The New Angondra Complete Series

by Ruth Anne Scott

  He crossed the clearing to sit at her side. “If you do, I do, too.”

  Chapter 2

  Her laughter played on Roshin’s ears like the sunlight on water. She trailed her fingers over the surface of the pool and splashed a thousand glittering stars into the air. The sun shone on her feathers and reflected a blinding array of rainbow prisms into his eyes.

  He blinked. She filled his mind with beauty. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Talya,” she replied.

  He blinked again to clear his thoughts. “That’s not an Avitras name.”

  “No, it’s an Outlier name,” she told him. “My parents joined the Outliers, so they gave me an Outlier name.”

  “Why did they join?” he asked.

  She cocked her head to one side. She couldn’t be more Avitras. “What is your name?”

  “My name is Roshin,” he replied.

  She smirked. “That’s not an Avitras name, either.”

  “No, it isn’t,” he replied. “It’s an Earth name. My mother is from Earth, and my father is Avitras.”

  Her eyes widened, but she didn’t stop smiling. “How fascinating.”

  “Not as fascinating as you,” he replied. “Tell me how your parents joined the Outliers.”

  She waved her hand over the water again. “They joined in the usual way, and they’ll be very upset if I don’t get back soon.” She made no move to rise, though.

  “I’ll go with you,” Roshin told her.

  “Which tribe do you belong to?” she asked.

  “Yours,” he replied.

  She laughed again. “You’re a bad boy, aren’t you. Well, you can come with me if you want to.”

  She got to her feet and strolled back to the path in no particular hurry. Roshin strolled at her side. Nothing could be so pleasant in the world as her company. She touched leaves and flowers on her way. Her face reflected the beauty and tranquility all around her. She embodied a perfection he never knew existed. She made the whole world perfect.

  When they met the main path and turned north again, she took his hand. He gazed into her eyes, but she only smiled as though it was the most natural thing in the world to do. Her hand infused his heart with love and appreciation for everything around him to the far ends of the world, even things he couldn’t see. His age-old enemies, the Ursidreans, even those wraiths the Aqinas in their ocean home—Talya’s love and acceptance encompassed them all. He could accept them, too, as long as she held his hand in hers.

  He said nothing. They strolled nearly all day, down the long slope and across the stream to Rolling Ridges. He knew the place well, but not even this proximity to the Outlier camp could upset his peace of mind. She smiled at him again when they broke out of the trees into the wide open field dotted with tents.

  Roshin stopped and looked around. So this was it. He’d found them, and he was right. Those young travelers told the truth. The Outliers weren’t just camped here. They’d made it a long-term base. They could only be planning deeper incursions into the inhabited territories, and the only territory close enough and within easy enough reach of Rolling Ridges for them to penetrate was Avitras territory.

  His mind spun through the possibilities. He had to get back to the village and warn Piwaka as soon as possible, before the Outliers made their next move. His heart beat faster, but Talya’s hand clasped around his made him think twice. Piwaka wouldn’t listen to Roshin now any more than he listened to him before. How could he get Piwaka to see reason?

  Talya tugged him forward, and they walked together into the field. Roshin surveyed the camp with a critical eye. Years in the Guard taught him to size up a scene like this fast enough. No signs of weaponry or martial intent marred the peaceful camp, but he couldn’t trust appearances. He had to investigate further.

  “What’s that woman doing over there?” he asked.

  Talya followed his gaze to the edge of the trees by the path. A tall woman, almost as tall as Roshin, hung by her wrists between two trees. Her knees sagged, and her chin rested on her chest. A sheen of black covered her head and ran down her shoulders. Her weight stretched the leather thongs tying her wrists to their breaking point. Blood stained her torn clothes and blackened her head.

  Talya sniffed. “That? That’s Lilith. She helped some prisoners escape. She’ll be sacrificed at sunrise tomorrow to take their place.”

  Roshin’s eyes widened, but he kept his surprise in check. So the travelers told the truth about that, too, and here was their benefactress, taking their place. “That’s a pretty harsh punishment.”

