Reign: A Space Fantasy Romance (Strands of Starfire Book 1)

by May Sage

  Suddenly intrigued, Kai asked, “Did you take a shot?” Then, because the answer seemed obvious, he added, “How old are you?”

  From what he knew of the advanced technology, the nanocytes worked to replace cells the moment they died, which meant that those who took it didn’t age, or die of most natural causes. Although Kai liked to call him old, Krane had the appearance of a healthy man of forty, perhaps; but if he was immortal, it meant nothing. He could be hundreds of years of age. More, perhaps. The first of those shots had been developed roughly thirteen hundred years ago.

  Krane laughed and walked away, calling out, “You’re wanted in Control. PunyLord sent envoys to negotiate a treaty. The Coats are divided.”

  Kai sighed. The Coats, as Krane liked to call the senators who were their voice in the High Council of Ratna, formed of envoys from each planet, were always divided.

  The treaty was everything he’d ever desired. It offered peace. Enlil swore to leave him alone as long as they stuck to their systems and never moved to conquer more of his territories. It also offered something else, something Kai never desired and wouldn’t have sought. The warlord had done his research and found out where Kai had come from. By edict of Enlil, Kai would be made a Hora, Lord of Haimo.

  The very thought disgusted him, but he had to think of the bigger picture.

  “This treaty means safety,” he said, causing some of his senators to nod enthusiastically. Half of the Coats started to speak. He lifted one hand, and they fell silent. “But,” Kai added, “Enlil will never keep his word. He needs time to regroup. He’ll attack when it suits him.”

  Kai was turning in quite the Coat, agreeing with everyone.

  “So, what now?” Hart prompted.

  Kai closed his eyes, searching for the answer. Then, he lifted his hand, and a pen floated to him. He stabbed the quill into his thumb, drawing blood, and signed.

  “Now,” he replied, “we take this time, get ready, and wait for the snake to launch. History will recall us as those who accepted peace, and him as the one who broke it.”

  The strategy was foolish of Enlil. They were many now, but in months, years? Then children they fiercely protected within the walls of their base would be ready to fight. Time was their ally, turning their army into an unrelenting force.

  Enlil attacked in 1222. In 1226, Kai’s armies flew right at the heart of Vratis.

  Thirteen

  Darkness

  A thousand years before this war, their race had inhabited Tejen, one single planet, living there quite peacefully and in harmony with all living things. There were great beasts that breathed fire, and Evris were their companions. When they came of age, the warriors amongst them went to the heart of the forest and sought one out, binding their hearts together.

  This sacred bond with nature, cultivated with love, strengthened them. Some lines of Evris, known for their valor, were blessed with a link with nature. Magic, they’d call it.

  Mages were revered and celebrated. All of them tamed dragons with ease, brought rain when the fields were dry, and stopped tornadoes from destroying cities. Mages were their protectors. Even more so when aliens came down from the skies.

  The invading creatures had sought their world’s resources. Evris fought, but, against the technology of a race that could travel through the infinity of space, their weapons were little more than sticks and stones. Every one of their weapons—except magic.

  She was born during that war. A child. No one knew whose. What they knew was that one day, she stopped time. Another day, she called night, moving the sun by her strength of will. That’s when they started to call her Darkness. The child grew in power every year. Finally, she destroyed a thousand enemy ships in one blast.

  Once the enemies were gone, one thing remained. Darkness. A child who could kill them all effortlessly. Who wanted to take that risk?

  The Wise council of mages at the head of her order voted, and they voted wrong. Only one voice spoke against their decision that day.

  The vote was a sentence: death. For the safety of all, the child was condemned.

  If they’d managed to kill her then, the consequences might have been less destructive. They didn’t. How could they?

  Darkness ran alone. She didn’t stay so for long. Worshipped by some, admired by others, she soon had followers. The Darklings. They took over the world and cornered the Wise, who fled, along with their supporters, using the foreign alien technology to leave their original world behind.

