Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66405 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66405 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
“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.