Under Different Stars

by Amy A. Bartol

  “Home schooling?” I wrinkle my nose at him. “How am I supposed to make friends?” I watch the footmen delivering bowls of soup and placing them on the plates in front of us. “Thank you,” I say to the footman, seeing him smile.

  “You will make friends with the other priestesses,” Kyon remarks.

  “I prefer to choose my own friends. Anyway, I’ll be here in the Isle of Skye, so it may be difficult to see Alameeda priestesses unless they come to visit me.” My mouth waters from the aroma of the soup, but I wait for the Regent to pick up one of his spoons. He chooses the one located on the top of the place setting. I take that one, too, but wait for the Regent to dip it in his soup. Relieved to see that they eat soup like I do, I begin to eat.

  “Fay Kricket is very independent,” Trey says from across the table. “We had a difficult time convincing her to come home, but without her cooperation we may not have made it here safely.”

  “Yes, I read the report…it was fascinating,” Manus says, looking me over again. “Did you really run from a saer?”

  I shrug, “It was lucky for us that there were two of them.” I watch as the Narc chokes on his soup.

  Em Nark sputters, “Your Cavars put an Alameeda priestess at undue risk!”

  “Oh, I’m fine,” I reply lightly. “The saers ate the spixes.” A round of coughing comes from the footmen in the room as they all struggle to keep their faces straight. Jax and Wayra are having trouble with the same thing.

  “Did you know they would eat the spixes?” Em Nark asks me, his blue eyes narrowing slyly.

  “Yes,” I say, watching his eyes dart to Kyon’s at my side, and then I add, “the saer had the spix in its mouth, it was quite obvious about its intentions.” My comment causes the Narc’s face to droop in disappointment.

  “We appreciate that you were able to locate our subject for us. We’re quite in your debt, Haut Manus,” the Narc says, running his hand through his blond hair.

  “My mother, I am told, was an expatriate of Alameeda,” I say, before sipping the water in my glass. “Didn’t she choose to live in Rafe for…political reasons?” I ask, watching him.

  “She was never an émigré. She was taken from us by force by your father.” The Narc lies.

  “So you threatened Rafe citizens because she was being held against her will?” I shift my gaze toward the Regent who’s waiting for the Narc to respond.

  “That is so,” he lies again, looking a little sweaty.

  I smile sweetly. “And now you are here to rescue her daughter?”

  “Yes,” he replies, his eyes meeting Kyon’s before finding mine again. “You’re Alameeda. You belong with our people. We…”

  “You what?” I prompt him, taking another sip of water.

  “We can take care of you properly.”

  “Am I not being properly looked after?” I ask him, a small smile on my lips. “My guardian is the Regent. I reside in a palace. I have Regent police for escorts.”

  “They cannot help you to utilize the gifts that you will develop,” the Narc replies, he looks to Kyon and Em Sam for help.

  “No, I don’t think that’s it at all,” I say, watching a footman take my bowl away and replace it with an entrée from a hovering tray that is gliding along in the air next to him.

  “How do you see it, Fay Kricket?” Manus asks me, watching my look of fascination as the hovering tray continues to follow the footman around the table.

  “Uh, well…if I remain here, wouldn’t it be more difficult for the Alameeda to utilize my gifts?” I ask him innocently. “They can’t let the rat escape the lab, can they? It could infect more rats…and then their other rats won’t be so very special now, will they?” Watching Em Nark’s face redden as his eyes widen, I take a bite of the savory meat dish placed in front of me. “Oh my gosh, Trey…did you taste this? What is it? It’s sooo good!” I grin at Trey and a smile crosses his lips in response.

  “You don’t want to risk another international incident,” Kyon remarks softly to the Regent.

  “Why would the international community be involved with the custody of a Rafe citizen?” Trey asks Kyon.

  “She’s an Alameeda subject,” Kyon replies with his eyes narrowing.

  “Ateur Victus” I say, looking at Trey’s twin. “What are the extradition rights afforded to someone like me? Someone with a dual citizenship?”

  “You’re not a criminal,” he says. “This is more a family court situation—it’s custody because you’re a minor.”

