Infall Ch. 06

"I'll miss you, child, more than I'd care to admit," Mavia said, pulling back. She reached into her apron and handed something to her. Indya looked down. Bread. "But why are you crying?"

Mavia's eyes shifted and the old woman stiffened. "The Rí?" she said under her breath, shaking her head like she didn't believe what she was looking at.

Indya backed away, not looking. She wouldn't even be able to get her things. "Goodbye, Mavia. Thank you for what you are doing for me. I hope you are happy. You are so good. I wish I could visiting with you. Thank you for the dress. Goodbye."

She knew the direction to the village. Indya set out, walking fast. After a time, she looked back. They weren't there. Releasing her breath, she slowed a little. The road was clear in front of her. She walked, looking around for a place she could hide from them until the next day.

Zen came out of the woods and onto the road ahead, riding a horse. Indya walked, ignoring him.

"Where are you going?" Zen said, getting off his horse and leading him, walking with her.

"What do you care?"

"Indya," he said.

Walking fast, she didn't say anything to him. She would never find a place to hide if he was right there. Indya stopped, turning to him. "I don't have no reason to hiding. I don't do nothing wrong. I don't ask you for nothing. I don't take nothing from you. I giving you things for them that are good, for your coat. You coming after me and troubles me. What do you want? You want your coat? I burying it in the ground and leaves."

"We want you to come back with us, Indya."

"I am a savorenella for you? That's your word? A woman-for-sex? You didn't telling me you are marry. I am not to being with those who treating me like I am just a body with no self," she said, crying again now, wiping at her eyes, furious. "You making me like I'm not being a person. You turning what I am feeling into ugliness. You hurting this woman who is your wife and you are lying."

"Who told you that word? Who told you we were married? We're not married," Zen said. "We arelithindi."

"I don't know that word."

"We are promised, but we're not married."

She turned and was walking again. "You're having sex with me and you already are giving your promise to another to love her? You think you are the rí so that you are having a wife and a woman-for-sex, you're so special?"

She turned, hearing the other man who made her crazy. Kythe. She faced forward and Kythe was on her other side, also walking his horse.

"That is something that is a tradition for the rí, alea, yes," Kythe said, "to have both a wife and a savorenella."

"Don't you call me that. I see," she said. "I didn't understand. Of course. This is a way for the rí. I didn't thinking. You are having your tradition. Thank you for explaining why you are two peoples who are lying and hurting people. I going now. You call him or Zozo staying with me, Zen. He has a home with me if he wants because he's loyal and has a great heart. I wish you are happy with your marry woman. Goodbye."

"Indya," Kythe said. "You're not safe here--"

"You're the persons who isn't safe for me," she said.

"Please stop, Indya," Kythe said. "Talk to us."

"Go away," she said.

They finally slowed, Indya walking on, but Zen didn't call Zozo back. Maybe he was giving the dog to her. She wanted Zozo. But she didn't know if the Revestin would allow her to have him. Maybe she wouldn't go with them if they didn't. Indya walked, finding a place when it was getting dark. She had bread in her pocket that she shared with Zozo, feeling hungry again, that gnawing ache, and then she curled up and Zozo curled up with her.

"Indya," Kythe said, standing over her. "You don't have enough food. You have no way to get warm."

She sat up, glaring at him, tears standing in her eyes. "How you are being so stupid? Let me tell you again so you hearing it, since you don't listen it the first time. I don't being with you for being safe. I am being with someone because I want to. I want to die rather than hating myself. I liked you," she said, crying again. "I was thinking you and Zen feeling things for me you don't because I'm stupid. You isn't safe. I didn't understand. Go away." She curled up, crying hard now. She couldn't stop and Kythe's arms were there, lifting her, and Zen was taking Zozo, and she didn't have what was needed to run from them at the moment.

She was in a bedroll on the ground and Zen and Ashka were on one side and Kythe was on the other. Zozo was at her feet and she wanted them all so badly, all of it like it had been when she'd been happy and felt loved. Kythe was stroking her hair, Zen facing her on his side, his big warm self.

"We thought we'd lost you, alea," Kythe said before sleep found her.

