Xandra of Mars

CHAPTER 01: Summoned

The night the Rites came for me started like any other, my face buried in a book.

Dust from the old history tome tickled my nose. Its thick cover felt rough to my fingertips. As I devoured our founding mother’s words, just knowing I was breaking rules made me giddy. Not that I usually read censored books, but my history tutor never shared these firsthand accounts of Mars’ colonization.

As I read, I stretched long on the sofa like a cat, one foot landing up on the sofa’s back and the other resting on a cushion. This book—whoa. I reread the passage. But this part couldn’t be true. It never came up in my lessons. Was this why the book was censored?

“Ryver? Did any women stand against the Severing?”

Across the library, the desk-high titanium hub spooled. Azure-blue lights ticked up its sides as luminescent nectoliquid fountained from its basin. The liquid coalesced, shaping into a blue sphere that floated above the hub and vibrated when it spoke. Its deep, motherly voice could be comforting when you needed soothing, and annoying when it talked down to you.

“There are no historical records of female opposition before, during, or after the Severing, Miss Xandra. It did not happen.”

I gripped the 22nd Century Chronicles tighter. “I’m looking at it right now.”

“Looking where?”

I winced, heat prickling my cheeks. Oops. “Oh, an old book. I found it tucked in with the Mars histories. Never mind.” I crossed my fingers, hoping the Ryver wouldn’t press.

The fire cracked. I glanced up from the book to make sure the library wasn’t burning down. Sparks reflected in the bay window’s dark glass. Midnight pressed chilly on the atrium door that led out to our east wing patio, but the fireplace radiated warmth. Normally, I’d be in heaven. Being toasty and safe inside Gamma’s library while outside it grew frigid was a special sort of wonderful. But this book was twisting my head. The whole point of terraforming Mars, of building our atmospheric shell, and above all, severing contact with Earth, was to create a safer planet, a place where we could live peacefully. Why would anyone fight against that?

I held the book closer to my face to soak up every shocking account.

“Miss Xandra, are you reading one of the censored books from your grandmother’s collection?” the Ryver asked with a chastising tone.

“Ummmm, not sure? It’s not like Gamma’s books have big red stamps across their covers to indicate which ones I’m not supposed to read.”

“I will have to send a note to the governor.”

“Please don’t.” I sat up, perching my feet on the tea table. “Do you really want to distract Mother when she’s at the Summit? It’s for my studies. The Grad Exam is only three months away. History’s a huge chunk of it.”

“Checking now on your latest performance ratings.”

I sighed and flopped onto the sofa, stretching flat. Sometimes I wished we had a basic Ryver hub that spit out info without comment, instead of a criterion model with its Wisdom & Nurture features.

“As I suspected, among sixteen-year-old girls you are rated at the ninety-eighth percentile in history studies.”

I pressed a pillow against my ears to shut out the lecture.

“If you’re concerned about your Graduation Examination, might I suggest that instead of focusing on your strongest subject, you tend to your weakest. Oratory. Most of the girls in your level have already completed the public speaking requirement.”

The suggestion sent a chill across my skin. I shoved the pillow under my head and tucked my nose into the book. “I have three whole months until the exam. Plenty of time.”

“If you’re experiencing any anxiety about the speech…”

The room fell silent.

I lowered the book with a frown. The Ryver never stopped in the middle of a sentence. I darted my eyes to the hub. It didn’t report me, did it?

BEHH-BEHH-BEEEEEE blared through the chamber.

The emergency alert! I sprang up, and the book hit the floor with a thunk. I rushed to the window. If something was happening, like imminent danger, it was protocol for the security team to flood our estate lawns with light.

But it was still dark outside. I spun, unsure what to do. Then I tucked myself behind a wing chair while my pulse skittered through my body. “Ryver, what’s going on?”

“A guest has arrived at the estate. Madam Qiu is bringing her to you.”

I blinked. A guest? I peeked from behind the chair, keeping my guard up. But it made no sense. Madam Qiu was Mother’s closest aide and protected the family like a doberman. Normally, she’d direct uninvited guests to make an appointment during office hours—not fire off an alert and usher them into the family’s private wing. “Since when is a guest an emergency?”

“She is an officer with the Arbiter Corp.”

My body went rigid. “What?!” Now I understood. And with Mother away, I was the one who had to greet visitors. “Please tell me there’s time to run upstairs to change.”

“I’m afraid not. They’ll be here any minute.”

A noise broke from my throat that sounded like a half-throttled whinny. I spun to the dark window to use it as a mirror. My casual leggers hung loose, and stained, and my hair tie had fallen out, leaving my dark hair in a long, tangled mess. Worse, I was wearing a shirt I’d stolen from my brother’s dresser, the funny one with a frog leaping off a cliff with its tongue jetting out to catch a fly. The Arbiter Corp wouldn’t be impressed with messiness, boyswear, or humor. I combed through the tangles with my fingers. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do to make my nose daintier or my brown eyes any less potato-colored.

