Two tribes, p.1
Two Tribes, page 1
part #1 of Young Atlanteans Series
YOUNG ATLANTEANS
TWO TRIBES
T STEDMAN
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Epilogue
Contact T
Coming in 2022:
Also by T Stedman
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A special thank you to my readers, who, I’m sure, are some of the best in the world. And as always, my team, Nicky Lovick, Freddy Studart and Jane Harrison.
Copyright 2022 T Stedman
All Rights Reserved
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Website www.tstedman.com
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Ebook edition
Edited by
Nicky Lovick
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Cover Art by Freddy Studart
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This edition published: March 2022
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This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, events, businesses and places in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
PROLOGUE
Ballygowan Castle – West coast of Ireland
Xavier exchanged a wary look with his sister, then nodded at the Santalini guard to say they were ready. JJ stood, hands in his pockets, and looked down at the floor. He wished JJ took this more seriously. Punishment was coming and he always made it worse. They’d gone too far this time.
The guard grinned, revealing a gleaming gold tooth and fangs and announced their arrival at their father’s study into his head-set.
‘Send them in.’ The richly accented Irish voice said through the heavy oak door.
It was a harsh reminder that they were very definitely back in the Atlantean world where normal rules didn’t apply. Here, their father ruled absolutely and while the six foot five, muscled vampire, dressed in Special Ops black, didn’t scare them nearly as much as he should have, their father was pissed off and that was cause for concern. The guard pushed the door open wide with a wink and the three teenagers trooped inside.
They came to a standstill in a ‘usual suspects’ line up, directly in front of Dante Dubonnetti, the Atlantean king, on a cobalt-blue rug. At almost forty, he was still a remarkably handsome man, with olive skin that crinkled at the corners of his lively slate-coloured eyes and black curly hair, identical to Xavier’s. Although Dante’s was now tipped with grey. He was writing something seated behind the huge carved desk, placed in the middle of the room lined with books and ancient charts – like a judge. Which he was, really. He didn’t look up from his papers and continued to work, making them wait a full five minutes.
Xavier looked across at his father’s best friend, sitting in a large ox-blood leather armchair to his right. He was drinking something from a heavy glass, with his expensively tailored leg crossed at the knee, looking stonily straight at them. Jay.
Sharply dressed, blond and handsome, Jay was the biological father of JJ, who shared a mother with the rest of them. It was a weird setup – even they knew that. The two men acted as father to the three of them and their two younger siblings, Roman and Zander. And while Jay was cool and cared for them all as equals, there was no sympathy in the directness of his steely-blue gaze today. He could often be even more strict than Dante.
The minutes ticked on.
‘Where’s Mum?’ Alexia said, eventually. ‘Shouldn’t she be here for this?’
At last, their father put down his pen, sighed and looked at them over the gold rim of his glasses. Xavier recognized the hard expression and shifted uncomfortably. There was no cheeky glint in his eyes. No amusement playing on his lips. There was going to be no winning him around, even with Alexia’s little girl wiles.
‘I don’t remember giving you permission to speak, Alexia.’
She huffed, rested her weight on the other hip and went to protest again, but the king held up a hand. ‘Shut up girl, your mother is fully aware of what’s going to happen.’
Xavier stood a little straighter and felt the others become alert next to him. Everything had suddenly got a whole lot more serious. If their mother wasn’t there it meant the king had made up his mind and he didn’t want to be swayed. There was no telling what he would do. People often remarked on how their father was a great king because he was tinged with a little madness. Some said it was from all the power that surged through him, bestowed on him in his youth by his mother and her four sisters, but their mother had scoffed and said he’d always been that way.
Xavier looked across to gauge their second father, Jay. He was usually the colder, quieter one out of the two and some would argue the more stable, but sometimes that just made him more ruthless and harder to deal with. Like right now. They were in big trouble.
‘You – Xavier! You’re the oldest. You can explain what the hell you were playing at,’ Dante said.
Xavier closed his eyes and looked at the floor. Everything always fell on him in times like this. How was he to explain to their two fathers what JJ was really like when he was away from them? They thought they had them all pegged, with him, Xavier, the popular ringleader, Alexia the girl who effortlessly got what she wanted and JJ, the quiet, brooding genius. The reality was that while JJ had inherited his father’s charming, cute, choirboy good looks, he was a boy hell-bent on self-destruction. He was dangerous and volatile and completely determined not to fit in. And, most of all, Xavier was angry that he’d spent the best part of a school year covering for him and was about to get the blame. In the end, he looked at his father, the king, deadpan. ‘I’m not sure what you’re asking me for exactly, Father?’
