Starr Valentine

by Abigail Drake

  “Vegonian vision,” I said. “Your housekeeper is not a pretty woman.”

  Julian looked at me with a question in his eyes. “I guess not. She came from Earth on the first refugee ship. She isn’t happy here.”

  “Humph,” I said, imitating Myrtle. “I’ll take care of this.”

  Within a few minutes, I had dealt with Myrtle. I sat with her at the kitchen table and gave her a thorough explanation about Vegonian Vision.

  Myrtle leaned in close to me. “I was pretty on Earth,” she said softly.

  She told the truth. I could see it in her eyes. I stared, trying to see some beauty in her features, but it evaded me. All I could see was bitterness and anger. I tried to find a way to comfort her.

  “I understand. I was pretty on Earth too.” I patted her hand.

  Myrtle glared at me. “So what? You’re beautiful here too.”

  My eyes widened in surprise. “I am?” I bit my lip to keep from squealing. Maybe my self-improvement project was working. “Thank you, Myrtle. It means there is hope.”

  “Why?” asked Myrtle, frowning.

  “Because I was ugly when I first got here. And an awful person. Spoiled, selfish, and extremely vain.”

  “Where have I heard those words before?” asked Julian from the doorway. I blushed and shot him a dirty look, but he grinned.

  We set to work, deciding what needed to be done and how Myrtle could accomplish it. Myrtle was suddenly cooperative and extremely motivated. It likely had something to do with Julian being in the room. Although she did throw me an occasional scowl, she set to work right away with the army of servants I’d borrowed from the palace. Once things hummed along smoothly, I told Julian I had to leave.

  “Where art thou going?” He had a streak of dust on his cheek, and I wiped it away with my finger.

  “I have things to do besides clean up your messes, Your Grace,” I said, giving him a cheeky grin.

  He smiled. “Be safe, okay?”

  “I always am,” I said, and he rolled his eyes.

  As I walked away from the palace, I knew time was running out. I had one day to prove Adrian wasn’t guilty of anything, but I had no idea where to start. I wandered the streets of Celesta deep in thought. I still had hours to go before I had to attend Sports Day and compete in the gymnastics event, so I kept walking. Sometimes moving helped me to think. As I tried to sort things out, I replayed every word Adrian had said. Suddenly a thought occurred to me.

  “Protect the Fortis name,” I murmured to myself. He hadn’t said he wanted to protect the Marcel name. He wanted to protect the Fortis name.

  I knew exactly what to do. I ran straight to the library, flew past the guard at the front, and went right up to Maya’s mother’s office.

  “I need to look at the records,” I said, panting slightly.

  “Of course,” she said.

  I told her what I was looking for, and she took the giant volumes off the shelf for me and placed them on the solid wooden table in the center of the room. She told me to take my time, and I immediately set to work.

  Nearly an hour later I found what I was looking for.

  “Adrian Fortis, son of Tarquinia Fortis, born March 14th,” I whispered to myself. I sat back in the chair, my mouth dropping open in shock.

  “Ew,” I said as the realization hit me. “He’s a sophomore. The stinking liar,” I shuddered. Pulling from the lower grades in high school reeked of desperation, even if it was unintentional.

  I sat, staring at the journal, trying to figure it out. Adrian was born the same day and time to Tarquinia Fortis as Felix, but there was no father listed by his name.

  “Twins.”

  There was only one reason why Tarquinia would have gone to such an effort to tweak the records so carefully. She’d been hiding her son from Wayland Marcel.

  Seventeen

  “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

  Julian wasn’t at home, so I went back to the palace and found my sister and Maya. They were getting ready for Sports Day. Maya would take part in a swim competition, so she wore her bathing suit under a warm-up jacket and pants. Astra would be doing archery. She had on a scaled down model of standard Vegonian dress and carried a bow and arrows. I rushed them into my bedroom so I could tell them what I’d learned.

  “Where have you been all day?” asked Astra. “We were about to go and tell Mom and Dad.”

