Star Thief by Robin Kristoff

Author:Robin Kristoff [Kristoff, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mountain Horse Press
Published: 2017-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

From the Tales of Gavin Gaynesworth

…When Gavin returned from the Dawn Caves with his gift, he went at once to his love’s tomb. With a touch, Amelia opened her eyes and arose as though from a long sleep. She blinked her lovely blue eyes at Gavin, and his heart warmed with happiness. If you think, listeners, that you have felt love before, I assure you that you’ve not felt a tenth what Gavin felt in that moment, for at last his lady love was his to marry, though he’d gone to the ends of the earth to keep her.

For a month after their wedding, the two lived in bliss. Never were two people happier to have won one another. Despite Amelia’s scars, there were some who would say a bride was never more beautiful, so brightly did she glow with happiness. Certainly there was never a man as well-contented as Gavin in those fleeting days.

Then one day Amelia posed a question to her new husband. He had brought her back from the dead, she said. Could he not do the same for her sister, who had died three years before as a girl of ten?

‘To give a child a second life’, Gavin thought, ‘is surely a worthy use of the gift I’ve won from the Dawn Caves’. And it was done. And a prettier, more joyful child never set foot to this earth as Katrin when she awoke to live again.

The story of the great sorcerer who could awaken the dead quickly spread through the land. Bereaved parents, siblings, children, lovers, and friends traveled for miles to kneel at Gavin’s feet and ask his help.

Gavin, ever kind, pitied each of these people sincerely. He had only to think of his feelings when he’d lost Amelia to recognize these people’s pain. Though wary of abusing his gift, he could not deny them. One family after another was joyfully, tearfully reunited by his hand, until hundreds of the once-dead walked again among the living.

At first the Mother rejoiced in the reunited families, home and hearth being her first interests. As Gavin stole more and more people from the gods’ Peaceful Lands, however, the Mother, the Sun Lord, and the Night God all grew jealous of the souls lost from their common care. The mortal Gavin, they all agreed, was stepping well beyond his place.

The great gods united, and in one stroke they touched Gavin with death. A healthy young man, Gavin died instantly by the gods’ will, and from death he could not save himself. One by one, the three great gods touched each of those Gavin had taken from the Peaceful Lands. All died quietly, returning peacefully to the realm of the dead. Only Amelia was spared. Although Gavin had not led a wicked life, his prideful use of his power earned him the punishment of separation from his lady once again.

Gavin recognized his wrongs. The power of life and death had not been meant for him, he knew. That power rightly rested with the great gods.

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