AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I didn’t respond, because he was only answering me back out of habit, and it was a way for him to save face. Or so he thought. He’d grown up interacting with two extremely strong personalities in his parents, not to mention his eldest brother, Mikos, so he’d no doubt developed these little defenses. I would break him of them, but gradually and not by being harsh with him. He was under my charge, so I could ignore these small rebellions, so long as he still did as I told him to do in the end. I turned to leave but stopped at the door. “Do you need help putting on your boots?”
“What? No, of course not.”
“Then please do it. I’ll be back to get you soon.”
I stepped outside and closed the door. In the next second or two, I heard what was probably one or both of his boots hitting the door. Smiling, I went next door to my own quarters.
Chapter Four
Rakkur
I had gotten dressed again quickly after Tariq left and went over to the facilities to splash water on my face and wake up all the way. I thought my tiredness might be due to the new hormone pills I’d been taking for the past few months to prepare my body for pregnancy. A lot of advances had been made in child-bearing, and the painful injections my omak used to have to endure were a thing of the past. These days, young men were given daily pills to help them get their bodies ready for eventual pregnancies, if they expressed an interest in that.
I’d been a bit resistant to the idea at first, but my role was to be a consort to some king or other, most likely, and I had a wonderful example in Blake. I had always aspired to be as much like him as I could. Besides, it was no longer considered any kind of stigma to bear a child. Not with the scarcity of humans and other aliens on Tygeria since the end of the war.
It was so much easier than finding a suitable surrogate, and many young couples were taking advantage of the medical advances. My father said my chances at a good marriage would be greatly enhanced if I could bear a child, so I had agreed to take the pills. Especially after I learned that my brothers, Vannos and Nicarr, were thinking of taking them too. I could always change my mind later, and they were much easier to stop than the injections. But it was also the reason my fathers had wanted me to have a bodyguard at all times.
I found my boots again and put them back on, along with my tunic. I hoped he didn’t think I was going to let him boss me around the whole trip, because it wasn’t going to happen. I wanted to go to the comm deck, and I was going to do it, damn it. Not that I had any desire to anger him. I didn’t want him to think I was hard to get along with.
I was simply determined.
I heard the engines starting up, so I rushed over and pulled open the door, only to run smack into a rock-solid chest as I tried to go out. Tariq stuck out a hand to steady me. “Where are you going in such a hurry? I told you I’d be back.”
“And I told you, Colonel, that I wanted to go on the comm deck to watch takeoff. My father always lets me, and the captain has assured him it’s not a problem. I heard the engine start up, and I need to get up there before we leave.”
“But I already told you that’s not going to happen. Naturally, the captain would have made assurances to the king that his son wouldn’t be in the way and wasn’t a problem. That doesn’t mean you weren’t.” He tapped my forehead gently with his finger. “Think about it.”
Outraged, I looked up into his beautiful eyes and suddenly forgot about being mad. He grabbed my hand again and began to walk quickly to the left and down the curved passageway. He towed me along behind him like I was a child, as we passed several people coming toward us. They all gave me interested looks, though I kept my head down. I wanted to pull away, but I didn’t think he’d let me, and I wanted to avoid an undignified tug of war with my hand. Besides, I liked him touching me.
Soon we came to a large room with tables and chairs and about fifteen or twenty people inside. Most of them were drinking or standing around talking, though all of them stopped what they were doing as we came in. The ones who were sitting got to their feet and everyone in the room bowed to me. I gave them all a nod and a wave, the way I’d seen my parents do.
Tariq pulled me over to the closest window and the people already there parted in the middle like one of the fat bread rolls my omak ordered from Earth, and they stood aside to let me draw closer. Tariq took me right to the front, as the ship began to shudder and hum. Then the ship suddenly soared up into the air so quickly I lost my balance and would have fallen if Tariq hadn’t put an arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him to steady me.
We were shooting up past the huge Tygerian moon closest to us so fast it was all a blur. We were hurtling through space, though I didn’t feel the velocity or the lack of gravity, because of the artificial atmosphere onboard. This was the smallest ship I’d ever been on though, so it was a thrilling experience.
The view was to the rear, so our planet appeared to me like a shrinking, distant bauble in our view, quickly becoming a tiny, shrinking dot behind us in the vastness of space. Like I said, it was kind of thrilling, and I loved it.
I turned my face toward Tariq’s to smile up at him just as he looked down at me, and the ship lurched a little as it hit some turbulence. Turbulence was everywhere and common in space, and my father said it routed energy and played a role in solar wind. I’m sure that was an oversimplified explanation, because I wasn’t great in physics or mathematics. I much preferred Art and Literature.
Anyway, I stumbled and fell into my companion, and our faces were suddenly only an inch apart. I felt breathless and couldn’t help leaning heavily against him, giving him most of my weight, and I saw his eyes widen as he gazed steadily back down at me. I thought—I hoped—for a moment that he’d kiss me.
In that brief span of time, I felt as if we were alone, though I really didn’t care who might be watching. But the spell broke, and he pushed me gently away as quickly as he could and set me back on my feet. It was only then that I became aware of people staring and whispering. I was so embarrassed after the fact that I really thought I might die right then and there.
“I beg your pardon,” I said quickly, and he shook his head.
“No problem.”
I glanced around to see if anyone was still watching, but when I looked at them, they all turned quickly away. I steadied myself and spread my legs farther apart to give myself better balance. I wished I could lean my hot face against the big porthole to cool it, but that might have been a bit much.
After we traveled out into open space and the launch was over, the colonel took my hand again as if to lead me back to my room. Not that I didn’t like holding his hand, but I wasn’t a small child, and this was getting embarrassing and making me feel self-conscious. I pulled back a little and he looked up at me.
“What’s the matter?” He didn’t say “now” but I thought it might be implied.
“Can’t we stay and have a drink? I don’t want to go back to my room so quickly, and this seems like a nice place.”
He hesitated a moment. “A drink?” he asked, like he was unfamiliar with the word.
I nodded and he sighed before leading me over to a table. “Stay here and I’ll get you something.”
