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)
“But don’t you miss your parents and your home world?” she asked Sess’ely. “Don’t you want to go home?”
“Oh but we are home,” the unicorn girl protested. “And now we’re going to become one with the Mother Tree up on Branch Five—the ceremony might even be tonight!”
“But what if someone told you that was a bad idea?” Celia asked, desperately trying to think of a way to warn her. “What if they told you they had seen terrible things on Branch Five? Stuff that would give you nightmares? Then would you leave?”
“Whoever says anything like that doesn’t really know the Sisterhood or the Mother Tree.” Sess’ely got a dreamy look on her face. “It’s wonderful here. Some of my brothers wanted to leave you know—they objected to, you know, worshipping me the way I need to be worshipped. But once I started giving them my pleasure drops, they all calmed down and decided it would be better to stay. We never want to leave.”
“But what if I told you it was dangerous here?” Celia asked. “What if—”
But just then they heard the voices of other women floating through the air towards them.
“Oh look—we’re first!” someone said. “I’ll get to pick my favorite one.”
Sess’ely’s eyes widened.
“Oh, that Oo’loo—hurry, she’s going to wake the holy spiders!”
She grabbed Celia by the hand and tugged her away from the dye vats and back in the direction of the enormous web.
They ran together until they reached the edge of the web, where several other women—most of them JoCostillians—were gathered. One of them was already reaching out towards the vast, white web which quivered in the breeze.
“Watch her,” Sess’ely whispered. “Only a single touch of the web will wake the holy spiders—but they only allow women to touch the web.”
“Why, though?” Celia asked, fascinated despite herself.
“Dunno.” Sess’ely shrugged. “Maybe because the holy spiders are all female. They eat the males of their own species, you know,” she added. “After they mate with them. I think maybe they consider anything male to be prey.”
The girl beside Sess’ely had clearly heard her talking because she nodded at Celia.
“She’s right—anything male is prey. Why, do you know they say that if a male so much as lays a finger on the web, it will send all the holy spiders climbing through the entire Mother Tree, looking for him so they can eat him! That’s why our worshippers aren’t allowed here,” she added. “The holy spiders would eat them and cause chaos through the whole tree.”
“That sounds like a bad time for everyone,” Celia remarked. “They—”
But the words she had been about to say died in her mouth. For the girl reaching for the web touched the sticky surface with a single finger…and everything happened at once.
39
CELIA
The enormous, house-sized cocoon, which looked like a mass of white cotton candy at the far end of the vast web, suddenly erupted into a frenzy of activity. Celia watched in horror as a mass of spiders—each one the size of a large dog, came swarming out of the huge white structure and rushed to the girls at the edge of the web.
“Madre de Dios!” she gasped and jumped back as one of them came at her. It had a huge, swollen abdomen covered in fine, silky white fur and long, chitinous, many jointed legs that were longer than her arms.
None of the other girls looked upset though—some even laughed at Celia’s reaction.
“Oh look—the new girl’s afraid!” one remarked in a taunting voice.
Sess’ely, however, didn’t laugh.
“Don’t be scared,” she said to Celia. “They won’t hurt you. Come on, see—they’re really sweet!”
She was actually petting one of the huge spiders as she talked and it seemed to enjoy the attention.
As she scrambled to her feet and took a tentative step closer to the web, Celia saw something she hadn’t noticed before. The spider’s head didn’t look like the head of an insect at all. In fact, it looked kind of like a cross between a cat and a fox, with pointed ears and big, jewel-like eyes that whirled with pleasure as Sess’ely scratched its swollen, furry abdomen.
“Aww, that’s my good girl!” Celia heard her saying as she stroked and scratched the spider. “Look at you—are you all ready to make lots of silk for me today?”
The spider with the cat/fox head made a purring/hissing noise and a long, thin line of white silk began to unspool from the bottom of its abdomen.
“There you go—good girl! Quick—give me a basket,” Sess’ely exclaimed.
Celia looked around and saw a stack of large wooden baskets behind them. Grabbing one, she handed it to Sess’ely, who placed it on the web, directly beneath the spider-cat’s abdomen. Then she continued scratching and stroking the purring/hissing creature as the white silk piled up in the basket.
“Thanks—you’d better get one yourself before they’re all taken,” she said to Celia. “Look—there’s a holy spider with no one to scratch her.” She nodded to a larger than usual spider who had apparently come out of the house-sized cocoon later than the others.