Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

She shuddered and glanced over her shoulder fearfully. The jungle garden seemed very silent now as though every tree and vine were listening. Then she sighed and placed her hands in his.

'You should not have said that,' she whispered. 'Never— never speak of evil. It is almost our only rule but very strictly kept. The Ancient One has been barred out of here for countless centuries but he still waits, as he will wait until the end of time, for an invitation to enter in.'

Her voice was so intensely earnest that he could find no adequate apology and only bowed his head as though guilty of having broken some fragile priceless treasure.

She lifted a hand to his cheek and stroked it gently, seeking now to comfort him; 'You spoke only thoughtlessly and in jest I know but words have such terrible power. They vibrate on the ether long, long after our ears have ceased to hear them and evil forces focus, unseen, all about them. I am so afraid that what you have said may, in some awful way, mar the wonderful happiness I foresee for us—but that which has been spoken can never be recalled. All I can do now is to throw my vibrations about us both and trust that they may prove an effectual barrier.'

In silence now they moved on again yet, after Lulluma's outburst she soon seemed to push the episode into the back of her mind and regain her spirits. A few moments later she put her finger to her lips to enjoin quietness before drawing him round a corner of the maze.

There, in a nook, a fully grown girl was sleeping at the foot of a stone pillar topped by a bust of the God Priapus. A garland hung from the age-old symbol by which Axel recognised the Deity. The girl wore only a light tunic of white linen edged with gold; her hair, a lustrous ash-blonde colour, contrasting also with Lulluma's in that she wore it long, covered her shoulders and fell below her delicately modelled breasts. She was extremely lovely, with the milk and rose complexion of Axel's own Nordic people and her limbs, scarcely veiled by the semi-transparent material of her dress were long and graceful. He could not remember ever seeing such a perfect example of her type.

'Well, what do you say now?' Lulluma asked with a mocking glance, 'Would you not rather make love to her than to me? Speak truthfully—I shall not bear any ill-will. No man could hesitate at such a choice for she is far lovelier than I.'

Axel shook his head and his tone carried conviction: 'Many men might judge her to be more beautiful,' he acknowledged. 'But you have something which she lacks. Camilla is by no means perfect yet she might prove no mean rival to this girl, for the love of a man, whereas you are apart—infinitely rarer and more desirable. It is possible to meet such loveliness as hers on earth but yours only in the Garden of the Gods.'

Lulluma accepted this praise but seemed only moderately pleased by it. She looked down on the sleeping girl and murmured : 'I thought she was unique. I am intensely proud of her. She is Danoe—my daughter.'

'What?' exclaimed Axel incredulously. 'But that is impossible.

'Hush!' Lulluma drew him hurriedly back behind a screen of hanging creepers.

'But you?' Axel lowered his voice. 'I don't understand— you can't be more than twenty yourself—or let's be lavish and say twenty-two.'

'That is just it.' Lulluma smiled enigmatically. 'You do not understand. In this place we come normally to maturity in twenty years but after that the fact that we pass two-thirds of each year in sleep preserves our youth almost indefinitely. Presently you will see another of us—Laotzii, a woman of ninety, but to you she will appear to be only a little over forty.'

'But you?' persisted Axel, 'perhaps it is rude to ask but— how old are you?'

'I am young yet.' Lulluma gave her deep gurgling chuckle. 'Only forty-four next birthday.'

Axel surveyed again the warm loveliness which glowed before him; 'I would have wagered a fortune that you could not be more than twenty-three.'

'It is these long periods of sleep,' she repeated. 'How old do you think Nahou is?'

'If one judges by appearances I should say fifty. His muscles are so supple. There is not a single thread of grey in that fine straight black hair of his—he cannot be more.'

Lulluma laughed at his indignant tone. 'He has lived over one hundred years. If I remember he is a hundred and four. He is my grandfather and, with the exception of Menes, the oldest man amongst us. . . . Also he is a most accomplished lover,' she added naively.

'To what age do you live then?' Axel asked, ignoring her last remark.

'A hundred and thirty-eight to a hundred and forty-five. The last is a record I think.'

'How many are there of you here—awake or asleep?'

'Twelve only. Six women and six men. That number was decided on within a few generations of the Flood and it has never been varied since except for brief periods when we are eleven or thirteen. A child is born to one of our women every twelve years and if the eldest of our community is not already dead, they die quite naturally within a few months of the birth because their time is done and they no longer wish to live. Semiramis is the oldest of our women now. She is about a hundred and forty and if she is not dead before she will die soon after my daughter Danoe bears her first child—which will be in about four years' time.'

'You speak as if that was quite certain. Have you the power to control such things?'

She nodded. 'With us the gift of life is at the discretion of the giver's will. Such power was only achieved after innumerable generations of conscious effort by every mother, but concentrated thought is the greatest force in the world. By it we can heal very serious injuries when they occur in the mill or metallurgical workshop—although accidents are very rare with us.'

'Yes—I understand that,' said Axel thoughtfully. 'In the upper world there are now many people who follow a religion which centres largely round faith-healing. They are not always successful in fighting disease but they have worked a lot of cures where the doctors have failed. That you should have developed a similar faculty to a more perfect degree is not so surprising but the control of childbirth by will is a much greater problem, or have you reached that degree of evolution whereby only one sex is necessary for the reproduction of the species?'

'Of course not, you dear fool!' Luiluma laughed as she opened the gate from the jungle to the meadow; 'There was a lot of difficulty at first but our women had already progressed considerably in regulating the size of their families artificially even before the cataclysm. When they wholeheartedly desired to have a child it was considered a sin not to do so though, for only by intent can the most beautiful and balanced children be born.

'Then it was discovered that time and seasons played a great part in determining the child's appearance and character, so people began to choose the planets under which their children should be born in accordance with the type of baby they desired. As the ages passed women went even further and took it upon themselves to prepare with great seriousness for these important events. They spent many months visualising the child they were to bear as a grown man or woman in its full beauty, and by strong thought processes they threw up barriers against the entry of deformed, ugly or evil-natured offspring into life. Eventually through cumulative hereditary effort, the woman's will became the dominant factor so that without the definite desire to become a mother it was impossible for her to bear a child.'

Axel took her hand as they strolled slowly past the lake. 'Is the fact that there are six women and six men amongst you just chance,' he asked, 'or do you determine sex as well?'

'Oh, that was all planned long ago—it was one of the first steps. Each of the six women here bears two children—a boy and a girl. Your people will reach that stage of development soon I expect.'