Starfall: A Starstruck Novel by Brenda Hiatt Read Free Book Online

next meeting. But all I picked up was a determined sense of purpose. Surely, if he was hiding anything, I’d be able to sense it?
    *     *     *
    Sean and Molly had headed out of the Palace to visit friends in Glenamuir immediately after the luncheon, so they got to escape all my boring afternoon and evening meetings. When Molly got back to my apartment, just in time to help me change for bed, she was eager to tell me all about her afternoon.  
    Though I knew I was being a bad friend, I faked a huge yawn. “Sorry, I’m just so sleepy. You can tell me the rest tomorrow, okay?”
    Immediately contrite, Molly laid out my nightgown and left. The second the door snicked shut, I raced to the closet and carried my Scepter and the Grentl Archive to the ottoman at the foot of my bed.  
    I twisted the pink stone to the left, like Leontine had told me, and it popped right out into my hand. Setting it next to me, I inserted the purple stone in its place, twisting it to the right.
    “ Chartlann rochtana .” This time the staff projected an image of a woman in flowing robes of beautiful peacock blue.  
    “ Aethne? ” she asked. Keeping hold of the Scepter, I snatched up my Nuathan dictionary to look up the word she’d used. Ah! It meant “identity.”
    “I’m Sovereign Emileia, just Acclaimed,” I said, hoping this Archive wasn’t completely in Nuathan. That would slow things down enormously.
    To my relief, she responded in English. “Sovereign Emileia. Noted. Genetic imprint verified. This is the Archive documenting initial and continuing contact with the Grentl, commencing in the third year of my reign. I am Sovereign Aerleas.”
    I’d figured she must be, but seeing this young-looking image of my great-grandmother, a woman who’d been dead for over a hundred years, still boggled me. “I’m, uh, glad to meet you.”  
    She nodded, but her expression didn’t change.
    “I need all the information you can give me about the Grentl and how to use their device. They sent a, uh, message, but I don’t know how to respond . When I tried, they just pulled more memories out of me . ”
    “Yes. This is how the Grentl access information. When they request a report, the Sovereign must absorb the necessary data about the colony’s current status, then interface with the device to transfer that data to the Grentl.”
    Aerleas sounded mechanical, not like a real person at all. Surely she hadn’t actually talked like that, since she’d been one of the most popular Sovereigns ever. Maybe this Archive wasn’t as sophisticated as the other one, with personalities and all?  
    “They didn’t exactly request a report. The device activated and I got to it as soon as I could, since they were messing with Nuath’s power. They didn’t ask me anything, though, just pulled my life history out of me—and stopped the power glitches.”
    “No report was sent?”
    “I guess not? I hadn’t ‘absorbed data’ or anything. But then the device activated again, just a few minutes later, and they said, ‘We are coming.’ I tried to ask when . And why . But they just pulled more stuff out of my head.”
    “Did you allow the Grentl to terminate the connection?”
    “Er, no. I think I might have let go early.” I saw no point in explaining why, to this non-personality version of Aerleas. I hoped the one in the other Archive would be easier to warm up to.
    “It is possible they would have said more. You have only recently imprinted on the device?”
    “The day before yesterday. Yes.”
    “It took me many years to establish sufficient rapport with the Grentl to safely initiate contact. Even then, they often declined to respond. I recommend you allow the Grentl to initiate all contact at this time.”  
    That was so not helpful! “Can you maybe give me an overview of all communications with the Grentl?”  
    “Earliest communication was with two extra-solar researchers, five years before my Acclamation. They discovered little