Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 67092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
There was bright blue woo to drink but it burned Kara’s throat and she stuck to the water, which was in her other goblet. It was rather awkward trying to make small talk across such a large expanse of the long table, but her aunt and uncle seemed more interested in eating anyway. At last, they were all finished.
“Did you save room for dessert or are you too tired, my dear?” Aunt Zeelah asked when the last mouthful of green stew had been swallowed.
Kara had to suppress another yawn. It really had been an incredibly long day. She couldn’t believe that only that morning she had been offending the Fr’Ensons and climbing Rainbow Mountain with Raak and now, tonight, she was on a whole different planet. But she didn’t want to offend her relatives by refusing dessert outright.
“Well, if you made something special—” she began.
“Oh no.” Aunt Zeelah waved one perfectly manicured hand negligently. “Nothing special. I just know we have some frozen sweetened xarna mucus in the icehole.”
“Oh, uh…that sounds delicious but if you don’t mind, I’d rather get some rest,” Kara said carefully. Growing up on the Mother Ship, she had tasted all kinds of foods from many different cultures but she had no desire to eat any kind of mucus.
To her relief, Aunt Zeelah nodded approvingly.
“That’s a good idea dear—get some rest. We’ve booked quite an early appointment for you with Dr. ThrobGood and you want to be at your best for the, uh, procedure.”
Kara wanted to ask again about the procedure but having a full stomach was suddenly making her horribly sleepy. She put a hand over her mouth to stifle a yawn.
“Thank you, Aunt Zeelah, Uncle Grennly,” she said, nodding to each of them. “May I please be excused?”
“Such lovely manners.” Aunt Zeelah beamed at her. “Of course you may. Have a good night’s sleep, my dear. And if you need anything, please let me know.”
“Thank you so much.” Kara smiled at them both, being careful to keep her fangs covered, and then made her way back to Nadiah’s room.
“Time to go to bed,” she told her tharp, which had behaved nicely during dinner, much to her relief. “I wonder if I should wear you to sleep in too. Or if I should put on the pajamas I packed in my carryall cube?”
The tharp responded with a gentle, non-sexual caress—a soft brushing of its velvet surface against her skin—which felt like a plea. Remembering that the living fabric drew nourishment from being next to her skin, Kara relented.
“All right, you were very good at dinner,” she told her new dress/pet. “I guess I can wear you to bed too as long as you promise to behave.”
There was no answer except another soft, pleading caress, but that was enough to decide her. Taking off her boots, Kara slipped under the purple coverlet and snuggled into Nadiah’s bed. The last thing she saw as the wall glows faded to dim was the holo-picture of her Aunt Nadiah waving and smiling. The image followed her down into sleep, making her feel safe and secure.
Nine
“Wake up. My Child, you must wake up.”
Kara was having the strangest dream. The picture of Aunt Nadiah was speaking to her. But the voice wasn’t light and bubbly like Nadiah’s voice. Instead it was a warm, resonant, feminine tone filled with authority and power.
It doesn’t sound like Aunt Nadiah, she thought in her dream. But then who is it? Who’s talking to me?
“Wake up,” the holo-picture said again and now Kara saw that it had changed. Aunt Nadiah was no longer smiling and waving. Instead she had a worried look on her pretty face and she was motioning urgently at Kara. Also, her eyes had gone the strange green-within-green that Kara associated with priestesses of the Goddess.
The Goddess, she thought sleepily. It couldn’t be her talking to me, could it?
The thought brought her fully awake and she opened her eyes in the strange bed, feeling disoriented for a moment. Then she became aware that there were low voices coming from somewhere outside her room. She was tempted to roll back over and go to sleep but then she caught her name in the low murmuring and realized that her aunt and uncle must be talking about her.
Need to check this out, she thought and stumbled out of bed, straightening her new tharp, which had somehow gotten twisted around her breasts and between her legs as she slept.
Feeling a sense of déjà vu, Kara crept out the door and down the hallway, listening as she went. She could hear her Aunt Zeelah and Uncle Grennly talking but there was someone else as well—a well modulated, slightly fruity male voice.
Peeking carefully around the corner, Kara saw her older relatives sitting on a stiff, rather uncomfortably looking brown-spotted sofa. Sitting across from them in an equally uncomfortable looking high-backed chair was an older male.