11

The other Sisters are tense around us, silently undoing their braids. Their naked bodies glowing in the candlelight scattered throughout the carved stone room. On the walls there is a huge statue of our Mother Goddess — with open arms to welcome us — and statues of the most important Mothers and Sisters. Those who were exceptionally gifted. Until the first, Sonna, there at the altar. She is mentioned in almost all ancient books as “she who was carved by the Goddess”. The first to possess magic in her blood, the gift, the power. It looks scary to me from where I'm sitting, holding a huge bouquet of flowers in one arm and a dagger in the other. The books say that she fought alongside men. They say she saw the future in the blood of her enemies, in the fire that burned their bodies. She helped the northern clans retake Pontis Maari when it was invaded by the island people. And she was my age when she did it.

None of us were raised to be a warrior like Sonna.

I know how to use a knife and