So much could go wrong. She was most likely to fail in her attempt to extract information from Navuh, not because she was a weak compeller, but because he was most likely immune. Otherwise, he would not have survived in Mortdh's court. He must have pretended to be affected by his father's compulsion to gain the god's confidence.
Then there was the electromagnetic pulse that she did not know much about. What kind of damage would it do? Would it hurt the civilians who had been kidnapped and lured to the island? Kian had said that it would not harm people, and that it only affected electronics, but what if it was done while people were operating heavy equipment? There would be loss of life. There always was.
The EMP might also trigger the booby-traps instead of disabling them.
The team might be discovered.
The bodies in stasis might be too fragile to transport.
Any one of those failures could mean losing Khiann forever.
But there was also hope. Real, tangible hope, backed by a plan and resources and capable people willing to risk their lives to make it work.
Annani closed her eyes, reaching for the words that had sustained her through five millennia of grief.
Do not despair, Princess Annani.
Not all is lost.
True love cannot die.
Its fire cannot turn to ice.
Your beloved's love floats in the ether, ready to be reborn.
Khiann will find a way to come back to you in some form.
Seven children will be born to you, all different, but his spirit will shine through their eyes, warm and bright.
And one day, many years from now, he will come to you, and you will know him at first sight.
I saw it all with my blind eyes, my lady, and everything I see with my second sight comes to pass.
The prophecy. Given to her by a blind seer in the darkest hour of her grief, when she had been certain that all was lost.
She had five children. The prophecy spoke of seven.
Two more were yet to come. Two more children who would not only carry Khiann's spirit in their eyes but also, Fates willing, his genes.
If the prophecy was true, then Khiann could not die because he needed to father her two remaining children.
The booby-traps would not destroy him. The transport would not damage him. Whatever obstacles lay between her and her truelove, the Fates would find a way to overcome them.
Because the prophecy demanded it.
Because true love could not die.
38
LOSHAM
The glass enclosure haunted Losham.
He couldn't sleep, his mind churning through the same obsessive calculations it had been running for ten days. The enclosure, the sand, and whatever treasure his father had buried in there that was valuable enough to warrant a fortress of impenetrable glass.
Ten days of drilling, cutting, grinding, hammering. Ten days of noise and dust and absolutely nothing to show for it. The glass laughed at every tool they threw at it, mocking him.
But that ended today.
