Page 274 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
The outcome was clear if they decided to foolishly risk their lives attempting to do the same. Someone moved, and Kassein glared fiercely, Kein echoing his annoyance with a growl from above, but against all odds, the man suddenly got down to his knees. With a fearful glance at Kassein, who looked pissed enough already, he threw his weapon in the mud and put his hands on his knees, his head low in an obvious sign of submission. The man looked slightly older than most, in his fifties or older, and as soon as they saw this, some of the younger men behind him exchanged looks, and after glancing nervously at the siblings, they did the same.
It was only one tribe at first, but Kiera and Kassein didn’t move. A lot of the other tribes hesitated and waited, apprehensive, almost waiting to see if either of them would use their weak position to finish them off.
But Kassein and Kiera remained still; instead, their eyes scrutinized all the men still standing. They didn’t need to speak the same language to make their intentions known. All the tribes present quickly understood, and, one by one, men’s knees and weapons hit the ground.
Kiera and Kassein waited until not a single head was raised, all eyes cast on the ground.
“...That will do, I guess,” Kiera finally said.
But Kassein had already moved on. As soon as the last man’s knees had hit the ground, he began running toward them.
“Kassein!”
His sister’s call was lost behind him.
Frightening the kneeling men nearby, Kassein ran past, ignoring them all as he ran deeper into the rift, his eyes scouring the area.
He glanced up at his dragon, who landed on a mountain, letting out a loud, long, and frustrated growl, and began scratching it furiously. Kassein immediately understood and ran even faster to reach the point under the mountain where his dragon had last seen Alezya. He glanced up, and a wall of snow and mud-covered dark rock stared back. It was humongous and ominous, but he didn’t care.
If he had to search an entire mountain for Alezya, he would.
“Alezya!” he called, his voice echoing in the mountain.
He had a dreadful feeling, and he couldn’t shake it off. The fact that she’d disappeared during a battle, vanished from the safe position of his dragon’s back, was gnawing at his insides.
Something had gone wrong, and he had to find her, quickly.
“Commander!”
He barely glanced back to find Dajan and the handful of his men who had followed him. There were still kneeling tribesmen surrounding them, and Kassein wasn’t sure if his men had followed him out of curiosity, to offer support, or ensure the enemy was subdued, but he didn’t care.
He swallowed.
“Alezya,” he muttered. “I need to find her. ...Help me find her.”
He heard a quiet gasp. Kassein had never asked anything of his men. And he had certainly never asked forhelp.But right then, he didn’t care.
He would ask and beg anyone he needed to so he could find Alezya even a second faster. Kassein knew precisely why he was more terrified than ever before: Alezya could be anywhere, and in those mountains, it wasn’t a good thing. The burning memory of her limp body, bruised and battered in the snow, came to mind. He couldn’t see her like that again. He shouldn’t have let her go at all. This was like the night Cessilia had gone off. He had let her go, and he shouldn’t have. If anything had happened to Alezya and their child...
“We will find her, sir,” Dajan replied with a determined voice, pulling him out of his dark thoughts. “We will find Lady Alezya.”
Then, he turned around, speaking to his unit.
“Come on! I need a unit in the heights to look for the nearby cliffs and two units down here!” he spoke with sudden urgency. “Somebody go and warn General Sazaran we’re looking for Lady Alezya, and I want someone to report to Grand Intendant Tievin too! Dispatch medical units over here immediately! Also, offer medical assistance to the tribespeople who will take it! Kill anyone who tries to start a fight again! And bring some torches! Come on, the Commander in Chief needs us! Let’s move!”
Kassein was already arms-deep into the snow, searching for Alezya, when the first men moved. He didn’t care about what they were doing. He was focused on one thing only, and nothing else mattered.
He searched and searched, using every ounce of strength he had left and then some, drilling furiously, shoveling through the wall of snow and mud facing him. Kassein would have rather faced twice as many armies alone than this feeling, than not knowing where Alezya was.
Why had she left his dragon? Why wasn’t she back already? Was she hiding away safely? She had to have heard the war had stopped, so why wasn’t she coming out? The feeling of dread was numbing his mind, making him fear in a way he hadn’t experienced in years. All of a sudden, Kassein was that four-year-old boy again, shivering in the Onyx Castle’s garden while waiting for his siblings to find his missing older sister.
Except this time, he was the one searching and the one who would have to face whatever they found.
“Kassein!”
His sister’s voice pulled him from the grip of panic.
Looking up, he saw Kiera waving from above. He had barely looked around when Kiki came in to scoop him up and flew up there. Now several dozen feet higher, Kiera stood on a cliff with a somber expression, her back turned to the opening as she stared into the mountain.
