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“Is that not obvious, somehow?” Krista pinches Thon’s nipple by way of reprimand, loving the tiny little hiss he makes. “I’ve got a Harkurian-loving pussy, I guess.”
Thon’s dick likes that quite a lot. He hums quietly into Krista’s hair as it twitches inside of her.
“Dirty boy. What about you? Do you still hurt here?” she asks, brushing his throbbing balls with her fingertips. To her regret, she can’t quite wrap her hand around them.
“I don’t.” Thon reaches up to touch Krista’s face, tipping her chin back so that he can ghost his mouth over hers. His eyes are huge, rapturous. “Not anymore.”
Epilogue
“Itlookssmaller,”saysKrista, examining the commune with her head to one side. They’re approaching from the main road—the one she left on when they exiled her all those months ago, but the walls look less formidable somehow, even when she wiggles off the edge of the cart and looks up at it from the ground. “I swear it’s smaller.”
“You’re bigger,” Pel jokes, earning a swift snarl from Thon and an aggrieved sigh from Noss.
“Think I could knock it down if I threw my axe at it?”
Pel is right, Krista really has gotten large. She’s taken to wandering the Harkurian village at odd hours of the night, her hands clasped beneath her protruding belly like one of the old Human men here at the commune. She’s been restless since San kicked her out of the workshop, telling her not to come back until she dropped a little Harkurian. That’s how the Harkurians say it. ‘Dropped.’ Like even Harkurian vocabulary accounts for their size and weight.
The Harkruan village is beautiful—not at all like this forsaken mud hole. Everything back in the village is green and alive. Houses dwell seamlessly amidst the trees and the roads meander gently through them. Nothing gets cleared unless it is absolutely necessary. It made things difficult to find at first—the village has a loose, sprawling design that wasn’tdesignedso much as intuited. It’s a peaceful place, always full of distant conversation and birdsong. The Harkurians are rough but warm. They welcomed her from the very beginning, and their only questions for her were friendly ones.
Looking at the gates of her birthplace, a strange feeling comes over Krista. “Weird. It’s like looking at the corpse of someone you know. You recognize who it should be and it’s definitely them, but …” Krista pauses in the road, rubbing her belly thoughtfully as she considers the wobbly, uneven walls made of felled trees, stripped of bark and sharpened to points like a primitive fortress. She used to think those walls were impenetrable, but it looks as though a stiff wind would blow them over. “Weird,” she says again.
Thon is more subdued these days, joyful beyond words for the child, but also melancholy, which is a recent development. They have been selecting a new home for Krista, poring over digital brochures and examining star charts. Sometimes they speak to colony reps about her options. She’s compared brand-new, out-of-the-box startups to secure and established settlements that just need a population boost, but she hasn’t been able to commit to any of them. Her credit accounts have been created and her GAMMA citizenship confirmed. The Harkurians have been patient with her indecision, assuring her that the future is too important to rush. Where she goes next matters.
Krista chews on the inside of her cheek, pausing by one of the horses and steadying herself on its massive flank.
“Krista. Are you well?” Thon appears at her elbow but does not reach for her. Once, not so very long ago, the Harkurian couldn’t keep his hands to himself. He’d been insatiable after they re-negotiated the bargain, devouring Krista every chance he got, in every position, on every surface, like he was starving and Krista was the only thing that could satisfy the hunger.
They haven’t had sex since the pregnancy was confirmed. That side of the bargain ended as originally planned—strangely and awkwardly, but that had always been the agreement, hadn’t it? Sex is for breeding and Krista is pregnant, so mission accomplished. Besides, morning sickness had already set in by then, except it was also evening sickness and occasionally afternoon sickness. Krista would wake up in the middle of the night and sleep most of the day. That first month or two ravaged her. Thon was lovely, stroking her gently through it, fetching water, running a bath, or just sitting there and grounding her with the simple fact of his existence. Sex just wasn’t a thing. She had never been less horny in her entire life.
By the time that phase passed, they had fallen into a routine, both of them recalibrated to life without the bargain, and there was always something else to do or think about or plan for. Doubts crept in. Krista began to wonder if Thon evenwantedto continue now that they knew each other better and after he’d seen her curled up on the bathroom floor looking like hot garbage. It was not an attractive time.
“I’m okay,” Krista assures him. It isn’t even a lie because he’s asking about herphysicalhealth, which is fine. Her doctor wouldn’t have let her go three feet from the bed if she hadn’t been healthy. It won’t be much longer now. The boy inside Krista grows strong, kicking her bladder at all hours, flexing his little feet against her navel. He will ‘drop’ soon, and then the bargain will end.
Thon studies her doubtfully. “Your doctor said no walking.”
“He saidminimalwalking. And your son demanded this.” It’s a joke, but the wordyourmakes Thon’s face go oddly blank. Krista turns her head to get a better look at his—is he upset? He looks upset. She turns to Pel for answers, thinking maybe he knows something, but Pel does his best to edge away from them nonchalantly, muttering something about checking their inventory.
“Thon.” Krista’s pulse quickens as she lets go of the draft horse and catches the Harkurian by the crook of his elbow. She opens her mouth to say something, but the words catch around the ball of anxiety in her throat. “Um. Thank you for this,” she tells him instead.
The Harkurian looks down at her hand. He still touches her sometimes, but Krista doesn’t know if it’s desire or necessity. Emboldened by his expression, she tightens her grip, resolving to find out soon. Today. The past few weeks have been a strange roller coaster of uncertainty, regret, hope. Krista resolved to go to the stars, but the longer she stays with Thon and his kin, the colder those stars appear from the ground. Everyone she has ever met, everyone she has ever—she peeks up at Thon—ever loved, is here. Leaving is all she ever wanted, but her mind shies away from imagining it. She thought maybe if she could return to the commune, just for a few hours on Trade Day, she could reinvigorate her flagging resolve.
Also, she’s here for something.
“Okay. So here’s the plan,” she says as the Harkurians gather around. They brought a full dozen of the best Standard-speaking males in the clan, which is more than enough to dissuade any incidents that could arise once they enter the commune. “This is a farming village and they aren’t accustomed to conflict—”
“Clearly,” one of the huge males agrees, his eyes on the rickety walls.
“They don’t keep weapons. Technically, violence is a sin—” here she ignores Thon’s quiet scoff “—so no one will think to attack us. Probably. Not immediately, anyway. We should still get in and get out as soon as possible.” A quick glance past one of the horses confirms that no one inside has taken note of their arrival. She timed this deliberately so they would not meet the other vendors on the road. No, the commune isn’t armed, but it does have a giant gate that can close and lock. “All of you will mingle with the vendors, go trade stuff, draw attention, and everyone will be looking at you guys while I slip by.”
“I’m going with you,” Thon announces. This is his huntsman voice, the one he uses in the woods when he’s in command of the party and will not accept arguments.
“That would quite defeat the purpose,” Krista protests anyway. “They’ll notice me faster with an eight foot tall alien by my side.”
Thon shrugs a shoulder, where new ink has been added to accentuate the scars he received from the assassin nej. “What will they do about it?”
“Fine,” Krista huffs. “Thon comes with me. Everyoneelsecan mingle. Someone should also stay out here with the cart.”
“Noss,” Thon decides.
