Page 26 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)
“...Again?” Tievin raised a judgmental eyebrow.
“She liked it.”
As if it was enough of an explanation, Kassein filled the bowl again to the brim, and grabbed another apple for the woman.
Alezya, he mentally reminded himself. Her name was Alezya.
It was strange and a bit hard to say, but pretty.
When she had spoken for the first time, he’d thought her voice was surprisingly soft and clear.
It sounded like the gentle stream of cold water under the ice, like the sounds of a near-frozen river.
“I must voice my disapproval yet again, Commander,” Tievin wrinkled his nose. “We do not know what those barbarians are capable of. She could be an assassin sent to kill you.”
“She was beaten by her own kind,” Kassein growled at the memory. “Did you not see the state she was in?”
“I did, and I do find it odd. They chased her close to the border with us, and left that woman behind. The barbarians we tried to capture previously committed suicide rather than be taken by us, but suddenly, they leave a woman in plain sight, right where you could potentially find her. It is odd.”
Kassein didn’t reply; most likely, he was done answering Tievin.
He turned around, heading back inside the tent. This time, Tievin didn’t follow him. Instead, he watched the back of the Prince as he left, powerless. Was it really safe to leave this woman with him...?
His Majesty was like the rest of the men in his family: weak to women.
More precisely, they had grown up admiring their mother, and watching their father, the almighty War God, be completely enamored with her.
Not only that but every woman in that family was deeply loved and respected.
No matter how cold the Wild Prince was acting toward his family right now, there was no way he would ever harm a woman, especially one that seemed as defenseless as this barbarian he’d brought back. Tievin sighed.
He couldn’t help but worry for His Highness. When a man was stronger than anyone else, the only way to hurt him would be through his heart... and he knew better than anyone how badly Prince Kassein’s had already been wounded.
“...Have one unit keep an eye on the Commander’s tent,” he ordered.
He had said his order without looking at any soldier specifically, but the men were used to obeying nevertheless. Several answered at once.
“Yes, sir!”
They left, most likely to inform a lieutenant a new surveillance guard would have to be established, while Tievin remained standing near the food distribution. He tightened his coat around him and finally drifted his gaze from His Highness’ tent to the mountains.
...What were those barbarians truly thinking?
Hard to tell. All their attempts at a peaceful negotiation had amounted to nothing.
Those people were so different. It was the first time they’d seen a barbarian woman, and she was harmed right under the Prince’s eyes?
Somehow, he had a bad feeling about this. That woman was going to be trouble.
...All women eventually led to trouble.
“What about the dragon?”
“It’s still, uh, resting, sir.”
Tievin rolled his eyes.
First the woman, then His Highness, and now the damn dragon acting all strange too. That beast was parked near its owner’s tent, clearly waiting for something.
The dragon had only moved from its spot to take its flight to go hunting and came right back after like an obedient dog.
It had caused quite a ruckus inside the camp as most men had only seen Kein from afar.
Tievin didn’t even need to be informed of the dragon’s movements; there were “ooh”s and “aah”s rising all around the camp every time the damn thing decided to fly up or land back here.
He had felt relieved the first time Kein had decided to leave, only to be disappointed when the dragon had come back just a couple of hours later, belly full.
That thing was just as stubborn as its master, for sure.
.. and even harder to understand. Tievin didn’t care for the dragon as long as it miraculously didn’t cause any ruckus, but he was quite annoyed by how it disturbed the camp.
He hated anything that stood out and came to disturb what he’d worked hard to put in place.
Most soldiers were both curious to see the orange dragon from up close and too terrified not to take a noticeable detour around it.
Thus, the foot traffic around His Highness’ tent had increased significantly, another major disruption in the usually well-oiled machine that was the camp.
Because there was an actual dragon lingering in the camp, somewhat tame for once, the news about the woman had died quite quickly.
She had been there for two days now, but as most soldiers hadn’t seen her, the talk about that foreigner had almost disappeared, compared to all the whispering about His Highness’ dragon.
