Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis (7 page)

She just hoped she could recognize it.
All the buildings looked very similar, and she had only seen
Adonis’ home once, at night.

Thor fell into step beside her as she
made her way through the crowded marketplace, trying to ignore the
fact that a good half of the people she passed weren’t wearing a
stitch of clothing. A few, mostly older people, wore robes similar
to the one Alexis was now wearing. Some looked as if they were
‘dressed’ in exotic body art, merely painted. Some of the younger
people were dressed in really wild costumes of feathers, leather,
virtually transparent cloth—Atlanteans didn’t seem to suffer from a
need for conformity.

Around her, people were gesturing and
nodding, but no one spoke out loud.

It wasn’t hard, really, to ignore
them, despite their outlandish dress, or the lack
thereof.

Thor was another matter.

“
Call me surprised,” Alexis
said dryly when he refused to allow her to outdistance
him.

“
I was not sent to escort
you,” Thor said.

Alexis stopped, studying him for a
long moment. “Aurora says Atlanteans never lie. You say you weren’t
sent to escort me, and yet here you are, following me.”

“
Rarely.”

“
What?”

“
Atlanteans rarely
lie.”

“
Ah ha!” Alexis said
triumphantly. “I knew it!” It was probably the first thing anyone
had said to her since she’d been here that she’d wholeheartedly
believed.

Thor smiled faintly but looked
puzzled. “You are pleased to know that we sometimes lie? You are an
odd creature.”

The comment immediately raised her ire
since Helen had only just referred to her as a creature, repeatedly
and not flatteringly. “If you call me creature again, I’ll give you
a fat lip,” Alexis snapped.

Thor’s brows rose. “Violent too,” he
said, a faint smile curling his lips.

“
Which you find amusing?”
Alexis demanded, trying to decide whether she was being insulted
again or not.

“
In one so small,
yes.”

“
I’m average. You’re big.
There’s a difference.”

Thor nodded. “About two
hands.”

Alexis’ lips twitched, but she
resisted the urge to smile as she turned and started walking once
more. “Yours or mine?”

Thor followed, matching his stride to
hers. He looked confused by her question.

“
I mean, yours are about the
size of pie plates. If you’re figuring two of those, I guess it
would be close. Everybody must look small to you.”

Thor frowned, a look of concern
crossing his features. “This bothers you?”

Alexis wagged a finger at him
admonishingly. “No use fishing for compliments here. You won’t get
them.”

Thor flushed slightly.

Alexis was both surprised and
intrigued. She decided his bashfulness was cute. She wasn’t used to
seeing men blush, not when they looked like Thor anyway. She
couldn’t imagine him suffering a moment’s self-doubt.

If possible, he looked even more
uncomfortable. “It seemed, before, that you found me …
threatening.”

Alexis’ eyes narrowed to slits. “We
are NOT going to be friends if you refer to last night, EVER again!
I was not in my right mind. Adonis had hypnotized me or
something.”

Thors brows rose. After a moment, a
faint smile curled his lips. “I was referring to when I was trying
to ... ah … coax you to come with me.”

“
Oh.” Alexis blushed but
looked at him suspiciously.

“
You said I looked big
enough and angry enough to break you in half.”

“
Oh.” Alexis thought about
it a moment, though she would really have preferred never to
remember the previous night, again, as long as she lived. Her lips
tightened. “I didn’t say that. Maybe I was thinking it, but you had
no business prying into my private thoughts, damn it!”

Thor fought a round with his patience.
“I was not prying. It is hard to tell the difference when you are
accustomed to living as we do. I do not set out to ‘read’ your
mind--mostly not, anyway--it is just there, as if you have
spoken.”

Alexis wasn’t sure she believed
him.

“
It is truth. I swear
it.”

She supposed it sounded reasonable. It
was a little hard to judge when she couldn’t do it herself. That
didn’t mean she liked it. She resented the hell out of
it.

“
I was only curious to know
if my size is something that offends you.”

“
How could it offend me?”
Alexis asked, not that she was more than half listening. She was
still irritated about the lack of privacy for her
thoughts.

“
Threatens you
then.”

Alexis shrugged. “Now, no. When you’re
pissed, definitely, but don’t think just because you’re bigger than
me that I’m going to let you bully me around.”

Thor stopped, pulling her to a halt,
tugging at her arm so that she was looking at him. “You have no
need to be so antagonistic. No one here will offer you
harm.”

Alexis took leave to doubt that. “I
suppose you think rendering someone unconscious isn’t
violent?”

“
You were
harmed?”

Alexis was obliged to admit that he
hadn’t hurt her, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d
manhandled her and dragged her, naked, into public.

“
This bothers
you?”

“
It bothers me a hell of a
lot that you people keep reading my mind. I find it very, very
rude!”

“
You have the ability to
prevent it—but I was referring to a discomfort regarding a lack of
clothing.”

Alexis stopped, ignoring the last
remark, which, in her book, hardly deserved an answer. “I
do?”

“
You were not aware of
this?”

“
Must you always respond to
a question with a question?”

Thor chuckled. “I thought we were
conversing.”

“
Not very well. How do I
prevent it?”

“
I must suppose much the
same as we do.”

“
Which is?” Alexis asked
with determined patience.

“
Hard to explain,” Thor said
meekly.

“
That’s so
helpful!”

“
You are
welcome.”

“
You are familiar with
sarcasm, I assume?”

