Page 118 of Alien Prince's Fake Bride
I look quickly around. There’s no other threat nearby, but I keep the knife ready.
Mareliux replaces Bellatriz in her scabbard and picks up something from a nearby bush.
“Look.” He drops it into the little pool of Phrexz blood and then stands back.
It’s the small, silvery leaf that the Empress wanted me to eat. A second after it makes contact with the green blood, it starts to grow very fast until it’s become a mass of silvery threads the size of a beach ball.
“That would have killed you,” Mareliux says when he comes in to embrace me as if desperate to see that I’m all right. “Sorry. I wanted her to still be my mother. I suspected she wasn’t, but I just couldn’t bring myself to…”
I hug him back, more exhausted than I’ve ever been. “It’s all right, my love. It played the part very well.”
He grabs my hand, and we walk a hundred feet towards the wall of the big room. Then he steadies himself on the wall and just breathes.
I get it. He just saw his mom turn into a horrific alien that tried to kill him.
I reach up to put a hand on his shoulder. “That was terrible.”
“Yes,” he says and gently takes my hand, squeezing it. “I think I suspected since I was a boy, but I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t want to think that thought all the way through.” He straightens up.“Good work with the Syntrix. If you hadn’t pushed it off course, it would have killed me. Oh, thank the gods you are alive still!” He pulls me in and embraces me again, hard.
The room is surprisingly quiet. I only hear the sounds of what I think is boisterous talk from the other side of all the greenery. They sound like Khavgren voices.
“You came back for me,” I say into his chest. “If you hadn’t...”
“I was almost too late. I’m sorry, my love. I thought you were safe in the palace.”
I gently free myself from his warm embrace. “Are there still Vyrpy to kill?”
He stomps the ground twice. “If the gravity is back, it means that our forces control the ship. It looks like we won. That Phrexz couldn’t concentrate on using its Syntrix to control them and make them fight better. These were unusually weak Vyrpy. We’ve fought much better ones before, strengthened by this same Phrexz, I think.”
“That was probably when the Emperor let it sit on the Throne so he didn’t have to,” I add.
His eyes go wide again. “He let Juriniel sit on the Throne? No wonder our forces were so weakened! The Phrexz must have done everything it could to weaken them.”
“Can we secure the rest of the ship?” I ask. “There’s a big room with cages. There are many prisoners there, most Khavgrens. Sigise is there, too.”
48
- Mareliux-
I lead Umbra towards the other side of the greenhouse, trying to avoid most of the plants. Now I will make sure she’s safe myself. Her presence beside me makes my mind brighten up, and I never want to be apart from her again.
“I saw the cages when we arrived,” I tell her. “And I ordered them broken open. Let’s get out of this unpleasant room.” The floor is full of dead Vyrpy, blood and weapons and dirt from the soil the plants are standing in. “Allow me, my love,” I say as I lift Umbra into my arms. I would normally never do anything like that with a fellow soldier where other soldiers could see it, but she’s my wife and she shouldn’t have to walk through this.
I carry her quickly over the battlefield and out of the door, while my soldiers make way for us. “Umbra is a warrior of the Empire,” someone says softly.
In the corridor the air is less sticky and smelly, and some of the former prisoners are waiting for us.
I let Umbra down. “The prisoners came to help us in the battle. Without them, we would still be fighting. I think they were angry.”
“Sigise!” she exclaims. “Are you all right?”
The shock trooper grins. “I am now, Highness. My Prince.” She gives me a shallow bow. “I’m happy to see you returned from your battle to help us with this one.”
“That battle was a sham,” I tell her, still keeping hold of Umbra’s hand. “It was only designed to pull me away from Umbra and lure both of us away from Khav to this wreck of a ship.”
“Oh?” Colonel Grast’s tentacles move slowly. “What would be the purpose of that?”
“To kill us,” Umbra says. “Have all the prisoners been freed?”
