Page 97 of Dark Shaman: Eternal Hope
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 pulledback, 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."
