18. Addie

18

ADDIE

T he corridors and the library room were deserted. Addie had an idea that it was still fairly early in the morning since no one else was stirring. She ought to be hungry for some breakfast by now, but all she felt was the same, burning thirst which she was beginning to believe was part of the strange set of symptoms she was experiencing.

The slippers that went with her dress were soft and she made no noise as she moved around the vast room, surveying the shelves of books. She had no idea how the Vargans classified their books and many of them looked ancient and seemed to be written in an arcane text that even the Translation Bacteria in her system had trouble translating.

Addie was just about to get really frustrated when she found a section of what appeared to be children's books, low down on one of the shelves. They were thinner and newer and had brightly colored covers. She chose one that was called, The Choosing Ceremony and You—a Guide for High Born Girls, and settled into one of the plush, overstuffed armchairs to read it.

She opened it and found that the first page of the book showed a lot of young women standing in a circle with an older woman in the center.

"If you're a High Born girl with any Sheelash White in your hair, you might have heard about an important rite called ‘The Choosing Ceremony,'" the book read. "The Choosing Ceremony is a special ritual many High Born girls go through when they reach the age of maturity."

Okay, well so far it wasn't telling her anything she didn't already know, Addie thought. She flipped to the next page which showed the same circle of young women. This time one of them was accepting a cup of milky liquid from the older woman who Addie supposed must be one of the Aged Ones.

"When you are chosen, you go into the Room of Sighs," the book informed her. "There, one of the Aged Ones will give you a cup to drink. In the cup is the Bounty of Sheelash—the venom of the beautiful and terrible Goddess whom we all serve and worship with all our hearts.'"

"Wait, her venom? I drank spider venom?" Addie exclaimed out loud. Her voice echoed in the empty room and she looked around furtively, making sure she was still alone. Luckily no one was there, so she kept reading. But the very thought of what she'd ingested the night before made her feel sick.

The next page showed a picture of three muscular Vargans with a giant spider. Addie couldn't see the front of the spider because the three men were dealing with the back end of it. Two of them had ropes that were attached to several of the spider's many legs and the third had a kind of container in his hands that he was clearly trying to fit over the long, sharp stinger that protruded from the end of the spider's fat abdomen.

"Many brave Vargan men participate in the milking of Sheelash each year," the caption read. "Often they are killed because Sheelash doesn't always want to give up her Bounty. But that is their sacrifice and we honor them for it."

Addie remembered now how she hadn't wanted to drink the cum-looking liquid and Ls Prissa had snapped at her, saying something about how many men had been killed at "the Milking." This must be what she'd been talking about! Ugh .

But on another note, did this mean that Sheelash was real? Addie had been operating on the assumption that the Spider Goddess was a mythical deity. But what if she wasn't? Did the Vargans actually have a giant spider that they worshiped somewhere in this palace? Maybe even in the Room of Sighs where she had been last night?

The memory of Teeza, one of her other ladies-in-waiting, being swept up into the darkness suddenly resurfaced in her mind and Addie felt faint. Dear God—did that mean that Teeza had been taken by the spider? Had she been stung and wrapped in silk, the same way the hapless squeaker in Addie's room had been taken by the cat-sized silky spider?

The thought was too much—she couldn't digest it right now. Doing her best to push it out of her head, Addie went back to the book.

The next page showed the circle of young women again but this time all of them were lying down with their legs spread. The illustrator had been careful not to show anything R-rated but it was clear that the women all had bare legs and nothing on under their dresses. Several of them also had large, cat-sized spiders crawling on them, which made Addie shudder.

"After you drink from the Bounty of Sheelash, the Aged One will tell you to lie down so that you may be bitten by one of the Agents of Sheelash," the book read. "This activates the venom already in your body and shows which young woman is meant to be the Queen of Night."

"Oh my God!" Addie whispered to herself. So the spider bite she'd gotten the night before had been on purpose! How awful!

She turned the page again with a hand that trembled ever so slightly. It didn't seem like the Choosing Ceremony could get worse, but she was afraid that it could.

The next page confirmed her suspicions. The picture showed the same girls, standing in a row again, but there seemed to be fewer of them this time. Also, most of them looked extremely ill. Their faces were pale and sickly and their skin had turned a greenish color. Their eyes were sunken into their sockets in a way that reminded her of poor old Mr. Dumphry. In fact, only one of them looked healthy and well. She was smiling broadly—wide enough for Addie to see that she now had long, curving fangs in her mouth.