* * *

Indya swam up from sleep, but a part of her didn't want to wake. There was an arm over her hip from behind her and another at her waist in front of her, their smells, their big chests, and Zozo had stretched out and a part of him was on her legs. She had her hand on Zen's braid because she always woke that way.

She didn't move. Her eyes felt like they were stuck together and her hair was everywhere and she hadn't combed it. She didn't have a comb because she'd left it with Mavia. So on top of all the rest, she had to look like she lived in the forest, all messy.

"I'd forgotten how beautiful she is," Zen said over her. "I knew it, and I thought I remembered, but I didn't."

"I know," Kythe said. "I couldn't believe it when I saw her. I thought maybe I was seeing her anespit, and then I thought to myself, 'of course Indya would haunt me naked.'"

Zen laughed, both of them laughing at her and she was between them.

Indya sat straight up, the two men straightening to get out of her way "You're for making fun of me?" she cried. "Come, Zozo. We leave them here and go live with the travelers."

Then she was on her back, Kythe's hands on her, Zen's, both of them over her, looking down at her.

"The Revestin?" Zen said. "Are you crazy? You're not going anywhere near them, nina."

"Don't you call me that. That's my plan. I am with the travelers for singing. I going now to ask them if I can live with them if they will take Zozo with me. I can't living with Mavia no more because her son coming home in spring and he is having heavy hands like his father for hitting people. Don't you stop me. I go now," she said, grunting and pushing at them, wiggling.

"You will listen to what we have to say, alea, and then you can go, if you want," Kythe said.

"Don't you call me that," Indya raged, trying to get away from them, their big bodies unmovable. "You are being large persons. You are keeping me against my will, you brutes, you are so evil?"

"I'm not letting her go," Zen said to Kythe.

"Be smart, brother," Kythe said. "I thought you were taught tactics."

"Yes, nina," Zen said, looking back at her. "Listen first and then we'll let you go."

"Don't you call me that," Indya cried, struggling.

"One person says one thing and you don't even stop to talk to us?" Kythe said. "You don't slow down long enough to ask us if it's the truth, if we have misled you, but just assume it is so?"

Indya went still, looking at his face. Her heart began to pound. She opened her mouth, but she didn't have any defense. "I didn't ask you. You're right."

"Then ask us now, Indya. Don't we deserve the chance to say, at least?"

She was breathing fast, looking at him. Her eyes shifted to Zen, their beautiful faces. "Yes," she said. "I was wrong for that. I asking you. Okay. You go out the door, but Alons don't and he's coming back for me to say I am being smart for a woman who is a savorenella, and he says she's a woman-for-sex, and he trying to kiss me and I saying no. He saying I have sex with him because if I please him, he maybe making me a wife to himself for to respect, because I am being just an ustadt for the Rí and you are marry. But I don't having sex with him he's being the last person in this world. He says she is Anastia, your wife, and she's beautiful."

"I'm going to kill that fater slowly," Zen said.

"Your face like thunder," she said, trying to get up, pushing and wiggling more "Always talking of violence. I said. I going now."

"But you haven't asked us," Kythe said, shooting Zen a look.

She stopped, looking up at them. They were right there. She almost couldn't say it. "Is that true?" she said, her eyes filling, her chest aching. "Did you do that to me?"

"No, alea," Kythe said, his knuckles stroking her cheek.

"No, nina," Zen said, reaching for her hair.

Indya went still, her eyes shifting between them, her belly tense for a different reason now.

"It's true that we are promised to someone our father chose for us, but we haven't married her," Kythe said. "She's the daughter of another ruler, and she's a pretty girl who's a child. She's thirteen years old. We already wrote to our father to say we won't be marrying Anastia, and our father will tell her father."

"There will be tension and people will be disappointed," Zen said, "but we don't care and our father will understand. He also married our mother for his feelings, and he also never took a second woman. We didn't tell you because we want to marry you, but he has to meet you before we can ask you. That's why we were bringing you to Averdine."

"We want you to be our savorenella, yes, but also to be our wife, both," Kythe said.

Indya had frozen, staring at them, her eyes shifting between them. "I causing this? I didn't let you to say the truth and I causing this?"

