Page 80 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
Even worse, Alezya could witness as some of the Dragon Clan’s warriors were literally standing by, gawking at the battle and looking pissed they wouldn’t have anyone left to fight themselves...
Their numbers were so great, the attack itself was a mass suicide.
It left her feeling torn apart. She knew some clans would try their luck against the Dragon Clan, sending some warriors to test them, and the survivors were always left to flee if they so wished. Those attacks might have seemed desperate to Kassein and his men, whose victory was certain, but Alezya knew those men had come to sacrifice themselves for honor, and a greater goal: information. Information against their biggest enemy was considered one of the highest currencies among the clans...
She glanced up, and sure enough after a couple of seconds, her trained eyes spotted a couple more people spying from a high, safe hideout in the mountains. Had that clan launched an attack ahead of the upcoming council gathering? Some clans had no choice but to try and gather information to exchange for food or medicine...
She turned her eyes back down. The fight was ending soon...
That’s when she saw it. A man’s hand amongst the fallen close to her. One of the other clansmen had fingers missing...
A chill went down her spine. She got closer to the next body, despite Lorey’s protests. That body had missing fingers too.
Criminals. That was how most clans marked the criminals, by cutting fingers off so they wouldn’t be admitted into another clan after their crimes. Petty thieves had one finger cut off, but two or more fingers cut off meant they’d committed more serious crimes.
So that clan was sending their criminals to fight? Then, they weren’t expecting them to return? Now that she paid more attention, none of them were attempting to flee...
Something was off. This wasn’t the clans’ usual technique. Criminals wouldn’t bring back any information!
“Alezya?”
For the first time, Lorey was sounding nervous behind her, and the men around were eyeing Alezya’s actions, uncertain of what they were supposed to do about her. Then, Tievin appeared and began talking, ignoring that she couldn’t understand a word he said.
Alezya ignored him all the same, just approaching the corpses without fear. It seemed these had been the first to die, for Kassein’s warriors had already pushed the rest of the attackers back to the edge of their territory. One had an arrow planted in his neck, and the other had been slain by a sword ripping his body open from shoulder to gut.
Alezya wasn’t one to be scared or horrified by such a sight. She had seen bodies before, from unlucky watchmen who had been half-eaten by predators overnight or those she had found, long after they had fallen to their death in some forgotten crevice. When she’d been lucky to catch one, she had also learned to butcher her prey herself. She didn’t have a constitution that made her repulsed by blood, gruesome sights, or death.
Thus, she had little qualms about inspecting the dead bodies, ignoring the confused glances her actions were gathering. She was following some gut instinct, knowing something was wrong about a clan sending criminals to attack with no hope of return...
That’s when she saw it.
Pulling a sleeve, she found the cross markings on the man’s forearms. Someone had made crosses on that criminal’s forearms and waited for them to heal... or show signs of disease.
Alezya gasped, and then covered her mouth, jumping back. They had sent infected people! She was about to shout when she realized they wouldn’t understand no matter which words she used.
In her despair, she turned back to Lorey and Tievin.
“Lorey!” she called her.
The young woman exchanged a confused glance with Tievin before they both walked over, trying to understand her actions. With trembling hands, Alezya pulled the sleeves of the corpses, showing them similar marks.
That didn’t need much more words, for when Tievin’s eyes fell on the discolored skin and white bumps, his eyes opened wide, and he jerked back, his sleeve covering his mouth. Lorey was slightly braver, as she pulled Alezya away from it with her.
Then, Tievin shouted something over the ruckus, and all eyes turned to them. Alezya hoped they were going to do something about it, and quick. The men were shouting, and a second later, Kassein and Kiera came running over, both covered in blood, their weapons in hand.
They stopped right in front of the trio, and for a second, Kassein’s eyes were filled with anger as he saw her. Alezya thought he was mad at her, but then, his glare went straight to Lorey, and she understood; she wasn’t supposed to be there, to have seen the fight...
“Kassein!” Alezya tried to get his attention away from Lorey and onto the matter at hand.
His dark green eyes went back to her, and she pointed a trembling finger at the corpses. Tievin began speaking, quickly and nervously, most likely explaining the situation.
To Alezya’s shock, Kiera walked fearlessly to the bodies to examine them. She lifted their wrists, noticing the signs of disease too, and grumbled something to her brother. Then, Kassein nodded and turned to his men, and began shouting what Alezya unmistakably understood as orders. All their warriors began to move as one; those who weren’t in the fight stood back, and those who were grabbed the bodies, pulling them all toward the edge of the camp.
That’s when Alezya understood: they were splitting themselves between the potentially infected people and those who had stood far enough from the fight to be safe. Then, the Dragon Clan’s fighters all began taking off their outer gear and clothing, and throwing them on the pile of dead bodies. Alezya realized the fight had already ended just moments ago.
Just as she wondered what they were going to do, Kein and Kiki suddenly came flying in, their silhouettes flashing above the battlefield, causing the nearby warriors to move even farther away from the scene. Both dragons had different objectives though. Kein landed right before them, turning its back to Lorey and her, and immediately began growling at the pile of corpses. Kiki, on the other hand, hadn’t stopped and was running toward the mountain with a furious, high-pitched growl that echoed Kein’s.
Then, Kiera walked up to them, and before Alezya could understand, she and Lorey were suddenly grabbed and mounted on the dragon’s back, brutally thrown against a mass of orange, warm scales. Even worse, and much to her horror, Kein took off. She’d had no time to prepare herself, but suddenly, the ground was jumping away from her. She would have screamed in fright if her voice hadn’t been stuck in her throat.
