"Speaking of invisible immortals," Burda said, "weren't they supposed to get me something?"
The question pulled Sullha out of her thought spiral, and she turned toward the place where she could sense him.
"Yes. It's time. Can you show yourself, Yaaf?"
His appearance was so sudden that the women all gasped. It was like he materialized from thin air, but Sullha knew that it was just a mind trick, and that he had been standing there the entire time, as solid as any of them, manipulating their minds not to see him.
Burda narrowed her eyes at him and tipped her head back, and then she tipped it back even further because he was so tall and she was sitting on the ground.
"Haven't I seen you before?" she asked.
Yaaf inclined his head to her. "You saw me the first time I came, and the second. I made you forget both times. I'm surprised that you remembered anything about me at all. You shouldn't have."
"I didn't. Not until you stepped out of the air and something in your face struck me as familiar." She studied him. "Perhaps it's the boy I remember, and not the man. I knew you as a boy. You were Sullha's friend."
He smiled. "I was, and I still am."
Sullha shouldn't have been surprised by Burda's unfazed response. The woman was a pillar of strength. Still, anyone would have been troubled by what Yaaf had just admitted. He'd manipulated her mind twice, and she accepted it with a level eye and not a flicker of fear. She didn't even remember that she and Sullha had spoken of Yaaf. Or perhaps she did remember now that his appearance had jogged her memory.
"Show me this device," Burda said, all business now. "You shouldn't dawdle. The sooner you have these women and the children out of here, the safer it is for all of us."
Yaaf drew a small dark object from his shirt pocket and crouched next to Burda to explain how it worked. It was simpler than Sullha had imagined. One piece went into the ear, and the other hung around the neck on a string. It was a matter of pressing here to speak and there to listen. Burda watched his hands and listened with her chin lifted and her eyes sharp, and when he finished she nodded.
"Try it," Yaaf said. "Place your first call now."
Burda's eyes widened, her bravado suddenly wavering. "Now? Will it be okay with them that I call without being invited?"
"You are invited, and they are expecting your call. They are twelve hours behind us, which means it's after nine o'clock at night there, but immortals don't go to bed that early. We need much less sleep than humans, and no one there will have a problem with you calling at this hour. They need to know that the device works and that you know how to use it."
Burda nodded, swallowed, and pressed the device as Yaaf had shown her.
"Hello?" Burda said.
Sullha, who could hear only Burda's side, watched the old woman's expression shift from anxious expectation to confusion.
"I don't understand a word of that," Burda said. "Do you speak my language? Because I don't speak yours, and this whole thing is not going to work if you can't speak mine."
There was a pause, and Sullha gathered that whoever answered had switched tongues, because Burda's expression eased, and she nodded.
"Yes, I can understand you now, but just barely. You mangle it badly."
There was another pause, and Burda's mouth twitched. "Well. I suppose you're doing your best. We will manage, you and me." Another pause. "No, no, I know. Yes. The young man here showed me how it works. It's not that complicated if even an old woman like me gets it."
Whatever was said next softened the old woman. Her shoulders came down. She listened and nodded.
"Thank you for this," Burda said. "It is a window to the world, and I never had one of those ever before. Yes. Goodbye for now."
She withdrew the piece from her ear and let out a slow breath. When the smile came, it transformed her face, making it almost youthful.
It was the effect of hope, excitement, of something to look forward to.
"What a nice young man," she said.
Yaaf chuckled. "I assure you, he's not young. He's probably centuries old."
Burda waved a dismissive hand. "He sounded young, and he was polite, once he stopped barking at me in English. Why did he expect me to understand him?" She tucked the device into her shirt, reaching deep inside to tuck it in her brassiere and patting it flat. "There. Safe. No one will think to search an old woman's bosom." She fixed Yaaf with a look. "He told me to call when I have something worth reporting, and to call at least once a week even if I don't. I will do as he asked." She turned to Sullha. "Well, I guess it's time to say goodbye."
Sullha pulled Burda into her arms, the old woman's frame thin and birdlike inside the embrace, and the tears she had been holding back spilled over and ran hot down her face.
