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"What about Kerry?" Merlin asked curiously.
"Why are we taking her with us?" Tremayne looked at the little girl, who was dancing about the two women excitedly. "Several reasons, I suppose. Because Roxa
Merlin smiled. "And because you have a soft spot for the child?"
"That, too."
"All excellent reasons."
"I thought so." Tremayne studied the older wizard speculatively. "What of you and Serena? Why don't you come with us?"
"Thank you, but our home lies in another direction. We have to return to Seattle. Our ship will arrive no more than a day or two after yours, I should think. We'll be fine, Tremayne. No matter what happens here, we'll be fine." Merlin changed the subject smoothly. "Will Varian allow you to take Roxa
Tremayne shrugged. "There won't be a problem. If he even notices us, he'll probably consider himself well rid of us."
Merlin nodded, then looked toward the city. "Did you get any reaction from Antonia?"
"Not really. Roxa
"That is certainly true." Merlin offered his hand. "Good luck to all of you, Tremayne."
Shaking hands, the younger wizard said, "Thank you-for everything. I won't forget it."
"Just take care of those ladies of yours. If I've learned anything here, it's that we need women of power. Because without them, we can't be whole."
A few moments later, watching as Tremayne, Roxa
"Dammit, I swore I wouldn't cry!"
"They'll be all right now," he reminded her.
Serena sniffed again. "I know. That is-are we going to stick around until we're sure they made the ship?"
"It would be prudent, I think. Would you mind spending a few more nights here, Serena?"
"If we can sleep up on one of the mountains the way we have been, of course not. As a matter of fact, I'd just as soon we got started now. I know it's early, but the way people have been staring at us inside the city is really begi
"No. Pick a mountain."
She did, and long before nightfall they were comfortably settled halfway up one of the western mountains, having transported there when they were sure no one would be able to observe them.
"Although why it matters, I don't know," Serena commented some time later as she conjured a fire while Merlin took care of the lean-to. "The witnesses are gone. No one left here will get the chance to influence the future, no matter what they see us do."
Merlin knew she was increasingly disturbed by thoughts of the coming cataclysm; he had seen her look to the sky each night, watching broodingly as the moon edged toward full. So when he pulled her down beside him on the pallet inside their lean-to, he tried to make her feel a little better about it.
"Serena, no matter what we might have done, we couldn't have saved Atlantis. Some things are simply too vast and too complex for mortals to consciously control. Some things really are feted to be."
She hesitated, then said in a small voice, "But were we a part of it? I've been thinking about it, you see, and I can't help wondering. Maybe we changed the future by helping Roxa
Merlin couldn't deny the possibility. He hadn't told Serena about Antonia's prophecy, or about his own belief that the Leader had misread what she had seen. But if he was right about that, and right in believing Antonia had no understanding of the trust required for a man and woman of power to mate, then her attempt to do so might well strike the final blow to Atlantis.
"You can't agonize over it, Serena," he said finally. "Neither of us can. Look around you. No matter what we did, when we came here, Atlantis was already dying. The powerless people here, men and women, had mutated and were dying out. The wizards were doomed, as well. It's possible that merely by being here and being what we are, we became a step in the process… but that's all. And it happened a long, long time ago."
She looked at him solemnly. "I'll try to remember that. But can we leave as soon as we know Tremayne and Roxa
"Of course we can." Merlin bent his head to kiss her, and as always, sharp hunger flared between them. She melted into his arms, and forgot about everything except him and her and the way they made each other feel…
When Varian received the message carried to his palace by a powerless male from the city, his first urge was to burn it without even reading the scroll. But he did read it out of curiosity, and then he wanted to burn it.
Meet with Antonia to discuss the future leadership of Atlantia? Was the whore mad enough to imagine he was that much a fool?
But when the rage faded, Varian considered the matter from another angle. Antonia was, after all, a woman of power. And he'd heard she was still beautiful. He owed it to himself to at least meet her-under the proffered flag of truce, as it were. And if she was still beautiful, well, he might just find out what a woman of power was like in bed.
But she suggested they meet in her city, and there was no way he would agree to that. He sent an alternate suggestion back to her, proposing that they meet in the Old City, where he would conjure an appropriate meeting place from the ruins.
Rather to his surprise, she accepted promptly, and they agreed upon an early afternoon three days away.
Serena and Merlin returned to their gate into time just three days before the end. Merlin was certain that Tremayne, Roxa
"Assuming we were successful in changing the future," Serena said as they stood on the mountain's slope and looked out over Atlantis for a last time, "you'll continue with my training, won't you?"
"Of course."
"And one day, if I'm patient and work really hard, I'll be just as powerful as you are?"
"Not quite."
She turned her head toward him. "You said I could become a seventh-degree Master wizard," she reminded him.
Merlin smiled suddenly, a gleam of humor in his black eyes. "So I did. And I have every faith in your ability to do just that. But what I didn't tell you is that Nola was wrong about my level. I'm a tenth-degree Master."
Serena stared at him for a moment, then laughed. "Then I'll just have to try harder, won't I?"
"Yes-and I'll enjoy it very much." He leaned down and kissed her, then took her hand and turned toward the shimmering rock face that was their gate. He was carrying the box containing his staff under one arm. "Ready?" he said, halting at the gate to look down at her.
"I suppose." She was almost as nervous as when they had come through the first time. What if they'd failed?
"Serena?"
She looked up at him.
"I love you."
Very slowly she smiled. "I thought I'd have to wait a few mille