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  He carefully pressed the scanner to a spot near her elbow, and she winced as the sample was taken. A moment later, the scanner chirped and a light glowed blue.

  Instead of the men relaxing, they sprang into action, surrounding her and marching her along the halls to the launch area.

  There was no one else in the halls, which was extremely odd. Even when she had arrived in the middle of the station night, there had been folks moving around.

  Six men surrounded her, and she just marched behind the cloak in front of her until he and the others stopped. Myra tried to stop, but since she couldn’t see anything, she ran into the back in front of her.

  “Oof.” She staggered and recovered herself, but the man she had struck turned toward her, his lips curving into a smile.

  He didn’t say a word, merely turned back to the wall she could barely see in front of him, and he entered a code into the lock. They started to move again.

  Two security locks were passed, and finally, Myra could see something. A sleek black ship was waiting for them.

  This was it. Either she went forward, or she tried to find a way out of this. Her mind scrambled around as it had been doing since Norz came to the house. She couldn’t find a way out. She was going to disappear and no one was here to wish her luck or see her go.

  The men around her didn’t let her mull it over. They walked up the metal pathway and into the ship without hesitation. That was one of the characteristics of the Night clan. They did not hesitate.

  She was marched down another hallway until a door opened, and her wall of men parted to let her walk inside.

  The room was surprisingly wide, had a small couch, a dispenser and a terminal. The moment that Myra stepped inside, the door slid shut behind her. Locked in again.

  “The day just keeps getting better and better.”

  She dumped her duffel bag on the floor as the engines fired up. There was a folding seat flat against one wall, and she settled in, tightening the straps.

  This was a shuttle, and it was going to approach one of the larger ships. She had no idea how long that would take.

  When the minimal pull of the moon was done, she unbuckled, knelt on the floor and put her earbuds in. Music became her universe, and she turned her mind inward.

  The men who had escorted her to her current quarters were definitely Night clan. She had seen enough images of them to know them on sight. Their deep, dark gazes told her that they were not the Eclipse clan. Those folk had eyes so pale as to be piercing white in dark skin.

  The Night clan were the assassins, the Eclipse clan were the spies, and both were warriors for hire as well as invading armies. The role of the Day clan had been to rule, and there had been mention of the growth of the Kameraet being in their hands. Apparently, the other clans didn’t think so, because they had destroyed the Day clan to the last man.

  She grimaced as she redid her last thought, well, all but one man. Why they wanted her now was still a mystery. Perhaps they wanted to kill her in public and stamp out her line once and for all.

  Based on the progress on her playlist, she was locked in her own thoughts for about an hour when the ship she was in shivered slightly.

  Sighing, she got to her feet and picked up her bag. She pulled out one earbud and tucked it into her shirt while she kept the other one in. She needed all the help that the music could give her.

  Her muscles tightened when the door opened without warning. The dark gathering around her doorway was enough of a hint. Time to go.

  They walked her back the way they had originally come. The wall of darkness was the same, and soon, the interior of a shuttle bay gave her something else to look at.

  Her escort took her into the larger expanse of what had to be a warship, and they walked her to a door that turned out to be an office. Her guards parted, and she stared at the occupant of the space.

  A man with white eyes and dark skin sat at the desk, and he smiled slightly. “Please, come into the medical centre, lady.”

  Her mind was translating for her, but it took a while. “Medical centre?”

  “Yes. We have to do a decontamination protocol as well as inoculations for our local diseases.”

  It made sense, but she had been through the decontamination on Earth.

  He stood, and his height made her blink. She had thought that the guards were tall, but he was over six and a half feet by several inches. The nine-foot ceilings now made a certain amount of sense.

  He opened the door behind him, and he escorted her into the medical centre, a cubicle was set up for her with a solid wall keeping it from the view of anyone who came into the space.

  “Lady, please remove everything and place it in this container. I will decontaminate it and return it to your quarters.”

  She looked at him. “What will I wear instead?”

  He blinked, those pale eyes looking right through her clothing. “There is a wrap on the medical bed. It will enable you to go through the necessary scans.”

  Myra wrinkled her nose and kicked off her shoes before peeling off her socks. “Are you going to watch?”

  “I am the primary physician on this vessel. You have nothing that I have not seen before.” But he turned his broad back.

  She held her breath and stripped as quickly as she could until she was only wearing the recording device and her headphones. A moment later, she had untangled the medical wrap and was covered again.

  “Done.”

  He turned and looked at her music player. “That as well.”

  She closed her fist. “It is my music. I don’t want to be without it.”

  “I will decontaminate it here in the centre, and you can take it with you when you go.”

  She unclenched her hand and dropped the player on the edge of the tray. He scooped it up and walked away with it.

  Myra had never felt more naked.

  He returned and beckoned her forward. “Please, come this way and stand in the scanner.”

  Her feet were small compared to the footprints that were stamped into the machine. She leaned back against the padded metal rest, and when she was still, he set off the scanner.

