The Chosen One: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (The Airluds Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  "You'll be getting your wish," Rama told him, his voice still severe. Though it had lost a little of its edge.

  Zem's eyes opened wide in disbelief. "I've passed already?"

  "You still have more introductory material to cover but, aye, you have been evaluated and accepted. Though that is no excuse to slack off. You can still find yourself out on your butt if you step out of line or don't pull your weight. And keep this to yourself. The other lads will be jealous and make your life hell if they know."

  "Like Ratch was making Flea's life hell. Got it. Thank you! Thank you so much! You won't be sorry. I'll prove myself the best airling trooper of them all!" His face was flushed with excitement and his eyes were no longer hollow. My heart warmed at the sight.

  "Not better than me," Flea announced.

  Zem gave her a friendly shove. "Maybe not better than you. But as good as. You got a head start on me but I'll catch you up."

  "Oh, aye, that's what they all say."

  Zem laughed as he took to his heels to get on with his chores.

  "An airling has picked him already?" Flea asked in a stage whisper after he'd left.

  Rama nodded. "We don't plan to tell the lads who has passed until the end of the introduction. But Zem deserved to know. He's a good lad."

  I looked at him in surprise. This was a complete about-face for him. Clearly the last quarter moon had changed his mind about the lad, or the last few minutes.

  "He's weird is what he is," Flea announced with a grimace. "You should hear what goes on in his head."

  That got our attention.

  "What do you mean?" I demanded. We were always on the look-out for hidden enemies. I thought I'd be able to Know one if I saw one, but mayhap I could be wrong.

  Flea realised she was telling tales on the boy who had defended her so recently, so she shrugged, trying to reassure us. "Nothing bad. He'll make a good rider. It's just the stuff he says to himself. Like he counts the number of steps it takes to get from here to the paddocks. He's constantly telling himself the order to do things, and they're stupid things that don't matter. Like how to eat his food. Stuff like that."

  I was momentarily surprised by something I'd never heard of before, but then a wave of Knowing came over me. "Something bad happened to him. He felt the world was out of control. Doing those things makes him feel in control again."

  "How does counting steps give him control?" Flea asked in confusion.

  "If he can identify a right way and a wrong way to do something, he can keep control by always doing them the right way. Sometimes chaos is so complete, there simply isn't a right way left. Getting the number of steps right, or the order of simple activities correct, makes some of the chaos manageable. It's a way to feel safe."

  I thought about what I'd said. Though the wisdom wasn't mine, I could relate to it. When I was in that hole in the dark, nightmare illusions of my loved one's rejection ringing in my ears, I often chose to do simple things to feel sane. Like counting the number of hands width it took to circumnavigate my hole. A useless activity, in and of itself, but to me it gave my mind something real to focus on, rather than my worries and my pain.

  "Hmm," she grunted, clearly not really understanding, but being willing to consider it.

  "Get on up to the house," I told her. "And try to keep your distance from the lads. The more you're around them, the more chance they'll find out your secret."

  The way her head jerked up and her eyes filled with guilty fright made me wonder if she thought I was talking about another secret, not her gender. It was not the first time I'd suspected there was something Flea wasn't telling us. But there was no Knowing to tell me what it was. In fact, the Goddess had seemed to want Flea with us, right from the start. Even if I hadn't been so happy about it.

  Flea gave a cheery nod and took off for the house.

  "She's going to be found out sooner or later. Then we're going to have problems. Real problems. A girl with a bunch of randy lads. Trouble."

  "It will work out. Don't worry."

  But I worried.

  Chapter Thirteen

  FLEA

  Flying had become my favourite thing. And part of the reason was Spot. It's hard to explain why. It wasn't that I hadn't already been accepted by the airling, Bay. But she had taken me because Airsha asked it of her, not because she chose me. To be singled out by an airling, one of the thirty raw airlings that had agreed to join the rebellion, had been the most incredible moment of my life. So flying with him had become magical.

  The day it happened was like any other. New recruits had been arriving in dribs and drabs for a couple of days and that had sent the Centre into confusion. We hadn't expected them so soon. There was no housing for them yet. No training plan put in place. But they couldn't be sent away, even though Airsha said they were being pressured by the rebel leaders. So those first lads were set to building the dormitory with Jaron and the old man, while Darkin, with help from Calun and Airsha, settled into putting a program together for the recruits. That left Rama and me to continue working with the airlings.

  It was on one of those days that Spot separated from the flock and hopped over to me, rubbing his great triangular head against my back. I hadn't seen him approach, occupied as I was with untangling leather rigging for the rock bombardment exercises. It was a shock, to say the least.

  Spinning around to face the big male with a large spot over one blue eye, had been like being granted an audience with the Godling. I knew what had happened immediately, though it was confirmed fast enough by Rama, who had seen the big airling's approach.

  "You've been claimed, little Flea. I hope you're up to it," he'd said in the slightly aggrieved tone he always adopted with me. I knew he didn't like me. And the feeling was mutual. But, since I'd helped save his brother, his suspicion had disappeared. Though he continued to block his thoughts, and had taught the others to do so too.