  “Your family in Alameeda will petition the court for custody of you. You have an aunt—your mother’s sister—who would like to meet you,” Kyon says.

  “I’d like to meet her, too.” Something lurches in my stomach at the knowledge that I have family that wants to know me. But, if I go to Alameeda, I would belong to Kyon. “Victus, if I were a criminal, could I seek political asylum?”

  “Of course…” he looks puzzled.

  “So, if I felt that I could be prosecuted in Alameeda for violating their laws regarding Earth, I could seek asylum here, in Rafe courts?” I ask.

  A cunning smile creeps over Victus’ face, making him look just like Trey, “Yes, I believe you could, Kricket.”

  “Crystal,” I breathe.

  Em Nark looks like he’s eating sand as he chews his food, glaring at me across the table. Kyon is as stiff as a board, but the rest of the table is quite relaxed.

  The Regent asks Trey, Wayra, and Jax questions about their time on Earth. I listen while Trey outlines their methods of tracking down my parents. They had used facial recognition software to scan news articles on the Internet. Their web crawlers finally located my parent’s obituary in the Chicago Tribune. The same article had featured a picture of me. A well-intentioned neighbor had placed it there in hopes of locating some family for me so that I wouldn’t become a victim of the child welfare system.

  Trey watches me across the table as he says, “I infiltrated the Chicago Department of Social Services and located intake pictures of Kricket. I used those pictures along with facial recognition software to look for her on the Internet. I found her on Enrique’s Facebook page.”

  I blanch. Enrique and his stupid camera phone!

  “We located Enrique quite easily and he led us to Kricket,” Trey says and for a second I think I hear a hint of guilt in his tone, but it doesn’t show on his face.

  “Have you been monitoring the situation on Earth?” Manus asks.

  Trey nods, “I have the report from Skye detailing the latest developments. The authorities on Earth are no longer treating Kricket’s disappearance as abduction. She’s been ruled a runaway.

  “Show us the report,” Manus orders.

  Trey glances at me and I incline my head covertly. I want to see what’s been happening with my case. I need to study everything about their methods of detection so that I can learn to avoid it in the future.

  Trey says, “This was intercepted from Earth yesterday. Initiate hologram.” He uses words and phrases that sound like complete gibberish to me. The only words I really recognize are “Enrique Rodriguez and Bridget Moreno.” Instantly, miniature life-like figures of Enrique and Bridget appear between Em Nark and me. As I look down the table toward the other end, the same six-inch figures appear at different intervals so that everyone seated has a clear view of them.

  Bridget is next to Enrique and Hipster Michael is behind her with his hand on her shoulder. They’re standing near a small podium filled with microphones. Bridget looks like she’s been crying a lot, but she’s not crying right now. She’s like me; she’ll try really hard not to in front of strangers. A picture of me is on the front of Enrique’s shirt beneath his black leather jacket. He must really like me because he’d never be caught dead in that shirt otherwise.

  “I have a statement,” Enrique says and his face blanches as flashes strobe him from reporter’s cameras. “The police may have ruled this as a runaway, but I’m here today to say that they’re wrong. All the evi
dence points to this being an abduction and we’re not gonna stop until this ruling is changed, the case is reopened, and Kricket is found.”

  A reporter’s voice from somewhere in front of him asks, “Hasn’t Kricket shown a history of running away?”

  Enrique frowns, “Yes, but she was only running away from social services. She wasn’t trying to hide from us.”

  “Are you her boyfriend? Did you two have a fight?” Someone else asks.

  “No! We were friends!” Enrique says. “She and I didn’t fight!”

  “Why do you think she would run away?” is the next question from the reporters.

  Bridget’s face becomes a mask of rage, “He just told you that she didn’t run away, you stupid rábo! Don’t you listen?”

  Manus laughs. “Who is that one?”

  “The roommate,” Trey replies. I watch Enrique field a dozen more questions, each one tailored to make me look like I ran away. “She has been living with her boyfriend since Kricket disappeared. It seems like it may be a permanent arrangement.”

  “What about the other one,” Manus asks. “Will he be a problem?”

  “He’s puny,” Kyon says quietly to me in disgust. “What problems could he cause?”

