THE MOREVA OF ASTORETH
Author: Roxanne Bland
Publisher: Blackrose Press
Pages: 607
Genre: Science Fiction
Author: Roxanne Bland
Publisher: Blackrose Press
Pages: 607
Genre: Science Fiction
Moreva Tehi, scientist, healer, priestess
of the Goddess of Love and three-quarters god, is a bigot. She hates the hakoi
who are the Temple’s slaves. When she misses an important ritual because the
enslaved hakoi are participants, her grandmother, the Goddess Astoreth,
punishes her by exiling her for a year from her beloved southern desert home to
the far north village of Mjor in the Syren Perritory, (where the hakoi are
free) to steward Astoreth’s landing beacon. But Astoreth forbids her from
taking with her scientific research on red fever, a devastating scourge that
afflicts the hakoi. She does so, anyway.
The first Mjoran she meets is Laerd Teger,
the hakoi chief of the village, who appears to hate her. She also meets Hyme,
the hakoi village healer, and much to Moreva Tehi’s surprise, they form a fast
friendship. This friendship forces her to set upon a spiritual journey to
confront her bigotry. While doing so, she falls in love with Laerd Teger, who
returns her love. She eventually has a revelation about the meaning of love,
and rids herself of her bigotry. And she develops a cure for red fever, and is
the first healer to do so.
But there is a price for her love for
Laerd Teger, and that is her certain execution by the Goddess Astoreth upon her
return home because she has broken her sacred vows. But then, through Laerd
Teger, she learns a terrible secret about her gods, that they are not gods at
all, but aliens, and rather than being part god, she is part alien. Her world
destroyed, she turns on Laerd Teger for showing her the truth. They eventually
reconcile. But there is still the problem about her love for Laerd Teger.
Astoreth will know what she has done and will execute her. She formulates a
plan, involving the erasure of her memory, in which she will bargain for her
life by giving Astoreth the formula for red fever. Astoreth agrees. For
breaking her vows and disobeying a direct order not to take her red fever
research to Mjor, Astoreth strips her of her morevic status and exiles her
again to Mjor. Back in Mjor, she recovers her memory and sends the red fever
formula to Astoreth. Now freed from the constraints of being a Moreva, Tehi and
Teger embark on a new life together.
