Starside novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Summons

"Who did you run to?" I said.

We were out of the ring by then, and the fifteen duels were over.

Fifteen challengers had been carried off the glass.

Marek had melted into the crowd with his cheek bleeding.

Tilda had survived her duel when the sailor tripped over his own feet.

I had hugged her and sent her off with her silent Warden.

Then I had marched Dain into a narrow gully between two dark hills.

"Answer me."

"Rule two," he said.

I stared at him.

"You said nothing about Emberfold until the Pool. I'm keeping it. It's the only promise you've let me make."

"That's not an answer."

"I know."

"He said you ran to someone!"

"I know what he said." His voice cracked on it. "Sorrel, I can't. I'm asking you to hate me a little longer."

"I don't need to be asked."

The cord went white-hot around both our wrists, and Dain gasped and went down on one knee.

Silver light poured through the gully from the sky.

It wasn't a voice this time. It was a pull, so strong that it dragged us both forward over the stones, ten paces, twenty, to the mouth of a hollow.

I threw myself behind a boulder at the very end of the cord's reach.

Dain didn't look back.

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