Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Her head was occupied with the big Monstrum as she strolled through the countryside, glancing occasionally at the holo map. B’ron Three was a little chilly, which made her glad she’d worn her sweater. She was walking through a vast meadow studded with trees and the light had a pale purple quality, like twilight on Earth. Lucy wasn’t sure if night was falling or if it always looked like this, but she liked it—it gave the whole planet a soft, dreamy quality, she thought.
Most of the vegetation seemed to be dark blue and various shades of purple with just a little green thrown in for contrast. There were tall trees with leaves at the very top that looked like enormous celery stalks to Lucy and the ground was covered in a thick carpet of light purple flowers no bigger than her pinky fingernail. The contrast was striking and still somehow dreamlike as the celery trees waved in the soft breeze that blew around them.
But she couldn’t dawdle to enjoy the landscape, Lucy reminded herself. She needed to get to the stronghold and back again before T’zaren missed her! Glancing at the map again, she saw that there was a kind of village she had to go through before she reached the edge of the chasm. Hmm…she hoped that wouldn’t be a problem. But surely the villagers were used to seeing other visitors going to Lady Twa’linda’s stronghold, right?
At any rate, Lucy certainly hoped so.
She continued on her way through the meadow until she saw—up ahead—a cluster of cottages. That must be the village.
“Looks pretty rustic,” Lucy murmured to herself. And indeed, it did. The cottages were thatched with faded blue hay and most of them were quite small, as though maybe they were single room dwellings.
This was impossible to verify since all the doors and windows she could see were shut tight. She didn’t see any people out and about either, which made her wonder if the whole village was deserted.
As she reached the cluster of cottages, the feeling of desertion grew even stronger. Where was everyone? Had they all packed it in for the night? Maybe this was one of those places that rolls up their sidewalks early so everyone can get a good night’s sleep and get up at the crack of dawn to plow the fields and milk the cows. If the residents of B’ron Three had anything like cows, she thought. Because no animals were visible either. In fact, the entire town seemed to be completely empty.
But just as she was thinking this, a woman came into sight. At least, Lucy assumed she was a woman. She had pale green skin and big, dark, frightened eyes that were visible under the brim of her old-fashioned looking bonnet. She was wearing a long, homespun dress that was a dull gray-blue color and there was a terrified look on her face as she raced towards one of the cottages.
“Excuse me?” Lucy called to her, glad all over again that she’d taken the Translation Bacteria so she could speak and understand alien languages. “Pardon me, can you tell me the way to the chasm?”
The woman spared a glance at Lucy and her eyes widened.
“What you doin’ out here?” she demanded in a hoarse whisper. “Don’t you know ‘taint safe?”
“Uh, why not?” Lucy frowned at her uncertainly. “I’m here to visit Twa’linda of the Two Faces,” she said, hoping the Twainer’s name would get a response.
“The Shadows is out!” the woman exclaimed. “Get back to where you come from—quick!”
“But what are the ‘Shadows’?” Lucy asked.
“Slavers, they are. And if you don’t want to be caught and slaved-out, you’ll get under cover!” the woman advised in that same, hoarse whisper, looking over her shoulder all the time as she talked.
She had finally reached the door of her cottage and she gave a quick rap-tap-tap on the wooden door with her knuckles. Immediately the door opened and the woman was whisked inside. Before Lucy could ask any more questions about who the “Shadows” were and what they looked like, the door shut behind the woman and she could hear the metallic, grating sound of a bolt being thrown as it was locked from the inside.
“Well, that was weird,” Lucy muttered to herself uneasily. The brief encounter was making her question the wisdom of her plan to go to Twa’linda’s stronghold by herself. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, after all.
She was about to turn back when a heavy hand fell on her shoulder and a voice growled,
“Well, well…what have we here?”
NINETEEN
LUCY
“Hey, what—?” Lucy gasped and then someone whirled her around and she found herself staring up into an alien face. It had crusty, dark green skin with purple blotches and slits for nostrils, which gave it a distinctly lizard-like appearance. The glowing yellow eyes didn’t help either—or the fact that he had no ears, only holes in the sides of his head.