Princess for the Alien Commander by Tammy Walsh

Sofia

“Sofia? Sofia, child, wake up.”

Camila gently prodded me awake.

I grunted and wiped away the dribble that’d escaped my lips and wet Camila’s shoulder.

I yawned and stretched.

“The king will see us now,” Camila said.

“What time is it?” I said, my eyes groggy and still heavy with sleep.

“It’s best you don’t keep the king waiting,” Ujok said, nervously wringing his hands.

I glared at him.

“He’s the one who’s kept us waiting!” I wanted to shout at him. “He should have been over the moon to see me after all these years!”

But I said nothing.

“Two o’clock,” Camila said, stifling her own yawn.

I peered at the waiting room and found the other chairs empty.

Nice to know where father’s priorities lie, I thought wryly.

I got to my feet, stumbled on my dead leg, and shook it off as I followed Ujok, who hastened toward the doorway.

Ujok held the door open for me and Camila as we entered.

“Wow,” I said, the word coming involuntarily from my throat.

I was taken aback by the sheer grandeur of the throne room.

Pillars ran at regular intervals to support the ornately carved angels that peered down, pointing at us far below.

The deep crimson carpet underfoot was so thick I could feel it through my boots.

At the end, sitting on his enormous gilded throne was the king.

His crown sparkled from a shaft of light that fell like a spotlight across the head of the room.

On either side of him stood rigid-backed attendants that clutched tablet computers to their chests.

As I drew closer, the king signed a document and handed the device to one of his assistants.

His head perked up.

Upon seeing me, he double took, and a broad grin split his face in two.

“Finally!” he said.

He floated down the gold-tipped steps, his aides following hot on his heels.

Not knowing how I was supposed to act in such a situation, I immediately dropped into a curtsy.

“Rise, my child,” the king said around his warm smile. “You don’t need to bow to me.”

As he rushed toward me, I breathlessly wondered if he was going to sweep me up in his arms and spin me around the way I had dreamt he would.

He paused a few feet from me, braced my shoulders with his large hands, and pecked me on each cheek.

I grinned, beaming like the little girl I felt like on the inside.

I leaned forward to let him envelop me in his arms but he held me in place.

He ran his eyes over my face, taking in every feature, just as I was taking in each of his.

He was six inches taller than me, with broad shoulders and a strong square face decorated by a grey-flecked beard, recently trimmed.

His sparkling blue eyes curled upwards in a very pleasing way.

As I gazed into them, I realized I must have inherited them from him.

There was little else, except perhaps our prominent cheekbones, that identified us as members of the same family.

On countless nights, I had dreamed of what my father might look like, never knowing I had seen him thousands of times on holo-TV, in newspapers and magazines.

He turned to Ujok.

“Why didn’t you tell me she was here sooner?” he growled. “I could have rescheduled everyone else! You know how much meeting her means to me!”

His words made my grin even broader.

Ujok bowed regally again.

“I apologize, Your Highness. I will bear it in mind in future.”

“Be sure that you do,” the king said before turning back to me. “I can’t tell you the number of times I have dreamed of you, my child. Knowing you were somewhere out there in the cosmos, not knowing if you were healthy and well or not, if you needed my assistance. But now you’re here, standing before me. I can hardly believe it.”

He pressed his lips together, and unless I missed my guess, it was in an effort to control his emotions.

“You look just like your mother,” he said softly. “Just as beautiful, just as feminine.”

He spoke with such sincerity that it melted my heart.

His eyes flicked over my shoulder, then double took.

His smile faltered but he was quick to cover it.

I glanced at what he’d seen.

Camila.

I stepped to one side so he could be face to face with her.

“Father,” I said, the word feeling strange on my lips. “You remember Camila, don’t you?”

“How could I forget?” the king said.

They shared a look for a long moment before Camila finally lowered her eyes and performed the same immaculate bow Ujok had earlier.

“Camila,” the king said. “Nice to see you so fit and healthy.”

He kissed her hand and covered it with his offhand and kept his eyes fixed firmly on her.

I sensed a great deal of meaning passed between them but neither said one word of it out loud.

“You too, my king,” Camila said.

“Quite.”

He tore his eyes from her and returned to focusing on me.

He held my face in his hands.

“After your brother’s tragic demise, I sent every officer in my command out to find you. It’s not the first time I’ve made the attempt, of course, but this time, they learned of your mother’s equally tragic passing.”

He placed a hand on mine.

“It must have been very difficult for you,” he said. “I wished I could have been there in support.”

Tears shimmered in my eyes and I could barely hold back the flood from staining my cheeks.

“It’s okay, father. We’re together now.”

He nodded but seemed to take little comfort in my words.