  “At the library,” I shouted from my bathroom as I squeezed into my leotard. Ice blue and covered in silver sparkles, I hadn’t worn it in years, but I’d brought it because it matched my eye color exactly. I grabbed a brush and headed out to the bedroom. “I found something.”

  Astra took the brush and pushed me onto the floor in front of her so she could braid my hair. “What?” She had bobby pins in her mouth, so the effect was muffled.

  I turned to look at her, ignoring her protests as she yanked on my hair. “He is Wayland Marcel and Tarquinia’s son. Felix must have been his brother. A twin. And he was a sophomore, the jerk.”

  Maya frowned. “Why wasn’t he listed in the archives?”

  “He was.” I turned so Astra could finish my hair. “But not under Marcel. They listed him as Adrian Fortis. The records said his mother was Tarquinia, but didn’t list a father’s name.”

  “Do you know what this means?” asked Maya.

  “Julian was right all along, and Adrian is the son of the bad guy?” I asked.

  “It also means Tarquinia had friends in high places to help her fudge the records,” Maya said. “And I bet there is no way Wayland Marcel knew about the entry. He was a total egomaniac. He would never have let his son go by a different last name.”

  I had to agree with her. I’d come to the same conclusion myself.

  “Maya is right,” Astra said. “The question is—what should we do about it?”

  “I don’t know.” I gnawed on my lip. “As far as I can tell, Adrian hasn’t done anything wrong.”

  “Yet,” Maya said.

  “Yet,” I agreed sadly. I took a deep breath and pulled out the necklace, being careful not to disturb my braid as I lifted it over my head. I didn’t want to wear it anymore. I held it a minute before putting it on my nightstand. “He didn’t lie to me about who he was. He didn’t even hide it. He gave me this necklace. Why would he do such a thing?”

  Astra considered it. “Maybe he didn’t think you’d connect the dots.”

  “Or maybe he wanted to give you a birthday present and it was all he had.” Maya gave me a little hug. “No matter what happens, Starr, I know he honestly liked you.”

  “I liked him too,” I said sadly, “but I don’t think I could feel the same way anymore, even if we’re wrong about him. I realized it as soon as I saw him again.”

  I thought about the way he’d sounded outside his apartment, and the way I’d reacted when he’d kissed me the night of the Moon Ball. Whatever I felt for him on the transport ship didn’t seem to exist anymore.

  “So, what do you want to do?” asked Astra.

  I put on a pair of steel grey yoga pants and grabbed a hoodie in the same icy blue as my leotard. I slipped on ballet flats and checked myself in the mirror before turning back to Astra and Maya.

  “I want to find Julian and tell him what I’ve learned. Afterwards, we’ll all go to my parents. But first we have to get through Sports Day.”

  We walked to the center of Celesta. The Sports Day events were being held in a large complex in a park in the middle of the city. Crowds of people filled the streets, happy and excited. Families with small children strolled about in the sunshine of a warm Vegonian day, and music played somewhere in the distance. The festive atmosphere was contagious, making me smile in spite of the current circumstances.

  “Do you remember the town carnival back home? This reminds me of it,” I said to Astra.

  She laughed. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  I turned to Maya. “Each year in Middleton we h
ad a town carnival. A hokey little thing, but always so much fun. This kind of feels the same.”

  “It does.” Astra gave me a little smirk, “but I doubt they have a kissing booth.”

  I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “I’d almost forgotten about that.”

  “A kissing booth?” Maya asked with a giggle. “Please don’t tell me you were in charge, Starr.”

  “Every single year,” Astra said dramatically. I tried to glare at her, but my heart wasn’t in it.

  “Pretty disgusting,” I admitted, “but for a good cause.”

  “The football team?” asked Astra, lifting one of her perfectly arched eyebrows.

  I groaned. “I was young and stupid. Can we talk about something else?”

  “Okay,” Maya said, biting her lip so she wouldn’t laugh. “What time is your event?”

  I looked at my schedule. “In about two hours. First, we’ll go to your swim meet, and then we’ll watch Astra shoot people.”

  “Targets, not people, Starr,” she said with a roll of her dark eyes.