  Darkness followed, determined to destroy her enemies. The first inhabitable sector she found was what was now called the Ratna Belt. There, she was eventually defeated, but a seer foresaw her return.

  The Wise settled on Magneo, forming their new order there. The Empire. They enthroned a leader without magic and ordered that every child born with power be put to rest for the good of the entire universe.

  Darkness came back. Again and again and again. And each time, before it came of age, before it became conscious of the extent of its power, it was killed.

  Until now.

  For the thousandth time, Nalini closed her eyes and tried as hard as she could to see more. Most of the books about these ancient times were nothing short of fairy tales. Those that seemed even remotely accurate had been written by the Wise, who may or may not be biased on that subject. But it was ever so important that she grasped what had happened the first time, in order to avoid the same end.

  But past and future were clouded. No, not clouded. Purposefully blocked. As though a force consciously prevented her from seeing more. That made little sense to Nalini. This only occurred when she attempted to see her own future in details.

  She cursed and got up, feeling helpless, frustrated, and confused.

  Over the decades, centuries, the Imperials grew in size and power, discovering and conquering more worlds. Yet they always left the Belt relatively alone, allowing it to be ruled by its leader, rather than considering it as a territory of the Imperials. It was still mostly inhabited by the descendants of those who’d accompanied Darkness and settled there. Over time, Evris had succeeded in weaning most of the magical blood from their families, but still, in that sector, there had always been more children developing those aptitudes, as most of them had Darkling blood.

  Vratis had been the City of Darkness. Still, it showed. Even a thousand years later, there were spells guarding against enemies, pushing Kai back every time he attempted an offensive.

  Kai had no clue how to fight against these powers. A magnetic field, he would have been prepared for, but this was something else. The entire planet was coated in pure magic. An elemental magic he recognized—fire and something more. It felt like his.

  Instead of attacking the main system, he took the surrounding planets, cutting the warlord off, leaving him nothing but his one planet.

  Vratis was used to receiving provisions from all over the sector; the planet was a center of commerce and politics, with leisure palaces and luxury retreats. The siege didn’t last long. In 1226, at age 33, Kai entered the warlord’s palace as its new ruler. Enlil’s son had killed his own father in his sleep and called to surrender.

  Now, Kai was done. He didn’t hold every single planet in the Belt, but he didn’t need to. No one would contest his absolute rule. His laws would stand. They’d have peace.

  He should have felt fulfilled. Happy, even. Not lost, confused, and disappointed.

  He shouldn’t be. He hadn’t expected the female to miraculously appear the moment he’d reached his goal. Still, something felt wrong.

  The only person who might have an answer—as he had an answer for all things, or so it seemed—had left the previous day.

  “Listen, kid, I gotta dash. There’s somewhere I need to be.”

  “Sure,” he’d replied, shrugging indifferently. “When will you be back?”

  “I won’t come back.”

  Kai had stared at Ian Krane in complete disbelief. Imagining a world where the old male wasn’t by his sid
e barely made sense.

  But it had happened the moment they’d landed on Vratis. Krane was gone, taking Nox with him.

  Strange how hard it was to see what one has, until it’s taken.

  Kai was purposefully not thinking of his old friend, mentor—whatever Krane had been—and his unexpected defection. There was too much to do, too much to plan.

  At least, Wench had good news about the girl. He could hold on to that.

  Kai followed his young mechanic to the surveillance level, where the boy prepped him by saying, “Okay, so we found her and compiled one single file for you. It took a while; there were years of data. We’ve fast-forwarded through the irrelevant stuff; so overall, you have about three hours of recordings. I could just tell you what happened, but….”

  “No,” he replied, adamant. “I’ll watch it.”

  Wench smiled goofily, visibly proud as he handed his lord a slim database controller. Catching himself in time, for once, Kai told him, “Well done.”

  He glanced down and saw three letters marked in an ancient phonetic alphabet on top of the database. NA-LI-NI.