  I would never forgive him for that. It was very frustrating to be forced to communicate like everyone else. Except with Calun, of course.

  "I'm up to it," I shot back, sticking my chin out.

  "Then how about seeing if he'll let you get on his back. He's been fine with the packs of stones. And you're lighter than they are. Just."

  It was an insult, but a joking one, I decided. So I lifted a brow and sniffed at him. His thin-lipped grimace lifted at the ends into an almost-smile. And I took it as my due. We were coming on.

  And Spot had let me ride him, though that first time my ability to give him the signals he recognised were a bit lacking. Since then we'd improved to a point where I could almost hear his thoughts, and he responded to my thoughts as if he could see them in the pictures Calun told us airlings used as speech.

  Now I spent every spare moment with Spot, often just sitting with him, my back against his side, his body keeping me warm as the days grew colder. I had asked Calun if I was taking him from his family and friends. He said that this flock wasn't his. The bond was more like the one the new recruits formed, created from necessity rather than true affection.

  'True affection is what Spot feels for you,' Calun had said. 'You have become his new pod. As you have become part of our pod.'

  Having lost the only two people I could call my pod, it warmed my heart to have Spot regard me that way. The idea that I was also part of Calun's pod filled me with a different emotion. I still loved him with all my heart, but I'd come to accept that what he felt for Airsha would never change. But that didn't mean he didn't love me. He did. And because of him I'd become accepted and even liked by the others. But I wasn't really part of their pod. There was too much deception between us to allow such closeness.

  I was sitting with Spot after my chores were done, a couple of days after Ratch was sent away, making sure to keep well away from the other recruits. At first I'd resented being kept separate from them, but then I remembered I'd never wanted to be a trooper anyway. It had simply been an excuse to be allowed to stay. I was much better off up at the bi
g house with the Airluds and Airsha than with the recruits. I felt even more so after the way they'd turned against me at Ratch's instigation.

  All but Zem, of course. That odd little character had taken my side, and put himself in danger by doing so. It made me feel guilty, because I'd looked down on him from the very first day. He was small, weak and talked nonsense to himself. If any of the recruits were going to fail, he was, I'd decided.

  And yet he'd turned out to be a skilled fighter, brave, and the first of the recruits to be claimed by an airling. It certainly proved that outward appearances should never be relied on. As if I hadn't already known that from suns of manipulating my own outward appearance for gain.

  As if my thoughts had conjured him from the air, I saw Zem walking towards me across the field. His airling had separated from the flock and was hopping in his direction. None of the lads knew that being successful in the program required an airling to claim them. That piece of information was kept from them intentionally so that they didn't try to win the airlings affections artificially.

  When Zem reached where I sat, he nodded shyly.

  "Has someone sent for me?" I asked. It was the only reason I could think of for him to seek me out. And as his mind had been occupied with counting the steps it took to reach me, I could not glean any reason for his presence.

  "No. I just... I just wanted to see how you were after the fight with Ratch."

  Before I could read his thoughts, his mind turned to the approaching airling. It was a female, Calun had informed me, with black fur tipped with white, which made it look grey.

  "What will you call her?" I asked instead, following his thoughts.

  I'd confused him. He didn't know what I was asking.

  "Your airling. She's claimed you, you know. They don't have names among their own kind. But we like them to have a name when they've claimed us. I called mine Spot. But maybe I should say, the airling I belong to I called Spot. That's harder to say, but truer."

  He let the greyish airling rub her head along his body, while he stroked her neck with true affection. "This one follows me around a lot, but she hasn't claimed me. So I can't name her."

  "What do you think claiming involves?" I asked in surprise.

  He shrugged. I could tell from his confused thoughts that he couldn't believe an airling would claim him. These magnificent creatures were so far above him that he was like an ant in their path, as far as he was concerned. I could relate to that feeling.

  "When an airling comes to you from out of the midst of the flock, it's their way of saying, Hey, there's my human! That's it. You'll never see this one do that with any of the other recruits."

  He pressed his forehead into hers, rubbing the underside of her head. I could hear his rioting thoughts trying to come to terms with what I'd told him. Could it be true? He hadn't seen any of the other raw airlings but mine following people around. He'd thought this one was just friendly to humans, no matter who they were. But now he realised he hadn't seen her do this with any of the other lads.

  "But why me?" he finally said aloud, though I'd heard him asking it a few times already in his head. He'd finally asked me because he hadn't been able to come up with a suitable answer himself.

  "Calun says it's like falling in love. There's no rhyme or reason to it. An airling just sees you and they feel drawn to you. After that, no one else will do. Of course, that isn't the only way it happens. Airsha was accepted by Bay after Calun asked it of her. He felt she was the safest for the Goddess to ride and the airling had agreed. He also told me that when they'd had to heal the broken airlings belonging to the Godslund army, the beastlings were so traumatised they'd accepted anyone who was kind to them. These raw airlings aren't like that."

  "Calun told you? But he can't talk."

  I realised my mistake before he voiced his challenge. This was the real reason I should stay away from the recruits. No matter how much I tried to remind myself to watch my tongue, I could make a mistake like this one. Not having to watch myself around the Airluds had made me lazy.

