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)
She read off a list of names and people began leaving their individual groups and forming new ones, according to their work detail.
Hold was going to be working with the Harvesting Team, gathering “the Blood of the Mother” which was what they called the pancakes-and-syrup liquid everyone was drinking. Celia was surprised to learn that it was harvested and didn’t just appear in the large wooden cauldron the way the food appeared in the smaller Mother pots.
Fierce was being sent to the Repair Shop, which was good news. He would be able to help out with the repairs to their ship and estimate how long it would take to be ready to fly.
Celia’s assignment came last and it was rather mysterious—the unicorn priestess simply read her name along with a list of others and added, “Branch Two,” without saying what they would be doing there.
“Wait—that’s the branch where no males are allowed, right?” Fierce said.
“That’s the one.” Hold nodded. “Do you feel all right about going there, my lady?” he asked Celia anxiously.
“I don’t like it,” Fierce declared before she could answer. “Anything could be going on there—I don’t think it’s safe for Celia to go on her own, without one of us to guard her.”
“But we have different job assignments and even if we didn’t, males aren’t allowed on Branch Two,” Hold pointed out.
The argument was settled when Sess’ely came up to Celia and gave her a shy smile.
“You’re with me today,” she told her. “We get to work in Silk Production together.”
“Oh, is that what we’ll be doing?” Celia asked. “Is it, er, dangerous?”
“Not a bit! As long as you’re not male.” The unicorn girl gave a lighthearted laugh. “You’re going to love it. Sometimes I can’t believe it’s my job because honestly, I would pay to do it!”
Fierce still looked suspicious but Celia felt somewhat better about her mysterious assignment.
“All right. Thank you for letting me know we’re working together,” she said, smiling at the unicorn girl.
“Of course! You seem like such a nice person—I hope we’ll be friends. Come on!”
Sess’ely motioned for her and Celia went to stand beside her. She turned to look at her guys for a moment.
“Well, I guess I’ll see the two of you later,” she told them.
“Wait! Before you go…” Fierce grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her close to his broad chest in a tight hug. “If you have any problems, shout for us, lelka,” he murmured in her ear. “I swear I don’t care where I am in this fucked-up place, I’ll come running.”
Hold hugged her next, saying pretty much the same thing.
“We’re attuned to you now,” he murmured, stroking her back. “We’ll hear you so just shout if there’s trouble.”
Celia was touched by their protectiveness.
“Well…thank you, guys.” She smiled up at the two of them. “But I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“Not if we don’t hurry!” Sess’ely stamped one cloven hoof impatiently. “Come on, or all the good-tempered spiders will already be taken and we’ll get stuck with the cranky ones!”
“Excuse me? The good-tempered what?” Celia exclaimed.
But the unicorn girl didn’t answer—she only grabbed Celia by the arm and dragged her out of the dining area.
38
CELIA
Celia got to find out firsthand exactly how hard it was to pull one of the sky-lifters upwards. There must be some kind of pulley system, she thought, but if so, it wasn’t a very efficient one. Her arms were sore by the time she and Sess’ely finally got to Branch Two.
“Ugh—it’s always such a pain to go up and down without some of your worshippers to do the pulling,” the unicorn girl said, shaking out her arms. “Anyway, it looks like we got here first after all, so come with me and I’ll show you around.”
“Thank you,” Celia said, smiling. “Er, where are we going?”
“To the Holy Web, of course. Come on—it’s this way.” Sess’ely started walking along the branch and as soon as they curved a little way around the trunk, Celia saw what must be the “Holy Web.” It was an enormous flat spider web with strands as thick as her fingers, laid out like a giant trampoline.
“Wow…it’s huge!” Celia breathed. It looked to be as big as an Olympic sized swimming pool, if not bigger.
“Yes, the holy spiders need lots of room,” Sess’ely said, nodding so that her pearly little horn winked in the pink morning light which filtered down through the enormous leaves.
“What’s that thing there?” Celia asked, pointing. At the far end of the web was a massive cocoon, as big as a house.
“Oh, that’s where the holy spiders sleep. We’ll wake them in a moment, but first let me show you around the other parts of the Silk Production because you might have to take a turn in one of them eventually,” Sess’ely said.
“Sure, show me.” Celia nodded. She wasn’t in any hurry to “wake up” any spiders—especially if they were as big as the web indicated.