6. Sullha #2
"Drova."
So that was her name. Drova.
After she walked away, Sullha leaned closer to him. "Now can you tell me?"
"Different species. That's all I can say for now. I'll tell you everything when we get to our destination."
"We are not going to the same place," she reminded him. "Yamanu said there would be visits, but he didn't say when. It might take a while before we will be allowed to see each other."
His hand found hers on the table, warm and solid. "We will ask for it to be sooner rather than later."
She let out a long breath. "We can ask, but it's up to them to provide. We don't get to decide." She sounded bitter, and that was ungrateful given what these strangers were doing for them, but she was so tired of having no say in her own life.
"You are not wrong."
"I don't want to be right. I want you to tell me I'm wrong."
He chuckled. "I wish I could, but I cannot.
" His hand closed around hers, giving her a gentle squeeze.
"All we can do is hope that they have compassion in their hearts and will not keep us and the others apart.
My teammates have just reconnected with their mothers, their sisters, and it's unkind to keep them away from their families.
From what I've learned of the Guardians so far, they are not unkind.
But then they are not the ones who decide. "
"Who then?"
"Kian. The one who was formally known just as K."
"Great. So, the one who decides our fate identifies himself by a single letter instead of his full name. That doesn't bode well for us."
Yaaf smiled. "I choose to be optimistic. So far, Kian has stood behind every promise he has made us and some he didn't. I have faith in him."
She wished she could be as optimistic as Yaaf was, but nothing in her life so far inspired a positive outlook.
That wasn't true, though.
She looked at Tomek, who was stuffing his mouth with cookies and trying to convince Bowen to partake. She looked at her mother, who looked alive and was even smiling. And she looked at Yaaf, who chose to believe in the good of people despite having even less reason to trust than she had.
"Okay," she said. "If you have faith in him, then so do I."
The meal ended too soon, and not soon enough.
When it was time to get settled for the night, Sullha took Tomek's hand in hers and made her way to the barracks.
The scent of clean linen and air fresheners welcomed them, slightly easing the ball of anxiety that had taken residence in the pit of her stomach.
She looked around, taking stock of where they would be spending the night, noting the neatly lined cots. More than enough room for everyone.
She crouched next to Tomek’s bed. “Can you wait for me here? Nana will watch you while I shower quickly.”
“Nana?” Her mother arched a brow.
“Feel free to choose something else.”
Her mother shrugged. “It will do for now. Go. I’ll wait for you to return.”
With her bundle of oversized clothes clutched against her chest, Sullha made her way to the communal showers and shrugged out of the borrowed shirt she'd been wearing since the boat.
She stood under the strong spray for no longer than it took to soap and rinse off all the salt that was caked on her body.
She then hurriedly pulled on the fresh clothes.
They swallowed her whole, and she had to work to keep everything in place, but she was clean, dry, and most importantly safe. After all, that was all that mattered.
“Thank you for watching him,” she told her mother.
Grabbing Tomek's hand, she rushed out before the other women had even unfolded their bundles.
"Where are we going?" Tomek asked, half running to keep pace with her.
"To say goodbye to Yaaf before he leaves."
"Oh." He considered this with a frown. "I said goodbye to Bowen, but he said that he's not going with the soldiers. He is going with us."
"That's good, sweetheart." She didn't have breath to spare for more, hurrying them both out into the floodlit dark, following the sound of engines toward the yard where the vans were idling.
The chests were still being loaded, the Guardians sliding them with careful, coordinated effort into the back of a van.
Sullha hadn't seen them before. They had been taken to the submarine before she and the other women reached the cove.
They must be extremely valuable given how everyone was treating them.
Yaaf and the other seven stood off to one side in a loose group, wearing new clothing of the same kind that she was wearing, only it fit well and looked good on them.
They had showered and shaved, but they still looked exhausted, and she wondered how much of that was simple tiredness and how much was withdrawal symptoms. She steered Tomek toward Yaaf and let the rest of the yard blur into background noise.
He saw them coming and something in his stance loosened.
"Yaaf!" Tomek ran up to him, arms already lifting. "You're going."
"I am, but I hope to see you soon." Yaaf lifted him into his arms and gave him a gentle hug.
Tomek flung both arms around his neck and held on for a moment.
"Be good for your mother," Yaaf said.
"I'm always good."
"He is," Sullha said, swallowing the lump forming in her throat.
Yaaf put Tomek down and straightened. Tomek let go and stepped back, turning his attention toward the vans.
"Can I go play with Bowen?" Tomek asked. "He said I could. He and the other Guardians who are staying with us are in the common room."
"Of course, sweetie," she said, before thinking that maybe Bowen didn't want to be pestered by a little boy.
But Tomek was already running off, leaving them with an awkward silence between them.
Sullha stepped into Yaaf before either of them could find anything better to say. He wrapped his arms around her the same way he'd held Tomek, gently and carefully. It should have been nothing more than a hug goodbye, but it was more and they both knew it.
She held on longer than was sensible given that everyone in the yard could see them.
Yaaf didn't pull back. She had to be the one to loosen her grip, and even then she didn't get far, because his forehead came down to rest against hers, and for a moment, neither of them moved at all.
"I don't want to let you go," she said quietly.
"I know. I do not want you to, either."
There was more she wanted to say. She could feel it sitting in her throat, but this wasn't the place or the time for all the things she wanted to say to him. She didn't say anything, and neither did he, but she felt that he was holding back the same way she was.
"Go," she said instead, before she lost the nerve. "Before I start crying and make this even harder than it already is."