Slave to the Alien Prince by Maia Tanith

Author:Maia Tanith [Tanith, Maia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-30T06:00:00+00:00

I lie on my stomach on the pallet for three days before I can bear to move. Prince Khan, his face more troubled with each day that passes, brings me food from his own table. He rests his hand on my uninjured shoulder and I can feel the strength of his claws just under the skin. Other than that, he does not touch me.

His kindness makes me want to weep.

He does not repeat his earlier words of treason.

Litha visits me during the day to bring me more medicine and sometimes just to sit next to me and keep me company. The Queen is more often asleep than not these days.

“The Queen is getting weaker by the day,” she confides in me one day. “It saddens me to see her waste away to nothing.”

I make a face into the pallet so Litha cannot see. She has a kind heart and has been good to me, and I would not want to upset her. The Queen is not exactly my number one fan, but then why should she be? I am a slave and so beneath her notice. Not even common rules of politeness apply to slaves. I search for something kind to say about her. “Prince Khan seems very fond of her.”

“He is. He is a good son. And the Queen has not always been fretful and unkind. She knows she is dying, and she worries about what her brother the Emperor will do once she is gone.”

I was silent. That would worry me, too, if I was her.

Truth to tell, it worries me anyway. Prince Khan might be spineless when it comes to his uncle, but who am I to expect someone else to throw themselves into a nest of vipers for the sake of others.

I am no better. When I had trouble in my home village, I did not stay to fight. I did not try to make things better, to protect girls younger than me who will face the same problems I did. No. I ran away instead.

Fighting seemed so pointless back then. I was powerless, and I felt my lack of power. If I had tried to fight, I would have been squashed. Certainly beaten. Most likely raped. And eventually, inevitably, killed.

I was not prepared to sacrifice myself for nothing. Not when my enemies ran the village with a tight fist. When I had no hope that anything I could do would lead to any meaningful change.

I was a coward. I ran. I left everyone else behind without a second thought, thinking only of how to protect myself.

Prince Khan may not be able to run away physically, but he has mentally disengaged. I cannot condemn him for it.

Besides, he has been kind to me since my punishment. As kind as Litha.

On the fourth day after my whipping, I struggle to my feet and carefully maneuver a clean shift over my head. The cuts on my back have stopped weeping and have scabbed over enough for me to wear clothes again and I am heartily sick of these same four walls.

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