Page 6 of Dark Destiny: The Fates' Bargain

"Mother." He said it without inflection, and Sullha wondered whether he was devoid of feeling or just overwhelmed and didn't know how to act around someone he was supposed to feel close to but didn't.

It continued in a similar manner with the others.

Baruha reached for Number Four. “Camdor?”

“It’s me.” He let her touch his arm and even tried to smile, but it only made the exchange more awkward.

“My Ravsoh.” Zohara started crying. “Is it really you? I heard them calling you Number Six.”

“Both are me. Number Six and Ravsoh.” He looked lost, not knowing what to do with his hands, and ended up gently patting her shoulder.

They were strangers, and their shared blood didn't sing the same tune. The boys had been taken and remade into something that was supposed to be completely severed from all familial ties, and their mothers had already grieved their loss. Now they stood face to face and did not know what to do.

Sullha could see the yearning for love on both sides, but nothing had been built yet to hold it, no years of small, ordinary days, no accumulated history, nothing but a gap that would take a long time to cross.

Some, though, might get there faster than others.

Karina lifted a trembling hand to the face of Number Five. “Armos,” she said his name in a whisper.

He closed his eyes and leaned into her palm as if an old childhood instinct was surfacing through the brutal conditioning that had remade him. Pressing her hand to his cheek, Karina sniffled, and for a moment, he looked less like a soldier and more like a boy who had missed his mother.

Sullha's throat tightened.

Tersan proceeded with far more ease than the others as he'd been given a head start, watching over Rohilah and little Bianca through the tunnel and the cove. Now he crouched to Bianca's level and let the two-year-old pat his face with both hands. “I’m your big brother. My name is Tersan, but my friends call me Number Three.”

Rohilah pressed her hand to her mouth, and tears glistened in her eyes. The difference between the two of them and the stiffness of the other pairs was an indicator of how much time the rest of it would take. A few hours of contact had made Tersan almost a son again, and since the others could draw on what he'd already learned, it would make it easier for them.

Voset walked over to Gindah. “I’m Number Seven, also known as Voset.”

She nodded. “I know. I would have known your face anywhere. Do you have news of your brothers?”

Voset had two younger brothers in the Brotherhood, but according to Yaaf, familial ties were not encouraged, so he probably hadn’t been in contact with them.

The mothers didn't know about the shared mind yet, the eight-in-one that made their sons a unit instead of separate men.

There would be time for that.

The women were overwhelmed enough as it was, and Sullha knew what it took to accept the bizarre reality of a merged mind and learn to love its individual parts.

The mothers would have to learn that loving one of them meant loving all eight, and they would have to learn to live with that.

4

YAAF

Six 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 oflove 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.