Page 189 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“Yes,” the oldest-looking of them nodded. “...Are you willing to meet our leaders? We can take you to them.”
“If we do, we should move quickly. If your father sees us...”
“I know,” Alezya nodded.
A clan intervening in the matters of another was never a good sign.
Her father could very easily use this as an excuse to start some war and launch an attack, and his allied clans would easily rally.
After the demonstration from last night, chances were that no clan would dare to come to the Munsa Clan’s rescue either, far too scared that he’d call a dragon.
Quickly, the four of them moved away from the crevice, walking toward the first sharp turn they could find and walking down that path in search of a more concealed area.
Alezya kept glancing back to try and see if she could spot anyone from her clan, but she didn’t know this area at all, and she had arrived when it was dark outside, making her even more confused.
Moreover, every time she looked back, she couldn’t help but be distracted by the black dragon’s little hops in the snow. It looked like Niiru was having a great time digging itself into the snow, making little snow tunnels for a while before suddenly emerging with a big jump, sending snow flying everywhere.
Alezya didn’t dare tell the young dragon to stop its shenanigans; if anything, its black scales were far better concealed when it was burying itself under layers of fresh snow rather than walking on it. She only made sure it followed her while the Munsa Clan’s men were leading her out of there. She had no idea where the little dragon had come from nor why it was staying close to her, but she felt like she owed it to Kassein to be responsible for it, although Niiru seemed to be doing a better job at looking after her than the other way around so far.
“Here,” one of the men pointed at a tunnel that led into a foreign maze.
Alezya followed; she wasn’t fond of the idea of following men she didn’t know into enclosed spaces, but at least she had a dragon with her, and they couldn’t be worse than her father. Or so she hoped.
“Do your leaders not like my father, then?” she asked, hoping chatting with them would help her understand how to negotiate her survival.
“Not many do,” one of the men scoffed. “Most fear him more than they respect him. Many suspect Darak has been abusing his position as one of those facing the Dragon Clan to claimprivileges and such. Things have gotten more tense ever since some clans stopped paying the tax, and it became clear it didn’t affect how many times the dragon attacked at all.”
Alezya frowned. What tax? Had her father made other clans pay for their safety? He couldn’t guarantee anything. The few clans that fought with the Dragon Clan always ended up with dead men.
She knew information was power between the clans, but it seemed her father had manipulated a lot for his benefit...
They resumed walking, and Alezya found herself glad that Niiru was small enough to stroll by her side in the tunnel; she wouldn’t have felt confident following the three men on her own, but no dragon Kein’s size would have been able to follow them in there. Even Kiki’s lean body might have been too big for most areas. There was plenty of room for Niiru though, and while the young dragon was small, Alezya had no doubt its sharp claws and fangs would be able to do a lot of damage if needed.
Right now, the little black creature was keeping up with them, staying near Alezya but wandering ahead or staying behind to sniff something, full of curiosity. At all times, it kept track of where she was, its amber eyes always glancing back to find a trace of her.
The tunnels were pretty dark, but the Munsa men had pulled out some torches and lit them as soon as possible, the fire glowing against the walls of the tunnels.
Alezya had grown up and lived in tunnels like these her whole life, but there was always something very intimidating about going into deep, narrow tunnels she didn’t know. She missed the fresh air and the sense of freedom she had felt while wandering among the Dragon Clan.
Niiru was now sticking close to her heels as if it had sensed she was nervous or felt the need to stay right by her.
“...You’re not quite like the rumors said,” the youngest-looking of the three men said.
The other two immediately gave him annoyed looks, so Alezya guessed he’d spoken everyone’s minds out loud.
“How so?” she asked, curious.
“That you’re a witch,” he said bluntly. “That you made a deal with some demon to have a cursed child. That you tried to kill the man you were betrothed to, but your father saved him–”
“My fathersavedmy ex-husband fromme?” Alezya scoffed.
The man grimaced. He had to have seen Vasilias’ reaction to her the previous evening; while her ex-husband did seem infuriated to have seen her alive, he had definitely been the one to ask for her head.
“But is it true you have a cursed child? It looked... strange.”
“She isn’t cursed,” Alezya hissed. “She’s just different.”
Niiru growled as if to back her up and warn them against insulting Lumie any further. Alezya didn’t care about being called a witch, she had been called far worse plenty of times already. But she wouldn’t allow another man to hurl yet another insult at her child. Lumie was an innocent child, and she wasn’t responsible for her horrible father, her helpless mother, or how she looked. And she didn’t look anything less than perfect in Alezya’s eyes.