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, you’re right. It does no good to dwell on the past and the things that might have been, and the mistakes we might have made, the things we would change if only we could…”

He shook his head of the darkness crowding the forefront of his mind for attention.

I squeezed his arm, feeling sorry for him.

After all, who had never made an error?

Who didn’t want to go back in time and change something that they now realize was a mistake?

Perhaps my mother running away had caused a change in him.

In his features, I didn’t see the angry tyrant Camila had warned me about.

I saw a man overcome with grief at mistakes he’d made in the past.

I wouldn’t condemn him for the choices he’d made, only for the choices he might make in the future.

“It’s good that you’re home,” the king said. “But I wish the kingdom wasn’t on the brink of war as it is now.”

“It’s all right, father. You’ll figure a way out of it. You always managed it in the past.”

The king’s shoulders slumped and I could see the burden the issue with the kauah had taken on him.

“I’m afraid I can’t handle it alone this time,” he said. “The kingdom needs more than just me. It needed your brother, the heir to the throne. But now he’s gone… I didn’t want to put this on you so soon after you arrived, but I need you to consider taking your brother’s place.”

“To help you run the kingdom?” I said. “Sure, father. I’ll do what I can to help.”

The king braced my shoulder.

“No, Sofia. Not only to help but to take over once I’m gone.”

It took a moment for me to fully understand what he was asking me to do.

“Take over?” I said, and I felt the blood drain from my face. “You mean… be queen?”

My legs lost all power and I crumpled to the floor.

It was a good thing my father was bracing me or I would have fallen flat on my face.

“Get the princess some water!” the king barked out loud.

“But I don’t know anything about ruling!” I said.

“It’s a skill you develop with time. All that matters is your desire to learn. You won’t have to take over tomorrow, only once your education is complete. And don’t forget, I’m still fighting fit and have no intention of giving up the ghost just yet.”

The servant handed the glass of water to Ujok, who took a sip of it before handing it to the king.

Still, father didn’t give it to me until Ujok nodded.

Food testers…

That was new…

My hands were shaking so much I couldn’t raise the glass without spilling it over myself.

The king held it for me and gently raised it so I could sip it.

It was a lot to take in.

“Will you at least consider it?” the king said.

I was a princess now.

Wasn’t the idea of me ruling a possibility?

It should have been, but it’d never once crossed my mind since Bill and Steve revealed who I truly was.

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, of course. I just didn’t expect… I didn’t know what to expect.”

The king squeezed my arm softly.

“Believe me, it always comes as a shock. Even when I’d been groomed to rule, I still couldn’t believe it when my coronation rolled around. I suppose it’s something we never really get used to.”

Ujok stepped forward.

“Your Highness, I’m very sorry to interrupt this moment but the Prime Minister is waiting for you in the anteroom…”

The king raised a hand and nodded somberly.

He gave me a small smile.

“I’m afraid duty calls. Perhaps we could talk further over dinner?”

I nodded enthusiastically.

There was nothing I wanted more than to learn about the father I had never known.

“Let’s get you up onto your feet,” the king said.

He rose with me until I was standing.

The servants were on hand to dust off my dress.

“Until this evening then,” the king said.

He was about to turn and leave when he frowned with a pensive look on his face.

“Say, how about you join me in the meeting with the Prime Minister?” he said. “If you’re going to take my place one day, you might as well get used to your duties.”

Camila placed a hand on my shoulder.

“You should rest. It’s been a long day.”

I was exhausted from the earlier journey, had met my father for the first time, and then learned I was going to one day rule a kingdom I had no knowledge of…

If anyone deserved a little break, it was me.

But I didn’t want to let him down.

Especially when it meant I could spend more time with him.

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, I can do that.”

Camila’s hand slipped from my shoulder.

The king extended his elbow to me.

I took it and wrapped my arm through his.

He led me toward a side door where a servant reached over to open it for us.

I couldn’t help but glance back over my shoulder at Camila, who watched with some dismay as I drifted away from her.

She needn’t be concerned.

I was with my father.

What could possibly go wrong?

When we enteredthe drawing room, the Prime Minister rose from his place on the other side of the polished table and kept standing up and up and up…

He was lean to a fault and I got the impression a stiff breeze would knock him over.

He performed a surprisingly graceful bow to the king, and when his eyes flicked over to me, he smiled and added a smaller one for me.

I didn’t like his smile much.

It curled up on either corner of his razor-thin lips but lacked the will to bend his entire mouth.

Judging by the crisp lines of his suit, it wasn’t hard to imagine his mind was equally sharp when it came to politics and business.

“Your Highness,” he said smoothly. “Is this your daughter, the princess?”

The king smiled and held my hand between his.

“It is none other than long-lost Princess Sofia. She has finally returned home.”

