Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Um, I guess not.” Lili cleared her throat. “Er…do you think the two of you ought to get dressed again before we land, though?”
“Huh?” Dark looked down at himself. His long shaft had gone down, Lili noted, though it was still a considerable size. “Oh right,” he muttered. “Yeah, we’d probably better get our uniforms back on.”
“Yes, we should,” Light agreed. “I have no wish to land on F’rith Three unarmed and naked.”
“You’re fucking right about that,” Dark growled. “Hang on—we’ll be there in a minute and then we can get dressed.”
The ship flew through the atmosphere of F’rith Three and almost before she knew it, Lili saw an extremely tall, circular tower rising high into the sky. The outside of it gleamed in the sunlight and there were windows spaced in a spiral pattern around the outside of it. To Lili, it looked a little like the leaning Tower of Pisa, only it wasn’t leaning, and it was shiny and metallic instead of being plain white stone.
“There it is—the Golden Tower!” she exclaimed, pointing.
Dark grunted.
“Huh—your friend f’loon doesn’t play around when it comes to showing people how wealthy they are,” he muttered as he landed the ship in front of the tall golden tower.
“It’s not just f’loon’s private residence—it’s a secure place they can store their vast collection,” Lili explained. She leaned forward excitedly. “Every floor has art from a different planet—f’loon takes one piece of art from each of their cultures to represent them. It’s an unimaginable honor to have your art chosen for display here.” She looked at them. “Aren’t you excited to see it?”
“To be completely honest, until we had emotions, we never had much interest in any kind of art or artistic expression,” Light said carefully. “But we’re willing to learn from you.”
“I have a whole new appreciation of art after that posing session we just had,” Dark added, and Lili noticed that his shaft had stared to grow again.
“All right, now,” she said with mock severity. “What the three of us did wasn’t exactly ‘art’ per say. And right now, I think you’d both better get dressed before we have to meet f’loon.”
“Agreed,” Light said. “Come on, Brother—let’s go.”
The two Kindred unstrapped from their harnesses and went in the back to get dressed. Lili sat where she was, staring at the tall golden tower, her heart pounding in anticipation. She’d been dreaming of seeing f’loon’s collection for so long—she could scarcely believe her dream was finally coming true!
She had no idea how quickly it would turn into a nightmare.
13
LIGHT
“I don’t trust this setup,” Dark growled to Light as they headed for the tall golden tower that rose like a shining spire into the pale pink sky. “I don’t like all these fucking guards!”
“Come on, Brother—f’loon has an incredibly valuable collection,” Light pointed out. “You can’t blame them for wanting to keep it safe.”
“I still don’t like it,” Dark muttered. He had one arm protectively around Lili and Light did as well, making sure she was safe between them, even though they were surrounded.
The Chulaz guards, all wearing golden uniforms, had met and surrounded them the minute they opened the hatch of their ship. They were extremely tall—at least three meters in height—which made them considerably taller than either Light or Dark. However, they were also extremely thin. They had narrow skulls that were almost rectangular in shape and four long, skinny arms sticking out from their slender bodies. Long, skinny legs and narrow feet completed the look.
The guards also had brown, bark-like skin. That coupled with their slender bodies and multiple skinny limbs made them look like an animal that Light had seen while watching vids about the inhabitants and fauna of Earth—he just couldn’t remember the name.
Finally, it came to him.
“A stick insect!” he murmured to Dark. “That’s what they look like!”
“What? The fuck are you talking about?” Dark muttered.
“That’s what the guards look like—stick insects,” Light explained in a low voice.
“Huh,” was Dark’s only reply. Light understood that his twin’s main focus was making certain Lilibet was safe and he was disinterested in anything else. He felt the same, of course, but he was still eager to see the art that she had talked so much about. It seemed to him that, living without emotions for so long, he and Dark had missed out on a great many interesting and beautiful things.
He hoped they would get a chance to learn about art and see if it raised any new emotions they hadn’t felt before.
He had no idea that his wish was going to come true…though not exactly in the way he had hoped.
14
DARK
Dark glared at the guards surrounding them and kept one arm firmly around Lili’s shoulders as they entered the golden tower. It was massive but the entrance was tiny—barely big enough for them to walk in single file. The tall, gangly Chulaz guards all had to duck their heads to go inside.