Atu's Education Read online

  Holi laughed up at him, and thought of all three of them bearing, then with their babies in their arms. Atu the warrior had to wipe a grain of dust out of the corner of his eye, but his beloveds didn’t laugh at him.

  He brought himself back to the here and now. ‘They will have ropes, probably, to throw over the walls, or maybe a battering ram to slam against the doors and open them. Or maybe explosives to set against the walls and make a hole, although I doubt these ones could use explosives without hurting themselves. And they want to capture the children, not kill them. Whatever they do, they will need to get close, but we can’t let any of them get so close that they are right under the walls and we can’t see them.’ In fact he had some fire that he could rain down directly on anyone against the walls, but he didn’t want to set the wooden doors on fire.

  He thought about how to explain the many ways he had of causing death and destruction to those who threatened these two he loved and who wanted to sell the children into slavery. He decided that it was best his beloveds not know, at least for now.

  ‘Picture a line around the compound out there, about where those rocks are. That is as close as they can be allowed to get. Any closer, and our children are at risk.’ The rocks were not an accident, he thought, and again he praised whoever had built this place.

  Zeda hugged him. ‘I am not scared to take a life, my big friend. I have fought before, and for lesser causes. But how is it that one from such a safe and peaceful planet knows so much about fighting?’

  Atu stared into the distance, afraid to meet his beloved in the eyes. ‘For many centuries our people were isolated, and it was a peaceful existence, but because of that we had no way of looking for our children when they were stolen. We joined with others in treaties, developed technology, and some of us volunteered to go away and train alongside other species who are more war-like. I don’t know if those of us who have seen too much can ever go home again. If that is the price, I happily pay it.’

  Holi stared at him in disbelief. ‘You made this sacrifice for the greater good! Of course you can go home. Or we will go somewhere else together.’

  Atu changed the subject, diversion always being a useful tactic. ‘Who built this place, do you know? How long has it been here?’

  ‘It was some kind of monastery, I think, a sacred place since early times. There was one old one left here when Zeda and I found it, when we just had maybe just ten or twelve children. We were travelling then, looking for refuge, and everywhere we found children. These maggots think they are pure, each little group of them, and they do not like mixed race children. Finding this was a blessing. Some of the children were brought to us, others we heard of and went out to get. The old one brought some of them to us, too. He died several years ago, and we buried him under the tree, the one where you nursed us.’

  ‘Blessings on the soul of the old one.’

  Zeda looked at him with surprise. ‘You believe in that?’

  Atu shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter what I believe. But if there are gods that listen, he was a good man and he should be blessed. If none of that is true, we keep going anyway, don’t we?’

  They all held onto each other, and stared out into the night, while their children slept. There had to be something to believe in, some hope to pass on to these children who had already seen too much hatred and pain.

  Chapter 4.

  Atu let his mind focus on the sounds of the night, and finally heard the rustles and shuffling that told him the attackers were getting ready to move on them. The fools probably thought that they were being quiet, but they sounded like a herd of cattle.

  ‘One group coming straight at us, another angling around to the east. Maybe twenty in the first group, thirty or forty in the second. I think they are going to try and sneak around to where the small door is while the first group distracts us.’

  Atu shut his eyes and prayed, as he always did going into battle.

  ‘Gods forgive us for the lives we are about to take.’

  The three moved into position and waited, and on Atu’s signal they lit up the sky with explosives that rained sticky fire down on the advancing troops. The screaming brought him no pleasure, but they were attacking those he had come to love. Both groups broke and ran, despite all the yelling from behind them. Apparently their leader was the kind who led from behind.

  ‘They will not try again tonight. And tomorrow night they will have shields or something to protect themselves against that. As though we are stupid enough to have only one kind of weapon. You two go check on the children, and get some sleep. You’ll need it.’

  ‘And you?’