Alexia giggled.
Xavier knew it was from nerves, but he willed her to shut up. He wasn’t trying to be clever. This would go a whole lot better if their father thought they were truly sorry.
‘Are you trying to be a joker with me, Son?’ the king said, narrowing his eyes at him.
Xavier looked across at Jay for some help and all he saw reflected back was the same, nonchalant expression.
‘What happened at the school?’ Jay said, in his quiet reasonable voice that could be just as menacing.
Xavier blinked and remained silent. They were going to get punished anyway. He reckoned an unwillingness to speak would inflame his father slightly less than any kind of half-arsed explanation of what went on.
‘Maybe JJ can shed some light?’ Jay said.
Xavier breathed a little now the heat was off him, but in a whole lot of ways it was worse. He, at least, could do some damage limitation, whereas JJ wouldn’t care less what trouble he landed them in. He didn’t care about punishments, what people thought of him, he didn’t care about pain. JJ didn’t feel anything.
JJ shrugged. ‘I dunno … I just didn’t get on there. It was full of rich, self-important, entitled, snobs. Just buy them a new science wing or something. It will soon be forgotten.’
Alexia clamped a hand to her mouth. Xavier looked at the ceiling.
‘Some might argue, you should all be right at home there,’ the king said, now clearly livid.
Xavier saw his father’s point. ‘Xavier!’ his father barked, making him jump.
‘Like he said.’ Xavier tried to look anywhere but his father in the eye.
Dante let out a blast of air, still glaring at the three of them. ‘Have you any idea how bad this looks? The US government gave our nation those school places for you and all your cousins to train you into the diplomats you’re meant to one day become. For feck’s sake, it’s part of the treaty between our two races that you integrate.’
Xavier fidgeted awkwardly. His father was right. And it was a good school. He and Alexia would have been fine there. But Alexia doted on JJ and Xavier felt responsible for them all. It was kind of an unwritten rule that they stuck together in all things. Despite everything, they fiercely loved each other.
JJ stared blankly ahead of him as if it made no difference to him. What their fathers never seemed to grasp was that it didn’t.
Alexia was looking at her nails. Xavier could see her crafty mind working on a way out. ‘Why can’t we go to school in Murrtaine? Keefer and Dannon go.’
‘You don’t learn about the human world there. It’s not so important for your cousins,’ Jay said softly.
Xavier was relieved. Murrtaine was OK for holidays, but he had no wish to spend any length of time in the underwater city. It was so cut-off. The human world was far more exciting.
‘Neither do you from home schooling. It’s turning you i
‘I won’t go back,’ JJ said, calmly, looking the king insolently in the eye.
Dante laughed in a single blast, and looked at Jay as if to ask, ‘can you believe this kid?’ Then he looked back at him; amused this time. ‘Hey, you won’t have to, Son. After you went through the whole of the eleventh-grade females like a pair of whirling dervishes and subsequently ruined the end of the semester’s Meet and Greet for new students with a western bar brawl, they won’t have you back.’
Xavier found his father’s whole demeanour disturbing. Like he had something truly bad up his sleeve.
‘None of that was me!’ Alexia said, immediately.
Xavier wanted to tell her to shut up. This wasn’t something she could whine and bat her eyelashes out of.
‘No, but you like to stir it up, Alexia, and you certainly didn’t help.’ Dante sat back in his chair, furious, withering her with a look. ‘Now get out me sight,’ he said, wearily, with a flick of his hand.
Part of Xavier wanted to follow his siblings and hurry to leave, but he knew his father hadn’t delivered the blow yet. ‘You haven’t told us what’s going to happen,’ he said, his heart speeding up in his chest.
Dante smiled with narrowed eyes as if at least he’d got that right. Then, with malicious delight, his father delivered the news. ‘That’s right, I almost forgot. The three of you can pack your things. You’ll be starting a new school on Monday.’
They all groaned. Xavier closed his eyes. His mind was already ticking through the possibilities and implications. This wasn’t too bad. It was to be expected.
‘Where?’ JJ asked, cutting across his thoughts.
‘London!’ Jay and Dante said together.
Xavier stared at his father along with the rest of them. Then he heard JJ distinctly swear under his breath and he exchanged a weary look with him. They could just imagine the type of place. ‘I’m not going to another posh school,’ JJ said.
Dante grinned wickedly. ‘Well, that’s just as well then, coz you’re going to the Marcus Garvey High School in South London. You’ll be fine there.’