The Prime Minister took my hand in his and kissed it.

I could practically feel the oil.

“It’s a great honor to finally make your acquaintance, my lady. You’re as beautiful as your mother ever was.”

I smiled perfunctorily, sensing the Prime Minister was adept at making his conversation partners feel at ease.

“Thank you. You’re very… kind.”

I reached for my chair to pull it back but a servant was there before I could complete the action.

We took a seat as the servants shoved them underneath us.

I remembered thinking how ludicrous it would be to have someone pull out my chair for me.

Now it was taking place, it didn’t seem so bad.

The servants immediately turned and marched out of the room with all the grace of a changing of the guard.

The doors quietly shut, though it sounded loud in the now-empty drawing room.

The Prime Minister’s black eyes slid over to me and he hesitated before speaking.

He glanced up at the king who gave a barely perceptible nod.

The Prime Minister relaxed—as much as he was capable of, at least.

“I have news on the dras,” he said in a voice so low I had to lean forward to hear him.

I noticed the king didn’t move a muscle.

If the Prime Minister wanted to be heard, he was going to have to be the one to lean forward.

He did.

“The dras have been entering our airspace and making landfall. They’re filtering into our cities, mostly Quoisa, by all reports.”

The king slammed his fist on the table, making me jump.

“How dare they!” he spat. “We have a peace agreement!”

“A peace agreement with the dras only goes so far, I’m afraid. In fact, only so far as opportunity allows.”

“Why now? The prince has been slain and the people are still recovering from the loss.”

“I’m afraid it’s because the prince has sadly passed that they see the opportunity. They see a fractured kingdom between we humans and the kauah.”

The king shoved himself back from the table, causing the legs of his chair to tear up the carpet.

He got to his feet and stabbed a finger at the Prime Minister.

“You were meant to keep them away! You were supposed to placate them!”

“There is no placating the dras, only stalling them.”

The king grumbled under his breath about “poor excuses” and paced to and fro with his hands behind his back.

I suspect that he did to keep himself from strangling the Prime Minister.

“What are their plans?” the king barked. “What do they want? What opportunity do they see?”

“They see weakness. With half our forces on the kauah side, half on ours, we’re less able to fully defend ourselves. Add that to the fact we spend most of our time spying on each other, and it’s a recipe for disaster.”

The king came to a sudden halt and prodded his finger once again in the Prime Minister’s direction.

“Then Ellas, as leader of the kauah, will have to come to heel! His forces will join with me once more and together we will repel the dras!”

His eyes blazed in intense fury and for a moment, fear set in deep into my bones.

On his face, I saw the anger Camila had warned me about.

But when your nation was under imminent attack from a hostile force, wasn’t that reaction reasonable?

“I’m afraid the kauah aren’t likely to agree to your terms,” the Prime Minister said, “not while your latest law is in effect.”

“Bah!” the king said, waving a hand to expel the criticism.

“The threat of being removed from Fod weighs heavy on their minds,” the Prime Minister said.

So it was true…

I recalled the discussion I had with the kauah in his tent in the forest.

The king threatened to have them all removed as he held them collectively responsible for his son’s death.

“What would you have me do?” the king said, spreading his hands. “I can’t change the law now! It would make me look weak! And I refuse to stand down and let Ellas take control of the military! He would use it to oust me and take my throne! For all we know, he’s in cahoots with the dras!”

The Prime Minister shook his head.

“We know that not to be the case. His soldiers have been scouring the forest looking for dras spies and learn as much about their intentions as possible.”

“That could just be a cover!” the king snapped. “You know how crafty the kauah are!”

The Prime Minister didn’t nod and only waited as the king resumed marching to and fro, snorting heavily and shaking his head every few seconds.

Finally, he stopped, took a deep breath, and let it out, along with the poison of the fury infecting his mind.

He fell heavily back onto his chair.

“Then what do you suggest we do?”

“There may be one way out of this…” the Prime Minister said.

His tone suggested the king wouldn’t like it.

“What is it?” the king snapped. “Don’t keep me in suspense!”

The Prime Minister glanced in my direction before focusing on the tabletop.

“We need a way to bring Ellas to heel, a way to bond him to us, but without giving away too much power.”

“I know that already! But how?”

The Prime Minister licked his lips.

He reminded me of a vicious snake perched under a rock and waiting to strike at any moment.

His eyes darted toward me again and for some reason, I got a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach.

“We offer him a hand in marriage,” he said.

The king blinked at him.

“Whose hand?”

“Princess Sofia, of course.”

If the king’s earlier rage was fury, then this subsequent outburst was a tempest.

His fist struck the tabletop so hard I heard something snap underneath.

He stood up and pressed his palms to the tabletop and leaned over it, glaring down at the Prime Minister.

