THE STAR DWELLERS

Book Two of

The Dwellers Saga

David Estes

Published by David Estes at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 David Estes

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Discover other exciting titles by David Estes available through the author’s official website:

http://davidestesbooks.blogspot.com

or through select online retailers.

Young-Adult Books by David Estes

The Dwellers Saga:

Book One—The Moon Dwellers

Book Two—The Star Dwellers

Book Three—The Sun Dwellers (coming in December 2012!)

The Evolution Trilogy:

Book One—Angel Evolution

Book Two—Demon Evolution

Book Three—Archangel Evolution

Children’s Books by David Estes

The Nikki Powergloves Adventures:

Nikki Powergloves- A Hero is Born

Nikki Powergloves and the Power Council

Nikki Powergloves and the Power Trappers

Nikki Powergloves and the Great Adventure

Nikki Powergloves vs. the Power Outlaws (Coming in 2013!)

This book is dedicated to all the members and moderators

of my Goodreads fan group.

Your kindness and support is beyond generous, and I’ll always

value the way you make me laugh, cry, smile and sometimes just shake my head.

Prologue

Tristan

Two years ago

My mom didn’t show up for dinner tonight.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her all day. Although my schedule was jam-packed—sword training all morning, an interview for a silly telebox show in the early afternoon, a painful two hours of “life lessons” from my father in the late afternoon (where the President “his highness” imparted his unending wisdom upon my brother and me), and barely a half hour to myself to clean up and get ready for dinner—I would still usually cross paths with my mom at some point. But not today. And now she isn’t at dinner, which is very unusual, her designated spot at the foot of the table empty save for the untouched place setting.

“Where’s Mom?” I ask from the center of our mile-long table.

From the head, my father looks up from his juicy prime beef. “She’s gone,” he says so matter-of-factly I think it’s a joke.

“Gone?” I snort. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

There’s no compassion in my father’s dark stare. “Are you dumb, boy? Gone means gone. Vanished, disappeared. She left you.” He wears a smirk, like the joke’s on me.

“She wouldn’t do that,” I say firmly. I know she wouldn’t. She loves me. My brother, Killen, too, who sits across from me watching our exchange with unreadable eyes.

“She would and she did,” the President says. “Her handmaiden found her cupboard empty this morning. She packed up as if she’s never coming back. If you’re ever going to be a man, Tristan, you have to face the truth. She’s abandoned you.”

But that’s not a truth I can face. Not now—not ever. She didn’t leave. She was driven away.

“You did this,” I growl. For a second my father’s face is vulnerable, his eyebrows raised, as if I’ve struck a nerve. A moment later, he’s himself again, unflappable.

“Watch your tone, son,” he says back, his voice simmering with hot coals.

I know not to push him too far, but tonight I can’t stop myself. “I hate you,” I say through clenched teeth. Pushing back my chair, I add, “I’m going to find her.”

Before I can get to my feet, he’s up and moving, barreling around the table, his face a swirling mixture of wrath and fire and his idea of discipline. I’ve seen him bad, but never this bad, and it takes me by surprise, so much so that I’m frozen for a split-second, just enough time for him to reach me.

There’s no hesitation in him as he towers over me; despite my recent growth spurt, he’s still taller by a head. And his frame is that of a man, chiseled from his daily personal training sessions, while I, though athletic, still sport the body of a boy. The strike comes so fast I have no time to react.

CRACK!

My head snaps back as the vicious uppercut lands just beneath my chin. Still half on the plush red velvet cushion of my cast-iron chair, I feel my feet tangle with the chair legs as I go down in a heap, unwittingly pulling the heavy seat on top of me. Pain is shooting through my jaw but I don’t even have time to massage my chin before my father’s vise-like hands are clutching the top of my tunic, pulling me to my feet, and then further, lifting me in the air, my legs dangling helplessly beneath me.

I’m looking down at my father, and I feel the warm trickle of blood from my mouth. I must’ve bitten my tongue when he hit me. Out of the corner of my eye I see Killen watching, his face that of a ghost, white and powdery. I look back at my father when he shakes me, once, twice, thrice, a reminder of the power he holds over me.

“You will NOT speak to me like that!” he spits out. “If anyone’s to blame for your mother’s disappearance”—another shake—“it’s you.”

He drops me, and although I land on my feet, my legs are weak and rubbery, unable to sustain my weight as my knees crumble beneath me. His shadow looms over me and I shudder. Why won’t he just let me be, leave me to my own grief? Because that’s not who he is. I suspect that his cold, uncaring shell of a heart stopped beating years ago.

“You will not leave this house again until I say so,” he commands, and despite the rebellion in my heart, I know I’ll obey him. But someday, when I’m stronger, I won’t.

I never saw my mother again.

Chapter One

Adele

The thunder of marching boots sends shivers through the rock and through my bones.

When I was young my parents used to tell me stories about monsters that roam the underground world we live in. Serpents with glowing eyes the size of dinner plates, longer than ten houses, slithering and slipping through the underground rivers and lakes. Faceless boogeymen, walking the caves, searching, searching…for a child to snack on. I now know my parents were just trying to scare me into not going out alone at night, to trick me into not wandering the outskirts of the subchapter.

These days there are worse things than monsters in the Tri-Realms.

Tawni and I hold our breath as the convoy of sun dweller troops pass us. When we heard them, we managed to extinguish our lights, pull back into our tunnel, and duck behind a finger of rock jutting out from the wall. We’re lucky—they’re not in our tunnel. Instead, they’re passing perpendicular to us, through a tunnel that intersects ours, shooting off to the left and right, the first crossroads we’ve seen since leaving the Moon Realm. Thankfully, they don’t seem to understand the concept of stealth, or they might have seen us before we even knew they were there.