  My eyes narrow in anger. “You don’t know anything. His heart is bigger than you.”

  “He won’t be a problem,” Trey assures Manus. “We left him no trail to follow.”

  The hologram ends and my friends fade away like they were never there. When the conversation turns to our time in the Forest of Omnicron, the Regent laughs heartily as Wayra tells them how I stood up to the Comantre Syndics.

  “So, there we were,” Wayra says animatedly, “all of us Cavars on our knees with blue beams dotting the front of our uniforms, and this tiny Etharian is facing down the entire unit, raging at us for losing her luggage and telling us that we ruined her holiday in the Forest of O!” The entire room erupts in laughter except for Kyon and the Narc who both look truly ill.

  Leaning near my ear, Kyon asks, “You pretended to be Trey’s consort?” He looks outwardly calm, but his tone is deadly.

  “Yes, and I was quite good at it, too,” I reply, seeing his jaw clench more. “Does that bother you?” I ask, my eyebrow arching.

  “As your intended, it does,” he utters softly, his eyes falling on my cleavage again. “If I wasn’t aware that you’re still a virgin, I might have had him beaten.”

  A severe blush flushes my face. “How do you know my status?” I take a quick sip of my water to try to cool the heat of embarrassment.

  “I read your medical records provided to us by the Regent’s physicians…it was quite thorough,” he says, smiling at my apparent discomfort. “They did a body scan while you were with them. Everything is…intact.”

  Feeling violated, I want to wipe that smirk off his face. “The funny thing about that state is that it’s easily changed,” I reply. Seeing his eyebrows draw together, I smile.

  “Be very careful, Kricket. Should that status change, I will kill the one who changes it.” He’s telling the truth. “You don’t know what you’re doing, do you?”

  “I’m controlling my destiny,” I say softly, looking into his blue eyes.

  “No, you are sealing your fate,” he disagrees with a sinister edge to his voice. “We don’t let our rats go. We hunt them down and exterminate them if they fail to cooperate,” he explains, reaching out and touching my cheek lightly. “I’d hate to see that happen to you, especially when I find you so appealing.”

  “What do you want?” I ask with fear threading through me.

  “It’s not what I want, it’s what we both want. Think of this as the beginning of a symbiotic relationship.”

  “How is that possible, when we are the same species,” I counter.

  A grin forms on his lips. “Are we? That is debatable. I haven’t the gifts that you possess. My hair doesn’t grow back instantly after it’s cut off. You are a mutated form of my species,” he says, and his assessment of me is chilling.

  “Maybe I’m just smarter than you…more highly evolved,” I argue, not liking the word “mutated” because it makes me sound like a science experiment gone awry.

  “There is no doubt that you are capable of many things. I can make it so that you achieve your full potential…or I can achieve what I want by other means,” he says quietly. “I could just drop you down a hole and keep you there until you learn.”

  “You say the sweetest things, Kyon,” I murmur, pressing my sharp dinner knife threateningly into his ribs. “But you’re really gonna have to stop touching me now.”

  A slow smile creeps over his face, making him look kind of handsome. “You are savage,” he breathes, lifting his fingers from my cheek as his eyes all but sparkle.

  “You have no idea how savage I can be,” I reply, easing my knife away from him.

  “I look forward to finding out,” Kyon murmurs, looking me over like I’m dessert.

  Our plates are cleared then, replaced with a pastry in the shape of a swan that tastes a lot like baklava. I force myself to eat the entire thing, even when I have completely lost my appetite. When the footmen take away our plates again, the Regent stands up, pulling my chair away from the table for me.

  “Fay Kricket, would you care to join us in the next room for some fazeria?” he asks me, offering me his arm.

  “I’ll join you if you tell me what fazeria is,” I smile, taking his arm and hearing him laugh.

  “It’s an alcoholic beverage, Kricket,” he says, leading the way to the adjoining room. Everyone follows close behind, listening to our exchange.

  “Is it good?” I ask, taking a seat on a silk covered sofa.

  “It is.” Reaching out and taking a long stemmed glass from the footman, he hands it to me. Taking a small sip, the amber liquid mildly burns my throat as I swallow it.

