Princess for the Alien Commander by Tammy Walsh

Sofia

I hurrieddown the hallway and paused at each corner, keeping a close ear out to listen for any sign of the palace guards.

Occasionally, I heard a shout and the rustle of plated mail, and I would hustle to one side and hide behind a pillar, bookshelf, or a closet to conceal myself.

I knew where the king liked to sleep when his main apartment wasn’t available.

There was another suite on the other side of the palace, identical to the original in virtually every way.

I crept through the hallways and kept a sharp lookout, especially when I prepared to move around a blind corner where anyone could be waiting on the other side.

A single mistake, a single mistimed step, and it would spell disaster not only for me, but Ikmale, his men, and all the people in the kingdom.

No pressure.

I clutched my mother’s necklace tightly in my hand in case it slipped out of my sweaty grip.

It contained a poison strong enough to kill a man three times over.

But that wasn’t my concern.

When the moment came, would I be able to bring myself to use it?

To put it inside the king’s body and watch as it took its effect on him?

Despite everything he had done to me, he was still my father.

I wasn’t a murderer.

But I was going to become one if I went through with my plan.

There was no one else I could give the poison to, no one else who could carry it through to completion for me.

Only me.

Seeing Ikmale again after the king had told his terrible lies had been painful.

Unbearable.

To have to see the pained expression on his face that I had betrayed him…

There was no worse feeling in the world.

When he choked me, I welcomed it.

If he thought I was capable of such things, I welcomed death.

For him to think that way about me was to make living undesirable.

When he released me and hastened to kiss me and pull me in his arms, it was enough to let me know there was still a spark of doubt in his mind that the king’s words were true.

At least, he was willing to believe I was incapable of betraying him.

I never wanted to see that look of doubt in his eye again, not when it concerned me.

The door directly ahead of me shunted open.

As it swung shut, I hastily ducked behind a potted plant.

When you crept around like this, you soon got used to looking for objects you could hide behind and keep yourself hidden from view.

The palace guard exited the room, peered left and right, and headed down the hall I’d just come from.

I continued and took the next door on the left.

I filled my lungs deeply before entering and found myself in the king’s backup apartment.

The door hissed shut behind me.

I stood with my hand clutching around the silver necklace in case I came across the king right then and there.

He wasn’t there and the room appeared empty—save for the lump in the bed.

The figure sat up and turned to look at me.

The sheer look of fear on her face melted as she took me in.

She was young—too young—the way my father liked them.

Her hair was frizzy and stuck out on either side of her head.

She was naked, her bare breasts barely concealed by the blanket wrapped about her waist.

No doubt the king had left her here the moment he got word Ikmale and his men had arrived in his original sleeping quarters.

“W-Who are you?” she said in an impossibly high voice.

Yes, who was I?

Or more accurately, who was I going to pretend to be?

I relaxed my shoulders and marched toward the bed, my head held high.

I would be a senior servant, I decided, who reported directly to the king himself.

“The king has informed me your services are no longer required.”

The girl looked hesitant.

“The king said I was to wait here for him. To keep his side of the bed warm for when he returned.”

It sounded very much like my father.

I sneered at the girl in my best look of condescension.

“He told me you have pleased him enough for tonight. You are to dress and return home immediately.”

The look of relief on the girl’s face was palpable.

She wasted no time in getting dressed in her plain clothes before turning to leave.

She hesitated and turned back to me.

“Are you sure the king is pleased with me?”

Her desire to please the tyrant king was sickening.

“You did. Now, leave.”

The girl hastened toward the door and must have known the palace well as she didn’t hesitate at all the moment she stepped outside.

At least one innocent would be saved tonight.

Would there be others? I wondered.

If I failed to take the king out, I doubted he would be very lenient with me or anyone else for quite some time.

I hastily climbed into the bed and pulled the blanket over myself.

I lay there, the blanket covering me head to toe.

I removed my necklace and clasped it in one hand.

I ran through the next few steps of my plan.

