Page 19 of Dark Shaman: Eternal Hope
Eluheed crossed the anteroom into the seating area, his footsteps muffled by thick Persian rugs. He couldn't see cameras, but he was sure they were tracking his movements. Hopefully, there were none in the bedroom.
He had to believe that Navuh drew the line at surveilling his and Areana's bedchamber. He also suspected that was where the entrance to the secret tunnel was located.
The bedroom was massive, dominated by a four-poster bed that could have comfortably accommodated six. The walls were adorned with pale silk wallpaper featuring a subtle pattern of vines and leaves. Eluheed set the fern down carefully on the floor, then straightened, rubbing his lower back as if the weight had strained it, just in case there were cameras in the bedroom as well.
This gave him the perfect excuse to walk around the room, stretching and examining the space from different angles. "Where would you like to live?" he murmured to the plant, playing his role even though no one was watching. "Perhaps in that corner where I can put you under a daylight lamp?"
As he circled the room, he paid careful attention to the walls. The silk wallpaper was perfectly applied everywhere.
Except—there.
Along the north wall, near what appeared to be a built-in bookshelf, the pattern didn't quite align. It was subtle, the kind of thing that could easily be explained by moisture warping from the recent floods. The seam where two pieces of wallpaper met showed a gap of perhaps two millimeters, and the molding at the base had a similar discontinuity.
Eluheed got closer, pretending to examine whether the corner was a good location for the large plant. The bookshelf was built into the wall, its shelves filled with leather-bound volumes that looked purely decorative. The proportions were off. The bookshelf was shallower than it should be, given the wall's thickness.
His fingers itched to press along the seam, to search for whatever mechanism might open what he was increasingly certain was a hidden door. But the fear of alarms kept him still. Navuh might not have cameras in his bedroom, but that didn't mean there weren't other security measures. Pressure sensors, infrared beams, and who knew what else?
"I think you'll be happiest over there," he told the fern, carrying it back to its original position. "If Lady Areana doesn't like it, I can move you later."
He spent another few minutes adjusting the plant's position and picking off a few dead fronds. He still needed to bring the daylight lamp, which would give him another excuse to come up here. But the problem of the potential alarm remained, and he didn't know how to solve it.
As he headed out, an idea struck him. Hassan, the engineer overseeing all the restoration work, would have the architectural plans of the harem. He had to have them in order to supervise the restoration work. The question was whether he would be willing to show them to Eluheed.
The excuse came to him fully formed, so perfect he almost smiled. The indoor garden's irrigation system had been damaged in the earthquake, and he needed to understand the drainage patterns to prevent future flooding of the plant beds.
Nodding to the guard on his way out, he even received a grunt of acknowledgment. The man had no idea he'd just allowed someone to scout what might be the only escape route from this underground prison.
Hassan's office was on the sixth level, and it was now the command center for the restoration efforts that were still going on despite the residents moving back in.
Eluheed found the engineer bent over a tablet, comparing something on the screen to a physical blueprint spread before him.
"Hassan," he called from the doorway. "Do you have a moment?"
The engineer looked up, his weathered face showing the fatigue of weeks of non-stop work.
"Elias." Hassan straightened, stretching his back much as Eluheed had pretended to do earlier. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm concerned about the irrigation system in the indoor garden on the second level." Eluheed stepped into the cluttered office. "The earthquake damaged some of the drainage pipes, and while Tony and I repaired what we could, I want to make sure we're not creating future problems."
Hassan nodded. "Water damage is insidious. It can take months or even years to show up. What specifically concerns you?"
"I need to understand how the water flows through the structure." Eluheed moved closer to the blueprint on the table. "If we're overwatering or if there's inadequate drainage, we could cause problems for the levels below."
"Smart thinking." Hassan pulled out a roll of blueprints from a tube beside his desk. "You can find the complete plumbing and drainage systems in these."
"Great." Eluheed lifted the tube and walked over to one of the tables that wasn't overly cluttered. "Do you mind if I take a look over here? I don't want to take your time."
Hassan waved a hand. "Go ahead. Just put them back in the tube when you are done. The moisture level in the structure is still too high, and I don't want the blueprint pages to stick to each other. We only have two sets of those."
So, there was another set. That was good to know.
Eluheed spread the blueprints out and started leafing through them one by one, then going back to look at them again. "I'm trying to understand what I'm looking at," he murmured toexcuse his interest in pages that had nothing to do with drainage. Especially the structural plan of the first level.
The area he'd identified in the bedroom was marked as "structural support," but it was far too large for a simple load-bearing column. It was rectangular, about three feet by seven feet—the size of a doorway and a small landing.
"Why are you looking at the plans for the first level?" Hassan asked.
"I want to make sure we're not creating problems for the lord and lady's quarters."
