Seeds and Masters: Sycorax Series, #2

By Adam J Mangum

Mercy and compassion are not for those who lead. You fake those attributes in public, but when important decisions are to be made, you leave them behind. 

Eleven-year-old Claribel is being trained by her mother to take over leadership of their world. But as Claribel learns more of what it means to lead the way her mother wants her to, Claribel's growing compassion may disqualify her or get her killed. And when a man and his young daughter are marooned on Caliban's world, Caliban hopes to find true friends and escape his troubled and violent past.

SEEDS AND MASTERS is the second book in the space opera SYCORAX SERIES, inspired by Shakespeare's play THE TEMPEST. Continue the exciting journey into the known systems!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adam J Mangum
• Release date: Aug 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781945359095

Book preview

1

The Maze

Claribel moved through the hedge maze, her feet landing noiselessly on the soft ground. She couldn't hear her brother Thanan, and that made her nervous. Mother, the High Regent of the planet Lanopi, set up the game, and the winner would gain praise and a reward. The loser would get a lecture and a punishment, likely a half day's isolation. Claribel had to be the winner.

She closed her eyes and envisioned the map of the maze she’d studied. She pinpointed in her mind where she believed she was, opened her eyes, and started moving again. She was smarter than Thanan and she would make sure her mother knew it.

She approached what she thought was an intersection, but it was a dead end. She closed her eyes again, imagining the map. She identified her mistake and reset her expectations. She opened her eyes and walked quickly back to the last intersection. The next few turns came just as she thought they should.

A loud rustling in the hedge to her right brought her to a stop. She examined the hedge, looking for the cause of noise. Was one of the dogs lose in the maze? Was this a distraction designed by her mother?

Suddenly the hedge wall split open and Thanan popped through, almost knocking Claribel to the ground.

What are you doing? Claribel squealed.

Getting to the center of the maze, my adorable little sister. Thanan's smile held mischief but no anger or contempt. He brushed aside his dark hair, which threatened to hang in front of his face if he didn’t tame it.

You can't run through the walls!

Why not? Mother didn't say we couldn't. You may be too scrawny, but I'm not. And don't try following me or I'll tie you up with a branch and leave you here.

She believed him. Thanan loved her, but he loved winning nearly as much.

Claribel looked up at a drone camera floating above. Mother, this is unfair. This should be against the rules.

But the camera just floated there, and the High Regent offered no response.

See. Thanan smiled at her and then began digging at the hedge wall opposite of where he'd emerged.

Claribel stomped her feet and scrunched her face into an angry scowl. This is not fair.

Claribel breathed deeply to calm herself; she was a year younger than Thanan and a lot smaller. He wasn't a man yet, but at eleven years old, his frame had begun resembling one; her frame resembled a small child's stick figure.

Being strongest is good, but being smarter is better, and being devious is best. One of her mother's maxims echoed in her head. She could not fail her mother, and she could not lose to Thanan. He was stronger for sure, but she was smarter, and she would be more devious.

She closed her eyes once more and pictured the maze, focusing on the thick hedge Thanan had clawed through. If he followed his direct course to the center, he would surely win; Claribel wasn't fast enough to beat him there.

But she could beat him if she made the hedge impassable.

Claribel ran, hustling to a certain spot in the maze before Thanan did.

Large statues stood in most of the intersections. Claribel had memorized all of them, and she could hear her brother's mocking in her head when he'd caught her examining pictures and descriptions of the statues scattered throughout the maze. The statues? he'd said. Who cares about the statues? Memorize that while I go do something useful. By that, he'd probably meant take a nap.

She found a statue of her maternal great-great-grandfather at the next intersection. He'd made his fortune by cultivating and taming wild greenberry bushes, turning their juice into a delicacy. Mother told his story often, emphasizing his ruthless business practices. He'd created the wealth their family used even today.

Great-great-grandfather had been short, and his statue wasn't much taller than Claribel. His eyes looked up, and he held a small cistern of greenberry wine. Claribel reached out and tried to lift the stone cistern, and it came right out of his hands. She thought it would be heavier, but it wasn't stone, just a lightweight plastic which imitated the texture of the statue. The distinctive scent of greenberry wine hit her. Mother loved her realism, as long as she wasn't the one who had to be real.

Moving again, Claribel ran through the maze trying not to spill the juice. Some sloshed onto her dress and the ground, but she kept going, passing two more intersections. She could hear Thanan hacking through some hedges nearby.

Claribel stopped at a statue of the High Regent’s least favorite mythological figure: Ghosra, goddess of beauty. Though she claimed to believe in no gods, Mother used Ghosra's name as her most frequent curse. The stories described the goddess as tall, taller than most men, and the statue reflected that. She had long, curly hair falling to her knees, and she held a large mirror.

Setting the wine cistern down, Claribel gripped the statue's arm and climbed up toward the mirror. To her relief, it came right out of the statue's grasp and was light like the cistern. Once she was on the ground, she lifted both items into her arms. Even though they were light, running with both was still awkward, and more greenberry wine spilled onto her dress.

