The Childmaster
an excerpt

The Childmaster entered, draped in darkness, his gloves like claws, his black mask showing no eyes, just glistening glass lenses, the dark fabric billowing like a cloud of spilled coffee. The Childmaster advanced, sucking out all of her happiness, all of her hope, all of the memories that she could have made with her nephew. He advanced into the room and the guests slightly pushed back, like they could sense that this man was a taker, not a giver.
She shook herself, pushing the dark thoughts out of her head. This was ridiculous, the Childmasters were surrogate parents, teachers, doctors, those nurturers of us all. Even the algae said that today would be a glorious joyous day and she trusted them. She looked over at her little nephew, bundled into a white outfit, and reminded herself that she needed to trust the algae. She looked back at the dark man and his lackey, pushing the glimmering space ship into the outer pod and looked for the love inside him.
She could see love, it shined like water, pooled through his motions, he was a good man and she put her trust in the Childmaster.
She held out a tray. “Nibbles, my Childmaster?”
He pushed the tray aside, his voice sounding strangely artificial. “No. Where is the child?” He waved Docent’s sister forward with one hand, and his lackey with the other.
Docent’s sister arrived at the same time as the lackey and the loving Childmaster stood in the center of the outer pod. The neighbors surrounding them, the small ship on one side, the squirming little boy on the other.
The Childmaster’s sleeves billowed as he took Jaythew. “This child is honored.” He said, taking Jaythew and putting him inside the small ship. The cockpit closed and the lackey turned to go.
“Wait.” Questa had such a bad feeling about this. “What about the blessing?”
The Childmaster turned. “You and your family, may you be blessed.” He turned to leave again, giving the small ship a gentle push.
Questa frowned. Something wasn’t right. For one thing, she could still hear Jaythew inside the small ship, and the Childmaster was going towards the outer hatch, towards the outside bay. Normally the Childmasters took the fuel coil to the food preparation station, to dump the waste fuel and prepare the feast for the guests. “What about the feast?”
“I will return soon and prepare it. Now move, woman.” The Childmaster suddenly turned cold, and she pulled back on the nearest hand hold.
The Childmaster and his lackey pushed the small ship out of the door with haste, she had never seen a Childmaster move so quickly.
Jaythew was still crying inside the bowels of the ship, and Questa turned to the wall to hide her tears.
She cried in silence for just a few seconds, when her mind was taken off her sorrow by a susurration that moved through the crowd. The neighbors seemed surprised, and she turned to see what was causing their gasps.
It was another Childmaster. He had two lackeys and a brilliant silver teardrop shaped small spaceship behind him. “I come for the child Jaythew, to bring him to the glorious honor of serving the Temple of the Spirit.”
This Childmaster had a deep voice, and his cloak was not so billowy. Docent’s mother came up to him. “What do you mean? The Childmaster was already here and he took my son! We are waiting for him to come back and prepare the feast!” Her eyes were big with confusion.