He said nothing, so she continued. "I'm working on saving their mothers and sisters. They're not strangers anymore."
"They are grateful," he said.
She nodded. "Tell them that I'm happy to do that."
"They are saying that you are very brave. They appreciate that you are willing to take the risks you are taking for people you don't know."
Something about what he'd said, or rather the way he'd said it, prickled her mind, but she couldn't put her finger on it. "That's very kind of them," she said. "Tell them I said thank you."
"I will."
She watched the sandbox, and the prickle got more incessant.
They are saying that you are very brave.Notthey would say.Notthey think.NotI told them and they were impressed.Theyare saying,as if the saying were happening now.
She would have dismissed it as a figure of speech if she hadn't heard him say things like that before. He'd told her that he was the spokesman for his team, but she'd assumed that what he'd meant was that he was their representative, speaking the things that they had agreed on before. But thinking about it now, it didn't make any sense. They couldn't have agreed on what tosay ahead of every conversation because not everything could be planned.
"Is it you saying those things or are you quoting them?" she asked.
"They are saying that."
She remembered other instances when Yaaf had talked about the others as if they were right there with them, just mute, and he was talking for them. Perhaps as their spokesman, he was used to that kind of expression even when he wasn't representing them directly.
"You mean that they said that."
He nodded, but something passed across his eyes, the kind of flicker that she remembered from Yaaf the boy when he'd been lying about something or not telling the entire truth.
"What are you not telling me, Yaaf?"
He snorted. "Many things."
She slapped his arm. "Stop doing that. Talk to me. You know you can trust me. You told me about your escape plan, and you told me about assassinating three powerful Brotherhood leaders, but you are not trusting me with whatever this is?"
He let out a breath, and his shoulders sagged. "It's about my teammates. They are much more than that. Much more than friends or even brothers."
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Something happened to us while we were imprisoned and experimented on with powerful drugs."
"You told me. That's how you developed the ability to thrall other immortals."
"Yes. But there is more. The reason we are so powerful despite being so young is that we merged our minds. It's not eight people working in coordination with each other. It's one mind made from eight components that is much more powerful than the sum of its parts."
Sullha struggled with the concept, mainly because the implications were chilling, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions before understanding what Yaaf was trying to tell her.
"I don't understand. How do you merge your minds? Do you all sit together in a circle, close your eyes, and let your minds wander to some place where they can meet? Do you do that before going out on a mission? Or is it something you do every day?"
Yaaf's shoulders sagged further. "It's not an on and off thing. We are always joined. Right now, they are telling me that I'm making a mistake by telling you because you are not ready to hear this yet."
Sullha felt as if he'd punched her in the stomach. "They are talking to you right now?"
"Yes."
"And they hear everything I say?"
"Yes."
"And it has been that way from the first time you talked to me?"
