The Kingdom of the Seven Stars: Chaturanga

Chapter 1

King Geoffrey Tarquin II, the thirty-seventh monarch of the Pleiades, closed his eyes. His head sank back into the middle pillow. King Geoffrey was eighty years old. He was white haired and his face and limbs were thin and pale from the long battle he had waged for the past six years with Trasar's Syndrome. His hand rested on the sheets, but Crown Princess Jessamine Tarquin still held it tight in both of hers as her father's chest stopped moving. She kept on holding it even as the king's hand relaxed and the palace doctor lifted his multi-stethoscope off King Geoffrey's chest and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, your highness," he said.

Princess Jessamine squeezed her eyes shut. The crown princess of the Pleiades was thirty-five. She was slender and curvaceous, with a pale, heart-shaped face and shiny dark brown hair that she wore in a neat beehive. She was dressed in an elegant one-piece black trouser suit and long boots. She opened her light blue eyes again, tears glistening in their corners, and gently let go of her father's hand and placed it on the sheets.

A soft sniff came from behind her. Jessamine turned around in her chair to where her two daughters, Princess Alice and Princess Ellen, were standing. She held out her arms and they both came to her and hugged her. Alice closed her eyes as well. Ellen sniffed again and blinked back her tears. The doctor stepped back and quietly turned the medical console off. At the foot of the bed, the prime minister of the Pleiades, Benjamin Paladin, sighed and bowed his head. The commander of the palace guards, Captain Zachary, stayed standing at attention by the door, but his sadness showed on his face.

"Mum? Granddad?"

Jessamine and her daughters looked up as Alex hurried into the room, with the royal steward close behind him. Alex stopped two feet from the bed. His shoulders sank. He breathed out and tears formed in his eyes as well.

It was not unexpected. His grandfather had been ill for years. They had all known it was coming, and that tonight was going to arrive sooner rather than later. But, Alex found out now, that did not make it any easier.

Alice let go of her mother and came across the room to hug him.

"It was OK," she said, as the doctor gently drew the sheet up over their grandfather's head. "There wasn't any pain. He just went to sleep."

Alice was Alex's twin sister. She was the same height as him, with the same blue eyes and copper-coloured hair, though she straightened her curls and wore it in a short pixie cut. She had a clear, high voice that all of her singing teachers had loved working with and was wearing a simple white dress.

Alex nodded, hugging her back, then let go of her to hug his mother who had stood up. Jessamine stroked his hair, tears on both their cheeks.

"I'm sorry I wasn't..." said Alex. He had not been fast enough. He should not have just run. He should have sprinted, as fast as he possibly could, all the way to the bedroom, no matter who or what he knocked over in the palace corridors.

"No one could have known it would be tonight," said Jessamine. There had been several false alarms over the past few weeks. "Dad wouldn't have been upset."

"If he'd been more awake, he might have made us leave," said Ellen. Alex's other sister was four years younger than him and Alice and she was a head shorter than them, with their mother's brown hair, which she wore in a similar style to Alice's. Even though she had Jessamine's hair, Ellen looked more like their father, Jessamine's consort, who had died in a shuttle crash six years ago and she had inherited his hazel brown eyes rather than the Tarquin blue. She had been in bed when one of the servants had come to fetch her and was dressed in her pyjamas and slippers. "He didn't want any of us to see it. He was probably glad you weren't here."