Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an Emperor

by Felicity Heaton

  “It’s beautiful,” she countered, ready for an argument if he overstepped the mark. Emperor or not, she wouldn’t let anyone insult her home world.

  “You must understand, little one, that Varkans are not accustomed to such strong sunlight. I merely meant that it was painful for me, not that it is not beautiful, in short spells.”

  Short spells? She could spend the entire day lazing in the gardens under that strong sunlight. It did explain the visors though. She had read that none of the planets in the Varka system rotated like hers. On one side of each was permanent daylight. On the other side was permanent darkness. She was beginning to get the impression that Varkans were from that side.

  She could ask the emperor, but for some reason she didn’t want to. Her gaze drifted to the door and her thoughts to how handsome the Count of Sagres had looked. Shocked too. He had hidden it well, but something about either the room or her had surprised him. It was probably the awful make up she was wearing. It dawned on her that she didn’t want to talk to the emperor.

  She wanted to speak to the Count of Sagres.

  “You are as beautiful as your planet,” Emperor Varka murmured, his voice so low that it sent a shudder down her spine. She dragged her eyes away from the door and smiled at him, taking his flattery even when it revolted her. As a princess, she had grown accustomed to disgusting men fawning over her and seeking her attention. “Although I hear that you have had many suitors in the past, I can assure you that none of them can offer you what Varka can.”

  A frown threatened to crease her brow. She held her smile. Did he honestly think that he could haggle for her hand in marriage? She wasn’t interested in how many planets her future husband had, or how rich and powerful he was. The only man she would marry was the one who loved her, and whom she loved.

  Relaxing a little, she settled in for a conversation that she knew was going to feel like an eternity rather than a few hours.

  There was only one thing keeping her remotely interested in the emperor as he told her of his wealth and the might of the Varkan Empire.

  He knew the Count of Sagres.

  Her gaze drifted to the door.

  She wanted to know him too.

  ****

  Chapter 2

  Regis, Count of Sagres, walked out onto the balcony of his room. The palace gardens stretched below him, white paths glowing ethereally in the evening light. A light breeze blew across them, washing his face with the lingering warmth of day and carrying the scent of roses. Far to his left he could see the port where they had docked. If he leaned forward, he could see the square where the royal family had greeted them.

  Where Princess Sophia had greeted him.

  Her lack of knowledge about his species had been evident the second she had thought to approach a Varkan emperor without warning. Still, it was understandable. His kind never had been ones to tell the universe about themselves. They were feared enough already.

  Regis leaned against the white stone wall of the balcony and stared at the distant city. Tall pale spire-like buildings rose at the centre of it. The financial district was the closest group. Beyond that, even taller buildings pierced the sky. The Lyran parliament. His fingers flexed and he clenched his fists. They ran the military. How many of his kin had he lost to Lyra? His hand fell to the sword hanging at his waist. The feel of its hilt beneath his fingers was comforting. The war was over now. A tentative peace bridged the gap between his species and the Lyrans. They were here to strengthen that peace through marriage.

  A sigh escaped him when a full moon broke the horizon, blood red but slowly turning to white as it rose. He watched its progress and then smiled when another moon appeared a distance away from the first, this one crescent. He studied them both and realised that the first moon partially eclipsed the second. It was beautiful. It added a strange sense of magic to the falling night.

  He missed the moon of Varka Prime. It glowed purple, a pale lilac that reminded him of the flowers his mother and sister had preferred. It had been long decades since their passing.

  In all that time, he had never left Varka Prime. His duty had been to the people and the struggle for peace for his species, while his friend Van, Count of Aeris, had left to join the military. Regis wished that he could have that freedom too, but knew that it wasn’t possible. He had a duty to do.

  The darkening sky lured his attention to how quiet it was on this planet at night. He looked down at the garden where it sprawled thirty metres below him and then leapt over the wall, landing silently in a crouching position on the balcony above the garden. He straightened and walked to the top of the steps that led down into the maze of paths and flowers. It was a beautiful night for a walk. It had been some time since he had felt so relaxed and at peace with the universe.

  Regis followed the steps down into the garden and let his feet find their own route amongst the winding paths. The flowers were beautiful, especially so when the moonlight touched them. He gave a brief thought to the fact that the emperor hadn’t reported back and that he might miss him, and then shrugged it off. He wanted to walk the garden. If he needed him, the emperor would easily be able to sense him here.

