11. Yaaf
YAAF
"Forks on the left," Mattie said. "Knives on the right."
Yaaf looked down at the two handfuls of plastic he was holding. "Why?"
"Because that's where they go."
"Yes, but why?"
"I don't know why. That's the rule." She distributed a row of paper plates down the length of the table. "Ask Anita. Maybe she knows."
"It's simple," Anita said from the kitchen. "The fork goes on the left because you eat with your left hand and cut with your right. But since this is Chinese food, there is nothing to cut. We are supposed to use chopsticks, but I doubt anyone knows how to use them."
Yaaf knew what chopsticks were because he'd seen them in a movie, and so did the rest of the collective.
"It shouldn't be too difficult to master," Dumuz said.
"The restaurant sent a bunch of them with the food." Mattie passed through the butler's pantry into the kitchen. "I've got them." She returned a moment later with a paper bag and started pulling out the chopsticks. "Whoever wants to use them is welcome."
The dining table came with eight chairs and seated fourteen, which was nowhere near enough.
Mattie had found two extension leaves in a closet behind the linens, and with both fitted, the table ran nearly the length of the room and would seat twenty-two.
Camdor and Voset made two trips across the vestibule to borrow the rest of the chairs from Lady Areana, and on the first trip they invited her to join them.
She sent the chairs and declined the invitation, saying that this luncheon should be just for the families.
As Mattie went around the table, correcting misaligned napkins and centering the disposable cups, Yaaf looked at her hand and noted it looked perfectly healed. But looks could be deceptive, and it might still be bothering her.
"How is your hand?" he asked.
Mattie held it up, made a fist, opened it fully, then turned it over and did it again. "I've got full range back. The island doctor knew what he was doing."
"I'm glad," Yaaf said. "I know that healing is not easy for humans."
"It's not." She grimaced. "It will probably ache when it gets colder in the winter. Dimitri made me a salve, and it helps. I've also been using the pool to exercise my legs. That's really helpful."
"The one on the terrace?" Tersan asked.
"No. The big one in the underground. I like having more room to move, and Dimitri can swim right next to me. The terrace pool is too narrow for that."
Yaaf arched a brow. "Be careful, or you will bump into Navuh."
"I only go in the evenings when I'm sure he's not there."
Should we tell her? Bardov asked.
No, the rest of the collective answered.
She would enjoy the story, Bardov insisted.
Lady Areana had not been happy with them after the prank they'd pulled on Navuh. She did not enjoy seeing her mate humiliated, and she would not appreciate them spreading the story further.
She is the Clan Mother's sister, Ravsoh said. She has considerable influence, and we should do our best to stay in her good graces.
Yaaf agreed. They needed to be on their best behavior so Kian would allow them into the village. He wanted to be where Sullha was, and the others wanted to be near their mothers.
"You're doing that thing," Mattie said.
"What thing?"
"The thing where all eight of you go quiet at the same time."
"I apologize."
"Don't apologize. It's fine. It just makes me want to know what I'm missing." She set a stack of napkins down.
"We were thinking about the pool schedule."
"Liar." She smiled. "That's fine. Keep your secrets."
We should be doing something, Voset said. About the probation. Turner said two or three weeks, and it has been three, and no one has come to talk to us about our status. How long are we supposed to be stuck here?
I want to be able to walk to Sullha's house, Yaaf shared. I want to be able to walk wherever I want without being escorted.
Yes, said Armos. I would like that too.
So what do we do? Bardov asked. We have been boringly good. We follow their rules and do everything they tell us. We wear what they give us, we go where they say, we eat what arrives, and we don't ask for anything. But the result is that nobody thinks about us.
At least in the Brotherhood we knew what we were, Bardov added. Here we are neither prisoners nor guests. We are a problem they haven't solved yet.
His anger had heat, and the collective absorbed it the way it always did, but lately there was more of it to digest.
We could ask for a meeting with Kian, Ravsoh said. Not through Turner or Bowen, or even Lokan. We ask for an audience with Kian himself and make our own case in our own words.
He will not meet us, Voset said. He does not want us peeking into his head and learning his secrets.
