Wandering Star: A Zodiac Novel by Romina Russell Page A

mental and emotional health was thoroughly assessed, and where she was assured and reassured that the situation would be handled.
    Later, it was noted that, earlier that same year, Datsby had started wearing long, sweeping bangs to conceal her eyes, which were no longer hazel but dark brown. And though her hair color hadn’t changed, it had started growing so fast that she had to trim it at her chin every week to keep it at the traditional Taurian length. In Datsby’s day, the Zodiac’s stance on Risers was even more narrow-minded than it is today, which means they invariably became outcasts.
    Vecily is said to have spoken only once in the dean’s office, to ask if Datsby was okay and if she could see her. Nothing else is known about that day, but it has been documented that Vecily and Datsby never saw each other again. For the rest of her recorded life, Vecily rarely spoke, and when she did, she chose her words sparingly and wisely.
    I let my eyes drift from my Wave, too distraught over Datsby’s fate and my renewed thoughts of the Trinary Axis to read on.
    A thousand years ago, the Houses didn’t operate as separate, sovereign entities, the way they do now. Back then, the Guardians passed universal legislation that superseded the Houses’ own laws. Universal rights versus House rights was a constant source of tension and debate, and oneuniversal law in particular was creating controversy: a ban on inter-House marriage.
    The ban had been around a few centuries, but there were rumbles that some Houses wanted to reverse it. A court case on House Libra was working its way up the ranks to a universal trial at the Plenum, and when it was finally brought before the Guardians, it was struck down, seven to five.
    Two Guardians had been hoping the law would be overturned—Brianella and Blazon. Their outrage over the case’s outcome transformed their unbridled passion and unconditional love into something fearsome. They decided to secede from the Zodiac and convinced Vecily to join them. They called themselves the Trinary Axis, and they declared themselves free of Zodiac rule and able to run their Houses however they wanted.
    The other Guardians didn’t honor their secession, but the Trinary Axis continued their work underground, recruiting members from every world to their cause. By the time they launched their choreographed attack on the Houses, it was no longer an issue of inter-House marriage; it was a crisis of universal rights versus House rights, and it had awoken a monster.
    For one hundred years, civil war raged on in every House. The Guardians eventually stopped convening, too busy with the situations in their own worlds. By the time the war was over, new Guardians had replaced the old, and they all agreed to govern their Houses independently—with the exception of one galactic rule, which the Guardians swore always to follow in order to prevent the destruction caused by the Trinary Axis from ever happening again and to ensure no two Houses would ever get too close and gain too much power. It’s the Taboo—the Zodiac’s only unbreakable law.
    And I broke it.

8
    I WAKE UP WITH MY Wave still in my hand. The lights of the Archer constellation wink through the windows across the aisle. We’ve dropped out of hyperspeed, so the trip will be over soon.
    House Sagittarius has four planets—all inhabited—and five moons. Centaurion is its largest and most populated world, and the Capital is where the government meets and also where Nishi’s family lives. Sagittarians call their capital city simply the Capital, for the same reason they refer to their Guardian as Guardian. I sometimes think they’re the only people who use language how it was originally meant to be used—literally.
    “We there yet?” asks Aryll, popping open his cerulean eye.
    “Soon. I’ll wake you when it’s time.” He nods and goes back to sleep.
    “You’re Rho Grace.”
    I turn around to see a Sagittarian Acolyte with blue-black hair and