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  Kara’d been caught crying a few times since arriving on Galis, mostly at night when she thought she was alone and had permitted herself to think about her sister. She could only pray Kyra had moved on in life rather than mourn her. With their parents dead, all they’d had left was each other and Geris—her sister’s best friend since childhood. If there was any consolation to be had, it was in knowing that Kyra would always have Geris by her side.

  The High Mystik’s chin notched up. Her violet gaze was simultaneously soft and firm. “I bestow upon you the name Kari,” Klykka announced. “Kari Gy’at Li.”

  Chapter Four

  Three Moon-risings Outside Khan-Gori Airspace

  Zyrus Galaxy, Seventh Dimension

  6049 Y.Y. (Yessat Years)

  “You’re looking at me as if I just sprouted three heads,” Kari mused, her silver-blue gaze trained on Dari. “Surely out of all the crazy things that go on in Trek Mi Q’an my life story isn’t the craziest.”

  “N-not at all,” Dari sputtered. Her glowing blue eyes were wide, her hands fidgeting in her lap. Kari didn’t know what to make of that. “I just…”

  “Yeah? You just what?”

  “I just need to check on Bazi.” She soared to her feet. “Leastways, ‘tis a lot to take in, your story.”

  Kari frowned as she watched the princess walk toward the Arakian boy’s sleeping quarters. Every time Dari got nervous or close to confiding in her, she immediately used Bazi as an excuse to remove herself from the situation. That Kari was used to, but Dari staring at her as if she’d seen a ghost was a new phenomenon altogether.

  Three days and three nights—that was all they had left before their gastrolight cruiser breached Khan-Gor’s airspace. And the clock, Kari conceded as she checked the spaceship’s readings, was ticking. In four mere Nuba-hours, three days and three nights would become three days and two nights. Time was of the essence for it was no longer on their side.

  “Please finish your story,” the princess said as she came back to the front of the ship. She was carrying a tray of food and matpow—a delicious fermented drink that reminded her of the mead she’d once tried back home at a medieval fair. “I need to hear the whole of it before I speak on this.”

  One of Kari’s eyebrows inched up. Dari was hiding something—and that something had nothing to do with the evil that awaited them on Khan-Gor. Kari’s reminiscing had caused the young royal’s face to blanch, which made no sense. She accepted a chalice of matpow from Dari as she studied the princess’ schooled features.

  “All right,” Kari slowly agreed. She recognized that no answers would be forthcoming from Dari until she finished her story. “I’ll tell you the rest.”

  Hopefully then, at long last, the princess would trust her.

  Chapter Five

  The Matriarchal Planet of Galis

  Trek Mi Q’an Galaxy, Seventh Dimension

  6039 Y.Y. (Yessat Years)

  Seventeen Yessat Years had gone by since the day Kari emerged from the silver-mirror waters of Loch Valor. She tried not to think about the fact her sister had been dead for hundreds, possibly thousands of years, but every anniversary of her arrival on Galis brought the knowledge and resulting grief to the forefront of her consciousness.

  In the seventh dimension of Trek Mi Q’an galaxy, time didn’t function as it did back on Earth. The days were much longer and the months more plentiful. Klykka had tried to do the math once, but because she’d never trekked to the first dimension of time and space where Earth dwelled it was difficult to estimate how many Earth years went by with the passing of a single Yessat Year. “Between ten to one hundred, sister, depending upon the year. ‘Tis the best calculation I can give you for time works differently in each dimension.”

  Ten, fifty, one hundred…it really didn’t matter. Any way Kari looked at it, her sister and Geris had been long dead. That fact was not only difficult to grasp, it was also downright depressing.

  Had her sister ever married? Did she have children? Had her life been a happy one? These were the questions that plagued Kari whenever she allowed herself to remember, to feel, so she rarely indulged them.

  Standing on the maroon shores of Loch Valor, Kari Gy’at Li stared into the waters that had brought her here so many Yessat Years ago. She usually avoided this place like the plague, but today was the anniversary of her departure from Earth. Once a year she made this pilgrimage; once a year she allowed herself to mourn the loss of her former self and the accompanying memories that made up who she had once been.

  “I will never forget you, Kyra,” she murmured. “Wherever you are, whatever form your spirit has taken on, I will always love you.” She swiped away a rogue tear. “I miss you so fucking much.” Taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling, Kari forced a smile to her lips. “Tell Geris I’m sorry I wrecked her Mercedes that time I borrowed it. It still bothers me that I blamed it on that poor valet guy.” She shook her head slightly. “I realize the futility of regret, but there it is nonetheless.”

  Kari sighed as she took note of her image in the silvery waters. The liquid cast back such an accurate reflection that all Galian mirrors were made from it. Indeed, it was one of the planet’s biggest exports. Today her likeness echoed back a spectacle that even the Gy’at Li couldn’t explain—nobody, or at least nobody in Trek Mi Q’an galaxy, ever aged.

  Seventeen Yessat Years had passed and Kari looked no different now than she had upon her arrival. Had she never been brought here and seventeen Earth years had ticked by, her appearance would reflect that of a middle-aged woman rather than a girl in her twenties. Nothing was the same on Galis. Here she was barely considered a woman. Truly, her adoptive sisters treated her much like a child. Given that Klykka and Dorra had both been alive for hundreds of Yessat Years, she supposed she still was by their way of thinking.

  “I love you, Kyra,” Kari whispered. She indulged in a final teary moment before batting away the moisture from her eyelashes. “I’ll see you next year, Sis.”

  * * * * *

  “’Tis a proficient pack-hunter you’ve become,” Klykka told Kari before picking up her chalice and sipping from it. “Leastways, every Yessat Year that passes by makes me prouder of your accomplishments.”

  Kari beamed at the rare praise. Finished eating, she grabbed the towelette from the erection closest to her without breaking eye contact with her sister. “Thank you.” She dabbed at her lips, clearing away the remaining juices of the succulent, roasted vesha beast they’d just dined on. “That means a lot coming from you.”

  “’Tis true, her words,” Dorra confirmed. “Never did I think you would surpass even myself at bagging and tagging. Leastways, you have.”

  Bagging and tagging. Sweet lord above if Kyra could have watched that ritual unfold! Her birth sister’s reaction would have been priceless. The mental image of Kyra’s shocked expression amused her. She picked up her chalice and sipped from it to keep from smiling, not wanting Dorra to think she was making fun of her.

  “What amuses you, sister?” Klykka asked.

  Kari’s eyes widened. So much for her attempt at camouflage. Deciding to be honest, she told her adoptive sisters what she’d been thinking. It didn’t take long before all three of them were grinning.

  “What was courtship and mating like on Earth?” Dorra asked. Her violet gaze perfectly matched the zoka she’d chosen to wear today. “You do not hunt men and men do not hunt women?” Her expression was confused. “How in the sands does anyone ever take a mate to the marriage bed?”

  Kari couldn’t help but laugh. She supposed the earthly way of matrimony would seem odd to a people who took whom they wanted by force.

  None of the Gy’at Lis had married yet. Klykka and Dorra regularly engaged in sex with all the male servants, but neither had an interest in marrying any time soon. When they were ready, they would pick virgin males from the marriage auction block or pack-hunt their grooms by themselves.

  Bagging and tagging was how the female warriors of