Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Prince

by Felicity Heaton

  Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Prince

  Princess Renie, one of the beautiful and strong daughters of Lyra, loves nothing more than exploring space with her twin brother, Rezic, but when they venture too close to the Black Zone, the barrier between Vegan space and the rest of the galaxy, things turn from exploration to a fight for their lives. With Rezic injured in a meteorite shower, Renie has no choice but to accept help from a vessel within the Black Zone, even when it turns out to be Vegan! Separated from her brother and taken hostage, to be held for ransom, Renie isn’t sure what she’s going to do…

  Until she meets a man in the cells, the most unusual and gorgeous male she has ever seen, a man who seems to be willing to do anything to protect her and makes her pulse race.

  Tres isn’t enjoying his stay in the cells. The commander has broken his thermal suit, leaving him cold and weak, and his last chance of leaving the Black Zone has been thwarted. But the galaxy comes to him instead, and she’s more beautiful, warm and full of feeling than he’d ever dreamed. When he discovers her and her brother’s plight, he vows to help her if she’ll help him, and when she touches him, showing him warmth, he wonders how touch can be so forbidden and realises that he’ll do anything for her.

  When Renie is injured during their escape and Tres is forced to stay behind so Rezic can leave with her, will she ever see him again? Will she be able to convince her father, General Lyra II, to go back into the Black Zone and rescue the man she’s fallen in love with? And will she still love Tres when she realises just who he is?

  Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Prince

  Felicity Heaton

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright 2009 by Felicity Heaton

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  ****

  Chapter 1

  Renie frowned when the first beep sounded. She cast her dark eyes across the small bridge of the ship to the display panel on the wall to her right. It beeped again. Switching the ship over to automatic controls, she unclipped herself, her eyes still fixed on the display panel, which now showed diagnostics on something that looked like a planet. She crossed the bridge and studied the panel. Her fingers danced across the panel above, accessing the star charts for this region of space so she could pinpoint their location. She wasn’t familiar with this area. It was the furthest from home they had ever been.

  She brought the black band around her wrist to her mouth and pressed the button.

  “Rezic,” she said and waited for her twin brother to answer. No reply. He was probably sleeping. It was her turn to pilot after all. When they had hit space that they didn’t recognise on the charts, they had agreed to take shifts at the controls and alert the other if something happened. She felt as though she hadn’t seen him in weeks. They had meals together but that was about it unless there was something that needed to be fixed or charted. “Rezic?”

  Her communications band crackled when she released the button.

  “What?” he said in perfect Terran when she had been about to shout at him in Lyran.

  She smiled.

  Their parents told them off whenever they spoke Terran around Lyrans or other species. They both preferred it to Lyran. Even their younger sister Natalia had picked up the habit. Too many people could speak Lyran and even though their father was a Lyran, they still insisted on speaking Terran most of the time.

  Especially when they were on an expedition.

  “I need you on the bridge.” Renie lowered her hand and looked at the display again and then the star charts.

  There weren’t any systems in this area. In fact, there didn’t seem to be much at all. The star charts ended around seventy thousand leagues from them. They were heading into space unknown to Lyra.

  Rezic appeared beside her, running a sleepy hand through his cropped dark hair and tousling it further than his bed already had. His black eyes matched hers perfectly. They both looked like their father, Balt. Rezic closed one last fastening of his loose white shirt, leaving the top three undone, and rubbed his eyes before tucking the tail of his shirt into his brown trousers.

  “I was dreaming a good dream, this better be important.” His gravelly voice spoke of how deep asleep he had been and he struggled to stifle a yawn.

  Renie hated waking her brother but it was important.

  “There’s a planet,” she said and pointed at the display.

  “Very observant.” Rezic yawned again. “Is that it? Christ, Renie, how many planets have we seen? I thought you’d get over it by now.”

  Renie smiled at his grumpy air, knowing that deep inside he was as excited as she was. Or at least he would be when he let her finish speaking and woke up a little.

  She pointed to the star charts and the area where the system should be.

  “There’s nothing on the map.”

  Rezic eyes narrowed on the chart and then the planet. “It’s a class six. Is it beyond the map? Maybe no one discovered it yet.”

  His voice held a hint of excitement now.

