Keepers of the Lost Garden (The Lost Garden Trilogy Book 2) by K.T. Tomb Read Free Book Online

the rest of world.
    The mountain itself was riddled with caves and natural tunnels, which the Daughters had hewn and sculpted throughout the centuries. The workers ranged from construction workers, to computer engineers, to architects, all devoted to building and equipping the mountain fortress with modern technology and weaponry.
    The end result was perhaps the eighth wonder of the world. An amazing entity existed within a stone mountain. The entire fortress was four stories high, with many tunnel offshoots leading to a myriad of rooms and workstations. It took an army of computers to keep the place afloat. The walls of the bathroom were pure basalt, carved straight from the mountain.
    Now dressed in a long white robe, black hair streaked with gray and pulled back away from her face, Myora IL Eve left her small sleeping chamber.
    Although she moved quickly, with unnatural youthful energy, she had the look of an elder. She had allowed herself to age into her early fifties before partaking of the oil. Myora had felt it necessary to set herself apart from her Daughters, to give them a proper mother figure. Now the gray in her hair and the fine lines around her eyes and mouth gave her the necessary maternal look. Myora insisted that all of her Daughters, and they were all her Daughters, begin ingesting the oil in their late twenties, after allowing their bodies to properly mature and strengthen on their own.
    She swept down the stone corridor that was lined with heavy wooden doors. These were the sleeping quarters within their mountain fortress, where each Daughter shared a room with a sister.
    Much of the fortress was built upon the foundation of the natural tunnel system, which was complex on its own. Many of their newer rooms—the computer control room, for instance—had to be hewn from the solid rock.
    Long ago, they had simply lived in the natural caves, like ants in a colony.
    Now the system was quite complex. Although many of the original tunnels were still in use, new tunnels and new rooms had been carefully hewed from the rock over the years. All levels connected to other levels through stone staircases, carved from the very mountain itself.
    Myora IL Eve swept along the corridor and passed the recessed doorways of the living quarters of her Daughters, some of whom would still be sleeping, having spent the night on high alert. The oil, for all the good it did, did not erase the need for sleep. The Daughters of Eve tended to need more sleep than mortals. She suspected that the rebuilding of cells happened in their sleep and it was a much deeper, dreamless sleep. Almost catatonic. She still had vague, wispy memories of her mortal days and the haphazard randomness of her dreams. Not now, though. She either fell into a dreamless sleep or had visions.
    She preferred the dreamless sleep.
    The central tunnel had been worn smooth over countless centuries of use. Her footfalls echoed and her breathing amplified. The walls were lined with electrical sconces, which replaced the torches from the days of yore, and cast a soft, yellow glow.
    Stone fortress or not, this was her home.
    The tunnel ended. Next, she wound down a stone stairway, her hand gliding lightly on the smooth wall for balance. More sconces lit the way. The stairway opened into another tunnel. This one was on the third and largest level of the fortress.
    The tunnel itself was a wide, natural artery that cut through the heart of the mountain. She passed a doorway that led to a massive natural cavern. Here, the Daughters practiced the art of hand-to-hand combat, using all manner of weaponry. Adjacent to the combat room was a thoroughly modern gym. Even now, she could hear one of them pounding the weights. The voice grunted and wafted out into the main hallway, along with the clang of the machinery.
    Myora smiled to herself and continued forward.
    Her Daughters were dedicated and loyal. Fierce warriors, they had given up their entire existence to protect Earth’s one