Page 28 of Dark Shaman: Eternal Hope (The Children Of The Gods #100)

TAMIRA

T he dining room hummed with conversation as Tamira and her sisters gathered for dinner.

Areana was absent as usual, her chair at the head of the table sitting empty like a throne without its queen. Her breakfasts and dinners were taken with her mate, and she only joined them for lunch.

Tula, who always sat on Areana's right, was picking at her food and looking either angry or depressed.

Sitting next to her, Tony looked like a clueless male who had no idea how to make his partner feel better and was probably wondering what he had done wrong.

Tula had a bit of a temper, or a lot, if Tamira cared to be truthful.

She might have gotten angry at something trivial that Tony had done or said, and it wouldn't be the first time.

However, there were also other signs that indicated a much more serious issue. It was the wine glass that sat untouched in front of her, the frequency of her hand landing on her stomach, and resting there for a split second before being quickly removed with an accompanying grimace.

The female was expecting, and by now, all the ladies suspected it, but Tony still seemed oblivious.

Across the table, Sarah and Beulah exchanged a meaningful glance, and Raviki nodded as if to cast her vote alongside them. They all saw it, but none dared speak it aloud.

"The beef smells wonderful," Liliat said, filling the awkward silence as servants placed dishes on the table.

It was at that moment that the lights above flickered, and the hum of the air conditioning stopped. The emergency lights came on right on cue, but then everything came back online, and the meager emergency lights turned off.

"When are they going to fix this finally?" Raviki asked. "It has been going on since we returned to the harem."

Sarah waved a dismissive hand. "It was happening in the mansion as well, but the emergency generator always clicked in before we even noticed it. I don't know why the harem can't have the same generator. The one they installed here is crappy."

"They are replacing it," Tony said. "I spoke with Hassan today, and he said that Lord Navuh managed to secure a big electrical contractor from India. They are going to replace the main transformer and most of the emergency generators on the island. Hassan is excited to see it being done."

Tamira wondered how Navuh was managing the memories of all the contractors and their crews.

Half the island needed rebuilding, and more human crews were arriving daily to do the repairs.

She hoped Navuh wasn't planning just to kill them all like he had done with the people who had built this island sanctuary a century ago.

Not that she knew for a fact that was what he had done, but she suspected it. Navuh had little regard for human life, and if it were more expeditious and less complicated to kill them off rather than let them go and compel their silence, he would have killed them with no compunction.

Naturally, that wasn't as easy to do these days as it had been then, and crews disappearing wouldn't go unnoticed, so he would have to compel them this time.

"You don't look that good." Raviki frowned at Tula. "Are you sleeping okay?"

"Not really." Tula's response was clipped. "I keep having nightmares and can't sleep. I'm tired and cranky."

That sounded like a reasonable explanation after what they had all been through, but Tamira had a feeling that Tula was lying to cover the real reason for her bad mood and exhausted appearance.

The sound of the dining room door opening had Tamira look up, and as Eluheed walked in, she welcomed him with a bright smile.

"You're late," she admonished.

"I know." He pulled out the chair next to her. "Lord Navuh summoned me straight from the herb garden, covered in dirt and sweat, and I returned only a short while ago, showered, changed, and rushed over here, hoping to still grab something to eat. I'm starving."

"You look exhausted." She took his plate and started piling it with food. "What did he make you do?"

He cast her an apologetic look. "I can't really share that."

She'd forgotten that those kinds of conversations needed to wait for them to be alone.

"Of course." She put the plate in front of him. "My apologies."

"Thank you." He accepted the plate with a grateful nod and attacked the food with gusto.

Unlike Eluheed, Tula was still shoving food around her plate, and Tony kept shooting concerned glances at her. His obvious worry made Tula withdraw further, focusing intently on cutting her meat into increasingly smaller pieces without eating any of it.

"You've done a beautiful job in the indoor courtyard.

" Liliat looked at Eluheed and then at Tony.

"I sat on the bench during our break today, and everything looked so real that I could almost forget that I wasn't outside, and that the sunlight was fake.

" She chuckled. "The illusion stuttered when the light flickered again.

It happens so many times during the day that I barely even notice it anymore, but the indoor garden doesn't have emergency lighting, and I sat in the dark.

Luckily, Raviki had forgotten to close the drapes in her suite, and the emergency lighting from her room cast a little light on the garden.

The outage only lasted a few seconds, but it was a reminder of the artificial environment we live in. "

"Nothing here is real," Tula murmured. "I mean the fake sunlight never looks real."

"The plants are real," Tony offered, trying to be helpful. "They grow and bloom just like they would aboveground."

"Are you sure about that?" Tula's voice carried an edge. "Wouldn't they bloom better if they were out in the real world? Perhaps they can't reach their full potential because they are trapped underground with lamps coaxing their growth instead of real sunshine."

"Are we still talking about plants?" Liliat asked.

"Plants adapt," Eluheed said quietly. "They find ways to thrive even in artificial environments. Life is remarkably resilient and persistent."

Tula let out a breath. "Ignore me. I'm cranky and tired."

Tony reached for Tula's hand, but she pulled away. "Excuse me. I need to take a nap before I destroy everyone's mood." She didn't even wait for Tony before she bolted out of the dining room.

An uncomfortable silence followed her exit.

"Should someone...?" Raviki started.

"Give her time," Sarah advised. "You know how she gets sometimes. The more you try to talk to her, the more her mood will sour. She needs to be alone."

Tony stood. "I should go to her."

"No," Beulah said. "We've known her for much longer than you have. Tula needs her space. She'll come to you when she's in a better mood.”