“
Not very, but I do
recognize it,” Thor said solemnly.

Despite her irritation, Alexis
couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, I’m still not forgiving you for
dragging me in front of the council naked as the day I was
born.”

“
My humblest apologies. I
had not realized it was so important to outworlders.”

“
Hmm. I had noticed nobody
around here worries much about it,” Alexis said dryly.

“
We have no need to feel
shame about our bodies. Many wear clothing to adorn themselves, or
shift, depending upon their abilities and nature. Some wear
clothing because they are old and feel the cold or damp more than
the young. But there is no real need to cover ourselves. The
climate is maintained at a temperature comfortable to
most.”

Alexis wondered how he could make
something so radical sound so reasonable. Finally, she shrugged.
She supposed it was reasonable—to him. Nakedness wasn’t something
she had any desire to get used to. Besides, where would be the fun,
and excitement, in seeing someone naked for the first time? If you
got used to it, it didn’t seem like there’d be much of a
thrill.

Thor grinned.

Alexis glared at him admonishingly.
“Stop it!”

He looked contrite.

It was an act. He wasn’t contrite in
the least. She could tell by the unholy gleam in his eyes. She
steered the subject in a more comfortable direction. “What did you
mean when you said ‘shift’? Aurora mentioned that too.”

“
Molecular acceleration. We
have found that we can change ourselves physically to suit our
needs, and sometimes only for amusement.”

Alexis looked down at Thor. “Are you
saying you aren’t actually wearing anything?”

“
Clothing is required in
council, but it would restrict my ability to change if I found it
necessary so I … shift. I appear to be clothed.”

Alexis studied him thoughtfully for
several moments and finally turned and began walking once more,
wondering why he made himself appear to be wearing clothing, now,
if he was comfortable without it. On the other hand, she had to
admit she was more comfortable talking to him when he at least
appeared to be wearing something. And she supposed, after some
thought, although she’d never considered such a thing before, that
the danglies between his legs might make life a little difficult if
you were an action hero and had to worry about swinging in the
breeze. They would definitely get in the way, especially his
danglies.

She glanced in that direction
thoughtfully before she considered whether he might notice her
perusal, then, self-consciously, looked quickly at his face. She
couldn’t help but notice he was looking a little flushed—apparently
he had noticed.

Feeling a blush rise in her own
cheeks, she decided just to pretend she hadn’t noticed and picked
up the conversation again. “It sounds logical when you say it that
way, the shifting thing, but—people can’t do that. How could you
accelerate your molecules?”

Thor smiled wryly. “We simply do, much
as you move without thinking, blink, breathe, reach for
something.”

“
Sounds like
magic.”

“
Magic is either sleight of
hand—not real—or something not fully understood. When man first
discovered fire, he thought it was magic.”

“
I suppose you have a point,
except this shifting thing isn’t something humans can do, not
ordinary humans anyway. They don’t have telepathy
either.”

“
Not now—not in your time,
no.”

“
The time walking thing
again. We can’t do that either.”

“
Only Atlanteans
can.”

“
No one else? Not even
people in the future?--Because I’m assuming by your other comment
that you mean people, someday, will be able to speak
telepathically.”

“
To my knowledge none save
us time walk—but, yes, in the distant future, in the distant past.
It is something man had, lost, but will find again.”

“
And you actually know
this?”

“
Yes. I know
this.”

“
This really gives me a
headache.”

A look of concern crossed Thor’s
features. “More likely it is the mind talk. Unfortunately, you will
not be allowed a band until the council rules upon it.”

“
That thing Adonis put on
his head?”

Thor nodded.

“
I thought it was something
to make him appear to be wearing clothes!”

Thor chuckled. “No! Do not offer
violence. The band is to protect us from others, to give our
thoughts privacy. We can filter this talk out at will, but it can
be tiring. The band protects us without the effort.”

“
But I can’t have
one?”

“
Not until it is decided
whether you will go or stay. Until then, the only time you will
have any privacy is when you are alone inside a building, or house.
Few have the ability to penetrate the walls.”

Alexis sighed. She was obliged to
admit it was perfectly reasonable, that they wouldn’t want to give
her an advantage until they knew whether they could trust her or
not, but it was damned inconvenient. Headaches aside, how was she
supposed to … she cut that thought off.

Thor looked at her. “You have blocked
your thoughts.”

“
I did?”

Thor stopped walking. “I am curious to
know how you learned this.”

“
Beats me,” Alexis said,
stopping as well and glancing at her surroundings.

“
And this means?”

“
I don’t know. I wish I
did.” She saw with some surprise that they had arrived at Adonis’
home. Pleased that she’d found it so easily, she looked back along
the street they’d traversed, realizing she’d been so engrossed in
conversation that she’d hardly noticed anything along the way.
“Well—thanks for walking me.”

Thor bowed. “It was my
pleasure.”

Alexis studied him a moment. “Why did
you walk me? I mean, if you weren’t told to.”

Thor’s brows rose. He looked away for
a moment, as if considering his answer carefully, before he looked
at her once more. “Curiosity?”

Alexis studied him thoughtfully.
Although it sounded perfectly reasonable, under the circumstances,
Alexis had a strong feeling that that was only a partial
truth.

He looked uncomfortable. “I do not
wish us to be enemies.”

Alexis was surprised. “I hadn’t really
thought about it one way or another.” Her lips twitched. “I don’t
know you well enough to hate you—yet,” she said
jokingly.