Mistake
Disclaimer: Salome, Stardrifter, Riverstar, and their world belong to Sara Douglass, my favourite Australian fantasy writer.
Notes: Massive spoilers for Sara Douglas' new series 'Darkglass Mountain'. What really grabbed me and made me care about this world again was the character of Salome. Selfish, amoral, always gets up after she's knocked down, and strikes sparks with every male (and female) in the vicinity. Yep, I may read the rest of the series just to find out what happens to her.
Salome reminds Stardrifter of Riverstar.
It's in the purse of her lips when she's crossed, the way she ruffles her hair, the sneer when she's feeling particularly superior. Both women had flaunted their sexuality, using it as a weapon to hammer their opponents into submission. Salome's more disciplined than her predecessor, but no less effective in her seductions.
Unlike Riverstar, Salome understands that are many levels of seduction, and that not all lead to sex. Stardrifter watches her gentle courtship of the future Lady Evenfall, and smiles to himself. He watches her hand on Axis' wrist and fights a frown.
Yes, Salome is what Riverstar could have been were she challenged rather than indulged, intrigued rather than bored.
How much of Riverstar's teasing, he wonders, had been frustrated ambition? All of Axis' and Azhure's children – with the exception of Isfrael and Caleum – had held an ambiguous status at court, neither part of the power structure, nor entirely free of it's influence. They had been the spares, granted no responsibilities nor powers of their own.
Small wonder that Riverstar had been bored and frustrated, and struck out with the only weapon she'd had. Small wonder too, that she'd picked the Starson to seduce, playing for the most powerful marriage she could attain whilst trampling all manner of tradition and custom in the process. He can picture Salome doing the same, playing politics with wicked skill, savouring the scandal.
He wonders now if he had chosen the wrong granddaughter after all. Rather than chasing after Zenith, who was sweet and kind and only needed him as a doting grandfather, he should have succumbed to Riverstar, who was Sunsoar and eager and just as selfish as he. They would have clashed, but it would have been magnificent, and she would not have turned to her own brother for the Sunsoar blood she craved. She would not have been murdered.
These days, Stardrifter holds Salome close. He will not make the same mistake twice.