Serena stared at her. Career studs? Lovely. "But the laws mention unmarried males, implying the existence of married males here in the city. You said the male wizards didn't marry, but do female wizards?"

"Yes, though rarely. A very few manage to accept a particular man to the extent of allowing him to share her home and her life, and those pairs marry. It was almost unheard of when I was a child, but slightly more common now."

Serena already had an awful lot to think about, but one final question was tormenting her. "Since all the powerless men look… well, look so brutal, aren't any of the female wizards afraid their children will be… abnormal?"

The question seemed to surprise Roxanne. "The child of a wizard is never born deformed-and always with power, of course." Then she frowned. "But there does seem to be a sickness of some kind. The powerless males who mate with powerless women and live in the village often sire healthy sons, but when they breed here in Sanctuary with female wizards, only their daughters are healthy enough to survive the first few weeks. Our Healers don't understand why, but it's always so."

Serena didn't say a word. But she wondered.

By the time he spotted another male wizard sitting at a small table at what appeared to be a sidewalk cafe near the center of the city, Merlin was more than ready to get off the street. He'd never been particularly concerned about what others thought of him, but running the gauntlet of scores of hostile female stares had made him feel even more like a stranger in a strange land- and definitely detested.

He had no idea if his fellow males would be any more friendly, but approached the table anyway. He was relieved when the other man rose to his feet with a faint but cordial smile.

"A stranger to Atlantia?"

"Yes," Merlin answered, reminding himself that the population was small enough to make strangers obvious.

"Not many of us venture into the city," the other wizard said somewhat wryly. "And the first time tends to be hideously uncomfortable."

"That is putting it mildly. My name is Merlin."

"I'm Tremayne. Join me?"

"Thank you." Merlin sat down across from Tremayne, weighing the other man swiftly. A few years younger than himself, he thought. A couple of inches shorter but well built, with dark hair and gray eyes.

Powerful, but not a Master wizard-though possibly Advanced.

"I'm a virtual stranger here myself," Tremayne said casually. "I've only been in Atlantia a few months-and I don't mind telling you I'm looking forward to my ship returning to take me back home."

Merlin hoped his sudden tension didn't show. "Are you leaving soon?"

"A few weeks. And you?"

"I haven't decided." Could Tremayne be the witness who would record the destruction of Atlantis from a ship at sea? "Do ships call here often?"

Tremayne shook his head. "Never by accident, and rarely by design. It's because there's no harbor, of course, and the reefs are so treacherous. The captain who gave me passage demanded a king's ransom and then refused to return for me as quickly as I wanted. If I had known of the ship carrying you, I probably would have requested passage aboard her."

Merlin smiled. "I'm sorry, I had no idea anyone was so anxious to leave Atlantis, though the captain certainly lost no time in setting sail. He said… this place was cursed."

"I don't doubt it. There have been tales for years, and since the skies above Atlantia are often lit with the strange glow of the Curtain, some of those tales have assumed mythic proportions." He hesitated, then added, "That's why I'm here, really. Some of the wizards outside this continent are growing concerned by what they hear of Atlantia."

"And you've been asked to report to them?"

"Well, to my father. He's on the Council of Elders." Tremayne looked at Merlin curiously. "Are you from Europa?"

Long before the "civilized" world had dubbed the land north of the Mediterranean Sea Europe, the worldwide society of wizards had named the area Europa. There had been more wizards in that area than anywhere else in the world, though they had certainly not been confined there.

Replying to Tremayne's question, Merlin said, "No, I come from a land far to the west. It's called Seattle. I doubt you've heard of it." Like Serena, Merlin saw no point in not sticking as closely to the truth as possible.

"It isn't familiar, but I'm afraid I can hardly be termed a world traveler. If my family hadn't been able to claim a distant kinsman in Atlantia, I wouldn't have come here."

"Kinsman?"

Tremayne pointed toward the south and to the very mountain where Merlin and Serena had arrived via the gate. "He has a palace up there. His name is Varian."

Something in the other man's tone told Merlin that Tremayne had little love for his relation. Carefully he said, "I was rather surprised to find this society so segregated-male wizards in the mountains and females down here in the valley."

A bit grim, Tremayne said, "So was I. Of course, there's always been distrust between male and female wizards, but nothing like this. From what I've been able to gather, there were some bloody battles fought here generations ago in a power struggle. The males were stronger and might have won outright, but in the war both sides expended too much unfocused energy-and the Curtain was created from the spillover. You know about that?"

"Yes. I've felt its effects."

"It probably prevented this from becoming a male-dominated society, and made it a segregated one. The males, being more powerful, were able to create and defend strongholds in the mountains, keeping the females down here, where every night saw them weakened and vulnerable." Tremayne shrugged. "If it hadn't been for Antonia…"

"Antonia?"

"Yes. She organized the females and built this city." He nodded toward the northeastern section of the city, where one building rose above those around it. "She lives there, looking down on what she built. They call her Leader."

"So she's responsible for the laws that prevail here?" Merlin asked.

"More or less. I've never met her-or even seen her, for that matter-but I'm willing to bet she's probably the most intelligent person in Atlantia. She built this city under the very noses of the male wizards, and not one of them realized what it would mean to them."

"What did it mean to them?"

"A stalemate. With all the female wizards gathered here in one place, they were able to defend themselves effectively even though they were outnumbered. The males stayed away at night because they didn't want their own powers diminished by the Curtain. During the day it was hardly safe; the females had a nasty habit of ambushing any male they saw, and Antonia had taught them to concentrate on damaging the males' most vulnerable area, the groin."

Merlin winced, but said, "That sounds like a very convincing strategy. I assume the males got the point?"

"Oh, yes. Most of them decided, quite logically, that fighting the females-at least openly-wasn't worth the risk. They were ahead in the battles, after all, especially since the powerless males of the village had developed the practice of systematically raping and killing so many female wizards at night in the valley."

"But Sanctuary gave the females a safe place," Merlin said. "The powerless males didn't dare scale the walls even at night because they were so outnumbered."

Tremayne nodded. "So things were relatively calm for some time. But then the male wizards began to realize that Antonia was attempting to correct the unbalanced population. She was encouraging the female wizards to bear children even if they didn't want to marry, and her laws made it possible for breeding to take place with little threat to the females."