"Alons also caused this," Kythe said, his mouth tight. "We didn't know he had said those things to you. When we asked, he said he hadn't seen you or spoken to you. We couldn't understand why you would leave us. I thought you had died, Indya. I thought people had found you and hurt you. I kept seeing it in my mind."

"We believed from your note that you would go to the sea," Zen said, "and after we searched everywhere around the camp, we went there."

She was looking at their faces, seeing how tired they looked. "How you are finding me?"

"We came back again and searched all the area last year, but then we had to stop because it was winter," Kythe said, his mouth tight. "We knew we would have to wait until the snow melted and revealed what was under it."

"I kept seeing you under snow somewhere, dead in those silks and my coat," Zen said. "As soon as spring came, we returned and were searching for days for your body."

"We left and then came back to search a last time. I came out of the woods to a river and there you were, alive," Kythe said, adding. "And naked."

"I deserving terrible things," Indya said. "I deserve to dead in the woods under the snow of cold and being eaten by animals and have bad people who are faters killing me slowly."

"Don't say that, alea," Kythe said.

"No, nina," Zen said.

"I'm sorry. When he saying that, I am hurt I don't wanting you, thinking you did that, and I want to take Zozo and Saba, but I was afraid I don't feed them--"

Then Kythe's mouth was on hers, Indya making a small noise, and her arms came up and she was kissing him like she wanted to so badly, and he drew back and Zen was kissing her, and she wanted that, too. He broke it and their hands were all over her, the dress going.

"Touch me," she breathed. "I missing you so much, you touching me."

Kythe flipped her so he was on his back and she was over him, his hands going to his pants, freeing his sex. He took her hips and found her, dropping her slowly onto himself, filling her, her slick coming, Indya crying out as he began to thrust, and then she felt Zen's hands come around her, on her breasts, squeezing her nipples.

They couldn't do enough to her, couldn't do it fast enough, and she felt Zen's fingers leave her nipples and go where she and Kythe were meeting. She was wet fast for them, and Zen was bringing the slick up to her butt over and over.

Zen stuck his finger into her butt, Indya crying out again, the sensation strange and then so good, Indya jutting. He put in another finger, almost too much. She made a high sound, her hips moving.

"Relax, nina," Zen said, his breathing heavy in her ear, nuzzling her. "Breathe. Take both of us at once."

He said this and her eyes flew open as she felt him nudging her butt, slipping in and out as he passed the tip of his hard sex over the hole there, and then she went still as he began to press.

"We can do this?" she said quickly. "This is something we can do?"

"Yes, alea," Kythe said, grunting. "People do this."

"Yes," she said, feeling Zen's sex slip into that place a little, and it hurt. He felt far too big. She whined.

"Tight. So tight," Zen panted, pressing in further, filling her, Kythe's hands holding her still. "Try to relax, nina. I'll go slow. Try to push me out. It will help."

"All right," she said, hitching, Kythe's hands going to her nipples. She was concentrating, staying relaxed, whimpering and wincing, pleasure and pain.

"I have wanted your ass," Zen said to her, beginning to thrust slowly. "Since I spanked you in your tent, I've wanted to take your ass."

"I can feel it, brother," Kythe said, panting. "So tight." He began to thrust too, and Indya couldn't move.

They were alternating, one and then the other, and all she could do was stay where she was, feeling them both thrusting, both in her. "This is good," she panted. "More, please."

They both made a sound at once and began alternating faster, thrusting into her. She was overwhelmed with it, so much pleasure as they both began grunting.

"I want to feel her come," Zen said, his voice tight, Kythe's fingers plucking and pinching her nipples. "Make her come, brother."

"Yes," Kythe said, his fingers going to her clitoris under her as he thrust upward.

Kythe touched her and she began to come, going rigid and straining, neither of them holding back anymore, her body full of them. The wave of her climax came for so long she didn't know herself, waiting for it to crest, writhing.

"Fata, I can feel it," Zen said. "I'm going to come in your ass, nina, so good, sweet sexy little bihen."

Indya released, crying out loud, their voices joining hers, the pleasure so good that she couldn't voice it anymore, jutting, pulsing and shivering. Her sex clamped on them.

"Fata," Kythe said through his teeth, holding there.

"Good," Zen grunted, also in her, sharp stabs as he neared his pleasure.

