4. Yaaf
YAAF
S ix of them had mothers on the deck. Two did not.
Yaaf stood near the rail with Number Eight, Bardov, beside him, and the two of them watched the other six's reunions. They felt what the others felt, and unfortunately not all of it was soft and comfortable.
In fact, most of it was awkward and forced.
Dumuz was stiff with Mirumah. Camdor was doing a little better with his sister than his mother, mostly because Asira had taken charge and was doing all the talking.
Armos was emotional, which was surprising, and Tersan was in love with his little sister.
He crouched to Bianca's height, letting the girl pat his face, and mostly ignored his mother, who stood with her hand pressed to her mouth.
"I'm almost glad my mother is not here," Bardov said. "This forced closeness is uncomfortable."
Yaaf nodded in agreement. These women were strangers at this point, and even though he and the others had shielded them with their bodies from flying bullets, it hadn't been done out of love or even a sense of duty.
It had been a simple calculation that their bodies could absorb the bullets, repel them, and heal the wounds.
The mothers and sisters would have died if they hadn't shielded them.
"I know what you mean." Yaaf looked at Sullha.
It was different for him. He'd shielded her and Tomek because he loved her, and by extension he loved her son.
Still, as he felt what the others felt when touched by their mothers and sisters, he wished his mother were among them.
He felt what Armos felt when his mother's hand touched his face, and what moved Camdor when Asira smiled at him and reminded him of the nickname she'd used for him when he was still a boy, still just her brother.
For Yaaf, the subdued emotional landscape was a mercy because his mother was dead.
He reached for memories of her the way a tongue reaches for a missing tooth, out of habit, and found the old smooth absence where she should have been. She had died while he'd been turned into what he was now, and he hadn't been told. He could barely recall her face.
Bardov's situation was different.
Vinnah was alive, but they had left her on the island because she'd joined the Sacred Mothers and couldn't be trusted. The problem was that Bardov was the youngest and he still remembered his mother quite vividly, which meant that the loss hurt.
Perhaps one day they would return for the others. That was what Sullha hoped for.
He turned to look at her, and the empty spot in his chest suddenly didn't feel so empty anymore. He had no mother or sister, but he had Sullha, and she'd told him that she loved him. He might not have a past, but he might have a future with her.
He was free.
All eight of them were.
The island was falling away behind the boat, and no one was pursuing them thanks to the measures the clan had deployed. There was nothing to brace against, and it was unfamiliar territory for him and his seven teammates.
They were depleted. The thralling, the fighting and then the dive had taken all that they'd had to give, and beneath the exhaustion was the anxiety of the pressing timeline and their next drug dose.
The lab equipment was on the boat, but the scientists were in the submarine, and Petrov was in no shape to produce what the eight of them needed.
The sand in the hourglass was running out, and soon the coherence that held the eight of them together would begin to fray.
Yamanu walked over and stood right next to Yaaf and Bardov, waiting for the reunions to be done with before lifting his hand to get everyone's attention.
"I'm sure you are all anxious to hear what happens next." Yamanu looked at Sullha. "I'm not as fluent in the old tongue as I should be, so you will have to translate for me."
She nodded. "Of course."
"First of all, I want you to know that you are all free.
I know that the concept is hard to internalize without experiencing it firsthand, but I want to assure you that from now on, you will never be forced to do anything you don't consent to.
You are free to choose how you want to live your life, and plenty of support will be available to make it possible.
The first stop is an island not too far from here that the clan owns.
You'll rest there for a few hours, get different clothing to wear, and then board planes that will carry you across the world to America.
From there, the women and the children will be taken to the clan's village, where you will get settled and start a new life.
I will not get into all the details of what that entails because it's too much to cover, but I can promise you that it's all good. It's as close to paradise as it gets."
He'd said the women and the children.
Not the men, not the scientists, just the women and children.
"Where do we go?" Yaaf asked. "The soldiers? And the scientists?"
