Page 168 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)

Kassein glanced up, checking the skies again as they finally reached the edge of the Wailing Rift.

His dragon was still up there, carrying Alezya on its back.

He let out a long, quiet exhale and stared as Kein was just a bright orange dot among the dark clouds and battering rain, lost between the high mountains surrounding them.

Everything looked darker and more sinister in this area, as if the landscape and the skies were bracing for the battle too.

If it weren’t for Kein’s vivid bronze color, it would have vanished quickly into the growing darkness. Kiki, who was flying nearby, already blended in with its dark gray scales.

“Sir,” Captain Dajan’s voice came from a few steps behind him.

“The troops are all set and ready to go. The first lines of men are ready for battle, and General Sazaran is taking the lead in bringing them down this gorge. We’ve secured a large enough path.

They’ve sent me to let you know the infirmary is set up and ready in the secure location they’d picked too. ”

Kassein remained quiet for a few seconds; he lowered his gaze from the thunderstorm coming their way to what was supposed to become their battlefield in just a few moments.

He had to admit, whoever the leaders were on the other side, they knew how to pick their landscape.

It had been obvious the minute they’d arrived that their only reason for choosing this place was to hinder his dragon and nothing else.

Sure, having Kein able to join the battle would have guaranteed them victory, but with this new configuration, he wasn’t sure things looked much better for their opponents.

The generals, Tievin, Kiera, and their scouts had discussed at length the difficulties of the battleground, which parts to avoid, and how to proceed to limit accidental deaths.

The only good part was that their enemies were likely to try and surround them, but they would have to go down steep cliffs for that, and there were high chances of accidents happening.

Or they could make them happen, as Kiera had noted with a sinister grin.

Kiki would have had trouble getting down there, but his sister’s dragon would be sure to cause a lot of damage elsewhere, and his sister was likely gearing herself up to do the same on the battlefield; neither half of that duo had ever been one to shy away from a fight.

“...I hope Lady Alezya will be alright,” Dajan suddenly muttered.

Kassein turned to him, and as soon as he did, he found the man blushing and waving his hands with a panicked expression.

“I-I-I am merely concerned for the lady’s safety!” he hurriedly said. “She’s b-been really nice to us, and, uh... I-I admire her as a leader. F-from what I gathered, Lady Alezya went through a lot...”

He went quiet and looked down, probably thinking he had said too much, but Kassein kept his gaze on the young Captain. At eighteen, Kassein was younger than most of the men he gave orders to. But Dajan was among the younger men too, and he didn’t look more than five years older at most.

“...Why are you here?”

Dajan blinked at his question, looking confused for a second.

“I-I won’t shy away from a battle, Commander,” he said, his voice growing firmer. “It’s my duty, and I’m proud to fight for our army–”

“The north,” Kassein cut him off. “Why were you sent?”

Dajan’s chest deflated right away, and he was back to staring at his feet. After a second, he inhaled and lifted his eyes again.

“...I killed a man, sir,” he said with a hoarse voice. “I was sentenced for murder.”

“Why?”

There was no judgment in Kassein’s tone, but this time, a flash of anger passed over Dajan’s face.

“He killed my mother, sir,” he said, holding Kassein’s gaze. “So I killed him. I was condemned for patricide.”

He kept staring back at Kassein with his fists clenched for several long seconds, and for once, he was visibly making an effort not to look away. He didn’t give any more information, but the clench in his jaw and his tense shoulders said it all.

“...I would kill anyone who harmed my mother too,” Kassein finally said.

Dajan said nothing, pressing his lips together, but his shoulders relaxed slightly.

Kassein’s gaze went behind him to his men, who were all ready for battle, leaving or about to, in tight ranks, wearing the same uniform and armor.

Some looked tense and silent, others chatted hurriedly.

He caught some men bumping fists, exchanging determined nods, and even sharing a couple of hugs with their brothers in arms.

He wondered how many of those men had been sent here because their crimes were too bad to stay in the Empire but not bad enough to die.

