Of Stars and Ashes: The Celestial Fairytales, #2

By K.M. Carroll

Cinderella in space ... if the glass slipper was a warship.

 

Rasha l'Cervantes, a Rox girl with beautiful golden horns, has been subjected to forced servitude along with the rest of her clan. While working in a quarry, she accidentally befriends a young neurolite, an armored insect that will one day grow up to become a spaceship. She also befriends a fellow prisoner, the ex-prince of her clan.

 

Kraz l'Cervantes made one bad political decision and now faces the dissolution of his clan. Everyone hates him except for a brave girl at the quarry: Rasha, who refuses to let him wallow in depression and forces him to eat.

 

The prisoners are separated and three years pass. Rasha recieves a summons to Kraz's Choosing, a party where he will select a bride. But it is really an attempt to find the missing pilot of a neurolite frigate: a rogue frigate who is a danger to the fleet. Now Rasha must decide whether or not to Choose Kraz ... if the deadly frigate doesn't claim her life, first.

• Language: English
• Publisher: K.M. Carroll
• Release date: May 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201802479

Book preview

Chapter 1: Humbled

W hy are you sad? chirped the neurolite.

Rasha of Clan Cervantes jumped and nearly dropped her shovel. She turned to find one of the dog-sized insects gazing up at her from a rock, which it had been industriously chewing a moment ago. Now its two foremost eyes were fixed on her, the pupils wide and shining, like a kitten's.

I'm not sad, Rasha replied, patting the neurolite on its rough back. It was like a pillbug made of stone, the overlapping armor segments on its back already developing the spikes and crags it would have as an adult. Its many legs splayed out beneath it, still delicate and transparent, without the stone sheathing it would gain after its cocoon stage.

Yes you are, said the creature. Usually your energy is like sunshine. Today it's like clouds and rain.

Rasha bit her lip and turned away, retrieving her shovel. She was a Rox: a human from space with a pair of curled horns and a sprinkling of decorative scales. Her clan, Cervantes, were born with brown or golden horns, and Rasha's were a particularly beautiful honey-gold color. She braided her dark hair to keep it out of the way during work, and wore a head scarf to protect her delicate horns from damage.

She worked in a marble quarry, outside of the town of Bellax on the moon Harmony in the Beta Pictoris system. The moon was a lush, warm world, perfect for farming and raising livestock. It also had mountain ranges rich in minerals. The Rox had taken to raising young neurolites there, silicon-based lifeforms that grew into huge spacefaring ships the Rox used for travel and war.

Rasha wondered how much a baby alien spaceship would understand, even if she told it all her woes. They weren't known for their intelligence at this age. Most neurolites couldn't even talk until they bonded with a Rox. This particular specimen seemed brighter than the rest, but she hadn't known it could talk. Maybe someone had already bonded with it.

I'm sad because I’ve lost my home, she told the creature. And I don’t have much to eat.

Share! the creature exclaimed. It nudged a pebble toward her and rippled its legs in excitement. Good stone, yes, yes?

Thank you, Rasha said, picking up the stone and examining it. If only she could eat rocks the way neurolites did. She sighed and tossed it into her wheelbarrow. I can't eat the same food you do, little one.

The creature stopped rippling its legs. Its eyes followed her movements as she resumed shoveling broken rock into her wheelbarrow. When she hoisted it by the handles and wheeled it away, the creature followed her, crawling at her heels like a puppy.

Rasha pushed her load through the quarry, past many other Rox, all busy digging or breaking stone. Many of them had the same golden brown coloration she did, marking them as Clan Cervantes. But there were plenty of other Rox with white horns and scales, from Clan Archon.

Two years ago, Clan Archon had attacked a peace conference between the Rox and the humans in an attempt to escalate the war between their species. Cervantes had supported them. The other clans tried both Archon and Cervantes, found them guilty, and subjected them to servitude as punishment.

Rasha, with no warning, went from living with her mother in a nice home on Cervantes's home moon of Melody, to working in a quarry on Harmony. Her mother had gone to work as a cook on one of the flagships. Rasha, because she had attended school with the leader of the rebellion, Rasalas l'Archon, was sentenced to hard labor. Every day she hauled rock through the quarry to the pickup point, where trucks conveyed it to various construction sites. Or she hauled rock to the neurolite nursery on the far side, where the young proto-ships frolicked and played. At night, Rasha slept in a dormitory with ten other women, and ate whatever produce the local farm had discarded that day. Hunger was her constant companion. She wistfully watched other Rox traveling up and down the roads. Clan Sheliak and Clan Hadar had kept out of politics, and for them, life went on. Whenever someone happened to glance at her and saw her golden coloring, they avoided her eyes and pretended she didn’t exist. No one wanted to be seen giving sympathy to Archon and Cervantes.