"You will be taken to a different location," Yamanu said. "The clan's keep. It used to be our home before we built the village. You will be housed there for a time."
"How long?" Yaaf asked.
"As long as it takes to evaluate the risk you represent.
" To Yamanu's credit, he didn't try to paint this as anything other than what it was.
"You are enhanced, and you are dangerous.
You've risked your lives to help us and to free the small contingent of women and children, and no one is making light of your sacrifice, but the clan leader is extremely cautious about who he allows into our community, and you need to be evaluated before you are deemed trustworthy. "
"You mean the one who calls himself K?" Yaaf asked. "He's the leader who will determine our fate?"
Yamanu nodded. "His name is Kian, and he's a fair man, but he takes the security of the clan very seriously, and he's not willing to gamble with it even for the sake of those who seem to be heroes at first glance.
He has kept this clan alive and hidden for two thousand years against an enemy that has spent all that time trying to end it.
I'm sure you can understand why he's so cautious. You would be too in his position."
It was true.
The eight of them possessed powers the clan immortals had no defense against. Not even the strange Kra-ell female was a match for them.
She could compel other immortals, but the Eight were immune to her power.
Yaaf and his teammates would not have opened their home to an unknown entity of superior power on pure faith either.
The caution was sound. But understanding it did not make it easier for them.
They were once again being treated as outsiders, as pariahs, as too dangerous to be allowed to roam free amongst others.
The mothers would go to the village. The sons would go to the keep. The six reunions were as fragile as new ice, and the clan's security policy was about to set a wall between them before they had even learned how to be families again.
Sullha would go to the village, while Yaaf went to the keep, whatever that was.
She was the newest thing in his life and the most fragile, and she was being taken somewhere he could not follow, for a length of time Yamanu wouldn't name.
"The separation is not a permanent one," Yamanu continued as if reading their minds.
"And it's not forever. While it lasts, the women and children will be allowed to visit you.
The precautions are necessary, and they don't reflect what we think of you collectively or as individuals.
You are just too powerful to be trusted automatically.
I hope that after the evaluation is done, you will all be allowed in the village. "
It took a few moments for Sullha to translate, and the mothers cast worried looks at their sons. They were their protectors, and they trusted them much more than a bunch of strangers, but there was little any of them could do about this.
Once again they were at the mercy of an organization, and they could only hope that it was more benevolent than the Brotherhood.
Rohilah made a small sound and pressed Bianca closer, and Karina's hand closed around Armos's arm.
The women were heading to a village and a new life and a real home, while the Eight who had bled to bring them there were heading to a secure location to be assessed and allowed visitations with supervision.
A new prison.
A new lab.
A new experiment.
And underneath it all, in the private place that belonged just to Yaaf, sat the plain fact that visits were not the new beginning he had envisioned with Sullha.
He wanted to be with her, to talk to her without walls and surveillance between them, to find out what the thing that had begun between them could become when given room and time.
Instead, he would see her when the clan permitted it, across whatever divide the keep represented, their future on hold while a wary stranger cast his verdict.
Sullha turned to look at him, and her face was pale, panic breaking across it. "They're taking you somewhere else. Away from me."
"It's going to be okay," he said because there was nothing else he could tell her.
"We just—" Her voice caught. "After everything. And now they separate us?"
"Listen to me." He shifted closer to her and put his arm around her waist, drawing her in.
"You heard what Yamanu said. It is not forever, and it is not a wall.
It is an evaluation, and it will end, and while it lasts you can come visit me.
It is not the island, Sullha. They are being careful, not cruel. "
She pressed her face into his shoulder. "We don't know how long the evaluation will take. Yamanu doesn't know either."
"No. We don't." He bent his head over hers. "But you can visit, and Yamanu and the other Guardians will speak on our behalf. It's going to be all right."
She did not answer, but her grip on his arm tightened, and after a moment, the stiffness in her body loosened.