  Talya shrugged. “The Outliers sacrifice one person for every band that joins us. That’s our custom. Old Ponchy gave her a great honor by letting her choose the sacrifice, and she chose the man she wanted to pitch with. She got him ready, but in the night, before we had a chance to sacrifice him, she let him go, along with the rest of his friends. She’ll take his place. That’s the way we do it.”

  Roshin forced himself to turn away from the lifeless figure. He doubted those young travelers’ word, but here was the living proof right in front of him. As much as he wanted Talya for himself, he wouldn’t stand around and watch these wretched people kill that woman for letting the travelers escape. He didn’t know what he would do about it, but he had to do something.

  He fought down his rising disgust and smiled at Talya. He could forget everything when he gazed into her eyes. He followed her into the camp, past women cooking over open fires, past men in clusters of conversation, past children running between the tents. The sun set behind the trees, and the breeze cut through Roshin’s clothes. His nostrils flared to catch the flavor of the forest.

  Talya led him to a tent and tried to draw him into it after her. He hesitated on the threshold and looked back over his shoulder. His village was way off to the south. If he’d been home right now, he would be going home to his own house and preparing for the evening meal. He’d never spent a night away from the Avitras in his life, not even patrolling the frontier with the Guard. They always roosted in trees with their nuts and seeds for the evening meal. He wouldn’t get that here, not even with another Avitras like Talya.

  A group of men stood in a semi-circle next to the tent. They listened to a grizzled old man giving them orders. He waved his arms toward the southern mountains. “Go back down the other side tomorrow. Don’t come back until you’ve been all the way. I want to know everything there is to know. How many are there, and where are they? We can’t make a move until we have all the information.”

  None of the men noticed Roshin listening to their conversation. They nodded to the old man and dissipated into the camp. Talya appeared at his side and touched his elbow. “Come inside.”

  Roshin nodded to the old man. “Who is that?”

  “That’s Old Ponchy,” Talya told him. “He’s the closest thing we have to a leader.”

  Roshin made a murmuring sound in his throat, but didn’t answer. His mind roiled with everything he’d seen.

  “You should meet him,” Talya told him. “He’s the greatest thing to happen to the Outliers.”

  Roshin’s eyes widened. “Is he? Why is that?”

  “He took control of the band when it was nothing but runaways and lost children,” she told him. “It was Old Ponchy who created the institutions that keep the Outliers together. He instituted the sacrifices and the initiation feasts and the Conjunction.”

  “The Conjunction?” Roshin asked. “What’s that?”

  She nudged him toward the tent flap and drew Roshin after her. “Come inside and I’ll show you.”

  The doubt vanished from his mind when she smiled at him. She wouldn’t lead him into a trap. The same love and peace radiated in her eyes as burned in his heart for her. They felt the same way about each other, and they would never be separated. Then he looked around the interior of the tent—and froze.

  Bodies covered the ground from one wall to the other. Cushions and blankets carp
eted the ground, and hundreds of people lay twisted together in a writhing mass of flesh. Thighs hid the heads buried between them. One body joined another at the pelvis. Screams and moans and animal grunts filled the air.

  Roshin stared. Men and women lay stacked on top of each other in multiple entanglements of penetration into every available orifice. Shiny streaks of bodily fluids smeared exposed skin, and more spurted over mounds of heaving limbs and gaping mouths with tongues lashing in and out.

  Roshin tried to swallow, but his parched throat wouldn’t work. “What is this?”

  “This is the Conjunction,” Talya told him. “We conjoin before every sacrifice. That’s our custom.”

  He could barely form the words to ask. “Did....did you do this the last time...when those others escaped?”

  “That’s the only reason they were able to escape,” she replied. “All the people were here, except those guards station to watch them. Lilith drugged them to put them to sleep, and we never knew they were gone until morning.”

  Roshin tried to take a step backward. “This is....”

  She hauled him into the tent. “You’re a newcomer here. You must conjoin with us.”