Xavier looked over at Jay to make sure it wasn’t a joke. He just raised his eyebrows with his typical, no-nonsense look. They all knew it was pointless to even protest. Xavier numbly followed the others out of the room.
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When the door clicked shut, Jay looked over at Dante. ‘You think they’ll settle any better there?’ He was sceptical. They were all a handful, but ever since they’d learned of the Darkly Begotten prophecy, his son troubled him.
Dante bobbed his head, ‘Probably not, but never let it be said that the Atlantean monarchy is afraid to get its hands dirty.’ Dante batted his hand as if it was of little importance. ‘We can get our people in there to keep an eye on them and if anything happens it’ll remain under the radar. This time, we’ll be in control.’
Jay nodded and took a sip of his drink. He guessed it could work. A school like that would have had its share of troublemakers. Their three would be chicken feed. ‘What about the other cousins. Their parents might not be as enthusiastic about your choice in school’ he said with smile. The children of all the Siren sisters were meant to follow theirs into mainstream education. An inner-city school in a deprived area of south London would not be their first choice.
Dante grinned, like he whole-heartedly agreed and was going to enjoy every minute of it. He’d been the same since he was a kid.
‘And there’s Ronnie,’ Jay reminded him. He was the son of their kids’ mother’s bodyguard. He was a good kid and certainly didn’t deserve to be pushed around with their miscreants. But by simple association, he’d be forced to change schools too. It wasn’t very fair.
‘Ah, he’ll be alright,’ Dante said with a flick of his hand. ‘He might get some sense into our kids.’
Jay smiled. He knew when it was impossible to argue with his best friend. And in his usual, roundabout way, he guessed he was right.
‘We’ll let these three go for starters, then filter the others in when they settle down a bit. That should keep the parents quiet for now. We’ll sell it as an environment under our complete control that will benefit the poorer kids in the area.’
Jay nodded. The school would be struggling with the meagre financial allocation they got from the government. They would jump at the chance of a cash injection. Then, before they knew what had happened, Dante would own the school. They wouldn’t see it coming – and neither would the kids. With a deep sigh, he weighed the alternatives and conceded to the fact that there weren’t any. Suddenly, he felt very weary with it all and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘What do you think is going on with those two?’ he said, waving a hand at the door their children had just gone through. Despite their closed ranks, he could clearly feel the friction between the two boys.
Dante leaned over and topped up his drink. ‘Apart from being chips off the old block, you mean?’ he said, laughing. ‘No, I think we have ourselves a little power struggle going on there.’
Jay nodded thoughtfully. He was probably right. Despite him and Dante being like brothers for most of their lives, there had always been friction and rivalry between them. They had been brought up privileged and gone to some of the best schools and colleges in England and hadn’t exactly taken full advantage of their opportunities. Looking back, maybe Marcus Garvey High School would have suited them back then too. He let out a single blast of laughter. ‘Hence the school.’
Dante nodded. ‘I think this could be just the right place.’
Jay sighed, sitting back in his armchair and thinking of the many times they’d been hauled up in front of headmasters in their youth. Except their children had more than just money and privilege. They had certain mental powers they were barely able to control. He knocked back his drink to sear his doubts away with the amber liquid. I hope you’re right …
CHAPTER 1
Meeting the opposition
Xavier daydreamed, unseeing, out of the grey-tinted window as the limo edged through the South London rush hour traffic. Two Santalini guardsmen rode in the front of their car, four in the SUV escorting them ahead, and another four behind. Even out of their red and black uniform, the black fatigue-wearing members of the Santalini royal family looked more like Marines than escorting family, which he was sure was the story his father had told the headmaster. To try to pass off the soldiers of the race as that, family or not, was laughable.
Professor Max Brunswick, his father’s human advisor, sat uncomfortably in the back with the three of them. He rarely left the cloistered walls of the castle or their secret retreat of Filfla, where his father kept all his precious books.
‘How are we supposed to blend in arriving like this?’ Xavier said, tutting.
JJ rolled his eyes, shook his head and looked out of the window.
‘We will be very early, and it’s just for your first day,’ Max explained, pushing his round spectacles higher up his nose with his finger. ‘You’ll have other accommodations after today, much closer to the school. Your fathers want you to have a totally immersive experience.’
Xavier frowned. That didn’t sound good. They’d spent the night at Jay senior’s hotel in Soho. He assumed they would be based there while they were at school. They knew it well and Jay could come and go keeping an eye on them. It made much more sense.
