"Nothing much," Wonder said. "Only that he's Tamira's guy and that he and Tamira came up with a plan of escape and invited Tula and Tony to join them when Tula revealed that she was pregnant. That makes him a good guy in my book."
"This is getting complicated," Turner muttered.
"It was always going to be complicated," Annani said. "We are integrating into our community a goddess and seven immortal ladies who have lived in seclusion for thousands of years. They will need a lot of help adjusting to modern life."
"That's eleven newcomers, including Navuh," Kian said.
"Navuh doesn't count as integration." Onegus crossed his arms over his chest. "He's a containment."
"He is family," Annani countered, and there was warning in her voice. "By marriage, by mate bond, but he is still family. He is also Kalugal and Lokan's father. Let us not forget that. We may not like it, we may need to take precautions, but we will learn to live with him."
Kian suddenly brightened. "I know what we will do. Navuh is Kalugal's father, and Areana is his mother. I'm sure he will want his mother to live right next to him. I'll task him with building a prison house for his father."
Annani smiled. "You see? You are already thinking creatively."
She walked toward the door but paused before leaving. "When you have the time, schedule a council meeting and the big assembly. I will present the case to our people."
17
TULA
As Tula followed Okidu through a maze of narrow corridors and exposed pipes, she noted absentmindedly that everything was painted in that industrial gray that seemed designed to suck hope from the soul. Or maybe that was just her exhaustion talking. Two and a half hours underwater, holding on to a scooter for dear life and breathing through a contraption, was not something she wanted to repeat anytime soon.
Or ever.
They were free, though. Nothing else mattered.
The sweet taste of freedom washed out the foul taste of seawater and the mouthpiece she had been breathing through.
It was a pity that she was too tired to jump for joy.
A figure walked toward them, and Tula's breath caught.
Esag.
Even in the dim fluorescent lighting, even after five thousand years, he was still devastatingly handsome. That red hair thathad driven all the girls wild, those features that belonged on a statue, the tall, lean frame that was a little more muscular now than what she remembered. But something fundamental was missing. The mischief that had danced in his eyes, the charm that had made him irresistible, the easy confidence that had made everyone want to be near him, including her sister, all of that was nowhere to be seen.
What stood before her was a beautiful shell, hollowed out by millennia of guilt.
It was sad, really. Pathetic even. Part of her wanted to feel satisfaction at seeing him brought low, but she was too tired for that kind of emotional investment. Maybe later, after she'd slept, when her brain could process anything beyond basic survival, she'd let herself feel the anger that had simmered for so long. The rage at what he'd done to Gulan, how he'd broken her heart and destroyed their family in the process.
But not now.
"Tula." He sounded uncertain, and she couldn't remember him ever sounding like that.
It was true that the last time she'd heard him talking was five thousand years ago, and she shouldn't remember what he had sounded like, but she remembered it as vividly as if it had been last week.
He held out a bundle of folded clothes. "These probably won't fit, but they are dry and clean."
She looked at the bundle and then back at his face. "Are they yours?"
"They're not. I gave mine to Lady Areana. One of the crew members donated these."
She took them, noting how careful he was not to let their fingers touch. "Thank you." She switched to the old language. "And thank the crewman who was so kind as to part with his clothing so I could wear something dry."
Esag smiled. "I barely use it anymore," he replied in English. "Especially now that I live among Annani's people."
She turned to ask Okidu about where she could change, but the Odu had disappeared while she'd been talking to Esag.
