Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
I just want the family I’ve been dreaming of. That’s all. I would give up every dress, every ring, and bracelet, and earring to get that.
But that’s not to say that I can’t enjoy the time I have left.
So I strip off my finery, wash up, and by the time I’m stepping out of the shower my lady’s maid has arrived to sparkle me back up.
CHAPTER TWO
Matron Bell, my auntie, is angry with me. I know this because of the way she directs those dark, pitted eyes of hers in my direction every time I so much as make a whisper of noise during our tour of the Maiden Tower. She pulled me aside this morning and gave me a long, boring lecture on how I am not here to enjoy myself, I am here to do a job, and if I embarrass her, or any of the other Matrons, there will be severe consequences.
I controlled my urge to roll my eyes during that lecture—mostly because she was looming over me like a bitter matriarch—but here, in this great hall, and among the other Little Sisters, I do not have the fortitude.
The eye-roll wasn’t meant for Clara Birch, but it’s aimed in her direction on the stairwell above me when it comes out.
She flashes me a disapproving look and then turns and continues her way up into the tower. As she is number nine, she has a long climb.
As a newly minted Little Sister, I will be housed in the dorm with the other seventy-four girls who just made it past the First Choosing. And even though I understand that I am here to do a job, I can hardly contain my excitement.
Technically, this is the second Choosing, but the first one happens internally, done by the Matrons and not by the Extraction Master, so it’s not officially a Choosing, merely a whittling down.
Every Extraction year comes with hundreds of Pledges, little girls who all made an initial vow to the god when they were twelve. This is the official beginning of service. Then, each year thereafter, the Pledges make that same vow again.
Lots of girls drop out before they ever reach the age of Extraction. But still, there were three hundred and twenty-seven of age Pledges during this initial whittling down.
One hundred of us got through to the next level. And even though we weren’t yet in the dorms, all one hundred of us were presented to the Extraction Master—Aldo Scott—three days ago and this morning seventy-five names were called out on the Tower stage.
That’s us. The official Little Sisters for the one-hundred-and-twenty-first Extraction.
Three weeks from now there will be another Choosing and twenty-five girls will move out of the dorm and then there will be fifty left.
These fifty will spend the next three weeks getting ready for the next Choosing that will leave a lean twenty-five.
The final Choosing is the one everyone shows up for. The whole city shuts down for three days and there is a carnival, and feasts, and galas, and finally, standing on the tower stage, the top ten are announced and number one is sent through the doors and the nine left over are awarded gigantic, luxurious Maiden Tower apartments, and a yearly stipend that no Maiden in the history of the Extraction has ever managed to spend. There is an endless supply of expertly crafted handmade gowns and dresses, the best perfumes and lingerie, and more eligible men to go out on the town with than anyone could ever hope to choose from.
Most Maidens find their future husbands during this time. Clara Birch was an exception, since she was already in love with Finn Scott. But even if she didn’t officially date the men she spent her evenings with, she still went out with them. It’s required.
But Clara never got close to the men. And everyone in the city talks about how Finn Scott is waiting for his one true love to be released from the god’s service, oohing and ahing over them like their love is so special. As if they’ve been celibate. Come on. We all know Clara and Finn have the occasional tryst and from the mussed-up, just-fucked look of Clara Birch’s hair it’s pretty clear where she just came from.
“Jasina!”
My head snaps to attention. “Yes!”
Matron Bell, my auntie, claps her hands as she yells. “Keep up!”
The group started to move on while I was daydreaming, so they are all a couple dozen steps ahead of me now.
I nod, bowing my head a little—“Yes, Matron”—then scurry to catch up with the group.
The Little Sister dorm is a hotly-guarded secret. It’s here on the ground level on the Maiden Tower, but it has its own four-story wing that is locked and empty at all times, except for the three months out of every decade when it is filled with Little Sisters for the Choosing. All growing up, us hopefuls have dreamed of the day when we move into the tower.