The Prophecy of Atlantis

lucky,” Lilliana sighed.

  “Squid?” Proteus said with his impossibly big eyes. “You have magic honey cakes?”

  Lilliana scooped up the boy in her arms. “The honey cakes that Nana makes are magic I think. When you eat them you can do anything in the world.” Proteus smiled and plopped his thumb in his mouth. He leaned into Lilliana’s arms and she smelled his hair again. It would be so nice to have a brother. Lilliana ran her hands through Pro’s silky curls.

  “C’mon squirt, we’d better go back to our rooms before Nana chases us off.” Thud reached for Proteus and put him gently on the floor.

  “Bye-bye Squid!” Proteus said, waving with his blanket. “You bring me honey cakes ‘morrow.” They hadn’t even reached the door when a booming female voice came from the hall.

  “There ye are.”

  “Good morning, Nana,” the girls said together.

  “Get along to yer room young ones, and speedy-like too. Ye need fuel for yer day just like this one.” Her hands were full of platters and she pointed an elbow at Lilliana.

  “Yes ma’am,” Thud said. Proteus clutched his blanket tighter.

  “As for ye, it’s time for yer breakfast and dressing. Ye’ve quite a schedule today,” the large woman said as she entered the princess’s chamber, and laid a tray filled with breakfast on a small table by the window.

  Lilliana sniffed the fragrant air and felt her stomach rumble. Chocolate, fresh honey cakes, cherries, and something more lingered in the air. She walked to the table and picked out a large cherry to plop in her mouth.

  “Can I eat and then go back to bed?” Lilliana asked.

  “No. Ye can’t.”

  “Can I not eat and go back to bed?”

  “No.”

  “Nana, there are jellyfish swimming circles in my stomach. Can’t we just pretend it’s the week after my birthday and all the people can go home?”

  Nana softened her expression and poured a dark liquid from the pot. “We’ve gone over this before. Ye are the princess of Atlantis, and this is no ordinary birthday.”

  “I wish I weren’t a princess.”

  “Well, now that’d be a waste of who ye are, a-wishing it away like that. And what do ye think ye’d be instead?” Nana uncovered several dishes on the tray.

  “I could be a bird in the sky or a fish in the sea…”

  “And not even a person? Is that the truest wish of ye?”

  “I suppose I could be a mermaid with no worries but the tides and the waters,” Lilliana said. She picked up her cup, cradled it, and breathed in the delicious smell of chocolate and cream. It was almost as good as Proteus’s curls. Smiling, she rested her head on her hand.

  “That’s better. Ye will enjoy your day, ye’ll see. And anything is better than a haughty mermaid or a silly creature. Even if ye weren’t a princess, the person ye are is a very precious one to me.” Nana began to gently brush the tangles of sleep from Lilliana’s long brown hair.

  “I thought you said I was nothing but dragon fodder last night.”

  “Well, last night I would have gladly given ye to a dragon had I one a-laying around, but luckily for ye little miss, they were all a-hiding.”

  Lilliana smiled as she lifted a bite of honey cake to her mouth. Nana was a huge, roughly built woman with ebony braids twisted into a tight bun and golden eyes that could pierce you like the sun or make you feel glad and golden. She was taller than any man in the kingdom, even her father the king, and she appeared as strong as a bull. Everyone did what she said, and any smart dragon would avoid her.

  “Nana, I am just so nervous. There are more people here than there are fish in the sea. What is so special about being twelve anyway?” Lilliana put her head back into her hands.

  “Schmalkin, my love, this is not any birthday. Today ye will have yer Gifting and tomorrow ye will start your Onsa. Today is the day ye begin to serve Atlantis, and one day ye will rule her. Now enough of this nonsense and eat yer breakfast. I don’t suppose the birds and the fish and the mermaids like these foods as well as ye do.”

  Lilliana turned back to her plate. She wondered how many honey cakes Proteus was eating now and what magic powers they would give him. The power to stop a birthday? Not likely. Next to the honey cakes there were little fried crab cakes and breakfast shrimp served with dark sour-cherries. A bowl of fresh berries was set off to one side. Lilliana looked more closely at them. They were the same shape as blueberries, but they were a different color. No, different colors.