Addie was filled with horror all over again. She ran the tip of her tongue over her new fangs, being careful not to touch their razor-sharp tips. So that was why she had grown them—it was the spider venom she had drunk working with the spider bite she'd gotten! It must be!

The picture's caption confirmed her suspicions.

"Only one girl can be named the Queen of Night, of course," it read. "She will be the one who grows fangs, just like Sheelash herself! Also, she may manifest a holy picture on her back."

Addie reached back to touch the spider web that had appeared on her back overnight. Oh God, this was it— she was supposed to be the Queen of Night! But what did that mean?

This time her hands trembled quite a lot as she turned the page. The next illustration showed the girl with fangs standing in front of a row of five strong Vargan males.

"If you are the Chosen girl who will be crowned the Queen of Night, you can expect to get very thirsty," the caption read. "Don't worry though—the Council of Aged Ones will choose several young men for you to help quench your thirst."

"Quench my thirst? How?" Addie demanded out loud. "What in the hell am I supposed to drink?"

She had a bad feeling she already knew. Again she caressed her new fangs with the tip of her tongue. Her first thought when she'd seen them was that they were vampire fangs. Could that be true? Was she supposed to drink…blood?

The thought turned her stomach but her throat burned with thirst and she was afraid to look at the next page in the book. Who knew what fresh horrors she might find?

I'll just get a glass of water to settle my nerves before I finish it, she told herself. I can't look yet—I'm too thirsty to concentrate.

Yes, but thirsty for what?

Addie didn't want to know.

Getting up, she left the book open on the chair and went to search for a glass of water…but she never got it.

"There you are! I thought I might find you here."

It was Sparki's voice. Addie's head jerked up and she saw her lady-in-waiting standing in the doorway.

"Oh, uh, hi," she said weakly. "I woke up early and thought I'd come look at some of your books. I love libraries."

"Well, you can explore the library later. Right now it's time for The Revelation."

"The what?" Addie asked, but Sparki was already coming to get her.

"Come on, let's go—they're waiting for us!" she said, taking Addie by the elbow.

Addie didn't really want to go with her, but she couldn't think of a good excuse to stay in the library and read instead of participating in whatever "The Revelation" was. However, as Sparki tugged her down the corridor, she couldn't help noticing that the lady-in-waiting looked pale and drawn, as though she'd been sick the night before.

"Hey, are you all right?" she asked. "You look like you had a rough night."

"Oh, I did," Sparki said matter-of-factly. "But I made it through, which means I'm going to be okay and I'll never have to go through it again. You can only be picked for the Choosing Ceremony once, you know. You look really good, though," she added, giving Addie a once-over. "How did you sleep?"

"Oh, you know." Addie shrugged uncomfortably. "I was fine until the uh, silky spider thing got out of its cage and started screaming at me."

"The silky got out? You must not have fed it enough!" Sparki remarked. "Weren't there enough squeakers in the feeding box in your room? I'll have a word with the Head Housekeeper about it."

"No, no—please don't bother," Addie said quickly. She didn't want to get anyone in trouble. "Actually, I think I just need to get home and sleep in my own bed. I've really enjoyed your hospitality but now that the Choosing Ceremony is over, I'll probably go back to the Mother Ship."

"But it's not over—the Queen of Night hasn't been revealed yet!" Sparki protested. "Just think how exciting it will be if it turns out you're the Chosen One—the one to be crowned the Queen of Night!"

"Oh, I'm sure I'm not." Addie tried to laugh self-deprecatingly and then remembered that she didn't want to show her fangs. She didn't want Sparki to know that she was in fact, "the Chosen One" because if the lady-in-waiting found out, it was probably going to get much harder to leave.

Sparki gave her another searching look.

"You never can tell," she said. "Anyway, here we are! We'll find out soon enough who's going to be this year's Queen of Night."

She had stopped in front of the door to the Feasting Hall where they had been last night.

"We will?" Addie felt a stab of anxiety. She wondered where Drago had gotten to. He was always such a good Protector—always insisting on watching over her all the time. If he was here now, she would make an excuse to go with him and then tell him that they needed to get the hell off this crazy planet!

But the big Drake Kindred was nowhere to be seen, so she had little choice but to let Sparki lead her through the doors and into the Feasting Hall.