Gama and Hest: An Ahsenthe Cycle companion novella (The Ahsenthe Cycle) Read Online Free

gently through the long variegated hairs — black, brown, and light gray — until the comb was full. It took a lot of strokes to fill the comb, and a lot of packed combs to stuff the bag. The sun was sinking by time they were done.
    She finished with the last brez and lost the contentment connection. Thoughts of the explosion flowed back into her mind. The lost bucket. The field stripped clean. She shifted from foot to foot.
    Don’t think about it , Hest sent.
    Of course he knew exactly what gnawed at her.
    You’re not thinking about it ? It’s scratching at my thoughts like a bird in a box .
    He sighed. “We have work to do, Gama.”
    More brez had come to the salt patch than they had time to groom, and those who’d not gotten their chance at the comb now pawed the ground and snorted their displeasure.
    We’ll be back tomorrow . Gama didn’t think the beasts understood the words, but knew from experience they understood the meaning.
    But the beasts didn’t settle.
    The ones they’d groomed also started bellowing and pawing the ground. One nearly stomped on Hest’s foot. He yelled, and jumped to get out of the way. Gama grabbed his arm and tugged him toward her. The beasts turned and sprang across the meadow toward the low hills that bordered it.
    Hest !
    “I don’t know what scared them,” he said aloud, knowing, as usual, what she was thinking as they watched the last of the beasts retreat — a female and an offspring. He shrugged uneasily. “At least we filled the bag.”
    Gama glanced at the stuffed-full bag, then back toward where the beasts had run. She and Hest had been grooming brez together since they’d emerged seven years earlier. They had a knack for it. Other pairs had to chase after the beasts and beg them to cooperate. Hest had been able to call brez from the start and both of them groomed the beasts practically without effort. Gama had never seen brez act the way these had. Unease churned in her belly. She tilted her head, thinking she heard a soft hum in the distance.
    “Gama!” Hest said and grabbed her arm. He pointed toward the sky. “Do you see that?”
    She looked up from where she was tying the bag onto the sled. A shiver ran up her breastbone. The air seemed to shimmer, the way Hest had said it had the day of the big booms.
    “Let’s go,” she said, and sent, Before the air explodes again .
    They grabbed the sled’s rope and ran.
     
    -=o=-
     
    “Hest and Gama had a strange experience today. I wanted you to hear from them directly.” Reln stretched out his hand, inviting Gama and Hest to stand beside him on the dais. Gama’s neck warmed as she climbed the short stairway. She hated having attention focused her way. She liked even less knowing that what Hest and she had to say wasn’t going to make their kin happy.
    “I’ll tell it if you want,” Hest whispered as they took their places next to Reln. He switched to private thought-talk. Everyone in the room saw the thought-grains moving between them, but politely ignored them. It’s only two things : the brez were frightened and the shimmering sky . It’s a quick story .
    She shot him a look of gratitude.
    Below them the soumyo sat on pillows in the large open space of Community Hall. Reln stepped back, leaving her feeling alone on the dais, even with Hest beside her.
    Hest cleared his throat and began the story. He told it well, straightforward, nothing extra, the way she remembered it. Not everyone recalled shared experiences in the same way, but Hest and she did. Gama panned her gaze across her brothers and sisters to gauge how they were taking the news. She picked out those who would have questions — the ones with real curiosity or worry showing on their throats, the ones who craved being the center of attention even for a brief moment, and those with the soft yellow-green of skepticism on their necks.
    When Hest finished, Reln leaned forward, his long fingers splayed along his thighs — his standard thinking