Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42969 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42969 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
After that, she didn’t try to broach the subject of escape with anyone else. If Hersha, who seemed to be the fiercest of the women, was so spooked by even the beginning of a discussion about it, she couldn’t imagine that anyone else would be willing to entertain the notion.
A little while later the door opened again and Lorna was shoved inside. She fell to her knees, crying, and the other women came to surround her at once.
“Are you all right?” Hersha asked, kneeling beside her.
“Is there anything we can do, my dear?” Clemina murmured.
“What happened?” Sylvie asked, before she thought. She wished at once that she could take the question back—it was clear what had happened to Lorna. Her plant-fiber shift had been ripped half off her body, it was barely hanging together to hide her nakedness.
Nonetheless, it was Sylvie’s question that she answered when she finally stopped crying. It took some time—Shredda wrapped her in a blanket and sat her on the side of one of the cots. The other women gathered around her, murmuring support. Finally, Lorna seemed able to talk.
“They put me in the new specimen room—along with your man, I think. Kross, right?” she said, sniffling as she looked up at Sylvie.
Sylvie felt her heart jump in her chest.
“Yes, that’s him! Is he all right?”
“He’s fine—a lot better than the treetures.” Lorna made a face. “Barbarous tried to get him to…to take me, but he wouldn’t,” she went on. “So then he pumped some sweet-smelling gas into the room. It made me feel so…so strange. But it didn’t seem to affect Kross, because he still didn’t want to take me. He said it would be ‘rape.’” She let out a sad little laugh that was more than half sob. “Like that’s anything new around here.”
Sylvie felt a surge of pride in her Protector.
“Kross is a Kindred,” she explained. “They worship a Goddess and believe that every woman has a little bit of the Goddess within her—a ‘spark of the divine.’ They absolutely refuse to hurt or force women—it’s considered the worst crime a Kindred warrior could commit.”
“It must be nice to live among men who feel that way,” Lorna said dully. “Anyway, Kross wouldn’t do it—he wouldn’t take me. But I almost wish he had—it would have been better than the treetures.” She shuddered.
“I’m so sorry,” Shredda said softly. “Did they…” She trailed off, delicately.
Lorna nodded.
“Yes, but the awful thing was, the gas Barbarous gave us made me…” She swallowed, as though having difficulty getting the words out. “It made me want them to.”
“What?” Hersha looked at her with obvious disbelief. “You’re not serious.”
“I wish I wasn’t.” Lorna swiped at her eyes. “But it’s true. It made me…made me want it so much. I was almost relieved when the treetures dragged me outside and…”
Her eyes filled with tears and she shook her head, obviously unable to continue.
“It’s all right—none of this is your fault, dear,” Clemina said, rubbing her shoulders soothingly. “Just try to relax. It’s almost lights out and then we’ll all get some sleep. Things will look brighter in the morning.”
As though her words had triggered something, the room was suddenly plunged into total darkness.
Sylive’s heart caught in her throat and she looked around the pitch-dark room in wide-eyed panic. Oh God, what now?
It took her a moment to realize, by the sounds of the other women around her, that this was totally normal.
“Gods damn it—already?” Hersha muttered. “I swear they’re calling lights out sooner every night.”
“No use in complaining—might as well try to get some sleep,” Clemina answered her.
There were sounds of rustling and soon everyone was settling down in a cot. Sylvie wound up on the one closest to the door, which she didn’t love. It felt like she would be the easiest target if any of the treetures came over in the middle of the night. But she couldn’t exactly ask to trade either—all of the other women in the room had endured so much more than she had. So she cuddled in the cot, drawing her knees up and huddling in on herself for warmth.
As she drifted off into a sleep thinner than the gray plant-fiber blanket she’d been given, her last thought was of Kross. She was glad he was keeping his Kindred values intact but she wondered again how angry he was with her and if he would ever forgive her for landing them in this mess in the first place…
12
SYLVIE
The next day the women were given bowls of the same pasty white protein mush for breakfast and then herded out into the sunny clearing. There, under the watchful eyes of seven or eight treetures, they trooped around in a circle for about an hour.
Every time they passed the place where she knew the small hole in the underbrush was, Sylvie cast a longing glance in that direction. She thought about making a break for it, but if she ran, would they punish Kross? Also, could she make it before the treetures caught her and what would they do it her if she didn’t get away? The mental image Hersha had painted of being literally pulled limb-from-limb by the plant/humanoid hybrids was still fresh in her mind.