Princess for the Alien Commander by Tammy Walsh

Sofia

Much of thenight passed by in a blur.

Blurry brown and yellow patches of hard skin, faint blue clouds that I recognized as the visage of the kauah, and the glowing points of gold in the middle of their faces.

I finally awoke, blinking into the light, my eyes hurting and sore, and immediately faded back to sleep again.

I awoke a second time, my vision a little clearer and crisper than it had been before.

A creature was crouched over me and there was something I desperately needed to tell him…

What was it now?

My thoughts were hazy like I was thinking through thick balls of cotton wool.

Something about the king the dras had told me…

I spoke clearly—at least, clearly to my ears—but couldn’t be sure he understood me until he repeated the information back to me.

I tried to beam back at him, to acknowledge that he had indeed understood me perfectly, but my eyes grew heavy again and I fell asleep once more.

Some point later, though it had to be daylight for the golden globe hovering behind my eyelids, I woke.

This time, I could move my hands easily and made fists of them.

I felt at the crisp sheets and the hard bedspread beneath me.

Peering around, I wasn’t sure if I would find myself in the king’s palace or Ikmale’s castle.

Neither would have surprised me.

Everything I’d seen—or at least, thought I’d seen—could easily have been nothing more than a fever dream.

I rolled up into a sitting position.

My entire body ached head to toe.

“Take it easy there,” Camila’s calm voice said soothingly.

Hands pressed me back down on the bed softly but firmly.

Lines of concern crinkled her face, but not deep enough for me to worry about the kind of condition I was in.

“Where… Where am I?” I said, flinching around the swollen curve of my cheek.

I reached up and pressed a hand to it.

I immediately regretted it.

Lightning bolts of pain zipped first-class to my brain.

Camila was there once again to lay my arm at my side.

“Don’t touch. Doctor’s orders.”

“Where am I? What happened?”

“You’re at Ikmale’s castle. The dras kidnapped you.”

Yes, that’s right, I thought.

It’d seemed like such a distant and fuzzy dream that it couldn’t possibly have really happened.

“Ikmale,” I said. “Is he okay?”

“Define what you mean by ‘okay.’ He’s angry as hellfire. If he’s not careful, he’s going to get himself and his people hurt.”

I perched myself up onto my elbows.

“What do you mean?”

Camila peered over at me and shook her head, chastising herself for having said too much.

“Don’t worry about that now. You focus on getting healed. As soon as you’re fit and well, we’ll get out of here.”

“What? Get out of here? Why would I want to get out of here?”

Camila sat on the edge of my bed and pressed a hand to my forehead to check my temperature.

“What happened today with the dras is just the beginning. They won’t stop just because they failed this one time. They’ll try again and again and again until they have you. Until your father has you. Then you’ll be his prisoner and he’ll use you to manipulate Ikmale. Trust me, you don’t want that situation on your conscience. The sooner we leave, the sooner this kingdom will be safe.”

She eased me into bed and drifted back over to the corner where I noticed what she was doing.

She folded my clothes and placed them in a suitcase she’d gotten from somewhere.

Her suitcase sat on the floor, full already with her clothes.

Leaving this place after the sham wedding had been my initial goal, but since falling in love with Ikmale…

“I can’t leave him,” I said.

Camila didn’t even turn to look back at me.

“It feels like that now, but with time, trust me, you’ll be glad you did.”

I sat up on my elbows again.

“I’m not leaving him.”

The tone of my voice must have been what grabbed her attention and she looked over at me.

She placed a dress in the suitcase and came to sit beside me once again.

She ran her fingers through my hair and smiled at me warmly.

“I know how it feels. I was a young woman too once. To give yourself to someone… It’s a very special feeling. But it will pass. It always passes. It passes for me just as it passed for your mother.”

She took my hand in hers.

“Let him go. Trust me, with time, you’ll find someone else. You’re a beautiful girl and the galaxy is a big place. You’ll find someone with no strings attached—on him or you. You’ll see.”

She got up to continue packing.

Was she right?

Thinking about Camila being with a man… made me shiver in mild revulsion.

Not that she couldn’t love—hell, she’d loved me my entire life, but I couldn’t bring myself to imagine her being intimate with someone.

Just as I didn’t want to imagine me being intimate with someone other than Ikmale.