  ‘I am a warrior, we train to go without sleep for long periods, and to sleep on our feet listening. I will stay here.’ And keep watch over you, my beloveds.

  Instead of leaving, they moved in on either side of him, and wrapped their arms around him.

  ‘You asked if Holi and I had played’, Zeda said, smiling over at Holi. ‘May I share that with you, my warrior?’

  Holi purred, and smiled as well. ‘Oh yes, the memory isn’t quite as good as the real thing, but still …’

  They all slid down onto the packed earth walkway, their backs to whatever attacks would come later, and held onto each other. Zeda and Holi opened up their memories, and Atu saw Holi, a younger Holi, as a slave, and his master raising an arm to strike him, obviously not for the first time, and then dropping dead with a knife in his throat.

  Zeda smiled grimly. ‘That is where our Tomas got his knife skills from. He had a natural talent and I taught him more.’

  Then Zeda and Holi were on the run, but everywhere they went they found babies and children who were abandoned and abused, mixed race children left in the wake of the last of the armies that had stripped any wealth from this dying planet. Tomas had been one of the first, still young but a street-wise small fighter, trusting no-one. He was already protecting several younger ones when they met, and the three had joined forces, and over the course of several years travelled to this place.

  ‘You must have been protected by the gods to travel this planet, collecting children and sheltering them.’

  ‘It was bad at times’, Holi admitted, ‘and many nights we curled up in caves or under trees hungry, not even enough in my breasts to feed the little ones, trying to keep the babies quiet so we wouldn’t be found.’

  ‘There are no wars now, nothing left to take from this planet.’ Zeda said. ‘The forests are dead, and the lakes and seas are dried up. Soon there will be nothing but dust.’

  Atu nodded. They had seen that from orbit, that there were only a few places where people were living at all anymore, and this was the only one where there was a group of children together. And only one place that called to him, although he hadn’t known why until he’d seen Holi.

  ‘The scum who remain live off each other, and sell any children they can find to off-world slavers who don’t care what color the skin is.’

  ‘The loving’, Holi reminded him. ‘Share the loving, so we all have that memory.’

  Zeda, as an earth human, had already been sexually mature when he and Holi had met. As soon as they were together Holi had begun to morph into the second stage, although Zeda hadn’t known exactly what those changes meant. They had begun to find as much pleasure as comfort in holding each other, and sleeping together at night had begun to result in a great deal of rolling around kissing and touching each other.

  Holi had developed nipples, and his hole had opened up to Zeda’s touch, slicking up and inviting deeper exploration. By the time they were out into the countryside he was as mature as he would be until they found their third. One night when they were holding onto each other the holding turned into rubbing and then sucking hungrily on nipples, and Holi had found Zeda’s erection with his hand and then his mouth. Atu relived the joy that both had felt, and how Zeda had explored down between Holi’s legs to find his ready hole. They had rolled around and shifted positions, and with Holi urging him on Zeda had brought the head of his leaking cock to Holi’s leaking hole, and sunk into it as though they were meant to be part of each other.

  ‘We were.’

  Atu stiffened himself at the picture, and Zeda kissed the side of his neck. ‘Oh yes, my big one. That was so good. We were meant for each other, just as you are meant to complete us.’

  Zeda had been cautious of hurting his alien lover at first, but Holi had brought his knees up and sunk his long fingers into Zeda’s buttocks, pulling him in as deeply as he could. Bucking up under Zeda, thrashing with desire, he had found his first orgasm, and felt every bit of Zeda’s experience, and Zeda’s seed shooting deep inside him. When they were both spent they had remained locked together, with Zeda holding Holi tightly as though he was the most important and precious person he’d ever met.

  ‘He was. He is.’ Zeda confirmed.

  ‘Gods’, Holi remembered, ‘that was the first time since I was taken from my family that I felt so satisfied, so complete.’

  ‘My beloved’, Zeda murmured into his neck. ‘I had never felt so complete.’

