Page 200 of The White King's Favorite

Cessilia softly pulled on Ashen’s arm, a bit annoyed with his sudden show of pride. She knew he had bad blood with the Cheshi, but they really didn’t have time for that now. He sighed, but looked away, visibly withholding his disagreement with the Cheshi Leader. They could always solve the issues between them at a later time, and from the way Aglithia’s father was staring at the King, Cessilia thought they had a lot to discuss indeed...

“...We are ready to go any time,” he finally said.

Cessilia nodded.

“The sooner the b-better.”

“Then let’s get going now.”

They turned around, following Aglithia who was leading them to another of their secret passages. This time, they had about a hundred men following right behind them, although the large group strangely made close to no sound at all. Tessandra glanced at the floor beneath them, but their light step technique was just impressive. Some of them even climbed up the roof, using a different, more aerial way to get to the plaza before them.

While Aglithia was running ahead, her father was right behind Ashen and Cessilia, side by side with Tessandra, and all the other Cheshi fighters behind them. This time, the tunnel they were using, hidden under what seemed to be a fake tombstone, was actually large enough that two or three people could stand side by side, and for everyone to run, which they all did.

“Aglithia will stay with you while I lead the men within the Capital,” explained the Cheshi Clan Leader. “They all will know what to do and whom to fight, and half of our leaders were already told to stick with you no matter what, so all our troops won’t be scattered away from you; plenty of them will stick by your side to help when you get inside the castle, notably.”

As Cessilia nodded, the man suddenly stepped to the side where the tunnel split in two. He swiftly disappeared down the branch, with the men behind them knowing exactly whom to follow. Cessilia felt her heartbeat quicken. This time, they were heading to the real battle. Only a few minutes had passed since they had left Bastat’s house, but now, everything was accelerating. She hoped Naptunie would be fine, far from the main battle.

Ashen gently held her hand once more.

“...Ready?” he muttered.

Cessilia nodded.

Suddenly, in front of them, Aglithia stopped, gesturing for all of them to stop as well. They all froze, and she climbed the stairs first to judge the situation. Then, she gestured for them to follow, Tessandra running ahead to see where they had arrived. The inside of the building looked like an abandoned restaurant or hostel. The furniture had been carefully piled up against the windows, as if to create a barricade. They all ran to see what was going on outside the windows.

The Cheshi hadn’t lied. They were literally steps away from the plaza. In fact, they were so close that they felt like they were part of the crowd in the streets around the building, who were loudly protesting.

“Fuck, Sab...”

Hearing her cousin’s cry, Cessilia’s heart dropped for a second, but she quickly found Sabael. He was alive, but lined up with other people on a little platform. He had been badly beaten, and was barely recognizable, with his tumefied face, the blood all over his body and his ripped up clothes.

“I can’t believe they left him half-fucking-naked out there!”

Cessilia sighed. Sabael wasn’t the only one in bad shape. There were at least twenty people lined up, their hands hung above their heads, and all looked to be gravely injured. Some even seemed to have passed out, or had terrible injuries exposed. No wonder the crowd was protesting so loudly despite the threat of the Yekara soldiers.

There were a lot, indeed. Not only the Yekara and their red uniforms, but those mercenaries Aglithia had mentioned, carrying large weapons and intimidating the crowd, visibly looking for the first opportunity to spill blood. Cessilia glanced around, but she didn’t recognize the Yekara lieutenant who was on the platform, speaking out loud. She couldn’t hear well from inside the building, but he was apparently listing some wrongs for which the captives were about to be killed. He was pacing around on the platform, reading some paper out loud, and ignoring the crowd that kept swearing and insulting him. There was a wide space of about four feet between the platform and the Yekara soldiers that were keeping the crowd at bay, but the tension was rising. No one was willing to see their relatives or friends die, but from what Cessilia could see, they had no weapons to fight the Yekara. She even recognized some of the Dorosef people angrily holding their cooking utensils, as if ready to fight with spatulas, skewers, and pans if needed. They weren’t the only ones. After the last few days spent in the Kingdom, Cessilia could recognize faces from almost each tribe in the crowd, or from their attire or hairstyles. Although it was mildly dangerous, the number of people in that crowd was already impressive enough. It was as if all of the tribes had gathered there to protest.

“Any minute now,” groaned Tessandra, impatient. “What the fuck are we waiting for?!”

Cessilia glanced back, but indeed, the last Cheshi had come out of the tunnels, and everyone was taking their weapons out, ready to fight.

“The signal,” she muttered with a smile. “Any second now...”

Cessilia and Ashen exchanged a quick glance and separated their hands, each grabbing their weapons of choice. For Ashen, a long, heavy, and beautifully designed sword similar to the one Darsan had picked, and for Cessilia, a pair of twin blades, sharp and light, and a small dagger. They smiled at each other, ready.

“Don’t go too far,” he said.

“I won’t.”

Suddenly, they heard the signal, loud and clear like a battle cry.

A dragon’s powerful growl in the distance.

Everyone in the room tensed up. Cessilia, Tessandra, and Aglithia all raised an arm, keeping everyone silent and steady behind them. It was too soon for them to come up, this was just the beginning. From the cry, the Dragon girls knew that was Kian the Silver Dragon, probably revealing its presence to their enemies. Not only was that growl loud and echoing but the dragon’s silver streak in the dark sky ought to have been impressive and attention-catching in itself.

They watched the reaction in the Central Plaza, the crowd immediately turning their heads to see where the loud growl had come from. Many immediately spotted the dragon, pointing up at the sky. People screamed, but some almost sounded like they were loudly cheering the appearance of another legendary creature. The members of the Dorosef and Sehsan Tribes that were present looked ecstatic as they already knew about Krai, and the presence of another dragon could only mean the Princess had received reinforcements. As expected, the Yekara were not among those who rejoiced. From where she stood, Cessilia very clearly saw the face of the man who was standing on the execution deck sink, his jaw dropping. Right after that, he began shouting orders, angrily pointing at the sky, spitting words to his men on the ground. Tessandra smiled next to her; their plan was working. In just minutes, half of the Yekara soldiers present on the plaza moved to the Inner Wall, their eyes regularly checking the sky above. Because they were on the same level as the crowd, it was hard to see exactly how many soldiers remained. They could see at least two dozen of them still blocking the crowd from approaching the platform. With the prospect of a dragon coming to their rescue and so many soldiers leaving, the whole area grew louder. The locals became even more vehement in their protests and were trying to break through the line of soldiers, not hesitating to try and shove them.

Cessilia was growing nervous, waiting for Nana’s signal. Was she in her designated spot yet? She hoped the young woman wouldn’t run into any trouble, and found herself glad she had two of the triplets by her friend’s side...

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