Clays Upon the Sands (Jokka Collection 2)

The treasured anadi who must learn what it means to choose... the mysterious chenji whose magic comes at a terrible price... the jeweler who finds that love requires facing the unknowable future... and the Claw of the empire who discovers that loyalty has limits. Clays Upon the Sands, volume 2 in the Jokka Clays series, collects seven more stories of the Jokka of Ke Bakil, an alien species with two chances to change sexes: female, neuter or male... a species where destiny and biology intertwine in ways both beautiful and heartbreaking. Whether it's accepting an unwanted Turning, defying an empire's cruelty, or learning that some truths can only be spoken in the dark, each Jokkad must navigate the complex currents of identity, duty, and desire.

Seven voices. Seven transformations. A world where nothing is certain but change itself. Come explore.

Genre (setting): low fantasy (Jokka)
Tags: aliens, no-humans, neuters, trisexual, asexual, religion, romance, low tech
Rating: PG-13 for implied sexual situations

Excerpt from Clays Upon the Sands

Being carried into the main building as a future employee of House Sadlan instead of as one of its assets was unpleasant. I was in Anoirl’s arms as we passed through a curtain into a room on the second floor, and there I got my first good look at our Head of Household. He rarely visited the anadi caverns; I’d never bothered to learn his name. My eyes immediately lit on the fingers he splayed on his desk as he pushed himself to his feet: long, limber fingers, the delicate hands of someone born male. From the clarity of his emerald gaze and the coarseness of his fangs when he opened his mouth to speak, I guessed he’d never been any other sex. “Anoirl? Nezali? What’s this?”

“Put me down,” I said.

Anoirl eyed me, and I poked its arm with claws extended. The eperu flinched and dropped me gracelessly.

While I dusted the grass and river dirt from my body onto the Head’s clean floor, Nezali said, “It’s Jekun here. She’s Turning eperu.”

“Well, that’s a pretty twist of fate,” the Head said with a frown. He scanned my body; I noticed he never made it over my neck. “No use getting upset, though. Make Sirkit kaña and start Jekun through the rotation.”

“Just like that?” I exclaimed. “You are not giving my ring to anyone!”

The Head of Household stared at me as if finally noticing a head attached to the rest of my body. “Pardon me?”

“We don’t even know this Turning is permanent,” I said. “It might be my second, not my third.”

“Jekun, that’s very unlikely,” Nezali began.

“So was me Turning this late,” I said.

Silence all around, the silence you award a particularly dumb anadi when you don’t want to agitate her. Still, very late third Turnings had happened on occasion in stories, so why not to me?

“I’m keeping my ring,” I continued, my hand sliding down to rest over my navel slit and the warm red gold there. “You can wait to declare another kaña.”

The Head roused himself. “No, we can’t,” he said. “We need a kaña so we can re-negotiate our existing contracts. Whether you’re Turning again or not, we can’t breed you this way. The ring has to go to someone else.”

I’d earned this ring. I’d earned it by being pliable. By being smart in spite of bearing multiple children. By being beautiful, the beauty of blank motionlessness. I had compelled my own perfection just so I could lie on a table while an emodo craftsman pierced my navel slit and slipped the heavy piece of gold through it. So that I could hang beautiful chains around my hips that told everyone who saw me that I was worth my weight in shell to House Sadlan. It was mine. I was not giving it to anyone, and I opened my mouth to say so.

“Ke emodo,” Nezali interrupted, “There is a problem with an immediate declaration of another kaña. If we tell everyone that Jekun is Turning, then all the children from her previous contracts will be suspect. No one wants to work with a House that chances the ruination of their anadi by breeding them before maturity.”

The male started. “Truth, Nezali. I hadn’t considered that.” He studied me. “All right, then, she can keep the ring. We’ll start telling people that we’re finding Sirkit more appropriate, so that no one will ask what happened to Jekun until we know ourselves.”

“Since I’m going to be eperu—briefly—does that mean you can start talking to me instead of about me?” I asked. “What’s your name, anyway?”

Abruptly I had his full attention, and I didn’t like it. “I am Oserit,” he said. “Ke Oserit to you. And I’ll start talking to you once you start acting like an eperu rather than a spoiled child.” He sat down. “Take it away, ke eperu, and put it on rotation. Maybe work will shape something useful out of it.”

Anoirl and Nezali each took one of my arms and walked me out of the Head’s room while I seethed. Useful! I was already useful... as an anadi kaña! All that had entailed was lying gracefully underground, eating and drifting in cool pools. Now that I was Turning, I wasn’t useful unless I was breaking weeds in fields, or driving caravans, or gods knew what!

“You really should show more respect to the Head of Household,” Nezali said into my ear as we marched down the ramp to the first floor.

“I will when he starts treating me like a person!” I hissed.

“You weren’t acting like one,” Anoirl said.

Both my ears sealed to my head.

“Don’t even say whatever you’re going to say.” Anoirl sighed and dropped my arm. “Where do we go now, Nezali?”

“To put it on rotation,” Nezali replied, releasing me. I noticed that after our meeting with the Head, I was now ‘it’, not ‘she.’ “As Ke Oserit said. Let’s find the least strenuous thing on the duty list.”

“I don’t want to work!” I said again. “I’ll hurt myself!”

“You won’t be working. You’ll be observing,” Nezali said. “Besides, you’ll surprise yourself with your stamina.” It continued down the ramp. When I didn’t follow, it looked over its shoulder and said, “Come on, Jekun.”

What could I do? I followed.