  "Oh, well, not directly. But Airsha told me that's what he said. They have this really intense way of communicating through their minds. Did you know that?"

  I felt his suspicion fade away immediately. It was far easier to believe the Goddess had the power to hear Calun's thoughts than I could. Though it annoyed me to be so easily dismissed, that was exactly what I wanted to have happen. No one was supposed to know I could read minds.

  He shook his head, still watching his airling in awe. She'd sat down next to Spot, as if she always did it. But of course she'd never done such a thing before.

  "Do what I'm doing. It'll help you bond with her faster," I told him, indicating how I was sitting. Though I'd prefer to be left to my own thoughts with Spot, I felt oddly protective of this strange youth. And I wanted to ease his way a little.

  Zem did as I suggested and the look of wonder and happiness on his thin face almost hurt my heart to see. I realised just how wounded he was. And how ancient. Not like a kid at all. But in this moment he seemed as light-hearted as anyone our age.

  For a while we sat in silence. Though I could hear all his thoughts prattling on in his head. But for a change they weren't all about numbers and the order of things. He was just going over and over in his mind how this could have happened, and how it might be a mistake. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I had just said that to please him. But why would I do that? I didn't even like him. Not that he blamed me for that. Nobody liked him. Not for a long time. Not since his family died.

  His mind closed down on that thought and he refocused again on reasons why an airling might have claimed him and what it actually meant.

  "Promise not to tell any of the others, and I'll explain what it means to be claimed," I said when I was tired of listening to him.

  "All right," he offered cautiously.

  "It doesn't matter how clever you are, or how well you learn the lessons they teach you here. Even how hard you work. The only way to pass the entry requirements is to be claimed by an airling. That's why Rama told you, you were in."

  "I... thought it was because of Ratch," he confessed.

  "That won you Rama's respect, but it wouldn't have gotten you into the program. That all comes down to the airlings.

  "Think about it. These beastlings have never been domesticated like their grounded brethren. People had tried breaking them, but it never worked well because nobody understood them. And airlings had no interest in human affairs. They didn't have to, because they could just feed on the open plains and fly away if the humans got too close. Why would they want to have anything to do with us? We aren't a very nice breed, are we?" I paused so Zem could nod his agreement. I knew how he felt about people. Much as I did, though I don't think I had as much cause as he did.

  "But when humans did make contact in a way they could relate to, which is what the Airluds did, a bond of affection formed. Calun said their pod had two adult parents and four young of differing ages. A breeding pair will only have two hatchlings a sun. More often than not, one of the two won't survive the first suncycle of life. The young will stay with their familial pod until they find a mate of their own, which is usually after full maturity at about ten suncycles of age. They are full grown in size by their second suncycle."

  "I know about their breeding patterns," Zem interrupted.

  "But you don't know that in a weird sort of way the Airluds became like those four young airlings mates. Not when they were all young, but once they returned to their home from the Godslund army and their pod reconnected with them. The parents didn't stay but their young did. Calun thinks it's still possible for them to find their true mates, but it's become harder since they left their flock to remain with the Airluds."

  "Isn't that cruel? To take them from their own kind, from the possibility of a mate and young?" Zem asked sadly. "I don't want to do that to this airling." He patted the white-tipped black fur protectively.

  "No one takes them agains
t their will. And Calun believes that once this rebellion is over most of the airlings will go back to their old lives. They're only here because the Goddess Willed it."

  I could feel Zem's mixed feelings at this news. To be gifted a relationship with an airling, and then to have it taken away? That was hard to hear. But it was better for the airling, he assumed, if not for him. It would hurt him anew if he gave his heart to this beautiful creature and then lost her. Hadn't he decided suncycles ago that he would always lose those he loved, so it was better not to love? Could he do that with this airling? Keep his heart safely locked away from her? But he already felt like it was too late. Maybe if he didn't name her...

  "You name her," he told me stoutly. "I don't know any good names."

  I laughed. "I called mine Spot. I'm hardly imaginative, when it comes to names. What strikes you most when you look at her?"

  He frowned, considering my question, despite himself. "Her kindness. She had to be kind to choose me."

  "She's not being kind by choosing you. She fell in love with you. Remember, airlings don't measure appearance in the way we do. What else?"

  "She looks like a storm cloud," he admitted at last.

  "So... cloudy?" I asked helpfully.

  He grimaced. "What about Stormy or Storm?"

  I shrugged. "Sounds good to me. She does look a little like a storm cloud. She could rain on a person as she flew overhead, too." I sniggered at my off joke.

  "Do they do that?" he asked in surprise.

  "Piss when they're in flight? Yep. It's really good to try not to be under airlings when they're flying overhead, for that reason. Didn't Darkin mention that?"

  He blinked rapidly a few times, trying to decide if I was telling the truth. I could see him analysing the information. It made sense that they would have to piss, but he hadn't noticed any of them doing it. Was it for the same reason it was so difficult to identify their gender. Everything was on the underside, hidden in fur?