Tony sat back down even though he could have gone to his own room. He and Eluheed still had their own rooms even though they rarely stayed there, so it wasn't as if Tony didn't have somewhere to go.

The rest of the meal passed in stilted conversation, everyone pretending not to notice Tony's distress.

When they finally retreated to their rooms, Tamira let out a breath as soon as Eluheed closed the door behind them. "That was awkward."

"Does Tula often get like that?" Eluheed asked.

Tamira nodded even though this time it wasn't about Tula's volatile, habitual moods. This time, she had a good reason to be upset.

"Did the lord summon you to connect to the enhanced soldiers?" she asked in a whisper.

Eluheed nodded. "They're evolving rapidly,” he whispered back. “The change from when I saw them last is startling." He moved to sit on the couch.

She joined him, taking his hand and putting her head on his shoulder so she could whisper directly into his ear. "In what way are they evolving?"

"They are becoming more coherent. They also sensed things about me today. The soil under my fingernails fascinated them. They wanted to know more about me. They are bored."

"Well, that's obvious. They are being kept in isolation with nothing to do."

"They are not idle. They keep working on improving their network.

" He rubbed his face with his free hand.

"They're becoming more perceptive. Each contact is more dangerous than the last, and Lord Navuh wants me to repeat this every other day.

He wanted me to do it every day, but I managed to convince him to let me rest between encounters. "

Tamira squeezed his hand and leaned closer to his ear so he would hear her soft whispers. "We need to leave before they discover what you are. I got Areana to show me how to enter the tunnel. She showed me the disarming sequence."

His eyes widened. "Just like that? How did you convince her to do that?"

"First, I got her to admit that the tunnel existed, then I told her that all the ladies should know about it in case of an emergency, when leaving the harem through the pavilion is not possible.

If we are attacked or if there is a fire, the tunnel might save our lives.

Areana agreed and took me to show me where the entrance is.

She said that if there was an emergency, we shouldn't worry about the alarm, and just open the door, but she didn't put in any real effort to conceal the disarming sequence. "

Tamira described the hidden door behind the bookshelf, the specific books that needed to be pulled out, and the pressure plates in the carpet pattern.

"Third rose from the left, a third of a meter from the wall," she repeated. "Herodotus, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, then Ovid pushed instead of pulled. I memorized it as Heroes Plot Military Overthrows," Tamira reiterated.

He smiled. "Clever."

"It is, right? The sequence needs to be completed within thirty seconds of stepping on the pressure plate, so there is no time for hesitation."

"That sounds easy enough. All mechanical triggers instead of electrical ones, which is smart.

As we know from experience, electricity on the island is not reliable, and that's even more true in the case of an emergency like a fire or an attack on the harem.

" He was quiet for a moment. "She really let you see all of this? "

"She made a perfunctory effort to hide it, but I think she wanted me to know the sequence."

"Why would she do that?"

Tamira had been wondering the same thing. "Maybe she just wanted someone else to know in case of emergency."

"Or maybe it's a test," Eluheed suggested. "To see if you'll betray her trust."

That thought made Tamira's stomach clench. "Areana isn't that calculating."

"She's survived five thousand years as Navuh's mate. She has to be calculating."

He was right, of course. Areana's survival depended on navigating Navuh's moods, managing the harem, and keeping everyone safe while maintaining the illusion of perfect loyalty. She was a master manipulator by necessity.

"Even so, we know how to get into the tunnel now."

"Yes, but that only solves one problem." Eluheed's expression darkened. "The tunnel will have surveillance cameras. The moment we enter, Navuh will know."

The brief flame of hope in Tamira's chest guttered out. "Of course. I should have thought of that."

Every step forward seemed to reveal two more obstacles. The tunnel existed, they could access it, but they still couldn't use it.

"There has to be a way," she said, though the words sounded hollow even to her.

"There has to be." Eluheed pulled her against him, but she felt the defeat in his posture. "We will figure it out."

"How?"

His arms tightened around her. "We will find a way."

She knew he didn't mean a word of that and was just saying it to keep her from despairing.

"We will because the alternative is accepting this forever, and I can't do that. Not anymore." She thought of Tula's words at dinner. "This plant wants to experience growing free."

"You will," he said with no conviction at all in his voice.

She had to revitalize him somehow, to offer him hope even if she felt hopeless.

"What if we use the enhanced soldiers?" she whispered. "What if we could somehow use their evolution as a distraction? If they become coherent enough to act, even from their cells, Navuh would have to focus all his attention on containing them."

Eluheed shook his head. "I can't control them. I can barely maintain my own identity when I touch their consciousness."

"You don't need to control them. Just... nudge them maybe? Give them an idea?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it. "That's incredibly dangerous."

"Everything we do is dangerous." She took his hands. "Living here is dangerous. Loving each other is dangerous. Trying to escape is a choice, which is not something we get to do here."

He was quiet for a long moment. "The enhanced soldiers creating a distraction does not solve the problem of the cameras in the tunnel."

"It might. Knowing Navuh, he doesn't let anyone monitor that tunnel so they won't discover his escape route, and if he was busy with some emergency, he wouldn't think of looking at the feed from the tunnel."

"What if there is an alarm as soon as someone enters it?"

"Then we enter as soon as he leaves in the morning. Even with a vehicle, it must take him at least half an hour to get to his mansion, and during that time, someone is in the tunnel."

The despair in Eluheed's eyes turned into calculation. "If the tunnel is narrow, which it probably is, he can't turn around until he reaches the other end. It might give us enough time to escape."