Page 64 of Dark Shaman: Eternal Hope
He tried to keep his face neutral, but she knew him too well.
"You weren't there." Her voice had gone flat, all the joy draining away. "In this vision of my freedom, my reunion with my son—you weren't there."
"The vision was about your future," he said. "They usually focus on one person, showing what matters most to them. My absence doesn't mean that I didn't make it out. I could have been somewhere else while you were enjoying New York with Darien."
"Stop." She stood abruptly, pacing away from him before spinning back. "Don't lie to me."
Did she know how grievous an insult it was to hear her accuse him of lying?
She should because he'd told her, but she was emotional right now and thinking in human terms, or rather, immortal terms. Neither had a problem with deception, and some elevated it to an art form.
"I'm not lying," he said as calmly as he could. "I'm telling you that visions are incomplete by nature. They show fragments, moments. I might have been somewhere else in the city. I might have been the one who helped you find him. I might have been fulfilling my other obligations. Don't read too much into this."
Still, even as he said it, he knew she heard the hollow ring in his words. None of them were meant to deceive, and they might have been true, but the vision had felt complete in the way true visions did—not showing everything, but showing what mattered. Tamira and her son, free in the world, building a relationship that had been stolen from them.
Without Eluheed.
He leaned over to drain some of the water again, but before he had a chance to re-plug the tub, Tamira moved to sit on the edge next to him and took his hands. "I won't accept a future without you. If the vision shows me free but alone, then we change it. We make a different future."
"Some things can't be changed," he said. "Maybe my part in this story is to get you free. Maybe that's enough."
"Enough?" Her voice rose with indignation. "How can you think I'd want freedom and a new life without you in it?"
He wanted to comfort her, to agree that they'd find another way, but the vision had felt true in a way he couldn't deny. And perhaps it was better this way. If setting her free cost him his life, wasn't that a price worth paying?
She would have her son, her freedom, a chance at the life that had been stolen from her. But even as he thought it, Eluheed remembered his obligation. His precious charges. His sacred duty to protect them, to one day return them to his people. If he died on this island, who would recover them? Who would complete the mission that had brought him to this world in the first place?
No. He couldn't accept death as the price of Tamira's freedom. Not because he feared it, but because his duty extended beyond this world. His charges were the key to his people's survival. He was their guardian, the only one who knew their location, and the only one who could bring them home.
"I have to survive," he said, the realization hitting him with unexpected force. "I have to complete my mission." He couldn't tell her everything, couldn't break the oaths that sealed his lips about the true nature of his tasks, but he could give hersomething. "Remember what I told you about why I came to Earth? The sacred treasures I was meant to protect?"
She nodded.
"If I don't make it out of here, they'll remain lost forever. My people need them. Someday, somehow, I have to complete my mission and bring them home, which means that I have to survive, find a way to retrieve what was buried, and find a way home."
She was quiet for a long moment and then nodded. "We both have to survive. We both have to be free. The vision showed me with Darien, but that's just because you were busy somewhere else and the vision you summoned was about me."
"It's possible," he said, but there wasn't much conviction in his voice.
She shook her head. "Remember the first time we spoke? When I willed you to come to me, and my wish manifested?"
He smiled. "I do."
"I will do it again. I will hold this vision you've given me close to my heart and imagine it manifesting, but I will not stop there. I will imagine you bravely searching for your charges and finding them." She stroked her thumbs across his cheekbones. "I'll make it happen."
Despite his reservations, Eluheed believed her. It was impossible not to. That ferocious willpower of hers would make her dreams manifest.
He smiled. "If anyone can make a dream become a reality, it is you."
Her return smile was brilliant. "Darien is alive. He's free. He's living in New York, of all places. That means Kalugal must have helped him establish himself there. It means there's a whole network of escaped Brotherhood members who've built lives outside Navuh's reach. That means we will have help once we get out of here."
Tamira was right. He hadn't considered the implications, but Darien's presence in New York and his obvious comfort there suggested an established life. Resources. Connections.
"If we can find them," Tamira continued, her voice gaining strength, "they can help us find your treasure. Kalugal is Navuh's son, so he must be smart and resourceful. He also knows how his father thinks and how the Brotherhood operates, enough to remain hidden through all these years. He could be invaluable in keeping us safe from Navuh."
"First, we need to escape," he said. "Then we have to find Darien and his friends without Navuh tracking us. Then we have to convince them to help us."
She smiled again. "I'll just add it to my wish list and make it manifest."
