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“Yeah—Ihad the boys work like demons on it all day and into the night—nothing wrong with it now but the long range communications system,” the second voice said. “Assoon as this is over and the females have gone to sleep, you andIare out of here!We’llgo back toJoCostaPrimewhere we belong and never set foot on this benighted planet ever again!”
“Youknow the recruits that came in thatKindredshuttle are going to be useless toLa’ver’naif we take their ship,” the first voice pointed out. “Threemore for theMotherTree,Iguess.”
“La’ver’nawas never going to let them go ‘spread the word of theGoddess’ anyway,” the second one scoffed. “Theylook too strange—don’t even have any hooves or horns!”
“Theyfuck really well, though.”Thefirst one sounded thoughtful. “Puton quite a show tonight in the dining area.Iwouldn’t mind fucking that hot little goddess of theirs myself.Shemight not have hooves or a horn but her pussy is hot and wet and it looks really tight.”
“Allright,I’veheard enough!”Fiercegrowled softly. “Thesetwo will talk all night if we don’t bash their heads together and move on.”
Celiawas feeling indignant about the way the two goat-men guards were talking about her, so she tended to agree.Holdnodded as well and he andFierceslipped silently forward.
Shehad thought that theDarkTwinwas speaking metaphorically when he talked about “bashing their heads together” so she was surprised when he actually did exactly that.
Reachingout he gripped both goat men—who were standing side by side at the entrance of the sacrificial room—by the horns.Then, before they could react, he pushed them into each other, their foreheads knocking together with an audiblethunk!
Thepair of them dropped, crumpling into a heap at their feet andHoldandFiercedragged them quickly out of the way.
“Lookat this—the fucker had my blaster on his hip,”Fiercemuttered, taking the weapon from the unconscious goat man.
“Thisone has nothing but a spear.”Holdtook it anyway, frowning.
“Hurry!”Celiahissed. “Ihear them doing something in there!”
Butjust as they were rounding the trunk again to where light was spilling out of the open doorway, the screaming began.
44
CELIA
Itwas a terrible sound,Celiathought later.Oneshe would hear in her nightmares for years to come.
Thesound wasn’t just one of fear—it held pain as well.Shecouldn’t help remembering the agonizing feeling of trying to pull away from the walls of theMotherTreeas it attempted to consume her hand.Somethingsimilar—and much worse—must be happening toSess’elyand her brothers, because she could hear all of them screaming and shrieking in agony.
“Oh, hurry—hurry!”she whispered urgently.
Thethree of them rushed to the door of the enormous sacrificial room and saw a terrible sight.Therewere at least thirty goat-men in the vast chamber andLa’ver’naand theMistressofSilkswere standing there as well—all of them with their backs to the door.Butwhat they were watching was what drewCelia’sattention.
Sess’elyand her three older brothers were all naked with their backs against the wall of theMotherTree.Theirlimbs were already encased in the living wood and the hungry tree was beginning to grow over their straining torsos and screaming faces as well.
“It’seating them alive!OhMadredeDios, no!”Celiawhispered, horrified.
“Fuck—Ithink we’re too late,”Fiercegrowled. “Don’tsee how we can get them out when they’re that far gone.”
“Itwas extremely difficult to getCeliaaway and theMotherTreeonly had her hand,”Holdagreed.Helooked atCelia. “Iam sorry, my lady—Ifear there is nothing we can do for them.”
“Oh, no!”Celiawas starting to cry.Shehad likedSess’ely.Despitethe weirdness between her and her brothers, she was a kind-hearted friend who only saw the good in others.Itseemed heartless and cruel to leave her to be tortured to death by the hungry tree!
“Look, we’d better go before those twoIknocked out wake up,”Fiercemuttered.
“Especiallysince they were planning to steal our ship and leave us to this fate,”Holdagreed.
“No, wait—we can’t just leave them here to suffer!”Celiaprotested. “Whoknows how long this horrible tree takes to…to digest people?Please—we have tohelpthem!”
“Mylady, there are thirty of them and only two of us,”Holdpointed out. “ThoughFiercehas a blaster, the rest of them are armed as well.Ifwe tried to fight them all—”
“Wecan’t get them out but wecanput them out of their misery,”Fiercegrowled.Hesighted down the barrel of the blaster, taking careful aim, and began squeezing the trigger.
Fourblasts of bright blue energy shot over the heads of the assembled goat men and four identical burning holes suddenly appeared in the foreheads ofSess’elyand her brothers.Thescreaming stopped abruptly as they slumped, no longer fighting the hungry embrace of theMotherTree.
