She was about to begin when she felt a hand on her shoulder. A large, familiar hand.
Still, the surprise caught her off guard, and she jumped.
The disembodied hand squeezed her shoulder lightly, reassuring her.
"What happened?" Burda asked.
"I thought I felt a bug bite." Sullha rubbed her neck right next to where Yaaf's fingers still lingered on her shoulder, brushing against them to let him know that the message was received.
The women were watching her.
Sullha took a deep breath. "Teaching and volunteer positions are not the real reasons I asked you to come here this evening."
Next to her, Saphira shifted, and Sullha could feel her frown even though she wasn't looking at her.
"It's not?" she asked.
"No. I mean it's true that the children need more teachers, and Saphira and I have been talking about how to expand theschooling program for some time, but I have to admit that it was just the pretext for the meeting."
The women stared at her, some with surprise or alarm, others with a knowing look indicating that they'd been expecting a twist.
"What I'm about to say cannot leave this circle. No one outside the eleven of us can know what is said here. I need each one of you to vow never to mention this to anyone who's not here today. Our lives depend on your discretion."
It wasn't necessary since Yaaf was going to thrall or compel them or whatever it was that he did to make them keep this confidential, but she wanted the women to commit, and the first step was to get them to vow.
"What do you want us to do?" Asira asked.
"Put your hands over your hearts and vow on your eternal soul to keep what is about to be said here a secret."
Her mother shook her head. "Do you really believe that you can trust a vow made by a slave? They could say anything you ask them to say and then run to betray you to the nearest guard in exchange for some trinket."
It wasn't anything Sullha hadn't thought herself, but having it said so bluntly, so bitterly, carried a punch.
"I don't know every woman in this circle well, but I don't believe any will betray me after they hear what I have to offer. I believe that each one of you still retains enough self-respect to stand by her vows, and that's why they will suffice."
She waited until all the women put their hands over their hearts and mumbled their version of a vow. She didn't even payattention to the particular words they used because her mother was right and words didn't mean much.
She took another breath and prepared to say the sentence she'd been rehearsing since this morning.
"There is a way off the island. A path to freedom."
The stunned silence that followed wasn't a surprise. None of them had ever imagined hearing such words uttered in the enclosure.
"In two nights' time, a team is going to come to get us out of here and then off the island. They will take us to a safe place where we will get all the support we need. We will never have to go back to the breeding building, our children will grow up to be free to choose their fate, and no one will come for them to either take them to a training camp or the breeding building."
Karina's mouth had opened, then closed, and the others were in a similar state of shock.
Asira reached for her mother's hand, and Baruha took it without looking.
Rohilah tightened her arms around Bianca, who must have sensed the gravity of the moment and hadn't made a sound.
Saphira didn't seem surprised. She had been suspecting something, but she couldn't have guessed this.
Leehy had not moved. Her eyes were still on Sullha's. The small red glow that Sullha had seen behind her mother's eyes on the bench by the laundry was visible now, and it was brighter than it had been the first time.
"How?" Karina asked, and the word came out cracked.
"I cannot tell you the operational details. There are things I don't know, and there are things I do know that I'm not going to share, because the more each of you knows, the more dangerous it is for all of us. What I can tell you is that the plan is real, and the decision of whether to come or stay is yours. I think we have a very good chance of getting out of here, and I'm willing to risk it so my son can grow up to be whoever he wants to be and not another soldier for the Brotherhood's army."
