Diyar knew he would never find a woman of his own until one fell from the stars and landed at his feet. Even he can’t miss the hint.
Jadoree was compelled to seek out means to travel through the stars and to a new universe, but the moment she arrived, all compulsion went out the window. What now?
Diyar had always known his match waited for him in the stars, but when the pod carrying her landed a few feet away from him, he had to admit that fate was coming on strong.
Jade joins Diyar as her body begins to react to the brilliance of the world around her. No longer in the dim light of the darkest star, her body begins to develop skills and traits that not only let her thrive, they are designed to let her take over should she choose to. Decisions, decisions.
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Forbidden Summons
Copyright © 2013 Zenina Masters
ISBN: 978-1-77111-486-8
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Forbidden Summons
Darkest Star Saga Book 7
By
Zenina Masters
Chapter One
Jadoree looked up at the sky and looked desperately for a point of light. As always, there was nothing to lighten her view.
“Jadoree Yix, what year did the first probe leave Haxos?”
She jerked as the professor called on her.
“Thirty-eight ninety-three was the year of the initial sending, but it was a pod not a probe. The first actual probe left Haxos six years later.” He blinked and nodded. “That is correct. Very good, Miss Yix. You are deceptively attentive.” She nodded tightly as he droned on, but she could have recited his lecture from memory. The craving for light had begun while she was a toddler, and it had never eased.
Jadoree sat through the whole lecture, waiting for the professor to dismiss the class.
He raised a hand. “Tonight is the anniversary of that first sending, if you have purchased a ticket to the Stellar Sciences Museum Gala, do attend. The stars will be in the same alignment they were all those years ago. It is not an event to be missed.” They waited quietly until he followed his statement with, “Class dismissed.” Jadoree gathered her screen and her stylus and got to her feet. The Stellar Science Academy was the best in secondary education, and while she was able to do plenty of research on her own there was nothing like the resources that she had at her disposal as a student at the academy.
She walked back to her quarters, going over the small details that the professor had covered in his lecture. She would work on her personal notes and check how they fit in.
Her family had been relieved when she took an interest in higher education. The Yixes were one of the prime families of Haxos, and they wanted her to make them proud. Her fixation on something that had happened thousands of years ago wasn’t appropriate in a socialite, but it was fine for a student. Now that she was a student, they told everyone her obsession was simple dedication to her studies.
Alone in her quarters, she looked around and nodded at the notes pinned to the walls, the diagrams of the original pod and framed pictures of bright stars in a dark sky. The images were sent back to them by the probe that followed the pod, moments before they lost contact. Researchers had examined the images for twenty centuries and still had no idea how to reach the stars that burned bright in the dark sky.
Jadoree knew how to reach those points of light, but knowing it and doing it were two very different things.
Her message centre was flashing and she played the messages from her parents, her cousin and the man her cousin wanted her to meet at the museum. Jadoree snorted and took a quick shower before wrapping herself in a robe and catching up on her correspondence.
If tonight turned out the way she planned, she would not have a chance to pay her bills again. It was best for herself and her family if she caught up on all the details of life before she went to the gala. Who knew if she would have the ability to do anything after?
Jadoree kept her wrap on her shoulders as she moved on a VIP tour with several of the largest donors to the Stellar Science Museum. A portion of her trust went to the museum every year and that rated a special tour of the most precious exhibits.
The guide in formal wear smiled and paused, “This is a replica of the original probe sent through to the system of bright stars. The original was sent at an approximation of the same setting that we are experiencing tonight.” Jadoree kept her cocktail in one hand as the select crowd milled around the probe, examining the details and staring at the recordings that few of the Haxos could access.
Jadoree took her turn looking at and touching the pod. “A miracle of more primitive sciences.” The guide smiled. “It is indeed. Now, the next exhibit is the second pod built by Dr. Hynadeer Follen. She disappeared in the first pod, but this one has survived. No one can activate it. Whatever technique Dr. Follen used is lost to us, but it stands as an amazing creation designed by a young woman at the forefront of her field.” Jadoree hung back, and as it became her turn to examine the smooth metal and enamel, she tipped her cocktail onto her wrap and backed away quickly. “Oh damn. I have to go clean this up.” The guide nodded, and the group continued as she slipped off to the nearest lav. When she was sure that the group had passed around the corner, she walked to the security monitor and flipped the wrap over it.
Jadoree wasn’t sure that she could activate the pod, but she had to try.
With a slow caress on the metal housing, she heard a whirring within. The pod opened to expose a seat and a cockpit filled with monitors and a few toggles.