  “Maybe, but it should be right here and it isn’t. That’s inside documented space,” she said and before she could utter another word, Rezic was punching in the coordinates and sending the ship towards it.

  He moved to the controls and Renie held onto the back of the co-pilot’s seat when he shifted the small vessel into its top speed, which wasn’t much. The ship creaked as though it was going to break apart. It was a heap of junk, but it was theirs and they had bought it with the money from their first big find in the temples of Marsha Three. Since then, they had explored the galaxy, documenting dead cultures and searching for artefacts.

  Their two younger brothers and sister said that they were treasure hunters.

  Their parents called them archaeologists.

  Or at least they called her an archaeologist.

  Renie looked at Rezic, his excited smile bringing out her own as he raced to find the planet on the display.

  They called him Lyra V.

  Renie moved around the co-pilot’s chair and slid into it, buckling herself in.

  Rezic had no desire to achieve the throne though. He was happiest out here with her, finding ancient things, charting new territory and cruising space. She was happy here too.

  She wondered if things would always be this way. It was many years since their birth, but they were mature now. Their mother said that in Terran years they looked a little over thirty, the age their father had looked when they had married. She knew that it was their mother’s way of telling them that soon they would begin to think about finding someone to love. What would happen then? What if Rezic found a woman, other than in his ‘good dreams’, and decided to settle down? The thought chilled her. She wanted to adventure in space with him forever.

  Perhaps whomever they married would be adventurers too and they could buy a bigger ship and continue their journey together.

  Renie pulled her knees up to her chest and toyed with the white sleeves of her shirt.

  “Is something the matter?” Rezic said with a sideward glance at her. She smiled at him to alleviate his worry, knowing that he could sense her feelings sometimes. The connection they shared as twins ran deep.

  She went to speak but the proximity alarm sounded. Both of them looked at the front screen of the ship.

  Renie couldn’t believe her eyes as Rezic slowed the ship to a halt. In front of them was the planet the ship had detected but it looked no
thing like she had expected it to. It was a brown, pitted rock. More shocking than that though was the fact that it was only half a rock that looked as though it had been split perfectly down the middle.

  She unclipped herself at the same time as Rezic and went to the display.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” she said and looked from the display to the dead planet. “The readings say it has the mass of a class six planet and it’s being displayed as a whole, not a half.”

  She went back to the window and stared at the planet.

  “It’s definitely dead,” Rezic said and set the computer to scan it. The readings came back quickly. “No atmosphere. Signs that it was once inhabited. Whatever happened here, it wasn’t nice. There’s a lot of carbon on the planet.”

  “Carbon?”

  “A lot of living things died very quickly.”

  She gasped and stared at the planet.

  “Did the sun collapse?”

  He shook his head. “No. The planet would have been wiped out and there’s no sign of debris or the sun itself.”

  Her brother was far superior at science, but none of what he said made sense at all, not on any level. Normally she could follow him quite well. She looked up at his profile. He seemed to be having difficulty understanding it too.

  “Why is there only half a planet when the ship says there’s a whole one? Where did the sun go?” he said with a frown.

  Renie looked around them and then stopped when she noticed something. Her eyes moved from the star spotted space to the left of the planet where it curved, to the blank space on the side that had disappeared.

  “Rezic,” she said and touched his arm. “Where are the stars?”

  She looked at the empty black space in front of her. There was nothing. It looked as though darkness had swallowed half the planet and the rest of the galaxy.

  “The Black Zone,” Rezic said and she sharply turned to face him.

  A chill danced down her spine and along her arms.

  “The Black Zone?” she repeated, hoping that he had been joking. “The Vegan barrier?”

  He nodded and went to the star charts, pulling up the overview that connected all the separate maps together. He zoomed into the area they were in and pointed out the perfect line across the charts.

  Renie’s heart thundered against her chest and her palms sweated. It couldn’t be. She stepped up to the charts and stared wide-eyed at them.

  “The Vegans erected the barrier after the war with Lyra to protect their territory.” Her brother swept his hand across the empty area of the chart. “Originally the Vega system wasn’t on the other side. It stood sentinel on this side of the barrier. Just after we were born, they expanded the barrier to cover Vega, withdrawing completely. The star charts were erased. All we know now is that Vega is on the other side somewhere. No ship can cross the barrier without permission.”