  ‘Beloveds.’ Atu added, stroking himself where there hadn’t been anything to stroke before. The final stage of the morphing was affecting both Holi and him now, and they were becoming hermaphroditic. Three in the triad, and all of them everything to the others. That was how it had always been. Would their human accept this?

  Zeda rubbed against him. ‘We three are one, and I know this as well as you do, although I didn’t believe Holi at first when he told me that we had a third. I thought we were fine the way we were. Until I saw you standing in that alley, and even then I fought it.’

  ‘That first time that we loved each other was just before we found this place’, Holi said, ‘and then since I met you
something else has been happening, my final morph, I think. I think you should check.’

  Atu looked suspiciously down at Holi, who was trying to keep a straight face.

  ‘You do know that I have been androgynous, and only began to morph only when I met you, so in this regard we are equal, except you have had Zeda, whereas I have been alone?’

  ‘Well, then maybe I am the one who should be doing the checking’, Zeda smiled, ‘if that means touching? As much as we can do where we are?’

  There was the sound of a throat being cleared, and Atu started. He had not heard Tomas sneaking up on them, and was oddly pleased that the young one was such a quick learner. He was also grateful that the young one couldn’t hear their mind conversations.

  “They won’t attack again tonight, will they? I’ll stand guard with a couple of the other older ones, and you three can take a break. We’ll wake you in couple of hours.”

  “They’ll regroup and make another plan, but you’re right, probably not tonight. They didn’t expect to find us so well-prepared. They won’t give up, though. They want the children.”

  Atu couldn’t think of any reason to argue, so he left the young ones in charge of the rocket launchers, swearing to the gods that he would bring them to a world where they didn’t have to know about such things. Children should not have to know how to kill.

  ‘Enough, come on, let’s go compare bodies, and maybe do some of this bonding I’ve been hearing about.’

  He smiled down at Zeda as they made their way down the stairs. Their human was indeed a clever one, as well as beautiful. Holi was beautiful, and he longed to touch him all over, but he had never seen such a one as Zeda before and the need to explore his body was growing in him. No wonder his clever Holi had fallen in love with the human.

  Holi purred up at him. ‘My love for him as well as your own, that’s what you are feeling, our warrior. Love, doubled.’

  They curled up together in one of the buildings, away from all the children. Atu nursed Holi and Zeda again, just because he wanted to this time, and maybe to show off his chest a little, and this time he felt the response in his body that he had been told would happen. Zeda stroked his strong chest appreciatively, and nibbled at his throat.

  ‘Our warrior …’

  Holi, sitting on his lap, murmured happily and rubbed down against Atu’s growing erection.

  ‘Mmm, Zeda, this is what nursing causes, within the bond,’ Holi guided Zeda’s hand down to feel, and Atu pushed up into his beloveds, and prayed for the day they could fully complete their bond.

  Holi leaned back to offer Atu his breast, and the big warrior accepted eagerly.

  ‘To nurse, all on all, that is the first stage of the bond’, Holi told Zeda, ‘and ultimately we will share seed with each other, all with all. Only with seed from the other two can one become bearing, and if the gods are willing we will see that day.’

  ‘Do we need to share seed to make the formal bond, with the shared blood, as you told me?’ Zeda asked.

  Atu thought about it. ‘At least a little bit.’

  He pulled Zeda in closer to him so he could nurse at his breast, then eased their human’s pants open so that Holi could find the human’s pale erection with his mouth. Holi sucked and then probed into Zeda’s slit with the end of his agile tongue, using the texture in his mouth to pull all of Zeda’s length in again. Overwhelmed with passion, Zeda hardened even more and thrust eagerly up into Holi’s mouth.

  Atu teased back between his legs with a strong finger, slicking it with spit and twisting it into Zeda’s tight hole. Zeda gasped and came to a climax in Holi’s hungry mouth, and Atu quickly pulled Holi up and kissed him deeply, sharing their Zeda’s seed.

