Chapter one
Hazel
Blueblooddriedwithinmy fingernails from digging at the mountain rocks for food. I spat on them so they could soak into the pores, softening them for eating, but my mouth was so dry that it did little to help. I would have to return to the fresh-water deposit close to the clan. There was no reason for anyone to visit the waterfall, considering they had underground pipes that brought the drinking water to the center of the city, but it was pretty at night.
Couples would sneak out of the clan to pleasure themselves there in secret. Though, I wasn't sure it was all that much of a secret, since they didn't care if other couples were there or not. I wasn't supposed to get that close to see anything. The water was easily accessed from the river at the top of the waterfall, where I would come down from the mountain. Going that close to the waterfall was mostly because the water was cleaner there. At least, that's what I told myself.
With an empty nectar pot, wrapped up in strong rope that I could use to carry it on my back, I set off to the waterfall that my mother had told me never to get too close to when she was alive. I'd disobeyed her many times to watch the other estrelds together. I wasn't a spawnling anymore, and I liked hearing the noises they made. With her return to the great rock, she was no longer around to warn me, or to keep me company. It was tiring to live on my own, abandoned in a mountain cave, and outcast from the clan.
Perhaps, that was why I went to the waterfall. One rising, I would be spotted by someone, and they would take me back to the Almder and back to the clan. I'd seen her at one of the mating ceremonies that my mom snuck off to. I caught her and she told me that this was the only time I could visit the clan when I was old enough. When everyone was too distracted with mating, and no one cared who you were. That was a long time ago, and I'd been too scared to get that close to the clan on my own.
My mother was cast out, and if she returned, she'd be executed. With her gone, would they accept me?
I heard the moans of a female in pleasure over the sound of water splashing from the small cliff drop into the pool, and I smiled wryly as I quickly unstrapped my nectar pot. In my hurry, the pot wobbled as I put it down and I had to return to right it before it toppled. At the top of the falls, there was a smooth rock I would sit on that overlooked the pool below where the noises were coming from. My loh jewels along my light-green skin glowed the closer I got, and then I saw her within the dusky glow of the water. It was late, but many plants and rocks on this side of the mountain were infused with the moon's radiation giving everything a beautiful luminance at night.
She was by herself, and in her hands was a finely shaped rock of black tarnpul like a tube jutting from the rock that she rubbed her mating loh against between her thighs. Her loh jewels glowed across her bright blue skin as her hips bucked in the air, up and down the shaft attached to the rock until I saw her mating loh activate, creating an opening. She laughed with excitement before she adjusted herself to her knees and wrapped a hand around the rock, sinking her mating loh on top until the rock disappeared inside her little by little. Her deep moan of satisfaction ignited something inside of me that made my own hips jolt for friction.
My breathing quickened as the rock I sat on rubbed against the loh between my legs. I watched as the female lifted herself up and worked the shaft in and out, her panting growing louder as I bit my lip to stop myself from voicing the cry that worked its way up my throat as my own mating loh glowed, begging to be filled, but with nothing around but a smooth rock to move against. As she shuddered against the rock, so did I, finding a kind of pleasure greater than simply watching others seek out their own pleasure, but mine as well.
Between my thighs a throbbing grew, making my hand claps over myself to stop the empty feeling, only to find my mating loh had split, allowing my fingertips to sink in. I gasped and pushed my slender, but rough fingers deeper, only to hiss at the tenderness of my nailbeds from digging up rocks earlier.
"Sodenmare," I cursed at the moons. It had felt so good before that, and I wanted more, but it wouldn't be my fingers filling me today, not with how sore they were.
"Don't stop on my account," a glib deep voice I didn't recognize startled me from beyond the bushes that grew along the river. I froze in place, and the bushes rustled with movement. They were one of the few plants that didn't have a glow to them and there was nothing but shadows within them. One particularly large one emerged, but I recognized the shape of wings and horns.
Krelin!
Stumbling back off the rock, I tried to disappear within the bushes behind me to avoid confronting him. It wouldn't be difficult for me to stay hidden and make my way back to the cave. I knew this mountain better than anyone.
Then a hand wrapped around my mouth before I could scream. "Shhh, we can't have you alerting the pretty blue one down below," another krelin that had been behind me warned.
I thrashed against his hold, but a dizzy feeling made me too weak, and my muscles felt as wild as the water close by. The smell of something sweet, sweeter than anything I'd ever experienced burned down my nose and touched the back of my tongue. My loh flickered out, the glow gone from the pleasure I once felt, and the krelin chuckled in my ear. The shadow in front of me floated off the ground, a buzzing sound filled the air, mixed with the rolling waters of the falls it could almost be considered calming. If it weren't for the terror that consumed me as I watched the dark figure of the krelin fly down to where the other female was, basking in the moon's rays… with her eyes closed.
No! I screamed in my head.
Krelins were terrifying with their large horns, sharp claws, long fangs, and wings that made them quick to escape. But what was more terrifying was what he said next, "You know, taking you doesn't violate any laws from my planet or yours. You should have stayed safe in your clan's territory, because our trade treaty doesn't protect you out here. Estrelds aren't considered a tradeable good on your planet, so it isn't considered stealing anything, and I'm not harming you either. I can't say the same for your wellbeing after you're sold, but every krelin is bound by the Queen's will."
He spoke as if it wasn't the first time he'd relayed the information to pre-emptively stop any protest I might have to him swooping his arm under my knees until he was carrying my limp body. Struggling to keep the numbness from taking over my mind, I tried to stay awake. The laws of Estreldez weren't something I knew much about, living outside the clan my whole life, but now I was upset with my mom more than I had ever been before. It wasn't right to curse the dead, but it was whatever sin she committed that had us outcast, and because of that, I might never see the inside of the clan or seek out its protections ever again.
"And the Queen's will is that this planet is ours."
Chapter two
Yueril of the Trillume Authority
Pullingintothedesolatespace junk that was nothing more than a dead rock, void of anything but imported trades to its name, would be the only celebration my crew would have for a while. We were to set off farther into the robe's edge of the sector, that was not yet ravaged by the Solusgors, once the first cargo was dropped on Delta Fal. The chill of space made my scales flare up the sides of my head. I didn't have to say a word to my second in command, Belder, for her to know what was circling my thoughts. It was on all of our minds.
"Will recruiting these volatile species to our ranks deter the Solusgors from invading?" Belder asked. She was as skeptical as I was about the success reported from our queen on Necias Prime.
My jaw tightened with guilt. Even our queen knew it would not be enough. Our princess, Klemon, said as much before I departed on my mission. The queen would attempt to bring in a warrior species that could act as an "appearance" of strength to ease the planets under our protection from worry. History would not look kindly on my involvement in what would be needed to be done to protect this galaxy. The cost would be high. Should someone try to undo our efforts... death would come swiftly.
Could I live with myself for what I have done? What I was doing by releasing our cargo on this planet?
I would have to. At least we would all live.
Have mercy on the few for what must be done for the many.
I took a steady breath to answer her. "It isn't about whether or not they join us," I admitted.
