Read Queen of Stars for Free Online

Disneyland. It may well be based on the way their ancestors lived, back in the Pleistocene.”

     
    A couple of kilometers beyond the tribal village they came upon a small lake fed by a waterfall. Beside that stood the station, a sprawling complex of single-story wooden buildings with verandas, shade trees, and close-cropped lawns. It appeared to be deserted; the windows were all dark.
    “Why no palisade?” Avior demanded. “If the blind had to be built of stone, then why does this place have no defenses?”
    “I’m sure it has magical defenses,” Rigel said absently. He was looking around very warily as their guide led them into the complex. Izar was staying close now. “The blind is scenery, so it has to look right. Chief Tracker?”
    The mudling turned. “Noble halfling?”
    “How many people live here?”
    “People?”
    It took several questions to establish that there were no halflings or mudlings living in this part of Alathfar, not even servants. Starborn ladies were seen occasionally, but Chief Tracker had no idea whether they lived there or just came visiting. No other starfolk had been seen since he was a boy.
    “So who told you to threaten us with spears?”
    A starborn lord he had never seen before, but he didn’t know where the great lord lived.
    Rigel dismissed him and told him to make sure all his men got home safely.
    “Now what?” he mused. “Beat on all these doors? Go over to that big building in the middle? This stinks of an ambush. Starling, burn that cabin.” He pointed at a small cabin off to the side.
    Izar looked up at him with wide eyes, unable to believe that he’d received such wonderful instructions. “Burn it?”
    “Throw fire at it. Set it alight. Reduce it to…Yes, like that. Keep throwing. Make a real bonfire of it.”
    Avior was stunned. There might be people in there.
    Izar’s barrage of fireballs quickly turned the building into an inferno. Flames roared up into the darkening sky.
    “Very good!” Rigel said. “To continue your arson and vandalism training, let’s go over there and raze another.” He led the way farther into the complex, following their shadows.
    The light behind them dimmed, the noise of the crackling flames stopped. Avior turned just in time to see the fire vanish. The cabin was badly damaged, but it was no longer burning, not even smoking.
    Rigel said, “Aha! And somebody is home, see?”
    Lights had come on in the windows of the central building and smoke drifted up from its chimneys.

Chapter 5
     
    R igel was trying to appear a lot more confident than he felt. He didn’t believe that Hadar was behind the kidnapping, because the Family were all halflings and halflings never progressed above low green in magic, usually only reaching blue—Rigel himself seemed to have none beyond his ability to read names. Only an elf with high-ranking magic could have sabotaged his reversion staff. Prince Vildiar certainly had enough talent, but he had refrained from killing Rigel before when he had the chance. Why dirty his own hands with violence when he had bred an army of halflings for that purpose?
    Almost certainly the culprit was Fomalhaut, the court mage. He could be loyal to the queen and still disobey her orders if he saw a higher loyalty in ridding her of her half-breed retainer and rumored lover. This morning, when he had learned that Izar would be joining the excursion, it had been his idea to give the imp a reversion staff of his own, even though Rigel’s staff was quite capable of moving three people.
    Seen that way, the plot made sense. Talitha’s popularity with the more puritanical starborn would soar; Rigel could live out the rest of his five-hundred-year lifespan in this game park as lord of the mudlings. Talitha might rage and threaten, but she needed Fomalhaut too much to dismiss him. Only the fluke of Izar’s losing his staff had spoiled the plan.
    Also, Fomalhaut had prophesied several times that Rigel would die within months if he