First, I would administer the poison.

Then, I would run from the room and find a place to hide and wait for his body to be discovered.

Even if it took until morning, I would wait.

I would hide in one of the other rooms until the coast was clear and only then would I allow myself to be found.

Once the initial panic had settled down, I would be chosen as the next ruler of the kingdom.

After all, I was next in line to the throne and my father’s only living heir.

Once I was in charge, I would issue commands to stand down the army and, with Ikmale’s help, unite our two peoples and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity.

And I would get to live with Ikmale…

If he still wants me.

Please still want me.

I’m lost without you.

It was all on the line.

And yet, I was still unsure if I could go through with the poisoning plan.

It wasn’t every day you committed regicide.

Even less often that it was your father.

Even if he was an evil man.

No!I thought. He needs to be taken down!

And there was no one else to do it.

Just then, the apartment door swung open and slammed shut.

I peeked over the blankets in the direction of the entrance and saw it was the king.

He removed his shoes and massaged his feet.

Behind him, the palace guards that’d escorted him remained outside the room and took position on either side of the door.

So much for trying to escape and hide somewhere! I’ll never get past the guards!

I was going to have to come up with a way to escape.

“You wouldn’t believe the night I’ve had!” the king said.

He turned toward the bed and I hastily covered my head again.

I gripped the necklace in my hand so tightly my arm shook.

“The treacherous kauah attempted to assassinate me tonight,” the king said. “Along with my equally treacherous daughter. I swear, the women of this kingdom…”

He poured a glass of meem into a glass and knocked it back.

“Not one woman is loyal to me! In the morning, I will dissolve her right to become my heir. I had hoped she would see the error of her ways, learn to become a strong ruler, but if she would so easily betray me, there’s no hope for her.”

He poured another glass of drink and downed it, hissed, and poured a third.

“Are you still awake?”

I didn’t speak.

I didn’t want to give away who I was.

But he appeared to be waiting for my response.

“Well?” he snapped. “Your king is speaking to you, child!”

“Yes!” I said in as high-pitched a voice as I could manage.

“Good. I don’t want to fuck someone half asleep. When I screw you, I want you to feel it.”

He unbuttoned his clothes and they fell to the floor.

The king’s heavy footsteps approached the bed.

He took another sip from his drink.

He would be naked on the other side of the blanket, I knew.

It wasn’t a sight I much wished to see.

“Well?” he said. “Aren’t you going to show your affection for your king?”

I felt sick to my stomach.

I had thought he would get into bed beside me so I could jam the necklace into his startled face, but instead, he stood leering at me.

I couldn’t get out, not yet.

“Do I have to do everything myself?” the king spat.

He slammed the empty cup on the side table, reached down, and grabbed a handful of my hair.

He pulled me up onto my knees and the blanket slithered off.

“When I tell you to do something, I expect you to do it—”

His eyes latched onto mine and the superior smile melted from his face.

He was perplexed by who I was, what I was doing there.

His eyes bulged in realization and he opened his mouth to bellow at his guards.

That was when I knew this was my one and only chance.

I pulled my arm back and slammed my fist at his open mouth.

I twisted the clip so the necklace spilled its poison over his face.

Most of it struck his cheek and one eye.

Little of it entered his mouth.

Oh, crap!

The king sneered and drew back his hand to slap me.

“You little—”

“Argh!” I bellowed as I ran at him.

I kicked and punched and flailed at him with every ounce of strength in my body.

I knocked him back, into the wall.

A painting fell and smashed over his head.

He grunted and fell to his knees.

I peered back at the door but the guards didn’t enter.

Of course not.

They were likely used to hearing the noises that came from the king’s apartment.

Horrible noises as the king mutilated his lovers, making them perform sadistic acts for his pleasure.

I pulled my leg back and kicked at his face.

Once, twice—

He caught my foot and yanked on it, knocking me on my back.

He crawled up my body to wrap his hands around my neck.

I slapped him three, four times with thick meaty slaps but they only slowed him down.

