"Not really," Tamira said. "Tula told us that you were not dead, and that your suicide had been staged. We were all overjoyed to hear that, but we would love to hear the entire story and not just the highlights Tula gave us. We had no idea that you were a spy. Well played, Carol." Tamira clapped her hands. "Very well played indeed."
"Thank you." Carol patted her bouncy curls. "I think so too, and I would love to tell you about my crazy adventure in excruciating detail when I come to visit you in the village. Lokan and I are staying at the keep right now, which is the clan's facility in downtown Los Angeles where Areana and Navuh will be taken when they arrive, but I promise to come visit once you get settled in your new homes."
"When are they arriving?" Beulah asked.
Lokan checked his watch. "Her plane should land in about ten minutes. We're waiting to see our mother, but the rest of you should get going."
"A van is waiting," Wonder said, pointing to a large vehicle parked next to the hangar.
Tula followed Wonder's gaze, and her breath hitched. "Onidu?"
He bowed in acknowledgment.
"Onidu!" Tula rushed toward the Odu, throwing her arms around him.
Onidu returned the embrace with a broad grin that transformed his almost human features into an expression that was indistinguishable from the real thing. "Lady Tula. I am so happy to see you. You have grown into a beautiful woman."
"You remember me?"
"Of course. I never forget a face."
"But I don't look the same."
Onidu smiled. "It is a simple calculation to transpose the face of a child onto the adult version of her."
"If you say so." She clapped him on the back as if he were a real man.
She thought of Okidu, who'd climbed that cliff to secure the rope that had saved them all. He was on the other plane with Navuh and the Guardians, another level of security in case Navuh managed to do something. The Odus were not susceptible to his type of mind manipulation. The only way to affect them was to change their programming, and that could only be done by their current master.
After saying their goodbyes to Kalugal, Lokan, and their families with quick hugs and promises to see them soon, they got inside the van that Onidu was driving.
Wonder settled beside Tula in the back row, and Tony didn't dare to protest, choosing a seat next to Rolenna.
Before the door had even closed, they were already talking over each other.
"Tell me everything about the rescue?—"
"Tell me about the village?—"
"Is it really safe?—"
They both stopped and laughed.
"You first," Wonder said.
"No, you. We never had time to talk at any length. I want to know everything, from the moment you decided to run away and why."
"That's such a long story." Wonder sighed, casting a quick glance at the back of Esag's head. Thankfully, he was sitting in the front. "But we have time now. All the time in the world."
Time. What a strange concept. In the harem, time had been something to endure, to survive, stretching into eternity not as a promise but as a curse.
Now it felt like a gift.
As Onidu pulled the van onto a road that wound through an unfamiliar California landscape, Tula and Wonder did their best to catch up on five thousand years.
Wonder talked about the unbearable heartache of Esag's wedding announcement, about dressing up as a man and joining a caravan heading out to Egypt. About the earthquake, about trying to save people from plunging to their deaths and being knocked over by a falling wagon. She talked about waking from stasis, about the confusion and fear and eventual adjustment. About not remembering her own name or where she came from, and adopting a name a child called her, thinking that she was Wonder Woman from the movie. She told Tula about the men she'd killed in self-defense, and about running away by hiding on a ship to America. She continued her extraordinary tale of how she had worked as a bouncer at a club and captured Doomers who were hurting human females, and thinking Anandur was one of them when he'd come to investigate their crimes. She talked about falling in love with him, and how he'd pretended not to be able to escape just to be with her.
Tula talked about the journey up north with Areana, about Navuh intercepting them on the way, and about watching Areana fall in love with him.
