"Tony." She shook his shoulder gently. "Tony, wake up."
Nothing. Not even a mumble or a shift in position.
She shook harder. "Tony, you need to get up. Now."
Still nothing.
"Is your shroud affecting him?" She looked back at Yamanu, who was studying Tony with curious eyes. "He's human. Could your shroud be keeping him asleep?"
Yamanu shook his head. "My shroud isn't meant to make people sleepy. It's meant to make them not see or hear anything out of the ordinary. Your guy is just drugged."
"What are we going to do?" She half expected Yamanu to say that it wasn't his problem.
Tony was her problem to solve.
"Give me a second." The Guardian headed for the bathroom, and then she heard water running. He emerged with a soaking wet towel. "This usually works."
Before she could protest, he dropped the cold, wet towel directly onto Tony's face.
Tony shot upright, gasping and sputtering, his hands clawing at the towel, and as he got free of it, his eyes were wide with panic. When he finally focused on her, sitting next to him on the bed wearing a still-damp swimsuit with a huge stranger looming behind her, the panic shifted to terror.
"Tula?" His voice came out rough, confused. "What—who?—"
"There's no time to explain," she said in a rush. She couldn't tell him now that she'd been planning to leave him behind and that she'd drugged him to keep him from coming after her. "This is Yamanu. He's here to save us. All of us. Navuh is severely injured, and this is our one opportunity to escape the island."
Tony blinked, still processing, water from the towel dripping down his neck. "Navuh is injured? How? What happened?"
"I'll explain on the way. Get up and get dressed." She stood and walked over to the wardrobe to get clothes. A pair of pants, a long-sleeved shirt, the sturdiest shoes she owned, which were unfortunately just simple ballet flats. They were completely impractical for what she was about to do, and she'd probably lose them in the ocean, but that was the least of her worries.
The things she needed to say to Tony on the way were of much greater concern.
As Tony stumbled out of bed, she took her clothes and ducked into the bathroom to change. She'd barely gotten out of her wet swimsuit when the door opened, and Tony walked in.
"I need to pee," he said, but his eyes were desperate for answers. "Tula, what the hell is happening? Who is that man? Why wereyou in a swimsuit and wet? Don't tell me you went for a midnight swim in the pool and met this Yamanu guy there, doing laps in scuba gear."
At least he still had his sense of humor, which was impressive given that he was still groggy from being drugged. Tony certainly had his pluses, but his biggest minus was his humanity, closely followed by a lack of spine.
"No, I didn't go for a midnight swim. I'll explain everything on the way," she promised, pulling on her shirt. "We need to hurry."
She escaped the bathroom before he could ask more questions. She wouldn't evade them for long, and she would soon have to see the hurt that would inevitably fill his eyes when he learned the truth, or at least part of it. Some truths were better left buried. But she could postpone it by a few minutes.
Yamanu was sitting on her couch, soaking it with his wet diving suit, but why would either of them care? She was never going to see that couch again, and she wasn't going to miss it either.
Now that she was taking all of her people with her, there was nothing she would miss about this place.
"The others are probably at the cliff by now," he said. "We should hurry."
She nodded, trying not to think about the impossible logistics of what they were about to attempt. Then again, she'd already lived through the impossible tonight.
Tony emerged from the bathroom, dressed but still looking shaky. He hadn't combed his hair, and it was sticking up at odd angles from its encounter with the wet towel Yamanu haddropped on him, and there was a red mark on his cheek from how he'd been sleeping.
He looked vulnerable and very human.
"Ready?" she asked.
"I don't understand anything that's happening, but yes." He reached for her hand, and she let him take it. One last comfort before she had to hurt him with the truth.
They headed out into the corridor, Yamanu walking a few steps behind them, giving them the illusion of privacy.
