Princess for the Alien Commander by Tammy Walsh

Ikmale

I clutched Sofia close,so tight it was as if I were trying to meld us into one.

I’d been terrified the moment I discovered the dras had been spotted in the area.

And the knowledge Sofia was out there somewhere riding, oblivious to the danger heading toward her.

I swung up onto mighty Veiun’s saddle and didn’t even wait for my honor guard to climb into their saddles before I took off into the forest.

I racked my brain trying to think where Sofia might have headed.

I was at a loss as she was a stranger to our territory.

The only place she knew, not that she was aware of its precise location, was the spot where we’d set up our encampment and we’d met for the first time.

With no other clue as to where she might have gone, I whipped Veiun into a frenzy, sending him into the forest as fast as he could manage.

He leaped over great fallen trees and floated with his magnificent wingspan over entire acres of forest land.

The kauah were nothing if not good okmath riders.

It was what we were born to do, what our ancestors had spent the greatest amount of their time perfecting.

We rode our okmath like they were an extension of our bodies.

On their soft padded feet, they wore specially designed gloves that, when tensed, formed claws that were good not only for attacking but scaling the tallest trees.

With a kauah rider, okmaths were lethal weapons in a forest setting.

We came to a stop in the open clearing.

I peered around but saw no sign of Sofia.

But there, I noticed a mound of dirt where an okmath had run.

I followed it and found that whoever had been riding was ungainly and unskilled.

Their balance was all over the place and made their okmath veer from one side to the other.

I drew my blade from its sheathe and gently patted Veiun on the neck to slow his approach.

He moved as silently as the wind through the trees and I sensed our quarry could be found just ahead.

Snap.

Something broke underfoot but I didn’t pause, didn’t hesitate.

I drove Veiun forward and bolted around the hedge, my sword arm drawn back, ready to decapitate at a moment’s notice, but hesitated at the thought it might be Sofia.

We came upon another okmath and I looked up and spotted the terrified and lost look in an elderly woman’s eyes.

Camila.

Of course.

Sofia hadn’t come in these woods alone, but with her nanny.

She peered into the dense forest that surrounded us, unaware of the death that’d almost kissed her from my blade’s edge.

Just then, my honor guard caught up to us and kept their vigilant eyes on the canopy.

“Where is she?” I said as softly as I could muster.

Adrenaline flooding the system never made for calm conversations.

“She was right here…” Camila said. “And then… and then they took her.”

Camila’s eyes filled with tears.

There was no need to ask who had taken her.

Camila lurched forward and grabbed my arm.

“Please, find her! You have to bring her back! I don’t know what I’d do without her!”

I placed a reassuring hand on her arm.

“I will, I assure you.”

I turned to my men.

“Take her back to the castle. Everyone else, come with me.”

My men snapped into action and didn’t waste a single moment.

We raced into the forest and formed a wide line that covered as much ground as possible.

Every so often someone picked up on a trail and shouted: “Here!”

We automatically altered our line and bent like a flock of birds toward the trail.

When you chased a slobbering foe like the dras, speed was the aim, not stealth.

We needed only to head in their rough direction and trust our superior training to catch up to our quarry.

I caught sight of the tracks several times myself, and each time I did, they became fresher and more recent.

We were gaining on them.

And when we finally came across them, we surrounded and attacked as one.

My greatest fear was that the dras would use Sofia as a bargaining chip for their freedom.

I wouldn’t let them use her like that.

Nor would I afford them a single grain of mercy.

And so we descended on them hard, firing and tearing their defenses apart until every one of them had fallen.

Two of my men were injured by plasma blasts but none so badly that they couldn’t ride back to the castle for medical attention.

A few burns in exchange for Sofia’s life?

More than a fair trade.

The tripback was slower but still at a fair clip.

During our attack, we’d had the element of surprise on our side and I wouldn’t allow a second contingent of dras to utilize the same advantage we had.

This time, my honor guard formed a circle around me and Sofia, keeping a wary lookout in case of danger.

Thankfully, we passed through the forest unmolested, but I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until we handed our okmath back to the stable hands.

Servants reached up to take Sofia from me but I refused to give her up.

She was my responsibility and I would not pass her off to someone else.

I carried her through the castle, each of the servants looking with concerned expressions at her limp body in my arms.

I’d already checked for her pulse and found it slow but strong.

The blow she’d taken across the cheek had turned her skin purple and swollen but looked worse than it was.

It would need an ice pack the moment I placed her in her bed.

The bruises on her neck were difficult to gauge and a doctor would have to look her over.

I barked orders at the servants, who scattered to carry them out.

I carried her up the stairs and slid her into the bed.

Caring nothing for the dirt and blood—most of it not hers—that blemished the bedsheets.

I dragged a chair up alongside her and ran my fingers through her hair.

She relaxed beneath my touch.

When the doctor came, he worked around me, understanding we were one and for me to leave her side was out of the question.

He cleaned up her injuries and said that there was light bruising to her throat and that it would heal within a few days.

I nodded my thanks and didn’t notice when he left.

I just peered down at the small frame of my wife, praying the psychological impact would be minimal.

I stayed by her side the entire night as I wanted to be there when her eyes opened.