  ‘So sweet, beloved …’

  ‘Now you, Holi, you are further along with the morphing than I am …’

  ‘You, please, bring me that pleasure, my warrior ...’

  Atu was happy to comply, bending over his sweet Holi, and carefully taking his growing penis between his lips. He sucked, and was delighted at the first taste of nectar he found there, nursing at that sweet blue cock like it was a nipple and he was starving. Maybe he was. Holi writhed happily under Atu’s loving mouth, and Zeda joined in with clever fingers playing in his leaking hole. All too soon Holi cried out and shot his first adult orgasm into Atu’s mouth, and Atu shared that sweet blue froth with Zeda.

  All of them cried out then, although they muffled the sound against each other’s necks, as they felt the bond locking into place between them. Atu nipped gently at the necks of his two beloveds, and Zeda at his, and they all shared a drop of blood with the others. The bond was formalized now and forever, although it would be deepened with more loving between them, for all of time.

  ‘Beloved!’

  ‘Beloved!’

  ‘Beloved!’

  ‘We three are all one now, beloveds, whatever happens.’

  ‘Yes, us and our thirty-eight children.’ Atu smiled at his beloveds, and wondered how he had ever survived without them.

  ‘Soon, gods willing, we will be able to enjoy the full bonding, beloveds.’

  Chapter 5.

  They waited out the rest of that night, and the one after, and the waiting started getting on the young ones’ nerves. Some of the children wanted to bring the little ones back up into the sunshine, but Atu knew that if something happened there wouldn’t be time to hide them again. Holi explained it to the young army, and then found them things to do to keep them busy.

  ‘Are the maggots doing this deliberately?’

  ‘They’re not that smart. They’re waiting, too.’

  ‘For what? Reinforcements? They don’t want to blow this place up, they want the children alive.’

  In the middle of the night they heard some noises that sounded like it could be more reinforcements arriving in the camp, and braced themselves for an attack that didn’t come. Atu debated sneaking out to see what was happening, and was still debating it just before dawn when he discovered a light rope hanging down behind one of the corner towers.

  ‘Where’s Tomas?’

  No-one knew.

  ‘I’ll kill him when he gets back.’

  He didn’t, of course, he hugged him.

  Tomas gestured for a couple of the children to stand guard, and took the three adults into the nearest building.

  “I’m sorry, but we needed to know, and I was the best one to go. And it isn’t good.”

  “Did they bring up a battering ram?” Zeda asked.

  “Are there more troops?”

  “No, they’re bringing the other children they have here. They’re planning to meet the slave ship here now, and the leaders are talking about how the ship has good weapons, it can just knock the wall down, and they think there won’t be any fighting then.”

  “When?”

  “The children are coming in today or tonight, the ship maybe another day or two.”

  “But our ship will be better armed, won’t it, if it gets here first?”

  “Is there any way we can get those children in here? They may use them as hostages, or shields. And who knows what they’ll do to them …

  “How many children?” Holi looked like he was going to cry.

  “I don’t know, maybe twenty or thirty.”

  “Gods, how can we get that many in here unseen?”

  Atu realized that he was getting used to having everyone talking around him, and it wasn’t even bothering him anymore. Still, enough was enough. He looked at Tomas. “Where is the tunnel?”

  Everyone stared at him.

  Tomas looked guilty.

  Holi stared at him and then Atu. “There’s a tunnel?”

  “Logically, yes. Whoever built this planned for all contingencies. And if anyone was going to be poking around and find it, it would be Tomas.”

  Tomas kicked at the dirt floor, but then nodded. “Inside the base of the west tower, and it comes out right where those three trees are close together, at the edge of their camp.”

  “And you didn’t tell us …!?”

  “He was right to keep it to himself. If you had known there would be all kinds of tracks out there now, and they would have found it easily. It is for emergencies only, and this is an emergency.”