AZTARA, Secrets Revealed: Aztarian Series, #3

By Carole Walker Carter

AZTARA, Secrets Revealed, the third book in the Aztarian Series, opens with Shayla's and Ty's love for their twins, Nayela and Kestle. Nayela, the only interspecies girl who communicates telepathically with a mastel, finds others her age calling her a freak. Kestle has his hands full with being a gang member. A tragic event occurs that changes everything for Kestle. Self-banished to the Wildlands, leaves Kestle bitter, depressed and alone to deal with situations he has never encountered. Going deeper into the Wildlands, in search of food and water, brings Kestle to the dreaded Orange River. Saving a young runaway girl, Sinaka, from certain death, Kestle's loneliness ends, but he discovers there is more to this young girl than he first thought. Sinaka finds it is her turn to save Kestle when he is wounded by a monster. With unexpected help from a beautiful creature and Sinaka's psychic and empathic powers, Kestle finds healing. The Surtarian Chief Scientist, Ananaya, accelerates his plan to genetically modify the Aztarian/Earthling boys' Warrior Genes, with performance enhancing injections. Ananaya's plot is to create a daunting army of new Enforcers. All hell breaks loose when the usually passive Aztarians decide to fight to get their boys back.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Walker Carter Publishing, LLC
• Release date: Aug 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386892205

Carole Walker Carter

Carole is from a small Mid-Western town in Nebraska.  Over a thirty-year period Carole lived in diverse living situations, from California to Texas and the Midwest. Meeting many fascinating characters and recognized for a vivid imagination, Carole wrote secretly for many years enjoying Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery and Children's literature as a platform for expressive writing. Carole lives presently in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Don her childhood sweetheart, partner, and editor, their dogs, chickens and many fish. As a teaching assistant, Carole teaches Literacy to ‘at risk’ children in grades one through five.

Book preview

Prologue

Ty and Shayla were deliriously happy. Their two children were the ‘apples of their eyes’ as the Earth saying goes. Ty couldn’t quite understand the old Earth saying. He wondered why people of Earth would compare babies to fruit. He did know he loved the two children more than he could possibly imagine loving anything except Lukiman, his mastel, and Shayla, the beautiful mother of his twins. Ty's life seemed to be completed once he and Shayla were able to share and communicate with their minds. Even though for a while he was not sure this was ever going to happen.

The babies were walking already, and they were into mischief all the time. Ty knew Shayla was always nervous about leaving them, although they were in good hands when the couple took the time to be alone. The other Earth women, settling comfortably into being citizens of Aztara, were often available to help with babysitting chores.

Ty and Shayla found time to ride their mastels high up into the hills to their special place while Lara and Maeva would babysit. The women had an arrangement where Shayla would reciprocate and watch the two women’s children when they went to the city to buy cloth for their next business project. It was a working relationship they all found beneficial.

Today was one of those special afternoons set aside for Ty and Shayla to get away together. Lukiman and Mistrella were waiting impatiently since they enjoyed the romp as much as the humans did. Mistrella was past the anxious mother stage of leaving her foal. Farrish, Mistrella’s mother, was as devoted to the foal as Mistrella. Nothing was going to happen to the foal while Grandma Farrish was around and Theese, the proud father, would protect the foal with his life.

As Shayla and Ty came out with a backpack loaded with special picnic foods, Ty laughed as he saw the fiery red stallion with a gold mane and tail tearing a deep hole in the purple grass with his claws. Lukiman waited impatiently for his human partner. Mistrella is beige in color with subtle strawberry irregular stripes. She was content to graze and glance with her dazzling green eyes, at her foal as he frolicked with the other young mastels.

Shayla followed Mistrella’s gaze to the darling little beast, and he was a little beast. He seemed to be pestering one foal after another. The colt found ways to annoy the other foals to make them stop grazing and play. Tail pulling, nipping or bull-dozing were ways this little colt provoked a game.

Mistrella puffed with pride, flicking her dark red tail when Shayla praised the colt's energy. Mistrella knew Shayla loved her baby almost as much as she did. Shayla and Mistrella soothed and comforted each other through all the ups and downs of raising offspring. Their bond was formed tighter by shared experiences of motherhood as Ty now understood Lukiman’s pride of fatherhood.

The gift of mental telepathy was insured to offspring at conception. Shayla had feared that being from Earth as well as the last one of the Earth women to bond would mean her children would be in jeopardy of not bonding. How pleased she was to connect with her unborn babies when they reached out to her from her womb. There were no words. Instead, strong feelings of warmth and comfort were conveyed. She sent them thoughts of love and mental pictures of their handsome father.

