G.R. Macallister - Arca

Publishers Notice

The publisher has provided this ebook to you without Digital Rights Management (DRM) software applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This ebook is for your personal use only. You may not print or post this ebook, or make this ebook publicly available in any way. You may not copy, reproduce, or upload this ebook except to read it on your personal devices.

Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this ebook you are reading infringes on the authors copyright, please notify the publisher at: simonandschuster.biz/online_piracy_report.

M AJOR AND R ECURRING C HARACTERS L ISTED BY Q UEENDOM

ARCA

• Alisher, a courtier of the Binaj matriclan
• Archis, a high-ranking courtier with all-magic
• Beyda, royal scribe assigned to Arca, a Bastionite
• Bonmei, youngest courtier of the Merve matriclan
• Colena, a courtier and earth magician, mother of Dellica
• Dellica, youngest courtier of the Binaj matriclan
• Eminel, queen of Arca, Well of All-Magic, Master of Sand and Destroyer of Fear
• Golojandra, known as Gogo, an earth magician and resident of Jesephia
• Iscla, a courtier talented at shielding minds
• Nishti, a courtier of the Binaj matriclan, earth magician
• Parvan, a courtier of the Ishta matriclan, fire magician
• Sara, a courtier and air magician
• Sobek, a courtier and mind magician
• Vermu, member of the Queensguard
• Wodevi, a courtier and body magician
• Xerio, a courtier of the Binaj matriclan
• Yasamin, a courtier of the Volkan matriclan

PAXIM

• Ama, the Kinglings bodyguard (born Amankha dha Khara)
• Aster, Stellaris child
• Aureli, a senior senator
• Baris, a member of the Kings Elite
• Decima, consul of Paxim, friendly with Queen Heliane
• Delph, senior member of Queen Helianes Queensguard
• Evander, son of the most powerful family in Calladocia, married to Stellari
• Faruzeh, minister of war
• Floriana, a military commander
• Heliane, queen of Paxim, mother to Paulus
• Inbar, Queen Helianes cosmete
• Isolde, a senator
• Jovan, commander of the Swans
• Juni of Kamal, head of the Assembly
• Kint of Keterli, member of the Assembly
• Malim, a senator
• Nebez of Havarrah, a talented fighter, member of the Kings Elite
• Panagiota, matriarch of the most powerful family in Calladocia
• Paulus, kingling of Paxim, only surviving child of Queen Heliane
• Rahul, Stellaris secret lover, publicly nursemaid to Aster the Shade, a talented fighter
• Stellari, a high-ranking senator, holding the office of magistrate
• Tuprah, member of Helianes Queensguard
• Yesika, member of the Kings Elite
• Yusuf, member of the Kings Elite
• Zofi, also known as Zo, daughter of Queen Heliane (deceased)

SCORPICA

• Azur dha Tamura, an adopted Scorpican and mother to Madazur, known as First Mother
• Dree, a warrior
• Golhabi, armorer of the Scorpicae
• Gretti dha Rhodarya, a warrior, former adviser to Queen Tamura
• Khinar, a warrior
• Lu, a warrior and member of the Council
• Madazur dha Azur, first girl born after the Drought
• Marale, a warrior
• Markiset, an adopted Scorpican
• Olan, a warrior
• Oora, an adopted Scorpican
• Orlaithe, a warrior
• Pakh, a warrior
• Riva, an adopted Scorpican
• Sarkh, a warrior
• Tagatha, a warrior of advanced years
• Tamura dha Mada, queen of Scorpica
• Zalma dha Fionen, a smith
• Zibiah, a warrior

CHAPTER 1

T HE S ENATOR

T here was nothing Stellari of Calladocia could not imagine, and once she had imagined something, achieving it was just a matter of time.

Politically, this nimble imagination was her greatest gift. From a single choice, Stellari could visualize dozens, even hundreds, of possible consequences, all of which she held arrayed in her minds eye like the stars. Then shed choose. If she wanted a law passed, shed quickly puzzle out who was most likely to support it, then unspool a complex chain of favors wherein shed persuade three or four fellow senators, no more than five, who would go on to persuade all the rest for her. She never planted a seed without envisioning the eventual tree.

Her imagination hadnt served her nearly as well outside the Senate, she supposed. Potential friends quickly tired of hearing her test out unending scenarios, breathlessly recount her victories, torture herself over the rare losses. Lovers bristled at being treated like tally marks. But for Stellari, the difference between the personal and the political grew more faint until it vanished entirely. Let strangers stay strangers, let lovers turn their backs and go. She was extremely happy with what her imagination had done for her, all told.

She was, after all, the unlikeliest of senators. First off, she was not a landholder, or at least she hadnt been. Shed come up through the Assembly. All the best families of Paxim were represented in the Senate, their wisest and strongest women handing down laws from the comfort of the capital. It had been that way as long as there had been a Paxim. The Assembly was a newer experiment, two centuries old, including members of the poorer classes. Stellari had made a name for herself initially as the Assemblys representative from Calladocia, a remote southwestern district, a position shed gotten mostly because no one else wanted it.

But that put her on the pathway to power. When Calladocias most important landholders fell on hard times, their female line dying out and the senatorship under threat of dissolution, the head of their household summoned Assemblywoman Stellari. The matron Panagiota offered Stellari the chance to marry her last remaining son, lay claim to their family lands, and take on the vacant senatorship. Immediately seeing the ways in which it would put greater strength in her hands, Stellari had readily agreed. Shed met Evander of Calladocia twice and hed seemed perfectly lovely, if a bit timid. At their second meeting, the marriage contracts were signed. There-after, Evander remained at home in their district, leaving Stellari free to live as she chose in the capital.

And Stellaris climb had not stopped there. In only a few short years in the Senate, shed already ascended to the role of magistrate. She was not yet even thirty years old. Gossips whispered that she seemed likely, if Decima stepped down, to rise to the position of consul. Once Stellari overheard a fellow senator call her consulship inevitable . She liked that whisper best of all.

But today Stellari was just another citizen of Paxim, kept in the dark. She hated the dark. All her cleverness and vision couldnt get her the one bit of knowledge she most needed: Would the widowed queens coming child, almost certainly her last, be a girl or a boy? Stellari had already determined what action to take in either case, but the wait was interminable. She was better off than most, knowing what only a handful of high-ranking officials now knew: the queens labor had begun. The rest of the truth would come when the child did. The augury had been unclear, and besides, thought Stellari, practical women did not trust auguries. Predictions were half shams and wishful thinking. Only facts were facts.