"Only if he intimidates me first."

"You intend on intimidating him."

The Amazons did not take long in changing and returned to the main decks in parade dress. Each was armed with a javelin, bow, and sword.

As the Flying Dutchman entered the harbor all eyes silently followed the beauties. Many boats yielded the right of way, and the Flying Dutchman easily found berth. The tax collector was the first to greet them.

"We do not pay tribute. We have urgent business with the high priestess. Take us there." Helen spoke in her native tongue, and a vox, which was linked to Genie, translated her words so that the native could understand. The voxes absorbed Antiope's/Helen's voices and emanated the relevant syntax. Genie spoke in a very ancient Egyptian dialect to the authority, and the authority immediately cooperated.

Antiope, Helen, and Jim were then free to converse in their own tongue to each other as the magistrate escorted the trio to the temple.

"What's the plan, Jim?"

"I am under the impression that Dagon is lying to the people encouraging them to remain on the island and continue to feed his desire for wealth. If so, we must neutralize Dagon before persuading the population to flee the island. If we neutralize Dagon, the population might be inclined to do as we suggest."

"Who's Dagon?"

"Genie tells me that is the name of this island's ruler. Minos rules Crete."

"So what are you going to do, Jim; ask Dagon to give up his kingdom and find somewhere else to live? I am sure that he is going to be quite fond of that idea."

"I don't expect Dagon to listen. I expect him to perish with this island."

"Jim this reminds me of a lost island civilization straight out of Hollywood."

"Only this place is real, and the island is going to blow. How soon, Jim?"

"Don't really know. I'll give you two minutes warning."

"Thanks a lot."

No one approached the group as the magistrate silently guided them on their way. All were curious about these beautiful strangers, and many followed to find out more. The high priestess of the temple greeted them at the threshold to her sanctuary. Jim recognized some of the ritual adornments as being of Artemis origin. The priestess was quite beautiful by Earth standards, and Jim suspected that she may even have some Artemis blood in her.

"I am, Ayesha, and am a descendent of Artemis. You also are adorned in the sacred dress of Artemis, and that is blasphemy, to be adorned so in the sight of common men. You demanded to see me."

Helen spoke first. "Speak not so. We are from Artemis, and we are pure blooded Amazon. We are from Sirius, the star of our lady Isis."

Ayesha refused to believe. "I shall have you burned alive for such blasphemy. Guards!"

Antiope was not sleeping. She was at first surprised to know that this priestess was devoted to Artemis, but had lost true knowledge of Artemis. To her Artemis was a legend.. "What do you know of Artemis, Ayesha? We are the royal bodyguards of Isis and Qblh themselves." She then exercised the Venetian power of her javelin to stun those who would have taken them captive. "We'd prefer to keep our freedom. Thank you. We want you to evacuate the island. This city will soon be destroyed by the volcano."

"Lord Baal-Dagon says otherwise."

"Dagon is a liar, and Baal-Dagon is his own artificial idol that he has made up to enslave the minds of the people that work and live on this island." Jim had to break in with his comments.

"You allow your slave to talk to me. If you were from Artemis, you wouldn't tolerate such insolence from your male slaves."

"This slave is my husband Theseus," lied Antiope, "and I am Antiope, Queen of the Amazons."

"Husband? Such is unheard of in the Amazon tradition."

"We are both with his male children,"

Ayesha was about to scold again, but then she looked at Jim again and held her silence. She was now curious and wanted to know more before she would tell Dagon what she had discovered about these strangers. She dismissed the magistrate. "Follow me." She led the trio into the temple compound.

The crowd was somewhat stunned. Their high priestess seemed to accept these strangers as if they were her lost family. Absolutely no leaks were being released as to what was about to transpire. Yet many had heard the strangers profane their city god in the presence of the high priestess as well as the crowd, and still she had taken them into the sanctuary. Some scurried to the palace to inform Dagon that something was up. Certainly Ayesha would not conspire against Dagon.

If Qblh commanded, Ayesha was forced to comply. "You are not a normal man, and you are not normal women. You claim to be from Artemis. I want to believe you, but no one has ever been to Artemis. No one knows where it is. It is said to be a star. If what you say is true, can you please explain? I am having a difficult time understanding this."

"Ayesha, I shall take you to Artemis if you get the population to flee the island."

Ayesha was startled. This strange man was offering her a dream. How could he promise such? Yet nothing about these strangers was common. He had offered her fulfillment of a dream, as if he understood her. Seeing that Ayesha was about to be victimized by Jim, Antiope and Helen decided to add a few more trials to Ayesha's initiation.

"Don't listen to him Ayesha. He tells all the girls what they want to hear. True, he'll take you to Artemis all right, but don't expect him to bring you back. He's tried to dump us both a couple of times, but we've always managed to keep him from breaking free. He's quite a beast to handle, and it takes the both of us to keep him under control."