Ty was not jealous of the bond Shayla shared with their children when she carried them through the pregnancy. He could feel all Shayla felt from the unborn twins through her mind voice with him.

Recognizing instantly when Shayla felt the little female was feeling squashed by her brother, Ty smiled and placed his hand on Shayla's swollen belly to calm the little tykes. He also knew quickly when the two fetuses would curl up together sleeping happily in each others' company.

Marveling how advanced physically and mentally beyond their chronological age her children were when compared to infants on Earth caused pride and consternation. She supposed they excelled from their ability to start learning more and sooner with the mental contact with their mothers. At the moment of birth, Shayla could see comprehension in their eyes. This was eerie since neither one of them cried when born and was quickly soothed. Of course, they never needed to cry when they were hungry, wet or in discomfort since Shayla knew instantly when any of these situations occurred. She felt privileged to live on Aztara where everybody's needs were known and communicated promptly. It made parenting the infants much easier. On Earth mothers eventually learned what each cry meant when their babies did cry. On Aztara there was no need for tears unless the child was injured.

As it was on Earth, naming the babies was a big ordeal. Shayla was unfamiliar with many of the Aztarian names. Shayla’s contact with Aztarian names was mainly from meeting the men who lived in the mining community. The men of Aztara were unaffected by the horrible virus that killed the Aztarian women population many seasons prior. Ty was touched deeply when Shayla suggested the little girl be named for his mother, Nayela.

The little boy was a different problem. Shayla was not interested in naming him for her father. Her own father was insensitive to her needs while she was on Earth. There was no way she would honor him by naming her son after him.

The couple thought to name their son after Ty’s father, D'Hantin. His father declined the honor for fear the little boy would be a bit confused by sharing his grandfather’s name. The couple felt it was unlikely. Nonetheless, they respected Ty’s father’s wishes and decided to think further for another boy's name.

Naming him for Ty’s great-grandfather Morsian, brought the fear of intimidation for such a small boy. Having to live up to a name that had a major festival associated with it could be difficult. They finally decided to name the boy Kestle, after Ty’s boyhood best friend.

Ty’s best friend was a strong young man, capable and intelligent. While the older Kestle could be very independent and stubborn, he was also devoted and kind. Shayla and Ty both felt, in their hearts, their young son would live up to the name given to him.

Ty grieved outwardly when his best friend died in a mining accident. The two friends were inseparable. It troubled Ty when Kestle’s mastel stallion abandoned the herd and disappeared after his master’s death. The sudden absence of Tremdor in Ty and Lukiman's lives was unbearable. Not seeing the impressive stallion in the herd made it seem as if Kestle never existed.

Ty remembered his boyhood friend, Kestle, called the mastel by the name Tremdor. He explained to Shayla it meant Exalted One or something close to those words in English. Kestle’s mastel was a fiery red stallion with an immense gold mane and tail, similar to Lukiman. Even his buds were larger than the other stallions except Lukiman's.

After Tremdor's disappearance, Ty searched day and night for the mastel. Ty was saddened to find no traces of him. No one had seen him since, and no mastel reported a mind-sync with him either. Ty wondered whether he went off to die.

Ty explained the bond between mastel and his miner was so strong often the mastel would perish from a broken heart when his human died. When Shayla asked if the opposite happened as well, Ty explained some men who had no other attachments did quite often die. Usually, those with wives and children had too much to lose and were able to continue living, saddened and a bit empty, nevertheless, productive.

As Ty and Shayla approached their mastels, they sent love and kisses to their adorable babies back at the house in Lara and Maeva's good care. Shayla and Ty leaped upon their mastels and headed off into the horizon with the cream-colored sky overhead. There was not a hint of any turquoise clouds in the sky. The coral sun was unusually hot. Aztara normally was temperate and pleasant except when the terrible storms would appear. They had no fear of bad weather today since at this time of the year rarely triggered storms.

Shayla still found it odd not to look to the skies and see blue with puffy white clouds. She found the cream sky seemed like a brighter, overcast day on Earth. When the coral sun was high in the sky, the cream would turn buttery, and during some seasons, gold streaks would spread through the sky, not unlike a sunburst back home.

