Page 38 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)

- Mareliux -

I ignore the sword’s AI. She obviously thinks that Umbra and I are Soulbound. I highly doubt it. Nobody believes in Soulbound anymore. I’ve never met anyone who was. It’s from the old fairy tales only.

“At any rate, we can still wait,” I say out loud.

“We won’t move from here until we have to.

This is where the beacon is. When it runs out of power, this is still where we have the greatest chance of being found if the Gladiux searches the planet.

The pods will stand out on their scanners as symmetrical metal objects.

This is our home, Umbra. For as long as we’re on this planet.

But we may at some point have to widen our domain for gathering fruits and maybe hunt. ”

Umbra frowns. “Are you sure nobody lives here? What if there’s a city with a spaceport just a day’s walk from here? What if this is a zoo we landed in?”

“ Umbra,” Bellatriz pipes up, “ I checked that before we crashed. I know which route the Gladiux took through space, and there’s no inhabited planet along the way. I can make a good guess about which solar system this is. It has no registered settlements.”

“Oh,” Umbra says, dejected. “It might be worth checking, just in case.”

“At some point we’ll take a wider look around,” I agree. “In fact, we can start now. I’ll walk a little patrol around us and see if there’s something we can use. Running water would be good, for instance. You can stay in the pod.”

“No.” Umbra says flatly. “I’m coming with you. I trust your skill with the sword more than that pod.”

I know she’s flattering me, but it’s working. “All right. But first, we’ll make a weapon for you.”

I use Bellatriz to make a long spear for Umbra. Walking to my broken pod, I break off a piece of the ceramic tiles on the outside of it and shatter it on a rock. Two of the shards are sharp enough that they can work as spearheads.

Umbra ties one of them on, and then she has a primitive weapon. “Sigise has my gun,” she says, thrusting her spear at a point in the air. “I wish I had it now.”

“Your wedding outfit should have a holster,” I agree as I decide on a direction to walk. “That’s something you can introduce on Earth when you return.”

“I have a confession to make,” Umbra says as she steps over the remains of our barricade. “This isn’t really what Earth women wear to get married.”

I give her a lopsided smile. “I think most of us guessed. It’s not common for brides to want to hide their shape and beauty as best they—” My head whips around. There’s movement.

“What?” Umbra asks, pulling closer to me and clutching her spear. “Is there someone?”

“Something moved,” I grunt. “Something big.”

We stand still for a while, but nothing else moves.

“This is a disconcerting jungle,” I observe as we walk on. “Always moving.”

The jungle is dense and hard to move through. There are always branches and twigs and roots to avoid, and I mostly can’t see what my feet are moving through because the undergrowth is dense in several layers. The heat and the humidity aren’t helping make it more comfortable.

I keep checking on Umbra, just making sure that she’s still there. She struggles more than me, especially with the roots. I can mostly step over them, but she has to walk around.

I make sure to move slowly so she can keep up. She has a determined set to her jaw, and I find myself admiring her resilience. She hasn’t had an easy time recently, but here she is, insisting to come along on a reconnaissance walk when she could have been sitting by the pod.

“Do you really think she’s my Soulbound?” I ask Bellatriz in the secret battle language. “She’s an alien.”

“ All the signs are there,” the sword replies.

“ Now, keep in mind that I’m an AI and I can’t sense the Syntrix at all.

I’m as skeptical as you are about the Soulbound.

But I can also separate feelings from fact.

And the facts are stacking up. If Umbra can use Syntrix, why can’t she be your Soulbound?

It would be strange, yes. She is an alien from very far away.

And yet, your combined Syntrix is so strong it made you faint.

It’s so strong it made Umbra make a spectacle of herself at the reception.

It’s so strong it made your rings blaze like stars.

It’s so strong it makes you both climax with great force. And you fight well together.”

“All the signs, you say. You claim to be impossibly ancient. Have you seen Soulbound before?”

“ Just once. And it wasn’t as strong as this. But it was much the same.”

“It would completely ruin my plans if we are,” I growl. ”How can I send Umbra back to Earth then? How can I live without my Soulbound?”

“ These are rhetorical questions?” Bellatriz asks. “ I can’t answer them.”

“I can hear you talking about me,” Umbra says from behind me. “I hope it’s something nice.”

I stop and wait for her to catch up. “Sorry. I just don’t want?—”

A terrible screech pierces the air. Both Umbra and I duck instinctively and look up.

“What was that? ” Umbra asks, clutching her spear with both hands.

She gets her answer right away. There’s a tremendous crash from the canopy of leaves high above us, and some kind of flying creature falls through it from above. It releases a rain of broken branches and leaves.

It’s a nightmarish creature, with long wings and a flowing tail.

For a terrible moment I think it might be a draco, that mythical horror, but its head is too long and too ugly compared to the old descriptions.

And this one only has two legs, not four.

Still, I spot sharp talons, and it is a horrific monster.

It beats its wings and zigzags between the thick tree trunks as it makes its way lower.

“It’s coming for us!” Umbra says and grabs my upper arm.

“Get behind me,” I tell her and push her up against the nearest tree trunk, which is nowhere near as thick as I would want it. “You’ll be safe there.”