  “I guess you’ve forgotten about the time you almost shot the mayor with an arrow at the town carnival.” I giggled, and Astra snorted.

  “It was his fault,” she said indignantly. “He walked right in front of me.”

  We cheered Maya on at her swim meet, and later sat with my parents and watched Astra dominate the archery competition. She beat all of the female competitors and most of the men before she tied a young and extremely handsome officer named Cesar. She blushed when he knelt at her feet and gave her his bow and quiver full of arrows.

  “He likes her,” Maya whispered in my ear.

  “She likes him,” I whispered back.

  I left early to get warmed up for the gymnastic event. As I was walking, I saw a tall and familiar looking older man walking ahead of me.

  “Captain Augustus,” I called out, but he didn’t hear me. I wanted to ask if he’d seen Julian at all. I hadn’t seen him since this morning with Myrtle. I jogged, trying to catch up with the captain, but the crowd was so thick I couldn’t. Because he was tall, however, I was able to see him turn down a path ahead and go into the park. Once I got to the path, I followed him.

  It was strangely quiet on the jungle path after being in the middle of the festival. I could see the marmesou scurrying through the trees, and occasionally I’d catch a glimpse of the wing of a tropical bird or hear its call. I saw a few small rabbits and a toad, too. The only thing I couldn’t see was Captain Augustus.

  I noticed a clearing up ahead and as I got closer, I heard voices. Captain Augustus was there, but not alone. He was with Adrian.

  I crept to the side of the path and hid behind a large tree, close enough to hear them, but invisible in the thick vegetation of the jungle garden. There I waited, holding my breath.

  “It’s a dangerous plan, Uncle,” Adrian said. He looked tired, like he hadn’t slept well in a long time.

  “We have no choice. This isn’t about you or me. This is about our family. Our honor.”

  Adrian seemed to ponder this. “Timing is essential, but are you certain we’re doing the right thing?”

  “Absolutely. If we don’t act now, the false queen will be crowned once again, and all hope will be lost.” Captain Augustus, clasped Adrian’s shoulder. “Once we get rid of the queen and her consort, the only thing standing in our way is Princess Astra. It will be simple to take care of her. She’s utterly defenseless.”

  I covered my mouth with my hand in shock. Captain Augustus, the man my parents trusted, was Adrian’s uncle, and together they wanted to hurt my family and stop my mother from being crowned Queen of Vega again. I wouldn’t have believed either one of them would ever do such a thing. It made no sense.

  “Utterly defenseless.” Adrian’s expression was detached, emotionless. “Then I can marry Princess Starr, and all will be right again on Vega.”

  Captain Augustus was not emotionless. He had a maniacal gleam in his eye. “You will be saving our entire planet, and no one will question who is the rightful ruler of Vega again.”

  He spat as he talked, a nasty habit, but I couldn’t even think about his bad etiquette right now. I was still processing how Adrian planned to kill my entire family and somehow thought he could still get me to marry him. Like that was ever going to happen.

  Adrian seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “But if the princess suspects I had anything to do with the deaths of her family members—”

  Captain Augustus laughed, a terrible sound. “No need to worry. She’ll think it was her precious duke. Myrtle has already drugged him. He’ll be out cold until tomorrow. She’s planting the evidence as we speak.”

  “Excellent.” Adrian gave a curt little nod. “He’ll have no idea what’s going on until it’s too late, and it will be the perfect payback for what he did to my father.”

  “Things are aligning exactly as planned. It will all be over soon.”

  Adrian hesitated. “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing, Uncle? I have doubts.”

  Captain Augustus grabbed Adrian by the arm and shook him aggressively. “This isn’t about your father. This isn’t even about your mother. It’s about the future of our people. Wake up, boy. You know the truth. It’s the only way.”

  “We must act,” Adrian said, his voice soft. “As soon as Princess Starr is done competing at the gymnastics tournament, her family will die. We’ll ambush them as they walk through the exit of the arena. I have men posted there already. The passageway is narrow, and no one will be able to save them.”

