Atlantis Rising by T.A. Barron Read Free Book Online Page A

else.
    Magic.
    So much natural magic that it was said to flow in the very streams of the Great Forest, producing luminous flowers, talking trees, and sentient stones. And that wasn’t all. In addition to magical creatures of every description, Ellegandia’s forest was said to be the only place in existence that held creatures from everywhere else on Earth. So the Great Forest was not only a home for magical beings, but also an oasis for mortals of all kinds—a spectacular array of animals and trees, insects and birds.
    That was, at least, the forest’s reputation. Having never set foot there, Promi couldn’t be sure how much of that was true. But those woods had certainly inspired plenty of stories from travelers and food gatherers. Growing up on the streets of the City, he’d heard plenty of those tales, some more believable than others.
    What nobody could doubt, though, were the amazing fruits, nuts, herbs, spices, and seeds that people had brought out of the forest for centuries. As well as the silver leaves of the sacred muliahma tree, leaves the monks covered with intricate prayers. Plus all the bizarre and wondrous creatures brought to market from the forest, like those color-shifting pigeons he’d seen today—and thrown in the face of the guard.
    Savoring the sweet taste in his mouth, Promi thought of one more example. The smackberries he was now enjoying, which had been grown in the Divine Monk’s garden, originally came from the Great Forest. As he took another bite of pie, he thought,
I could almost believe these berries have been touched by a breeze from the spirit world.
    All this was why every old myth about this land sprang from the same two ideas. First, Ellegandia’s magic was profoundly valuable, an eternal gift to every person, every creature, and every tree in the realm. No wonder the people’s favorite blessing, saved for the most special occasions, was
I bless your eternal qualities.
    The second idea was a kind of responsibility. The Great Powers asked only one thing in return for all this magic—that Ellegandia’s people do everything possible to protect its riches from the greed of others, whether humans or immortals. Promi didn’t see how immortals could ever be a problem, since the mortal world and the spirit world were completely separate. And that separation was inviolable. But in any case, the myths always reminded people to safeguard their homeland’s natural magic.
    He shrugged his shoulders. That bit about immortals didn’t really make sense. Maybe that was why he didn’t like listening to the old legends. Or, for that matter, to any of the far-fetched tales about immortals—whether they lived up in the clouds of the spirit realm or in Ellegandia’s forest groves.
If you believe in such things,
he told himself,
you’ve got to carry them around with you everywhere, like a satchel filled with rocks. And I like to carry as little as possible.
    He took another bite, savoring every ingredient from the sweet syrup to the sugary crust. All at once, he realized that he had company—not people, but several creatures who’d been drawn to the pie’s alluring aroma.
    Seated around him on the grassy slope were a mountain squirrel who waved his tail like a flag, a pure white kitten whose whiskers were as long as her legs, and a long-nosed anteater with a baby clinging to her back. A broad-winged butterfly with pink-and-black-striped wings floated over and landed on a mustard flower. Then up in the branches of the old cedar, he caught a flash of something deep blue. Feathers?
    He peered into the branches, furrowing his brow. Could it be one of those rare hi-marnia birds? They were so elusive that almost nobody ever saw them. But he’d heard that their nests were sometimes found in the boughs of blue cedars in the Great Forest.
    The kitten mewed plaintively. Promi shook his head and said sternly, “No way, you beggar. I earned this pie, every bite.”
    But the kitten merely stared at