Kiera's Sun

  Kiera’s Sun

  #2, Anshan Saga

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  By Lizzy Ford

  LizzyFord.com

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  Cover design by Eden Crane Design

  www.EdenCraneDesign.com

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  Smashwords EDITION

  Published by Captured Press, a division of Kettlecorn Press and Lizzy Ford Books

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  copyright ©2015 by Lizzy Ford

  LizzyFord.com

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  Cover design copyright © 2015 by Eden Crane Design

  www.EdenCraneDesign.com

  All rights reserved.

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  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

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  This story is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events; to real people, living or dead; or to real locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and their resemblance, if any, to real-life counterparts is entirely coincidental

  Authors Note

  I included “Kiera’s Home” (#1.5, Anshan Saga) as the Prologue of “Kiera’s Sun” because so many readers didn’t realize the novelette was released between the two main books. So, if you read “Kiera’s Home” already, skip to Chapter One!

  If you need the refresher, or haven’t read the novelette, start with the Prologue!

  Prologue: One

  A few weeks later

  Kiera watched another of her lifemate’s men succumb to the strange shield they claimed would protect them from the toxic air of their home planet of Anshan. The transparent goo exoskeleton resembled gelatin that made the warriors look out-of-focus, as if she was looking at them through the murky water of a pond.

  Or like they’re stuck in Jell-O. It was hard not to smile when she pictured the manly, over-confident warriors floating like fruit in a Jell-O salad, the kind her mother used to make.

  When the fourth warrior was fully covered, the man holding the goo-gun turned to her. She glanced at her lifemate doubtfully. A’Ran’s arms were crossed, and the look on his face warned her he was an eyelash away from changing his mind about letting her go to the planet. Towering above her, he was every bit the protective guardian and leader of his people.

  At her hesitation, though, he stepped closer, sensing she was about to unleash an opinion that would probably not reflect well upon him in the male-dominated Anshan society. A’Ran was close enough for her to touch, and she craned her neck back to gaze up at him. His savage features were too heavy for traditional male beauty, his olive complexion and dark hair reflective of the Anshan people he governed. He gazed down at her, dark eyes unreadable.

  At six and a half feet tall, he was considered average in height among the Anshan warriors but he was a full head and shoulders taller than her. As always, when he was close enough for her to pick up the faintest scent of his musk, or to marvel at the contradiction of how tough he was with his warriors and how gentle he acted towards her, she was momentarily lost, gazing at him in admiration.

  A’Ran cleared his throat.

  Kiera blinked, aware everyone in the room was staring at her. “Does that stuff get in my lungs?” she asked somewhat nervously.

  “You fought hard to come today, nishani,” he reminded her. “I warned you it might not be pleasant, did I not?”

  She’d won their argument earlier, not because he wanted her to go, but because he knew she was the only one who could fix the mess he created. He’d blown up the surface of the planet to free it from alien invaders weeks before, leaving a wasteland with a poisonous atmosphere.

  As the nishani – ruler’s mate – Kiera’s job was to heal the planet. And its people. And its atmosphere. The entire Anshan society. She’d considered many times pointing out how crazy it sounded but was stopped by the hopeful looks of her lifemate and his family. No part of her wanted to disappoint someone as noble and good as A’Ran.

  “How are you so sure I can fix everything?” she whispered, doubting herself.

  “Because that’s what nishanis do.”

  It was so simple to a man accustomed to duty. Kiera snorted, not at all certain how an entire race of people could believe she’d heal their world overnight. Maybe they’d temper their expectations once this trip was over.

  “The planet chose you. You are part of its life force,” he added.

  “We are connected. I know.” Yet she struggled with the foreign concepts of a planet being truly alive and part of her life force. No one could explain what exactly that meant or why she was chosen.

  He nudged her, breaking the plane between them. It was his way of showing encouragement without softening his fierce expression or authoritative stance in front of his men. One touch was all she’d get, but was more than he would’ve done a month before.

  “All right,” she said. Turning to the man holding the goo-gun, she held out her hand the way the others had. “Goo me.”

  The warrior frowned, not understanding her slang. The translator pinned to her earlobe wasn’t able to translate most of the more creative English words and phrases she sometimes used. Curses and idioms came out gibberish, confusing those around her. The warrior looked towards her lifemate, who nodded.

  The gel started at her fingertips and spread up her arm. It tickled. It wasn’t sticky or heavy or wet, as she expected, but cool and malleable, like the skin of a balloon. Kiera watched it spread, uncomfortable with the strange technology of her new home. The spaceships that resembled huge whales were gray inside and out, made from the special metal that only Anshan produced. The spacecraft around her was drab, dark, lit by unnatural yellow light she still didn’t know the source of. Their medical labs were able to heal anything, and yet they fought with swords rather than some sort of advanced technology.

  After a month with the Anshan people, she still found herself trying to figure their world out.