The table creaked even louder.

My reaction?

The blood fell from my face and I could barely sit up straight.

“Are you out of your mind?” the king bellowed. “My daughter’s only just returned to me and now you want me to offer her up to my greatest enemy?”

The Prime Minister spoke calmly.

“The dras are your greatest enemy, sire. They’re any thinking creature’s greatest opponent. No amount of pleading or bargaining will placate them, unlike the kauah. Ellas has his faults but he has a love for Fod and his people. At least he might listen.”

The king’s face turned so red I thought he was going to explode.

I could feel the heat coming off him in waves.

He was going to have a heart attack if he wasn’t careful.

I placed a hand on his arm.

“Father, calm down,” I said softly.

He looked at my hand and trailed it up my arm to my face.

I was surprised when his fury melted like ice.

“I won’t hand you over to him,” he said, “not after you’ve been lost to me all these years. Not to him. Not to anybody!”

He leaned into me and I ran my fingers through his wiry hair.

“There must be another way,” he said. “There must be another option we’re not seeing.”

“Except for all-out war with the dras, I see no other option,” the Prime Minister said.

Not once while he described his idea had he looked at me.

He was too embarrassed to, I realized.

An intense silence seized the moment and matured it like a fine wine.

The king was surrounded by enemies.

Domestic and foreign.

He was at his wit’s end and he wouldn’t take the one option that would solve his problems.

Handing me over to his enemy.

“Is there really no other way?” I said.

The Prime Minister shook his head.

“The dras are on the brink of invasion, one we are not prepared for.”

My father’s hands were thick like gloves, but they might have belonged to a child for how powerless he felt.

It occurred to me then that this was what my father had wanted for me, wasn’t it?

Not to marry his enemies, but to do my duty.

As a daughter of a king, wasn’t marriage part of that duty?

I shut my eyes and couldn’t believe the words I was about to say next.

Frankly, I couldn’t believe I was even in this situation to begin with.

“I’ll do it,” I said, the words hot on my lips. “I’ll do it for the people.”

My father shook his head.

“No. I won’t allow it. You’ve only been here five minutes. You shouldn’t have to do this—”

“If it will save the kingdom, if it will make things right, I’ll do my duty. It’s not what I would choose to do. I don’t want to marry someone I don’t know, least of all the creature responsible for my brother’s death. But with an invading force preparing to infiltrate and overrun us, what other choice do we have?”

I could open my mind to marrying an alien beast, and even open my legs if need be, but I promised myself I would never open my heart to him.

“Are you sure about this?” the king—my father—said. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”

“No. I’ll do it. Besides, I might get lucky and this Ellas might refuse to marry me.”

“We should prepare the ceremony to take place as soon as possible,” the Prime Minister said. “With an army preparing to invade, it only makes sense.”

I nodded.

“Very well.”

“When?” the king said.

The Prime Minister got to his feet.

“I’ve called in every available hand. I shouldn’t think we’ll get started any later than… six.”

Six?

The sixth of next month?

Boy, the Prime Minister really didn’t hang around!

Butterflies battered my stomach.

“Are you sure you can organize everything by then? I wouldn’t want to offend the kauah with shoddy preparations.”

The Prime Minister smiled.

“They won’t be shoddy, I can assure you. We’ll use decorations from previous royal marriages. It might not be as finessed as other arrangements but it will serve.”

He barked over his shoulder.

The door opened and a host of servants flooded into the room carrying ladders, paint, and decorations.

I was thrown.

“They’re getting to work now?”

“Of course,” the Prime Minister said. “How else do you think we’ll be ready by this evening? Fear not, Princess,” the Prime Minister said with the most genuine smile he’d aimed my way since I’d met him. “The wedding will be beautiful. This is not the first royal wedding the organizers have had to prepare at short notice. Although, mere hours must be a new record.”

The Prime Minister turned on his heel and hurried over to the servants.

The room spun on its axis and my legs—that’d always felt so sturdy and strong in the past—threatened to collapse beneath me once again.

This evening?

When he said “six” earlier, he’d been referring to the time, not the date!

This can’t be happening…

This can’t be happening…

My breaths came in panicked bursts.

Black spots danced in my vision and it couldn’t be long before I passed out.

The king placed his hand on mine and stroked it.

“The people owe you a great deal of gratitude,” he said. “And so do I.”

He pressed his lips to my hand, then got up and left the room.

I wished his words could have left me feeling more at ease but they did nothing of the sort.

I’d woken up this morning discovering I was part of the royal family.

Now, I was about to have a husband—an alien husband!—and be part of his family too!

“Cam… Camila?” I said, turning back toward the throne room. “I think I’m about to… about to…”

I fainted.