Page 56 of Maid for the Alien Prince

Ges spotted me and his head snapped in my direction. His eyes grew large and bulbous and red. He jabbed an accusing finger at me. “You! This is all your fault! I swear by the Creator himself that you will pay for this!”

I couldn’t help but grin. I waved to him and blew him a kiss as the guards dragged him around the corner and he disappeared from view.

“What’s happening?” Emma said.

“It appears you may not have to leave after all,” I said, brimming with joy, before turning and running down the hallway towards Rayaw’s office.

He had done the right thing. And it opened the door to lots of other exciting things to.

* * *

The Fayam I was riding had a thick bushy mane that reminded me of those papier-mâché dragons the Chinese used during their New Year’s celebrations. It always appeared to be grinning and tossed its bushy tail every time it felt excited—which was just about every few minutes.

His back was hunched and dipped down, before rising again in a kind of wave pattern—and that’s where I sat, at the bottom of the dip, holding onto his reins.

Owning a Fayam was waaay out of the budget of someone like me, but I was fortunate to have had full access to the palace stables—thanks to my father. I loved riding them and always felt free on their backs.

Rayaw, having grown up poor but with no access to the creatures, held on tight to the reins and yanked his Fayam’s head hard in one direction and then another.

I sidled up to him and said, “You don’t need to lead him. Just let go of the reins and he’ll follow me.”

Rayaw looked at me in a way that suggested he wasn’t sure he wanted to put his life in a Fayam’s hooves. Then, he relaxed his grip and rested his hands on the creature’s bushy mane.

He was astonished when the creature actually did as I said and followed me.

I turned back and smiled at Rayaw, who beamed in return. Now all he had to focus on was keeping his knees tucked in tight to the Fayam’s side.

I had given him these instructions and was pleased to see he was a fast learner. In other words, he did exactly as I said.

To think he had access to the stables all this time and hadn’t even seen the Fayam! If I had inherited a palace like this, I would’ve gone exploring right away!

“Where have you been on your estate?” I asked him.

He kept a close eye on the head of his Fayam. “Uh, just the palace and surrounding gardens mostly.”

“That’s all?”

“Ges always liked to keep a tight rein on me.”

It made sense. You wouldn’t want your charge, who you were taking advantage of, to go exploring and meet the people on the farms, for him to hear their complaints about how they were being unceremoniously tossed out on their ears after failing to pay the exorbitant rent.

I was glad I could show him, finally, everything he had inherited.

I took him across the broad lawn that encircled the palace, something he would have seen from his office windows each day. Then I led him through a thin copse of trees before arriving on the other side where tall a llillarp crop should have welcomed us.

Instead, we came across empty furrows where a flock of azzika tapped at the soil with their feet, forcing the grubs and other alien bugs up to the surface. They quickly pinched them between their beaks and yanked them out, swallowing them whole.

No crops were growing, and it should have been the height of harvest season. It saddened my heart to see the farms in such a state of disrepair.

And there, the farmhouse at the center of the first small farm was similarly in disarray, the azzika having already taken over possession of it. It was a pretty little house with thriving gardens on one side where I used to play with the farmer’s children most summers. Now, it was overgrown, the weeds quickly taking over the flower patches.

I moved to the door, opened it, and an old azzika flew out in a cascade of fluttering scales. I ducked just in time and knew already what I would find inside.

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the gloomy darkness and make out the skeletal-like structures of what might have been the remnants of an apocalyptic event.

The place had been stripped bare, with zero facilities for comfortable living. I tore my eyes away as Rayaw joined me in the dull emptiness.

He wasn’t affected the same way that I was—but how could he be? He hadn’t known the farmers that had lived here, hadn’t played with their children, grown older with them.

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