Read Online Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis by Madelaine Montague - Free Book Online

head inside. “Is anybody home?”
    She heard footsteps. A moment later, a
girl entered the foyer from one of the rooms that adjoined it. She
was dressed—in body paint and nothing else. Fortunately for her,
she had a lovely figure. Like most of the Atlantean women Alexis
had seen, she was tall, willowy, attractive and very
blond.
    Oddly enough, Alexis didn’t feel
inclined to hold it against her, despite a lifelong antipathy for
tall, willowy blondes.
    The girl smiled, gesturing for Alexis
to enter.
    Alexis was more inclined to retreat.
She must have gotten the wrong house after all, she
decided.
    The girl frowned, moved her lips in a
way that was almost comical and finally managed to speak, beckoning
with her hand at the same time. “Come. Come.”
    Alexis still wasn’t certain whether to
go in or not. Somehow the place didn’t look familiar. Of course,
she hadn’t been in any state to pay a great deal of attention to
her surroundings, but it seemed to her that the foyer had been
tiled in white marble, not gray slate as this was.
    The girl, who looked to be around
sixteen, bobbed her head, gestured. “Yes. You stay
here.”
    Alexis thought that was what she was
saying anyway. She spoke like someone to whom English was a second
language, or like someone who’d never spoken before.
    This was going to be fun.
    Alexis moved inside, closed the door
behind her and looked around. The impression that she was in the
wrong place continued to tease her.
    “ I show room.”
    Alexis shrugged. The girl seemed to
have been expecting her. There was no point in arguing anyway,
particularly since the girl didn’t seem to be capable of carrying
on a verbal debate. Undoubtedly, she’d just made the acquaintance
of her first Atlantean who had rarely, if ever, used her vocal
cords.
    She was, she realized after a moment,
far too tired to argue anyway. Apparently being reduced to
unconsciousness wasn’t actually as restful as sleeping. She hadn’t
slept in—a while. She found she couldn’t calculate it since she
didn’t even know whether Atlantean days and nights coincided with
the rest of the world, but her body was telling her she’d gone a
long stretch with little sleep.
    And just as long without food. Her
stomach began to rumble as she followed the girl upstairs. The girl
giggled. “Food? You have ‘unger?”
    Embarrassed, Alexis nodded. “To be
honest, I don’t know whether I’m more tired or more hungry. I
haven’t eaten, or slept in … hours, days maybe.
    The girl led her to a room at the top
of the stairs, gestured her inside.
    Alexis stopped on the threshold.
Despite the fact that she had been under some sort of mind control,
she was absolutely positive that this was not the bedroom she’d
been in before.
    The girl proceeded to turn down the
bed, then moved to a tall armoire and pulled a sheer length of
cloth from one of its drawers. She frowned when she saw that Alexis
was still standing by the door. “Here.” She pointed to the
floor.
    Enlightenment dawned. This was to be
her room. That’s why it hadn’t looked familiar. She must be tired
indeed that it hadn’t occurred to her that in a house so huge there
would be many bedrooms, and the servant girl—she assumed the girl
was a servant—would not have taken her to the master
bedroom.
    There followed a short battle. The
girl insisted on helping Alexis to change. Alexis insisted upon
doing it herself. Finally, the girl yielded, laid the garment on
the bed and left. Alexis dropped the robe Aurora had loaned her and
picked up the garment, examining it.
    She could not only see light through
it, she was fairly certain she could’ve read a newspaper through
it. Talk about sheer! The fabric felt wonderful, however. She
slipped it over her head. There was no mirror in the room, but she
didn’t need one. She could well imagine that she looked positively
indecent.
    Not that it mattered ... really. She
was alone in the house except for the girl.
    She heard