Starside novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Gate Closes

The ground shook under the basin, and nobody was looking at Maelis anymore.

They were looking at the far horizon, where a thin gray wall was sliding up out of the plain.

"It's the Gate," said the man who hadn't touched the water. "It's shutting. We'll be stuck here."

"We will not," said a woman near the front, and her voice shook. "Not if she drinks."

Her eyes came to me.

I knew that look.

I had seen it on the boy's face at the ford when the water rose, the look of someone who has found a way out and doesn't care who pays.

"Maelis said the one who wins gets a wish," said the man. "Nobody has to win. Somebody only has to put her in."

"Stay back," Dain said.

He stepped in front of me with his wrapped feet apart and his hand on his sword.

"You're her Warden," said the woman. "You'll give us a clean fight, won't you? Or will you break the rule again?"

"Try me."

Four challengers and their Wardens came across the black rock at once.

I had known Wardens only as men who watched.

They were not watching now.

Dain took the first one down with his shoulder and the second with the flat of his blade, and a third Warden seized him from behind by the collar.

I threw my elbow back into someone's ribs and heard it crack.

Hands closed on my arms.

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