Read Ashes and Rain: Sequel to Khe (The Ahsenthe Cycle Book 2) for Free Online Page B

together. They stared at us with large, frightened eyes. Thanks to the lumani’s tinkering that made my ears as sharp as my eyes, I heard their soft mewling even at this distance.
    Or maybe it wasn’t the lumani’s doing. I could tell Azlii didn’t hear it, but Nez had her head cocked, her left ear hole turned slightly toward the sound. Azlii liked hatchlings — everyone did — but Nez and I treasured them in our hearts. Maybe that made us more attuned.
    “They’re crying,” I said, and Nez nodded.
    Azlii looked at us. “What are they doing here? They should have been picked up and distributed already.”
    “They must be hungry,” Nez said. “They will have licked their eggs dry by now.”
    Seeing us, the hatchlings clustered closer to one another — if that was possible — and kept their wary eyes on us. Nez smiled and started towards them, making soft, cooing noises in her throat. The hatchlings watched her come, some shifting foot to foot, but they didn’t run away. Maybe they were too weak to run. They were very thin.
    When Nez was about halfway to them, she turned back and waved for us to come. Azlii stayed where she was, but I headed toward the hatchlings, cooing much as Nez had. I walked as fast as I could manage, but didn’t rush, so I wouldn’t scare anyone.
    “Who is the bravest among you?” I said when I reached them.
    A few looked at the ground, but most turned their heads and looked at one particular hatchling. It stood tall and smiled tentatively at Nez and me. It didn’t have emotion spots yet. Those wouldn’t emerge until it did, leaving its hatchling state behind and becoming a doumana.
    Or a male, I thought suddenly. Hatchlings all look similar, not getting their own true faces and bodies until after emergence. This group could be all female, all male, or a mix of both. We had no way of knowing without a closer look. But they were alone and starving; what sex they were was of no matter.
    I looked at the bold hatchling. “What’s your name?”
    “Darnan.” Its voice was soft and weak.
    “What are you doing here? Are there more of you?” The nesting ground was large. There would have been many eggs laid here. There should be more than the twice-four hatchlings standing before us.
    “Only us,” Darnan said. “A big thing that moved along the ground came. Doumanas were in it. They grab up everybody until the box was full. They left us behind.”
    Nez knelt next to me. Her spots were lit brown-black in anger.
    “How could the gatherers leave them?” she whispered.
    I didn’t have an answer, only the guess that the gatherers meant to return, but something had happened.
    Another hatchling spoke up, drawing me back from my thoughts. “We had eats, but they’re gone.”
    Azlii strode up beside Nez and me, and spoke low. “We’ll take them with us. This place isn’t a corentan mating ground, so they can’t stay with us long, but we’ll reason out a solution. We’ll have to find someone who knows how to tell doumana from male hatchling.”
    “I can do that,” I said. I’d never seen a male hatchling, but I’d seen plenty of proto-doumanas and thought I could figure out if there was some sort of marking distinction.
    “My work in Chimbalay was at a hatchling house,” Nez said. “I know the differences.”
    “Maybe we should separate them now, then,” Azlii said.
    Nez’s spots flared brown-black again. “You can’t leave any of them here. They won’t survive.”
    “Pftt,” Azlii said, but no spots lit on her neck. Whatever she felt wasn’t strong enough to note, or to stop our taking all the hatchlings.
    Nez pointed to Kelroosh and said, “That is our living place. It’ll be yours too, for a while. Come on now and we’ll find you something good to eat.”
    Even the shyest hatchling grew excited at the thought of food — and likely shelter and company, too. They gathered around us like a soft yellow cloud, and together we returned to Kelroosh.
    The rest of the