  Sweat broke out all over his skin. His body tensed to fight. “I couldn’t possibly....”

  She smiled in his face, and her smile brought a heave of nausea from his guts. The fire of ravenous erotic hunger glowed in her face where love and beauty used to be. How could he let himself fall into a trap like this, with such a blatant charade of loveliness as hers? He should run straight back to Piwaka with his tail between his legs.

  She held his hand in a death grip and wouldn’t let him go. “You’re a stranger. By rights, you should be sacrificed, too, but if you conjoin with us now, the Outliers will take you in and welcome you.” She pulled him farther into the tent until he couldn’t walk anymore through the bodies. “Come.”

  He would have closed his eyes to block out everything around him, but they would kill him if he protested anymore. She said so, and he believed it. The most gruesome tales of carnage, torture, and human sacrifice found their way back to the inhabited territories. They struck fear into the hearts of the most seasoned Guards. No one wanted to face the Outliers, and here he was, trapped into joining them—in more ways than one. If he survived this night, how could he show his face among the Avitras again?

  He kept his eyes fixed on Talya. He bathed his mind with her, drowning out everything else with her beauty, with the smile that lured him here in the first place. He let her eyes and her smile send him into that happy dream by the river when he resolved never to separate from her.

  She sank down—where? Where did she find a clear space to fit her body? He couldn’t think about that. She lay back on the cushions, and Roshin lay by her side. Her cheeks flushed. Her nostrils flared, and her lips parted in desire. Her limbs softened, and Roshin’s body sank into hers. His lips touched hers. The cries and sighs rising on all sides fueled his passion. His body tightened, and he rolled over on top of her. His arms clasped her against him, and he dug his hips between her legs.

  A hand ran up his thigh, but he shook it off. He wanted nothing in the world but her. Pure animal desire for her broke through that genteel civility that kept him calm and serene on the river bank. He seized her and crushed her. She sighed into his mouth, and her legs separated to let his knees fall between her thighs.

  He ran his hand up the back of her neck and between the pinions of her feathers. They flared out from her head and stood on end. His frill opened behind him and covered them from view. She lifted her hips, and her dress slid up over her hips to expose her flesh to him. Roshin tore his pants open to get at her, and his cock darted out, across the gap, and into her waiting fissure.

  She sucked her breath through her teeth, but their bodies arched and vibrated together. Roshin flexed his feathers, and they rose off the cushions. He didn’t look around to see anyone’s reaction. He couldn’t see beyond his own feathers. He didn’t care anyway. He flew into the air and carried Talya with him.

  A puff of air plucked her weight from his arms. She’d opened her own frill. They flew together, and their feathers held them up off the ground. Roshin thrust his shaft deep into her throbbing slit, and they tumbled over each other in mid-air. Then she fell down under him, and gravity pulled her away from him. His cock slid out of her, but her feathers caught them and stopped them from falling. Talya rolled back up on top of him and sank down onto his shaft again.

  Around and around they tumbled, free from the fetters of the restricting planet. If they sank too low toward the cushions, Roshin flew higher until the next tumble when Talya’s weight pushed him down again.

  Faster they rolled. Higher they flew. Talya’s sweet voice moaned in his ear. Her cries of passion rose with every thrust and compelled Roshin to drive himself into her harder and faster. Then he caught sight of a few Outliers watching them from below. With a flick of his feathers, he flew to the tent opening.

  Talya opened her eyes when the night air hit them. She searched Roshin’s eyes, but asked nothing of him. They hovered over the Outlier camp with only the eternal stars watching them. Then they hurtled into the sky in a burning Catherine wheel of rapture and ecstasy.

  Chapter 3

  Roshin let Talya’s weight drag them down to the ground. They tumbled over each other in the last throes of passion. Steaming syrup stained his legs and her buttocks, but his cock dissolved inside her and passion no longer held them locked in a carnal embrace.

  She buried her head against his chest and curled into his arms as they sank. Roshin looked around, and with a subtle swivel of his feathers, he directed them where he wanted to land.

