Chapter 13 Yamanu
YAMANU
Yamanu stood near the cliff's edge, his thrall extending outward like an invisible net, keeping any curious guards or staff away from this section of the grounds.
Given the circumstances, the switch from shrouding to thralling had been a good call and easier to maintain.
Shrouding hid what was happening, but thralling repelled anyone from coming, because the minds of the humans he was manipulating were molded not to think about anything outside their immediate surroundings.
It was like the difference between camouflage and a fence. One required constant visual manipulation, the other simply planted a suggestion: nothing interesting here, better mind your own business and stay where you are.
"Tony should go first." Yamanu turned to Tula. "I'll need your help with the ladies."
Never mind that the bioinformatician's face paled in the moonlight, and that he looked like he might vomit, which wouldn't be ideal, but Okidu wouldn't make a fuss about being puked on.
Tony swallowed hard but nodded. "What do I need to do?"
"Absolutely nothing. That's the beauty of it. Leave everything to the professional climber. You are just a passenger." Okidu should be coming up any moment now. "You wear a harness, he straps you to his back, and down you go. It's just a piggyback ride. Nothing to fret about."
"Just close your eyes," Tula said. "And don't move if you can help it."
Tony swallowed. "I can do this."
After volunteering, he couldn't back down, and besides, this was the only way to get off the island, and it didn't really matter if he was first or last.
Come to think of it, there might be other ways off the island now that Navuh wasn't around, but it was much safer to get out of there before the chaos began. Who knew what the thousands of immortal soldiers would do with no one to restrain them?
As Yamanu thought of all the innocents that would fall victim to the hordes of cruel barbarians, profound sorrow draped over him.
But he couldn't save all of them, just as he and his fellow Guardians couldn't save all the trafficking victims. There were just too many of them for a small group of Samaritans to even make a dent in it, and that was in the United States, where law and order were still supposed to function.
In the vast part of the world, law and order were selectively applied, and never in favor of the weak and the poor.
A few moments later, the Odu's head appeared over the cliff's edge.
In the moonlight, Okidu looked remarkably unremarkable, a middle-aged man with a soft belly, slightly receding hairline, and the kind of face you'd expect to see behind a desk, not scaling a three-hundred-foot cliff.
When he pulled himself over the edge with the effortlessness of an immortal, his round face split into a goofy, delighted smile.
Tula's reaction was pure joy. "Okidu!" She rushed forward and threw her arms around him in a fierce hug that should have at least made him stumble, but the Odu stood solid as stone, with only his goofy grin widening in what seemed like genuine pleasure.
He'd been at the bottom of the cliff when Tula had gotten there before, but she must have been too distraught to notice him.
"That's the expert climber?" Sarah whispered in disbelief. "A middle-aged human?"
"Appearances are deceptive, and he is not human," Tula said, pulling back to look at him. "Okidu is one of the seven Odus who served Princess Annani."
"The Odus?" Beulah's eyes widened, studying the pudgy, harmless-looking man with new interest. "I thought that they were destroyed along with the gods."
Tula shook her head. "They were not, but this is not the time to explain."
"But how is it possible that he's here?" Liliat asked.
"Ladies!" Yamanu lifted his hand. "I understand that you have many questions, and they'll all be answered when you're safely on the submarine. We shouldn't linger here more than absolutely necessary."
He turned to Tony, who'd gone even paler if that was possible. "Ready?"
"Not really."
"Perfect." Yamanu handed Okidu the harness.
The Odu helped Tony into it, checking each buckle and strap.
"You will be secured to me here, here, and here," Okidu explained, indicating the connection points. "You will also be clipped to the rope. The chance of both systems failing simultaneously is statistically insignificant."
"Statistically insignificant isn't zero," Tony pointed out.
"It is approximately 0.0003%."
"That's not helping," Tony murmured. "Not if I happen to be one of the three in a million."
Yamanu watched the ladies' faces as Okidu positioned Tony for the descent. Terror, fascination, and hope warred for dominance in their expressions. He hoped they would calm down when they saw how well it worked.
"Ladies, come closer," he instructed. "Watch the descent and see how secure it is."
They crept forward, though none came all the way to the edge.
Okidu turned his back to Tony. "Climb on."
It took some awkward maneuvering, but soon Tony was positioned on the Odu's back, secured by multiple straps and clips. He looked like an overgrown child getting a piggyback ride from a patient parent.
"Do not move more than necessary," Okidu instructed. "Stay as inert as possible."
"Inert is about all I can manage," Tony muttered.
Okidu moved to the cliff's edge with no more concern than he would exhibit if approaching a curb. He turned, gripped the rope, hooked what needed hooking, and began his descent.
To Tony's credit, he hadn't screamed or even whimpered. He'd remained utterly silent. Perhaps he was praying?
The ladies moved as close to the edge as they dared, watching as the Odu rappelled down the cliff face with Tony on his back.
"Dear Fates," Raviki breathed. "He makes it look easy, but I'm sure Tony is terrified."
"For Okidu, it is easy." Tula sat on the edge, her legs dangling over the drop, and looked down. She was a completely different female now that she was no longer saddled with crushing guilt. "He doesn't get tired, and he doesn't make mistakes. He's done this before. This is how Carol escaped."
What she wasn't telling them was that Okidu could make mistakes, or miscalculate, as had become glaringly evident when he'd fallen off the cliff during Carol's rescue. Miraculously, he'd hit water instead of rocks and had sunk to the bottom.
"Carol escaped?" Rolenna asked.
"She's not dead?" Liliat asked.
"Yes, she escaped, and no, she's not dead," Tula said. "She was rescued the same way we are being rescued now."
