Chapter 1

Stars glittered above me in the chill night sky, strange constellations looking down with cold disinterest at their reflections in the ink-black lake. The water was still enough that I could hardly tell the difference between it and the sky.

“Okay, it’s a beautiful night.” Eden Colony didn’t live up to its billing, but had some redeeming features. “Pity about the days.”

Eden’s sun burned hotter and brighter than Earth’s, and pushed out a lot more radiation. Like most colonists, I avoided daylight wherever possible, and cursed the pictures in the brochures that fooled my parents into making the long journey. I’d seen the brochures they kept, with pictures of beautiful rolling fields. Color correction removed the blue tint of local sunlight, and brightness controls made it less blinding than reality.

Back at the colony pod I called home, my family would be hard at work trying to raise crops and hoping they didn’t grow too toxic to sell. Usually I’d be there with them. Tonight, I had other duties.

Duties that so far meant watching the night sky. Guilt gnawed at me for abandoning my brothers to all the farmwork. More guilt for feeling relief at being alone. Our pod had all the comforts of home, if by ‘home’ you meant cramped rooms, a single shared bathroom, and a foodmaker that only produced flavorless nutrient mush. No space, no privacy, and no life. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family. It would just be nice to love them from a little further away sometimes.

It was the only life I’d known, and I wondered if that made it easier or harder for me. My older brothers remembered Earth, if only vaguely. I’d been born here, the first human native to Eden.

A shooting star brought me out of my thoughts, and I sat up to watch it. Sure enough, it changed course—that was a spaceship, not a meteor entering the atmosphere. Hopefully the right spaceship, but there was no way to check aside from going and asking.

I kicked the buggy into gear, driving along the coast and up into the imposing mountains. Looming over our plot of land, Karych Castle waited for me, clinging to a cliff’s edge. The seat of Duke Strahar of Vazand, the alien ruler of the planet. The Drachali were few, and somehow the Eden Colony Company had missed them in their surveys. They claimed the radiation messed up their sensors. I doubted that—more likely, the surveyors pocketed their fee and did the bare minimum.

Which led to a short, sharp war on our arrival, one that ended in a stalemate and the Compromise. Humans could stay on Eden, but we were guests of the Drachali and would pay for the use of their land. Between that and the reduced yields from the radiation, we were screwed.

“I can change that,” I muttered to myself as I piloted the buggy slowly up the mountain. “Speak to their king. He has to see me. It’s their law.”

The previous king died a year ago, and now his son came out of mourning to take the throne. That meant visiting his vassals, like Duke Strahar, and listening to petitioners from the commoners. That was me.

Karych Castle rose imposingly over me when I reached it, black stone blending with the night sky. The gloom hid any details, and I only saw the spires by the starlight they blocked. Giant gates opened as I approached, like a mouth waiting to swallow me up if I was unwise enough to step inside. Which might be true. Duke Strahar had never liked humans.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out. This is my chance to help the colony. I’m not backing out because there’s a scary door. They’re probably throwing their king a feast. Opening my eyes again, I drove on into the castle.

Everything was quiet, strangely so. I’d expected to be met by someone, by guards or servants. Instead, I was left to drive into the courtyard and park. That put my buggy next to the spaceship I’d seen earlier, a beautiful bird-like thing of pure black, the swept-back wings still glowing faintly from the heat of re-entry.

Okay, whoever owns that has taste. It looked like it wanted to fly, like it resented the ground for holding it. Maybe, if I was lucky, I’d get to see it take off?

“Eden Sumner?” Hearing my name, I spun around. Yes, I have the same name as the colony, and yes, that gets annoying. My parents had their reasons.

The speaker was a tall, slender Drachali female wearing a dress that put mine to shame. I’d dressed up for the occasion as best I could—this lady effortlessly blew me out of the water. Her smile could have been friendly or predatory, showing off a row of needle-sharp teeth.

I’m here now. What am I going to do if I don’t trust her? “Yes, that’s me.”

“Delighted to meet you. I’m Ellarax Vitvha, lady-companion to Lady Kharmiya, and I’m the one who told your people about the royal visit. If you’ll come with me, I’ll lead you to his Majesty King Rhakaris.”