The seat was her size. It was perfectly designed for her, and she took advantage of her moment, slipping into the chair that was silently calling her name.
She stroked the armrests of the seat and jumped slightly as the pod shifted around her. She settled her feet in the grooves that were set for them and jumped again as restraints tied her into the pod.
Her wrists, belly, ankles and neck were held tight while the pod shut.
She heard a cry from outside the unit but she was fixated on the whirring and the change in angle she was experiencing. The thing confining her was shifting, and it was preparing to do something.
Jadoree watched the small screen that showed her a crowd forming before they rapidly backed away. She was weightless for an instant, and then, the pod was jetting off Haxos with an unknown propellant launching it directly into the darkest star.
She watched the screen as she increased in speed until the star’s black heart was all that was visible in the small monitor.
One of the toggles lit and a chime rang repetitively, growing more urgent with every second. Jadoree extended her fingers, restricted by the band on her arms, and she flicked the switch.
The pod j
olted, and a bright light expanded around her.
Her reality was ripped apart as she clenched her fingers on the arms of the seat. Whether it was a good thing or not, she had followed her instincts, now she could only hope to survive them. As her eyes were blinded by light streaming in from all around her, she really doubted her chances.
Chapter Two
Diyar was beyond frustrated. His injury had sent him back to his home world, and he wanted nothing more than to be back in action.
Battle Commander Diyar Velu knew he was lucky. The blast that had shattered the shelter he was guarding had embedded metal supports in his chest that had almost taken his life. It was two months later, and he had recovered much of his strength, but the medical officers were not clearing him for duty yet. Frustrating didn’t begin to cover it. He worked off his energy hiking across the landscape outside the range of the colony. It was the stellar anniversary of his ancestress coming to the Asku. It was said that the stars had lined up on the day she appeared, and tonight those stars were in the same alignment.
Diyar looked up at the foothills he was climbing and kept moving toward the valley where records first recorded her arrival. Part of him hoped that if he wasn’t cleared to return to action, he could at least find a mate like the rest of his brothers had.
He didn’t begrudge them their mates, but he had no idea where to look for the woman who was right for him. He looked up and noted that the stars were almost in the line he was waiting for.
Winded, he walked through the pass and looked at the stone that marked the impact of his ancestress. Diyar sat on a rock and looked up at the sky from the bowl of the valley.
The stars lined up as he watched, and a line of light sprang from one to the other. The observatory would be capturing images of this event, but there was nothing like seeing it with the naked eye.
Diyar watched the line of light fade, but out of it, a tiny star broke free. That star moved with a tail expanding and burning as it came to an unceremonious halt in the valley he was sitting in.
The glowing object hovered above the ground and slowly settled, burning into the dirt and rock beneath it.
Lights started to flare around the valley as the others who observed the impact came to investigate. Diyar got to the object before they did, and when he touched the exterior with a quick jab of his finger, he didn’t find the heat he was expecting.
The silver orb slid open and revealed a woman inside. She was breathing but unconscious. Bands of colour marked her body at her wrists, neck and belly. Her long skirt covered her ankles, but the minute bodice she was wearing didn’t conceal much.
The orb started to melt beneath her, so Diyar made a decision and lifted the woman from the dissolving means of transport.
He stood holding her as the investigative teams converged on them. Her body felt right in his arms, and the light scent coming off her skin was enthralling. A wave of midnight hair hung down nearly to the ground, and Diyar looked up for a moment and then back to the woman in his arms.
Apparently, his woman had been hiding in the stars.
She dragged in a shuddering breath and opened her eyes. The black on black with a pinpoint of light was all too familiar.
Diyar repeated the words that his ancestor had supposedly spoken. “Welcome to the hidden world of the Asku. Prepare to make it your home.”
* * * *
Jadoree saw the man above her and took in his dark eyes. “So, I am still at home?”
“Where is home?”
His voice was deep, and his neck and cheeks were marked with glyphs that were similar to the language of Haxos.
His words were understandable to her as well, so she was guessing she was still in her own system.
That guess ground to a halt the moment she looked past the male holding her, and she saw the bright stars behind him. “The stars. They burn white and pink.”
He chuckled and shifted her so she was more comfortable. “And blue and brown and green. The composition of the star causes the shift in the spectrum. Why are you so surprised? Have you been in confinement?”
She smiled. “I guess I have. Um, can you put me down?”
He paused before tilting her and setting her on her feet. “Stay close to me. They will want to examine you. Where do you come from?”
