Infall

Chapter Two

Kythe rose and walked to the flap that was his door and stuck his head through, saying something. He came back and sat and a man came bringing a large tray of food. Indya hesitated, looking at the new man, who wasn't looking at either of them. Kythe didn't introduce them.

"Hello," she said to him in Alcon. "I'm Indya."

The man looked at her and then at Kythe.

"He doesn't understand you, Indya," Kythe said.

"Di," she said in his language, knowing that word. Yes. She looked at the man, smiling at him, touching her chest. "Indya."

"She says her name is Indya," Kythe said to the man.

The man glanced at her like she'd said something odd. "Yes, Rí," he said to Kythe, looked down at the floor like he'd dropped something, and then he just left.

Indya stared after him, knowing she didn't understand. Her hands went to her lap.

Kythe was looking at her face. He leaned forward, pointing and naming the food. "Broth with grated bread, eggs, sage and saffron. Cheese. Cabbage. Sweet buns made with blackcurrant. Sausage. Olives and grapes. Fish sauce."

Her eyes went to the food and she shivered. Some of it would be meat, and not synthetic protein.

"Indya?"

She shook her head. Surely he didn't mean real eggs. From what creature?

"Try the sweet buns," he said, pointing.

She took one and leaned forward, smelling at it and then her tongue came out, her brows going up. Taking a bite, she nodded, trying the different tastes, hoping he wouldn't notice when she avoided the flesh.

When they were done, the same man came back and took their dishes, not looking at either of them. She leaned and looked when he was gone.

"I would like to hear more about this place in the sky, where you lived, this ship," Kythe said, not commenting on the strangeness of it, holding out his hand, a request.

Indya gave him the earpiece and he held it near his own ear. She rose and got a round piece of fruit, a small and a large one. "Hold this," she said, giving him the large one.

He smiled at her and took it, holding it up.

"That's the sun. This is the world," she said, holding up a smaller piece of fruit. "The world is rotating, and it's also going around the sun." She moved it in her hand. "Day is when the world faces the sun. Night is when the world rotates away."

He reached and put the earpiece near her ear. "I know this is true," he said, nodding. "I learned this in Jassa, when I went to school at university. They have an orrery to show this, the heavenly bodies that pass around the sun in loops. They're not fruit, though, I think," he said, his tone dry, moving to hold the piece near his own ear.

She grinned. "No, not fruit. The planet has a hot core of iron. The sun is just a big ball of burning. But the sun would be a hundred times larger than the world."

There was suddenly an intensity to his face, looking at her. He held out the earpiece. "You know numbers? Do you know mathematics?" he said, bringing it to his own ear to hear her answer.

She shrugged "Yes. I know algebra, analysis, arithmatics, combinatorics, geometries, game theory, numeric analysis, optimization, probability, set theory, statistics, topology, and trigonometry."

His eyes were searching her face as he put it to her ear. "Your family is

arustin

?" he said.

She shrugged.

"Your...piece of ear doesn't know this word?" he said.

She gestured and he brought it back to his ear. "It's not made from anyone's ear, Kythe. The earpiece is a mechanism made of materials we have on our ship. The earpiece can't translate the word arustin because there's no idea for that in my mind, in my language."

He brought it to her ear. "You don't have arustin? Families more important than other families? People who tell others what to do, and others serve them?"

She drew back sharply, shaking her head. He said other words she didn't know, even with the earpiece, Indya shaking her head.

He eyed her. "Women learn in Atlantis?"

She nodded. Obviously.

"You understand these things?"

She shrugged, nodding.

His brows went up, eyeing her. He looked at the fruit again. "This is all sky past the world? The sky goes on forever?" He put the earpiece near his own ear.

"No. The sky is like a skin that hugs the world. Past the sky is nothing."

He blinked, and then he came and brought her to the bed, sitting with her, shifting the earpiece back and forth between them. "Nothing?"

"There are other stars far away," she answered. "Other suns. There are other planets, other worlds, far away. But between them is nothing. Some dust. Rocks."

He was frowning at her. "Your ship sails on a sea of nothing?" he said. "How does it float? Why doesn't it fall?"

"We float in space because there's no ground to draw us. There's nothing to fall toward, no force bringing us toward itself. There's no water. There's no air. It's black and dark nothing."

