Infall Ch. 04

Zen was staring at her. "And the stick? Why does it happen?"

"Because light falls on a thing and bounces back to our eye. It's how we see. But it bounces back at a different speed in water than in air, so it appears to bend. It's a rule. When we know the rule, we can use it, and that is the same rule that allows you to look out of the see-far. It's not different."

"I told you about the small animals, brother," Kythe said, hearing only half the conversation. "Because Indya told me this, many of our men haven't died."

"I know this. But how does she know that they're there?" Zen said. "How does she know about these small animals unless she can do magic?"

Indya's brows went up. "Do you believe that the see-far is magic?"

"No," Zen said, shaking his head, his finger coming up. "I asked this. They said it is a brilliant thing, but not magic, because we know about the magnifier already."

"With the glass, I make things far look like they're close. With the same glass, I can make a mechanism for making small things seem large. Would this be magic? If one isn't magic, would the other be magic?"

Zen thought about that. "No," he said, leaning back.

"I will show you these animals, if you want to see them."

"You have this mechanism?"

She nodded. "Kythe got me more glass. It is as simple to make as the far-see. It's just a close-see."

Zen glanced at Kythe and then nodded. "Show these animals to me, Indya."

She rose, getting the awkward device and bringing it to the table. Reaching, she got a piece of onion she'd been using. She motioned to him, Zen getting up and coming to her. Getting the lamp, she pulled it close, taking the skin of the onion and putting it under the lens. Standing over it, she manipulated it, stepping back and gesturing.

Zen's brows went up when he looked. "I don't see any animals."

"Not yet. This is onion skin. I want you to see that it's only what's already there. I'm not making things appear that aren't there. The glass makes it look larger, that's all. What do you see?"

"It's made up of something that looks like wavy flat rocks laid next to each other."

"Then here is a rule I can give you," she said, "and it's not just for onions. All living things are made of these. It's how we're built. Plants. Animals. We are made of them. They divide into more of themselves. It's how a child gets larger. If you looked at our skin under a close-see, it would look similar."

Zen glanced at his own hand and straightened, shaking his head and glancing at Kythe. "Show me more of these rules," he said, gesturing. "I want to understand this thing about the small animals living their lives on us."

"This is water from the pond. Now you will see the little animals. I can't make a close-see strong enough for the ones that make people sick, but you will see others like them."

When she had it focused, she gestured. Zen looked down and then threw his head back, looking under it. He returned to the eyepiece. "There are things alive in the water," he said. "Did you see this, Kythe?"

"Yes," Kythe said.

"They're always there?"

"Yes," Indya said.

"I thought she meant like a horse or a dog or sheep, like a tiny world," Zen said.

"No. Small animals. They are also alive. They're like any animal. They're just very small. They're more simple. They're everywhere, mostly harmless. Only some can hurt us. Many, many of them live inside us."

"Live inside us," Zen echoed, Kythe hearing that part.

"Don't tell him about those, Indya," Kythe said, shaking his head.

"All right," she said.

Zen looked down again. "What is it doing? What does it want?"

"That's another rule we know. The small animals want what all life wants. To survive and make others like itself. It's the purpose of all living things, including ours."

"This one is eating, I think." Zen straightened again. He sighed deeply, and then he nodded, turning to her. "I see what you say. I believe you're not doing magic with this mechanism. But the ear mechanism," he said. "How does it know your language, Indya, and how does it tell me? How is that not magic? It's not a person."

"It's our most complicated kind of tool," she said. "We say to it, if this happens, do that. We say that to it over and over, in many ways, and then we make that much more complex."

"It hears you? It thinks?"

"No, not this kind. I can't explain without explaining other things, Zen. You know lightning?"

"Yes, I know that, Indya," he said, frowning at her. 


"I'm sorry. I know you do. Líghtning carries a force. Do you ever touch something and it snaps and you feel it in your finger? Your hair rises?" She took her hair and pulled it up.

He looked at her and laughed. "Yes," he said, nodding. "I know what you're talking about, nina."

"This is the same force. You can capture it, make it. Just like...lightning is attracted to a tall tree. That attraction is a rule. So once we know the rule, we attract it on purpose to something it likes very much, and then we give it a small circle to travel and we don't let it go. The lightning force, it's not alive. It has no mind. We use its rules to make it want things so we can trap it, but we don't talk to it."

