Amanda had explained to him her theory about the affinity immortals and Dormants felt for each other. There could be a good reason why Tula had been with Tony for so long, and why she'd conceived despite using precautions and despite pregnancies being so rare for immortal females.
"He's not a bad person," Tula said. "He's funny and smart and doesn't take himself too seriously. He was also pretty supportive. He just?—"
"Just isn't your truelove mate," Esag finished.
"No. He's not." She sighed. "Still, I feel guilty about hurting him when all he did was love me, but mostly about denying our child a united home."
27
LOSHAM
Losham stood in Navuh's office, staring at the empty chair behind the massive desk. The chair where the most powerful immortal in the world should have been sitting.
But Navuh was gone. Vanished. Most likely dead at the bottom of the ocean because there was simply no other explanation for his and his harem's disappearance.
The bottom line was that he wasn't coming back.
And Losham had a choice to make.
"Have you decided?" Dave asked, or rather, the primary voice among the eight that spoke for the collective. "The longer we wait, the more questions will be asked. We don't want questions."
"No, we do not." Losham turned to face the enhanced soldiers. Eight men stood before him, but their minds worked as one.
Despite their combined neural network, the eight still relied on him to make all the strategic decisions. Perhaps it was because they didn't trust their hive mind to come up with the rightanswers, or perhaps because they knew that their combined experience didn't match his. He'd been doing this for many centuries, while most of the immortals who had been turned into something else were young. Doctor Zhao had chosen young males because their minds were more malleable and pliable, which was probably why they had been able to develop their unique method of thralling that incorporated an element of compulsion.
It was an entirely new way of manipulating minds and strong enough to affect other immortals, which until now, only Navuh, his father, and his grandfather had been able to do.
The two gods were dead, though, and now Navuh was probably dead as well. Losham, regrettably, had not inherited the trait from his father.
"We hide the fact that Lord Navuh is gone," he said. "That would allow for the smoothest transition of power because no one will know who really sits in this chair." He waved a hand at the throne-like seat that used to be Navuh's. "We tell everyone that Lord Navuh has decided to work from the harem for security reasons. Everyone knows that he's paranoid. They will just assume that his paranoia has gotten worse."
Dave's eight faces showed identical expressions of consideration. It was unsettling to see them move in perfect synchronization, as if choreographed.
"That could work," the primary voice said. "The harem is isolated. No immortals are allowed in there other than Lord Navuh and the ladies, and no surveillance feed goes from there to the main security office or anywhere else that we know of. And now he and the ladies are gone."
"Exactly." Losham moved to the window, looking out over the construction sites that dotted the island. Cranes still moved. Workers still labored. The island continued operating as if nothing had changed. "We just need to maintain the illusion. Make people believe Navuh is still in control. You will need to do your thralling mixed with compulsion thing to convince everyone of that."
"That will be no problem," Dave said. "We haven't encountered a mind we couldn't manipulate yet. The power of eight minds combined is as strong as Navuh's compulsion."
It wasn't.
The eight couldn't control the entire island like Navuh had. They were limited by distance and the number of immortals they could manipulate at once. Losham had tested their ability, and it wasn't on par with Navuh's yet. They were still evolving, though. Navuh hadn't started as the incredibly powerful compeller he had become either. His power had grown with age and use, adjusting to the increasing numbers of immortal warriors that he needed to control.
"Let's start with Hakum and the household staff," Losham said. "If they parrot the story that he has simply relocated to the harem, everyone else will follow. Make them forget about breaking down the door to get into his office. The story will be that I was given a key and instructed to run things for him from here. Have Hakum remember that Lord Navuh has given him instructions that, from now on, everything has to come through me. The lord doesn't want to be bothered with the day-to-day operations and wants time to meditate on his expansion plans."
The eight bodies of Dave nodded in approval.
"Do you need Hakum and the others in here or can you do this remotely?" Losham asked.
"We do not need them to be present. We will manipulate Hakum’s mind and the minds of everyone else who was here and witnessed the door breaking. Would you like us to include your assistant in the mind sweep?"
Losham shook his head. "I trust Rami with my life."
"As you wish," came the synchronized answer.
The door to Navuh's office had been repaired and looked as good as new, and no one could go to the harem to verify that Lord Navuh was or wasn't there without actually getting permission from Lord Navuh himself, which they naturally would not get.
Losham wondered if Navuh's phone was somewhere in the harem. He needed to get to it before any of his brothers decided to search for their father that way. There was no signal, so it was more likely that the phone had gone into the water along with its owner, but he had to check to make sure.