They moved, pleasure and wet heat. The pleasure finally slowed and she couldn't catch her breath, collapsing onto Kythe, Zen on his elbows, his body over hers, Indya between them. They were both still in her.

Kythe's heart was thundering under her, Zen's pounding just as hard against her back.

She held on to Kythe as Zen took them onto their sides, her legs closing, both of them molded to her. Zen's sex had softened, Kythe's had, but she didn't care, keeping them there.

* * *

Characters/Pronunciation Key:

Ashka OSH-kuh Zen's dog

Danela Dan-ELL-uh Indya's friend

Disemond DIS-eh-mund engineer for the kah-rí

Etien EH-tee-en a man from Jassa

Indya IN-dee-ah Woman from Atlantis

Jae Jay Indya's brother

Kythe KYT-uh A rí of Matise

Mavia MAH-vee-uh Indya's friend

Olavine OLE-ah-veen Indya's friend

Pavel PAH-vel Indya's would-be lover on Atlantis

Saba SA-buh Indya's horse

Zen Zen a rí of Matise

Zozo ZO-zo Indya's dog

Alcon al-KONE language spoken on Atlantis

Chusa CHOOS-uh Eastern people, Chusans

Echtha EK-thuh large coastal realm on southern coast, allies to Matise

kah-rí kah-Ray King of Matise

lí LAY the wife of the prince of Matise

Matise MUH-tees A realm on the coast, the largest in the region

Metas MAY-tus the planet's name before the flare

nah-lí nah-LAY the intended of the prince of Matise

Odien O-dee-en language spoken in Matise

Revestin REV-es-tin travelers, wandering people

ri RAY prince

salvoronella SAL-vor-uh-nell-uh The rí's concubine in Matise

Odien vocabulary in the novel, spoken by the Matisi

a for

actha cry

ackan this

aclan that

aclite ally, associate

ada hurt

aforna idiomatic. Literally: "It is buried," (you're welcome)

aguinas marriage

alti your

altzac famous, notorious

alzar residence of a ruler

amfal naked

aminehn mare, female horse

amuth dead

ana girl

andikstat rough sex, pain-pleasure

anespite spirit

anik sl. vulgar, a woman's sex

aonoi branches

apel stay

anik sl. a woman's sex, also a flower

arustin royalty

aurub/i breast/s

bertalis box

bihen bitch

blest door

canesh lively

cavril bed

corviti words

di yes

dovas that

dovas'na that is

duvat spy

edon stop

embraso scouting, looking around

ena is

enith come

eschdul flog, whip

esch whip

fa it

fata sl. vulgar. fuck

fater sl. vulgar. fucker

fatad sl. vulgar. fucked

fatada sl. vulgar. fucking

gatya table

hashta war

hask here

hucszak a million

i a, also plural

ictha have

idi no

illinis snow

inhain certain, sure

incinati pregnant

injeste dangerous

inth her

inust wrong

isilum alabaster

ishlino gossip

isjusi eyes

itha she

itsole rod for fishing

j'iven reflexive. Literally: My debt to you. (Thank you)

ivernestea superstitious

ja you

jeso play, a drama

kama care

kel do

kel-a don't

lanva/lanvi thigh/s

lelvjen risk, chance

lithindi betrothed

lokswela speak

luvre stringed instrument

maloren magic

modress a mixture, a mongrel

n'varin to me (reflexive)

ne me

nelta butt, ass

nepalak sl. piss-shit

nis my

nivenit/i nipple/s

noita witch

nuin here

nuvita woman

octal look

olakith intelligent

omish give

n'ondi sl. vulgar, reflexive. you are drawing me (making me want to come)

ondi draw out, evoke

osil chair

palik by surprise, unaware

poshte heavy

pula sl. cunt

reshu gelding

savoronella concubine

se her

shivist coffin

sikules skirmishes, small battles

slosting sl. masturbating

stook sl.vulgar, a man's sex

strivaka political body, senate

som what

somfata sl. what the fuck

sul good

sulika sulfer

tals sl. a woman's sex

tares hello

tola beauty

tolena beautiful

tos you

tunin what

ulta soft

ustadt whore

uteles dress from Matise

vesh at

wenins enchant, cast a spell upon