Even on Mars, Opposites Attract

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Meet the Lords of Dystopia

Earth Earls Are Easy

Lords of Dystopia, book 1

Prologue

Wyatt Hartford had left Earth only seven minutes ago, and already he was homesick. Or maybe real sick. The smaller the blue-green orb outside the window became, the more his stomach churned. He was going to hurl. Puke. Cast up his accounts.

“What if we never see grass again?” he fretted. “Or water? Are there even animals on Mars? What if I never see another squirrel?”

 A sniffle and a snort sounded behind him, and Wyatt glanced down at his companions. From his perch on the window ledge, not quite two meters up, they looked small, as if they too were slipping further and further away.

The littlest boy—the sniffler—sat on the beige carpet, clutching a faded red plush rabbit to his chest. Two older boys occupied the gray utilitarian chairs that took up most of the space in the gray utilitarian room. Everything on the ship was beige or gray. Wyatt was never going to see colors again.

His gaze flew back to the window, locking on Earth’s brilliant blue oceans and islands of green. Tears began to gather in his eyes. They had to leave. He knew they had to leave, because their people needed to be safe.

But even with London in ruins and Eton a bombed-out shell, Earth was still his home. Earth was the place he could feel grass beneath his feet or the chill of raindrops on his face. Where he could watch animals run and play, having babies and making new homes for themselves in spite of the stupid humans who had mucked everything up.

“Come down from there, Windborne.” At sixteen, Leo Northbridge, Duke of Morland, possessed a commanding baritone voice that made Wyatt cringe at his own thirteen-year-old squeaks. Morland was dressed in a three-piece suit, as if he were already an adult, and he sat like a king on a throne, head high and shoulders square. “We have business to discuss.”

Wyatt ignored him. It was bad form to ignore a duke. Especially his duke, the head of Earth’s Chamber of Parliament. Of which Wyatt was now a member. He really should have paid more attention in his Politics and Policies of the Empire class.

“Fuck off, Morland,” growled a surly, but still boyish voice. Rion Brandt—Martial House golden boy and all-around arse—sprawled in the other chair, directly facing the duke he’d just insulted. Rion was Wyatt’s age, and they’d had a few classes together. In Wyatt’s experience, Rion Brandt despised everyone and everything. Even the ostensible leader of their sad little group, it seemed.

Wyatt grimaced. At least he hadn’t cursed at Morland.

“Don’t speak to my cousin like that!” cried the little boy. His pale, tear-streaked face glowered up at Brandt. His blue eyes flashed with fury, and he brandished his bunny plushie like a weapon. Wyatt didn’t know the kid, but he certainly had spirit. Maybe they weren’t doomed after all.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Rion sneered. “I should have said, ‘Fuck off, Your Grace.’”

The little boy hopped up and swung his toy, smacking Brandt right between the eyes. Before Brandt could retaliate, the boy scrambled up into the duke’s lap.

Morland’s usually rigid expression softened, and he hugged his cousin. “Easy, Aubrey. He’s one of us now. Starting today, we’re all brothers.”

“He’s mean.” Aubrey began to sniffle again. “I hate space. I want to go home.”

There was no home anymore. Nothing but a mess of wars and natural disasters. The feuding corporate states would kill everyone to get their hands on a few dwindling patches of coal. Evacuation was the only rational choice.

There is no home, Wyatt repeated to himself.

Eton was the only residence Wyatt could remember, but it had never really been home. He had no family, no friends. As heir to the Earl of Windborne, he’d been isolated, even from the other boys in Innovation House. He’d had extra training, extra work, and little time for socializing with anyone other than the peers who came to teach him.

Those men were all dead now. He was Windborne.

It felt strange more than sad. Confusing. Another wave of nausea swept over him. They were rocketing away from everything he knew. Mars barely had an atmosphere. They lived in big glass domes there. Was it cold? Dark? Scary? The outdoors had been his only refuge. Sun and trees. Birds and squirrels. Outdoors on Mars meant death.

Wyatt choked back a sob. “I want to go home, too.”

“See here,” Morland said sternly. “We’re all unhappy. None of us asked for this. But we have twenty-five thousand people aboard this ship who are counting on us. We are their leaders. We own the territory on Mars where they will build new lives. We might be young, but we’ve been trained for this. We have money and titles, where others have nothing. It will be up to us to lift our voices for our people. The only way to do that is to work together. Vote together. We must forge connections with the members of the other Chambers so when the time comes to convince them our ideas have merit, they won’t disregard us.”

Rion tipped his chair to balance on the back two legs. “And the way we do that is to obey all Your Grace’s orders, eh?”

“No. The way we do it is to support each other. For example, when you topple over, I’ll offer you a hand up, even though you’ve been nothing but a twat since entering this room.”

Rion raised both middle fingers. “Just because you’re—” His chair slipped, sending him crashing to the floor.

“I tried that earlier,” the duke explained. “These chairs aren’t very stable.”

Wyatt laughed, the first time he’d done in days. Maybe the stuffy young duke wasn’t the automaton people compared him to.

Aubrey scrambled from his cousin’s lap and ran to Brandt’s side, extending a hand. “I’m sorry I said you were mean. Do you want to be my brother?”

Rion stared back in silence for several seconds, before accepting Aubrey’s assistance. “Okay. I like you, kid.”

“My name’s not ‘kid.’ I’m Aubrey Balister, twenty-first Marquess of Wells.”

“I’m Rion. You’ve got good aim with that rabbit. Think you can knock space-boy down from that window ledge?”

“My name is Wyatt, and I’m watching Earth disappear. It’s better than listening to you lot bicker.”

“Can I see?” Aubrey asked.

Rion boosted the smaller boy up to the ledge, where he squeezed in beside Wyatt. Then Rion dragged his chair over and stood on the seat to get a view of his own.

“Damn. It is beautiful, isn’t it?”

The duke joined them. “We and our people will always carry a part of Earth with us.”

“Is Morland always like this?” Wyatt asked Aubrey.

The boy nodded. “Leo talks like the books they teach us in school. But he’s nice. You should be our brother, too.”

Wyatt examined the faces of the other boys. Young. Troubled. But all proud and strong in their different ways.

He put an arm around Aubrey. “I think I’d like that very much.” He dug into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a paper-wrapped parcel. “Does anyone want chocolate biscuits? I brought enough for all of us.”