Page 98 of Dark Shaman: Eternal Hope
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. Andthey'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."
