Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“You know the recruits that came in that Kindred shuttle are going to be useless to La’ver’na if we take their ship,” the first voice pointed out. “Three more for the Mother Tree, I guess.”
“La’ver’na was never going to let them go ‘spread the word of the Goddess’ anyway,” the second one scoffed. “They look too strange—don’t even have any hooves or horns!”
“They fuck really well, though.” The first one sounded thoughtful. “Put on quite a show tonight in the dining area. I wouldn’t mind fucking that hot little goddess of theirs myself. She might not have hooves or a horn but her pussy is hot and wet and it looks really tight.”
“All right, I’ve heard enough!” Fierce growled softly. “These two will talk all night if we don’t bash their heads together and move on.”
Celia was feeling indignant about the way the two goat-men guards were talking about her, so she tended to agree. Hold nodded as well and he and Fierce slipped silently forward.
She had thought that the Dark Twin was speaking metaphorically when he talked about “bashing their heads together” so she was surprised when he actually did exactly that.
Reaching out he gripped both goat men—who were standing side by side at the entrance of the sacrificial room—by the horns. Then, before they could react, he pushed them into each other, their foreheads knocking together with an audible thunk!
The pair of them dropped, crumpling into a heap at their feet and Hold and Fierce dragged them quickly out of the way.
“Look at this—the fucker had my blaster on his hip,” Fierce muttered, taking the weapon from the unconscious goat man.
“This one has nothing but a spear.” Hold took it anyway, frowning.
“Hurry!” Celia hissed. “I hear them doing something in there!”
But just as they were rounding the trunk again to where light was spilling out of the open doorway, the screaming began.
44
CELIA
It was a terrible sound, Celia thought later. One she would hear in her nightmares for years to come.
The sound wasn’t just one of fear—it held pain as well. She couldn’t help remembering the agonizing feeling of trying to pull away from the walls of the Mother Tree as it attempted to consume her hand. Something similar—and much worse—must be happening to Sess’ely and her brothers, because she could hear all of them screaming and shrieking in agony.
“Oh, hurry—hurry!” she whispered urgently.
The three of them rushed to the door of the enormous sacrificial room and saw a terrible sight. There were at least thirty goat-men in the vast chamber and La’ver’na and the Mistress of Silks were standing there as well—all of them with their backs to the door. But what they were watching was what drew Celia’s attention.
Sess’ely and her three older brothers were all naked with their backs against the wall of the Mother Tree. Their limbs were already encased in the living wood and the hungry tree was beginning to grow over their straining torsos and screaming faces as well.
“It’s eating them alive! Oh Madre de Dios, no!” Celia whispered, horrified.
“Fuck—I think we’re too late,” Fierce growled. “Don’t see how we can get them out when they’re that far gone.”
“It was extremely difficult to get Celia away and the Mother Tree only had her hand,” Hold agreed. He looked at Celia. “I am sorry, my lady—I fear there is nothing we can do for them.”
“Oh, no!” Celia was starting to cry. She had liked Sess’ely. Despite the weirdness between her and her brothers, she was a kind-hearted friend who only saw the good in others. It seemed heartless and cruel to leave her to be tortured to death by the hungry tree!
“Look, we’d better go before those two I knocked out wake up,” Fierce muttered.
“Especially since they were planning to steal our ship and leave us to this fate,” Hold agreed.
“No, wait—we can’t just leave them here to suffer!” Celia protested. “Who knows how long this horrible tree takes to…to digest people? Please—we have to help them!”
“My lady, there are thirty of them and only two of us,” Hold pointed out. “Though Fierce has a blaster, the rest of them are armed as well. If we tried to fight them all—”
“We can’t get them out but we can put them out of their misery,” Fierce growled. He sighted down the barrel of the blaster, taking careful aim, and began squeezing the trigger.
Four blasts of bright blue energy shot over the heads of the assembled goat men and four identical burning holes suddenly appeared in the foreheads of Sess’ely and her brothers. The screaming stopped abruptly as they slumped, no longer fighting the hungry embrace of the Mother Tree.
“By the Goddess, what just happened?” La’ver’na exclaimed. “How has the Mother Tree been cheated of the life force she craves?” She whirled around and saw Fierce still standing there with the blaster in his hand with Hold and Celia right beside him. “There—look! They have desecrated the ritual of feeding the Mother Tree!” she exclaimed, pointing. “Get them!”