But today was different. Today, a young neurolite followed her everywhere she went. The other workers saw this and snickered. Rasha tried to ignore him in the hopes that he'd get bored and leave her alone.

Rasha! the foreman bellowed. Don't make pets of the neurolites! He strode up to her, a huge man with dark skin and red horns, from Clan Sheliak.

Rasha knelt and bowed her head, hoping she wasn't about to be whipped. Apologies, foreman! It began following me and I can't get rid of it.

These neurolites were specially bred to be heavy-class warships, said the foreman. They are destined to bond with nobility and warriors, not foolish Cervantes girls. Stay away from them, understand?

Yes sir, Rasha said to the ground.

The foreman stooped, picked up the neurolite, and tucked it under his arm. Its legs kicked furiously and it writhed to escape his grasp. The foreman slapped its hard back. None of that! Back to the nursery with you.

As he carried it away, the creature opened the additional eyes along its sides and looked back at Rasha piteously. She rose to her feet and returned to her work, trying not to feel sad as well as hungry. Forbidden or not, the little creature's happiness had been the single bright spot in her dreary day.

When the whistle blew for the lunch break, Rasha avoided the groups of Clan Sheliak workers who sat down to eat and talk. Seeing their meals would only remind her of the vast emptiness in her own stomach, because the servitude workers were not given lunch. She crossed the quarry and climbed the far side, where she planned to sit on the wall and watch the neurolites play.

Unfortunately, someone else had the same idea. A young man sat alone, also watching the creatures as they ran and jumped and burrowed. Rasha froze, staring at him. His horns had been cut off behind his ears, leaving only a pair of bandaged stumps. This was the ultimate dishonor, reserved for clan slayers and other criminals. Not the type of person to spend one's noon break with.

As she stood there, looking for another place to go, the young man turned his head and saw her. He gave her a sad smile. Come to watch the hatchlings?

Rasha didn't say anything, but her gaze flicked to his bandages.

The young man's smile faded. I understand if you refuse. He returned to gazing into the second quarry where the neurolites played, and his shoulders slumped. Rasha caught a faint whiff of his energy, despite the bright sunlight washing out her energy sense. It was low and negative, indicating depression.

If she was seen fraternizing with someone whose horns had been cut off, they might take her horns, too. Then again, there was no one out here to see, and she was already a slave, anyway. Seeing the neurolite taken away had driven home her own loneliness.

She picked her way toward the young man and stopped a few feet away. Do you mind if I sit down?

Not at all. He rose to his feet and stood until she was seated, an unconscious habit of nobility. He was head and shoulders taller than her, owing to the size difference between male and female Rox. But he was sickly thin, his ribs and shoulder blades sharply outlined beneath his golden skin. His tattered shirt hung off him like an empty sack. Golden-blond hair curled around his ears and across his forehead.

As he sat again and opened his lunch pail, Rasha said, If you don't mind my asking, why did they take your horns?

Punishment, the young man said drearily. Would you like to share my lunch? I won't be able to eat all this.

Certainly, she said, trying not to seem too greedy. She also didn’t ask where he got the food. A family member, perhaps?

As he passed her a container of beans and vegetables, she said, I'm Rasha l'Cervantes. I have five years of forced labor because of the clan rebellion, and I’ve already been here two years.

My pleasure, he said. Kraz l'Cervantes, son of Lord and Lady Cervantes. Now ... I have no title.

Rasha tried not to gape at him. Kraz was the equivalent of the prince of his clan. She and her friends had followed the gossip about him for years, how he had graduated school with honors and had fights with his father about joining the military. And here he sat beside her, his horns gone, reduced to skin and bone, weighed down with depression, sitting alone.

Why were you punished so badly? she asked.

Kraz's eyes were dull. They might have been blue, once. Now they were colorless gray, with no glow to the lucient ring around the irises. I supported Rasalas's uprising.

You did? Rasha said in astonishment. I thought that was Lord Cervantes.

It was me, said Kraz. Ras was my friend. I saw how he lost his family in his war with the humans. When he asked me to back him in restarting the war, I thought ... it was honorable. A chance for vengeance. I didn't consult my father or mother. I just ... pledged my support. And Rasalas lost. He drew a deep breath and gave her a trembling smile. I'm the reason you're here. I'm the reason all of Clan Cervantes is suffering. I wish they'd taken my life instead of my horns.

Rasha's first instinct was to hate him. One bad decision had reduced his entire clan to poverty and forced labor. But then, she would have supported Rasalas, too, given the same situation. At least they hadn't humiliated her by cutting off her horns.

I went to school with Rasalas, she said softly. It's why they sent me out here, instead of one of the flagships.

Kraz looked at her, his eyes brightening a little. Did you know him?

She shook her head. "I