AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“BytheGoddess, what just happened?”La’ver’naexclaimed. “Howhas theMotherTreebeen cheated of the life force she craves?”Shewhirled around and sawFiercestill standing there with the blaster in his hand withHoldandCeliaright beside him. “There—look!Theyhave desecrated the ritual of feeding theMotherTree!” she exclaimed, pointing. “Getthem!”
“Holyfuck,Ithink we’d better run!”Fiercegrowled.Hesqueezed off a few more deadly shots, dropping several of the goat men guards in their tracks, but he didn’t have time to kill everyone.Awhole hoard of the hairy guards rushed towards them and thenHoldwas grabbingCelia’swrist and the three of them were running for their lives.
“Backto the sky-lifters!”Holdshouted as they ran. “Brotherdo you have enough charge to shoot through the ropes that hold the others so they can’t follow us?”
“There’sno time—they’re right behind us!”Fiercebellowed back. “Andyou know what will happen if they catch us!”
Celiaknew—they’d be entombed in theMotherTree, right besideSess’elyand her brothers and there would be no one to give them a mercy killing asFiercehad done for the hapless unicorn girl and her kin.
Wecan’t let them catch us!she thought.Wecan’t!Buteven as she thought it, she heard the clattering of many hooves.Riskinga glance over her shoulder, she saw the goat men were galloping towards them and there seemed to be a lot more of them than they had seen earlier.Hadmore joined the group?Wherewere they all coming from?
“Comeon—onto the lifter!”Holdwas shouting, grabbing for her andFierceboth.TheDarkTwinwas shooting as fast as he could but no matter how many of the guards he dropped, there always seemed to be more.TheMotherTreewascrawlingwith them!
Crawlingwith them?Waita minute…Aplan began to form inCelia’sbrain.AsHoldandFiercebegan lowering them as quickly as they could, she tried to think it through.
“We’vegot a head start butI’mafraid they’ll catch us at the bottom,”Fiercewas saying grimly. “They’vegot legs like a fuckingTake-me—they can gallop and we can only run!”
“Thenlet’s not go to the bottom,”Celiatold him. “Atleast, not right away.”
“What?”Holdfrowned at her. “Mylady, are you suggesting that we ought to stay here and try to hide in theMotherTree?BecauseI’mafraid they would find us pretty quickly.”
“No—I’mtalking about a way to slow them down,”Celiasaid. “Here—what branch are we passing?”
“ThatwasThirdBranchand we’ll be toSecondBranchshortly,”Holdtold her.
“Good—stop atSecondBranch—just for a minute,”Celiaordered.
Thetwo of them exchanged a look over her head and she could see them debating whether they would do as she asked or not.
“Look—you have totrustme!” she said earnestly. “Iknow a way to slow them down—and to distract the whole damnMotherTreefrom trying to follow us!Butyou have to stop onSecondBranchor it won’t work!”
Thetwins exchanged another look.
“Allright, we’ll do it,”Fiercegrowled. “Butyou’d better not get us eaten by the fuckingMotherTree,lelka!”
“IpromiseIwon’t.Look—here we are now!No—don’t tie the ropes off,” she added. “Hold, stay here and hold the ropes so we can jump back on in a minute.Fierce, you come with me.”
“Whereare we going?” theDarkTwindemanded, even as he jumped off the sky-lifter withCeliaand followed her down the broad tree branch.
“Here!”Theywere suddenly standing in front of the vast,Olympicswimming pool-sized spider web.Thewhite strands of silk glimmered in the moonlight filtering down from the trees and the web itself stirred, rippling slightly in the nighttime breeze.
“Whatthe everlovingfuck?”Fiercestared at it in amazement.
“Grabit and shake it,”Celiaordered him.
“Youwant me towhat?”Hefrowned at her.
Celiacould have cursed herself—why had she brought theDarkTwininstead of theLightTwin?Holdwould have done what she asked without question.
“Notime to explain,” she toldFierce. “Grabit and give it a good shake and then we’re going to run back toHoldas fast as we can!”
Atfirst she was afraid thatFiercewould demand an explanation, but theDarkTwinappeared to decide to go along with her for once.Hereached out and grabbed a handful of the sticky silk web and shook it as hard as he could.
Themotion made huge ripples in the fabric of the web—ripples that reached all the way to the house-sized cocoon at the edge of it.
“Hey, wake up!”Celiashouted for good measure. “Comeout here—there’s a male touching your web!Amale!”
Nothinghappened for a split second…and then the enormous cocoon erupted with huge, furry white spiders, boiling out of it like bubbles from a pot.