'How odd I just thought of Earth as home,' was the thought going through Shayla’s mind after looking at the sky. She did not share this view with Ty. There was no sense in making him feel sad now when they had a whole day to be together. Earth had not been Shayla’s home for a long time, and, she would never want to return to Earth. The occasional longing made Ty feel a bit uncomfortable as if Shayla resented her abduction from her old world.

Shayla feared Ty would know every thought that went through her mind when they first bonded. Her fear was alleviated quickly, as Shayla learned how to control what thoughts she shared and what thoughts she kept to herself. True, Ty seemed to know everything about her and she about him. However, it was all the thoughts, emotions and history from their past. The present thoughts were controllable. Current views were shared as each chose to share. Most ideas were shared for the ease of the day and secrets were unnecessary. Shayla kept some thoughts to herself to avoid causing Ty sadness or concern. Often these feelings of being homesick for Earth were only fleeting anyway. There was no reason to make Ty uncomfortable.

Ty never pushed to find out about the thoughts she kept private. He seemed to know there were thoughts he too, felt were unnecessary to share. The mining business, for one, was of little interest to Shayla. There was only one thing about mining that interested Shayla and that was her griswell. Since she bonded with him down in the mines the day it almost killed Ty, she found another creature from Aztara to love.

Even after all this time, Ty found it surprising that Shayla bonded with a mastel, a rare Jade Harbinger, and unbelievably, a nasty but essential mining beast—a griswell. No human of Aztara had ever bonded with a griswell. On more than one occasion, Ty found Shayla down in the mine sitting and patting her griswell as if it was a pet instead of a vicious underground beast. Strangely, the animal purred when she patted him and fed him meat from her hand, calling him Snooky. No miners were aware a griswell could make any sound other than snarls and growls, being as ill-tempered and unsociable as they are by nature. Neither Ty or any of the other miners would try to walk close to Shayla when Snooky was with her. However, they would remind her to latch the little beast into his cage after her visit.

For some reason, even with phyrium, miners were not able to bond with the mean-tempered griswell. Generations earlier, the mastel and griswell worked out a symbiotic relationship to meet each ones' needs. The mastel needed phyrium, and the griswell needed meat. Since men could bond with mastels, but not griswells, and the mastel could bond with both, a strange three-way partnership existed in a fragile working relationship.

It was only because of phyrium the people of Aztara could communicate with each other, and some were able to bond with mastels. How Shayla accomplished what no person on Aztara had done before was incredible, particularly as it took a long time for Ty and Shayla to bond when she first came to the planet, Aztara. Ty was proud of his mate, also in awe; she seemed to possess a unique gift none of the others on Aztara could boast.

Occasionally, Ty would let slip how proud he was of Shayla. He thought it was refreshing to watch her blush as she read his thoughts. She was very modest. Ty supposed some of her modesty was from her upbringing on Earth. She had not been treated well there by her family. Even today it made Ty mad when he thought of how Shayla was manipulated for the greed of her parents and her in-laws. How Shayla ended up being such a loving person when she had never been shown real love on Earth was inspiring.

Ty knew she truly loved him with her whole heart and she loved Mistrella as much, however, in a different way. The twins made her heart swell even more to make room for the love she had for them. Ty knew her heart was in no danger of bursting from the overflow. Her heart would grow larger and larger to make room for those she loved.

Ty, on the other hand, was sure his heart would burst from being over-filled with love. When he thought of Shayla or glanced at her, his heart pounded so hard, he could feel it hitting his chest wall. When he gazed into her beautiful blue eyes, he felt he was in danger of losing his soul with the love he felt for her. He was never sure why he did not dissolve as he turned to putty in her presence. His heart belonged to her from the first moment he gazed into her eyes.

It was hard for Ty to think back before Shayla arrived on Aztara. He felt irritated the scientists expected him to bond with an Earth woman and provide children to help replace all those lost in the plague. He was too busy with the mining business to be bothered by personal entanglements. Ty loved his job; he was sure it was all he needed, and then he met Shayla at the terminal that fateful day two seasons ago. It was if his life started that day.

Ty remembered how frustrated he was when they did not bond at first meeting at the Spaceport as was anticipated. All the other couples bonded immediately except Allison and TeGhan and Shayla and himself. He knew something was wrong. He did not know what the root cause might be. Not knowing almost drove him crazy. He desperately wanted to connect with this Earth woman. He was intrigued by her, protective of her and very desirous of her. When they finally did bond, he felt as if the universe was smiling down on him. He and Shayla were the only beings in the universe at that moment. It was incredible. It was the moment of creation; it was a supernova; it was beyond words. Now he and Shayla were once again going to their special place high up on the hill, and he could hardly wait.