  Renie touched the screen. There were systems on the other side, planets that a Lyran had never seen, or at least hadn’t seen in hundreds of years. Her stomach fluttered with excitement and nerves.

  “If we could cross the barrier—”

  The proximity alarm drowned out the rest of her words and she whipped around to face the front screen of the ship. Masses of meteorites were heading for them, coming out of the Black Zone. She ran for the controls for the shield.

  “Renie, get down!” Rezic shouted and then slammed into her as the ship rocked. He tackled her to the ground, his body covering hers, shielding her from the meteorites as they battered the ship.

  There was a terrifying sound of buckling metal and then darkness. Rezic’s body pressed down hard on hers, suffocating her along with the blackness. She struggled to breathe. Panic consumed her and made her breath come in short sharp bursts. The alarm continued to sound and her head felt light as the air rushed out of the bridge. She clawed her way out from beneath her brother and fumbled with the control panel. Finding the shield, she pushed the dial for it to maximum and then hit the emergency beacon.

  The air was too thin. Her eyes unfocused as she struggled to maintain consciousness. The lights came back on at a low level, the computer reporting that there were multiple hull breaches and life support was down. The shield would seal the remaining air in, but it wouldn’t last for long. Normally the shield gave out after an hour or so.

  She fumbled across the panel until she found the emergency life support. She hit the button and a whoosh of air filled the bridge. She gasped, taking the fresh air down deep into her lungs.

  She turned where she knelt on the floor and her eyes widened when she saw Rezic. Blood coated the side of his head, dark against his pale skin. Her heart slammed against her chest.

  “Rezic?” Renie said, reaching out and touching his face. He was breathing, but barely. She frowned at the wound on the side of his head. He needed a medic. For the first time in her life, she wished she had paid attention to Aunt Emmanuelle when she had given her and her brother basic medical training. Rezic had been distracting her the whole time, mimicking Emmanuelle behind her back. She cursed him and stroked his face. “Wake up, brother, please.”

  The computer informed her that Rezic’s life signs were fading and he needed medical assistance.

  “I know!” she screamed and dashed her tears away as she got to her feet. She ran to the door of the bridge but it wouldn’t open. Smashing the panel over the manual control, she grabbed the lever and yanked it. Still nothing. “Open the door!”

  Her fists hurt as she banged them against the solid metal, willing the door to open so she could get to the medical supplies in the engine bay.

  The computer warned her again that Rezic was dying. Renie curled into a ball and sobbed into her knees. She couldn’t get the door open. Why couldn’t the computer open the door? Why did she have to sit here and watch her brother die?

  No, she wouldn’t admit defeat so easily. Rezic would have broken the door down had their positions been reversed. She ran to the control panel of the ship and hit the intercom button.

  It was pointless, but right now, the only chance she had was a ship hearing her call and coming to their aid. Someone had to be within ten thousand leagues of them. There had to be a patrol along the Black Zone.

  “This is the Explorer One, I have a medical emergency and require assistance.”

  Nothing.

  “This is the Explorer One, I have a medical emergency. One of our crew is dying and I’m trapped on the bridge. I require assistance. Please respond!”

  Nothing.

  She stared into space and then collapsed to her knees on the floor. Taking hold of Rezic’s hand, she squeezed it and smiled.

  “Hold on. Someone will come for us. I won’t let you die. I won’t.” She sniffed back her tears and smiled at him. She would never let anything happen to her brother. She wouldn’t let him die. “This is the Explorer—”

  “Explorer One,” a male voice said, deep and crackling. Her heart jumped in her chest, hope making her dizzy. “Leave this space immediately.”

  Renie frowned, not understanding at first. Leave? A glance at the control panel showed there was no ship within five thousand leagues of her.

  “I won’t leave. I have a medical emergency. My brother is dying!”

  “Explorer One, leave at once.” The voice came again, clearer now. “I will not repeat myself.”

  “I won’t leave!” She tried to calm herself so she didn’t go through the limited air supply but it was impossible. She wouldn’t leave. She didn’t even know if she could. “Help my brother, please? I’ll give you anything. I have money... riches... I’m willing to pay for help!”