“Haxos, under the rays of the Velu. Where am I?”
“On the world of the Asku, far away from your dark star.”
She swayed in shock. “How do you know what the dark star is?”
“I am descended from the last woman to make it from your world to this.” She blinked and stared into his features as they blurred into a contrast of light and dark. “The last woman?”
“You are not the first one to fall from the darkest star.” He held her tightly as they were surrounded.
Jadoree looked around her and saw only the light of the men surrounding her. It was so much light that she clenched her eyes and turned her face to the chest of the man holding her.
The summons that had driven her her entire life had ceased to urge her onward. Being abandoned by her compulsion was almost as shocking as being surrounded by nothing but men. Jadoree curled against the man who held her and refused to look at the men holding a plethora of scanners and monitors.
What have I done?
The thought echoed as she was taken to a transport and flown into an inhabited area then carried to a facility that had a medical tang.
She was an alien who had crashed on a foreign world. Jadoree had no idea what was going to happen next.
Jadoree waited while she was examined in a room with three physicians and a bot shaped like a woman made of polished steel. The man who had carried her was being forced to wait outside.
The physicians were polite and very diffident as they directed her to the scanners. She stood in the places she was directed to and waited as they ran her through one set of readings after another.
When they had run every kind of scan they could think of, she was handed off to the robot.
“Where is the man who found me?” The bot inclined its head, and it sounded amused. “You are going to be quartered in the women’s area for the Velu family. He is not allowed. My name is Riveh, by the way.”
“I am Jadoree Yix.” Jadoree could see the waves of tech and blended organic energy in Riveh. The bot may look synthetic, but somewhere, it had a beating heart.
“What do you do, Riveh?”
“I train the women of the Asku to understand the society they now find themselves in. I teach them what is expected and what will be demanded of them.”
“It sounds harsh.”
“It can be for some, but if your social structure allows physical expression in a mated situation without guilt, it is an easy transition.” Riveh’s feet clicked as she walked.
Jadoree started to laugh. “I am not even in the same universe that I started in. I think a transition from internal hysteria is the highest priority on my schedule.”
“Well, clear that schedule, because aside from the Asku wanting to know about you, you are going to learn about them.”
She chuckled. “Set me in front of a terminal and give me the history, then we will talk.” Learning had never been a problem for Jadoree.
Explaining what she was and how she had arrived was going to be the hardest task by far.
Chapter Three
One thing she knew was that she didn’t want to sleep until she knew where she was. With no frame of reference for the light universe, she wanted to get into their data streams and find out where she was and what was going on.
Riveh set her up in quarters decorated with pale lavender and deep purple. The learning station had a comfortable chair, so Jadoree propped her feet up on the desk, pulled the touch control to her lap and ran through two thousand years of Asku history in two hours.
“How did you do that?” Riveh was at her side as Jadoree got up to stretch.
“I was always good at studying. I think I will get some res
t now, though. Is there something for me to wear as I sleep?”
“Asku brides sleep naked.” Riveh’s words were absolute as she helped removed Jadoree’s clothing.
“That is a lie. I read the histories. They bond but still travel to carry out their obligations. The women are left to their own devices while the men are gone as long as they uphold the community standard of behaviour.”
Riveh made a noise similar to a chuckle. “You caught me. We just don’t bother with them. Training the ladies to sleep in the raw speeds things tremendously.”
“Show me what clothing is available, and I will find something suitable.” Jadoree was suddenly tired. The adrenaline had worn off, and she really wanted to sleep.
Riveh showed her the wardrobe, and Jadoree pulled out a silky, long tunic that would do just fine. She climbed into bed and curled into a ball, waiting for sleep to claim her.
The lights dimmed, but she still saw the stars through the windows. She wanted to stare at them all night, but as she watched, the starry night was blurred out into waves of brightness.
Jadoree sat up and watched the light expand and fill the panel of glass. The glare blinded her as she continued to watch the rotation of the world she was on take her into the path of starlight of the highest magnitude.
Before she could stop herself, she was standing next to the window. Her hand pressed against the glass as she closed her eyes and absorbed the light.
Her skin tingled with energy as she bathed in the light.
Riveh clicked into her room and made a small noise. “Jadoree, what are you doing?”
“I am feeling something that is impossible in my own world.” She held out her hand and turned it in the pink-white light.
“I see. You need sleep.”
“I will still need sleep when the darkness comes again. How long does this light last?” She turned her hand slowly, enjoying not only the feel, but also the weight of the light on her skin.
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