Page 78 of Alien Prince's Fake Bride
“But I didn’t know it looked like that! It’s a living thing, all tentacles that move.”
Mareliux nods slowly, a serious cast to his features. “The Tentacle Throne is the most important part of the Empire. At least when it’s being used the way it should be. Now, it’s just… decoration.”
“When you’re emperor, you will use it right, I’m sure. Maybe move it to a brighter room? It was so gloomy in there.”
He chuckles, a low rumble in his chest. “That would not be possible. The Tentacle Throne has always been there. It grows from the soil in that spot. The throne room is built around it.The wholepalaceis built around it. The whole city. It’s the immovable center of the Empire.”
“Mhm,” I reply, drifting off. “I actually thinkyou’rethe center.”
We spend the night in the smaller apartment. We both need to rest, and I sleep peacefully until morning.
I get dressed in a crimson jumpsuit that’s finely decorated with silver threads, but is otherwise not too ostentatious. At least it has a number of pockets, although I don’t think I’ll carry my big gun unless I really need to.
“What’s on the agenda for today?” I ask as I join Mareliux in the apartment’s small lounge.
“For me, war councils and some meetings. For you, staying safe. Which means not staying in one place for too long. We will move to another apartment tonight, one that we will keep secret. Meanwhile, you will go on a sightseeing trip with friends. Real friends, I mean. The purpose is mostly to keep you moving around, and partly to show you more of the palace and the city it forms.”
“You want me to be a moving target, so I’ll be harder to hit,” I sum up. “What about you? Will you keep moving?”
He looks out the small window. “I don’t think I can. I will be in the General Staff building, which should be perfectly safe. The Vyrpy are becoming more than a nuisance. It looks like they’re getting close to us with a big force. They may even try to invade Khav itself. We have to prevent that.”
“Are you thinking of leaving the planet? I mean, leave sooner than we planned? Nobody can blame us for that. People keep trying to kill us.”
He nods. “We will probably move our departure up by a day or two. But I don’t want to look like we’re running. Nobody should be able to chase us off Khav, the heart of the Empire. We leave when we choose, not sooner.”
I can’t help loving that he says ‘we’ and ‘us’. This fake thing sometimes feels real, and I can’t help liking it. “Probably a good idea.”
He comes closer and puts one hand under my chin. “Don’t worry. Soon we’ll put Khav behind us and go into space, where it’s safer.” He places a soft kiss on my lips.
My hand goes to the back of his neck, marveling at the thick muscles there. “I feel safe whenever you’re close to me.” It’s true, too. Back on the dinosaur planet, that numbing terror of the jungle got turned down a good few notches when Mareliux showed up.
There’s a knock on the door, and Caret’ax comes in. “Sir, the duchess of Spure is here.”
“Ah,” Mareliux says. “That’s the friend I was talking about, Umbra. She will keep you safe.”
A Khavgren woman comes into the room. She’s tall and more curvy than most of the people I’ve seen so far. Her tentacles have the same unruly movements to them that Mareliux’s do, and she has tied a pink ribbon around each of them. Her robes are short and colorful, with an elegant silver pouch attached to her belt. She moves with an energy that I think could be contagious. “Hi, Mareliux. Princess Umbra! So nice to meet you. I’m Darient.” She stays at a distance, but I think that’s just so she won’t tower over me too much. “Oh my. You know how to pick them, Mareliux. She’s a beauty!”
“She is indeed,” Mareliux says with satisfaction. “Darient and I are cousins, Umbra. On my father’s side. You have nothing to fear from her. She could have murdered me a thousand times growing up, but she was the only friend who never tried.”
“I’m just not the murdering kind,” Darient says with a smile. “That confuses everyone.”
“Nice to meet you, Darient,” I say. “I love what you did to your tendrils!”
She makes them uncurl and do a little wave. “I’m trying to start a new fashion. It’s all your fault, Umbra! I saw the visuals of you getting married, and how you’d tied ribbons around your thousands of tiny tendrils. I think it’s called ‘hair’? And I thought, that’s what I should do. It’s not the same, I know. But we have to work with what we have.” She curls her tendrils up again and lays them flat to her head. “It’ll catch on, believe me. Anyway! We have a lot to do, Umbra. If you’re ready?”
I give Mareliux a glance.
“It’s safe,” he says with a little smile. “Darient won’t let anything happen to you. And there are other friends who will also keep you safe. See you later, my love.” He comes in and kisses me.
Darient opens the door for me. “Let’s go, Umbra. Oh, do you mind if I call you Umbra? It’s just, saying ‘Your Gorgeous Imperial Highness’ every time gets tedious.”
“Umbra is fine,” I tell her with a laugh. I already like this duchess. “I’m still getting used to the ‘princess’ thing.”
The elevator takes us down, and then we walk through the palace to a courtyard where a gunship is hovering with its engines on. It’s ugly and matte, and the sight makes me relax. It’s a straight-up war machine that nobody should be able to shoot down. The sight of the pilot standing next to it makes me relax even more.
“Sigise!” I exclaim. “I saw you yesterday, but I didn’t have a chance to talk to you! And then… well, it happened so fast.”
“Your Highness,” Sigise says with a little smile. “That is as it should be. You were not supposed to talk to me.”