"You can call lightning," Zen said, Kythe's eyebrows going up, hearing that.

"No. We can't use actual lightning. It's too powerful. We make a force like small lightning."

"Force," Zen echoed, the word in his language. "Why would you want to trap lightning force? Why make it?"

"To make light to see at night. So many things, Zen. But none of them are magic."

Zen handed the earpiece to her. She put in her pocket. He walked back to his chair, sitting, looking at her, Indya still standing. His eyes were on her face. "Could you make weapons from this lightning?"

"Brother," Kythe said.

"Surely it has occurred to you, Kythe," Zen said, glancing at him.

Indya's gut sank. She stepped away from the table, her eyes shifting to Kythe and back. She shook her head. "I don't do that. A weapon is for hurting others, for killing people. No. I don't telling you."

"But you know. You know weapons that could do these things, ways to use these forces."

"Yes."

"Don't you believe that people should be strong?" Zen said. "What could we give you for this knowledge?"

She stood there, staring at him. That this was what he would think, what he would find useful from what she'd said. Indya answered in his language, since she had the earpiece. "In the past, our people are making a weapon so strong it killing life. All life. Everywhere. All the people. All the trees. All the horses, poisoning the ground where we walking, the water, the air. We taking the smallest things and splits it open and the world burns. Long ago, we saying to each other we don't do it. We putting it away. That's to be strong. People is strong. To agree. To live together. Not hurting and killing. I don't telling you this. You don't have nothing for this I want. You ask, I leaving. You don't seeing me again." She was shaking.

"You could make this weapon?" Zen said, his face tightening.

She shook her head. "I don't having the...metal. I can't find it. You can't find it." She couldn't explain an isotope.

Kythe rose and came to her. "You don't have to leave, alea. My brother doesn't understand yet how gentle you are."

She looked at him, still shaking. "I worrying someone make me saying, Kythe, since I coming here. They are too powerful, these weapons, so much death."

"Breathe, alea. How could I make you say anything you don't want to? You're so stubborn."

She nodded, her shoulders relaxing, taking a breath, uneven. "All right, Kythe."

"I'm sorry, nina-bird," Zen said, getting up and walking to them. "I should have asked my brother before I said this."

"I understand, Zen," she said, but she was avoiding his eyes. "It's different for me."

"Indya has already seen enough violence, brother," Kythe said. "Tell him, alea."

"Yes," she said, looking at Zen this time. "When I first coming here, a man took me from my...my thing I falling inside and he pushes me on my back on the ground and strikes me right in my face. It hurt very much. Then he is cutting away my clothes with his weapon for no reason because he was crazy, but Kythe comes on his horse and he and the other mens is running away."

"Because he was crazy," Zen echoed, his eyes going to Kythe, his brows going up, and then back to her. "For no reason. What do you think he wanted, nina?"

"How do I know? I said, Zen, he is crazy and he hitting me in my face like he is a child."

Zen opened his mouth and stopped, looking at Kythe.

Indya looked at Kythe. "Stop doing that. Why are you doing that? What he saying to you, Zen?"

"Nothing, nina."

Indya's eyes shifted and then she looked down. "You're Kythe's brother. These other people don't like me. Only Etien. I wanting you like me."

"I like you, nina," Zen said, reaching out and taking a lock of her hair, running it through his fingers. "And you're not a noita."

"No. I'm not a noita. I'm just me, Indya."

"Why don't you take her for a walk, brother?" Kythe said. "She likes the fields."

"Will you walk with me, nina?" Zen said.

"Yes," she said. "I will wrapping my hair. Kythe say it's better I walking around that way."

"You don't have to this time," Zen said.

"Be careful, brother," Kythe said.

"I will," Zen said, nodding.

"It's just a walk, Kythe," Indya said. "He is being safe. I am."

"I know, alea," Kythe said. "Take your new coat. It might rain a little."

She walked to him and put her hands on his chest, smiling up at him. "Will you be here when I get back, Kythe?"

Kythe smiled and leaned down, kissing her mouth. "Yes, Indya."

* * *

Indya was laughing. It wasn't raining. It was windy, and she and Zen were sitting on the grass close to each other and he was playing with her hair, which kept drifting up and around them The sunshine felt good. He was very attractive like Kythe was, and she was ignoring that, and he was a very different person than Kythe, straightforward, a little impatient with everything, restless and in his body.