  “You can’t be a part of it. They will know it is you,” Captain Augustus said, his gigantic eyebrows wiggling above his eyes like enormous caterpillars.

  “I’ll be disguised,” Adrian said, placing a mask over his head. It covered his hair and face. From a distance, in the same white uniform, he did look a bit like Julian, but they were opposites in every possible way.

  When Adrian took off the mask, I felt nothing for him but disgust. I couldn’t remember what I had ever liked about this guy. Right now he looked like a giant blond rodent. I found nothing attractive about him at all. He’d plotted to kill my entire family, and it ticked me off. I didn’t feel scared, or sad. I was pissed.

  Captain Augustus and Adrian took off on a path at the opposite side of the clearing. I waited until certain they were gone before retracing my steps and running back to the main part of the festival as fast as I could. It didn’t take long before I found Maya and Astra.

  “Starr, where have you been?” asked Astra. “Your event is about to start. Mom and Dad are already there.” She still held her bow and quiver full of arrows. The handsome soldier, Cesar, stood behind her.

  “Listen, something bad is going to happen, and we have to stop it. Do you trust him?” I asked, indicating Cesar.

  Astra blushed from the tip of her head to her toes, but she trusted him, which was good enough for me. I told Astra, Maya, and Cesar about what I’d heard, and Cesar immediately ran off to let the royal guard know. He made us stay behind and wait until he returned.

  Maya looked at me in shock. “Adrian is planning to kill them?” She sank onto a bench looking pale. “Oh, Starr, I’m so sorry. It’s entirely my fault.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “I told him where you’d be the night of the Moon Ball. I encouraged him because I thought it would make you happy,” she said with a sniffle. “Julian wanted me to tell you, but I didn’t.”

  I sat next to her and patted her back. “It's okay. None of us understood what he was like.”

  “Julian did,” she said between sobs. “Which is why he pulled me off the dance floor during the Moon Festival. He thought I was you. He was trying to protect you from Adrian.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The night of the Moon Ball, I was wearing your dress. Julian came onto the dance floor and grabbed me. I thought it was funny he’d gotten us mixed up, but once I realized how scared he was, I felt
bad. He knew Adrian was dangerous. I didn’t believe him.” She covered her face with her hands.

  “So you and Julian are not a couple?”

  Maya looked at me in shock. “Of course not. I would never do such a thing to you. I knew how much you liked him as soon as I saw those photos of you in Paris. It was obvious to everyone except to you and to Julian.”

  A small bubble of happiness formed in my chest, but it was immediately replaced by a giant feeling of panic. I jumped to my feet. “Julian is at his palace. His housekeeper Myrtle drugged him. We have to go and help him.”

  Astra stopped me. “We need to stay here and wait for Cesar. I’m sure Julian will be fine. They won’t hurt him if they want him to take the blame.”

  She had a point but waiting for Cesar and doing nothing turned into the longest five minutes of my life. I was overjoyed when he ran through the crowds to us, surrounded by a squadron of the palace guard.

  He grabbed Astra’s hands. “Princess Astra, we have a plan. I need your permission to enact it.”

  Cesar and the other guards explained how it would be better to continue with the program so they could catch the bad guys in the act. Doing so would ensure there was no doubt about their guilt, and also, we would be able to get everyone responsible at once instead of taking the risk some might get away.

  “It would mean Princess Starr would have to continue with the competition and pretend like there isn’t a problem. Art thou prepared to do so, Princess Starr?”

  Astra and the squadron of guards looked at me. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my sister and my parents. But someone must be sent to Duke Julian’s palace to make sure he is okay.”

  Cesar sent two of the guards, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Let’s get this show on the road,” I said.

  We rushed off to the arena. Once we got there, I stepped into the center with the other gymnasts. Several of the events had already started, but I wasn’t late for mine. I began warming up, stretching and flexing as I thought about what I had to do. I glanced up at the stands and saw a white-faced Astra sitting next to my parents. Even from this distance, I could tell my parents knew. My father had his hand on his sword and his head kept turning back and forth as he scanned the crowd. My mother looked even paler than Astra.