I'm putting the last few touches on a new book that should come out by the beginning of July.I'll probably have a 10 to 20 book giveaway at that time. The new book forms the 'Prequel' to my 'Egypt' book. Before the first chapter begins there's a quote from Dante's Inferno. As my first chapter unfolds, three young girls are shown, playing around the Temple of Delphi...and ultimately we experience Theoclea's first vision...remember- it's alternate history, speculative fiction...the allusion to 'Atlantis' gives you a clue...

“Midway

In the journey

of this life,

I found myself

in a dark wood,

for I had

lost

the right path”

Dante...The Inferno

Chapter One… Three Children


The bright scattered sunlight was diffused by the leaves of the trees, creating a multitude of changing patterns in an ancient forest.
“Look, do you see that cloud in the sky?” Theoclea said. “It’s pointing to the magic grove! There’s the Pan statue, in the grass! Now I know that we’re on the right path!”
Theoclea carefully led the way to a stand of trees, the others followed behind her. They were children, they were different, and they viewed the world with a heightened sense of wonder. They passed an empty donation urn, and peered into it.
“I’ve been told to stay away from these urns, and never to touch one. They have spells on them!” Theoclea said.
It was a beautiful spring day and there were moss-covered rocks on the ground. Theoclea picked up one of the rocks, put it in a fabric bag, and said,
“I have a new saying— if you pick up a rock, you must return and place three rocks on the same spot!”
“Theoclea— you’re going to be a writer, the cards have told me that,” said Troyana. Finally they entered a clearing ringed with pine trees. They approached the center, and Theoclea pointed ahead.
“Do you see that big standing stone? That’s another marker…we’re getting closer! There’s the treasure chest,” Theoclea said excitedly. She pointed to an old chest that was in the middle of the grove, and hanging from the gold lock on the chest was a large red key.
“That red key opens the chest,” Theoclea said. “I opened it this morning and it was full of papers with pictures and symbols on them.” Carefully, she took the red key, and inserted it into the lock. The lock opened and she lifted up the top of the chest, as the two other girls looked on in wonder.
“The papers are gone! It’s full of clothing and other things. We can all dress up for the ritual!”
“Why do we have to dress up?” said Anka, “It’s always hard to find the right things to wear when we do this.”
“We have to dress up so that we can BE the Goddesses, you know that! Now today, Anka, you’ll be Artemis! There’s a bow and some arrows in the trunk! Here’s a white tunic that you can wear, too.”
“Why can’t I be Aphrodite, Theoclea, you always get the best part!”
“Alright, Anka, I know what you want, so let’s let the stones decide!”
“Yes, the stones,” Anka said, taking some stones of various colors out of her pocket. Bending down, the others joined her. She rolled the stones on the ground, and shrieked with delight. “You see, the stones are saying that I shall be Aphrodite today, and you shall be Artemis!”
Troyana watched them, shaking her red hair.
“When will the two of you ever learn to stop fighting over these things! I have the best way.” She took out some cards from her pocket with strange symbols that she had drawn on them.
“You may think that I drew these yesterday, but you’re wrong” she said in a low mysterious voice.

She motioned to Theoclea and Anka to be seated. They all sat down on the mossy-cool ground. Continuing in a low voice, Troyana said, “these are the cards of a Sybil, and only I know what they mean! The symbols come from Egypt, and they’re very old!”
“Oh Troyana, we know that you drew these cards yourself,” Anka said.
“Hush, little ones, these cards can read the past, present and future! I know this to be true!”
Theoclea thought for a moment. “I think that maybe we can use the cards in our ritual! Yes,” Theoclea continued, “that’s the spell we can work on, seeing into the future…Here’s the chant, we have to practice it. Over and over we can say ‘It’s starting, it’s starting, it’s starting’. We shall begin, of course with all of the proper things, just like they do at the Temple. The purification of the members, the dark invocations, the directions, and, well you know, all of that silly stuff! Then we’ll dance and chant round and round, and THEN we’ll look at the cards!”
“They don’t do that at the Temple,” said Troyana.
“How do YOU know?” said Theoclea. Do you see them in the clouds, like I do? Do you hear their whispers?”
“Here she goes,” said Anka. “Calm down Theoclea, it’s only pretending.”
“Pretending, you say, pretending, well how ‘bout this, is this pretending?”
She stared at the stones on the ground intently, and nothing happened. Troyana looked doubtfully at Anka. Suddenly, Theoclea looked up and saw her friends as if they were frozen in time, as if an old crystal film projector like the kind they had on Atlantis had stopped, and only one frame of a black and white film could be seen. She looked around and it seemed as if the daylight had disappeared, as if it were night. There was no breeze. She was sitting on the ground, with her friends, but they were frozen on the spot, looking at each other doubtfully. She looked around again, and knew that something was wrong. A loud cracking sound broke the silence. She faced the direction of the sound and saw a tree, and in an instant she knew that it was about to fall.
She looked at the others, frozen in the frame of black and white. She looked at the tree¬¬¬—it was frozen as well, but she heard the sound and she knew that the tree would injure them. She saw the direction of its fall. She looked up and there were vague crystal lanterns against a black sky. In an instant the light came back, and she grabbed both of her friends and screamed at them, pushing them away as hard as she could, and throwing all of her weight at them. The tree fell with a loud crack, and she blacked out. All was blackness, except for the amorphous light-shapes.
Suddenly the amorphous lights took shape and she saw that she was in the subterranean room where the Oracle gave her prophecies.The room was cloudy. She was sitting on the chair, the one at the Temple, where the Oracle sat. She smelled the funny smell that came from the chamber, and she wore the Red Key on a thong around her neck. She saw faces, she heard whispers. Then all was darkness. For a brief moment she saw a gate with white crystal lights flowing away from it it. A man was standing near the gate. She touched the gate, then held her right arm out in a “come hither” gesture, her palm up. She brought her left hand forward, and placed it directly over her right hand so that the thumb and all fingers touched. She folded over the middle fingers, so that only the thumbs, forefingers and little fingers were touching. Quickly, she brought both hands to an upright position, the hands still clasped, the fingers and the thumbs pointing upward. The sign looked like the gate. She then parted her hands, palms up, mimicking the flowing strands of white crystal light that flowed away from the gate. Then all was blackness. Slowly a small circle of light appeared in the darkness. The light grew, until she heard familiar voices, and saw familiar faces. The light grew, and the clouds parted.
“Theoclea, are you all right?” Anka said.
“Theoclea, you saved us, then you fainted. What happened?” Troyana said. Tears appeared in Theoclea’s eyes, and she started to cry.

“Yes Theoclea,” Anka said, “What did you see, you saved us from the falling of the tree.” She pointed at the tree that rested only a few feet away from them.
“What happened, Theoclea?” Troyana said once more.
Theoclea tried to hold back the tears, and when she finally calmed back down a bit, the crying stopped. She looked at both of her friends as if seeing them for the first time. Then she said,
“There was a tree, then…strange crystal lights in the sky…there was a room with the Oracle’s chair in it. Then I saw…a gate with lights on it. A man was standing near the gate.” She paused as if trying to remember.
“I touched the gate, and…I…did something with my hands…I think that I saw…the…the…
FUTURE!”