Khe by Alexes Razevich Read Free Book Online

the dirt as if hesitant to leave warm soil for the uncertainties of life above ground. Small, green, pointed, first-leaves appeared, followed days later by true leaves—thick and leathery, red as a blood-rich heart, expert at capturing nutrients from the air and converting them into plant fuel.
    My seeds sprouted, as did Jit’s and Stoss’s—row after row of perfection. We bent our backs under the furious heat of the sun, and dug our fingers into the rich soil to thin the seedlings. Insects we removed by hand, dropping the hungry little beasts into tightly woven bags slung across our shoulders. At night we sorted through the bugs, selecting the most delicious to go into the meal pot. We saved the ones that didn’t taste good to feed the preslets. Those that weren’t suitable for food we killed in the field, leaving their smashed bodies to nourish the soil.
    We watered, hoed, and nurtured our kiiku with dedication, telling each other the extra work would be worth it when we won our prizes. At harvest we watched the crop being weighed and cheered when our poundage topped the next closest unit’s by almost a quarter.
    “It’s all your doing,” Thedra said after we’d returned to our dwelling.
    Three of my spots lit green with pride, but I said, “We’re a unit. We all contributed equally.”
    “That’s not true,” Thedra said. “Your section had huge gourds. Bigger than anything the rest of us grew.”
    “Don’t be silly,” I said. But it was true. The smallest of my gourds easily outweighed the largest anyone else had grown. “My soil was probably prepared better by the doumanas doing the fertilizing. Maybe they should share our prize.”
    Thedra tsked. “Fertilizer.” She glanced at me strangely then, as though a revelation skittered through her mind but left before she could properly catch hold of it.
    ***
    I sat on my cot, alone, my left arm turned up, and stared at the inside of my wrist. The rising moon threw its thick light into the darkening room. The sounds from the vision stage leaked under the door. My neck prickled, hot and itchy. A seventh dot showed on my wrist, but I was only six.
    I pulled myself to my feet and went into the receiving room. My unitmates lay sprawled on the floor, watching the presentation on the vision stage.
    Jit looked up. “Khe! What’s wrong? Your throat is practically all red-purple.”
    “This.” I turned my arm so that she could see.
    “What?” Thedra said, levering herself up. Jit and Stoss were already coming across the room toward me.
    “There’s an extra age dot,” I said.
    Jit sucked in a breath of air, then put her hand over her mouth, as if afraid of the words that might fly out. She didn’t need words. The colors on her neck said everything. Stoss’s neck was the same as Jit’s, covered in the purple-gray of worry.
    Thedra had come over to look, too. She put her hand on her hip and peered closely at the dot. No color showed on her neck. “How did that happen?”
    I half shrugged. “I don’t know. I noticed just a little bit ago. It could have been there a while.”
    “You have to tell Simanca,” Thedra said.
    Jit said, “It’s probably nothing.”
    Thedra reached out to touch the spot, then drew her hand back as if she were burned. “It’s something all right. You have to tell. A secret is no different than a lie.”
    “I know,” I said. “I’m going now.”
    As the door closed behind me, I thought I heard Thedra say, “Freak,” but I must have heard wrong.
    ***
    I knocked on Simanca’s door and walked in. Tav was so surprised at my unexpected appearance that three of her spots flared yellow-green.
    “Please excuse my coming uninvited,” I said, looking down at my feet. “I need to speak with Simanca, if she will see me.”
    Tav nodded and called to Simanca.
    Simanca strode immediately out from the back of the dwelling into the receiving room. She didn't look pleased.
    "What is it, Khe?" she said. Her two unitmates, Min and