"What Kythe doing then?" she said.

"He didn't talk to me for days," Zen said, smiling, looking at her face.

"He is to be forgiving you, though," she said. "My brother, Jae. I'm older. I telling him what to do and he is being so angry his face is being red all over. I missing him."

Zen lay on his back, tugging on her shoulder.

She lay back with him, turning her face toward him. "Is Kythe having more brothers?"

"No," Zen said, coming up on his elbow.

"Is he having sisters?"

"No," Zen said. His hand went to her belly, resting there, Indya surprised, and then he leaned forward and tried to kiss her on the mouth.

Indya turned her face away and got out from under him, scrambling to her feet. She stared at him, backing away, and then turned and began to walk fast toward her tent.

"Indya," he said, getting up when she looked back.

She ignored him, walking faster. Hearing him again, she looked behind herself. He caught up with her. Indya didn't look at him.

"Indya," he said, his hand going to her arm, stopping her. "Talk to me. I thought you wanted me to do that."

Her face was so hot and she pulled away, her shoulders up. "No, I don't want that. I don't understand what you are for doing. You are being Kythe's brother. He's loving you with his heart. He trusting you. I don't kiss you. I don't want you asking again. I am being with Kythe. It's wrong he's not knowing, but I don't tell him and hurting him, you don't ask me again. All right." She turned, walking.

Zen was quiet beside her, and she was aware he looked at her sometimes, but she didn't look at him. When she got to her tent, Kythe was still there. She took off her shoes and walked in, Kythe's eyes on her face, Indya going to stand in front of him. She didn't know what to do.

"Alea," he said, stepping closer.

She walked into his chest, his arms coming around her, stroking her hair.

"What happened?" Kythe said to Zen, his voice accusing.

"I thought she wanted me to, so I tried to kiss her and she refused me and came back here directly," Zen said behind her. "She said you are my brother and you love me. And then she promised not to tell you if I didn't ask to kiss her again even though she thought it was wrong that you didn't know, but it would hurt you."

Indya didn't move. She didn't know why Zen was telling his brother what he'd done.

"Let me talk to her, brother," Kythe said

Líke she'd made a mistake. "I don't understand, Kythe," she said under her breath.

"I know," Kythe said, tipping her chin. "He wanted to try his way first, to persuade you. It didn't work, so now we will do it my way and I will say it to you honestly. I want you to be with both of us in bed, Indya."

"For sleeping?" she said. "Why?"

"No. To have sex with both of us."

Zen made a small sound. "This is how you say it to her?" he said.

"I know her, brother. You will know her soon."

"Both of you?" Indya said, feeling a shock that migrated to her lower belly and did a slow and thick wave there, sinking. Two men at the same time for sex. She'd never imagined such a thing. The possibilities proliferated. "Your people do this? I never hearing of this before. It is a little perverted. I don't think our men would want this. Our women would liking it, though."

Zen laughed.

"At least there's something you don't know about," Kythe said under his breath "Not usually. Zen and I are the rí, both of us. Together, we will be the kah-rí. We share everything like one person. You don't have to have sex with both of us. But I would like you to. Zen wants you. Do you want to try? I think you would find it pleasurable."

"At the same time?" she said, her belly sinking again.

"Sometimes," Kythe said. "Would you like that?"

Possibly. Her stomach sank again, her breathing getting deeper. She was looking at Kythe's face, glancing quickly to Zen and back, and then she hesitated. "Your people shaming me, Kythe, for this? They don't like me more?"

"No, Indya. I won't let them shame you."

Her eyes were searching his face. She hesitated. "You still liking me, Kythe? I like you. I am with you."

He came close and the back of his knuckles went to her cheek, stroking. "I will like you even more, alea, if that is possible."

She smiled at him and looked at Zen, feeling another wave. That might be so nice. "I'm sorry I saying that things, Zen. I don't know."

"I don't take offense at loyalty, Indya."

"Do you want to try?" Kythe said. "We would both give you pleasure."

She shivered. "Yes, I will try," she said, glancing at Zen, feeling shy, Zen's eyes warming, his brows going up.

Zen laughed, glancing at Kythe.

"Then we will go to my tent, alea," Kythe said. "I have gifts for you."

"All right," she said, smiling, glancing at Zen again. "I putting things away first."

