The Mistress of the Jewels — Diana L. Paxson

SHE WOULD BE QUEEN . . . BUT SHE REFUSED TO BE A SORCERESS

The Master of the Junipers looked into the innocent face of the future Queen and spoke softly.

"The mind rules all. Were it not for our belief, this world of forms would not exist at all. You must know this if you are to wield the Jewels."

"I won't . . . I must not wield them. . . ." she replied, thinking with a shiver of her guarded secret, the terrifying intimations of inner power that had tormented her as a child. "Such things should not be meddled with. You cannot understand--there are dark things in me that would he too powerful...."

"No!" The Master's eyes were bright. "Don't you understand? The power that you fear is not darkness, but light...."