  “Are you educating me on foreign lands again?” Lilliana asked as she eyed the bowl of unusual fruit. She shuddered as she recalled the last time Nana and her tutor educated her in tastes. Lemur eyes wrapped in monkeys’ ears. Ick!

  “Don’t ye trust your own nanny?”

  “Not when it comes to food.”

  “Well I suppose these berries are a bit different from what the cook grows in her garden, but they are a-locally grown.” Nana poured herself tea from a plain pot and watched the princess as she sipped from her cup.

  Lilliana eyed her suspiciously. She had known her nanny her whole life, and yet her nanny always seemed different. Little things like drinking her strange tea that smelled like herbs and tasted like bark. “Why don’t you drink chocolate like everyone else? It’s so good and rich.” Lilliana picked up her own cup and took a sip of the delicious mixture.

  “Ah, that is a story in and of itself…” Nana looked thoughtfully out the window and Lilliana watched her hopefully. Nana’s stories were the best.

  “And one I won’t be telling ye this morn. Let’s just say that this drink is a good one for me. Ye could even say it keeps me from getting too big for me britches…or for yer castle. Eat your breakfast.”

  Lilliana slid the last of the honey cakes in her mouth and reached for the berry bowl.

  “So, what are these berries?”

  “What if I told ye they were dragon berries?” Nana squinted as she said this and looked up at Lilliana. Something was going on here, but Lilliana was not quite sure what it was.

  “Are they going to turn into dragons?”

  “No…”

  “Do they taste like dragons?” Lilliana was still thinking of the monkey ears.

  “Maybe a little.”

  “What else could they be then? Are these what dragons eat?”

  Nana put her cup down and leaned closer. “Would you like to taste them?”

  “Will they hurt me?”

  Nana just gave her one of those ‘what do you think’ looks. Lilliana looked at the bowl of berries again and pulled them closer to her. They were round and plump and all of them were about the size of her thumb. There were three different colors in the mix. Some of the berries were as brightly blue as the sky; some were as red as the roses in her mother’s garden, and the rest were a cream color. Lilliana chose a cream-colored berry first. It looked harmless so she popped it into her mouth.

  The berry tasted like a cross between a sweet peach and a lemon. It was light and tart, sweet and fresh. Lilliana reached to grab another one, but her hand looked funny. She could see the bowl of berries through her transparent fingers.

  “Nana! What happened to my hand?”

  “Just as I thought,” Nana said with a smile.

  “What? What do you mean? Are you trying to get rid of me?” Lilliana was scared to open her eyes and look at her hand again. She focused on keeping her mind in this world.

  “Schmalkin, my love, it is nothing. Look, even now yer hand is the same as it was. No harm has been done,” Nana quietly covered the bowl and put it on the tray as she started gathering up the breakfast dishes. “Perhaps it is too soon for ye to learn the way of the dragon.” The big woman pushed the trays of food out the door and began tidying up the bed and gathering items from the princess’s closets. “Now we must prepare ye for yer big day. All of the kingdom will be out just to see ye.”

  2. Gifting

 
Lilliana had spent several weeks choosing the right gown for this occasion. She pulled at her sleeve and scrutinized her reflection in the glass. Her dress was floor length and made of yellow crushed silk. It fit tightly through the bodice, and flared into a full skirt just below her waist. Lilliana smoothed the silk bodice over her stomach. Underneath, Lilliana wore her new camisole and pantaloons. The fabric was smooth and cool like a tidal pool in the evening and the color was like the inside of an oyster shell. Her shoes were flat satin slippers intricately embroidered with flowers and embellished with pearls. She could feel the stone floor through the thin bottoms, and her left shoe rubbed her ankle. She turned to the left and right and watched her dress flare out like the waves on the sea.

  “It’s time to go miss,” said Coral, her servant. “You look lovely.”

  “I feel like a pile of wet sand thrown in a dress.”

  “Don’t say that miss. Every girl in the kingdom wishes she was you today.”

  “Thank you Coral.” Lilliana might as well get the ceremony over with. She let out a deep sigh, and turned to walk towards the stairs.

  At the top of the banister Lilliana looked out through the huge garden doors and saw the edges of the crowd. Her heart pounded a little at the thought of all the important people waiting for her. Lilliana stepped quickly down the steps, slowed, and realized that already the household servants were watching her. She straightened her back and slowed down to what her mother called the royal hustle. “Royal,” before any word gave it the opposite meaning which