Shayla smiled at Ty. She could feel he was reliving their first days of bonding. She admitted to herself she liked to relive them as well. She also found each day after was better than the day before. The initial bonding was like fireworks. Each day after was more like a volcano erupting. Their relationship, both mentally and physically, was intense. However, it was also soothing since they could connect and calm each other on a cellular level when issues arose causing nerves to be irritated. Shayla marveled at the fact Ty could be both arousing and soothing at the same time. Well, not exactly at the same time. She had nothing to which she could compare this relationship.

Jacob, her ex-husband on Earth, would not even register on a graph if her relationships to him were compared to her relationship to Ty. Jacob was a major part of her life on Earth. Their relationship was miserable. Now she was ecstatic. She could even have the grace to forgive Jacob. She did hope he and Scott were happy.

She did hold one grudge towards Jacob though. The misery their son, Joshua, endured at Jacob’s hands and her son’s untimely death would always be placed at Jacob’s feet. At least, she wanted to hold him accountable. She knew she shared some of the responsibility since she was too weak at the time, to stand up for both herself and her son’s rights. 'No sense in going back to those dark thoughts when I am heading to paradise with Ty.' The thought of what lay ahead for them put an abrupt stop to a downward spiral, and Shayla brought herself back to the present.

Ty sensed Shayla was trying to stop unpleasant thoughts from reappearing into her mind, even though she chose not to share these thoughts with him. He was glad she was taking ownership of her grief. Ty knew it was the first step to healing. He watched her blooming on Aztara. He was aware that she gave him all the credit for her healing.

Ty knew Shayla deserved the real credit. She battled more than a few demons in her life, and she was coming away with minimal scars. It was one more reason Ty felt Shayla was the most incredible woman he had ever known.

Chapter One

Once the terrain became steeper and rougher, both riders found they needed to tune-in and pay closer attention to their mastels. Riding the mastels while they leaped upward from boulder to boulder made the ride more erratic and harder to sit without concentration. Shayla remembered a tumble she had taken off the back of Mistrella when first they attempted this climb. She was more practiced now, for sure. She knew becoming overconfident was always a recipe for disaster. She recognized she was not ready to compete in the Morsian’s Day tree climb or the wall climb. Luckily, there were several more months before she would need to decide if she wanted to compete or not.

She missed competing in the last Morsian’s Day competitions due to her pregnancy. The one coming up was still a possibility for her and Mistrella. Mistrella was too small to ever compete against the large stallions and more substantial female mastels in the wall climb. This being the case, they concentrated their practices in the treetops whenever Lara and Maeva gave Shayla breaks from child care. Mistrella would always be a smaller mastel. She took after her mother, and her mother was delicate and petite.

Feeling herself slip slightly from Mistrella’s back and hearing Mistrella’s voice in her head asking if she was okay, made Shayla realize she drifted off into her memories when she should have been concentrating. She pulled herself back onto Mistrella’s silky back and found her seat. Shayla let Mistrella know she was okay and was receiving her message, regarding her boulder-to-boulder leaps. It was much easier to anticipate weight shifts when she saw what Mistrella intended to do. She and Mistrella were feeling pretty good about their accomplishment as team members.

Before long they were to the top of the hill. It was from this vantage point Shayla and Ty would take a few minutes to look upon the vista while Lukiman and Mistrella caught their breath. As strong as the mastels were, the climb was strenuous. The mastels' pride would never allow them to complain. Ty taught Shayla early that it was best to insist the mastels take a break even if they denied they needed one.

Besides the required rest from the ascent, the view was always spectacular. Shayla and Ty loved to soak it in and share the visual, aural, and olfactory senses they exclusively received with each other. Below was a sea of purple grass with a ribbon of orange running through it. Initially, the orange colored water was a concern for Shayla. Ty told her, once a long time ago, that the coloring came from tiny creatures living in the water. Shayla no longer feared them. She did not even feel they were strange.

The orange river flowing through the valley beyond the hills looked like a curvy string from this far above. It snaked around the puce and purple ground. It looked peaceful. Shayla remembered Ty said there were very dangerous creatures living in the river as well as near it.