  He recognized that name. Down to his bones.

  Fourteen

  Ruthless

  Kai remained motionless and entirely focused, his eyes taking in every single second of the child’s life. He curled his fists at the start and never relaxed them.

  His companions had taken cautious steps back as he grew dimmer, fiercer, each time the warlord’s enforcers came to shave her head and force her on machines. They pricked her with needles constantly, taking some of her blood to analyze it. They forced her to wear brain scanning devices and made her use her powers until she screamed out in pain. They locked her in cages and shocked her with energy, as a punishment for any degree of failure and, sometimes, for no reason at all. Weekly. Her energy was stored in vials; for what purpose, Kai didn’t know.

  Year after year, this was her normal.

  The child was called Nalini. Her folder said so. Nalini never flinched, never complained, never asked for anything. Fast-forwarding through it, Kai felt like screaming. Her meeting with him was only one of the million trials life had thrown at her. And it wasn’t the only time she fought, either.

  Twelve. Out of the fifteen mages she was asked to scan in her lifetime, she’d freed twelve of them.

  Sometimes, in the darkness, she gathered her knees to her chest and held them close. Kai had believed he knew what rage was, but he’d had no clue, not until he saw this. He needed to destroy something, just as soon as he was done watching these horrific recordings.

  Years passed, and nothing changed for her. She grew up into a pretty young thing. The warlord noticed. Kai half expected him to try to touch her, given the way he looked at her. If he had, by all gods, he would have found a way to bring him back to life in order to torture him for the rest of eternity. But Enlil had other ideas.

  It was Imperial year 1219, a few years after Kai had openly started to take over Enlil’s territories at the fringes. He called Nalini to his throne room, in the presence of his seven advisors.

  “Here’s my favorite mage,” he called fondly.

  She pretended to smile.

  The warlord got down from his seat and gestured Nalini to follow him, as he went to the very balcony where Kai had stood a few hours ago.

  She trailed him as he spoke; drones followed them, so Kai didn’t miss a second of the exchange. A small delegation was waiting for them on the balcony—two guards and a noble dressed in white and gold, like Enlil.

  “Our men have fought against this barbarian, this Kai Lor, for years now, and yet, he still escapes us.”

  The direct criticism didn’t faze the girl. “Kai Lor is beyond my reach, my lord,” she lied. Kai knew she lied. She’d appeared out of nowhere when he’d needed help years ago; no doubt she could easily have located him, had she wished to. “I can’t see anything from him.”

  “Yes, yes, I know you tried. It’s quite all right to admit that there are creatures more powerful than you.”

  The teenager attempted no reply.

  “Given our predicament, the Wise have authorized that we recruit more mages to our cause.”

  She didn’t so much as blink.

  “We’ve selected a handful of potential recruits. A dozen children. You’ll train them, bring them up to speed.”

  A nod.

  “I’m so very proud of you, Nali,” the warlord gushed. “And to let it be known that I reward loyalty, I will now welcome you into my family.”

  Kai felt sick to his stomach. Enlil gestured to the male in white and gold, a tall, pale Evris, in his early thirties perhaps. “You’ll wed my son, child.”

  Nalini inclined her head compliantly. “If you so wish.”

  The warlord laughed. “Not even a smile. But surely you’ll be glad to reclaim your title now.”

  She lifted a brow.

  “You were born a Nova, princess of Itri.”

  For the first time, one emotion was evident in her expression, a faint distaste.

  “That name means little to me,” she said.

  Enlil inclined his head like he understood. “I suppose it wouldn’t. How long has it been since you’ve heard from your family now?”

  She remained silent.

  “You’ll be given more freedom. Quarters of your own. And should your children possess a fraction of your strength, we’ll be very blessed indeed.”

  No doubt that’s why the greedy male had chosen her as his son’s incubator. How old was she, anyway? He glanced down to the date displayed on the monitor, and did the math; she’d said she was twelve back in 1214, so that made her seventeen in 1219. A child still. Kai was moments from erupting.