  Myra tensed as the light and sound went over and through her. It moved up and down for a minute, and then, it reset.

  “Now, the decontaminator, please?” He showed her to the machine, and it did what it was supposed to do with a prickling light.

  “Why doesn’t anyone touch me, even casually?” Myra asked what was foremost on her mind.

  “It would be an insult to touch you. You are High Lady of the Day clan. You outrank everyone on this ship.”

  “Oh. What is your name?”

  “Medic Winfel.”

  “Thank you. What is next, Medic Winfel?”

  He smiled. “Inoculations.”

  “Then proceed.”

  She could see her music player and headphones in a small box under glowing light, and the sight kept her calm through a riot of injections administered at half a dozen points on her body.

  “How sick are these going to make me?”

  “You might have some fever, but if anything else happens, have your guard call me.”

  She nodded and wiggled her toes. “Can I have my music player back?”

  He retrieved it, and when she heard the familiar notes in her ear again, she sighed in relief.

  “Your guard will take you to your quarters, and the captain will come and speak with you in an hour. Clothing has been provided.”

  Myra nodded. “So I run around the ship in this wrap?”

  “It isn’t very far.”

  She sighed and headed for the door. Her clothing and bag were nowhere to be seen. Someone had to have snuck in while she was in one of the scanners. She shrugged and continued into the wall of her guard. In a minute, they were underway, and five minutes later, she was in her new room. Oh joy.

  Chapter Three

  Medic Winfel briefed the captain. “She is definitely Day clan and will be extremely powe
rful once she is woken. I have administered the primer already.”

  Captain Dron nodded. “Good. I will provide her with the catalyst when I speak with her. How did she seem to you?”

  “Surprisingly calm and in remarkable physical condition considering her appearance. She looks soft, but there is a fit body beneath those curves.”

  “Surprising. From the information we were sent, it is not normal.” The captain looked over the reports and prints of the body scans.

  “It might be a sign that she has a stronger pattern than we had anticipated, in which case, her awakening will be easier.” Winfel was relieved. It had been a matter of tension for him on the flight out that they were going to tear a woman apart at the genetic level based on a trace of Day DNA in her body.

  The captain nodded and reached into his desk. “Let’s hope that this little item from Sek-Rah has stood the test of time.”

  Winfel looked at the small box. “Has it been tested before?”

  “In eight hundred years, we have never found a member of the Day clan to test it on, not that we were looking until five hundred years ago.”

  “Should we wait until we reach home?”

  Captain Dron shook his head. “No, we need her ready to assume her duties the moment that we land. There is no time to wait.”

  Winfel nodded. “I will be standing by if anything is required.”

  The captain jerked his head in dismissal, and Winfel was left wondering how the lady would do when she had to assume the genetic heritage she carried inside her.

  * * * *

  Myra looked up from her meditation when her door opened. Apparently, knocking was not of cultural importance.

  The man who came in wore the badges of a ship’s captain, and he was not someone she had seen before. She rose to her feet and smiled brightly.

  “Hello.”

  “Greetings of the day to you, lady. I offer you this gift on behalf of the Kameraet people. It has been waiting for one of your kind for many centuries. I am delighted to be able to deliver it to you.”

  He extended his hand, and the small box gleamed in the light. It was a brown so dark, it was nearly black.

  Myra knew better than to take gifts from strangers, but everyone around her was a stranger, and if she didn’t take stuff from them, she was going to starve.

  She smoothed the medical wrap down and reached out to take the box. Her palm tingled when she touched it, and she pulled it toward her, examining it closely.

  “It is pretty. What is it?”

  “Open it and find out.” There was anticipation in the captain’s white eyes.

  She swallowed and felt for the catch. A small projection stabbed her, and she yelped, but the box opened.

  A small, glowing light illuminated the silky interior of the box, and as she stared into her cupped hands, the light moved, elevating slightly. In a move so fast, she could only feel it, not see it, the light shot into her chest, and fire ripped through her body.

  She thought she screamed, she needed to scream, but the fire went on and on until she hit the floor and passed out.

  Medic Winfel was watching her with concern on his face. “You are awake.”

  “That was the suckiest present ever. What did it do to me?”

  Winfel grimaced. “The Day clan kept the power of the Kameraet. Not just as leaders, but our actual psychic capabilities were bound in the cells of your kind. After the uprising, the Days ceased to be. Not simply because they were hunted, but the females refused to breed, and their line died out in less than one hundred years from the initial coup.”

  “You kept the women?”

  He blinked. “Of course. We are not barbarians. They were our healers, our protectors. We may have classified them as weak, but it was not until they were gone that we realised what we had done. Sek-Rah made it quite clear and ceased to speak with us.”

  “Sek-Rah?”

  “The soul of Fremiat, our home world. Her Avatar had a child and that child mated with the Day clan over an eon ago. That is when you rose to power. Without one of her children in control, she has ceased all communication with us, and our own world has become barren and hostile.”

