Prologue #3
Since Larz was made the Governor by his father, King Davos, the Royal Guard had come a long way. I joined as soon as I was old enough and I’d worked my way up to captain, getting some of my rank through field promotions for bravery in battle.
And though I had initially received my appointment to the Guard because of who I was related to, I had worked extremely hard to be worthy of that honor ever since.
My own hard work, and my exploits in a few skirmishes with the rebel forces of the Athelonians, as they continued to attempt to fight the new system in place, had allowed me to distinguish myself in battle.
My efforts had helped bring about an almost total Athelonian defeat.
Luc Dimitri told Larz that he thought that I was reckless in the extreme at times, but he said that he still couldn’t fault my courage. I had to admit that those were the kind of remarks I lived for. As General Dimitri said in his human slang, referring to me, “He eats that shit up.”
But despite what an excellent job we’d done, without any help at all from Tygeria I might add, we had just received notice from the king of Tygeria that Imperial Guards would be taking over our duties and we were demobilized with immediate effect.
They further insulted us by mentioning us as, “the ones who call themselves the Royal Guard” in their message.
They said that the king and Prince Mikos wanted us strictly out of the palace.
It was made clear to us that we should never consider ourselves to be any kind of soldiers in any army, as that had been clearly forbidden when the Tygerians first arrived on our planet long ago.
We were still under military rule—Tygerian military rule, that is.
The people of Laltana had been allowed far too much leeway, according to the message, which was a backhanded way of saying Larz had fucked up.
The Imperials would soon be enroute to take over our jobs and “restore order.” In effect, we had lost our jobs to them.
It looked as if, after twenty long cycles, the jig, as Luc Dimitri would say, was finally up. Larz had spent twenty cycles doing whatever the hell he wanted to do despite what Tygeria said and dodging or ignoring all executive orders up to now. Personally, I thought he’d done a great job.
Larz still hadn’t totally made his peace with his Tygerian family either—not yet.
He loved his family, especially the Consort Blake, and even visited him from time to time on rare occasions, but like he’d told them, until Janos was made to feel welcome on Tygeria, by everybody, then they could count him out.
Now it seemed as if King Davos and Prince Mikol were forcing Larz’s hand and trying to force his hand by sending in Imperial soldiers and getting rid of his own Royal Guard.
“I just hope it’s not too late to fix this.”
A voice came from behind me. “Taran, you and Janos worry far too much, as usual.” I turned to see Larz coming in, looking tired and a little irritated.
He walked in the room, clapping me on the shoulder and then going over to kiss Janos on the cheek.
I smiled at him, because I’d missed him and it had been a day or so since I’d seen him.
“Sir… I didn’t know you were listening.” I’d thought the governor was in his adjoining office on his communicator, but he must have heard us talking and had decided to join our conversation.
“No, I heard you. And I want the Royal Guard to stay here, too. But my father and brother are still being difficult about it. I’ve just sent them a message, saying that if my father goes through with his plans to demobilize my Guard, then I’ll resign my position as Governor immediately and emigrate to another planet that doesn’t have the Axis telling it what it can or can’t do.
And I’ll do my best never to see or speak to him or certain other family members ever again. ”
Janos looked shocked and worried. “Oh no. Don’t anger him, Larz. And what do you mean, we’d leave here? Where would we go? What planet in this part of the galaxy doesn’t have the Axis telling it what to do? I’ve never heard of any.”
“There’s Rhaegar’s pirate planet for one—he’s married to my brother Derrick, if you remember.
They’re in disgrace with Davos and my brother too, because they unrepentantly live on a planet full of pirates.
So that would work and should totally infuriate my father as an added bonus.
And Mikos, too, which is another plus. The three of us could make a life there, I think.
At least until I can decide where to go to start over.
” He sat down beside Janos and pulled his feet over into his lap.
“I just don’t want you to worry about it. You stress over things far too much.”
“But I’m not sure I like the idea of us living on a pirate planet.”
“Well, Xalia comes to mind too. My brother Nicarr lives there with his king, and he’d welcome us with open arms, but it’s a little far away.
Moravia also comes to mind. I wouldn’t emigrate there, because it’s too close to Tygeria.
In fact, King Stefan finally signed a treaty with Tygeria, because my brother Vannos put pressure on him.
But we can take refuge there long enough to figure it out.
They’d give us sanctuary. Stefan only signed that treaty with my father recently, and he probably already regrets it.
Vannos told me Stefan was flirting with a group called the Coalition of Small Planets, and he had even promised one of their sons to one of the kings in that group. ”
I’d heard of that group. It was originally formed by King Travon of Thalios, who was openly treasonous and tried to stage a rebellion, but he was gone now.
Dead, I thought. Most of the other planets in their little coalition hadn’t been involved in his activities.
, but then again a few of them were and had to be dealt with.
The others had only felt as if there was safety in numbers and maybe they were right.
They were all still almost openly hostile.
Well, maybe not ‘hostile’ but unhappy and still trying to reconcile themselves to being forced into obeying the Axis even after all that happened in the war.
They were independent before, just like Moravia was.
Just like Laltana. But Mikos told them their independence was not possible anymore, and that they’d been flirting with treason. Just like he told Larz.
“They’re no longer giving them a choice.
Father squashed the idea of Vannos’s son, Bryos, marrying one of them, even though the man he was intended for was part Tygerian.
I understand that Vannos’s son was pretty upset about it and even though Vannos tried to get Father to change his mind, he refused.
And now he’s trying to boss me around and plan my life too.
Even though the so-called Coalition itself is completely gone now, it set a dangerous precedent, and Mikos is smart enough to capitalize on it.
The bad thing is that it gave him an opening to drag me into it. ”
Janos shook his head. “But, Larz, what if Mikos comes you? You mentioned treason. What if he tries to charge you with it?”
“I don’t think he will. My omak would never stand for such a thing. Neither would my father, I think, if it came right down to it.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Then I’ll think of something. Leave this to me, Janos, and let me worry about it.”
Janos frowned and looked like he was about to argue, but I interrupted.
“Janos objects to the pirates and you say that Xalia may be too far away. So it sounds then like we might be going to visit Moravia. When do we leave?”