Free Ashes and Rain: Sequel to Khe (The Ahsenthe Cycle Book 2) by Alexes Razevich Page A

room — so strong it was like a fog, something you could almost see. The same unit who’d done this work when I’d lived here did it now. Why would it be any different? I had left Lunge, but life here had gone on as always. I tried not to feel sad.
    The sisters rolled the carts up to the long table and doumanas began selecting the dishes they wanted. Conversations started. Azlii kept her head down, eating, looking up only to comment on how delicious everything was. Simanca had been clever. She’d always gone to Kelroosh to trade, traveled into Azlii’s territory. Now Azlii had come to her, which gave Simanca the advantage.
    Not everyone had finished eating at the long table, but Simanca had. I’d picked at the food on the plate, pretended to eat it. If anyone noticed that my plate was still as full as when the meal had started, no one mentioned it, or eyed my plate and then me.
    Simanca pushed back her chair, metal legs scraping across the wood floor, and stood. “Please join my unit at our dwelling,” she said to Azlii and Nez — and me by extension. “We can discuss our business there.”
    Azlii, Nez, and I rose and followed Simanca and her three unitmates out of the communiteria, and across the small commons. I saw Stoss’s eyes following us as we left.
    My chest felt squeezed as Simanca opened the door to her dwelling. It looked the same as the last time I’d been there — the walls in the receiving room painted light-green, the furniture and rugs richer than those the rest of Lunge’s doumanas had, the visionstage new and large.
    The first time I’d been here was when Pradat had come to test me and confirmed my talent to make things grow. I’d come again when the first extra age dot had appeared on my skin. Thirty-five of the dark blue dots lay on my wrist now, but I was not thirty-five. I was thirteen. I wanted to scream the number in Simanca’s face.
    “Nothing’s changed.” Simanca spread her hands, silently inviting everyone to sit. “Lunge has the provisions you want,” she said to Azlii. “Tell me what you need and what you offer in trade.”
    I realized that Simanca’s “nothing’s changed” wasn’t directed my way, but at Azlii. Azlii wanted food. Simanca wanted me.
    Azlii smiled, and I knew she’d understood exactly what Simanca meant. She shifted in her seat and made a small show of removing the Bethon Blue cloak and laying it across her knees. I watched Simanca’s eyes follow Azlii’s movements.
    “You have three unitmates,” Azlii said. “As it happens, I have four cloaks on offer.”
    Min’s, Gintok’s, and even Tav’s gaze flew to the cloak spread on Azlii’s lap. They had likely already reasoned that Azlii would offer it to Simanca. But for each of them to have their own — it was too great a luxury to be given up now that it seemed within their grasp.
    I sat with my hands folded in my lap, felt how my neck warmed, and listened to Azlii and Simanca dicker out the trade details. In the end, Azlii had secured enough food to keep Kelroosh, including the eight extra hatchlings, going until Harvest Season. Simanca had promise of five of the seven cloaks — I wondered what she’d do with the extra one — a quantity of meat from the best beastkeeper commune, and a new, small harvester, to be delivered before Harvest Season began. I didn’t need to see beneath Azlii’s collar to know she felt cheated and used because of the desperate state Kelroosh had fallen into.
    I felt something else from Azlii though, a deeper satisfaction. My lumani vision came and I saw Azlii bathed in the ice blue of pleasure in another’s woes. She was looking forward to stealing me back from Simanca. That would be her revenge.
    Little beads of sweat erupted on my wrists. I didn’t like that I half looked forward to it as well. That wasn’t the sort of doumana I’d thought myself to be. Except perhaps I was.
    The negotiations completed, Azlii, Nez, and I rose to leave. I wanted to visit my