Page 160 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
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.
Alezya had lost track of time, but by now, she was freezing, shivering, and grateful for the shoes she had taken. She had fed Lumie once already since they began their descent from themountain, and her baby was back asleep, thankfully protected from the cold by the large fur coat.
Selfishly, Alezya had taken the thickest of them, a gorgeous white-gray one made of snow leopard fur, and she was surprised no one from her clan had tried to take it from her yet. Perhaps with a dragon at her beck and call, they had decided it wasn’t worth the risk... A lot of them around her were also shivering under the ice-cold temperatures but trying to keep a strong facade.
Alezya tried to look around, but the night was dark and the surroundings unfamiliar; she had never ventured so far from her home mountain before. They were still in the heights, but now, they were following the line of a river that ventured between the various mountains, most likely fed by melting snow, and seemed to stream all the way to the edge of the continent. The area was flatter and far safer to walk as a group now, although they had to watch out for crevices. Alezya knew the snow-covered land was more treacherous than it seemed; a fresh coat of white snow could crumble at any moment to reveal a deep, neck-breaking crevice underneath.
For that, she was glad to be positioned in the middle of their procession, with her father’s men inspecting the ground long before it was her turn to step there.
On the other side of the river, they soon spotted another clan heading in the same direction, and Alezya witnessed as her father greeted them with a stiff nod and a hand salute.
Their group had gone quiet, tense, and despite the sounds of their men in the snow, Alezya soon heard more coming from other clans who were arriving in the area. Inevitably, she felt the stares on her too.
She was the only woman in a large group of thirty men, not only escorted but also carrying a very noticeable white-skinnedchild. Lumie, now fully awake, was gripping her mom’s dress and glancing around with wide, curious eyes no matter how much Alezya tried to shield her from prying eyes. While her baby was blessed with ignorance, Alezya was filled with nerves. No woman could be comfortable amongst this many men and not a single other woman in sight, but it was worse to know the ones she knew hated her. It was a strange thought to think the creature she feared the least was a man-eating beast flying in the skies above.
Although Kein was flying high and quietly, Alezya, along with men from her clan, glanced up every now and then to check where the orange dragon was. It was reassuring to confirm, every time, that the dragon was far enough that her clan wouldn’t freak out and yet close enough that if she screamed, it would dive to their position and be there in a matter of seconds.
She held onto that thought and quietly kept following, her stomach filled with dread as more and more men gathered.
It was a strange sight to see so many different clans, some bearing physical markings she had never seen before, strange tattoos, facial piercings, different types of jewelry, clothing, and weapons. Some kept their heads tightly shaved and covered with tattoos, while others had their hair braided in impressive lengths and intricate designs. Some were half-naked despite the biting cold, and others were showing off magnificent leather and fur clothing. There was even a clan that held some sort of mountain wolves on leashes, their jaws held shut by muzzles. The sight of them made Alezya hold Lumie a bit tighter, feeling anxious with those strange pets near her child. To her surprise, she realized some clans did bring women with them.
She was taken aback for a few seconds; she had always been told that women were forbidden at the gatherings, but now she realized her clan might have just entertained that lie to avoid their women coming.
She counted three clans that had brought a couple of women with them, most likely important figures in their own clans as each woman was beautiful, clothed expensively, wearing ornaments or intricate hairstyles, and escorted by one or two men holding their arm or hand. She had expected the gathering to be full of awful men like her father, but that wasn’t the case.
If anything, she was witnessing for herself how different the clans could be, and it was a shock.
They were now gathering around three large fire pits, each clan keeping a good distance from the other, many members whispering between themselves, eyeing the other clans as much as they were eyeing the roaming dragon above.
The clans genuinely had no trust in one another, Alezya realized.
There were a dozen different clans gathered there, but none seemed closer than the others, and all the men who had shown up were armed. Some who could see her among her father’s goons were giving her curious glances, frowning at the white-skinned child they could see in her arms.
“Mama.”
Alezya turned her eyes to Lumie, who was toying with the necklace again while keeping her big white eyes on her.
“It’s almost over, my snowflake,” Alezya whispered, pressing her lips against Lumie’s forehead.
She had to hope her plan would work. She was almost there...