A shiver ran through her spine as she recalled Mistrella’s panic-driven stampede, with Shayla clinging to her back at the mere thought of one of the monsters. Shayla only saw a blurred image in Mistrella’s thoughts. It was almost like the boogeyman from Earth. It was a scary, hideous shadow lurking in wait to eat anything that came close.  Mistrella had never, in fact, seen the monster. She pictured the horrible images reflected from one mastel whose foal was killed and eaten by a trechor.

How strange someplace looking serene from up above on the hill could be a place of horror. Shayla hoped she would never need a reason to go to the valley. Mistrella receiving Shayla’s thoughts momentarily shuddered in agreement; she also did not want to ever go into the Dreaded Valley.

It was time to move on, and Shayla was glad to leave those morbid thoughts behind. She did not like to think of something as beautiful as a mastel being torn to shreds and eaten. An adult mastel might have a fighting chance when the golden buds on their foreheads would turn to spiraling horns at times of threat. A foal would not have a chance without its mother or father to protect it. It always made Shayla gloomy to think about such things. Mistrella, now a mother, shared Shayla’s thoughts and let her know she would fight to the death if her foal were threatened. Shayla let Mistrella know she would fight by her side to save her foal. Woman and mastel both felt the bond, and their camaraderie strengthened deeper.

Empathetic and locked into Mistrella’s well-being, Shayla knew she would fight to the death to save Mistrella as well as Mistrella’s foal. Shayla found it hard to think of herself as a warrior but on Aztara, she was finding the courage she never felt on Earth. With her new abilities to link with her animals and Ty, she saw herself as they saw her—strong, courageous and independent.

Not feeling quite as brave after thinking about the horrible monsters earlier, Shayla realized she and Mistrella often rode alone. Shayla sent Ty a request to make a weapon she could carry on her trips.

Ty laughed out loud. He was envisioning Shayla with armor and a battle axe. He sent mental pictures of some weapon choices she might consider. Ty thought the bow and arrow might be the best option. Ty reminded Shayla she would probably never need to use the weapon if she stayed away from the Orange River and Badlands. She definitely would never need to use it against Aztarians.

It was true she would never need to defend herself against an Aztarian male. Their nature was one of kindness and gentleness towards each other, even to a fault, it seemed while competing in Morsian Day games. It was beyond inconceivable to think of the men being able to harm another person. The Aztarians were remarkable people.

Everything was remarkable on Aztara. And Shayla felt blessed it was her home. The thought of Aztara being her home planet made her smile. It really was her home. She loved Aztara and her life here.

As they progressed onward and upward, Shayla was always astounded when rounding the final corner in the canyon path. The barren rock and shale walls were transformed into what she could only call paradise. It was shocking how beautiful this place was as opposed to her memory. The plants became lush and richly colored in dark purple and puce, and even the color green was evident in plant life. Scattered sparsely were Ty's favorite blue flowers. The water was crystal-clear, pure and stimulating as it enveloped one's body. The orange color was due to the organisms. They did not change the quality of the water, in fact, Ty said they enhanced it.

She slid off Mistrella’s back even before Ty could come and sweep her off as he often did. She loved to breathe in the exotic aromas. As hard as Shayla tried, she was unable to put a name to the scents. She stopped trying. It did not matter anymore. Whether it smelled more like lilacs or cherry blossoms was insignificant. She just knew it was her favorite scent.

She treasured having all her senses infused by this place. The water gurgled a sweet song as it sparkled a visual invitation for her. Once she jumped in, the water would caress her skin, making it tingle.

Shayla sensed Ty would be right behind her when she did dive in. She turned to look and sure enough, his clothes were coming off. She would need to hurry if she was going to beat him into the water. She barely heard or saw the tiny splash as Ty dove head first into the pool. She dove in behind him and giggled as he came up under her grabbing and pulling her down to him.

It was only part of what made their place extra special. Making love in the water was now a tradition along with a special picnic lunch afterward. Often, they found they were so relaxed or exhausted they would fall asleep in each other’s arms upon the soft moss until the mastels would wake them informing them it was time to go. They hoped today would be no different.

The water was deliciously warm, and Ty found his hands slid smoothly across Shayla’s back as he pulled her close to him. Her arms tightened around his neck as she kissed his chin, his cheeks, and his warm mouth. Her lips lingered on his and then she nipped him. She couldn’t help feeling playful. Something about their special place inspired mirth as well as romance.

He took her cue and ducked below the water, grabbing her ankles as he swam deeper into the depths of the pool. Not prepared for this surprise, Shayla swallowed a large amount