Page 44 of Dark Shaman: Eternal Hope (The Children Of The Gods #100)

ELUHEED

T he dining room felt suffocating despite the efficient air conditioning.

Eluheed forced himself to take another bite of eggs, though they tasted like sawdust in his mouth.

Across the table, Tamira was moving food around her plate with the same false attention to eating, while Tula sat pale and tense, holding Tony's hand under the table.

This was it. Their last breakfast in captivity—or their last breakfast alive.

"The indoor garden looks more beautiful every day," Beulah said, directing the comment toward Eluheed. "You and Tony have worked miracles."

"Thank you." Eluheed set down his fork. "But there is still a lot to be done, and we should get back to it." He rose to his feet.

Tony stood as well, wiping his mouth with his napkin. "Elias is a brutal task master."

Eluheed admired the guy's ability to joke under any circumstances. It was a gift.

"He's dedicated," Liliat said with a warm smile, which cut through Eluheed like a knife.

These women had been nothing but kind to him, welcoming him into their family, trusting him. And he was about to disappear without a word, leaving them to face whatever consequences might follow.

"We'll see you again at lunch, ladies," he said with a slight dip of his head, the lie smooth on his lips and guilt churning in his stomach.

As they walked toward the interior courtyard, Eluheed's heightened senses catalogued everything—the soft sound of their footsteps on carpet, the hum of ventilation, the distant murmur of servants busy with their daily routines.

Would this be the last time he heard these sounds?

Or would they become the soundtrack to his execution?

In the garden, they headed toward the large planter where they'd hidden their supplies yesterday, wrapped in waterproof material and buried beneath a transplanted fern.

The door to the garden opened, and Eluheed's heart stopped before he recognized one of the maids heading their way with two tall glasses filled with water.

"Lady Sarah asked me to bring these out to you," the maid said.

"Thank you." Eluheed took the glasses from her. "And please thank Lady Sarah for her thoughtful consideration."

"I will." She dipped her head and turned on her heel.

Tony let out a breath. "I'm not even thirty yet, but my heart feels like it's going to quit on me."

Eluheed shook his head. "Just breathe deeply and imagine success. Tamira says that you need to believe in your goals for them to manifest."

"I'm trying." Tony watched him check the waterproof bundle that held everything they'd managed to gather.

Four flashlights, a rope, wire cutters, a knife, the latex fingerprints, and some basic provisions in case they needed them.

It wasn't much, but it was all they had.

He and Tony weren't even taking a change of clothing.

Space on the submarine was limited, and there were more important things to take.

They hefted the potted fern onto a wheeled cart and waited for the signal.

Eluheed's palms were sweating, and he wiped them on his pants. The moments stretched into infinity, every minute feeling like an hour.

Then he saw them, Tamira with her arm wrapped around Tula, who was hunched forward, one hand pressed to her stomach. They paused at the door, and Tamira caught his eye through the glass and nodded.

It was time.

Areana had arrived at the dining room, which meant that Navuh had left and was traveling through the tunnel.

They didn't have much time.

"Let's get moving," Eluheed said to Tony.

They maneuvered the cart through the corridor to the service elevator, where a guard stood, watching them approach.

"We are delivering this to Lady Areana's quarters," Eluheed said, keeping his voice casual. "She requested another plant for her quarters, bigger than the one I brought her before."

The guard's eyes narrowed slightly. "I wasn't informed."

"The lady must have forgotten," Tony said smoothly. "She made the request last night."

The guard studied them for another agonizing moment, then stepped aside and waved them through. "Don't take long."

The elevator ride up to the first level was short and yet felt interminable. Eluheed counted each second, and beside him, Tony was breathing too fast, on the edge of panic.

"Steady," Eluheed murmured. "Take a deep breath."

When the doors opened on the first level's service corridor, Tamira and Tula were already there, waiting for them, their small packs clutched in their hands.

Tula looked genuinely ill, her face pale and drawn.

"I'm going to handle the guard." Tamira handed him her pack and walked to where the guard was stationed near the entrance to Areana's quarters.

Eluheed watched as she approached the man with confidence and grace that came from millennia of practice.

"I need your exceptional hearing again," she said. "The leak in the garden has gotten worse. I need you to listen very carefully. It is okay if it takes you a long time to locate. This is more important than anything else."

The guard's eyes went slightly unfocused, then he nodded. "Of course, my lady. I'll find it for you."

When he walked away, Eluheed released a breath. There was nothing more between them and the tunnel except the hidden mechanism.

Tamira opened the double doors to Areana's bedroom, and he and Tony maneuvered the cart close to the bookshelf.

"Ready?" Tamira looked at him, her foot hovering over the third rose on the carpet.

He nodded. "Heroes Plot Military Overthrows," he murmured, reaching for the books a moment after the first click sounded. Herodotus, then Plato, then Marcus Aurelius, and then the final one—Ovid—pushed instead of pulled.

The soft click seemed impossibly loud in the quiet corridor.

Nothing happened.