I’m not as sure as I want to sound. I’m used to fighting Vyrpy, which like to walk on the ceiling and attack from above, but an actual flying enemy might be a different thing altogether.

I pull Bellatriz out of her sheath and take up a defensive stance, while trying to find an escape. But the pod is far away.

“Pterodactyl!” Umbra says. “Look at the claws!”

The leathery wings beat again, closer now, and the air fills with another high-pitched screech. This thing is fast, impossibly so for its size. Its long, toothed beak snaps open and shut, a clear indication of its intent.

Then another crash echoes from above, followed by a third. More shadows tear through the dense foliage, and the rain of leaves and splintered wood intensifies.

My blood runs cold. It’s not just one.

“Syntrix, Umbra!” I yell, my grip tightening on Bellatriz.

I feel a ripple in the air beside me, a subtle pressure. One of the descending monsters suddenly veers wildly off course, screeching in confusion as if it’s hit an invisible wall. It slams into a thick tree trunk with a sickening thud, and its wings snap at an unnatural angle.

But more are coming. Two of them break through the canopy, their leathery wings catching a thin ray of sunlight as they descend with terrifying speed.

One dives straight for me with talons extended like grappling hooks.

As I sidestep, the wind from its passing wings buffet me.

I swing Bellatriz in a wide arc. The blade connects with a screech of tearing hide, but it feels shallow, glancing off something tough beneath.

The second monster aims for Umbra, snapping its beak at her. I lunge forward and intercept its attack with my sword. The force of the impact jars my arm, and the creature screeches in pain and surprise. Its momentum carries it past us.

There are more crashes from above. The air is filled with the flapping of wings and their piercing cries. I can see at least five more of the creatures circling above the shattered canopy, preparing to descend. This is starting to look like overwhelming force.

“There are too many!” Umbra cries, her voice tight with fear.

She’s trying, I can feel it. Bursts of uncontrolled Syntrix wash over the incoming creatures and send them veering erratically.

But she can’t target them all. Her control is still too imprecise.

One slams into a nearby bush, tearing it to shreds.

Another clips a tree trunk, sending bark and splinters flying. But none of them are out of the fight.

“You’re doing well!” I tell her, wanting to keep her confident.

One of the enemies dives again, its lifeless eyes fixated on me.

I parry its attack, and the force nearly knocks Bellatriz from my grasp.

Talons rake across my arm and draw a searing line of pain.

I grit my teeth and slash upwards, hoping to find a vulnerable spot.

I hit something, and the creature screeches as its wings falter in their movements.

Another one attacks from behind the tree, its beak snapping inches from my neck. Umbra cries out, and a wave of raw Syntrix slams into the creature’s side, sending it tumbling sideways in the air.

We’re surrounded by a swarm of the terrors. They are relentless, and the swarm seems to keep growing. I’m parrying, dodging, and slashing, but despite the solid tree trunk behind us, there are too many angles to cover. My arm aches, and I can feel my movements slowing.

One of the creatures manages to get past my guard, its talons tearing into my leg. I stumble as pain shoots through me.

Umbra’s features are strained with effort, her hands outstretched, but her Syntrix is wild and unpredictable. It’s pushing some of the attackers off course, but others are slipping through. Their attacks are becoming more coordinated.

“Sorry,” she says, her voice tight. “I should have stayed in the pod.”

“No,” I tell her as I slash at a new attacker. “This is the way to go. Together.”

Because it’s becoming clear to me that this is the end. There’s just too many of these things. We have nowhere to hide. I’ve taken out a half dozen of the things, but even with a legendary sword like Bellatriz and her phase-shifting tricks, this is too much to handle.

A shadow falls over Umbra. I look up to see a massive flying monster, easily twice the size of the first, diving down. Its beak is wide open, a cavern of sharp teeth. Another enemy comes flying in from straight ahead and a third from the side, talons held in front of it in preparation.

I raise Bellatriz in a desperate attempt to defend Umbra, and I manage to ward off that attack with a series of wild slashes. I know it’s not enough. There’s no escape. We’re trapped, exposed, and about to be torn apart by the swarm.

The air fills with deafening screeches from two dozen monsters. I swear there’s triumph in it.

“Get down,” I order Umbra. “You can still make it. They can’t get that close to the ground without stopping. When I can’t fight more, take Bellatriz and use her. She’s lighter than she looks.”

She does, diving to the ground and pushing herself into the tree.

“ It’s been my privilege to be your weapon, Prince Mareliux,” Bellatriz says calmly. “ None of my previous owners survived me, and it’s no dishonor that you won’t, either. Everything you did, you did for your people.”

Many of the monsters come diving at the same time, some with their beaks first, some with their talons. All are screeching.

This is the main attack, I realize. They were only tiring me out before. Well, they succeeded.

“Umbra, I love you,” I say between clenched teeth as I take up my final fighting stance.

“I love you too, Mareliux,” she replies from the ground. “I wish we were married for real.”

The first of the monsters comes diving, a terrible spearhead of talons and teeth.

Then there’s a blinding light and the jungle explodes.