Princess for the Alien Commander by Tammy Walsh

Sofia

I couldn’t believewhat I’d just been told.

I mean, I understood the words coming out of their mouths but… surely there had to be some mistake?

The two men from the funeral were called Bill and Steve.

They were surprisingly unassuming and not scary at all.

They were soldiers in King Brant’s army and had been sent here to find, of all people, me.

And they said…

They said…

I could barely even bring myself to believe what they’d said.

“You think I’m King Brant’s daughter?”

I threw my head back and barked a laugh.

It sounded maniacal even to my ears.

Bill shared a confused look with Steve.

“That’s exactly what we’re saying,” he said.

“You must have me mixed up with someone else,” I said. “If I’m his daughter, that would mean Mom was his wife. And that would mean she was the queen!”

“That’s correct,” Bill said simply. “Her full name is Lillian DeWalt-Grey. Wife of King Leo Brant and Queen of the Fod Kingdom.”

What?

Okay, this wasn’t funny any longer.

I turned to Camila, who sat quietly in the corner, looking very tense.

“Camila?” I said. “Tell them they’ve got me confused with someone else. Tell them I’m not who they think I am.”

Camila’s eyes flicked up to mine and then away again with the same nervous reticence she’d shown in the taxi pod earlier.

“Camila?” I said, the blood draining from my face. “Tell them they’re wrong.”

“I… can’t,” she said. “What they’re saying… It’s… It’s…”

“True,” I said, completing her sentence for her.

The world tipped on its axis and I had to lean against the wall to prevent myself from teetering off my stool.

I couldn’t believe it.

I still couldn’t believe it.

They had to be wrong.

This had to be some kind of elaborate joke.

But Camila didn’t do pranks.

She didn’t even like it when I carried them out on her.

And Bill and Steve didn’t look the type to waste their time with childish games either.

Suddenly, an overwhelming wave of rage swept over me and I shot to my feet.

“Fifteen years!” I yelled, jabbing a finger at Camila. “You never told me a thing about me being a princess in fifteen damn years!”

I heard my own words and they sounded foreign.

“Princess?”I harked. “Me? How can I be a princess? I’ve never so much as set foot in a palace before!”

Steve cleared his throat and interjected:

“You were born in the west wing of the Regency Palace. Parties were held throughout the kingdom for three straight days. A church was built in your honor.”

I gulped.

“Achurch?”

I fell back on my chair.

“Is… Is it pretty?” I said, finding the need to fill the silence with something—anything!

“The Church of Sofia is renowned for its beauty,” Bill said. “As are you.”

Steve nudged Bill with his elbow and he quietened.

I stared at my hands and shook my head.

“This is insane. Insane. If I’m a princess, and Mom was a queen, why did we have to struggle all these years? Why weren’t we better taken care of? Why didn’t Mom want any help?”

Camila might have been carved from stone for how little she moved.

“She didn’t want your father knowing where we were,” she said.

“Why?” I said. “Why not?”

Once again, Camila turned quiet.

“Your father couldn’t have known your whereabouts,” Bill said. “Otherwise he would have come to your aid. He learned of your mother’s death and sent us to find you and bring you home.”

Home.

There was that word again.

Was planet Fod the place where I would feel I belonged?

Bill stood up and produced an envelope from his pocket.

He handed it to me but I was unsure about taking it.

Even with modern technology and incredible discoveries, old traditions still permeated human culture throughout the galaxy.

The letter, handwritten, was sealed with the royal seal—in wax, no less.

There was no better way to keep a message secret than for it to exist only physically like this.

I broke the seal and began to read it.

My hands were shaking long before I reached the scratchy signature at the bottom.

It was signed by King Brant himself.

My father.

I dropped the letter and no amount of effort could wipe its contents from my mind.

The words didn’t make any sense.

“What does it say?” Camila said.

“It says… It says…” I said, struggling to find the words. “That my brother is dead and the king wants me to return to the palace to take my rightful place at his side. But… But I don’t have a brother.”

I didn’t have a father either until just a few moments ago.

Why not add a brother—the prince!—into the mix?

I squeezed my head between my hands and rocked back and forth.

This was unreal.

It couldn’t be true.

It just couldn’t.

Why not?

Why couldn’t it be real?

After all, my past was as much a mystery to me as my mother’s was.

An unknown past could contain any number of secrets.

Yes, even being the king’s daughter.

But surely not that.

Anything but that.

Could it really be true?

The king’s soldiers stood up, shared a look, and Bill cleared his throat.

“Your Majesty—”

“Don’t call me that!” I snapped.

Bill nervously licked his lips.

“Of course, Your Maj— Uh, Your Highness.”

I scowled at him and he hastily continued.

“Your father, the king, sent us on a mission to find you. We were given orders to return with you as soon as possible to planet Fod. The king was very insistent we return with all haste.”

So this was it.

The moment of truth.

Was I going to go with these people?

These strangers?

Was I going to return to my father?

A shiver rose up my spine, tickled into existence by a cool breeze on my cheek.

It came from the direction of Mom’s old bedroom.

The door stirred—at least, I thought it did—and if I arched my neck just a little, I could have peered inside the room and seen her skeletal bed pressed in the corner.

But I didn’t look.

I knew what I would see there.

The remains of my mother’s emaciated body and the horror-stricken look in her deep-set eyes.

“Don’t return to him,” she’d warned. “Don’t return to your father.”

But she’d been delirious and not in her right frame of mind.

Even Camila had said so.

Then why did I have a deep disconcerting sensation in the pit of my stomach?

Why did I feel uncomfortable at the idea of returning home?

And why did Camila wring her hands so tightly that she choked the blood out of her fingers?

I’d finally discovered the truth of my past, the truth that’d been held back from me for so many years.

With time, I would have to come to terms with that shocking truth.

And no amount of running and hiding could make it untrue.

My past existed in the king’s palace.

Would my future too?

If I turned Bill and Steve down, would they force me to go with them anyway?

Ordinarily, they wouldn’t have dared place hands on a prince or princess, but what instructions had my father given them?

At least Camila and I wouldn’t starve or struggle any longer.

We would always have a comfortable bed to lie in and food in our bellies.

It had to be better than struggling for survival.

Didn’t it?

“Yes,” I found myself saying. “Yes. We should return home.”

The word “home” hung hollowly in the damp front room, the place I had never associated with such a word.

Bang!

Camila screamed in shock as the door to my mother’s bedroom snapped shut.

It didn’t surprise me.

I’d been expecting it.

I couldn’t say the same thing for what would happen during the following week on planet Fod…