Page 146 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
Kassein dismissed the generals, leaving only his sister and Tievin in the room.
For a while, he only discussed tactical borders, how much of the territory his brother would be willing to concede, and how to proceed with their negotiations with the tribes based on Tievin’s observations.
The camp’s Intendant had actually done a great job of keeping track of the various attacks and, correlated with his system of identifying the tribes by their attire, they were able to narrow down two more tribes that might be next in line to meet their end.
“...How do you think she will react to you attacking her people?”
Kiera’s question made Kassein freeze.
His hand, which had been spread on the map, tightened into a fist.
His sister shrugged. She hadn’t moved from her seat while participating in their conversation, but her eyes were riveted on her brother.
Kiera was on board with his plan; she had interacted with plenty of Western tribes before to know that things would either go fairly peacefully or need some strength, and she wasn’t one to oppose the latter when necessary.
Lorey was the peace advocate, and she was the strong-handed persuasion. In fact, Kiki had seldom killed humans because Kiera had no qualms about dirtying her own hands first when people deserved it.
They had run into plenty of awful people who were keen to underestimate two females; she had learned quickly not to be too sorry for killing murderers and rapists. It was the world their ancestors had lived in, where their mother had been made a slave, sold to be killed or abused, countless tribes hunted down for their people to suffer the same fate, and abusers could live wealthy lives fed by enslaved people.
Their parents had changed everything or, at least, they had set things in motion.
Their father, the War God and an Imperial Prince, had fallen for a slave and made her his concubine. Far from being satisfied with her belonging to him like a possession, he had freed her and married her.
Then, when his sister, Empress Shareen, had been the first female to sit on the Imperial Throne alone, they had started to undo centuries of damage, freeing slaves and promulging more laws against slavery.
Now, their older brother Kassian was still arguing every day against old men who wanted things to stay the old way and were very much against giving up free labor and young female slaves.
However, all of this was fairly recent, and many tribes still feared the Empire which had hunted them for centuries.
It had sometimes taken weeks for her and Lorey to convince a tribe to even talk to them, and that was with Western tribes who spoke the same language.
How long would it take for Kassein to have those negotiations with the Northern tribes who spoke a different language and feared him and his butcher dragon most of all? Alezya would be essential to his plan, that is, if he could convince her.
That woman wouldn’t even teach them her language. How was she going to react to the idea of her lover conquering her tribe and more?
“I will talk to Alezya,” Kassein muttered.
He didn’t sound as convinced as when he’d talked to the generals, but that was fair; the young Prince was far more nervous about that woman than three old men.
Kiera massaged her neck. While his plan made sense in many ways, a lot of things could go wrong, and they were setting themselves up for a few months’ worth of work, probably, if not years.
“Ugh, fine,” she grunted after a few seconds.
“Princess?” Tievin raised an eyebrow, visibly confused.
“I’ll help you,” she sighed. “Truthfully, I expected Lorey and I to be out of here within a few weeks, but I’m guessing you’re going to need some help with this mad plan of yours... and you probably could use some.”
“I can do it fine on my own,” Kassein said.
“By the dragon’s balls, shut up and accept free help when you get it, would you?”
Kassein didn’t add any more, but after a few more seconds, he gave the nod to his older sister.
If it had been a few weeks ago, his pride wouldn’t have allowed for any help from his family, but now, with a clear objective in mind, he would gladly take Kiera’s. The faster he was done conquering the north, the faster Alezya would be safe and at ease by his side.
That was all he wanted.
“What’s going on?”
