Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“Oh, hon—I’m sorry,” Kat said sadly.
“They’re just horrible,” Penny said fiercely.
“They turn fetuses into little orange humanoids called ‘NeverBreeders’,” V’rex offered. “Oh, and their leader just goes by the title, ‘Glorious Leader.’”
“You can’t miss him—he looks like Colonel Sanders from KFC,” Penny added quickly.
“The Colonel? Really?” Kat exclaimed. “Are you serious, doll? You were captured by the Colonel and forced to live in a cannibal cult? That must have been so weird!”
“You have no idea.” Penny thought of the strange dreams she’d had, of the Glorious Leader whispering, “Call me Chicken Daddy,” and shivered.
“The point is, all of these people have been kidnapped from their regular lives, hypnotized, and forced to live and work and serve the ‘Glorious Leader’,” V’rex growled. “If you Kindred of the Mother Ship have any honor at all, you’ll check it out. Nobody else is going to bother and people are dying there—and getting fed to the other cult members once they do.”
“That’s disgusting!” Kat exclaimed.
“It was scary and horrible but we got away,” Penny said in a low voice. “But I don’t think anyone else will without help.”
“I will bring this to the High Council,” Sylvan said. “Once I explain the circumstances, I’m sure they’ll support the idea of sending warriors to liberate the kidnapped victims.”
“Be careful,” V’rex told him. “They’re pretty well armed and those little orange NeverBreeder bastards are tougher than they look.”
“They look like Oompa-Loompas,” Penny put in helpfully. “Only bald.”
“Colonel Sanders and his cult of bald cannibal Oompa-Loompas?” Kat shook her head. “Doll, that is just crazy.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Penny said fervently. “I’ll give you more details when I finally get back to the Mother Ship.”
“You’d better!” Kat said and shook her head again, wonderingly.
“If you’ll send me your coordinates, I’ll send the details of Penelope’s mission,” Sylvan said. He leaned forward and looked at V’rex. “Despite your reputation, I’m trusting you, V’rex—mainly because of your oath to Penelope.”
“I won’t fail you,” V’rex replied. “Just this once, we’re on the same side.” He arched an eyebrow. “Though I can’t promise that trend will continue after Penelope and I part ways.”
“Understood.” Sylvan nodded again and looked at Penny. “May the Goddess grant you success. I’ll send the information at once because time is of the essence. Please hurry.”
“As fast as I can,” Penny promised. She waved goodbye to Kat and then the viewscreen went blank.
When the conversation with the Mother Ship was over, she wasn’t sure what to say to V’rex. The big Hybrid’s oath to protect her had taken her breath away with its seriousness and sincerity. Why would he still want to protect her so much if they had decided to go their separate ways? Could it be that he still had feelings for her somehow?
But when she looked at V’rex, the big Hybrid was smirking at her as though he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Well, sweetheart,” he remarked, giving her a wink. “Looks like we’re going on one last ‘adventure’ together.”
“I…I guess so,” Penny said.
And then found she didn’t know what else to say.
Ninety-Six
“Well, this looks like the entrance to the secret city under the mountain,” V’rex remarked as he maneuvered his ship through the narrow gorge that led to the sacred mountain, Ra’gar.
The high, craggy walls of deep gray stone rose all around them—it was like flying through the Grand Canyon, only with a lot less color, Penny thought.
“Looks like it,” she agreed. She was studying the maps they had printed out from the information Commander Sylvan had sent.
“The Father of Cruelty with reach from Afar
To the Eye of his scion asleep in the Dark
Buried so deep ‘neath the mountain Ra’gar,” she murmured, reading the first half of the prophecy again.
“Father of Cruelty—guess that’s the Cruel Father. Or Kru’ell Father in my Sire’s native tongue,” V’rex growled. “He’s the son-of-a-bitch who created the Kru’ell Ones in the first place. They’re meant to look like the Kindred but to be their exact opposite in temperament. Instead of revering and protecting females they…well, you know what happened to my mother,” he finished grimly.
“A dark mirror image,” Penny murmured and shivered. To take her mind off the Cruel Father, she looked through the print-outs again. Aside from the map and the prophecy, they also had a drawing of the Eye of Ten’gu and some notes about the artifact which Nadiah, the priestess who’d had the vision in the first place, had found in the archives on First World.
The Eye itself wasn’t a very large artifact. There was a drawing of it and to Penny, it looked a little like a stylized Egyptian eye from some ancient set of Hieroglyphics.
“Is that what we’re lookin’ for?” V’rex nodded at the drawing in her lap.
“Yes—listen to this.” Penny read from the notes on the print-out, which were written in an ancient, flowing hand.