Assistant for the Alien Prince by Tammy Walsh

Zai

“The guests have arrived, Your Highness.”

I didn’t move from the window that looked out on the desert’s vast expanse.

With the temple’s glass-like walls, I could peer out in all directions and made out only one thing:

The infinite stretch of the Mooru Desert.

It was relaxing, calming, in a way, like a frozen placid ocean of red sand.

The guests had arrived.

That meant it was almost showtime.

The cameras would whir and beam the event throughout the galaxy, where my people and distant species would watch enthralled, and yet would never know the doubts inside each of the key players’ heads.

Especially not within the Crown Prince’s mind and the thoughts he was having right now.

It was easier to think of myself as a third party, as someone looking down on the event, as if it wasn’t my mind struggling to come to terms with the upcoming event.

This ceremony had been what I’d been raised for, educated for, prepared for.

And now the event was here, I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted any longer.

Something had changed.

Something inside me.

Something I never would have understood before.

It hadn’t been a single event but a series of them.

And they all revolved around Jessica.

I knew there was something about her the very first time I laid eyes on her.

She was the one—my one—it just took a while for me to accept it.

“Your Majesty?”

I turned to find the servant still standing at the door, hesitant about interrupting me.

“The tailor wishes to dress you in your robes,” he said nervously. “May I let him in?”

“Yes. Yes, of course.”

The door flew open and the tailor and his team converged on me like a pack of ravenous wolves.

They tore my comfortable clothing from me and arranged my new uniform, the tailor hanging back and watching pensively.

Once his assistants were done, they backed away so as not to obstruct the view of their master.

He never once looked me in the face but pursed his lips as he ran his eyes over his creation.

Finally, he gave a single nod and the assistants sighed with relief.

Now they were allowed to have their opinion—so long as it didn’t diverge from their master’s.

“Your Highness, please,” the tailor said, managing to fold his immense girth into an effortless bow and pointing toward a tall mirror his assistants had brought in.

I was dressed head to toe in crimson robes that flowed from my muscular frame, somehow enhancing my best attributes and making me look physically more powerful.

On my feet were special boots that strapped to my legs and gave me an extra three inches, though you couldn’t tell just by looking at them.

What it most certainly was not was tailored in the traditional Ev’vat style.

“Where does this style come from?” I said, appraising it, unsure if I liked it or not.

“A small dirt planet called Earth,” the tailor said. “The Master of Ceremonies suggested it. I can’t say I care for it much myself. If you don’t like it, I brought more… traditional dress robes too.”

“No,” I said, my mind made up. “I like it.”

It meant I would be wearing a small piece of Jessica, and it looked far more flamboyant than our traditional style of dress.

It was sure to set tongues wagging.

Funny, I thought, that she should have such a good eye for fashion when she took to wearing baggy dresses for herself.

Feeling a little more confident about the whole ceremony, I marched through the doorway where an escort of senior lords and ladies flanked me.

Mother ran an eye over my dress robes before taking my arm.

“You look… powerful,” she said.

“I feel it,” I said honestly.

I led her down the steps slowly until we reached the bottom where the guests had gathered to greet us.

I heard several gasps at my appearance—and more than a few glares of jealousy from the tribe leaders.

I cast my eye over the congregation, looking for the one figure I wished to see above all others.

When everyone dropped to their knees and prostrated themselves before me, one figure was slower to do so than the others, and that was how I located her.

Jessica wore a frumpy dress far too thick for this temperature, though I supposed she had no intention of dancing.

Her hair was pinned back in her traditional style, her expression carefully maintained to be as flat and unresponsive as possible.

Boy, did I yearn to be at her side right then.

To be somewhere—anywhere—other than here.

Preferably a small house on the fringes of a country on a very distant planet few knew even existed.

The thought of being there instead of here for my Pairing Ceremony brought a smile to my lips.

I stopped on the first step and glanced in the direction of the live band, who sat ready, instruments raised like instruments of war and played the first note the moment my foot touched the temple floor.

It was a deep, thumping heavy bass note with a strong, high-pitched rhythm running through it like a bird sailing overhead.

I kept my eyes focused firmly on Jessica as I moved to the three tribe leaders standing beside their daughters.

Tradition dictated I should choose the daughter of the most powerful tribe leader first.

As I approached her, my eyes remained focused on Jessica.

When Tus lowered her veil of white, I was obliged to drag my focus away from Jessica and toward the daughter.

She had a pointed chin and striking cheekbones, as delicate as they were beautiful.

I nodded to her father, Brixx, who bowed his head in response, accepting my compliment of his daughter’s beauty.

I extended a hand to her and she smiled politely and took it.

I led her to the center of the temple and the congregation drifted aside, clearing a space for us.

We began to dance, spinning slowly at first, before building up speed.

It was customary to pick a single point to focus on to ensure you didn’t get too dizzy, and there was only one point I was interested in looking at.

Jessica.

I searched for her among the crowd but couldn’t find her.

She wasn’t where she’d been standing just a moment earlier.

During the entire first dance, I wondered where she’d gone and worried something had happened to her.

If Tus noticed I was distracted, she didn’t show it.