She was quiet for a long moment.
"You used the secret tunnel again."
"Correct. Because the harem is completely isolated and the staff are human and thralled, it's possible to keep up the ruse. Lord Navuh's rule about no immortals allowed in the harem is working in our favor. The same goes for the enclosure. I couldn't have told you all the things I had otherwise."
"You could have thralled me or compelled me, or whatever it is you do."
He shook his head. "If you had contact with other immortals, they could have picked it up from your mind. My compulsionwould have been useless. The only way to mitigate it would have been to thrall you to forget what I told you, but then what would have been the point?"
"True." Her hand returned to the book in her lap. "That's a lot to take in. What you are saying is that the enclosure and the harem are freer than other parts of the island because they are secluded?"
"As strange as it sounds, that's correct. The enclosure and the harem were built to be cages. You and the other women here are kept apart from the immortal males, just as the harem ladies and staff are kept apart from them, and the result is that those are two spheres of this island where information can move freely without fear of it spreading beyond their respective walls."
She let out a slow breath. "This all sounds like a twisted joke."
"And yet, it's all true."
Sullha turned to look at her son. Tomek's sand construction had collapsed, and he was arguing with the girl about whose fault it was, but the fight didn't seem to need adult intervention, and she turned back to Number One.
"So, Lord Navuh is either dead or the captive of the clan, his son Losham is managing things, and you want to help him keep the power. But you are planning to escape the island, so you are worried about him surviving without your help." She shook her head. "Now I understand why you can leave so easily and even take a bunch of women and children with you."
"You were always a quick thinker."
She smiled. "Thank you. My next quick thought is, how are you going to help Losham maintain power while you are gone, andwhether it is really important that he does stay in charge? Is he really better than his brothers? Why not let Kolhood rule the island? He's not going to be worse than Lord Navuh, right?"
He lifted his hand to stop her from firing more questions.
"I can only answer one thing at a time. Losham is the smartest of the brothers, and by a wide margin, but he is not the strongest or the most charismatic. Kolhood wins on those two counts. None of them are good people, but Losham is not as bad as Kolhood and the other two. Under his leadership, things will just continue as they are and not get worse. They might even get better because he's under the clan's control, and they are the good guys."
"You didn't sound sure of that before, I mean, about the clan being the good guys."
"I still can't be sure of that because I don't have enough information about them, but they seem okay, and they promised to help us and whoever we liberate from this island. We will need all the help we can get."
"What's in it for them?" Sullha asked.
"Information, and the enhancement protocols. We are helping the scientists escape as well because we need them to continue supplying the medications we need to take."
He hoped she wouldn't ask about the drugs because he wasn't ready to admit to his full dependency on them.
Sullha was quiet for a long moment. "Will they use the enhancement protocol to make their own soldiers stronger?"
"I don't think so. They just want to know what Navuh has been doing."
She frowned. "Do they want to attack the island? To conquer it?"
"I don't think they can. There are not enough of them. But they said that they want to free all the women and children from the breeding enclosure."
She went very still. "Do you believe them?"
"I believe that they wish to free everyone, but I don't know their military capabilities. My team and I are going to make it easier for them."
"How?"
Now came the part he had been building up to this entire time. "By eliminating the other brothers and securing Losham's position."
"You mean killing them?" She didn't sound shocked or appalled.
"Yes. We have a plan to do that so it will look like Losham had nothing to do with it. That's important so the army will be loyal to him. And then once he rules supreme over the island with no one to oppose his decisions, the clan's compeller can direct him to release those in the enclosure who wish to leave. The Sacred Mothers can stay, although the clan would love to remove them from the island as well. With no mothers, there will be no more immortal warriors for the Brotherhood."
