7. Addie

7

ADDIE

S parki led them to a feasting hall that looked like it was straight out of a sword and sorcery epic. Soaring walls made of the same black stone as the rest of the palace and covered in tapestries—all of which depicted Sheelash, the spider goddess—were the first things Addie noticed. The second was the long wooden table, lit with many intricate silver candelabras, which stretched from one end of the vast hall to the other.

Seated along the table were all the most important people in Crimson Moon—at least, if the color of their hair was any indication, Addie thought. Almost all of them had stripes of platinum blonde—or "Sheelash White" as they called it—in their hair. Only a few, like Lx Sambla, had pure blonde hair.

Speaking of the Vargan ambassador, he was heading in their direction now.

"Ah, Lssa Addison, how lovely you look! I knew our native fashions would suit you," he exclaimed. "Let me see you fully." And taking Addie's hand, he turned her slowly around in a complete circle so he could see every bit of her body.

Addie went along with the little display, but she couldn't help feeling extremely naked and uncomfortable. It was different, somehow, than when Drago had been looking her up and down. She'd kind of liked the way her Protector's golden eyes went wide…and then half-lidded with lust as he surveyed her. Though she'd tried to hide from him at first, she couldn't deny the satisfaction she felt at finally getting the big Drake Kindred's attention.

But she found that having Lx Sambla's dark eyes crawling over her flesh made her feel uncomfortable. There was some expression on his face she couldn't quite name. It seemed to be a mixture of sexual hunger and something else…but what? Greed? Anticipation maybe? But anticipation of what?

Addie didn't know—she only knew she was relieved when the little display was over and Sambla was tucking her arm into his. From the corner of her eye she could see Drago looking like a thundercloud again. She wondered if it would make him feel any better if he knew that displaying her assets to the Vargan ambassador had made her feel weird and creeped out. Probably not.

"Let me lead you to the place of honor," Sambla was saying to her as he led her to one end of the long table. "You and I are seated by the Council of Aged Ones. I know you're going to make a wonderful impression."

"Oh, er, thank you." Addie did her best to smile brightly. She had to put the feeling of being naked and exploited somehow out of her head, she reminded herself. The Council of Aged Ones was going to determine if she could participate in the Choosing Ceremony where the Queen of Night was crowned. Not that she really wanted to participate—she'd be happy if they just let her observe. But either way she needed to make a good impression.

The chairs were high and wooden with crimson cushions to sit on. Because Addie was short, Sambla courteously asked one of the servers for a second cushion and then helped her get seated.

"There you are, lovely one," he said, as Addie finally got settled.

She smiled at him.

"Thank you for the extra cushion."

"But of course! I always do the same for my sister, since she's about your height." He nodded at Sparki, who was sitting a few seats down on the other side of the table.

"You two must be very close," Addie remarked.

"Yes, extremely close." He nodded gravely. "She's my responsibility, you know. And she brings a great deal of joy into my life."

"She's got a bubbly personality—she's my favorite of the ladies-in-waiting you assigned to me," Addie confided. She did not add that the other three, Teeza, Leeza, and Peeza, seemed more interested in getting into her Protector's pants than actually waiting on her.

Speaking of Drago, he was seated beside Sparki, who was trying to make conversation with him. But the big Drake Kindred was barely paying any attention to her. Instead, he was glaring at Sambla like he wanted to reach across the table and strangle him. What was wrong with him, Addie wondered? Why was he suddenly so jealous of her when he'd never shown the least interest in her at all before this mission?

She shot her Protector a warning look but before she could mouth something like, "Behave!" Sambla was tugging her elbow to get her attention.

"My dear Addison, I'd like to introduce you to the Council of Aged Ones," he said, pointing discretely.

Addie looked over and saw three old ladies. They were small and bent, all seated together on a padded bench at the end of the table. Their faces were netted with wrinkles but their eyes…

How are their eyes still so young? Addie wondered as she nodded politely at the old women. Their eyes looked clear and bright and they were staring sharply at her.

"Please let me introduce you, Lssa Addison," Sambla said. "This is Ls Tissa, Ls Hissa, and Ls Prissa. And this is Lssa Addison of the Kindred Mother Ship," he added, speaking to the three women. "She is our honored guest and she hopes to be allowed to participate in the Ceremony of Choosing. In fact, I invited her here just for that purpose, so I hope you'll approve my invitation."

"She seems a good enough sort of girl," the old lady Sambla had introduced as Ls Tissa remarked.

"Her skin is lovely and pale," Ls Hissa added approvingly.

"I'm not convinced. Show us your teeth girl," Ls Prissa demanded.

"My what?" Addie was sure she'd misunderstood.

"Your teeth, your teeth!" Ls Prissa said impatiently. "Open your mouth and show them!"