Dawn broke and its warm tendrils sprayed through the open windows, playing over Sofia’s skin and making it glow like an angel’s.

I blinked against the light, surprised the night had passed so quickly.

“You should carry on with your duties,” a voice said from the corner of the room.

I hadn’t heard anyone enter.

My senses were entirely focused on Sofia.

For the first time, I drew my eyes from my wife and found Camila standing in the corner.

She had dark bags under her eyes and I imagined she must have been standing there most of the night.

“She’s my duty now,” I said.

“She’s going to be all right, you know. Trust me, we’ve been through a great deal worse than this.”

I shook my head.

“What could she have been through that’s worse than this? A princess never knows experiences like this.”

Camila pulled up a chair to the other side of the bed.

“No,” she said, nodding her head. “Not quite like this. But desperate times, she’s seen plenty of.”

I blinked up at Camila, confused.

This was news to me.

Yesterday, Sofia had discussed her past and how uncomfortable she’d been on Greyang but never that it was desperate.

“I know she hasn’t always known she’s a princess,” I said. “Only a few days, a week maybe.”

Perhaps Camila could provide me with the information Sofia had refused to share with me.

“Sofia was so far removed from being a princess that it’s hard to imagine anywhere lower,” Camila said.

“Greyang is rough, but there are plenty of rich people there who—”

“We lived there during the dras’s siege.”

Her eyes fixed unblinkingly on mine.

The dras siege…

Just the sound of it conjured images of famine, death, and disease.

For five long years, it’d been subjected to the worst onslaught at dras hands in human history.

Tens of thousands had died, many starving to death, and many more later died from the effects of that period.

My throat felt dry and I could hardly believe what I was hearing.

“She was there?”

“We both were. And her mother.”

“How long?”

“For the entire five years.”

It was a gut punch.

Peering down at little Sofia still lying unconscious in bed, she suddenly seemed more fragile than ever.

No, not fragile.

She only had the appearance of fragility.

To have survived through that siege took guts, courage, and a survival instinct that rivaled even the toughest kauah warrior.

“But she’s the princess,” I said. “Her mother was the queen. Why didn’t the king help you?”

“Because the king is an evil, corrupt little man. He used to habitually beat the queen. She put up with it, as many good women do, for the benefit of their children, but when the king turned on Sofia when she was seven years old…”

I ground my teeth and growled at the back of my throat.

How anyone could bring themselves to lay a hand on Sofia was beyond me.

Especially those who were meant to protect her.

“So you see, Sofia isn’t the dainty princess you might think she is. She’s as tough as they come and she’s seen real hardship. Trust me, she’ll get through this and be back on her feet in no time.”

I smiled at her and turned back to Sofia.

Camila was right, of course.

If someone could live through all that and emerge without a scratch on her, she could survive a little dras kidnapping.

Sofia groaned weakly and turned her head to one side.

When she opened her eyes, I beamed with joy.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Camila said.

She got up and left the room.

I ran a thumb over Sofia’s cheek.

“Hey there.”

Sofia’s eyes were gritty and red, barely able to stay open.

“You’re okay now,” I said. “You’re back in the castle.”

Sofia smiled—at least, she tried to, but it was so weak it barely even bent the corners of her lips.

She gently nodded her head and pressed her lips to the palm of my hand.

“The doctor says you’re going to be fine,” I said. “You’ll just be sore for a few days, that’s all.”

Sofia nodded and opened her mouth to speak.

“Don’t,” I said. “You should sleep. Rest. There’s no rush.”

But Sofia had something to say and she was determined for me to hear it.

“The dras…”

Her voice came out in a rough rasp.

“It’s okay,” I said. “They’re gone. They won’t hurt you anymore.”

“The dras… attack…”

“They didn’t attack. They only kidnapped you. You’re in the castle now. You’re safe.”

Sofia shook her head and with all the strength left in her tiny frame formulated the words she wanted to say:

“The dras… attack… Let in by father… Marriage…”

Her beautiful blue eyes struggled to open and peer up at me but when they did, they contained a question:

Do you understand what I’m saying?

The blood drained from my face as the realization set in.

“The king is working with the dras?”

Sofia groaned and nodded gently.

I could hardly believe what she told me.

“He brought them here to make it look like they were going to attack?”

One corner of Sofia’s mouth quirked up and she nodded once more.

“The king and the dras are allies?” I said.

Sofia beamed and rested her head back on the pillow.

The piece of information knocked the wind from my lungs.

It changed everything.

The king wasn’t only a monster, he was mad.

Who allied with the scum of the universe just to get revenge on those he blamed for the death of his son?

I shoved the thoughts aside, knowing I would go over them again and again for the next few hours.

“Rest now,” I said. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

But it wouldn’t be fine.

Not if I continued to try and play peacemaker.

Sofia shut her eyes, got comfortable, and immediately drifted off into a deep sleep.

I tore myself from her side—the hardest thing I’d had to do in a very long time—and drifted toward the door.

Camila stood outside it, her face as pale as a ghost.

“You heard?” I said.

She nodded.

“What are you going to do?”

“The time for half measures is over,” I said resolutely. “If the king wants to battle for the heart and soul of the kingdom, then a battle he will get.”