Starside novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Voice

The ring was a floor of black glass a hundred paces across, with the sky pressed low above it.

Thirty of us stood around its edge.

The orchard had cost us one more, and nobody said who.

Dain stood a pace behind me with his burned shoulder bound under his coat, and he didn't speak.

Neither did I.

The cord between us lay slack, and I felt every inch of it.

Tilda was in the crowd across the ring, holding her Warden's sleeve in both hands.

She caught my eye and mouthed something.

I think it was, you're alive.

Then the clouds above the ring drew back, and a face looked down at us.

It was enormous and it was beautiful.

She looked about forty, with silver-white hair that floated around her head and pale eyes that took in all of us at once.

Her smile was kind.

I had been ready for a monster, and it was the kindness I couldn't stand.

"My brave ones," said Maelis, goddess of Starside. "You have walked so far. Look at you. I am so proud."

A few of the challengers actually bowed their heads.

I kept mine up.

"I am sorry for the dead," the goddess said gently. "The river is cold and the orchard is cruel. But the Pool does not give itself to everyone. It asks for the ones who are willing to stand last."

She lifted one white hand, and thirty names appeared in the air in letters of light.

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