27. Yaaf #3
"I'm devoted to truth, even when it's uncomfortable, but as long as it is mine to reveal.
I just want to explain why I said that then and why I wouldn't have said it now.
" Eluheed's voice stayed level. "You were chaos that was learning to organize itself and growing stronger, and I believed that if it kept growing, it would drown the island and everyone on it.
My mate was on that island. Women I had sworn to protect were on that island.
So, when Navuh asked for my recommendation, I told him to cut his losses and terminate the program before it was too late. "
The room's noise continued around them, plates and voices and a car race beginning on the rug, and inside the collective a deliberation ran its course in the space of two breaths.
He argued for our deaths , Bardov sent.
He's being honest with us , Ravsoh answered. He didn't need to tell us this. We can't hold it against him.
We were exactly what he said we were, Number Three sent. Chaotic, unpredictable, and growing incredibly strong. He was trying to protect the one he loved.
Navuh did not take his advice , Camdor added, and turned the fact over so all of them could see its underside.
He kept us for testing instead. He wanted to understand what we were becoming.
And the reading convinced him that we were too powerful to destroy, not because he couldn't kill us but because he wanted to use us.
The conclusion assembled itself from eight directions at once.
"You were right about what we were," Yaaf said. "But you might have saved us instead of condemning us."
Eluheed frowned. "I don't understand what you are trying to say."
"Navuh did not spare us out of kindness.
He spared us because he wanted to know what we were becoming, and your fear only encouraged him to keep us.
He wanted a powerful weapon, and that was what we were.
We became more, though. We transcended, and the moment Navuh's hold on the island faded, we threw off the shackles he had put us in. "
Eluheed nodded. "I know that now, but I felt guilty about my recommendation, and I wanted to apologize for it. I'm glad that Navuh was greedy and decided to keep you."
"So are we," Yaaf said. "Nobody in this room owes anybody an apology for surviving Navuh's island in whatever way they could. You protected your mate. We would have done the same and worse. The ledger is balanced."
"Yaaf!" Tomek called from across the room. "Come race with us!"
Yaaf looked at the rug, where a five-year-old boy, a goddess, and a red-haired artist were racing toy cars, and at Sullha who was trying not to laugh.
"It looks like a crowded race already," he called back.
"It is," Areana agreed, and rose from the carpet in one smooth motion.
"I think two adults are more than enough to entertain one little boy.
" She smiled. "Sullha my dear, why don't you go down and see where Yaaf lives?
I'm sure you will realize that it's not as bad as it sounds.
It might have been a dungeon a long time ago, but now it is just an underground hotel.
Very safe, I might add. It's like living in a fortified bunker.
" She chuckled, and the sound had a musical quality to it.
"I should know because that was what living in the harem felt like. "
Yaaf barely managed to keep his jaw from dropping.
The goddess had just, deliberately and in front of everyone, handed him what he had wanted most. Time alone with Sullha. And then Areana winked at him, and he lost the fight with his jaw.
"I want to see the dungeon too," Zohara said, half rising from her couch.
"Sit down, Zohara." Mirumah did not raise her voice, but Zohara sat down as if her knees had been unplugged.
"Sullha can take pictures with her phone and show you later.
" Mirumah picked up her cup, and over its rim her eyes met Yaaf's for the briefest moment, and her lips curved into a crooked smile.
Did the crusty one just... Ravsoh started.
She did, Camdor confirmed.
First the goddess, now Dumuz's mother . Number Five sounded perplexed. Is that some sort of a conspiracy?
Yaaf did not want to examine the gift he'd been handed too closely.
The goddess had opened a door, and Mirumah was holding it open, and Sullha was looking up at him with color in her cheeks and excitement in her eyes.
"Bowen." Areana turned to the Guardian. "Would you be so kind as to escort Sullha and Yaaf down to the underground quarters?"
"I can't leave the others unsupervised here, but I'll ask Alfie to take them down."
Escort.
The word registered like a blow.
Of course.
They were not going to have a private moment because they would be supervised.
A Guardian would ride down with them. A Guardian would walk the corridor with them.
A Guardian would stand at a polite professional distance while Yaaf showed Sullha his room that used to be a cell, with a thick door that had a window on the bottom for meal delivery to prisoners, and then the Guardian would escort them back up, and the day's single opening would close having been nothing more than an elevator ride.