Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Donal huffs. “She’s a traitor. She needs to pay for what she’s done.”
Auntie places a hand on his cheek and smiles. It’s… a touching smile. Like she actually cares for this evil boy. “What do you think happens to her next, dear boy?” An evil grin plays across Auntie’s face. And when I glance at Donal, I see a matching one on his.
“Get her up off the floor and bring her along, Donal. It’s time.”
Donal comes at me so quickly, I flinch and cover my face with my hands again, fearful that he will get in one last blow before submitting to my aunt’s demands. But he doesn’t hit me. He grabs me by the hair and starts dragging me along the hallway after my auntie.
I scream, and he stops, turning to sneer. “One more sound out of you, and I’ll rip all this pretty hair out of your head. Auntie doesn’t care about your hair, do you, Auntie?”
“Come along, Donal!”
“Auntie?” I whimper. What does he mean?
Donal sneers at me. “Oh, you didn’t know? How fun! Your Auntie isn’t a Bell, Jasina. Bells are down-city half-breed whores like yourself. She’s an Oslin.”
“What?” He’s still dragging me by the hair, but I’ve got a hold of his arms now, so it doesn’t pull so much. And I manage to get to my feet and stumble after him.
“That’s right, Jasina. She’s my auntie, not yours. She’s not related to you at all. She only married your great-uncle because the Matrons told her to. They needed to breed you, ya see.” He stops walking so he can lean down into my face and spit his words out. “So I can eat ya.”
“What?”
“Donal!” Auntie yells this time. “Keep up, boy. We need to get this started!”
Donal yanks me and starts running, so I have to run too. But I trip and fall and he keeps going. So when we get to the end of the hallway, I enter a large room filled with people being dragged across a smooth shiny floor by my red hair.
Suddenly there is a lot of murmuring and Donal lets go, walking away from me like I never mattered in the first place.
I sit up, my head burning and my body already sore from the attack, and look around. But it takes whole, long seconds for my mind to even form thoughts that can explain what the hell I am looking at.
The people are the easy part. There are—well, every Matron who ever existed appears to be in here with us. And the Little Sisters are all here too, all wearing their blue tunics and cream aprons.
“Jasina!” Auntie barks my name so loud, all the hushed murmuring immediately stops. Like just her voice is enough to scare the piss out of people. “Get in your line!” She points to the Little Sisters, who are backed up against a wall on the far side of the room.
I scramble to my feet and stumble in that direction, looking for friendly faces. All of the up-city girls turn their gazes away from me. But I was expecting that.
What I wasn’t expecting is for my friends to do the same.
“Lucindy,” I say, still stumbling as I reach out for support.
“Don’t!” she snaps at me. “Don’t touch me, Jasina.”
“What?” I look at Harlow. And she doesn’t even bother with words. Just shakes her head. Then I look at Britley. “Brit?”
“Jasina, just shut up and stand in line.”
“Here.” Ceela moves over a little bit. “You can stand by me.”
I want to say thank you—should probably say thank you—but this isn’t a genuine offer. I’ve known Ceela too long. I know her too well. But I slip into the space anyway because there’s no other place for me.
As soon as we’re shoulder to shoulder, she starts in, her words just a whisper so as not attract the ire of Auntie. “You’re in big trouble. And don’t look to us to save you, Jasina.”
“What did I do?”
“What did you do?” Ceela turns to side-eye me, her lip actually curling up to show her teeth. “Are you joking? You’re a traitor! You—”
“Listen up!” Auntie Bell roars, her voice echoing off the high ceiling of the underground room. “Matron Lightly and Matron Scott are going to explain your roles in the ritual. Do not speak, or ask any questions. This must be done and you all are here to do your part in saving this great city.”
The word ‘ritual’ is what snaps my attention back to the room I’m in. It didn’t make any sense to me at first, because I didn’t have the proper context for it. But now I see.
It’s a church.
We have chapels, of course. Places where we pray to the god. But the church of the Tau City tower god is… well, the tower. Only Extraction Maidens enter the tower, so it’s not a place for regular people.