“I don’t want anyone else,” I said.

“What was that, dear?”

I spoke stronger this time.

“I said, I don’t want anyone else. I’m in love with him.”

And there it was.

Saying it out loud like that didn’t have the effect I thought it would.

I wasn’t ashamed or embarrassed.

It was merely a statement of fact.

Like saying the blowing of the wind was cool on my face or describing how fire felt on my hands.

It simply was.

There were no variations of the truth.

Only the truth.

I tossed the blankets to one side and swung my legs over the side.

The room spun slightly but within moments, it settled back into place.

I slipped my feet into the slippers.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Camila said, bracing her fists on her hips.

This time, I had the strength to withstand her attack.

And shrug it off.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said. “I’m staying here. If you want to leave, you can, but I’m not leaving Ikmale’s side.”

“You’re setting yourself up for a great deal of heartache,” Camila said. “I want what’s best for you.”

I smiled at her and tucked a length of gnarled grey hair behind her ear.

“I know you do. And Ikmale is the best thing for me. I know it. I feel it deep inside like…”

“Like a waterfall cascading over damp rocks,” Camila said distantly.

In all the years I’d known her, she’d never shared stories about any men she’d loved.

She’d always been the calm center of the household, never prone to emotion.

Could it be she’d truly been in love once?

Yes, I thought.

Her smile was distant with time and her mind had shifted to another place.

To him, whoever he was.

“You really love him, don’t you?” she said.

“Yes,” I said, and tears suddenly burst into my eyes and ran down my cheeks.

I was certain of that now.

I loved him as I had never loved anyone before.

It was so clear to me now, so obvious.

And I wasn’t about to give up on it.

The one thing I wanted to do most in the world was look upon him, look upon him and weep with joy.

“Where is he?” I said. “Where is my husband?”

“He’s outside, preparing for war.”

I snapped to attention.

“What war?”

“After the king and his dras allies attempted to kidnap you, Ikmale decided he can’t wait on the sidelines any longer. He’s taking the kauah army into Quoisa to declare war on the king and his army.”

The blood drained from my face.

“But the dras…”

“Are already on the king’s side. Ikmale intends on going to war with both enemies.”

I shook my head.

This couldn’t be happening.

This wasn’t how things were meant to play out.

Not with Ikmale marching into a battle he had no chance of winning!

But if he waited, the king and the dras would snipe at him, killing his men and weakening him from a distance until he couldn’t defend himself anyway.

His choice was a slow or a quick loss.

But it doesn’t have to be that way…

There is another road…

I reached for the door handle but Camila grabbed my arm.

“You can’t go out there! We have to leave this moon and find somewhere safe!”

“Out of my way!”

“Don’t do this! It isn’t your fight!”

I yanked my arm from her.

“If fighting for Ikmale isn’t my fight, what is? I’m sick of running and hiding! I refuse to do it anymore!”

I yelled with a harsher ferocity than I intended.

Camila looked as if I’d slapped her.

I placed a hand to her aged and weathered cheek and stroked it.

“Forgive me, Camila. I didn’t mean to snap at you. But we’re not going to find somewhere better than Fod. It’s my home, yours too. My heart belongs to Ikmale. I have to stop him before he throws himself into a war he has no chance of winning. His people need him. I need him.”

Camila smiled, wiped a tear from her cheek, and shook her head.

“What?” I said.

“Nothing. It’s just… You remind me more of your mother every day.”

“Mom ran away from everything,” I said. “I’m nothing like her.”

“She wasn’t always like that. She used to be a fighter too. She would have stood against your father, once upon a time. But over the years, he wore her down until she saw no way out except to run away and hide.”

It was strange to think of my mother as a warrior.

It took guts to leave a comfortable life behind and start again on her own with no servants, no fortune, no powerful friends to rely on.

All to keep her daughter safe.

Now that I was married to a warrior kauah, I supposed I was never going to lose that warrior spirit.

Camila kissed me on the cheek.

“Go rescue your husband before he gets himself killed.”

I ran down the hallway, my legs a little unsteady at first, then down the spiral staircase, knocking the servants aside as I zipped past them.

“Excuse me! Coming through!”

I burst through the main entrance where Ikmale stood before a regiment of his army.

They were big, vicious-looking creatures, fully armored, and ready for action.