He pressed his hands over my throat and squeezed.

I lowered my mouth and found his thumb and bit down hard.

The king screamed and propelled back, releasing me.

I gasped a lungful of oxygen and spat the tip of his thumb out.

The king clutched his thumb in his hand and the blood seeped from his fist and across the floor.

“You damn dirty whore!” he yelled. “You fucking bitch! I’m going to make you pay for this!”

“You’ve been making me pay for being your daughter my entire life!” I snapped, my breaths coming in ragged gasps.

The king released his thumb and let the blood splatter to the floor.

He stepped toward me, his fists raised.

He swung but I dodged out of the way.

He was too strong for me.

I couldn’t beat him in a fair fight.

I stepped on something that hurt my foot.

A riding crop.

I scooped it up and caught him across the face.

He pressed his fingers to where I’d struck him and seemed surprised to find blood on them.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” I said.

The king unleashed his full fury on me, swinging wildly.

The trail end of a punch caught my stomach and knocked me off balance.

Sensing victory, the king followed with his other fist and smashed my chin.

I flew back and knocked the balcony doors open, skidding across the wooden floor.

His blow had knocked me for six and I saw stars.

I crawled to the handrail and attempted to pull myself up onto my feet, but couldn’t.

The king stood over me, grinning like a madman.

And that was what he was.

A stone cold madman.

“Looking at you curled up on the floor like this reminds me of your whore of a mother,” he said. “She tried to fight me once too. She didn’t do as well as you did… But then, how could she? She doesn’t have my blood in her, does she?”

I spat at him and his lip turned into a sneer.

“Just like your mother. No class.”

He bent down to grab me by my hair when he suddenly pulled back.

He staggered on the spot, shook his head, and blinked his eyes.

“I appear to have lost quite a lot of blood…”

No, it wasn’t the blood I thought.

His skin had turned mottled green, his eyes bloodshot and angry, his remaining fingertips black.

It was the poison.

He looked at his hands and seemed to realize the same thing I had.

“You poisoned me? Don’t you know that’s a weak woman’s way out?”

I watched him carefully as I got to my feet.

He might be poisoned but he was still dangerous.

He shook his head to clear his vision and staggered into the handrail.

“Maybe it is a woman’s weapon,” I said. “But I’m not weak. You are.”

The king sneered and raced toward me, hands raised to shove me over the handrail.

But he must have seen more than one of me because he attempted to shove invisible-me and ended up sailing over the side and falling to the concrete far below.

A single solid thump signaled his end.

Two palace guards ran toward the dead body and immediately peered up at the balcony, but I had already pulled back from the edge.

I didn’t need them to see me there.

The father I’d always wanted to exist in my life…

The father I’d always imagined…

He had never seen the light of day.

Instead, I had a tyrant for a father, every bit as dark and evil to me as he was to his wife.

I scooped up my mother’s necklace and held it between my hands, praying to her that this whole shitshow would at least have a happy ending.

I deserved that much, didn’t I?

I climbed back into the bed and wrapped the blankets around myself.

Please let me get out of here in one piece.

I raised my head and screamed as loudly as my voice could manage:

“Help! It’s the king! He’s been assassinated! Help!”

The doors burst open and the guards rushed in.

They surveyed the scene, shocked at the battle that must have taken place.

I pointed in the direction of the balcony and screamed again.

“The assassin! The assassin came and killed the king!”

I buried my face in the blanket and pretended to wail with tears.

“Get the girl out of here!” the palace guard said as he hurried over to the balcony. “And fetch a doctor! The king might still be alive!”

Fat chance of that, I thought.

A contingent of guards rushed past me as the palace guard ushered me from the room.

He led me down the hallways where the servants were amassing to see what all the fuss was about.

Once I got outside, the guard handed me some money and told me to return home and to tell no one about what happened.

I promised him I wouldn’t mutter so much as a word to anyone about what I’d seen.

And that was a promise I would take to the grave.