Kythe sat down, both of them watching her as she tidied up.

"I am ready," she said when she was done, her belly flip-flopping.

Zen went through the flap, and then she did, and then Kythe. They walked to Kythe's tent and went in the same way, first Zen and then herself, Kythe behind her, and she froze.

She backed up into Kythe just coming in. "What is that?" she said as Zen said something and a great furred animal, a predator with large teeth and a lolling tongue, lunged at his brother and Indya turned around, burying in Kythe's arms. "It is for eating him."

"Indya," Kythe said, laughing. "He didn't eat Zen."

She turned to look at Zen on his knee, his hands on the animal, which seemed so pleased and was smiling with his big teeth, Zen laughing at her.

Indya's eyes went wide, looking at the animal, recognizing what he must be. "It's a shalin. A shalin, Kythe. It's a shalin like being in the stories of their great hearts. They are real. My people thinking they are a story."

"I don't know what a shalin is, Indya," Kythe said. "That is a dog."

Indya slipped out of her shoes and walked to Zen, getting on her knees beside him slowly and looking at the animal all over, tilting her head. "He's a male."

"Yes," Zen said, watching her.

"Is he being very loyal, Zen, like Zozo in our stories? Does he having a great heart, and loves you even though he's not being a person? Does he never let the danger coming but putting himself between you and all things wants to hurting you, he is so brave?"

Zen laughed softly again, looking at her. He nodded. "Yes, Indya. He is all those things, and he does love me. He is a protector."

"We remember him. We singing about him. We thinking he wasn't real, and still my people missing him."

"Then you will meet him. This is Ashka. Up," Zen said in a firm voice, and the animal came up and sat. "Put your fist out, Indya, so he can get your scent."

"He smell me," she said, putting her hand out.

Zen caught it and closed her fingers, showing her. She reached, the animal touching her hand briefly with his nose and then coming over, sniffing her. He sniffed her face and then her chest and then between her legs briefly, Indya smiling, and then he sat and his tongue came out, his large teeth, breathing fast. She leaned and looked, her brows going up. "He is biting those teeth so big. I can touch him?"

"Yes. For now, only when I'm here, nina."

"All right," she said. She hesitated, and then she reached out and touched his fur gently on his neck. "So soft," she said. "You are beautiful, Ashka, and you are brave. Nobody is being as brave as you, Ashka." When the dog looked at her, she smiled. "He know his name."

"He likes you," Zen said. "He usually only allows me to pet him."

"I like him very much. You are lucky for being with one loyal and good, and so beautiful."

Zen's eyes were on her face. He reached out, touching her hair. "Yes."

Her eyes dropped and Zen leaned in and kissed her on the mouth.

Indya stiffened and drew back. She looked at Kythe, who came and sat on the cushions not far.

Kythe nodded to her. "I like it, alea. I would like to watch you with my brother. Just him for now, so you are comfortable. I'm not angry, I swear."

"All right," she said, her face getting hotter, glancing at Zen.

"Go lie down, Ashka," Zen said in that same firm voice, and the dog did what he said, going to a blanket on the floor.

"He understanding you?" she said.

"Some words, yes."

"How many?"

"I've never counted, nina," he said, leaning in again.

This time she let him, and then it was very good. She made a small noise, as good as kissing Kythe, but different, Zen more hungry, their tongues tangling, her arms coming around his neck.

Zen drew back. "Undress for me, nina," he said, his breathing fast and deep.

She rose, reaching for the fastenings, but Zen got up and turned her, moving her hair aside, undoing them. Shrugging off the dress, she reached for the bindings on her breasts, unwrapping them, and then her pants as he watched.

When she turned around, Zen approached her close, his face as intense as Kythe's. He took her hand and led her to the big table in Kythe's tent, cleared now. "Lie back, nina. I need to see you, to see your body and your face to know you better."

She got on the table, moving her hips back, and then lay down, her knees up. Indya looked at Kythe, who had also moved, sitting close to them. He nodded at her and she looked at Zen, who was undressing. His body was like Kythe's, but different, too, different places where he'd been hurt and had healed, and a different way he carried himself, but his sex was large and thick and stiff like Kythe's.

Zen walked between her legs, moving her knees a little, looking down at her for a long moment, her body and then her face. She looked back at him.

"You like to show your body," he said.