  “Mmm,” I smile at the Regent who is watching me with an air of expectation. “It is good.”

  Appearing delighted, he takes a glass himself and sips it. “Em Nark, I have definite reservations regarding Fay Kricket. I need to consider the matter further.”

  The Narc joins me on the sofa then, making goose bumps rise on my arms. “Of course, Haut Manus. This is a delicate situation and we appreciate your reservations. Kyon is a ranking member of the Brotherhood. He will assume full responsibility for Fay Kricket as her intended consort…” he trails off because Wayra chokes loudly on his fazeria. Looking over at him, my eyes go to Trey, who looks murderous.

  “We intend to aid in your negotiations with Wurthem for the Tectonic Peninsula,” the Narc lies, ignoring the glares of the Cavars.

  “Have you been in contact with the Peney clan regarding the Tectonic Peninsula?” Manus asks, pacing in front of the fireplace.

  “No,” Em Nark lies again. “But, we would be happy to be the lead in the exchange there.” Another lie

  “Are the Alameeda currently seeking a position in Peney?” the Regent asks, pausing and sipping his fazeria.

  “We have no interest there,” the Narc lies again. “Our interests lie in returning Kricket to her family.” I’m finding it more and more difficult not to roll my eyes.

  “We have heard some disturbing things regarding Alameeda troops pushing the borders near the Cape of Peney,” Trey says casually. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you, Em Nark?”

  “Your intelligence is faulty, there are no Alameeda troops near Peney,” Em Nark lies again. Trey’s eyes shift to mine in question.

  “How many troops do you have there?” I ask him, studying the glass in my hand.

  “Excuse me?” the Narc asks with a scowl.

  “More than a thousand?” I ask, studying his face.

  “NO!” the Narc lies.

  “More than five thousand?”

  “No, of course not,” he lies, looking at Kyon who is now turned away, facing the window.

  “Is it more like ten thousand?”

  “She is a s
oothsayer—a diviner of truth, Em Nark,” Kyon says softly, causing every eye to shift to him. “Don’t open your mouth again.” Turning to the Regent, he says, “Write up your list of demands and you shall have them. All we want is Kricket.”

  The room falls silent for several seconds as Kyon and Manus stare at each other. “Do you know what that was, Em Nark?” I ask, seeing his face growing pale. “That was a moment of silence for the death of your career.”

  “You don’t know what you’re doing,” he sneers at me. “Mine will not be the only death to result from tonight…” he trails off as Jax and Wayra move closer to me, standing right behind our sofa.

  Trey is less discreet, sitting down in the small space between the Narc and me, saying to me under his breath, “Down goes the bishop.”

  “You may leave now, Em Nark,” Manus says in a dismissive tone. “Please take your trift back to Alameeda. Your things will be sent to you. I believe we should continue our discussion at the break of the rotation, Haut Kyon,” Manus says softly, watching the Narc exit through the door. “There is much to explore in this matter.”

  “Do not think to keep her. We will not let her go. I will await your council, Haut Manus,” Kyon says, while walking toward me. Taking my hand in his, Kyon brings it to his lips, kissing it. “Until the next rotation, Kricket, rest well.” Releasing my hand, he leaves the room and leaves me to my fear.

  CHAPTER 15

  COME TO RUIN

  As I remain seated on the silk-covered furniture in the Regent’s drawing room, I feel cold inside when Em Sam leaves the room behind Kyon. Trey’s hand inches closer to mine on the seat, stopping a whisper of a breadth from it. His expression of concern makes me look away so that I don’t cry. I can’t afford to be weak—not now, not ever. Squelching the impulse to touch Trey, my eyes shift toward the main threat left in the room: the Regent.

  Seeing Manus’s violet gaze studying me, I toy with the glass in my hand, trying to appear at ease. “Am I to understand by the exchange with Em Nark, Kricket, that there are Alameeda troops near the boarders of Peney?” Manus asks me, his eyebrow rising. He is truly handsome in a dangerous way with his five o’clock shadow cutting his cheeks at sharp angles. He looks like he could be in his late thirties, which probably means he’s at least a half a millennium old.