  Perhaps he was still speaking to the princess. Regis frowned at that thought. It had been several hours since he had left them alone together. Maybe the offer his species had laid on her table was palatable. A firm peace between their species, the technology of Varka at their disposal, and a marriage that would connect them with other species of similar prosperity. Not to mention the fact that Varka were offering Lyra the second planet in their system for a military base station. Varka Two was a deal breaker. The Lyrans had desired a presence in the Varka system for nearing a century and had fought hard to win one.

  Unfortunately for them, his species had fought harder.

  The Lyran Imperial Army were no match for them.

  Regis stopped and looked back at the palace. It was bright in the moonlight, the white stone glittering. Most of the windows glowed warm and amber from the lights inside. A few of the balcony rooms were in darkness. Without thinking, he reached out with his senses and focused on each room. The unlit ones weren’t all empty. Their occupants were sleeping. The lit ones contained one or two signatures. A light sweet perfume of Lyran lilies came from one, carried down to him on the cool night breeze.

  The princess.

  Her room was distant from his, close to the rear of the palace, near to where he was now in the garden. He knew it was her. Her scent was unique in the castle and had stayed with him all day. He stared up at her window, a part of him willing her to come out onto her balcony. He had read Terran literature about a star-crossed match and their tender balcony scene. He had read a lot about love in an effort to understand it.

  Looking back at the moons and the myriad of twinkling stars, Regis took a deep breath of night air that filled his heart with warmth and did something he hadn’t done since his beloved mother and sister had died.

  He sang.

  ***

  Sophia sat cross-legged on her expansive bed, hungrily devouring the information in the computer pad about Varka that the emperor had given to her. Much of what she had read so far had contradicted that in the Lyran archives. Apparently, Varka Two rotated like her planet, with equal day and night across the sphere. It was the planet they were offering Lyra in exchange for her. The planet where her uncle had fought twice and almost died both times. Her family told her not to concern herself with such things, but she couldn’t help it. She knew there was peace between Lyra and Varka now, but she couldn’t forget their bloody history.

  She paused and her breath hitched in her throat when she moved to the next page of information on the pad.

  Varka Prime was stunning. The sight of it sent chills chasing over her arms and down her spine. The picture was of a city with beautiful pale cream towers decorated with jade and gold, or blue and silver. Intricate patterns of those colours surrounded the windows and doors, and adorned the bridges in the foreground.
A wide river snaked through the city. Her eyes followed it into the picture and stopped when she saw a building in the centre of the city, high above everything else on a hill. A waterfall spilled from arches where the building met the hill and the water cascaded down into the city. Flying buttresses supported its tall spiked towers. She had never seen anything so beautiful. It even surpassed her Uncle Balt and Aunt Kayla’s home on Lyra Five. It was breathtaking.

  Sophia eagerly read the passage of text below it and frowned when she realised that the building was the emperor’s palace.

  Her frown increased when a lilting male voice drifted through her window, singing in a language she didn’t recognise. She tapped the translator in her ear and wondered if it was working. The song was beautiful, so soft and melodious that she needed to hear it clearer. She slipped from her bed, leaving the computer pad there, and crossed her room to the balcony.

  The sky was stunning tonight, the moons shining so bright that they lit the world in silver. She looked down at the garden and her frown melted away when she saw who was singing. It couldn’t be. The Count of Sagres?

  Her gaze followed him as he walked slowly through the garden, seemingly oblivious to everything, even her.

  His song was like that of the Sonaran, a mythical sea creature that lived on Lyra Seven, her system’s outermost planet. Apparently, its song lured you to a sweet death. His song lured her.

  Conscious of her bare feet and nightdress but not caring about either, Sophia snuck through the palace and out into the garden. She needed to hear it closer. She had never heard such a sombre but beautiful song.

  Her footsteps were silent on the pale stone path that wound through the garden. She approached the count from behind, slow and cautious, remembering how the Varkans had reacted earlier today when she had moved too quickly. His hand drifted out to brush the pale blue rose heads as he passed and he raised his face to the moons. It felt as though he was singing to them.

  He was stunning even in the low light, his uniform cut to show his figure. The jaw length strands of his black hair shifted in the breeze, the moonlight making them shine. She wanted to look into his eyes again, to see his handsome face.

  The small white pebbles of the path near the fountain scrunched when she stepped on them and she lifted her foot, cringing at the noise. Too late. The singing had stopped and she could feel him looking at her.

  “Please, don’t stop,” Sophia said and smiled her apology into his eyes. “Continue. Do continue.”

  He shook his head, the jaw length dark ribbons of his hair moving with the motion. In this light, he looked even paler and his eyes were pools of midnight.

