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He looked up at me and shrugged, but I saw in his face that he thought there was more to it. I knew, but I wasn’t about to speak of it. I had a fatalist view about things like duty assignments. Our religion taught us that all events were inevitable and that the choices we made and the actions we took made little difference to outcomes anyway. It had been my experience that no well-intentioned act ever went unnoticed by the gods, who seemed perversely intent on doling out punishment for the good deeds we did. Maybe I should simply have minded my own business when I saw the way my cousin was treating Prince Rakkur, but that would have been impossible. I couldn’t stand by and do nothing, when all I wanted to do was to kill my cousin for putting his hands on Rakkur.
I picked up my cup of Lycan tea and drank it down, deciding not to worry about it now. Things would happen the way they were supposed to, regardless of my worrying, so there was no need to bother.
“I suppose the prince is as good looking as everyone says he is?”
“Yes.”
“And he’s twenty-one cycles, I believe?”
“Almost.”
“He should already be mated then. Undoubtedly, the king and his human consort are too particular. After all, the boy is a pardo.”
I bristled at the term. A pardo was a racist word that meant being mixed, without specifying which mixture of races. As slurs went, it wasn’t particularly bad, but it still angered me. It had sprung up years ago on Tygeria when Rakkur was a baby and the first of his kind on the planet. The royal consort had not received the drugs to suppress his DNA while the consort was expecting him, and thus he’d been born “naturally.” It became popular for a while after that for men mated to Tygerians not to suppress their alien DNA, which had produced children of surprising beauty. Most people were fine with it, but occasionally you could still run across someone like Bonnos.
“He’s a Tygerian citizen. And a royal prince,” I said, feeling the need to defend him.
He looked up quickly at my tone, though, which was a little sharper than I’d intended and gave me a slight smile. “I see.”
I wondered what it was he thought he saw, but I didn’t intend to argue with Bonnos this morning. He’d irritated me, though. I prided myself on maintaining strict control over my emotions. I’d hidden my secret about Prince Rakkur for the past five cycles, and I could go on doing it. Forever, if I had to. I wouldn’t stand for anyone running him down and using racial slurs against him.
I stood up abruptly and threw some bills on the table. “I have to go.” He looked up at me and smirked and I had to remind myself again that it wouldn’t be a good idea to knock him off his chair.
I had intended to go back to my quarters and stow my gear. Maybe I’d check to make sure the prince was still tucked away in his quarters while I was there. I felt almost obsessive about checking on him, honestly, and I told myself it was because of his rank. But I knew the truth.
When I got to his quarters, I knocked on the door and he called out to me to come in. I could see he’d been taking a nap when I stepped inside. He’d taken off his boots and his tunic and was wearing a thin, white shirt that looked rumpled along with his trousers. His pretty, golden hair was falling over his face. I glanced down at his feet, which were incredibly small for a man’s, with the same creamy, pale skin. He had no striping at all that I could see anywhere, except for a faint bit across his cheeks. I had the most inappropriate, yet urgent need to see his skin all over to see if he had anything else different. I wanted to inspect every inch of him. The whole room was filled with his warm scent, a clean smell with a hint of some no doubt expensive soap.
He swept his longish hair back with his hand and sat up on the side of the bed. One curl fell over his forehead again.
“I was more tired than I thought.”
“No need to get up then. Lie back down and rest.”
“No, I’d like to be on the comm deck when we take off. I always enjoy that.”
“Why?”
I wasn’t trying to be difficult. I was truly puzzled. One takeoff was very much like another, after all.
“Huh? Well, I-I just…enjoy watching getting into space and leaving our solar system behind.”
“But you’ll only be in the way. The comm deck is crowded at the best of times and no place for spectators.”
He gave me a confused look. “My father always allows me to watch. And the captain has never complained.”
“How could he? No, you’re not going to the comm deck to be underfoot. If you want to watch, then I’ll take you to the wardroom. The ports are large enough there for you to view the takeoff, and you’ll be able to see all you need to see.”
His brow furrowed and his bottom lip actually stuck out in a little pout, like a child’s. His cheeks grew noticeably pinker, so I knew I’d both embarrassed and angered him. Neither had been my intention, but it was good to establish who was in charge from the beginning, and I wasn’t just trying to be difficult. He needed to know the way things really were outside the rarified world of the royal family. I didn’t want anyone to think badly of him or to think of him as spoiled and privileged. Though he undoubtedly was.
He was on his way to Loros to meet a potential husband, a man who was a king, from the rumors I’d heard floating around. I hated the idea, but I would see this through. This person would probably expect the young princeling to follow his lead in things, if he didn’t demand outright obedience. It would be interesting to see how that worked out. I had a feeling it wouldn’t go over too well. And I thought it might kill me if I had to witness it.
Besides, the comm deck was crowded and by necessity, as it was filled with antennas and various communications and navigation electronics, which didn’t leave a lot of room. He’d simply be in the way and no doubt the captains in the past had been too polite and far too afraid of angering the king to come out and say so.
Rakkur’s reaction should have been annoying, but I was more amused than anything. I could tell two things about my new charge right away. He didn’t like being told no, and no one had ever done it very often. He was surprised and none too pleased that I’d denied him something he wanted to do.
“Put your boots back on and after I check some things in my quarters, I’ll take you to the wardroom. You go nowhere without me.”
“I’m perfectly capable of making my own way to the wardroom. I don’t need you to take me,” he said, in a haughty tone. He sounded every inch a spoiled prince in that moment, and I had to turn away to hide my smile.
