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

walls were painted the pale-green of contentment, and yet the air seemed to shimmer with the gray of worry. I didn’t know if I actually saw or felt it, or just imagined a color to go with the sudden tension that seized Fundid’s muscles and changed the look on her face.
    There was no long chair in this room. Instead the five commune doumanas and the three of us sat in a circle on wooden chairs upholstered in a thick weave as soft and comfortable as anything I’d ever felt. I couldn’t help myself. I ran my fingers over the fabric and wondered if every dwelling in this commune had chairs with whisper-soft fabric dyed in this precious and expensive color, but I doubted it. If this commune was anything like Lunge, the leader and her unit lived finer than the rest of the sisters here.
    They’d prepared for our visit. A tall, clear cylinder filled with thick, dark-yellow liquid sat on a table in the middle of the circle. A stack of goblets sat beside it. One of Fundid’s unitmates twisted the bung open and began filling the mugs. No one spoke. Each doumana lifted her mug as she received it and sipped the drink. It was warm and sweet at first, but had a bitter, unpleasant aftertaste.
    “Binion leaf,” Fundid said, answering an unasked question. “You saw them thrashing the stalks for Bethon Blue dye. We also make a yellow dye from the leaves, and a purple-red dye from the roots.”
    We sipped our drinks for a bit, and then Azlii asked, “The same amount of fertilizer and mulch as last year?”
    The weaver’s leader smiled. “Same as last year, and the year before, and the year before that.”
    Of course, I thought. They plant the same crops in the same number of fields, likely only rotating fields so the crops didn’t deplete the soil. This visit was more courtesy than necessity. After Rill’s reaction at Two-ling commune, Fundid’s certainty was a relief.
    “And we’ll need three new threshing stakes to replace some that were damaged.”
    Azlii nodded, adding the orders to those she already carried in her head. “Anything else?”
    Fundid leaned forward. Her eyes were flat and serious. The gray I sensed in the air seemed to grow darker.
    “News from Chimbalay,” she said. “Is it true the energy center blew up and several of the Powers Returned to the creator?”
    “Where did you hear that?” Azlii asked calmly.
    “Kelroosh isn’t the only corenta plying its trade in this region,” Fundid said, and shrugged. “Doumanas talk. We saw some of it on the visionstage before all the stages went dark.”
    My breath froze in my throat. What would Azlii say? Oh , yes . It’s true . And here’s Khe . She destroyed the Powers and plunged the doumanas of Chimbalay into a near - freezing Barren Season , and now the doumanas of Two - ling commune don’t know what to plant , and who knows what other consequences of her actions are still to be discovered ?
    Azlii leaned back in the chair. “That sort of information is expensive.”
    “No doubt,” Fundid said. “How expensive?”
    “Very, I would think,” Azlii said. “Seven new cloaks, woven here and dyed Bethon Blue.”
    Fundid huffed. “Since when is gossip worth that sort of price?”
    “When it isn’t gossip, but firsthand accounts.”
    The Bethon doumanas drew in their breaths as if they were one being.
    “You were there?” Fundid asked.
    “I was,” Azlii said. Her voice was neutral, factual — as though she were about to say nothing more important than if the sun shone outside or the sky was covered in clouds.
    Fundid rested her chin on her fist and considered. I didn’t need to see her neck to know that she desperately wanted to hear this tale.
    “All right,” she said. “Trade.”
    I wished I could see Azlii’s neck behind the collar, to know what emotions ran through her.
    Azlii steepled her fingers. “The Powers were not special doumanas, as you thought; they were creatures from another world. They ruled us for generations, so long that