"You can take me to Artemis?"

"He can take you to Artemis. We're not interested. I like Earth. How about you, Helen?"

"Sure, Ayesha. Go with him. We don't mind. Perhaps he can give you a child as well. Believe me, it will be worth the effort."

"But you can't keep him."

Ayesha became increasingly curious concerning Jim. Still he appeared as their servant and did not appear dominating at all. So unlike Dagon. Dagon was not unique among the great rulers of his time. He magnified himself above all other kings and even proclaimed himself as a god. Dagon even referred to his kingdom as Atlantis in memory to Pharos of old. The great Hatshepsut was Dagon's grandmother. He was the eldest son to the pharaoh of Egypt and was crown prince to inherit the throne of Egypt. His father, who also considered himself a god, was the greatest general and leader in the entire civilized world. All nations either paid him tribute or were conquered and forced into slavery. Pretending to be a friend to Minos, Egypt had created an alliance with Crete so as to not have to feel threatened by Minoan naval forces. The smiths of Atlantis had not been Minoan but an enterprising group of Egyptian trained artisans who had allied themselves with the Amazon priestesses and created a technically advanced community which made its fortune by refining metals, copper being their major commodity.

The pyramid builders were successful at devising an amazing network of cooling tunnels which tapped the heat of that volcanic isle. Their designs took advantage of the many faults which existed within the mountain. They also being expert in mineralogy and the great mountain furnace had knowledge of explosives. Being expert in geometry and explosives, the citizens of Kuftia were experts at tunneling and mining. The hazardous nature of mining meant high pay and extremely short working hours for the citizens of Atlantis. There was a mining exposure limit as delegated by the Amazon priestesses who were keepers of the old wisdom. Each miner was allowed only a few hours exposure a week. After the tunnels were blasted, scalding sea water would be channeled to scour the passageway of the loose rock. The effluent would be filtered and the extracted rock would be further broken down and processed.

Great forges were set up throughout Luftia. Prisoners and the less fortunate had the dismal duty of transporting material to and from the fiery caverns. Task overseers themselves, because of occupational exposure limits would only have to endure these conditions for a brief time while they coordinated the refining itself. The Amazon descendants were permitted to select any male of their choosing for sacrificial rites. The temple priestess maintained the traditional secrecy concerning the true nature of the sacrifice. Dagon provided the authority which commanded the enterprise.

The priestesses would have nothing to do with the mines. They found them much too uncomfortable. Instead they were pampered with luxury within the domains of the temple and its gardens. The high priestess and her senior understudies were human-Amazon hybrid. They were still fatal to the human male, and had to conduct sacrifices in order to have children. There were a few minor males. Hatshepsut herself was Amazon and was mother to both Thutmose and Dagon, but Dagon was also Thutmose's son. The apparent incest meant nothing to Thutmose. He wanted his son to be as powerful as himself., and since inbreeding with the Amazons produced genetically advanced children, he felt that there was a need for another male Amazon half-breed. The genetics provided an enhanced possibility for another male child, and so Dagon was born. Thutmose's was ashamed of being his mother's consort. For this reason, as one of his first acts upon becoming Pharaoh, he played down the importance of his mother as a great ruler. Instead he reinitiated kingship in Egypt by rebuilding a great empire which would be ruled by men and not flowery women. She had made Egypt weak and submissive to foreigners. He would set the foreigners in their rightful place. Egypt would rule all again.

There was no Amazon royal blood in Dagon. Hatshepsut claimed some relation to Morgana. As far as Jim was concerned, Morgana was inferior to either Antiope or Helen. Dagon, however would be able to survive mating with a human hybrid-Amazon because of his mother. He could also breed with human females.

Ayesha warned Jim, "If Dagon knows that you can breed with an Amazon and live he will try to kill you. Can you? I am guessing that you can. Shall we find out? If you survive me then I shall abandon Dagon and do your bidding. My people will follow me."

Jim glanced at Helen and Antiope. They were giggling at him. They both encouraged Jim to seduce Ayesha. Ayesha passed a sign to the captains, Helen and Antiope.

Antiope walked up to Jim. "It's my dream darling, and you promised to satisfy me. Qblh, Yoni her. Isis would approve, and Helen complies. We'll answer to our queen if we are wrong and as her agents we command you to do her bidding. Ayesha, we give you Qblh, our slave to be your slave until you decide to abandon Dagon. We will have your answer by the next meal. Will that be sufficient time? Ayesha do you also understand that if you are not of our race then you will perish?"

"Only he shall perish, if we are not of the same race."

"Then blessed be your union, sister."

Ayesha escorted Jim to her private chamber.

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