The Far Bank of the Rubicon (The Pax Imperium Wars: Volume 1) Read Free Page A

ecology, but I remember learning something about that,” the king said. Much to Jonas’ chagrin, his father stood up. He stretched out his back and rubbed his fingers on the side of his temple before looking back down at Jonas and saying, “If memory serves me, ants on the ancient world were a group of small scavengers. They lived in a hive and had a queen much like the whooping ant. When the first colonists arrived on Athena, they used the word ‘ant’ to describe this creature because it seemed so familiar, at least until the colony gave out that collective ‘whoop’ sound like they do when they feel threatened. The two together got them the name ‘whooping ant.’”
    Jonas took the monocle out of his eye and stood up beside his father. People often told him that he looked like his dad. He had the same tall muscular build, chocolate-colored skin with mixed brown and blond hair. The only difference was his father’s blonde goatee. Jonas put his hands on his hips and surveyed the scene before him. He could see the royal shuttle and its companion shuttle parked nearby. Their crews leaned against the common shuttle in a relaxed fashion, talking with each other.
    In front of the ships stood thirty pairs of fathers and sons mixed in various sized groups. Jonas watched a group of boys huddled together in serious contemplation of a tablet. They laughed, and Jonas experienced a recurring longing to be with them, even though the thought terrified him. As a prince, he had little experience with other children and no friends other than his older brother. He inhabited a world of adults and, if honest with himself, he was much more comfortable around them. Jonas instinctively took a step closer to his father.
    Even from this distance, he could tell from their body language that lunch was over. The group politely waited for the King and his son to return. Since birth, a merciless sense of duty had dictated the course of Jonas’ life. At sixteen, it owned him wholly. “We better get going, Dad. The bishop is starting to sigh.”
    The King looked down at his son and chuckled. “Bishop Dominic is an impatient man. Occasionally, it is good for his character to make him wait.” As he said this, he lifted his nose and adopted a distinctly nasal and fatherly tone, imitating the highly affected form of speech familiar to the clerical class. Removing his hands from his hips, he started walking and said, “However, it is time that we get back. After all, we want to finish our hike just at sunset. That’s the whole point, and it wouldn’t do any good for the second prince and his father to wreck it for the others.”
    Jonas laughed, fell in behind the King, and looked down at the sixty or so people standing below them. Nearly all of them looked back at him or his dad. Most took quick glances and looked away when they realized the prince was watching them. Used to this response, Jonas stared back brazenly and wished again that he could have done this without them.
    The religious rite of the Pilgrimage of the Sun had been practiced on planets and moons across the galaxy by sixteen-year-old boys and their fathers for hundreds of years. The rite intended to teach each boy humility by showing him how small he was compared to the vastness of space. It also represented a passage into adulthood. However, as with most religion, it had become something different for the majority of Athenians—in this case, a simple excuse for male play.
    The rite consisted of a pilgrimage hike laid out in advance by the local priest or bishop in each parish. Over the course of several hours, the pilgrims traced out a scale model of the local star system. The hike was meant to take some time and end at sunset. Traditionally on Athena, a large bonfire was lit at the end. The fire became a thing of play for boys, and most often sons and dads consumed some small quantity of alcohol, just enough to make the sons feel like men but not enough to cause trouble. Then