By a long stretch of hedge wall, she stopped and waited. Thanan's effective but loud method erupted in the thick hedge in front of her. It was Claribel's turn to grin.

She set the mirror down and poured the greenberry wine onto the hedge wall, dumping some deeper into the plant. After exhausting the supply of wine, she set the cistern down, crouched near the hedge, and picked up the mirror. The sun burned hot overhead. She had cursed the light and heat as they entered the maze, but she was grateful for it now.

Claribel held the mirror to get a potent beam of sunlight focused on the wine-drenched hedge. Greenberry wine was flammable, and she hoped it would act as enough of an accelerant to set the hedge aflame. If this didn't work, Thanan would soon burst through the hedge, and Claribel would lose. This was her only chance.

Her arms started to ache from holding the mirror in such an awkward position, but she remained still. A small wisp of smoke curled from the sunbeam's end, and Claribel held her breath as the sounds of her brother's hacking grew louder.

Suddenly a flame burst, and the hedge erupted in fire. Claribel fell backward as the wine on her dress caught fire in the intense heat. The mirror shattered on the hard ground. Claribel rolled frantically to extinguish her dress. After six rolls, she popped to her feet. The beautiful green dress was burned, but it hadn't reached her skin or long braid of dark hair. She ran, leaving the flaming hedge behind her.

Thanan's piercing scream stopped her at the next intersection. She looked back, worried that her plan might have been too much. What if Thanan was stuck in the hedge, surrounded by flames? He screamed again, and Claribel turned to go back.

Mercy and compassion are not for those who lead. You fake those attributes in public, but when important decisions are to be made, you leave them behind. Mother's one hundred and fourth maxim came to Claribel's mind, and she turned and ran toward the center.

Thanan would be fine, she reasoned. He might be faking the scream, tricking Claribel into returning to help him to slow her down. And if he was in any real trouble, a camera drone floated above him; the elite guards would come and help him for sure.

Claribel increased her speed as she neared the center. She would win. She felt bad for the trick she used, and worse to know Thanan would be punished. But she couldn't help the punishment any more than he'd been able to help when she was punished. It was all part of being the children of Rissa, High Regent of Lanopi.

2

Winning and Losing

Claribel stood in front of her mother, the High Regent of Lanopi, a bandaged Thanan at her side. Claribel kept stealing glances at her brother, even though she knew it would annoy their mother. But she couldn't not notice all the bandages.

Thanan wore different clothes than he had when they had entered the maze. Bandages covered burns on his hands, his neck, and one of his ears. He likely had more burns covered by the clothes. Claribel held back tears. Mother hated crying. It wasn't one of her maxims, but you did not cry in front of her. So Claribel looked away from Thanan and tried to not imagine what the burns must look like underneath the bandages.

The High Regent loomed over them. She was taller than most women, and when she wore heels, as she did now, she towered over others like a giant. Her face held nothing of the emotions stirring beneath.

Their father, on the other hand, paced behind her, his boots beating out a rhythm on the tile floor. He wore his usual gray military uniform, blue bars on his lapel marking him as a captain, and yellow bars on his shoulder marking him as an instructor at the Lanopian Space Navy Academy. His bearded face barely contained the anger boiling underneath, and he rubbed his hands together. His pacing and fretting surely bothered their mother, but she didn't even glance back at her husband.

The four of them stood alone in the drawing room outside of their mother's office.

You've gone too far, Rissa. Father stopped pacing for a moment and faced her.

She kept her eyes on the children.

They're children! Thanan could have died, and you would have made our daughter a murderer at the age of ten. You could at least wait until she's fifteen before you officially make her your clone.

His words pricked Claribel and she looked down, fighting the tears pushing at the edges of her eyes. Could Thanan have really died because of what she'd done? Had he actually been in peril? She’d assumed not, but Father’s angry reaction made her doubt her earlier conclusion.

Thanan was in little real danger, her mother responded, as if answering Claribel's unspoken question. She continued to face the children even as she spoke with their father. The drone cameras followed them at all times, and I had staff following them through the maze.

Staff had been following them? Claribel hadn't noticed them, and that annoyed her.

He was burning alive in that hedge! her father bellowed. I don't care how many damn staff were close by. He's my son, too! They're just children!

Mother turned to Father, her emotionless eyes suddenly filled with fury. Father stepped back before she even spoke as if she'd struck him.

When they ascend to the heights of Lanopian politics, who will show them mercy then? You would coddle them, send them on pony rides and vacations to the coast of Onal. They were born to lead, born to rule. They will be coached as I was, learn as I did. When Claribel rules Lanopi, and when Thanan leads our armies to victory, our enemies here and abroad will weep at the fierce creatures I've molded. And Lanopi will be better for it.

Claribel had heard a similar speech almost every day of her life, but it never ceased to swell