Chapter One #3
We knew, for example, that Prince Larz and his entourage had arrived and that they were now on the surface at the king’s palace.
This large planet, ruled by King Stefan, the son-in-law of King Davos, was an interesting one.
Stefan was married to Prince Vannos, another of King Davos’s sons, whom I’d never met, and had only seen in pictures or at a distance.
He had left Tygeria around the time I first attended training at the age of ten, a mandatory age at the time for all male children on Tygeria.
I remember hearing about his marriage, which had occurred without the King’s permission.
For a while, we’d all been excited at the prospect of a war with Moravia, because, like Larz, Vannos had been kidnapped, though as it turned out, not by the king.
Anyway, unfortunately, the war had never come to fruition.
The Moravian king married the prince instead in a proper ceremony, with King Davos and his consort in attendance, and since then, a few little princes had been born to the couple.
And after a while, life went on as usual.
It was twenty some cycles later now, and I was finally getting a chance to go to Moravia.
Not to fight them, unfortunately, but for a meeting between King Davos, Prince Mikos and two more of his sons, on what had been declared “neutral ground” by our king, at the request of his consort, Blake.
Moravia was still under Tygerian rule, and a member of the Axis, so I struggled to understand any kind of neutral status for the planet, but it was well known that the king frequently indulged his consort in such ways.
With any other king, it might be looked upon as a weakness, but Davos was a legendary warrior, decorated so many times for his prowess and courage in battle that he was beyond reproach. I figured he must have his reasons.
I was observing the planet from the bridge on board Prince Mikos’s starship, sitting at a console in front of a surveillance screen focused on the palace, when I saw a figure come out the front door.
I zoomed in even closer and saw one of the princes standing at the top of the broad front steps that led down to the circular driveway in front of the palace.
It wasn’t one I was familiar with, so it could have been either Prince Vannos or Prince Larz, both of whom were known to be inside the palace.
All of the royal princes except for Prince Rakkur looked a great deal like their father, King Davos—so much as to be unmistakably his offspring.
I decided this one was probably Larz, because of his height, which was similar to His Majesty’s, along with his dark red hair color.
I’d seen images of Prince Vannos, and his hair was more golden-red in color, and he was not quite as tall as his father.
The prince was very good looking, like all the others, and he had the look of a warrior.
As I observed him, the door opened behind him and a smaller man in a long red Alliance coat came out to stand beside him.
I bristled a little at the sight of the despised garment, which had been outlawed all over the galaxy—and then I got a look at the one wearing the coat.
And I froze, my breath stuttering in my throat.
He was younger than Prince Larz by a good bit, and his hair was as black as a starless night.
He wore it down on his shoulders in elaborate and complicated braids, like a woman would wear, and his face, when he raised it to Larz’s, he was exquisite and delicately boned.
But this was no woman. His jaw was firm and manly, and he had broad shoulders under that coat, tapering to a trim waist that I could see underneath.
He had an upturned nose and dark eyes, and his skin was burned brown by the sun.
I thought for a moment it might be Larz’s Consort, Janos, though the former king of Laltana was supposed to be bit older than Prince Larz and not as tall as this boy.
Not that he was very tall, but he was more human-sized than a Laltanan.
It must have been someone close to the prince, though, because I watched Larz throw his arms around the smaller man and hug him so hard it lifted him off his feet.
Whoever this was, Larz appeared to be intimately acquainted with him.
The hug lasted a long time and then he put his arm around his neck in a very familiar way and kissed the side of his face, as they walked back inside the palace.
I almost kept scrolling at that point, but after a few minutes, the doors opened again, and this time a man wearing a highly embroidered blue robe stood in the doorway, looking out for a moment.
His hair was also black and hanging down in those elaborate braids.
He was very good looking, even beautiful, but when I zoomed in, there were little streaks of silver in his hair that the other man didn’t have.
He was small too, like I’d heard Janos was.
But if this was Janos, Prince Larz’s consort, and the man he was betraying his country for, then who in the four hells was the other one in the long, red coat?
Could it be that Larz had a lover on the side?
That might mean that Prince Larz’s disastrous attachment to the traitor king of Laltana could be waning.
I made a mental note to tell Prince Mikos.
And I decided to make it my business to find out who the younger man was and exactly what his relationship was with Prince Larz.