  The strange shield was soon in place, and she tested her body. There was no discomfort or difficulty in moving. She felt normal, though the world around her appeared out-of-focus. Kiera experimented with the goo-shield to ensure she was able to breathe and move normally without her feet sticking to the floor like she thought they might.

  A’Ran was next. When her lifemate was finished, he motioned her over to the small group gathered by the door.

  “You will stay with me,” he ordered.

  “I know,” she replied. She felt his tension and displeasure, even if his eyes were too blurry to read behind the shield.

  The door slid open, revealing what looked like a dust storm. The air blew into the room. Instinctively holding her breath, Kiera closed her eyes to the dust and pebbles, the remnants of the planet’s outer layer. It pelted the walls of the chamber where they prepared to visit the surface of the planet. Nothing reached her face through the shield, and she slowly released her breath and opened her eyes.

  One by one, the four warriors stepped from the ship into the dust storm. They disappeared with their second step out the door, a sign of the poor visibility on the planet. A’Ran waited for her. Feeling somewhat safe in the protective goo, she stepped past him and carefully planted her foot on the solid ground of Anshan.

  Above, the two suns were blurry, bright spots. Anshan had been a barren desert before A’Ran blew up the surface, and there was reddish dust everywhere. Kiera stopped after a couple steps, taking in the world with even more distress.

  Nothing could live here. No one could fix this place, let alone grow food
to feed the Anshan civilization that had been evacuated to the moons around the planet and neutral planets within the Five Galaxies. The idea that so many people believed she could make a difference was more than overwhelming; it was ridiculous!

  “One step at a time.” A’Ran had to shout to be heard over the howling storm. He’d taken up the saying a couple of weeks before, whenever she began to stress out about what it was they wanted her to do. “Our son will be born here!”

  Right. She grounded her teeth. She didn’t have any miracles in her pocket, which the whole planet – and the rest of the Five Galaxies – would soon be very well aware of. The mention of a son reminded her she had an appointment with the Anshan version of a doctor later that day. She was late for her monthly cycle, yet another reason she’d begun to stress before the trip to the planet. A’Ran wanted an heir, and she wanted more time to adjust before considering a family, especially considering they had no permanent home.

  A’Ran passed her, at ease in his goo-suit on the poisonous planet. Kiera took a few more steps after him, searching for something she could twist into an optimistic sign for the future. A bird. A plant. Even one of the dreadful spider-cats that ate dust and mold to keep their house clean.

  There was nothing.

  Distraught, she turned to face the spacecraft they’d traveled in. At least it was visible, an unmovable gray blob in the shifting sands. When she faced the direction A’Ran was headed, she saw nothing. Kiera squinted and hurried forward. After half a dozen quick steps, she still didn’t see him.

  She turned to retreat to the spacecraft only to find the sand had blocked it from her vision as well. Panic stirred at the thought of being lost or left behind on the planet, before she recalled the real reason she’d insisted on coming: to find evidence the Anshan people shouldn’t put their hope in someone like her. It wasn’t possible for one person to make this huge of a difference!

  Her gaze went to her feet. The last time she’d been on the desert planet, grass had grown anywhere her bare skin touched.

  Kiera knelt on the ground and placed her hand on it. The Jell-O shield seemed to block the nishani magic. She tried to fling away the thin layer of gelatin from one palm. It didn’t budge.

  Scraping her hand along the roughened ground, she managed to free a couple of fingers and then pressed them to the ground. She waited for the familiar tickle of grass.

  Moment of truth. Her heart raced, and she wasn’t certain what she wanted: to disappoint an entire planet full of people or to confirm the weight of this world was on her shoulders.

  To her surprise, she experienced profound relief when she felt it. Whatever magic she’d had before was still there, which meant the man she respected most in the universe, A’Ran, wouldn’t lose his faith in her.

  Her gaze roved the area around her in disbelief. It’d take several lifetimes to rebuild the planet, if she had to touch every single inch of rock during dust storms!

  She scraped more of the shield away, until her hand was completely free then planted it on the ground. Grass sprang up around it more quickly this time, and she smiled, awed by the strange gift. She almost believed she could help the planet and people, if the task wasn’t so monumental.

  “Nishani?” A’Ran’s voice made her look up. He seemed to materialize out of the storm and crouched beside her. “Are you hurt?”

  “No,” she replied, touched by the concern in his voice. He wasn’t the best at expressing emotions; whenever something sweet made it through his thick exterior, she thought herself the luckiest girl ever. “Look. It still works.”

  He knelt beside her and reached out, taking her hand.

  “Nishani,” he chided. “The air is poisonous to you, too.”

  He pressed his hand against hers. The gooey exoskeleton resealed, and his attention turned to the grass. He brushed his fingers through it with such reverence and hope, that Kiera grinned proudly.

  “How am I supposed to do this for the whole planet?” she asked, smile fading.

  “I don’t know yet.”

  The answer surprised her. A’Ran always had a plan.

  “We have to clean up the air, first,” he added. “Mansr and I have a few ideas, but we need more gray metal.”

