Page 106 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)
If things went well, she might get Lumie and herself out of there, but if they didn’t, she had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
She had seen Kein attack and kill human men plenty of times, and she had no doubt the orange dragon wouldn’t hesitate to attack again; she wouldn’t hesitate either if things went down this dark route.
However, she was unwilling to get more people killed than necessary, especially people like Suolk who weren’t as evil and greed-filled as her father.
“Alezya...”
“You should go,” she whispered.
A few seconds of heavy silence passed between them, Suolk still staring at her with a vaguely confused, almost nervous expression. Alezya dismissed him by refocusing her attention on her baby until he left.
Her short talk with Suolk made Alezya ponder how many other good men were in those mountains, subject to the schemes of others.
Her father and her ex-husband had probably been the worst: raised almighty, filled with the belief that they were above others. Above women, especially. Their daughters and wives were their property...
Kassein wasn’t like that. He had shown great respect to his sister and the woman that accompanied her.
There were some men in his clan who had shown her disrespect, and he hadn’t let it go like many clan chiefs would have.
Perhaps being a chief was his birthright, but being a good man was his choice.
After having met him, she was all the more a believer that some men just chose to be controlling, abusive, and greedy.
Alezya didn’t realize she had dozed off until someone kicked her leg, startling her awake.
“It’s time,” one of her father’s men hissed. “Get up.”
It was strange to think that she had seen these men all her life, walked the same corridors as them, and yet, she hardly knew any of their names.
They were her father’s men, but she was his daughter, and there was a world between them.
They would be allowed to marry women from other clans if they showed loyalty and bravery, while she was raised like a princess, untouchable, a precious trade prize.
But she was like a possession; her name mattered far less than her father’s.
Perhaps they had learned it when she had caused great shame and decided to forget it at all; Alezya didn’t care. Her heart hadn’t been with this clan in a long while, and now, it was set at the foot of the mountain with a man and his orange dragon.
Alezya didn’t fight being escorted, if not jostled, through the tunnels, only holding Lumie a bit tighter against her chest and hiding her with the coat.
She had never attended a gathering, so if anything, she was slightly curious to see how those things went.
The men in her clan who were allowed to attend considered it a great honor, and it was such a big event everyone talked before and after.
The cave was bustling with energy, everyone excited about the upcoming gathering with the other clans. A lot of people had gathered to watch their warriors and significant figures leave; Alezya had rarely seen so much of her clan gathered in the same tunnels.
She spotted her cousin and her husband, holding their son tight in a corner, giving her nervous glances as they stood away from the marching crowd.
It took a few minutes for Alezya to realize how tightly escorted she was.
She had been walking with a lot of men, but when they finally left the mountain through one of its lower tunnels, walking on a snow-covered path that was too narrow for more than a couple of people to walk side by side, she felt a man’s hand tighten on her shoulder, and another grab her arm forcefully.
Alezya realized they were forcing her to walk as much as they were trying to prevent her from jumping.
She glanced at the ravine a few paces on their right as they were progressing down the side of the mountain.
Did they really think she would try jumping down?
To save herself, or to kill herself? With her child in her arms?
Alezya found that almost amusing, in a dark way, when she had never felt so far from hopeless.
She held Lumie a bit tighter, glancing at her child who was still wrapped tightly in the fur coat; she had no idea how long the journey would be, but her baby didn’t seem to mind the stroll now that the sun had begun to set.
Lumie was awake and quietly playing with a sleeve of the fur coat, gripping and frowning at it.
When she noticed her mom’s eyes through the little opening, she beamed at her, making Alezya smile back.
“Keep moving,” a hand brutally shoved her forward, almost making her fall.
Alezya glared at the man. She had barely slowed down to glance at Lumie, but the man behind her was giving her a haughty glare.
“You got something to say?” he smirked.
“No,” Alezya retorted. “I was just wondering what humans taste like to dragons.”