"Now I get it," Tamira murmured. "That's what Areana meant when she said that there was another way off this accursed island."
Tula nodded.
Once Okidu and Tony were swallowed by the darkness, the ladies inched away from the edge, and Yamanu put on his night vision goggles to monitor the descent.
The Odu moved with perfect rhythm—controlled falls of ten to twenty feet, catching himself on the rope, repositioning, dropping again.
Tony's face was pressed against Okidu's back, and Yamanu was willing to bet that his eyes were squeezed shut.
"Five minutes," Yamanu announced.
"Will he have to swim?" Liliat asked.
"Okidu will come back up as soon as Tony is off him. Tony will have to tread water or grab onto one of the rocks until the backup team arrives with diving equipment."
"I can't do this." Sarah shook her head. "I'll faint from fright."
"No, you won't." Tula got up and walked over to her. "I admit that it's scary, but you're hooked to a rope and strapped to someone who's very well trained and extremely strong. You just have to trust the system."
Thankfully, Tula was smart enough not to mention that she'd slipped and dangled in the harness the entire way down. The ladies would have freaked out completely.
"Easy for you to say," Raviki muttered. "You're brave and strong."
"I'm pregnant and terrified," Tula countered. "But I'm going down that cliff for the second time tonight because the alternative is staying here. Which would you choose?"
That silenced the objections.
"They're in the water," Yamanu reported, watching through the scope as Tony was detached from Okidu by one of the Guardians who'd remained below. As soon as the harness was back on the Odu's back, he immediately started his ascent again. "One down, eight to go," Yamanu said.
"Who's next?" Beulah asked, though she looked like she hoped it wouldn't be her.
Yamanu considered. The ladies were too frightened to go yet—they needed to see another success first. His eyes landed on Elias, who seemed the calmest of the bunch.
"Elias," he said. "You're next."
The man turned to Tamira, a silent question in his eyes.
She nodded. "I'll be right behind you," she promised.
Elias kissed her quickly, then stepped forward. "What do I need to do?"
"Exactly what Tony did. Nothing. Let Okidu do all the work."
Ten minutes later, Okidu's head appeared again over the cliff's edge.
"Next passenger," he said, his permanent goofy grin still in place.
The harnessing process was quicker this time because Elias had observed how it had been done with Tony and cooperated better with Okidu. Within minutes, they were descending.
"Elias is so brave," Liliat said with wonder in her voice. "How could he not be scared?"
"He's terrified," Tamira corrected Liliat's misconception. "He just doesn't let it control him."
"Your turn next," Yamanu told her.
She nodded. "I'm ready."
The pattern continued. Okidu would descend with a passenger and come back alone. The round trip took seventeen to twenty minutes, depending how quickly the passengers were harnessed and unharnessed once they reached the bottom. It took five minutes to go down, and ten minutes to climb back up.
By the time half the ladies were down, Yamanu spotted movement in the water below. The backup team had arrived.
"Thank the Fates," he muttered, taking off his goggles and turning to the group. "The other team is here. They'll be outfitting everyone with wetsuits and breathing apparatus."
"Breathing apparatus?" Sarah's voice climbed an octave. "We have to swim underwater?"
"Just to reach the submarine. It's not that far."
"Define not that far."
"Would knowing really help?"
She considered this. "No, not really, but we should know."
"About two and a half hours. You can't go as fast as the pros."
Sarah's eyes widened, and she swallowed but said nothing.
What was there to say? They had to do it, so there was no point in complaining, and she was smart enough to realize that.
Yamanu put the goggles back on and watched as the backup team began organizing those already down there. With the two Guardians who'd remained below from the original team, plus himself and Okidu when they got down, that would make...
Yamanu did the math and almost laughed. Nine experienced divers and nine people who needed rescue.
"I'll be damned," he muttered. "My lucky socks did it again."
Drova had received training in diving and climbing while she had still been considered for the Guardian force, but even though she hadn't completed the training, he was sure she'd mastered it.
There was just something about the girl that spelled warrior queen.
If she were born on Anumati, she could have probably challenged the current Kra-ell queen for the throne.
"Socks?" Tula asked.
"Lucky socks. Don't judge me."
"I'm not judging."
Okidu appeared again, ready for his next passenger. They were down to Tula and four other ladies.
His team was waiting in the water, those who had gone down now suited up and ready to go.
The organization was swift and efficient—each newcomer was assigned to an experienced diver.
The two Guardians who'd stayed below had already paired off with Tony and Elias.
The newly arrived divers helped the ladies suit up.
Yamanu couldn't discern which one was Drova from here.
She was as tall as the Guardians, and with all of them wearing identical black wetsuits, it was impossible to tell them apart.
When everyone was down, Yamanu debated whether to pull the rope free or leave it be.
It didn't matter now if anyone discovered the ladies' method of escape or if someone suspected the clan's involvement.
Without Navuh, the island would descend into chaos, and the least of their concerns would be vendetta against the clan for stealing their leader and his harem ladies.
Besides, they were never doing this again.
Everyone they cared for was no longer trapped on the island.
Once again, Yamanu had to remind himself that he couldn't save all the humans from the island, that he had done what he'd come for and more, and that he should be happy with what had been achieved.
"Should I remove the rope, master?" Okidu asked.
"That's what I'm deliberating. What do you think?"
Okidu looked at the rope for a long moment.
"We should not leave it. If in the future we need to infiltrate the island for any reason, it is better if they do not know how the ladies escaped.
They might assume that Navuh threw them all over the cliff in a moment of madness and then jumped after them. "
That was surprisingly creative thinking for the Odu, but then Okidu and his brothers were becoming more sentient by the day.
"Make it so, then." Yamanu waved a hand.