Starside novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Goddess

Sorrel's POV

She was taller than I had pictured, and she looked kind.

That was the worst of it.

Her hair fell silver-white past her waist, and her eyes were pale and warm, and she held her hands loosely in front of her.

I stood with the sky still black and the cord cold on my wrist.

"Maelis," I said.

"Sorrel Aldane." She tasted my name and smiled. "Your mother said it just like that, and she meant it as a curse."

Dain was on his feet beside me, swaying on his wrapped soles.

He bowed his head to her.

I hit him in the arm.

"Don't."

"It's the oath," he said through his teeth. "It bends my neck. I can't help it."

"I'm not fond of watching him struggle," Maelis said. "Dain, my dear, you may be still."

The silver on his chest flared under his shirt, and he went down on one knee with a grunt.

I stepped in front of him.

"You burned my village," I said.

"I did nothing of the kind."

"You said, 'It was one of mine.'"

"It was." She tilted her head. "You were one of mine, child. I made your mother's line to carry my fire, in the long ago, when the Pool first began to dim. That house in Emberfold was a seed bed. You were the best of the crop."

My breath went out of me.

"The fire in your blood is starfire," she said. "It's the only thing that lights my Pool. Every fifty years I open the Gate and wait to see who comes, and every time it's a fool with a sword and a wish, and none of them burn."

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