“Report the dragon’s every movement. And make sure the men stop going to see it like it’s some attraction. Anyone caught near the Commander in Chief’s tent without a good reason will be put on night patrol. I don’t care if one of you gets bitten; that might be a good warning.”
“Yes, sir!”
Tievin poured himself a second bowl of food, forgetting all about how he’d protested about the prisoner getting another helping too, and left the food distribution area to eat inside his tent as usual.
On the way, he chose to walk by the Prince’s tent... and just like everyone else, he saw Kein. Even for someone who’d grown close to the Imperial Family and their dragons, that was a spectacular sight. The large orange dragon was simply lying there, sleeping.
It was still early, and that beast had been out most of the night hunting.
It was now peacefully snoring, like a dog happy with a full belly.
Except that the dog was a scaled dragon taking up an awful lot of space.
.. There already weren’t many souls brave enough to put their tents near the Prince’s, but now, thanks to the dragon, a large area had been cleared around Kassein’s, and some tents had been promptly relocated for safety measures, and common sense.
That dragon was huge. The Imperial Family possessed a total of seven dragons, if one excluded the dragons of Queen Cessilia, Prince Darsan, and their children, who all lived in the Eastern Kingdom.
Out of those seven dragons, Kein was now undoubtedly the largest. The dragon had grown bigger than its own progenitor, the War God’s legendary black dragon, and bigger than its sibling, Kian, the Emperor’s silver dragon.
The difference in size was mostly due to the fact that Kein was an Earth Dragon, and Kian a Water Dragon.
No one exactly understood why a dragon was born either way, but Earth Dragons had been the only ones known in the Empire until the War God and his wife, Imperial Princess Cassandra, had children, and six out of those eight children had been born with Water Dragons by their side.
Those Water Dragons were different than their peers; they had longer and slimmer bodies and were faster.
By contrast, the Earth Dragons had thicker bodies and were stronger than their peers, but slower.
Prince Darsan and Prince Kassein were the only ones who had been born with Earth Dragons, and theirs were the biggest ones once they’d grown to their adult size.
Despite knowing all this and having grown by the Imperial Family’s side for a long time, Tievin could never not be afraid of dragons.
Those things were as temperamental as their owners, which was a way to say completely unpredictable and dangerous. Kein was the worst of all. The fire-colored dragon’s humongous size only matched its horrible and indecipherable temper.
A few years back, when the Prince and his dragon were still young, their raging battles could somewhat be contained, but as Prince Kassein had become an adult and his dragon had reached its adult size, they’d gone on to cause an incredible amount of damage wherever they fought.
Seeing a beast that was akin to a natural disaster on its own sleeping peacefully was not giving Tievin the slightest bit of relief. Instead, he felt like he was simply watching the calm before yet another storm...
As if the dragon had felt him watching, it suddenly opened its eyes, prompting Tievin to jump back, almost spilling his food.
He froze, watching out for the dragon’s movements.
But Kein simply stared with its silver eyes as big as a man’s shield.
The dragon was three times the size of its owner’s tent, but it had its body curled in a half-circle around it, like it was guarding it.
Upon clearly spotting Tievin, it growled faintly, half-closed its eyes, and puffed out a cloud of hot steam his way.
The hot air reached Tievin, making his body shiver.
...Was that beast just acknowledging his presence? Right, he was probably just another potential snack walking by.
With that thought in mind, Tievin resumed walking, although since he didn’t dare not watch out for the dragon, he walked away weirdly, sideways. Any soldier passing by would find the Grand Intendant’s strange crab-like walk funny, but he didn’t care. His life was more important than his pride.
Kein waited until Tievin was out of sight, and then let out another bored growl.
The soldiers kept walking by, thinking the dragon didn’t see them, or it clearly didn’t care.
They were right about the last part. Kein directed its silver eyes toward the tent, and after another growl, closed them again, going back to that nice nap.
Inside the tent, Kassein stood still and darted his eyes toward the tent’s entrance at the growl.
Whatever had agitated his dragon, he knew for a fact it wouldn’t move yet.
For the first time in a long time, he and his dragon were capable of enduring the other’s presence.
.. and their thoughts were focused on Alezya.