Page 78 of Dark Destiny: The Fates' Bargain

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."

"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.