AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I jumped all out of proportion and looked up at the screen to see my father staring back at me across the vast distance between us. I wondered where my omak was, because the king was alone at his desk. Damn it.
“I-I’m sorry, Father. Go ahead.”
“Thank you for your permission, Rakkur, but my question is for Colonel Tariq. Would you mind explaining to me, Colonel, the meaning of your message? Why have you resigned from the Imperial Guard?”
“What?” I cried out, turning to Tariq. “You resigned? No, you didn’t, did you? Did you? Well, that’s just the stupidest…Father, no! Ignore that. It’s out of the question. I won’t have it.”
“It’s not up to you,” Tariq said softly.
“I think it is.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Are we doing this again, Rakkur?” my father interrupted, and his tone was sharp. So much so that I shut up right away. I decided maybe it would be in my best interest to be quiet and let Tariq handle this.
“Colonel,” the king said, “kindly address your remarks to me and not to my son.”
“Of course. I beg your pardon, Your Majesty.”
“Colonel, let me get straight to the point. I won’t accept your resignation. Not without talking to you about this first. I’m not sure what’s going on, but you’re far too valuable to me and to the Imperial Guard for this to stand.”
“I appreciate that, sir. Very much. But…”
“No buts, Colonel. I’m afraid I must insist. Whatever Rakkur has said or done, please give me a chance to speak to you about this first before you make any kind of rash decision. You have a distinguished career ahead of you, and you’re of great value to me.”
“And I’m not?” I said, interrupting their conversation.
“This isn’t about you, young man. Stay out of this. By the way, I sense your hand in all of this resignation business. I don’t know exactly what you’ve done to the Colonel, but you’ve gone too far this time.”
I was incensed by his remark, but at the same time, my face burned with shame. I was angry that Tariq had outmaneuvered me. He had resigned, totally stealing my thunder, as Blake would say and throwing his career away. Anything to get away from me, some traitorous little part of my brain chimed in. I felt hurt and ashamed, and I had no one to leap to my defense like Omak usually did.
Help came to me from an unlikely source.
“His Highness hasn’t done anything wrong, sir,” Tariq said. “This is all on me and entirely due to another personal matter.”
“I see. I’m not sure I believe you, though. I think you’re covering for my son. I’d still like the chance to speak to you. And I’d like you to remain as Rakkur’s guard until then. As a personal favor to me.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.”
“Good. I’m sorry, but I think this is for the best. So we’re agreed. Colonel Tariq, you will continue to be Rakkur’s guard and handle everything.”
“Of course, Your Majesty,” Tariq said.
“Rakkur, I’ll talk to you later. And Tariq, thank you again.” And then just like that the screen went blank.
“I never meant to make you resign. I can’t believe you did that.”
“It has nothing to do with you.” Tariq rubbed a hand over his face. “Gods, this is an intolerable situation.”
“That’s not true, though, is it? That it has nothing to do with me—I mean, I fired you.”
He gave me a furious look. I opened my mouth to keep arguing, but I took another look at his face and changed my mind.
He sighed and offered me his arm again, and we left the comm deck. He took me back to my room in silence and would have left me at the door without a word, but I made him look at me.
“Thank you for what you said to my father.”