"Black," he echoed. "Dark nothing. Can you swim in this ocean of nothing?"

She laughed. "In special clothing, or in the mechanism you saw in which I fell. There's no water there. There's no oxygen. You need to bring those with you."

"I don't know this word, oxygen."

"Oxygen. Air. You breathe in the air," she said, putting her hand on his chest. "You pull oxygen into your lungs. It goes to your blood and travels all through your body. You need it. You breathe out air, and the oxygen in the air is used up."

"Explain. What is this stuff in the air we breathe?"

"Every substance in the world is made of what we call elements. If you make a cloth, you have your thread and you have your dye, and you combine them to make something new. If you took them apart until you couldn't take them apart anymore, those would be the elements out of which all cloth is made. There are elements of the world and their combinations are things like what we need to breathe."

"What makes the elements?"

"The number of protons in the nuclei of its atoms. It doesn't matter. We had to bring air and water with us, or find them, or make them in our ship."

He rose, walking to a chest and bringing back what looked like a book. He opened it and it was two thick leaves of trees with a surface with material on the inside.

Indya looked at it, touching it. "What is it?"

"A tablet. It's wax," he said, holding out the earpiece. He handed her a stiff metal stick. "Draw your ship."

She drew the center, the material stiff, the outside ring, the spokes, her hand moving quickly, although it was difficult. She wrote the word in her language and connected it. Atlantis.

"It doesn't look like a ship," he said to her. He brought the earpiece to his ear.

"It carried us. It's made for different forces than water, Kythe. In this ship, we sailed above the world for four hundred years."

He was staring at her, reaching slowly to hold the earpiece near her ear. "How old are you?" Kythe said, moving to hold it close to his own.

"Nineteen," she said.

He seemed relieved, holding it out. "You can write, Indya." He brought it to his ear.

"All my people can write."

"Why?" he said, holding it out. "Why do you teach them?" He brought it to his own.

"Knowledge doesn't belong to just some," Indya answered. "We're smarter as a people when we combine what we know. It's important for us to learn, and to be curious and explore. It's a part of the kind of beings we are."

He grinned, gesturing at her, holding the earpiece to her ear. "I argue this with my father and brother who think I'm crazy because I want to know everything, but I never thought I would know these things. I would say you're a crazy beautiful woman, except I can't understand you without your piece in my ear and your eyes are a color I have never seen before and you fell from the sky in something I don't even know how to describe."

She gestured and he brought the earpiece to his ear. "What's a duvat?" she said.

He thought about it, holding it out to her. "A person who collects other peoples' secrets."

Her brows went up, gesturing again. "What's a noita?"

"A person who can do magic," he said.

"You know magic isn't real, right?" she said.

He laughed softly, holding it to her ear. "You just told me I have animals on my hands so small I can't see them and that you come from a ship that sails on a sea of nothing and you say it's unreasonable to believe in magic?" He brought it to his own ear.

"Yes. Those are things that are, whether we know them or not. If I take an object and drop it, it will always fall, and nothing that I do can stop that from being true. I can't make it rise with my mind. To know the rules of the forces that make the object fall is knowledge. To believe you can break those rules is magic or miracles, which are human ideas. These things don't care what we believe. They don't change. Those rules can't be broken. They just are."

He was staring at her. "What force makes the object fall?"

"We call it gravity. It gives things weight according to how dense or large things are. Things want each other. The larger the object, the stronger it draws other objects to it. The planet is the largest object around us, so things fall downward, drawn to it."

He had so many questions after that. Except for the few hours earlier, she hadn't slept. She would have to get used to the planetary rhythms, but she had to sleep at night to do that.

When she was done talking, she handed him the earpiece and rose, walking to the bed and taking off the coarse dress, his eyes watching her. He got a frayed stick and water, cleaning his teeth, holding a small box and dipping it. He made a motion, offering it to her.

"I don't need it, thank you. My teeth don't decay." She looked into the small box. "What is it made of?"

He held out the earpiece. "Ground horse hooves," he said and then laughed aloud to see her face.

