Kiera's Sun (#2, Anshan Saga)

Chapter One

Several days later

On Kiera's first visit to Qatwal, she'd been kidnapped into space by her best friend. On her second, she'd been brought back from Earth by the same friend to save Qatwal from destruction.

But her third visit was ranking as the most awkward yet. She stood in the hallway outside the banquet hall in the traditional, formal robe of the Anshan nishani – peach, silk-like material interwoven with threads of gray Anshan metal and a wide, red leathery waistband. A ceremonial knife made of the metal was at her hip, and her jewelry was made of the same subdued metal worked into the shapes of animals and random doodles she'd designed with the help of the metalworkers. A filigreed tiara was snugly attached to her hair and the rose-gold band marking her as A'ran's lifemate around one arm.

A'Ran was stiff beside her, dressed similarly in the understated uniform of the Anshan royalty. The small crowd across the entrance from them was decked out in clothing far more colorful and lavish with gems that glowed every color under the sun. After her time with A'Ran, she understood all their gems were worth far less than the metal she wore, and they openly admired her tiara with envy.

At the moment, the two parties were waiting for Romas, the king of Qatwal, before anyone moved.

Kiera strained to recall her latest dream. She'd been dreaming of Anshan for a week straight, but the images were too quick and liquid for her to make out many of the forms she saw before they had changed into something else. She didn't think the Anshan palace looked like this one, though. At least, she hadn't seen it in her dreams, though she'd seen other places: the storm, a field of green grass, an underground river ...

"Why did Gol-dee-locks go into a house if predatory creatures lived there?" A'Ran whispered without breaking his I'm-in-charge façade.

She blinked out of her thoughts and glanced up at him.

"Was this the same village where the seven little men lived?" Leyon, her lifemate's cousin, piped up from behind her.

They spoke quietly enough for the party across the hall not to hear.

Kiera sighed. She'd been trying unsuccessfully to explain the concept of fairy tales to men from a culture that didn't understand the difference between history and fables.

"No," she replied. "All the stories I told you happen in different places."

"Like the Five Galaxies. They're on different planets," A'Ran said.

"Did they have spacecraft?" Leyon asked.

"You said each tale has a lesson. What is this lesson?" asked Mansr. "Should she not know better than to go into the house of beasts and eat their food?"

"Maybe she meant to go into the house with the seven little men and make them breakfast," Leyon suggested.

"No," she snapped. "You can't mix the stories!"

The party across the hall from them shifted as Romas appeared, and they fell silent.

Sounds of cheerful talking and laughter tumbled out of the banquet hall, along with the scent of food, into the silent hallway. But for once, Kiera couldn't find any reason to smile.

Evelyn, her pregnant, former best friend was radiant as always at the side of the Qatwali ruler, Romas, who was A'Ran's on-again, off-again enemy. Kiera had spent much time trying to figure out what she felt towards Evey, whose selfishness had nonetheless brought Kiera to A'Ran and a world that needed her.

But this evening, it wasn't her internal conflict over all Evey had done troubling her. It was the bump of her friend's belly, the reminder of Kiera's visit to the Anshan medics when she'd learned the awful truth.