Assistant for the Alien Prince by Tammy Walsh

Jessica

I wasin two minds about following him but as I peered around at the PR department, everyone else had their heads down and were focused entirely on containing the story—for whatever good that would do.

I threw up my hands and took after Zai.

“Hold up!” I yelled.

I shouldered the door open and immediately lost sight of him.

I peered up one corridor and then down another but still couldn’t make him out.

He must have—

There!

I caught sight of his impressive billowing red cloak that snapped at the heels of his black boots as he headed around the corner.

“Wait!” I shouted, taking after him.

I ran at full sprint toward the corner he’d disappeared around and skidded on one foot as the carpet gave way and slid out beneath me.

I stumbled and caught myself on a suit of Ev’vat traditional armor that crashed to the floor like a display of tin cans at the local supermarket.

Why now?

I bent down to pick the gauntlets up when a servant reached for them instead.

“If you please, Miss, I’ll take care of this,” he said.

He was a kind-looking elderly Ev’vat with soft eyes and dainty horns.

“I’m really sorry!” I said. “Cordon it off and I’ll clean it up later if you don’t have time!”

The servant bowed politely as I took off down the hallway in the direction I’d last seen Zai head.

I paused in the middle of a crossroad of hallways that stretched as far as the eye could see.

This damn palace!

It was worse than a bloody maze!

I checked each arm of the crossroad in turn but saw no sign of the frigging prince anywhere.

Just when I thought I’d gone too far and needed to back up and head down another of the hallways I’d passed, I saw him—at least, I caught the effect of him.

A pair of servants began to stand up after having prostrated themselves before him.

I bolted down the corridor toward them.

They saw me coming and immediately lowered their eyes again—though they didn’t drop to their hands and knees as they had for the crown prince.

“The prince!” I said. “Which way did he go?”

As one, they pointed down a set of stairs.

I took off after him, clutching the handrail as I peered over the side and saw his rushing figure below.

“Hey!” I yelled. “Hey! You!”

I knew it was no way to speak to a prince but what other choice did he leave me with?

He didn’t stop anyway and continued rushing down the stairs.

God damn it!

Why am I even chasing after this asshole?

It was an idle thought as it didn’t reduce the chances of me giving up the hunt.

I wound around the endless spiral staircase, making me feel dizzy.

I came to a stop when I reached the bottom and held on tight to the handrail.

I clenched my eyes shut before looking up and seeing a familiar sight.

We were in an underground garage.

Most of the vehicles belonged to the palace and glinted crimson, the gold lettering on their sides sharp and magnificent.

The servant mechanics got up off the concrete floor and dusted off their overalls.

They hastened over to the controls on the front wall to open the rear door.

He was leaving.

The princewas leaving!

I never should have come back here, he’d said. I should have stayed away.

He disappeared for four years last time.

Who was to say he wouldn’t disappear for another four more years after this?

It would be a tragedy.

He would lose the throne for sure and someone else would take over.

There might even be a civil war among the tribe leaders over it.

I couldn’t let that happen—although why I should care about what happened on a far and distant planet was beyond me.

I rushed to the ship—it was the same we’d taken to visit the Temple of Onsheggas—and leaped onto the ramp that slowly whirred shut.

I barely made it on board before it locked into place.

I took a step to smack Zai across the back of the head and knock some sense into him when he pulled on the controls and the shuttlecraft leaned back and shot off, racing higher and higher into the atmosphere.

I crashed into the closed hatch door and felt the press of the mounting forces as the ship took off.

I wanted to shout out, to scream, and tell him to stop, but my teeth were clenched so tight they might as well have been wired shut.

The engine screamed as Zai pushed it to the very fringes of its limits and aimed us directly at the ceiling of the sky.

The closer we got to it, the more the sky melted through the colors of the rainbow, from pink to purple, to black, and then a fresh twinkling of stars.

Once the planet’s gravity eased its grip on us, the ship righted itself and we passed through the vacuum of space in total silence.

I struggled to shove myself onto my feet and could have spewed every last morsel in my stomach across the floor if I didn’t fight so hard to keep it down.

I hated being sick.

It was the sensation of choking and not being able to breathe that I disliked the most.

My feet were unsteady and I staggered and braced myself on the walls as I approached Zai.

The fool sighed and relaxed, a smile lighting up his stupid face at having escaped his worries.

Well, he hadn’t escaped them all.

I would remind him of every last one each moment we were together.

“We have to turn back,” I said shortly.

Taken by surprise, he shot up onto his feet and accidentally pressed the shuttlecraft’s controls, sending us careening to the left.