left the palace. Kylon, for one, was glad. He didn’t trust himself to be around Rasc much longer.
Chapter Five
A few days earlier on Tygeria, The Consort Ryan…
Ryan arrived at the exclusive private school, the Lexoss Preparatory Academy, to pick Mikol up just after midday. The expensive school hadn’t been his first choice—he’d have much preferred a less “exclusive” and more public facility, but his choices had been the Lexoss Preparatory Academy or a military school, so therefore, in his mind at least, extremely limited. The inhabitants of this planet were far too war-like for his liking as it was, and he was trying to prevent his son from developing this character flaw as much as Mikos would let him.
Mikol liked the school so far, though there had been a few worried frowns that first day. He had clung to Ryan’s robes as they walked in the front doors, though he quickly let go when he saw other boys his own age. He began to strut around a bit more when he discovered his were the only sapphire blue robes in sight, marking him as royalty, though there were many emerald green ones.
“Am I the only prince here then, omak?”
“Yes, I’m sure you are. Princes are in short supply just now. We’re down to four—only Rakkur and you and Nicarr and of course your father.”
“But Rakkur is a baby,” he said contemptuously. “And Nicarr and Father are old.”
Ryan smothered a smile at the application of the word ‘old’ to the seventeen-year-old Nicarr and Ryan’s own handsome, not quite thirty-two-year-old husband. But to Mikol, they must seem that way, he supposed.
“Yes, Mikol. They’re both older than you, of course.”
“And I’m the only royal here.” He looked around at the other children, most of whom were a little smaller than Mikol too. “I think I’m going to like it here just fine, omak. You don’t have to keep worrying so much and being so scared.”
“Oh, thank goodness, darling. That’s a relief.”
“I know. But I’m fine. You can go shopping now and come back later.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay a little while?”
“No, omak,” he said, rolling his eyes, as if he were explaining it to someone not very bright. “I’m eleven years old now, you know. I’m almost grown.”
“Okay, then,” Ryan said, glad that he was settling in, though he had to admit, it stung a little that Mikol didn’t seem to need him. He began to turn to go to the door, when Mikol’s hand pulled on his robe.
“Yes, darling?”
“I think it would be all right if you gave me a little goodbye hug. If it would make you feel better.”
“Yes, Mikol,” he said, motioning for Mikol to bend over a bit so Ryan could hug him and drop a small kiss on his cheek. “You know, it really would.” Mikol rubbed off the kiss, but hugged Ryan back extra hard and then turned and ran off toward a group of other boys who were playing a complicated looking game with a ball. And he never so much as glanced back at his omak. Sighing a little, but feeling better, Ryan left there and went shopping.
It had become something of a routine for them ever since. Most every day, Ryan would drop Mikol off, give him a goodbye hug, and then be on his way to shop for his child or to go to an art gallery or a museum or even just sit somewhere quietly and have a hot cup of Lycan tea before going back to retrieve his son. If someone had told him he’d be happy doing just this kind of thing ten years ago, he’d have called them crazy. Back then, he’d been obsessed with his career, but he’d had to let all that go a long time ago after his marriage to the prince and develop new interests.
Now after all this time, he could finally admit to himself that his life was almost perfect. Since Mikol was older, Mikos was asking Ryan’s counsel on certain issues that weren’t top secret. And Mikos had allowed him to go with him to find Larz, even though Mikos had been expecting trouble. Even just five years before that would have been unthinkable for Mikos. Maybe he really was slowly evolving. He’d also dropped the issue of having more children, fearing for Ryan’s health, and Ryan had dropped it as well, satisfied with the status quo. More or less.
A few nights before, they’d had dinner with Blake and