Starside novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Dain's Night

Dain's POV

I got the root out of my coat before Tilda's head hit the ground.

Every Warden carries one. It's the only mercy the goddess allows us.

It was black and bitter and as long as my finger.

I forced it between her blue lips and held her jaw shut until she swallowed.

Sorrel was on her knees beside me, with her hands under the girl's head and her voice breaking on the name.

"Tilda. Tilda, look at me."

"She'll live," I said. "She had a mouthful, not a cup. It would have killed you."

"I know what it would have done."

She didn't look at me.

Tilda's Warden carried her to a healer's tent at the edge of the market.

Sorrel followed, and I followed her because the cord gave me no choice.

I stood outside in the lantern light, twenty paces from the tent flap, and heard her talk quietly to a girl who couldn't answer.

She talked for an hour.

Then she came out with her eyes dry and her jaw set.

We walked a long way in the dark until I found a hollow under a fallen rib.

Nothing could see us from above.

She lay down on her left side without a word.

She didn't look at me at all.

I sat with my back against the bone.

I kept the cord loose across my knees and watched her breathing even out.

It took a long time.

Five years ago she had slept in my arms with her whole body curled around mine.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Starside from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.