My Captive Duchess (The Reeves of Reeves Hall #1)

Prologue

Broek

Planet Uvon, in a galaxy far, far away

K eteth approaches me, and I can see at once from his face that the news is not good. I had not expected it to be. Still, I brace myself for what I am about to hear. In a gruff voice, I command, “Speak.”

“A unanimous decision,” he informs me. “Your mother is to be executed at the seventh hour, the day after tomorrow.”

A tightness grips my chest as I nod in understanding. From the moment Mother had set in motion the plot to overthrow the governing body of Uvon, her fate had been inescapable. She has taken the greatest gamble and lost, for there is no other penalty for the crime of treason but a death sentence. I have known this and tried to prepare myself, but it seems I must have harboured some small glimmer of hope, for this news has me overwhelmed with pain.

I manage to choke out, “Father too?”

Keteth looks away, unable to meet my eyes. His silence is answer enough. So, within the next fifty hours, I am to lose both my parents. I take a deep breath and attempt to remain calm. There is one further question that needs to be answered. “What about us?” I grit out. By us I mean myself and my three younger siblings—Liora, Horis and Simor.

Keteth sighs. “I tried, Broek, I really did. I set out all the evidence to show you had nothing to do with any of it, that you are entirely blameless, all to no avail. I do not think they believe you had any hand in the plot, but they are keen to make an example of you.”

Do they know about the nanoprobes? Well, Tarla does at any rate, but I would think it is in her best interests to feign ignorance of them. I wonder if it is her influence that is behind this punishment about to be meted out upon us. I would not put it past that traitorous witch to have a hand in this. “Spit it out, Keteth!” I grunt impatiently.

“All four of you are to be banished,” he says sadly.

“Where to?” I snap. “Falora?” but Keteth is already shaking his head. “Then where?” I almost roar this time.

He is hesitant in his reply, as if bracing himself for an explosive reaction. “They want you off this planet. In fact, off this galaxy.”

I pale, my mind computing the options, which are few. He sees when I reach the obvious conclusion. “Strahmek 2.” I whisper it on a breath.

“Yes,” he confirms.

“Great Yol, they cannot be serious!”

“I am afraid they are.”

I rise to my feet in a burst of energy and begin to pace the room. “We have not shipped people there since the Odoth era,” I cry. “Yol only knows what society these felons have formed in over three hundred thousand years of exile. Are they civilised? Do they even speak the mother tongue? Or have they butchered each other into extinction?”

“I have searched the records of our last reconnaissance mission there to find this out and sent you the data,” Keteth says placatingly. “But to answer your question, they have formed civilisations, and they speak many tongues, all of which are derived from ours, though unrecognisable now to our ears.”

None of this makes any sense. I stop my pacing and glare at my old friend, demanding the truth from him. “Why now? Shipping us there will take years, and it will not be cheap!”

He inclines his head in agreement. “The governing body has agreed to field a ship, the Nostur , which was due to be scrapped after seven decades of service.” He sees my look of disbelief and hastens to add, “It is still in good working order, and with a few upgrades, can be made ready within the next month for your journey."

I throw myself on the couch and bury my head in my hands. Great Yol have mercy! This cannot be happening to us. And yet, after all the miseries the past few months have inflicted on my family, I can readily believe that a further tragedy awaits us around the corner. I sit up and cast my eyes over the lavish furnishings of this room, which I employed the services of an expert decorator to design. It is my own personal chamber on the grand Reevas estate which has belonged to my family for generations. And now, we must leave all this in order to travel light years away on a ramshackle ship, so we can make our new home on a penal colony we abandoned hundreds of thousands of years ago.

I turn my gaze towards Keteth again. “You still have not answered me. Why now?”

“Do you recall your history lessons about the ancient plan to build a high-speed corridor between ourselves and Strahmek 2?”

I nod impatiently. It is something all children on Uvon are taught about. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, during the Odoth era, a period of our history so called because the greater part of our planet was under the rule of one dynasty, the Odoths, we had made immense strides in our space exploration, searching far and wide for any sign of life on planets beyond our solar system and beyond our galaxy. This extensive search had yielded only one other planet, which we named Strahmek 2, that had the right conditions for life. Like Uvon, it had forests and fertile lands, vast oceans and regions with a temperate climate. In many ways, it was our twin planet, except it was two million light years away and inhabited only by large reptile creatures.