  “Which is why you wanted to check the mines this trip. You can’t melt down all the spaceships?”

  A’Ran rose and pulled her up with him. “As the strategic battle planner for Anshan, you know that is not a safe option. There are too many people waiting for our guards to drop.”

  “But it’s an option,” she insisted.

  “A poor one.”

  “This coming from the man who blew up his own planet?” Kiera rolled her eyes.

  He gave her the look, the one that said the hardened warrior she’d fallen in love with hadn’t yet learned how to take her challenges.

  She knew very well what kind of danger Anshan was in. The rest of the Five Galaxies considered A’Ran a loose cannon after he exploded the surface of his planet to get rid of invaders. He had then declared war on the only possible ally he might have in their solar system, further alienating potential allies. The Five Galaxies as a whole were watching what he did with Anshan, valued for being the source of the malleable gray metal that made up everything from their swords to their spaceships to their furniture. If the planet remained uninhabitable and A’Ran unable to regain his position as its leader, every one of the members of the Council would declare war on Anshan to wrest the mines from their rightful king.

  The very idea of being homeless and at war in space scared her. A’Ran handled it all with calmness that amazed her.

  “Come,” he said. “We should have the readings we need.”

  “And we know I can still help the planet.”

  “I never doubted.”

  “Oh, but I did!” She sighed.

  They returned to the ship. Two of the four warriors were back. The door closed behind them, and the man with the goo-gun approached with another small device the size of a pencil. A’Ran held out his arms. The device sparked and sent a visible electric charge through the gelatin exoskeleton. Kiera watched as it hardened, cracked and dropped from his body.

  She held out her arms as the warrior approached her and braced herself. First a light, tickling current went through her, then the shards of hardened goo fell.

  Despite confirming she still had the ability to help the planet, she wasn’t confident about succeeding the way others wanted her to. She had the urge to fold herself into A’Ran’s arms and talk more with him about how she was supposed to help. The Anshan protocol was strict about public signs of affection. Instead, she watched him with warmth and longing as he studied mine readings from a small device a warrior handed him.

  Feeling her gaze, A’Ran glanced up. His dark eyes lingered on hers, the skin around them softening ever so slightly in a way she knew was entirely for her. She grinned in return, and his look turned to one of disapproval.

  The Anshan also did not believe it proper to express emotion of any kind in public.

  “Nishani, would you join me?” someone asked from behind her.

  Kiera turned at the low, quiet voice of Mansr, A’Ran’s uncle and closest advisor. The middle-aged man had gray hair and a smaller stature than most warriors, though he was far from what she’d call normal. He stood in the doorway that led to the rest of the small craft.

  “I have something to show you,” he added. There was energy in his step as he turned and walked quickly away.

  She followed him into the hallway. The door closed behind her. He went one door down, to a small conference bay filled with benches around a round table. A three dimensional projection of the planet swirled lazily on top of the table.

  Kiera’s eyes took in the familiar sight. The console was used for battle planning, too, a duty she’d been officially handed by A’Ran after she mastered their system. Instead of displaying the positions of warships and spacecraft, the model showed the red-orange planet – and a speck of green M
ansr had magnified to many times its original size.

  He pointed to it.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “That is grass.”

  “My grass? That I made grow?”

  “I presume so. We picked it up a few moments before you returned to the ship.”

  She drew closer, a smile tugging up the corners of her mouth.

  “It’s growing.”

  “No way!” she exclaimed.

  At his pause, she guessed the translator had tripped over her slang again.

  “That’s great,” she added. “How fast?”

  “Not fast enough. And without direct sunlight, it’ll be dead by tomorrow.”

  Kiera frowned. “A’Ran said you had to clean up the air first.”

  “We do. Our remaining friend on the Planetary Council is offering to help.”

  “I like Jetr,” she murmured. “He’s been good to us.”

  “He is able to see beyond today. He knows the return of Anshan will mean the return of the gray metal, and he’ll be first in line to receive it.”

  “You think he’s shady?” she asked, turning.

  Mansr raised an eyebrow.

  Darn translator. “I mean, not trustworthy?”

  “I am old and jaded, nishani.”

  “But you’re wise,” she pointed out.

  Mansr dipped his head in a polite way of saying he wasn’t about to answer.

  “He’ll have a long time to wait. Cleaning up the planet isn’t going to happen fast.”

  “It will not. But it will happen.” His eyes glowed with the same hope she’d seen lately from everyone.

  Kiera hugged herself, uncertain why their faith in her made her so uncomfortable. She felt like she was the only one in a room full of kids that knew there was no Santa Clause. She wondered how disappointed they’d be if the planet didn’t return to what it was fast enough to satisfy everyone waiting for it.

  The door opened, and she glanced up as her lifemate entered. The sight of him made her pulse race, her desire to touch him increasing with her agitation.

  Prologue: Two

  His beautiful nishani was frowning when A’Ran entered the conference room. Mansr looked away from the visual of the planet, his expression inquisitive.