  “I apologise for disturbing you, your highness.” His voice was as deep and smooth as she remembered it from his introduction, its echo no longer startling her. The sound of his voice sent her insides trembling in a strange way.

  “You weren’t, really you weren’t,” Sophia said and stepped forwards, her brow furrowing as she tried to convince him to continue. If anyone had disturbed someone, she had disturbed him. She shouldn’t have come down. She should have known that he would stop if he realised someone was listening. A frown crossed her face when she realised that the translator wasn’t broken. She could understand what he was saying. Had he been singing in a language that the device didn’t recognise? “It was beautiful, although I couldn’t understand it. Was it a song for the moon?”

  He smiled, sending her heart pounding. “A song for a goddess, sung in the old language as it should be.”

  Her cheeks flushed.

  “I am sorry,” he said and stepped up to her, holding his hand out. “I have not properly introduced myself. Regis, Count of Sagres.”

  She placed her hand into his and his thumb closed over her fingers. His gaze held hers. Regis. A count. She hadn’t found anything about the societal structure of the Varkans so far. Was a count high up in court? Her cheeks blazed again when she realised that he wasn’t letting go of her hand.

  “I’ve been reading about Varka,” she said to break the silence and his fingers left hers.

  He held his hand out to one side and she started walking with him, nerves fluttering in her stomach. She hadn’t asked the emperor anything about his species. They had only talked about the glory of Varka and the things that she would gain from marrying him.

  “Is it true that one of the planets in your system rotates?”

  He nodded and placed his hands behind his back, locking them in the curve above his backside. “It is. It is uninhabited for that reason.”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  “Because we cannot bear the light for too long, and the Wraiths cannot bear the darkness. We occupy only the planets that keep one face to the sun.”

  “What side are the Varkans from?” She glanced at him, her gaze tracing his noble profile and committing it to memory. He was a count and he travelled with the emperor, which meant that he had to be important. But would he be important enough for her father? In her heart, she knew that her father intended her to marry someone of a higher rank—a prince, a king or an emperor. She hoped with that same heart that she could change his mind and make him see that she had to marry for love, had to marry a man who she had feelings for, or she would never be happy.

  “The side of darkness, as I am certain you suspected,” Regis said, drawing her out of her thoughts and bringing her attention back to him.

  She nodded this time. He seemed at home in the dark and all of them had made it clear they were uncomfortable with the bright Lyran sun.

  “Is it always dark? I saw a city in a picture. It had looked like evening there.”

  “The dark side we live on is freezing. We have built a series of interconnected shielded cities where a dim day is artificially created and the temperature is controlled.” He looked up at the moon.

  Varkan technology sounded as amazing as her uncles and father had told her it was.

  “Is it always so dark though? It looked like night was falling.”

  “It is set to a preferable brightness, otherwise it hurts our eyes.”

  “It looks too dark to me.” She looked up at the moon he seemed so fascinated by. Or was it moons? Did Varka Prime have only one, or none at all? She hadn’t read anything about it.

  Her eyes fell back to him. She had never met a man as handsome as he was. There was such beauty in his features, such elegance, but there was strength too. His whole air spoke of it, of power and authority. It stirred her blood and made a warm feeling settle in the depths of her chest. She would give anything to have him command her, to have his demanding lips on hers and his hands gripping her with all of his strength.

  “When you marry the emperor you will live on the dark side. You will need to become accust—”

  “Marry the emperor?” Sophia interjected, stunned to a standstill by what he had said.

  He turned and looked at her, a single dark eyebrow raised in intrigue at her outburst. She didn’t care if it wasn’t very princess-like to speak in such a fashion.

  “That’s a little presumptuous,” she continued with a glare. “I’m never leaving Lyra and I’m certainly not going to marry your emperor.”

  His dark eyes narrowed as he frowned. “Why not?”

  There was an edge of malice to his tone that she didn’t like. Suddenly she could sense his feelings and they were all anger. Had she offended him with her rejection of his emperor?

  “I don’t love him!”

  His frown didn’t shift. “What does love have to do with breeding?”

  Her eyes widened and she stared at him, unsure what to say and wondering if he really had just said that.

  “Breeding?” Mortified, she trembled on the brink of unleashing her own anger but clenched her fists instead, desperate not to do anything that would disturb relations between Varka and Lyra. This man was a count and the first attendant to the emperor. He could have power enough over the emperor and his species to sway them into war with Lyra. She bit her tongue but
it was no use. She couldn’t stand there and let him say such things about her. What sort of picture had he made of her in his mind? What kind of person would marry purely for the sake of breeding? “I... I won’t marry someone that I don’t love.”