Page 165 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
She only had a second to enjoy this, however, as Kein brutally veered off, and she saw a man’s blade stuck in the dragon’s flank.
“No!” she shouted.
Just then, hands grabbed her arms and hair, pulling her away from the dragon.
Kein growled in warning, but Alezya immediately made her decision and shook her head as hard as she could, trying to catch its eye.
“Kein, fly!” she shouted in the Dragon Clan’s language. “Go! Take the baby to Lorey! To Kassein! Go! Fly away!”
The dragon seemed hesitant to leave her, furiously growling at the men handling her brutally, and Alezya could have cried; she couldn’t even forgive herself for not trusting the dragon seconds ago. Kein wasn’t just willing to save her baby, it was reluctant to leave her behind.
She cried but did her best to smile through her tears. Lumie was safe, and she was going to be safe for good with Lorey and Kassein, and that was all she wanted.
“Go,”she insisted, “and thank you.”
Kein let out another long, low-pitched growl, and after a beat, finally took off.
While she was aggressively pinned to the ground, men shouting around her, Alezya silently cried tears of joy against the fresh snow, watching with one eye as the orange dragon fled against the night sky. She was gone. Her baby was going to be free.
“Hold her! Hold the woman!”
With Kein flying away, the clans managed to regain a bit of continence, getting back on their feet, regrouping in their previous positions, helping each other up, and sorting out those who had been injured in the stampede. In fact, most injuries had occurred because of their own panic and disarray more than anything Kein had done.
No one but the man whose arms had been bitten off had died, they slowly realized, which was a surprise as much as it was confusing. Alezya was hauled back up on her feet, although she was tightly held with her arms behind her back, and someone gagged her before she could get a word out. She found it laughable; they were terrified of her calling Kein back. Many were now watching her with horror, shock, and even fear.
“See!” her father suddenly gloated, looking ecstatic. “The dragon obeys the Deklaan Clan!”
“Not your clan,” one of the chiefs spat angrily. “Your daughter.”
Alezya realized that she was heavily guarded not because of Kein but because of all the other clans that now had eyes on her.
They had all witnessed that she had been giving orders to the dragon, and Kein had faced her for several seconds beforeflying off. They might not have understood her words, but there was little room to misunderstand what they had all witnessed.
Her father’s expression gradually fell, transforming back from elation to annoyance.
“The girl belongs to my clan,” he hissed. “She is my daughter, she obeys me!”
“If so then why not let the child speak?” the woman with the long braided hair spoke up with a vicious glare.
“She will speak when we need her to,” Darak hissed, glaring at everyone who didn’t belong to his clan.
There was more tension in the air than when Kein had been there; this time, every clan was glaring their way.
The dragon’s attack and its wings had blown out two of the three fire pits, leaving the clans in a red glow, a dangerous semi-darkness. Even surrounded by men from her own clan, Alezya could tell the tension was so high, things were a spark away from exploding. Would the other clans attack hers just to get to her, the woman who commanded a dragon?
She could still see many eyes on her in the dark, and she guessed many were considering the idea. Some were probably trying to gauge their chances, or how likely she would be willing to help; unfortunately, despite her hatred for her father, his clan was still very much rallying behind him, pulling Alezya away from the other clans and silently promising to fight anyone who tried anything.
“...This is nonsense,” the silver-bearded Clan Chief finally muttered. “If the girl can talk to the Dragon Clan, we should be negotiating with them!”
“Negotiating with the Dragon Clan?” another clan chief sneered. “Have you gone senile? They have been hunting us down for centuries! They are our enemy!”
“They will be our enemies for longer and kill more of us unless we take a chance to change things!” the older manretorted. “The girl can speak the Dragon’s language, by the gods! This is unprecedented, maybe our one and only chance in centuries!”
A heated debate began between those who were for and those who were against, and Alezya watched, stunned.
Her father loathed the Dragon Clan so much that she had never considered that other clans might be more willing to befriend them.
Those who didn’t constantly send spies and warriors to the other end of the mountains... Alezya knew for a fact that the dragons didn’t need to eat humans, unlike what they’d always believed. They attacked them because they were enemies; there was a necessity and a benefit to attacking the clans who attacked them back. Alezya knew her clan and the neighboring ones, those who resided in the mountains at the edge, had attacked Kassein’s clan many times, and sometimes even in despicable ways.
