"Don't apologize yet. Save it for when Wonder finds out I let you go back into danger. She's usually a sweetheart, but she can kick ass with the best of them. Do you know that she took down Anandur and Brundar? They are both head Guardians, and Brundar is like a walking weapon, and yet they got their asses handed to them by a nineteen-year-old girl with no training."
Pride swelled in Tula's chest for her formidable sister, but then she realized that Yamanu was referring to Gulan as a nineteen-year-old girl, and her stomach twisted. Gulan, who was nowcalling herself Wonder, had spent five thousand years in stasis, so she was actually twenty-something years old.
She was no longer the big sister.
Now, she was the younger sister.
They were fifty feet up now, maybe more. Tula made the mistake of looking down and immediately regretted it. The ocean was a black void below, occasionally touched by phosphorescence where the waves broke against the rocks.
"Don't look down," Yamanu advised, too late. "Look up. See? We're almost halfway."
Halfway. Which meant they had about a hundred and fifty feet yet to go. Her added weight had to be making this harder for him, but his movements remained steady, rhythmic. Hand over hand, feet finding purchase on tiny ledges she couldn't even see in the darkness.
"What's your plan when we get up there?" he asked.
"Get everyone to come out to the cliff without taking anything with them, which is going to be tough. The ladies are really attached to the books in the library and to the knick-knacks they've accumulated over the millennia, but none of that is worth their freedom. I left almost everything behind. The only things I took were two bracelets and a necklace that Annani had gifted me all those years ago. I wish you could thrall them. It would save me a lot of arguing."
"Do you think anyone will choose to stay?"
"They won't. They know what will happen to them without Navuh ensuring their safety. We all had a close call when the enhanced soldiers rebelled and were attacking Navuh's mansionwhile we were hiding in his basement. I'll just need to remind them of that."
"It will take the backup team about an hour and a half to get here. By then, we need everyone at the cliff's edge and ready to go."
She had about an hour to convince everyone to leave everything behind and follow her into the unknown, but she knew they would come. Tamira, Tony, and Elias would help her convince the others.
"They'll come," she said.
They climbed in silence for a while, the only sounds the whisper of rope against rock and the distant crash of waves. Tula's legs were going numb from the harness, and her arms ached from holding on, but she didn't complain. Yamanu was doing all the actual work.
"You know what the funny thing is?" he said.
"What?"
"Turner is probably going to be annoyed that his perfect plan went sideways, but Kian loves it when the Fates challenge him and reward him with a boon."
"A boon? That's what you are going with?"
"What would you call it?"
"A crazy twist of fate, but I'll take a boon. It sounds much nicer."
"The Fates weave an intricate tapestry that is so big we can seldom see the pattern."
The philosophy lesson was cut short as Yamanu reached the top of the cliff. "Stay still. Let me check if the humans brought immortal reinforcements."
He pulled himself up just enough to peer over the edge, then dropped back down. "It's just the two original guards, looking dazed and confused. Is there anywhere I can send them so they will stay out of our hair?"
Tula wanted to chuckle because Yamanu's hair was longer than hers and gathered in a thick braid. "Make them forget that they have seen anything and send them to check the gazebo and stay there. If you need a description to insert a visual in their minds, it's a circular wooden structure entirely covered by green vines. It's located deep in the gardens."
As soon as the guards headed away from the area overlooking the cliff, Yamanu hauled them both up and over the edge in one smooth motion.
He unclipped her from the harness, and she stumbled when her feet hit solid ground. He steadied her with one hand while unzipping the top of his wetsuit with the other.
"Do you want me to come with you?" he asked. "Or would you prefer for me to wait here?"
"Come with me. There might be more staff to thrall. It's the middle of the night, so that's not really likely, but just in case, I'd rather have you around."
9