Then we suggest a video conference, Ravsoh said. Kian can wear the compulsion-filtering earpieces. The ones Turner gave us to wear so Navuh couldn't take over our minds.
He will suspect a trick, Bardov said. He will assume we can compel him through the screen.
Yaaf shook his head. Nobody can thrall through a screen. Thralling requires proximity.
Nobody is supposed to be able to compel through a thrall either, Dumuz said. And we can, so never say never.
Yaaf conceded it, because it was correct. Then we tell him we do not believe it is possible, that we have never attempted it, and that he should assume we might be wrong and protect himself accordingly.
"All right," Mattie said. "Now, I really want to know."
Yaaf looked up.
She stood at the head of the table with a stack of paper cups in her hands and both eyebrows raised.
"Know what?" Anita came out of the kitchen.
"They keep having those private conversations inside their merged mind," Mattie said.
"We were talking about the probation," Yaaf said. "It has been going on for too long. Ravsoh thinks we should ask for an audience with Kian."
Anita nodded. "That's a good idea."
"Do it," Mattie said. "Kian isn't spending his days thinking about you. He has hundreds of other things on his mind, and you're not a priority because you are behaving. I'm not suggesting that you start causing trouble, but you should ask to be heard."
"He doesn't want to be in the same room with us," Yaaf said.
"He doesn't have to be," Mattie said. "You can talk to him on the phone. After all, that was how you negotiated with him before."
Yaaf nodded. "That is what Ravsoh suggested. A video call."
"Ravsoh is smart, and you should listen to him.
" Mattie picked up the cups and started setting them out.
"And do it soon, because I have a selfish interest. If you lot get to move to the village, we all move.
Dimitri's lab goes where you go. Anita and I want our own homes.
We want to start a new life that is not temporary. "
Anita chuckled. "I like the penthouse a lot, and if it could be mine, I wouldn't mind staying."
Bowen entered the dining room. "They're in the garage. Alfie's bringing them up."
Yaaf walked into the living room and looked at the doors.
They had three hours today. Some of it would be spent dining, and then they would go to the underground theater to watch a movie together.
He'd been thinking about the theater ever since Mattie had suggested it.
He was going to sit next to Sullha in the dark, put his arm along the back of her seat, and at some point she would lean into it.
Her head would rest on his shoulder, and neither of them would have to say a word for two hours.
Nobody would be watching. Nobody would need translating for.
There would be nothing to organize, nothing to explain, and nobody would ask him anything.
You have thought about this a great deal, Armos observed.
I have.
It is a good plan.
Thank you.
The doors opened.
Alfie came in first with Bianca on his shoulders, looking happy as can be to be the little girl's horse.
The women came in behind him, and Sullha was at the back of the procession.
She was wearing a blue dress, her hair down, and she was talking with Zohara. Then she came through the doorway, looked across the room, found him, and stopped talking.
Yaaf walked up to her and took both her hands in his. She looked up at him, then rose onto her toes and kissed him.
It was a small kiss, lasting perhaps a second and a half, but it lit him up like a switch had been flipped.
His fangs began to descend, which shouldn't have happened after a barely-there touch, and it took an effort to keep them from going all the way.
To his left, Asira snickered.
Then Baruha said something about the foolishness of the young.
Sullha did not let go of his hands.
"Your eyes are glowing," she said.
"I know."
"They're very blue. Beautiful."
He wanted to smile, but then everyone would see his elongated fangs, and he didn't want them to see that, even though they all knew what he was going through.
"Thank you," he said instead.
Behind his eyes, seven minds stood very deliberately with their backs turned, holding a door shut on a room they could not stay out of entirely, no matter how hard they tried, but they were doing it well enough that he barely felt them.
That had taken a lot of practice, and it still leaked occasionally, but they were getting better at compartmentalizing.
"Come and eat," Mattie called from the dining room. "It's from the Golden Dragon, so you know it's good."
The women moved past them.
Sullha stayed where she was for one more moment, holding on to his hands.
"Tomek sent you a message," she said. "He said to tell you to come to the village." She kept her voice light, but she did not quite manage it. "He said it's much nicer than the tall building."
Yaaf nodded. "Tell him we are working on it."