“We do have visitors,” Kentario said. “I thought you knew that already. You didn’t complain about me sitting in while Felix was stuffing your brain with useless information.”
“I thought you were just killing time. Who’s visiting? And why wasn’t I told?”
There was a pause, and a most telling frown settled on Kentario’s face. “The Nalmagians arrived this morning, asking to speak to the King.”
Ryu stopped in his tracks. “The Nalmagians? That’s the third month in a row they’ve sent a delegation. What’s going on?”
“Are you serious?” Kentario snapped in disbelief. “Biermarg is in the middle of a civil war on our southern border, and the Nalmagian Disputed Territory is getting caught up in the fighting. How the hell do you not knowthat? You do actually read those security updates you get sent every day, don’t you?”
“Of course I read them! And yes, I know there’s a civil war in Biermarg. Sheesh!” Ryu rolled his eyes at his bodyguard, then dutifully recited the rest. “Nalmaga is officially still a part of Galandeen, despite their repeated attempts to declare independence, because they don’t have enough trade capacity to maintain their own economy and they don’t have the population to maintain an army. But the Nalmagians causing trouble is no reason for Galandeen to leave its borders undefended. We’ve got military patrols all over the Paladrian region. If rebels from Biermarg are causing trouble, our army would go deal with them.”
Kentario’s silence was not reassuring, and Ryu sighed. “What the hell has Dad done now?” It was unrealistic to expect that Ryu would agree with every decision his father made in his role as king, but lately, it seemed that their two perspectives on the world were getting further and further apart.
A door at the far end of the hallway opened, and a stern-faced guard firmly marched a man out the door. The man was dressed in a crimson and blue robe; the traditional dress of the Nalmagian people.
“You are not permitted to take weapons into a meeting with the king,” the guard said. “We explained that to you when you arrived.”
“This is not a weapon. It’s a ceremonial knife,” the man insisted, holding out a curving blade in an ornate sheathe. “You dishonour my ancestors! The king has no respect for tradition, and he undermines our culture at every turn!”
“This way,” Kentario said to Ryu, steering him firmly down a different hallway.
“Don’t drag me away like a bloody toddler,” Ryu snapped, twisting out of Kentario’s hold. “This is exactly what I was talking about with Felix. Everyone keeps telling me I have to get involved in Galandanish politics, but the instant something important happens, no one wants to let me within half a mile of it. I should be in that meeting, listening, at the very least, even if I’m not allowed to participate.” He set off down the hall again, only to be forced to stop when Kentario planted himself in his path. “Get out of my way.” He tried to summon the confidence to make it an order, despite having known Kentario since they were children. Ordering around one of his closest friends had never sat well with him.
“So your skinny ass is really going to pick a fight with me?” Kentario raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest, thick muscles standing out in high definition. His scent shifted subtly, a tang of musk drifting into the air to serve as a warning to Ryu that he was challenging a powerful and confident alpha.
Ryu wished he had the brawn to really put his foot down. But despite being an alpha like Kentario, Ryu’s slender build, along with his height, hadlong been the subject of teasing jokes – friendly ones from inside the palace, but some of the comments from the media had crossed the line into scornful derision. Once he’d hit puberty and failed to gain either the typical height or muscular build of his gender, there had even been speculation that the palace was trying to pass off an omega child as an alpha.
If that had been true, then Ryu would have been able to understand his father’s attempt to ensure his only son inherited the crown. Next in line to the throne was Ryu’s uncle, King Sou’s younger brother. ‘Crazy Uncle Admos’ as he was widely known, was a man who was unhinged even on the best of days, and whose first act as king would likely be to declare that the garden squirrels were now Galandeen’s new rulers.
Next down the line was Ryu’s aunt, and while she herself had openly declared that she had no interest in the throne, she had three children, only the youngest of whom was an alpha. Longstanding tradition in Galandeen had once meant that only an alpha could inherit the throne, but with more modern ideas creeping in from all sides, there was likely to be a bitter fight between his cousins if any of them had cause to try and become king or queen.
But despite his small size, the fact was that Ryu was an alpha, born with all the telltale variations of anatomy that defined the gender. Which made the teasing annoying at best and deeply insulting when it came from less sympathetic quarters.
“I’m going to that meeting!” he informed his bodyguard.
“Not this time,” Kentario said flatly. “Look, even if I let you in there, your father’s in that meeting, and he’s just going to kick you out again in thirty seconds flat. And that would be embarrassing for you, and it still wouldn’t get you what you want. So, you can come with me calmly or I can throw you over my shoulder and carry you to the gym.”
Ryu knew Kentario well enough to know the threat was not an idle one. “I thought you were supposed to be on my side.” He was used to being pushed around by his father, and by some of the more arrogant members of the nobility, when they thought they could get away with it, but not by his childhood friend and protector.
“Iamon your side. Insofar as there are sides to be taken. But at the same time, I have exactly one job around here,” Kentario reminded him, “and that is to keep you safe. And I take that jobveryseriously. The Nalmagians are playing hardball, and your father’s orders are to keep you away from there.”
Ryu glanced down the hall again. The Nalmagian man had finally relinquished his dagger and returned to the meeting room, though Ryu would bet a year’s allowance that the insult against the man’s ancestors was not going to be forgotten easily. But his earlier question had never been answered. “Is Dad really leaving them undefended?” It came out quiet anddefeated, yet another disappointment in a slowly growing understanding of who his father really was.
Kentario sighed. “Last I heard, he was trying to bargain with them. Some of the Nalmagians have settled down in villages, but the nomadic tribes still practice coming-of-age rituals for their young alphas. They’re forced to perform dangerous feats and withstand trials of pain. King Sou made the trials illegal, but they refuse to stop, despite the fact that a handful of young men end up dead every year when they push themselves too hard to try and complete the tests. Sou’s offering to defend their villages if they agree to give up the practice.”
“Goddess alive, that’s messed up,” Ryu snapped. Knowing he’d lost the battle to get inside the meeting room, he turned and stalked away down the hall, heading for the gym. “They’re Galandanish citizens. We have an obligation to defend their land, and if they’re breaking the law, then we should be dealing with them via the courts, not leaving them at the mercy of marauding rapists and murderers.”
He stopped again, anger rising sharply. “Okay, I have two questions. Number one, how is it that you know so much more about this than I do? And number two, why am I being kept out of it?”
Kentario was not known for displays of emotion, but the look on his face was almost sympathetic. “The answer is the same for both questions. And I think you already know what it is.”
Ryu’s scowl deepened. “He thinks I’m too naïve to understand why he’s refusing to help them.”
“Not naïve, no,” Kentario said, clearly making an effort to sound reasonable. “But maybe a little too… compassionate? Honestly, right now, what do you want to do about the situation?”
“I’ve seen the news reports about what’s happening in Biermarg,” Ryu said. “Villages being attacked, omegas being raped, crops being destroyed. If the same thing is happening to the Nalmagians, then I’d send in our army to drive the rebels back.”
“Which is exactly what Sou expects you to say. But what happens when the Nalmagians once again refuse to obey Galandanish laws, refuse to pay taxes, refuse to stop their illegal practices? What then?”