Wait! Where were my shoes? I searched around the sofa. No luck. Skidding across the library in socks, I checked under the study table and the long archway, by the Ryver’s hub and its bulky chair—until I spotted them hiding under the tea table. As I reached for my loafers, the Ryver told me that someone had entered the archway. I popped up, slapping on a smile, with a shoe on one foot and the other held behind my back.

Madam Qiu emerged from the archway wearing a simple unisuit with quilted overrobe that did little to soften her stony demeanor. Qiu possessed the ability to terrify servants or stateswomen alike despite her small stature. Her brows lowered as she eyed my ruffled hair and shoeless foot. I gave her a helpless shrug, then cranked up my smile for our guest.

A tall woman in a cobalt blue uniform with gold buttons and shiny boots strode into our library holding the most erect posture I’d ever seen. Her hair was spun into a tight twist, not a strand out of place. It wouldn’t dare. Her male guard cast a mountainous shadow, all trunk-sized limbs and a groomed beard.

Qiu’s gentle Dǒumǔan accent masked her iron reserves. She nodded with grace, as if guests popped by every midnight. “Miss Xandra, may I present Captain Noma from New Gaia.”

My smile tightened involuntarily. “Oh—all that way?” Strange. I attempted to mimic Qiu’s gracious nod. “How do you do?”

The captain scanned me from toes to tangles, her nostrils flaring. She pulled out a silver scroll-tube. I hesitated to touch it. Clinging to my smile, I popped on my second loafer.

“Captain Noma, was it? Sorry, there must be a mix-up. Mother is at the Leadership Summit at the world capital. In New Gaia. Where you came from?”

“You are Miss Xandra Fallow? Of the Eastern Seascape Fallows?”

I kept smiling. “Yes?”

She thrust the tube my way. I accepted it gingerly and broke the seal. A slip of paper tumbled out. Paper! Paper was reserved for the highest degree of secrecy.

11 Matrona 2357

To Miss Xandra Fallow, by order of Her Serene Luminance. You will present yourself at Palace Darieos for a private audience with Arbitrix Iliana Darieos. A slipjet awaits at Providence City Skygrid Center to transport you to New Gaia. You are to leave immediately.

Goosebumps spread against the back of my neck. Officially, as arbiter of the Grand Council, she was supposed to build consensus over the queens of the six domains. But everyone knew Arbitrix Iliana ruled the world.

I passed the paper to Qiu before swinging to the officer. “What’s going on?”

Captain Noma’s diction was crisp. “You’ve been summoned to meet the Arbitrix.”

“Thanks for spelling that out. That was helpful.” My lips clamped shut. It wasn’t wise to be snarky to the Arbiter Corp. I offered a meeker smile. “Do you, maybe, have any idea why?”

“It is not my duty to know.”

I huddled with Qiu. “Does Mother know about this?”

“The Governor has been unavailable tonight.”

“She’s missing?” My heart thudded faster.

Qiu rested a warm hand on my arm. “She’s been called into many ad hoc meetings this Summit. I suspect it’s more of that.”

I spun to the captain. “Did something happen to my mother?”

“Last I saw, Governor Kalliope was healthy as a tiger.”  

I gaped at her, relieved, but also stunned by her rudeness.

The big guard coughed. When Captain Noma looked over, a Divina Matrem pendant popped out of her collar. Its beveled diamond shape rested against a button marked with the Temple’s symbol, a glyph that resembled an upside-down four.

Ohh. This Noma was a Maestra, a member of Mother’s opposing political party.

“You’ve ten minutes to gather presentable attire,” the captain said. “The journey will take an hour.”

Madam Qiu propelled me through the archway and across the grand foyer while firing orders into her Ryvulet—a device inserted behind the jaw connecting her to the Ryver. Mother’s backup adorners and Qiu were coming along, too.

But someone had to stop this dreadful mistake. The Arbitrix didn’t want me. The one time I’d met her, it didn’t end well. I looked toward the library where my Arbiter Corp escorts waited. They should be flying out of the archway any second, the captain howling that it was cancelled because the message belonged to a different girl.

Any second now…

Any second…

The archway remained empty. I whimpered.

But I couldn’t go to Palace Darieos. Not that I had a choice. When you received a summons from the Arbitrix, it wasn’t optional. Oh, but they’d expect a governor’s daughter, an heir-elect no less, to have mastered a strong posture and commanding voice by now. I could barely enter a room of strangers without my throat closing—I gasped. There would be endless strangers at the Summit I was headed toward.

I dragged my feet as Qiu pulled me up the great staircase. “How many are attending the Summit?”

“Delegates include the Grand Council of Queens, global assembly of governors, Sapphic ministers, ambassadors, and major metropolitan mayors. Also, their teams, a few husbands—”

“A big crowd, you’re saying? Like really, really big.”

Qiu slipped a supportive squeeze into her steel grip. “You’ll be fine, Miss Xandra.”

But my heart was beating too fast. I started my calming breathing exercises. Mother God, someone was going to look pretty foolish when this mistake was sorted.

Please don’t let it be me.