To her satisfaction, the man’s smirk dropped, and his face visibly paled.
As if on cue, a large shadow flew over their procession, making everyone but Alezya jump in fright and try to dodge, either throwing themselves on the ground or against the mountain.
Alezya was more afraid of the sudden crowd movement than she was of Kein, and she threw her back against the cold stone, pressing Lumie against her while the panicked men shouted and pointed at the skies.
She even saw a couple of them trip and fall to their death several dozen feet below while some tried to push others to get back to the nearest tunnel. Alezya only held Lumie tight against her, her eyes riveted on the dragon’s flying figure.
Kein wasn’t menacing at all; the orange dragon was merely flying above them, almost looking relaxed, and she would have bet it had a silver eye on her.
She couldn’t suppress a smile; Kein was there for her, watching her amongst the crowd of men. At the very front of their procession, Alezya saw her father’s horrified eyes riveted on her.
“Make it go away!” he barked.
All eyes went from their chief to her, the only woman of their group, who was staring back at her father with the calmest expression of all.
“I can’t,” she lied. “I don’t know the words for it.”
Her father’s face went red, visibly unconvinced or pissed.
Before he said something, Kein took a little dive above them, covering the group with its shadow again before it flew higher again.
Alezya could almost feel the orange dragon was curious about the precious cargo in her arms, and she couldn’t wait to introduce Lumie to it.
“I wouldn’t shout if I were you,” she simply warned her father. “Dragons enjoy chasing scared and fleeing prey.”
Alezya knew she could have made Kein attack the men around her then and there with just a word. The only reason she didn’t was that she was afraid of another crowd panic that could cause her and Lumie to fall to their deaths.
This path was far too narrow for the dragon to land and far too dangerous to cause a commotion.
She had already seen two men slip and fall to their deaths; she didn’t want to risk being pushed and thrown too.
She had to wait until she was fairly certain she could give her child to the dragon without risking their lives, and Kein staying in the vicinity pretty much guaranteed that at least.
After a few seconds of tension, and once they seemed more confident the dragon wouldn’t attack them, her clan’s men regathered, although she noticed a lot of them were trying to be closer to her, perhaps thinking she could give them some sort of protection.
The fact that her father had ordered her to call the dragon away was probably a dead giveaway of her unique relationship with the orange-scaled monster.
Alezya scoffed when she was grabbed by two more hands than before, and their group resumed its march, every single man terrified and keeping their eyes on the skies while she walked calmly, holding on to Lumie.
Her baby began to babble, and as they kept walking and the sun set for good behind the mountains, Alezya uncovered her slowly.
She was hoping Kein would get to take a first look at her baby from the skies and recognize the precious human later.
It was a dark night, the skies cloudy, but now and then, the darker shadow of the dragon could be seen flying in the area.
Kein was keeping its distance, flying high in the skies but never out of Alezya’s sight, and she wondered if it was intrigued by all the humans moving down from their mountains, converging toward one single area.
She had never been to a gathering, but she knew enough to know that they all met in a clearing that was somewhat at the same distance from all mountains and took several hours for all clans to get to.
It was probably meant to keep a pretense of peace, as no one would be foolish enough to attack so far away from their home base.
There had been a couple of stories from times when bigger, larger clans had gotten into fights at a gathering, and almost every attendee had been killed or died before making it back to their clan; it was too far in the middle of nowhere to be rescued in case things went wrong.
The most surprising thing was that they had never been attacked by a dragon, but now, Alezya could fairly guess why.
First, dragons were diurnal. She had noticed Kein slept when Kassein did and hunted during the day.
More importantly, the dragons enjoyed the chase, and a gathering full of humans was probably the equivalent of a boring buffet. .. if they were even aware of it.
Gatherings happened every full moon, which left a fair amount of time between each, and Alezya realized that either the Dragon Clan didn’t know, or didn’t care. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they have used it to crush all their enemies at once?
“We’re almost there,” her father’s voice announced after a while.