The weapons they wore weren’t like those I saw in the forest.

They were advanced and high-tech, the arrows capable of firing different elements: fire, ice, acid.

The swords had no blades but I knew that once they were activated would glow with a red hot beam that could slice through virtually any material.

Even the okmaths they rode were dressed in thick-plated armor.

Ikmale stood before his men, hands behind his back, giving what appeared to be a rousing speech.

I thought twice about interrupting him but couldn’t let him head out into the abyss of death when I had an alternative.

He saw me as I rushed toward him and went on high alert.

“Sofia? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

He braced me in his arms and if his men weren’t watching, I was certain he would have smothered me with kisses.

“What are you doing out here?” he said. “You should be in bed resting!”

“I’ve rested enough! Please don’t do this. Don’t head into war against the king and dras! You don’t know what they’re like! The dras will turn the kauah into slaves!”

Ikmale bristled.

His men were watching and needed all the morale boost they could get, not a swift kick in the balls.

Ikmale said, “The kauah are proud and powerful fighters—”

“And in a fair fight, there is no doubt in my mind they would win—you would win! But you’re fighting against insurmountable odds. You can’t win!”

“The king has allied with our enemies! If we don’t act now before the full weight of the dras empire descends on us, we’ll have no chance of defending ourselves! We must attack now!”

“Attack,” I said with a nod. “But not like this. He’ll be expecting it, planning for it, and you will only be falling into another one of his traps.”

Ikmale turned away from me, deep in thought.

“I must agree with the princess,” the Prime Minister said, stepping forward from his position on one side. “We’re destined for certain defeat if we continue with a full-frontal assault.”

“If we don’t attack now, we’ll never get another opportunity,” Ikmale said. “We must attack now.”

“Not if there’s another option,” the Prime Minister said, turning to me. “What is your suggestion, Princess?”

If I knew one thing about politicians, it was that they wanted nothing more than to forever maintain their power.

They would only do what was right for the people if it was also right for themselves.

My idea had the potential to do that.

“We’ll take a small contingent of men,” I said to Ikmale. “Your most trusted men—your honor guard. We’ll enter the palace through the secret passageways and find the king’s bedroom. We’ll take him hostage. Through him, we’ll have control of his army. Then we can defend the kingdom effectively against the dras.”

It was plain, simple, clean.

The Prime Minister’s eyes lit up.

“Secret passageways? What secret passageways?”

Ikmale ignored him and locked eyes on me, picking up on an aspect of the plan that’d bypassed the Prime Minister.

There were no maps of the passageways.

The only way to negotiate our way through them was for someone experienced with them to guide us.

In a word, me.

“Out of the question,” Ikmale said.

“You can save your soldiers’ lives,” I said. “You must see it’s the best way.”

“I won’t risk your life!” he snapped. “Not when I almost lost you today!”

His voice was small, like that of a child, angry but on the verge of breaking.

I reached up and placed my hands on his face.

“You didn’t lose me then and you won’t lose me now. I promise you. This is the best way forward. This is how we can beat the king, finally, once and for all.”

Ikmale didn’t like it but peering into my eyes, I could see he knew it was the only way.

He tore his eyes from mine.

“So be it. But you won’t take any part in the fighting. You’ll be our guide and nothing more. If we fail, you will pull back to the castle and escape to a far and distant planet to live out the rest of your life.”

The thought alone of losing him was too much to bear.

“So be it,” I said.

“We have a plan then?” the Prime Minister said, clapping his hands. “I was never much in favor of an all-out full-frontal assault!”

He turned to address the soldiers and tell them the new plan.

“There’s just one more thing you need to do for me…” Ikmale said.

“Anything,”I said.

And I really meant it.

Anything he asked of me, I would have carried out in a heartbeat.

“Go back inside and put some clothes on.”

Huh?

Put on some clothes?

What was he talking about?

I looked down and realized I was only wearing my silk nightie.

It was cold out and my nipples pressed firmly against the soft material.

I’d been in such a rush to find Ikmale that I hadn’t thought to dress!

His men openly ogled me, no doubt emboldened by the fact they’d rarely seen the naked female human form before, let alone a princess’s naked body.

I slapped my hands over my breasts and crossed my legs, though it was far too late for that.

Ikmale draped his cloak over my shoulders as I turned on my heel and hastily marched back inside.