For one heart-stopping moment, Eluheed thought they'd failed, that Areana had somehow changed the sequence or that Tamira had miscounted the roses.

Then the grinding sound began, and the bookshelf cracked open.

"We did it," Tony breathed.

Eluheed grabbed the pack from the planter and pulled out four flashlights, handing them to Tula, Tony, and Tamira. They had to move quickly now, before?—

"That's quite impressive."

The voice froze them all in place.

Areana stood in the doorway to her bedroom, her expression unreadable. She wore a yellow silk gown, her pale hair pulled back, and she looked every inch the goddess she was—beautiful and utterly composed.

Eluheed's mind went blank with terror. They were caught. Everything was over. Navuh would kill them all, slowly, and probably make the others watch.

"Lady Areana," Tamira started, but the goddess raised one pale hand.

"Please, don't insult me with lies." She moved further into the room, her gaze sweeping over the open doorway, the loaded plant cart, and their guilty faces.

"I've known something was happening for days.

I've watched you whispering in corners, seen the looks you exchange.

I feared—" She paused, and something like pain crossed her perfect features.

"I feared you were planning to assassinate Lord Navuh. "

Tula made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "Assassinate him? That's ludicrous. We'd never succeed. We just want to leave. I can't have my baby taken away from me."

Areana's impossibly blue eyes settled on her, and Eluheed saw understanding dawn in them. "You found the submarine."

"Elias saw it in a vision," Tula said, and her voice broke. She stepped forward, away from the others, placing herself between Areana and the rest of them. "This is my fault. All of it. They're doing this for me."

"Tula, no—" Tamira started.

"It's true!" Tula's hands went to her belly, cradling the small swell there.

"I can't deliver my baby on this island.

I can't let them take him away. I can't—" She dissolved into tears.

"I have a feeling it's a boy. I'm always right about these things.

And they'll steal him from me just like they stole all the others.

They'll turn him into another warrior, another killer, and I'll be left with nothing but the memory of holding him for a few precious months. "

She was crying openly now, tears streaming down her face as she sank to her knees before Areana.

"Please," Tula begged, her voice raw. "Please let me go. Let us go. I need a future for him. I need him to grow up free, to choose his own path, to be more than just another soldier in Navuh's army. Please."

Eluheed felt his own throat tighten. This was why they were risking everything—not for themselves, but for the unborn child who deserved better than what this island demanded, for Eluheed's charges that had to be returned home, and for Tamira, who'd never gotten to know her son.

Areana was silent for a long moment, studying Tula's tear-stained face. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft. "You won't be able to use the submarine." Areana's words fell like stones into water. "Even if you somehow manage to get inside."

"We have Navuh's fingerprints," Tony said quickly. "We lifted it from his breakfast glass. We can get in."

Areana's eyebrows rose slightly. "Clever. That will indeed get you past the biometric lock." She paused, and Eluheed saw something like regret in her eyes. "But the submarine won't start for you. It requires a code that only Navuh knows. It's never written down. He has it memorized."

The last embers of hope that had still smoldered in Eluheed's chest fizzled out. Of course, Navuh would have multiple layers of security. The fingerprint was just the first barrier.

They'd been focused on getting past it and had chosen to believe that they would find a way to make the submarine work.

Tula let out a sound of pure anguish, her body folding in on itself. "It's over then. All of this, all the planning, the risk, the hope, it's all for nothing."

She sobbed into her hands, her shoulders shaking. Tony moved to kneel beside her, wrapping his arms around her, but she was inconsolable. The sound of her grief filled the room, raw and terrible.

Eluheed felt his own despair rising.

They'd come so close. The tunnel was right there, open before them. The submarine waited in its hidden cove. But without the code, it was as inaccessible as if it were on another planet.

He thought of his charges, buried beneath Mount Ararat, awaiting his return that would never come. He thought of Tamira's vision of freedom in New York, walking with her son. Had that been real, or just wishful thinking translated into false prophecy?

Areana crossed the space to kneel beside Tula and took the sobbing woman into her arms, cradling her like a child.

Eluheed saw tears glistening in the goddess's eyes.

"Hush," Areana said softly, stroking Tula's hair. "Hush now. All hope isn't lost."

Tula raised her head, her face blotchy and tear-stained. "It isn't?"

"You know that there is another way," Areana said, sounding desolate and hopeful at the same time. "There is another way," she repeated. "I'll get you off this island." She turned to look at him, Tamira, and Tony. "All of you."

Eluheed felt the world shift beneath his feet.

Tula wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "Can they really do that? Rescue all four of us?"

Areana shrugged. "If they did it with one, they can do it with four." She swept her gaze over them again. "The four of you need to return to your duties and pretend that this never happened." She returned her gaze to Tula. "You should have trusted me."

Tula lowered her head. "Forgive me. I didn't think I was worthy."

"Oh, Tula." A single tear slid down Areana's cheek. "Don't you know that you are like a daughter to me? I love you, and I will be inconsolable when you leave, but I will always put your well-being and happiness before mine."