Page 56 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)
I glance over at a plant that seems to move its slender branches exactly in sync with my movements. It’s quite unsettling. “Mother, do you think of the old days sometimes? Before my father died?”
“I have no time for such sentimentality,” she scoffs. “I’m too busy with the here and now. That is where we live, you see.”
“I sometimes think of that time we went to Perapok. You and I and father and Nerox. It was such a fine trip. One of the few we went on as a family. I was happy there, climbing the cliffs and seeing the view. Do you remember the view from the top there? Looking out at the bay with all the islands?”
“Of course I remember,” the Empress says as she waters another plant.
“And you climbed up after me, because you were worried I’d get stuck on a shelf.”
“Yes, yes,” she sighs. “Ancient history.”
“And then I slipped and fell on you? And you caught me and we fell together? Do you still remember that?”
“It’s hard to forget such an experience, Mareliux. Are you going somewhere with this?”
“Not really,” I admit. “I’m just reminiscing. We fell into a nest of graduns , remember? Or were they knusps ? Which was it?”
“It was unpleasant, certainly.” She walks a few paces more and stops at another plant. “Now can we stop this strange topic and focus on more immediate matters?”
“Unpleasant, yes.” If only she knew how painful this is for me, when one of my worst fears is being proved to be true. “How many days did you spend in the infirmary at Perapok after they all bit you? Was it ten?”
“I really don’t recall. Now?—”
“I think it was ten days,” I finish, all hope gone. I clench my eyes together for a moment, then pull myself together. “Sorry, mother. I shouldn’t have reminded you of it.”
“Well, you did. See this, Mareliux. This is the jakan bush. It’s extremely picky about its nutrition.
Water is not good enough for it. It will simply wither and die if you only water it.
If it does die, it slowly turns into a green dust that’s a deadly poison, easily blown by the wind.
It’s its revenge on an environment that doesn’t care properly for it. But I know what it needs.”
Her hands go back into her sleeves, and one of them comes out with a metal vial. She unscrews it and drips its contents onto the jakan bush.
“Very picky indeed,” I comment when I see what comes out and pools on the leaves.
The Empress smiles. “It’s the only plant I know of which requires blood to live. It’s better if I don’t tell you what kind of blood this is, Mareliux. It might disturb you. But I will assure you that it is of the highest quality.”
My skin creeps.
“An interesting lecture, I’m sure,” I say, gazing towards the exit where Caret’ax is waiting. “Now if you will excuse me, Your Highness. I must be on my way.”
“Must you? Yes, I suppose top secret receptions won’t arrange themselves.
I hope to see you again soon, my dear son.
I understand they haven’t yet found the culprit who dropped the gas grenade.
Or the one who fired the missile. Such bad luck that it happened during the fireworks I arranged!
But my dear son, that plot of yours. I recommend you end it.
Much better for all involved. Much safer . ”
I sigh. “You see plots everywhere, mother. Even where there is none.”
She looks at me with big, sincere eyes that belong to a complete stranger. “Oh, but there really is one here. If there were no plot, your marriage with Umbra would look different.”
I chuckle. “All right, I’ll bite. How do you think it would look if, as you say, there were no plot?”
She lightly grabs my upper arm, the short blades in her glove sharp against my skin. It’s the closest thing to a caress she’s given me in many years.
For the first time since I came to Khav, my mother gives me a warm smile. “It wouldn’t exist, Mareliux. Goodbye.”
I leave the garden with Caret’ax and walk towards the General Staff building, where I will have more military business to deal with.
“She didn’t deny still trying to kill me,” I tell Caret’ax. “But she also didn’t confirm it directly.”
“But indirectly?” the bodyguard asks.
’If I were, you’d know it.’ And I did know it, with enough certainty to ask the question. “Yes.”
“Very well, sir. It makes it easier if we know for a fact which party to defend against.”
“This whole meeting was just a big threat. She’s telling me she will try to kill me until she either succeeds or I somehow become unmarried.”
Caret’ax goes up the stairs to the military headquarters before me so he can open the door. “Ah. Does she know?”
“That Umbra and I aren’t really married? She suspects. As does everyone.”
Caret’ax holds the door open for me. “It looks perfectly real to me.”
“That’s just it. I worry that perhaps it looks too good to be true. Whoever heard of an Imperial Prince loving his wife, and being loved right back? I only know of one other.” I walk into the building, ready to help my army fight the Vyrpy from a distance.
But I’m not sure how well I will be able to concentrate.
Because my family never went on a trip to Perapok.
I’ve never climbed a cliff in my life. And the Empress never spent any time in any infirmary.
Whoever that person is I just talked to in Juriniel’s Cauldron, she doesn’t know much about my mother.