"Oh, er, all right." Addie nodded quickly.

Feeling somewhat awkward, she opened her mouth and bared her teeth for the three older women. To her consternation, Ls Prissa actually leaned across the table and ran her thumb over the top row, paying special attention to the small points of her canine teeth for some reason.

Unsure of what to do, Addie just sat there and allowed it. She didn't want to be rude and she realized that different cultures had different ways of greeting each other, but still, this seemed to be beyond the pale. Was she at a feast or at the dentist?

Thankfully, it was over soon. Ls Prissa sat back and nodded solemnly.

"She'll do. Those teeth show promise. Her hair isn't Sheelash White, but we could use some fresh blood."

"Agreed." Ls Hissa nodded and Ls Tissa did as well.

"She can participate in the ceremony," Ls Prissa said decisively. "Good judgment on your part bringing her here, Sambla."

"I thank you for the kind compliment and your generosity towards my guest," Lx Sambla said, bowing his sleek blond head humbly. "And I know that Addison thanks you as well."

"Oh yes—thank you," Addie said quickly, but she still felt strange. She had assumed she would have to impress the Council of Aged Ones with witty banter and excellent table manners. Instead, she felt like she'd just been inspected like a horse at a livestock auction.

She was about to try and make conversation with the three elderly women anyway, but just then the first course of the feast arrived.

"Ah, lovely! Blood cubes!" Lx Sambla exclaimed as the server scooped several jiggly, dark maroon cubes onto the curving, bone-white plate in front of him.

"Um…blood cubes?" Addie asked as several of the cubes were placed on her own plate as well. They were about twice as large as dice and they made unpleasant dark red smears on the white plate when she nudged them gently with the back of the two-tined utensil which she supposed was the Vargan version of a fork.

"Yes, they're a delicacy—reserved only for feasts. Try them, lovely one—they're delicious." Sambla scooped up one of the cubes and popped it whole into his mouth.

Addie had no interest in eating the weird cubes, which looked oddly like some form of blood Jell-O. Luckily, she had a trick for when she was visiting a new world and had to eat unappetizing food. She just kept cutting it into smaller and smaller pieces and every once in a while she would bring her fork to her mouth and pretend to chew. That way it looked like she was eating whatever it was when in actuality, she wasn't doing anything of the sort.

But this time her tried and true technique failed her. Because when she picked up the sharp serrated blade on the other side of her plate and began trying to cut the nearest blood cube, it burst and splattered all over her plate.

"Oh!" Addie gasped, jumping back in surprise. Her chair nearly tipped over but luckily Lx Sambla seemed to have superhuman reflexes. He reached for her chair and tipped it back into place before she could topple over.

"There, there, my beauty—are you all right?" he asked, giving her an anxious look.

"I…I'm fine. It just surprised me when the, er, blood cube exploded," Addie explained, looking down at the bloody mess on her plate.

"You must have tried to cut it or spear it—blood cubes are delicate . They must be scooped up using your toonsil." He held up what looked like a miniature golden spade, which was as close to a spoon as anything Addie could see in her place setting. Then, to demonstrate, he scooped one of the jiggling cubes up with the small instrument. "See? And once you have it, you slide it right into your mouth and it pops on your tongue— not all over your plate," he went on.

"Oh, I see," she said faintly. "Thank you for showing me." She started to pick up her own "toonsil" but Lx Sambla wasn't done with her yet.

"Here, allow me to feed you one," he said, smiling at her and showing extremely white teeth that now had blood between them.

"Oh, er…" Addie tried to think of a way to politely decline. "I just don't think—" she began but Sambla took advantage of her open mouth to pop the blood cube inside.

Before Addie could spit it out, it burst on her tongue and it was every bit as bad as she had feared. Cold, salty, slimy blood filled her mouth and dripped down the back of her throat. For a moment, she was desperately afraid that she was going to puke, right there at the table, but somehow she managed not to.

She wanted to spit the mouthful of blood out in the worst way, but when she grabbed her white linen table napkin, she couldn't help noticing that the three members of the Council of Aged Ones were all staring at her. So instead, with a massive effort, she swallowed the slimy blood and then groped for her water glass.

Only it wasn't water—it was something fiery and alcoholic that made her throat burn as she gulped it down. Addie didn't care—even if it felt like her mouth was on fire, at least the liquor was washing the taste of the blood cube out of her mouth. She kept drinking.

It took nearly the entire large goblet of liquor to completely rid her of the taste of blood, but finally it was gone. She sat the golden goblet down with a sigh and patted her mouth and chin with the linen napkin to be sure no traces were left.

"My, my—you must have been thirsty!" Lx Sambla was staring at her with wide eyes. "I've never seen a lady drink so much gupcha in one sitting."

