven‟s pale face and tightly clenched jaw told her that he carried his own load of guilt over his brother‟s sacrifice to Anubisa.
    Beside her, the growling noise abruptly shut off. “Are you so unconcerned for my welfare, Brother?” Justice asked, mockery in his roughened voice. “After four long months in the Void, do you not query after me?”
    Keely saw the anguish that shadowed Conlan‟s face. He took a step forward, toward his brother, but Justice backed away, pulling her with him. “Forget it,” he sneered. “We are unimpressed by your efforts on our behalf. We spent far too long as captive of the vampire goddess, but you know something about that, don‟t you, Conlan? She seems to have a preference for Atlantean princes, doesn‟t she? Even when one of them is the unwanted bastard who was never acknowledged by his own family.”
    “We never knew,” Ven said through gritted teeth. “We never knew. Damnit, Justice, don‟t you know us better than that after hundreds of years fighting side by side? I‟ve called you brother even not knowing about the blood tie. Could you possibly think that, knowing it, I‟d do any differently? Any less?”
    Keely noticed that Conlan was less direct. He studied Justice but said nothing, and he‟d schooled his face to blankness.
    “Must be something they teach you in prince school,” Keely said, trying to lighten the unbelievable tension in the room. “That poker face.”
    Conlan laughed, surprising her. “You are the second woman to bring up poker in our war room in the space of a very short time. Perhaps this table would be more suited to games of cards, rather than games of countries and kings.”
    Justice put an arm around her and pulled her close. Only the knowledge that he was so near to losing control kept her there, in spite of her frustration at his caveman tactics.
    She‟d noticed the recurrence of the word “we” in what he‟d said. The Nereid was growing stronger, then, and she wasn‟t sure she wanted to see what would happen if he took over.
    “Aargh! Now I‟m doing it,” she said, glaring up at Justice. “I‟m even thinking of you as two separate people. You need to get hold of yourself, or your selves , as best you can. We need to tell them about the Star.”
    Conlan jumped on it. “The Star? The Star of Artemis?”
    Beside her, Justice drew in a deep, shuddering breath and seemed to gather his self-control along with the oxygen. “The Star, yes. The one that we‟ve long been taught has the power to heal fractured minds. Its value was far greater than even we knew, however. We need to find the Star—we need to find all the lost gems of the Trident. Without them, Atlantis cannot rise.”

Chapter 25
    Justice‟s words fell, echoing like falling stone in a newly unsealed tomb. He watched grimly as Ven and Conlan physically recoiled from their meaning.
    Conlan recovered first. “What do you mean, Atlantis can‟t rise without all of the gems returned to the Trident? It cannot be true. When the ancients sent the gemstones to the seven corners of the globe, they had not discovered the portal at that time. If only the use of the gems