Chapter Twenty-Nine
NINHURSAG
“My beautiful children,” Ninhursag whispered into the darkness.“My gallu.”
She had long ago stopped outwardly weeping for her children, but she still felt each injury and death as if it was to her own flesh.Every cut that had been dealt to them had appeared on her body.Their pain had been her pain, until they had been reabsorbed back into the earth.
She had such high hopes for the ones she had created.
Trapped within the tombs of the unworthy, she had spent centuries whispering to the humans and Atlanteans who had dared come near, to see if she could ensnare them within her web.Some had come too close, and she had taken them under her wing, enlightening them on the ancient ways and the future.She sneered.Some, like the obsidian-eyed Atlantean, would take more finesse to sway and control.Planting the seed was only the beginning.He would come to her, and she would have a new toy to play with, this time one she hoped lasted longer than the older ones.
A thin sliver of light escaped the stone ceiling.
Ninhursag moved toward it, marveling at the presence of sunlight.The beams barely penetrated the darkness, but it was the first time she had touched its warmth since the Atlanteans had trapped her within this waking tomb—she had coated it with iron so she couldn’t escape.
All she had ever wanted was to give the O’hurani everything that was his due.The world.
She held up her palm, smiling as the sand particles glittered in the light before she caught them.
It had been many millennia since she had seen natural light.It caressed her fingers, energizing her and reminding her of her rightful place.
Created from the mountains and the dirt, she had once roamed the earth as a god, worshipped by all.Under her hands, she had molded the first Atlanteans and humans—created them in their Anki likeness.Created them to be the servants and slaves of the ruling gods.Until the Atlanteans had risen against them.Vandana, the traitor, had used the powers—the ability to harness the violet fire, a gift that had been bestowed upon her by her husband the O’hurani—to target and destroy the Anki and drive them underground.Worse, she had drained the O’hurani until he was forced to sleep to recharge his energy.His body remained buried within the watery grave of Atlantis.Vandana and her descendants had chosen to perish rather than reveal Atlantis’s location to the Anki.
It had been more than eleven thousand years, but Ninhursag could sense the O’hurani’s growing power and soon he would awaken and remind the world that he was their god.
Holding up her other hand, the crack grew bigger.Small rocks fell as the sand particles danced around her.The blast the Atlanteans had created must have dislodged a component of the iron that had coated her prison, allowing her to call forth more of her power.
The noise that had always been just out of her reach was growing louder.Closing her eyes, she listened to the rising voices and sounds of machines she had only ever heard and never seen.She breathed deeply; the barest hint of sunlight had already made a difference in her powers.She felt stronger.
Cleaving the earth apart, she floated back to the ground of her prison as the hole grew bigger under her command.
The Atlanteans within the tunnel were no longer of any interest.An entire city was within her reach, and she needed new toys to play with.
She smiled to herself.She had missed the light and the warmth of the sun on her, the way the sea breeze caressed her hair, and how the moonlight danced along her alabaster skin.The softness of fresh dirt beneath her fingers after it had rained.All these had been denied to her for millennia.Instead, she had been forced to live beneath the world.
Now she would find the O’hurani and help restore him to his rightful place on his throne.And she would be his rightful queen.
It was only fair that she be given the same freedom as the animals that walked the surface.Only fair that she allowed the humans and Atlanteans the opportunity to beg for their freedom as they bowed to her sovereignty.
