Starcrossed - Bianca D'Arc
PROLOGUE
Excerpted from the Jit’Suku Warrior Code
The Rules of Warfare
The First Rule: Never make war on your own kind.
The Second Rule: Oldsters and children are to be respected. Unless they raise arms against you, a true warrior shall let them pass unmolested. Likewise, a true warrior shall never attack females, for they are the image of the Mother Goddess and the bringers of life.
The Third Rule: Never take the coward’s path, for only the brave will earn a place in the Mother Goddess’s hall of honor.
The Rules of Love
The Nij-ta: Love’s first kiss will reveal a warrior’s true mate and he will have no other ever after.
The reluctant mate should be wooed with care. If she refuses after three requests for marriage, she may be coaxed, but only by pleasurable means. If ever she repudiates her mate, the true warrior will respect her wishes and live the rest of his life alone, watching over her welfare from afar.
A true mate is a gift from the Mother Goddess and never to be disrespected. A true warrior’s most sacred responsibility is the protection of his mate, for she is the image of the Mother Goddess and the bringer of life.
Honor above all.
*
Tigh downed his last opponent cleanly. That made thirty-two for the day. Enough.
The high priest called him forward after Tigh had helped his opponent back to his feet with friendly courtesy. Courtesy, even in defeat, was a mark of the Zenai priesthood, just as humility was valued in a victor.
High Priest Jurdan motioned for Tigh to walk with him. It was an honor rarely afforded to even such a highly-ranked novitiate. Tigh fell in step beside him, waiting to hear what the wisest of the elder priests would say.
“You have learned our teachings well, but I fear your time has finally come to leave us.” The spry old man held out a communiqué bearing the royal seal, and Tigh felt his heart drop. He’d left behind the home that was rightly his and cut all ties to the empire years ago. Surely, they could have no use for him now, after all this time in self-imposed exile.
Tigh took the crystal pad with a heavy heart, pressing his thumbprint to the elegantly concealed reader. The small holographic screen revealed the face of one of his father’s oldest friends and advisors. Torm had been there for Tigh and his brother, Elius, when their parents had died. Torm had been the one to break the sad news and had acted as Steward, dealing with the day-to-day running of the empire until Tigh and his twin came of age.
When Torm had retired, Tigh joined the priesthood, clearing the way for his beloved brother to have what he always wanted—the throne.
“Elius is dead.” Torm’s strong voice rang out from the hologram. His face was lined with age and what looked like worry.
Torm’s stark words didn’t surprise Tigh. For three days now, he had suffered strange dreams, omens of bad tidings that could reach him even here, on the isolated mountaintop that was the Zenai retreat.
“Elius was stabbed by his wife, the Empress Marla, in his sleep, moments before she succumbed to the mutated virus that is, even now, raging through our galaxy. Tigh, you’re needed. The empire is in ruins. Elius’s virus has turned on its makers, and the techs tell me it may destroy us utterly, killing most of our females as we insanely tried to kill the humans’ males.” In the holo, Torm sighed heavily. “You may not have heard of this where you are, but Elius became obsessed with defeating the humans, once and for all, after our defeat at Alpha Richtar Sept. A scientist named Gruber came to him with a virus he’d designed. I don’t have all the particulars yet, but it was somehow targeted to a specific gene on the human Y chromosome. Since only human males have this Y-shaped chromosome, it was thought to only affect the warriors of their galaxy. Gruber claimed that releasing the virus on human worlds would kill all their warriors within three generations, leaving the females unharmed. Elius used this justification to move forward with the release, but Gruber was wrong. Many human females became sick, aborting male children and damaging their reproductive systems. They were changed on a genetic level, and many are now barren. It has fueled their fire to fight against us.”
“Dear Goddess, no.” Tigh’s whispered words went unheeded by the recording that continued to play.
“Many human females now man the ships they