Page 36 of Dark Shaman: Eternal Hope (The Children Of The Gods #100)

ELUHEED

T he guards stationed outside the double fence had given the four of them curious looks as they'd emerged from the pavilion and headed into the dark gardens, but no one had said anything.

It wasn't against the rules to venture outside the harem at night.

Immortals could see just fine in the dark, but Tony was human, and Eluheed was supposed to be human as well, so the guards must have wondered about it.

Other than the ladies, there were no immortals inside the harem, and it had been a deliberate choice by Navuh. Those guarding it from behind the fences were all immortals, though. It was evident in their unnatural stillness when they were stationary, and their fluid walk when they moved.

Eluheed wasn't like them, which had its advantages and disadvantages.

The biggest advantage was that he could pass for a human because he didn't have any visible characteristics.

Regrettably, the disadvantages outnumbered the one advantage.

He couldn't provide Tamira with the pleasure of the venom bite, and he had a feeling that the other immortals were stronger and faster than he was.

Hopefully, he wouldn't have to face them during the escape because neither he nor Tony would prevail against one of them, especially since they wouldn't be armed.

The escape plan was a desperate move, and the chances of it succeeding were so pathetic that he wondered whether he should continue enabling this fiction and, on top of that, bring a pregnant female on board.

"It's indeed pleasant outside," Tula said.

"It's bearable." Tamira looked at Eluheed. "We should have brought water."

They should have, but they hadn't. They'd been in a rush to offer Tula hope, but now Eluheed was reconsidering the wisdom of that decision.

Was it too late to stop that wrecking ball?

Should he stop it?

The truth was that he was out of options, and the submarine was the only viable one. Bringing along Tula and Tony complicated things, but it also might make them more manageable.

As they entered the gazebo they sat on the cushioned benches, and for a moment, no one spoke. Eluheed looked at Tamira and lifted a brow, double-checking that she still wanted to go ahead and let the other two in on their secret.

She gave him a slight nod. It was time.

"We asked you both here because we have something important to share with you," Tamira said in a hushed tone. "But before I do, I want you both to swear on your lives that you won't tell anyone about what Elias and I are going to tell you."

Curiosity shining in Tula's eyes, she put her hand over her heart. "I vow never to reveal what I'm about to learn from you, and I secure my vow with my life."

Tony put his hand over his chest as well. "What she said."

Tamira shook her head. "Not good enough. You need to vow in your own words that you will never reveal to anyone what we are about to tell you."

"So serious." He rolled his eyes. "Fine. I swear to take this secret you are going to tell me to my grave. Now tell us what this is all about."

"It's about a possible way out of here," Eluheed said.

Tony straightened, his expression shifting from amused to focused. "A way off the island?"

Eluheed nodded. "It's a crazy plan, but it might work, and it's all we have."

"How?" Tony asked. "We can't even get out of the harem, let alone off the island.

Are you thinking about sneaking into one of the ships delivering crews and building materials?

I'm sure the port is heavily guarded, so even if you could figure a way out through those double fences and immortal patrols, it would be futile. "

It seemed like Tony had given escape a lot of thought and had arrived at the same conclusions as Eluheed. There was no way out. But he didn't know about the submarine. No one did.

Well, Areana might know about it, but Eluheed wasn't sure of that.

"Navuh has a tiny submarine," Eluheed said, keeping his voice barely above a whisper. "It's hidden in a secret pen and accessible from a tunnel that connects the harem to Navuh's mansion."

Tony blinked. "How could you possibly know that?"

This was the tricky part. Eluheed had kept his abilities hidden from everyone except Tamira and Navuh. But if they were going to risk their lives together, Tony and Tula deserved the truth—or at least part of it.

"I have certain paranormal abilities," Eluheed said. "By touching a person, I can see events in their future or past. Lord Navuh uses my abilities frequently, and I accidentally accessed information he certainly didn't intend for me to see."

"Are you a seer?" Tula asked as if that hadn't been what he'd just said. "That's such a rare ability. No wonder Navuh has been giving you preferential treatment."

"I'm useful to him." Eluheed chuckled. "He hates it that he needs to let me touch him to get the visions. You should see his face every time he rolls up his sleeve and offers me his arm. He looks like he just stepped on manure."

That got a laugh out of Tula. "I know the expression you are describing."

Tony leaned forward. "So, you're saying that you can read people's minds when you touch them?"

He was obviously concerned about the many times their arms or thighs had brushed during their work in the gardens, but that wasn't how Eluheed's gift worked.

"Visions don't just pop into my head when I brush against someone. It needs to be intentional, and I have to concentrate and summon a vision. It helps if the person opens up to me, but it's not necessary."

Tony let out a breath. "That's a relief. So, what do you see when you summon a vision?"

"I get impressions, images, sometimes a chain of events, but it's not always clear or complete.

Some visions are clearer than others, though, and the submarine was very vivid.

Navuh keeps it as a last resort escape route for him and Areana.

The craft is tiny, but I couldn't discern if it can seat two, three, or four people. "

Tula glared at him. "So, why are you raising our hopes when you are not sure you even have space for us?"

