Page 62 of Dark Destiny: A New Thread in the Tapestry

We are trading one enclosure for another, Armos said. And we are tasked with guarding the one person we despise the most.

But we get to be out in the open air and see our mothers, Voset said. I'll take it.

So will I, Bardov said. I want to visit that bar and find out what he meant by entertainment.

"I need to make a phone call." Yaaf pulled out his phone and considered stepping outside, but then realized that it didn't matter because he carried the other seven with him wherever he went.

"We can retreat," Bardov offered.

"That's okay. I have nothing to hide." He called Sullha.

She answered before the phone could ring. "How did it go?"

"We are moving to the village. The lab goes first, and we follow."

For a long moment, there was silence on the other end, then a sound that was half laugh, half sob. "When?"

"A few days."

"Tomek!" she called. "Come here. Yaaf has something to tell you."

The sound of quick footsteps followed, then a small, breathless voice. "Yaaf? Are you coming to my house?"

Yaaf smiled at Tomek's choice of words. He was calling it his house.

"In a few days. I don't know exactly when yet, but we are moving in."

The whoop nearly took out Yaaf's eardrum, and then the phone clattered onto something hard. Tomek's voice rang through the house, announcing the news to Nana at the top of his lungs.

"Sorry about that." Sullha came back online. "In all the excitement and rush to tell my mother, he dropped the phone. I think he understood that you are coming to live with us."

Yaaf swallowed.

He didn't know how to respond. Did he want to move in with Sullha and her family?

Could he even separate from the others?

Not without pain.

The problem was that being away from Sullha was its own kind of pain.

"She should move in with us," Voset said. "That's the simplest solution."

Yaaf snorted. "There is nothing simple about that." Then, remembering that Sullha was still on the line, he added, "Ignore that."

"No, you're right. There is nothing simple about this, but we will work it out."

23

SULLHA

Tomek burst into the kitchen, dragging Leehy by the hand.

"Nana doesn't believe me. Tell her what you said about Yaaf, Mama."

"He is moving to the village," Sullha said. "Him and his seven friends."

"To our house," Tomek said.