  She sighed one last time when her body touched the ground, and he held her close against the night cold. Would he ever hold another woman this way? He would probably never see her again. He brushed her feathers down against the back of her head and pulled her dress down to cover her legs. She lay still with her eyes closed. Roshin listened to the camp sounds. Everyone remained in the Conjunction tent except a handful of guards stationed near the two trees where Lilith still hung unconscious.

  Roshin kissed Talya on the forehead and on each of her eyes. She didn’t stir, and he dislodged her arms from around his neck. He folded them on her chest and let her curl into a ball.

  In a flash, he was on his feet. He pulled his pants closed and tied them. Then he took three steps away from her, took his blade from his waistband, and slashed Lilith’s bonds. She slumped onto the ground with a grunt.

  He put his blade away. He didn’t have much time. He bent over to take hold of Lilith’s wrist when a voice stopped him. “What are you doing?”

  He turned around and faced Talya. “I’m leaving here, and I’m taking Lilith with me.”

  The orgasmic glow vanished in icy-cold. Her eyes flashed, and she set her lips in a hard, cruel line. “You can’t do that.”

  He grabbed Lilith by the wrist. “Watch me.”

  He yanked Lilith off the ground and slung her up on his shoulder. He was just about to fly away with her when Talya burst into action. He never saw anyone move so fast, not even the most skillful Guard who fought dozens of battles against the Ursidreans. She half ran, half flew into his path and jerked Lilith off his shoulder. The unconscious woman bounced on the ground at Roshin’s feet and lay still.

  Roshin rounded on Talya with his hands balled into fists, but she didn’t wait around to fight him. She flew across the space between the trees with a spine-chilling screech. The Outlier guards burst into view, and before he knew what was happening, five Outliers rushed him with drawn blades. At the head of the group, with his rotten black stumps of teeth jutting out of his mouth and his matted gray hair flying, was Old Ponchy.

  Roshin drew his own blade, but he couldn’t fight them all at once. They would cut him down in a second. He extended his frill to fly away, but at the last second, Talya ran up behind him. She snatched two fistfuls
of his feathers and dragged on them with all her weight. He couldn’t move them to fly, and Old Ponchy lashed him across the face with his blade.

  Roshin thrust out his blade to defend himself, but Old Ponchy could move fast for a man of his age. He must have done a lot of fighting in his life. He parried and stepped back out of Roshin’s reach. Roshin’s blade slashed through empty air. He tried to shake Talya off him, but she held on and screeched like a banshee. Her shrieks would rouse the whole camp, and he would never escape. They would sacrifice him along with Lilith. The Avitras would probably never find out what happened to him.

  Memories of his father and mother flashed through his mind. His father stood tall and majestic with his feathers arrayed around his head, and his beautiful human mother smiled down at him with her long golden hair falling over her shoulders. They admired him with pride and love. He couldn’t die out here at the hands of these brutes.

  Another Outlier joined Old Ponchy and they rushed him at once, but he played weak. He let Old Ponchy stab at him with his blade. The point sank into the flesh under his ribs. Pain blasted through him, but he bit his lip and fell back. His ruse worked, and Old Ponchy drew back his blade to see how seriously he’d injured Roshin.

  In that moment’s pause, Roshin feinted. He turned sideways and jabbed at Talya with his elbow. He struck her with all his strength in the neck, and her hands holding his feathers went limp. She collapsed onto her back.

  Roshin gave her no further consideration. He rounded on the guards with all his fury. He flew at them in a whirlwind of flying feathers and slashing blades. Old Ponchy tried to lash out, but Roshin snatched the blade out of his hand and attacked the Outliers with two blades instead of one.

  The second man he cut down with a slash across the neck. He clasped his severed windpipe with a frantic gurgle of blood and bubbles. Roshin shoved him aside and drove both his blades into each side of the next man’s ribs. He pulled them out covered to the hilt in black blood, and he whirled around to meet Old Ponchy driving in behind him.