  “So that is where we are going? Fremiat?”

  “Correct. If you are a member of the Day clan, as we believe you are, you will be able to bring peace to Sek-Rah, and she will bless our people once again. We can come home instead of pressing outward to take over unsuitable worlds.”

  She sighed and struggled to sit up. “What did the light ball do?”

  “It was a gift from Sek-Rah. She said that if we ever found one of the Day clan alive, we should present the box and the gift would do the rest.”

  Myra wiggled her fingers and toes. The fire had faded into a comforting warmth and a strange energy. “Are my clothes ready yet?”

  “Some pieces were destroyed in the decontamination process. We have found a suit for you that should fit you fairly well.”

  “Not unless your females are the same size I am.”

  He chuckled. “We don’t have females. That was another thing that the Day clan brought to us. Their presence kept the few women that there were fertile, and the men could sire daughters.”

  “So where do you...you mean that you had to find alternate sources of breeding?” She couldn’t think of a better way to say it.

  “We began to raid other species for what we needed, but we still had no daughters. No female Kameraet has been born in eight hundred years. Not Night clan, not Eclipse clan.”

  She was really feeling the energy in her body now. “If my clothes are gone, can you get me that suit? Is there a place I can exercise on the ship? I really need to burn off some steam.”

  Medic Winfel quickly moved to a cupboard and pulled out a folded garment. He returned to her and left her alone with the one-piece outfit with built-in footwear.

  It took some wrestling, but she managed to get herself tucked into the suit and her thumbs through the hole in the sleeves and sealed the front closure. It was snug but supportive, and she wanted to exercise like she never had before.

  “I am decent. Now, where can I exercise?”

  Medic Winfel raised his eyebrows. “I will take you to the exercise space. You should be able to work off some of your excess energy there.”

  “Lead the way.”

  Her music player was inside her suit, and the headphones dangled out of the neckline. She followed Winfel out of medical, and her guards gathered around her.

  Winfel led the way.

  In three minutes, Winfel opened a door, and their group filed inside to a balcony that overlooked a huge space filled with obstacles and climbing apparatuses.

  “Oh, wow. I have never tried parkour before, but I am definitely willing to give it a try.”

  There were a few men using the space, but as soon as the leader of her guards let out a sharp whistle, they stopped what they were doing and left the facility.

  Winfel smiled and led her down the stairs to the main floor and escorted her to the start mark. “Run, skip, do what you will, lady.”

  She nodded and looked at the structure in front of her. A map of the facility appeared in her mind, and she suddenly knew how to get through the maze. “I am going to be sore in the morning.”

  She put in her earbuds, cranked up the music and launched herself up the first obstacle without hesitation. The focus of physical activity was cleansing. She felt the power in her body humming in every vein, every muscle.

  Myra ran across the top of the obstacle and leaped for the next, landing and keeping her forward momentum.

  She ran, jumped, climbed, fell a few times and kept getting up. It could have taken fifteen minutes or an hour, but when she finally limped off the course, she felt relaxed and her body was back to normal levels of energy.

  Winfel was staring at her with shock in his gaze. “You...”

  She rubbed her hands on her thighs. “Did I do it wrong?”

  “Um, no, but you came very clo
se to beating the ship’s record.”

  “Oh. Well it did what I needed it to. Can I go back to my room now?”

  He nodded slowly. “Do you need medical attention for your leg?”

  She flexed what had been a nasty sprain. “Nope. It seems to have fixed itself.”

  “I see. Well, please come with me, lady.” There was still a stunned shock in his tone, but he gestured for her to precede him.

  Her guards inclined their heads as she approached, and she waved her grubby hand at them. “Uh, thanks. I think I need a shower.”

  The walk to her quarters was a little odd. She could swear that her guards were having trouble breathing. She didn’t think that her sweat was that bad, but Myra had been wrong about her feeling alive in space, so she wasn’t a good judge of what was what.

  In her quarters, she found a few sets of clothing, and she took a shower before heading to bed.

  When she woke in the night, she went to the terminal and looked up the iconography of the Night clan. All of her guards were of that clan, and she wanted to know what their masks and the engravings on their breastplates meant.

  After two hours, she went back to bed and tucked herself in. If she read it right, the eldest sons of high families who had all proved themselves in battle and assignments in their chosen field of assassination surrounded her.

  Their gathering was highly unlikely, and Myra began to be suspicious. Why would they put six of their best around her? If she was as important as they had said, she didn’t think that any of their people would hurt her.

  She turned to her side and pulled the sheet up trying to ignore the fact that they were her people now.

  Chapter Four

  Fremiat was as desolate as Winfel had said. There was green but no blooming, and a feeling of emptiness.

  Myra heaved her much-lighter bag over her shoulder and stepped into the skimmer that was waiting to take her into the city.

  Her six guards were with her, and one of them was flying the skimmer. It cruised above the ground with dizzying speed that didn’t leave anything but swaying grasses in its wake.