He didn't look convinced, but he let it drop, pulling her against his chest and holding her like she might disappear if he loosened his grip. Which, in less than thirty hours, she would.
Areana walked up to them and cleared her throat. "Tony, would you mind giving us a moment?"
He looked between them, reluctant to leave, but he couldn't say no to the lady in charge of the harem, the lady who was supposedly still trying to organize the escape of four people, not just Tula.
"I'll continue dusting the signatures of that huge poetry book," he said.
Tula forced a smile. "I'll join you as soon as Lady Areana and I are done."
The moment he was gone, Areana's careful neutrality cracked. "What are you doing?" she whispered.
"What do you mean?"
"This." Areana gestured at the space Tony had just occupied. "Clinging to him. Acting like you're trying to memorize every moment. You're going to make him and everyone watching you with him suspicious."
"I can't help it." Tula's voice broke. "He's being so sweet, and I keep thinking about how much I'm going to hurt him."
Areana's expression softened. "I understand, but you need to think clearly. If Tony suspects something is wrong, he will come after you and try to stop you."
The image made Tula's blood run cold.
Tony showing up while she was with Areana, seeing her stage the suicide, trying to intervene. Discovering the truth and confronting her. Or following her down the cliff face and falling to his actual death. After all, he was human, so he would be caught in the same shroud as the guards.
"I'll be more careful," she whispered.
"You need to act depressed and subdued," Areana reminded her gently. "Clinging to your partner like a drowning woman clinging to driftwood is not the behavior of someone planning suicide. It's the behavior of someone saying goodbye."
She was right. But knowing it didn't make it any easier.
"I don't know if I can do this."
"You can." Areana put a hand on Tula's shoulder. "I don't need to repeat all the reasons why. You know them by heart. Just keep repeating them in your head until they take root."
Tula nodded, drawing strength from Areana's certainty. The goddess was sacrificing so much for her, and she was doing so without moping around and acting weird like she was.
Areana's relationship with Navuh was on the line, perhaps even her own safety. The least Tula could do was not waste that sacrifice by failing to play her part the way she was supposed to.
"I'll give you something for Tony that will ensure he stays asleep tomorrow night," Areana said.
"That's a good idea. Thank you."
The goddess put a hand on her shoulder. "Just hold it together for one more day, and then you'll be free."
3
ESAG
The submarine was massive. At nearly two hundred and fifty feet long and over thirty feet wide, the vessel dwarfed the dock workers scurrying around its dark hull. Esag had expected something smaller, more like the tourist submarines he'd seen in travel brochures, but this was a warship, or had been, before Ramirez acquired it and modified it.
Even with his limited knowledge of submarines, Esag could recognize what belonged to the original vessel and what had been added later.
"She's not much to look at," the captain said, running his hand along the rubber tiles that coated the hull to prevent echo. "But she's quiet as death and reliable. We've upgraded her from the original Soviet specs and extended her submerged endurance to forty-eight hours, though we'll need to surface after that to recharge batteries and replenish air."
"Let's hope we don't need forty-eight hours," Anandur muttered.
The submarine's sail rose above them like a dark monolith, and Esag could see where additional equipment pods had been welded to the hull, likely for the diving equipment and inflatable boats they'd need for the extraction.
"How much does a vessel like this cost?" Esag blurted before realizing it might be a sensitive question.