  “There’s just one little thing,” the warlord said, a cruel smile on his lips. “A small matter. Consider it a formality, really.”

  He lifted his hands, and the two guards standing behind his son parted, revealing a young boy bound in energy chains. Nalini didn’t react to his presence. Like she’d expected it.

  “You’ve never shown anything but unwavering compliance, child. But to give you a place amongst my family, I need to know you’re committed to our cause.” He pointed to the child. “This mageling is belligerent and refuses to comply at every turn.”

  Kai froze, expecting the cold order before it crossed Enlil’s lips. “Kill it.”

  Nalini nodded, lifting her hand. One of the guards’ weapons lifted from its holster and floated to her. An energy whip. The cruelest one she could have picked. Kai had seen the sort of damage it inflicted on a person. She was going to have to hit a few times to kill.

  He half wished he was weaker and could have looked away from the holographic recording. But he watched her, never blinking, ready to let her destroy the dream, destroy the illusion. His hopes for their entire race had rested upon the actions of that child. By killing a five-year-old to save her own skin, she was going to destroy it. Kai understood it, and he knew he had to watch her do it, if only so he could move on.

  The girl took one step and smiled. “It’s okay,” she said, and Enlil beamed with glee.

  Only, Kai realized, she wasn’t talking to him at all. Her eyes were fixed on the child. The boy stopped trembling. He nodded almost imperceptibly, cluing Kai in a second before it started.

  He stared speechless, barely believing his eyes.

  Obeying an order no one could hear, the child ducked to the floor. Nalini’s flaming whip cracked the air, hitting both guards so hard they dropped to the floor; she leaped and grabbed the child, throwing him on her shoulder before raising her hand to protect them both. Enlil and his son had both started shooting at them with blasters. The blasts hit an energy wall.

  “You’re going to regret this, girl,” the warlord swore.

  Nalini shrugged. “Doubtful. Your son isn’t my type. Too pasty. And, boy, ever heard of working out?”

  Enlil seemed shocked, with good reason. This was the first time he ever saw that smile. That spu
nk. The fire she’d hidden since the moment she entered his palace.

  “Well, so long everybody,” she said, before jumping down over the balcony railing.

  Kai’s stomach dropped. The drop might have killed her.

  Her red whip flashed, hooking on a large, heavy statue, and the fugitives safely dangled down from it until they’d reached the ground.

  “Guards! Follow her! Set every fucking drone in the palace on the seer!”

  Kai was grateful for the order; he needed to know what had happened next. It took minutes for the first drones to find her in the palace’s gardens. He remembered these very sculptures, fountains, and bushes. Eight years before her, Kai had followed the path out toward the entrance of the warlord’s palace. Nalini was running in a different direction now. Deeper into the gardens. It made no sense. In that direction, there was nothing but cliffs. Endless cliffs dropping into a torrential hell.

  Hundreds of guards followed on foot and in speeders and light fighters, all shooting in her direction in vain. She arrived at the cliffs and talked to the child on her back, ever so softly. Kai couldn’t hear a word, but he could guess they were reassuring, infusing strength into him.

  Both of Nalini’s eyes had turned a pure blue. The boy held on tighter to her back, burying his little head between her shoulder blades. She praised him before sitting on the ground, legs crossed, eyes closed, like there weren’t hundreds of enemies closing in on her. Kai understood; he knelt when he needed to clear his mind and push his own powers. Her enemy stilled, confused, wondering if she was surrendering, but there was no doubt that if they’d tried to close in around her, they would have hit an invisible energy wall.

  When her eyes opened again, they were both gold this time. Blue for peace and gold when she attacked, Kai realized. Most of the time, they were both shades because she was always on her guard.

  Nalini popped up and started running at full speed toward the cliff. Guards shouted, attempting to catch her before she committed suicide; their orders had been to bring her back alive, no doubt. Kai fucking hoped they’d managed to stop her from jumping to her death.