"It's really good," Addie said, though she had no idea if the liquor was actually good or not. Her tongue and throat were still on fire and it felt like someone had set off a bomb in her stomach. She certainly hoped the rest of the feast was better than this!

Unfortunately, it wasn't. The second course arrived and it was a salad made of fresh purple, green, and orange leaves. That would have been fine but it was drizzled with a bright red, blood salad dressing. Addie did her best to pick around it, but each leaf was pretty well coated in the stuff and when she did manage to get a bite without blood on it, she found that the alien lettuce was extremely bitter and peppery.

Ugh—like arugula on steroids! she thought, pushing the blood-soaked leaves around her plate while pretending to eat them. This is almost worse than the blood cubes!

Next came a rare cut of some kind of steak which had been masterfully shaped into the animal it came from. It looked a little like a cross between a sheep and a horse, Addie decided as she examined it, since it had the squat body and short legs of a sheep and the long neck and face of a horse.

She might have tried it but she really didn't like rare meat—she always asked for her steak medium well and barely pink in the middle. The strange sheep-horse steak was so rare it was bleeding all over the plate. In fact, Addie didn't think it had been cooked at all—not even a tiny fraction.

She made small talk with Lx Sambla and drank more of the gupcha as she dismembered the steak beast with her knife and fork and hoped that the next course would be nicer.

It wasn't. The next course was a palate cleanser—a small, dense, icy ball of blood sorbet. Addie stirred it morosely and watched as it melted into a bloody, icy puddle in the charming crystal cup it was served in.

Next came a blood soup which was served at a tepid temperature to keep the main ingredient from cooking too much. Even so, there were tiny grayish chunks of cooked blood floating in the dark red broth that Addie found nauseating. Still, she forged ahead, swirling her "toonsil" through the bloody mess and bringing it to her lips every so often to pretend to sip, followed by more of the fiery gupcha.

By now she was really beginning to feel the alcohol—her limbs felt loose and she was slightly dizzy. She told herself she ought to stop drinking on an empty stomach but the server kept pouring her more and at least it looked like she was eating dinner.

But her pretense wasn't fooling Lx Sambla.

"But my lovely one, you're not eating!" He looked at her anxiously. "Is our native Vargan cuisine not to your liking?"

"Oh no—it's de…delicious!" Addie exclaimed quickly, not wanting to offend. Her words were coming out a bit slurry, but she hoped he wouldn't notice. "It's jusht, I mean just that I had a really big meal before coming here," she added weakly. "I'm so shorry. I mean sorry—I don't mean to give offense. I didn't know we'd be going to a feasht. A feast , I mean."

"No, of course not. Please don't give it another thought," Sambla said smoothly. "But even though you haven't had much for dinner, I'm sure you're going to love dessert! Look, here come the servers now."

Addie turned to look over her shoulder, hoping against hope that there would be a least one menu item that was not based on blood in any way. She really needed to put something solid in her stomach to soak up all the alcohol she'd been drinking!

Sadly, she was disappointed—though she didn't know it at first. When the server placed a gorgeous little pie, complete with a crispy, golden crust sprinkled with sparkly sugar crystals in front of her, she clapped her hands in delight.

"Oh good—this looks delicious!" She smiled at Sambla and eagerly dug in, breaking the perfect crust with the tines of her fork-like instrument.

But as the crust cracked, blood began to well up out of it and drip gruesomely onto the white plate the pie had been placed on.

Addie could barely contain her disappointment.

"Oh, no!" she sighed unhappily, putting down her knife and fork. It seemed so unfair that she was being fed a totally blood-based diet. The Kindred had never imposed such weird dietary standards on Lx Sambla when he visited the Mother Ship!

Speaking of Sambla, he was looking at her anxiously.

"What is it, lovely one?" he asked. "Is the blood pie not to your liking?"

"Oh no, ish wonerful!" Addie slurred quickly. "It's jusht that…that I really can't afford to eat it. I mean, because of the, um, diet I'm on, you know." She patted her stomach and grimaced apologetically.

"Ah, I see." Lx Sambla nodded. "Well don't worry—I'm sure your diet will work eventually. In the meantime, there's simply more of you to love."

Addie didn't know how to feel about this backhanded compliment but luckily the feast seemed to be coming to an end. People were finishing their desserts and pushing the bloody pie plates away. Then the three old women on the Council of Aged Ones rose from their padded bench at the end of the table.

"Will all the eligible, un-bonded young women please meet us at the doorway of the Room of Sighs?" Ls Prissa asked, her voice coming out sounding loud and strong and surprisingly young considering her obvious age. "The Council of Aged Ones will be picking which of you will be in the Choosing Ceremony in just a few moments."

Finally—the Choosing Ceremony! Addie thought.

She just hoped that she was sober enough to observe and remember afterward for the paper she wanted to write.