This did not deter Cruls Odoth, who ruled the dynasty at that time. He concocted an ambitious plan to build a high-speed corridor between our two planets, and to begin colonising Strahmek 2 through the deportation of thousands of felons there from our overcrowded prisons. Barely had work on this plan got off the ground than the whole thing fell apart when the Odoth dynasty, bankrupt on its grand ideas, was brutally overthrown. There followed decades of vicious wars, culminating in the destruction of some of our finest cities and death on a scale we have not seen since. We call that period of our history the dark century. In the midst of that chaotic carnage, Strahmek 2 and the first shipment of felons to the colony were forgotten.

After the downfall of a dynasty and the ensuing horrific wars, few subsequent leaders had any further appetite for colonisation of a planet so far from ours. Over the centuries, we have sent the occasional unmanned missions to gather data, but nothing more. I am puzzled as to why such a plan should be resurrected now.

Keteth is quick to explain. “The idea of re-establishing links with Strahmek 2 has been floated for a long time. The governing body is about to launch an ambitious long-term plan that will take centuries to reach fruition, at the end of which we would have a high-speed route to Strahmek 2, based on the creation of a traversable wormhole. We are years away from creating this, but our top scientists are working on it. In the meantime, there is a mission they wish you to undertake on that planet.”

He sees the hope on my face and shakes his head. “It will not buy your return home, Broek. Your exile is to be a permanent one. However, this mission will give you an opportunity to atone for the part you played, even unwittingly, in your mother’s plot and to rehabilitate your family’s name.”

“What is the mission?” I ask coldly.

He sits beside me and begins to explain. Once he is done, he concludes, “You will spend the years aboard the Nostur preparing for your new life on Strahmek 2. All of you will be properly instructed in the language and customs of its people, from the extensive data we have gathered about them. Once you arrive, in a cloaked shuttle, you will integrate seamlessly into Strahmek 2’s society and not disclose your true origins.”

I gaze absently at the artwork that adorns the wall across from me. The scheme Keteth has just described sounds preposterous, another grand idea that is doomed to fail. How are we ever to pass for inhabitants of Strahmek 2? I know nothing of them, and it could take us years to learn their ways. Once the Nostur departs on its journey back to Uvon, we will be alone and at the mercy of the natives, should they ever discover our true origins. Who knows with what savagery we might then be treated.

Great Yol, what is to become of us? On my next breath, I curse Mother and Tarla for putting us all in these dire straits, and myself for not having put a stop to this when I could have.

A gentle hand squeezes my shoulder. “I know what you are thinking, Broek,” Keteth says softly. “But I believe you have the strength and resilience to do this. Your sister and brothers are relying on you to keep them safe, and if anybody can do it, it is you.”

I raise my head to face him. “Your belief in me is flattering but unwarranted, Keteth,” I murmur sardonically.

He laughs, the first joyful sound I have heard in several weeks. “I disagree, Broek,” he says. “You have it in you to turn this misfortune into an opportunity for a fresh start. I shall miss you, my friend, but I know with every fibre of my being that somewhere two million light-years away, the Reevas clan will prosper under your guidance. Do not think of this as the end, Broek, but as a new beginning.”

Letting out a long breath, I reply, “I wish I shared your optimism, my friend.” I am quiet a moment or two, then ask, “Will they let me see Mother and Father before the end?”

Keteth shakes his head. “I am afraid not, Broek, but you may send them a recorded message.”

I sigh and rise to my feet. There is much to be done, and my siblings need to be told the news. “Thank you, Keteth,” I say, holding out my arms. My long-time friend steps into my embrace, and for a few moments, I hold him tight before letting go. He represents everything I shall be leaving behind. Then I am all action, getting on with the many things I need to do. My pain is still there, but it is locked away while I take care of my family. Perhaps Keteth is right, and we can make a go of this new life on a distant planet. I sincerely hope he is.