* * *

She woke with Kythe's arm over her, heavy. After she'd taken a moment to remember everything that had happened, she got out from under him, grunting lightly, stood and stretched. She returned from the back of the tent to the tall piece of furniture, pouring water into the bowl there and washing her face and hands, and then brushed her hair, putting it in a braid. Looking around for something to tie it with at the bottom, she saw he was awake, up on his arm, looking at her.

He said something in his language.

"Good morning," she replied in Alcon, smiling at him. She showed him her hair, looking around. He still had the earpiece.

He got up, also naked, his sex hard, and walked to a drawer, opening it and coming back with string. When she'd tied it and he had returned from the back of the tent, she looked at him. His body was strong, big arms and chest. She walked around him, looking at his butt and back, coming around to look at his sex.

He looked amused, handing her the earpiece, Indya putting it in her ear. "Do I meet with your approval, alea?"

She nodded, sending him a glance. He'd said alea was a flower. She wanted to have sex with him again soon. But not today. She finished tying her hair and went and got her dress.

"Being naked doesn't bother you," he observed.

She shook her head, giving him a look while she put it on. What an odd question. She gestured at him.

"No, it doesn't bother me," he said, his sex still hard, coming to her and reaching to take her braid in his hand, wrapping it around his fist and drawing her closer. He leaned down and kissed her, his facial hair rough.

When he drew back, she gave him another glance. She liked him.

"I want to have sex with you, Indya," he said, his hand going to her breast.

She shook her head, putting his hand away and reaching up with her arm, pulling him down and kissing him, his hand going back to her breast. Taking the earpiece, she put it to his ear, speaking. "I want to. I'm still sore. Tomorrow. There are so many things I've never seen, Kythe. Trees and animals and a river and dirt and plants. I want to walk and see them today," she said, going to the door. "I will come back later." She put the earpiece in her ear as she walked.

He must have moved quickly, because he caught her hand there, gentle. "Can I take you, Indya?" he said when she put it in. "I would like to show you these things."

She smiled and nodded. He was kind. "Di, Kythe."

He took her on his horse, Indya greeting the animal. She looked at him and then at the horse. "Indya," she said, pointing at herself and then at Kythe. "Kythe." She pointed at the horse.

Kythe grinned, nodding. "His name is Bashir."

He seemed to ignore the people who looked at the ground when he passed. Indya turned around to look back at them. They stared back at her and their eyes weren't friendly.

* * *

Indya was laughing, running, Kythe chasing her. She went around the tree, giving a cry when he reversed direction, and then he was laughing, catching her, pulling her against himself and kissing her. He liked to kiss her, and he was fun. She couldn't remember ever having so much fun, flushed, out of breath, and the tie had come out of her hair.

She backed away, the braid unraveling, letting it be loose, laughing again. The sunshine felt good, not too hot, a little windy. Late summer, he'd said, was the season, and autumn coming.

When she couldn't run anymore, she flopped to lay down on her back, her knees up, and he got down with her. Indya saw it, her eyes widening. Sitting up, she reached for it, an amazing creature that moved like liquid.

He caught her hand, grabbing her and lifting her whole body, so strong, standing and backing them away.

"Kythe?" she said, tensing, her heart pounding. She had the earpiece.

"It's a serpent, Indya," he said, still moving her away. He set her down. "Stay here. I'll kill it."

She shook her head, putting her hand on his big arm. "Idi, Kythe," she said. He couldn't kill the animal. It wasn't attacking them. It wanted to live.

Kythe looked down at her for a long moment. He reached, his knuckles going to her cheek. "Not everything here is safe, alea," he said. "Not everyone is safe."

She nodded, looking back at where the animal had been, lifting her hand and pretending to bite it.

He laughed. "Yes. He would bite you, and he is poisonous."

Her brows went up, moving closer to Kythe, looking at the ground. She didn't have shoes.

His hands were suddenly under her dress on her butt and she shrieked, turning and running, the game again, but he caught her and pulled her down. She was laughing.

"I wouldn't just bite you," he told her, turning her on her belly and flipping her dress, and she felt his teeth on her butt, giving a cry, but it died because she couldn't catch her breath, Indya trying to crawl away, laughing too hard. "I would eat you all up."

