27. Yaaf #2
Tamira stood with her hand tucked into the arm of a lean male with light brown hair. She looked tense, but she made herself smile at the eight of them anyway, which the collective noted and respected, because courage was not the absence of fear but the management of it.
Her mate was nervous as well, and for good reason. They wouldn't have recognized him if not for Bowen's warning, but he definitely recognized them.
His aura, though, was familiar, inner walls so old and so smooth that the eye slid off them, and eight memories surfaced at once, from the muddy time, when a careful presence had waded into their chaos with these thick protective walls up and had touched their hive mind and recoiled.
Eluheed did not offer his hand. He inclined his head instead, and his eyes moved along the line of them.
"We have met," he said. "In very different circumstances."
"Yes," Yaaf agreed. "Very different. Before we were stabilized."
Neither of them said more.
Now that the introductions were finally over, the eight of them turned their attention to the glass wall and the view of the clear skies that they had been craving since their arrival at the keep.
That was tense , Camdor said. Glad it is over .
It's not over , Yaaf said. I can still feel tension from the enclosure women. Something is off .
He scanned the room for Sullha and found her standing beside the buffet, wearing a blue dress and holding an empty plate. She was looking at him, and as their eyes met, a smile spread over her face.
He felt his own mouth curve in response and walked up to her.
"Hello, Sullha."
"Hello, Yaaf."
The collective shrank away, withdrawing to give him space inside his own head, which was the only privacy they knew how to give him.
He picked up a plate. "So, what's good here?"
That was what he'd used to ask her when they were kids, eating at the dining area of the enclosure.
She chuckled. "Everything. Let's pile up." It was the same answer she'd always given him.
As they walked along the buffet together, he leaned down so he could whisper in her ear. "What have we missed? Did Mirumah say something awful again?"
Sullha glanced up at him, a corner of her mouth lifting. "Did you read my mind or someone else's?"
"I read the room and not anyone specific. What did she do?"
Sullha spooned something orange onto her plate.
"She asked Lady Areana how a goddess could choose to live in a dungeon beside Navuh.
She did it in front of everyone, in that voice of hers that makes a question sound like an accusation and a verdict at the same time.
But Lady Areana put her in her place elegantly and yet firmly.
She said she'd had her children for months before giving them up, where Mirumah had her sons for thirteen years, and that she gave up the sky to live with her mate in a hole in the ground, and she wouldn't have it any other way because she loves him and he was chosen for her by the Fates.
Or something to that effect. When she was done, nobody knew where to look. "
Yaaf turned around, looking for the goddess, and found her sitting on the floor with Tomek. Her skirt was pooled around her, and Tomek was kneeling beside her and arranging his cars into a starting grid. Tula's partner was sprawled on the rug on Areana's other side, holding two carved figurines.
"I'm having a hard time reconciling this ethereal goddess with someone who put Mirumah in her place."
"I felt the same way when it happened," Sullha said.
"Don't forget that Areana is five thousand years old and she has handled Lord Navuh for all those years.
She must be extraordinarily sharp and capable, and she hides it under that angelic countenance of hers.
Not that it's an act. I think she's really kind.
She's just learned how to deal with bullies. "
Like someone else we know, Camdor sent from across the room, where he was letting Asira load his plate.
Please don't intrude , Yaaf sent back, without heat. I want this time with Sullha to be private.
The seven retreated again, but it was impossible to banish them completely. Thoughts leaked no matter how hard they tried to isolate his mind. They all converged on the buffet, loading their plates to keep their minds busy with something other than Sullha and Yaaf having a private moment.
Their privacy didn't last long, though, because Eluheed was heading their way.
He stopped across the buffet table from Yaaf and looked at him with those kind blue eyes that gave nothing away.
"I wonder how much you remember from our encounter," he said.
"Not much," Yaaf admitted. "We remember the essence of you. A guarded mind that penetrated our chaos and left just as quickly as it entered. We were curious about you, latching on to any novelty because we had nothing else."
"I know," Eluheed said. "I felt the hunger.
It was one of the most frightening places my mind has ever visited, and I have visited a great many.
" He set his glass down on the table, and his gaze moved along the line of them, then returned to Yaaf.
"There is something I need you to hear from me before you hear it from anyone else.
When Navuh asked my opinion about you, I advised him to kill you. "
Bardov's hostility flared first, Dumuz's followed, but Yaaf and the others surrounded their fire and held it at bay.
Yaaf forced a smile. "If that's your attempt at friendliness, you are not very good at it."