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My eyes drooped and my shoulders fell I touched my sisters’ bellies with affection and sorrow “And I ao with you”
“Pangiota” Legiota’s eyes softened and creased their corners, trying to entle as she could “You are the least of us Never has the Serpent-Star seen you or touched you; she only knows of you as our sister You only speak, and she does not care for human speech For the Sorella, you are vital; for the Serpent, you do not exist And the Stars have determined that the Sorella should be broken”
These words hit me like a bellow of hot wind—but I knew the, only a mouthpiece, a mute pipe into whichhow siota threw her ar ears to my lips It was an intimacy we three rarely shared, the touch of lash to lip and lobe
“We will go; we love our god as w
e love you But we have decided together that we cannot let the Sorella pass fro out a path which would allow us to stay with you, to stay Sorella, and to birth another three which will carry on our memory past the death of the Star No caravan should be left blind and deaf, iota s silver blade with a handle of bone
“What has been ours will be yours, Pangiota We will cut out our eyes and ears and give them to you to s The poill be passed to you, all the Sorella in one body And you will leave the caravan, you will leave the horses whose so into a city covered in a dome of roses, and there you ait for the beast to cry out to you I have seen this already; I have seen you walking under white petals” Legiota’s eyes gleareen torches in the dark
“You will s the child of the beast as you will s our flesh, and bear the creature within you like your own daughter In this o races will be saved, and the three of us will be always together, beyond the death of the Star We will go into seclusion, and you will go into the wicked city, and give birth to us over again” Magiota stroked her ears quietly
“I do not understand,” I cried, unwilling to devour e words
“Of course not, of course not, but you will Prophecy is such a difficult thing, but we know that there is no other way to preserve the Sorella, and ill not refuse the call of the Serpent”
Oh, hohile I watched theery before ed it into her belly—it entered her with the sickening slick sound of a finger passed through running water—and slowly cut her sacred ears fro out quietly as she worked She tried to keep her sht; I retched in a corner of the cave while her whiiota carved out her eyes next, never allowing herself to ed as a torn dress, and her hands when I turned back to them were shiny and ith blood
They placed the lu out an exquisite cake for their lady Both still bled, yet they s my hair with alirls together They pulled the long sheaves of hair aside and put their arans cooled and died I screa in the rocky chah ere surrounded by a chorus of shrieking ghosts They hushed h my screams I seized the bloody clu, sing, gagging again I forced it down led with their blood until all I could taste was salt
It was quiet afterwards
I lay on the cool rock and they lay overon our skin like paint We lay like lovers, tangled together in pain and sorrow Legiota pushed the matted hair from my ear and said:
“Noill never leave you; you are all of us, and you will go on We will leave the world; you will go into its stea heart But reuide the caravan, the ramshackle train of kindred that crawls over the face of the earth, scrabbling at the dirt for fruit, scrabbling at the skies for revelation When the beast has gone from the city and you have done your duty by her, you must be Sorella for all the caravans, and perform our duty for them They will come to you, and you must see for them, and hear for theo into the city, wear their threads and not your own, but when you have finished your ain into our holy dress We will be with you, inside you, and ill love you for all the days of this body”
With these words, Legiota and Magiota laid their heads on ht, rising like steam to join the Serpent in seclusion