James Axler – Starfall

“Ah, if you will pardon the seemingly insensitive nature of my asking,” the old man went on, “but that begs the question of how such a society handles…procreation.”

“They fuck like regular people,” Elmore said. “Got the same equipment as any woman, and some of them are downright attractive. Only they don’t like it so much. And there’s a price they pay.”

“What price?” Ryan asked.

“There’s a few stories,” Elmore said, “and I don’t know if any of them are truth. But some say the Chosen only keep their powers as long as they keep their knees locked. First time she ruts with a man, she doesn’t have her powers anymore.”

“Then why fuck?” Ryan asked.

“Got to have more Chosen.” Elmore grinned. “Other­wise they’d have run out of members a long time ago. I’ve heard they have some kind of gathering. A council, mebbe, somebody told me. They judge who’s worthy and who’s not worthy. The ones mebbe ain’t so worthy, they become breeding stock.”

“Oh, dear God,” Mary whimpered, drawing in close to her husband.

Elmore turned to the woman and nodded. “Yes, ma’am, that’s the kind of bitch you were trying to protect. But it gets worse. See, the Chosen capture men from time to time. Bring them into special camps quarterly, and have them lay with all the women selected as breeding stock. Takes place four times a year, based on the moon cycles.”

“The equinoxes and solstices,” Doc said.

“Don’t know about that,” Elmore replied, “but if you’re talking about summer, spring, fall and winter, that’s them.”

“You know what kind of women we’re talking about here, don’t you, friend Ryan?” Doc asked. “The noble bard wrote about them a number of times, and their ap­pearances were never to the good. Yon woman is a witch!”

Chapter Nine

“I’ve heard some call them that,” Elmore admitted. “But don’t you dare call one of them that to their face. I’ve heard they curse you, put a hex on you that can give a man any­thing from a few days’ worth of rotten stomach to outright death. They’re just the Chosen.”

“What happens men who breed?” Jak asked. “Mebbe find one, talk him.”

Ryan thought it sounded like a good plan, and he was aggravated he didn’t think it through as clearly as the al­bino. But his head was still too jumbled from all the prob­lems they had facing them. Leaving the junkyard fort with­out getting chilled was one of the biggest.

“They don’t get away,” Elmore said. “They get through using him, the Chosen sacrifice him. See, there’s a purifi­cation process they go through to make sure his seed’s ready before he puts his crank in any of them.” He glanced at the women in the group. “Sorry if I’ve offended any­body. Just telling it how it is.”

“In exactly what manner do they purify them?” Doc asked.

“Don’t know. I just know that by purifying the man, the Chosen make sure the get of that fucking receives the pow­ers of the Chosen. And that more’n likely it’ll be a she-get rather than a he-get.”

“And if the baby is a boy?” Mildred asked.

“They hold on to it,” Elmore said, “till the next big quarterly meeting. A week, three months, whichever it is. Then they have another sacrifice, this one supposedly more pleasing to whatever they pray to than anything else. After all, it’s part of themselves they’re offering up.”

“Monsters,” Mary hissed from her side of the room.

“Men make mockeries of us,” Phlorin said weakly. “And you sit there, so weak. You hang on to that man beside you, and you never think to try to have your own life. You wait for old age to claim you and never realize your true station in this life. Women are bound to this world. Our cycles are like those of the moon, which affects everything on this world. Men are abominations, put here by the dark forces that rule the shadows. Men only know the hunger that stays forever in their bellies and their loins. Their imagination is only desire misnamed. Their lust has no conscience.”

“You mean a hard dick has no conscience,” Elmore said.