She turned onto her back, meeting his hands, but he pushed her dress up and was biting at her breasts, sucking her nipples in between, the sensations immediate and too strong to say no. He nipped her belly, making her jump, and shoved her legs apart, getting between her legs and nipping her inner thigh now, Indya jumping again, and then he was sucking on her clitoris.

It felt so good.

Kythe stopped and brought himself over her. "Are you still too sore, alea?" he said, his breathing heavy.

She shook her head. Yes, she was, and she really didn't care.

He was inside of her in moments, keeping her legs there and entering her. He was more gentle this time, long strokes, and she was sore, but the pleasure overrode everything else.

"Do you like that so much?" he said, his face not exactly unfriendly, but his expression made her squirm and her pleasure shot up.

Nodding, looking at his face, she spread for him entirely, putting her arms up and on the ground, her hands above her head, letting him do what he wanted. He saw it and for a moment his face looked cruel, but he kept thrusting gently, Indya closing her eyes to feel it. She loved the sensations, his sex hitting a place in her that felt good and it got even better the more he did it.

He began going faster, propping himself, grunting. His hand went to her breast and he pinched her nipple sharply.

Indya cried out in surprise, opening her eyes, her hand coming up to his. His fingers went to the other one, holding her eyes. She didn't tell him not to. She waited in anticipation and he pinched her sharply there, as well. It hurt and a deep twinge went through her, between her legs. She put her hands back where they had been.

She forgot everything else, closing her eyes again, all of it sensation. He pinched her nipples and she cried out with each one, but she didn't open her eyes, and she didn't move her hands. A heaviness was in all her limbs, lost in sensationss. She felt his fingers seeking for her between them. If he touched her there, she was going to come.

Her eyes slitted open, his eyes on her face still. He rubbed and she started to come, but not right away. First every stroke sent her a little higher, Indya hitching and going still, her body jerking. Then it was on her, Indya throwing her head back and arching under him, his thrusts deep and fast now.

Her voice went high and helpless and the pleasure came and took her. He grunted deeply, thrusting, and made a savage sound between his teeth. It wasn't going to stop, and then she released. She'd never felt this good, never had this kind of pleasure. She cried out again.

He did the same between his teeth, holding there, straining, his sex lifting in her.

She relaxed, panting and her hands hadn't moved. He stilled, looking down at her. Indya was looking back at him, surprised. That had been more than simple and sexual, more than play, more than she could have imagined she could feel. The idea that he could do what he'd wanted to her had aroused her, a wave going through her now to think of it, although she'd just climaxed.

Her hair was everywhere around her, probably plants in it. Indya reached up, touching his mouth, his face hair, its roughness. Taking the earpiece, she offered it, speaking. "I didn't know I could feel such pleasure," she said. She smiled, feeling shy. "I like you, Kythe."

He was studying her, his face serious, and her smile faded.

"What is it?" she said.

Kythe shook his head. "Nothing, alea."

After that, he seemed a little strange. He brought her back, Indya riding in front of him on his horse. When they got to his small village of men, one of them came to Kythe, looking at the ground before he spoke.

When the man looked up, his eyes swept her before shifting. "There's a missive from Averdine, Rí."

"Good," Kythe said. "Bring it to my quarters."

When they arrived at Kythe's tent, two men were in front, one dressed in brighter colors, leading a horse.

"...rí enjoying an ustadt," Indya heard from the other, a word that didn't translate. "Wait until you see her--Rí. My apologies," the man said, turning, recognizing Kythe on the horse, neither man looking at or addressing her.

Kythe dismounted, reaching to help her, his eyes studying her face for a moment. She smiled at him and he seemed to relax.

" Fata," the man in bright clothing said, staring at her, and then he looked at Kythe and seemed to remember himself and then at the ground. "I'm sorry, Rí."

"You have the letter?" Kythe said, his tone short.

"Yes, Rí."

* * *

They all went in, but the men didn't speak to her and weren't introduced. They spoke to Kythe again, and he read things and went to the table and got things she realized were maps. Indya stayed quiet and out of the way. The men would sometimes glanced at her and smirk, and sometimes they laughed, glancing at her, and spoke with one another. Kythe didn't look at her.

When they left, she waited until Kythe looked at her. She approached him, holding out the earpiece. He put it to his ear.

"What is an ustadt?" she said.