The Dragon Empire still had the death penalty. It wasn’t applied often because the law required that the crime had to be the worst, and there had to be no doubt about the culprit.

He knew some real criminals would have been dead already if there hadn’t been reasonable doubt or a lack of witnesses.

Rapists whose word had been against their victims’, for example.

Those who had killed without witnesses and those who had claimed self-defense.

Those who had no history before their crime.

And those, like Dajan, whose crime was motivated by another crime and whose circumstances were somewhat understandable but not to be forgiven.

The North Army had become an open-air penitentiary, the one where no more mistakes were allowed.

It was like a final trial, where those who never committed a crime again could survive, and those who did died.

Kein had killed men trying to run away from the camp more than once, and enough that they’d stopped trying.

The threat of an angry dragon was enough to keep most men behind invisible walls, and the threat of its owner was just as efficient in keeping them in line most days.

Kassein was well-aware that there was second-hand justice served in the ranks; if a man had been sent here for rape, he usually only survived as long as it wasn’t known. The violent ones didn’t make it long either if they didn’t save their urges for battles and training.

He had never spent time thinking about why all those men were sent to the north; he just knew they were here for a second chance some of them didn’t deserve. He and Kein were the judge and jury for a years-long trial.

This was the first time he realized some of them did deserve that second chance and thought sincerely about those men. Dajan was a murderer, but right here, in the north, he could stand among other men guilty of similar crimes and fight for his second chance.

And unbeknownst to most, Kassein wasn’t any different.

“Will you go back to the Empire once this is over?” Kassein asked, his eyes back on the rift.

“I don’t think so, sir,” Dajan said after a short hesitation. “No one is waiting for me there... I don’t think I’d want to go back.”

“What about a new life here? Once this war is over, if you get your freedom?”

“...That would be nice, Commander.”

Kassein remained silent for a few seconds, and Dajan waited for him, his eyes hopeful. After a few seconds, Kassein cracked his neck and suddenly moved, patting Dajan’s shoulder once as he walked past him.

“Make sure you survive. She likes you.”

“Yes, Commander!”

Dajan ran after him as Kassein walked back to his army, determined.

The Captain took a different route to find his place amongst the brigades without a word, but his head was now held high.

Kassein had been truthful in his words: he hoped Dajan and more men like him made it out of this alive.

Meanwhile, he crossed the ranks of men, hundreds of them lined up in tight formation, in their armor and carrying their weapons, greeting him with determined nods and shy cheers.

It only took him a handful of minutes to hurry past those who were already marching forward and make his way to the front, where General Sazaran stood at the helm, all geared up in his heavy armor.

“Ready for a good brawl, Commander?” The General grinned, looking excited.

“Try to stay alive, old man,” Kassein smirked.

The General blinked a couple of times, shocked, before he erupted in a loud, thunderous laugh that made the men behind them jump and Kassein wince.

“Ha! Haven’t heard you be this brash in a while, Commander!”

“Are you trying to warn the enemy we’re here?” Kiera grimaced as she joined them. “What did I miss?”

“Only the excitement of the upcoming battle, Princess Kiera!”

“Call me princess again and you won’t make it to the battle, old man,” she hissed.

That only made Sazaran laugh more and louder while she rolled her eyes. Kassein knew there was no point in hiding their arrival, anyway.

Their opponent had spotted them, and on the opposite side of the rift, they could see the black sea of fighters heading toward them, their two armies descending into what was to be their arena.

Kassein glanced up at the skies as thunder erupted in the distance, definitely looming to overtake the battle.

It was hard to say if the sun had already set or not; it was eerily dark already.

This would make things harder for everyone, but mostly, he was worried about Alezya riding his dragon in a thunderstorm.

As much as he knew his dragon wouldn’t take any risks because of its rider, he regretted letting her join this battle at all.

Alezya was too fierce and determined, and he wasn’t sure she would put her safety first if things got worse.

“She’ll be fine,” Kiera sighed next to him.

When he directed an annoyed glance at his sister, she rolled her eyes.