"Because we will make room for you no matter what," Tamira said. "We'll cram into that vehicle. We don't need to get far from the island to surface and get comfortable. There are thousands of small islands in the Indian Ocean, so getting to land shouldn't take long."

Tony shook his head. "I still have a hard time believing Elias's seer story." He looked at Eluheed. "Can you prove it? Can you touch me and see something in my past or future that will convince me you can actually do it?"

This was dangerous territory. What if he saw their escape plan foiled? What if he saw them getting caught?

The probability of those scenarios was high, and if that was what he saw in Tony's future, they would have to bury their plan along with the hope that accompanied it.

"Give me your hand," he said, extending his.

Tony placed his hand in Eluheed's, but the connection didn't form right away.

Tony wasn't a powerhouse like Navuh, and instead of the vision slamming into Eluheed's mind, like it usually did with Navuh or the enhanced soldiers, it started slow and hazy.

Images flooded, but they weren't of the future.

Tony looked much younger, more innocent, and in love with a girl who wasn't Tula.

She was young, seventeen or eighteen, with long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, and red-rimmed glasses perched on her upturned nose. Her figure was long and willowy, and she was leaning over a computer screen, explaining something to Tony, who looked at her with awestruck eyes.

Her name rose to the surface—Aya, no, it was Kaia. She was too brilliant, too accomplished, too young, and not interested in Tony as a boyfriend.

Eluheed pulled his hand back, the connection severing. "I saw a tall, blonde girl with glasses. Seemed to me like she was a fellow bioinformatician. You were in love with her, but she was too young, a prodigy. Her name was Kaia."

Tony's face had gone pale. "That's not possible. I didn't tell anyone about her."

"Oh, who cares about Tony's old flame?" Tula snapped, her patience clearly wearing thin. "We have bigger problems than his former lovers."

"We were never lovers," Tony said defensively. "We were friends. Colleagues."

"It doesn't matter either way," Tula said. "What matters is whether this submarine actually exists, and since Elias proved that he can look into your mind, I believe that what he saw in Navuh's was real as well. How do we get to it?"

Tamira leaned forward. "The submarine is in a tunnel that connects Navuh's bedroom in the mansion to his quarters here in the harem, and I know how to get in, but there are surveillance cameras in the tunnel. The moment we enter, he'll know."

"What kind of cameras?" Tony asked. "How many? What's the setup?"

"We don't know," Eluheed admitted. "Do you know anything about surveillance?"

Tony was quiet for a moment. "Hassan has the architectural plans. They would show the electrical systems, and hopefully, include the surveillance network."

"Can you access them?" Tamira asked.

Eluheed nodded. "Hassan and I are on friendly terms." He turned to Tony. "We can go together, and one of us will distract him while the other will go over the plans."

"Or you can touch him," Tony suggested. "He doesn't need to know why you're doing that. You might invent some skin condition that you suspect he has."

Eluheed was impressed with Tony's improvisation. It would have never occurred to him to fake a skin condition to extract a vision, but then he'd been raised to live truthfully, so things of that nature weren't instinctual for him.

"I don't control what I see, so chances are that I won't get anything useful. The vision might be about Hassan's old flame, or his life outside the island. The only types of visions I routinely get are of betrayals. For some reason, the universe is generous in showing me those."

"You never know what you'll learn from touching him," Tony said. "And while you keep him busy pretending to ruminate over his skin condition, I will find the surveillance plans."

"That sounds like a good plan," Tula said. "Is there anything I can do?" She turned to Tamira. "By the way. How did you find the secret tunnel access in Areana's room?"

"I confronted her about it," Tamira said.

"We all suspected that Navuh had a secret tunnel he was using to travel between the mansion and the harem, and since we never saw him enter or leave, we guessed that it was in his and Areana's quarters in the harem.

I told her that all of us need to know where it is in case of an emergency, and she showed me. "

"When was that?" Tula asked.

"Yesterday. She promised to show it to all the ladies, so you are probably next."

Tula shook her head. "After everything I sacrificed for her, she should have shown me that a long time ago."

Eluheed wondered what Tula had sacrificed for Areana, but he didn't dare to ask.

"The cameras are just one problem," he said, changing the subject back to what they should be talking about. "None of us know how to operate a submarine, so that also might prove a problem."

Tony waved a hand in dismissal. "That shouldn't be too difficult. I drove all kinds of vehicles when I was still free, and it's mostly intuitive. I just hope that Navuh left the keys inside."

"Keys?" Tamira asked.

"It's a figure of speech. The submarine is most likely locked, and a key is needed to enter, either an actual key or a code. We will need to figure out which one it is and disable or bypass it."

Tula let out a breath. "That's not the kind of information you can find in Hassan's office. How will you know?"

Tony shrugged. "No clue. We will tackle each problem when we get to it."

"That's not a plan. That's suicide," Tula nearly shrieked, but then slumped her shoulders. "We are all going to die. Navuh will find out and execute all of us."

"He won't," Eluheed said. "I had a vision about Tamira free and reunited with her son in New York. And if she survives, chances are that the rest of us will as well."