"Food?" he asked hopefully.
Esag stood immediately, looking grateful for the interruption. "I'll heat something up for you."
"Thank you." Tony cast Esag a grateful smile. "You are a lifesaver."
He sat beside her, close enough that their thighs touched. The casual intimacy of it made her want to pull away. They weren't together anymore, but he didn't know it yet. She'd ended it in her heart before the escape, had been prepared to let him believeshe was dead. She hadn't expected to have this conversation. She wasn't prepared for it.
"You okay?" he asked quietly.
"I'm tired. So tired that I can barely think."
"Yeah, me too. That dive was..." He shook his head. "I still can't believe we did that. That we're here. That we're free."
Free.
That word again. She wondered if any of them really understood what it meant. The submarine was taking them to Annani's clan, where they'd be refugees.
Esag set a tray in front of Tony, identical to what she'd been eating. "There's more if you're still hungry after this."
"This is great, thanks." Tony attacked the food with enthusiasm that suggested he either had no taste buds or was too hungry to care.
"When you are done, I can show you to the bunks," Esag offered.
"I'm ready now," Tula said, pushing her half-eaten tray away. "I just need to sleep."
"You should finish eating," Tony said through a mouthful of pasta. "For the baby."
She wanted to argue, but he was right. She forced down a few more bites, drained the juice box, then stood. The room tilted slightly, because of fatigue or the submarine's movement, she couldn't tell.
"I'm done too," Tony said, shoveling the last of his food into his mouth. "Lead the way."
Esag led them to a room lined with triple-stacked bunks. Several were already occupied, the gentle snoring suggesting some of the ladies had collapsed the moment they'd found horizontal surfaces.
"Take any empty bunk," Esag said quietly. "We should reach Safe Harbor in about ten hours."
"Safe Harbor?" Tony asked.
"The clan's island base. It's where we'll transfer to planes for the final leg to the village."
The village. More unknowns.
"What happens to us there?" she asked.
"You make your life anything you want it to be with the full support of your sister and the entire clan."
"Thank you," she said, because it was polite and because, despite their past, he had been helpful.
Esag nodded and left without another word.
Tony immediately claimed a bottom bunk, patting the thin mattress beside him. "There's room for both of us."
"I need my own space." She chose the middle bunk across from him. It required climbing, which her exhausted body protested, but it put distance between them. "I need to sleep."
"You seem…strange. Are you okay?"
"I'm exhausted. We've just escaped from captivity. We're on a submarine with strangers heading to an unknown future. Nothing about this is okay." She pulled a blanket that smelledlike mothballs over her body. "We'll talk later. When we're somewhere that isn't moving. When my brain works again."
The mattress was thin, the pillow flat, the blanket itchy. But she was horizontal and dry.
