The truth was that she could not participate in those virtual adventures unless she chose a solo one, and that did not appealto her. Once she got her Khiann back, they could try that marvelous technology together.
"By the way," Toven said. "Did Navuh ask you about your newfound siblings?"
She shook her head. "He has shown no awareness of their existence, but he might be just faking indifference. I find it hard to believe that Areana never told him about them. I did not prohibit her from doing so."
"She didn't," Kian said. "After you told Syssi and me about your plan, I had the surveillance recordings from Navuh's room reviewed specifically for that. The techs reported that Areana never mentioned the twins. She never mentioned the Kra-ell either."
A beat of silence settled over the room.
Annani had not expected that.
She had assumed that Areana shared everything with Navuh. After all, she spent long hours with him every day, and she needed to fill those hours with something. Besides, Annani suspected that Navuh demanded that Areana tell him everything she learned.
And yet, Areana had said nothing about the twins or the Kra-ell.
The discovery that she and Annani had siblings from the home planet, and the existence of an entire alien species that had been living on Earth in secret, were monumental revelations, and yet she had kept silent about that with her truelove mate.
Toven cast her a reproachful look. "Why didn't you prohibit her from talking about them?"
"It never occurred to me to do so because I never expected Navuh to be free again. Who would he tell?"
"That could have been a dangerous omission," Kian remarked, "but since we are not planning on letting Navuh go, it's not an issue."
"Maybe Areana anticipated that it could create a problem," Toven said. "Maybe she realized that we would not be able to release him if he knew about the Kra-ell and your half-siblings from the home planet. Areana may have understood that keeping Navuh ignorant was the only way to preserve the option of his release."
It was a sophisticated analysis, and it gave Areana credit for a level of strategic thinking that Annani was not sure her sister possessed.
She leaned back in her armchair. "I doubt it has occurred to her that I would want to guard this information. Areana is smart, but she is not a political strategist. She has spent thousands of years in the harem, isolated from the world and kept deliberately ignorant."
"Don't underestimate Areana," Toven said. "She is much more astute than people give her credit for, and she has learned a thing or two about cunning from Navuh over the millennia."
Annani nodded. "Areana is cunning. It is easy to forget when looking at her angelic face and quiet demeanor. She's navigated Navuh's moods, manipulated him in a way that did not appear manipulative in order to improve the lives of everyone in the harem, from the other ladies down to the serving staff. He gave her almost complete autonomy to rule the harem as she pleased.Still, I am surprised that she has not told him about Ell-rom and Morelle and the Kra-ell."
"She was very aware of the cameras in the room," Kian said. "When I asked Areana whether she had told Navuh about your theory that Mortdh had not killed Khiann and that the witnesses lied, she said she had not, and when I challenged her further, she suggested that we check the surveillance feed. She knew that everything she said in that room was recorded, and we would know everything she told him."
Toven nodded. "As I said, underestimating Areana is a mistake. She knows she's being watched, and she uses that knowledge to her advantage. Every word she speaks in that room is chosen with the understanding that someone else will hear it. She's playing a long game."
"There could be another explanation for why Areana isn't telling Navuh everything," Mia said. "She has spent thousands of years under his control, but now she's free, and he is not, and she's choosing what to share and what to keep to herself. Maybe it's not about political calculations but about the fact that for the first time in their thousands of years of matehood, she gets to decide what he knows. That's power, and maybe she likes having it back. After all, she hasn't been Navuh's truelove mate her entire life. She enjoyed full autonomy before Ahn offered her to Mortdh to take Annani's place as his wife."
"She volunteered," Annani said softly. "And I owe her for that."
"You owe her nothing." Kian's eyes blazed with anger. "Her so-called sacrifice gave her thousands of years with her truelove mate, while you had mere months with yours before he was either murdered by Mortdh or swallowed by the desert sands."
8
SYSSI
"Mommy!" Allegra kicked her feet against the car seat and pointed at a passing truck with the intensity of a tiny explorer who had just discovered a new continent. "Big truck!"
"Yes, sweetie. That is a very big truck," Syssi confirmed from the passenger seat.
"Big truck!" Allegra repeated, apparently satisfied that the observation had been properly validated, and turned her attention to the window in search of the next vehicular marvel.
In the car seat beside her, Evie was fast asleep, her head tilted at an angle that would have given an adult a neck cramp for a week. Children were miraculous in their ability to sleep anywhere, in any position.
Amanda glanced at her daughter in the rearview mirror and smiled. "I give her ten minutes after we get home before she's wide awake and demanding that Dalhu take her to the playground. But first, she will want a snack. She's always so hungry when we get home."
"We need to talk to Nancy about their lunches. They are so eager to play that they don't finish their food. She should be firmer with them."
