Page 196 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
Thankfully, she was far too tired to think about them for too long, and almost as soon as she had gotten rid of her dirty clothes and was done cleaning herself, she lay down; with Ekata’s promise that she’d wake her up if anything happened, Alezya drifted off to sleep, Niiru nestled against her stomach.
Alezya was so deep asleep that it took her a while to realize someone was shaking her shoulder and trying to wake her up.
“Alezya, you need to wake up. The Dragon Clan is attacking.”
“What?” She sat up immediately, wide awake.
Niiru rolled off her lap with a high-pitched growl, gnawing a part of her blanket as Alezya pushed it off her upper body. Ekata was crouched by her side with an urgent expression.
“Our sentinels just came back from the heights,” she explained. “They’re saying it’s absolute mayhem down south. The Dragon Clan launched an attack against some of the clans near their own. We think they’re attacking the Deklaan Clan, but we’re not sure; we’re too far away. We’ve sent people to check on the situation.”
“Did they see K—the orange dragon?” Alezya asked as she quickly got up and began dressing.
“I think so,” Ekata nodded, handing her the dress. “Do you want to come and see? It’s too dangerous to take you outside, but we do have one spot from which you might be able to see the situation safely, if we can see anything.”
“Definitely.”
Quickly pulling her long hair into a bun and calling Niiru to stick by her heel, Alezya followed Ekata out of the little nook she’d slept in.
Judging by the ambient darkness, she’d slept well into the evening. This time, no children were playing in the cove when they walked by, only a few adults by the dancing fire pits.
Ekata didn’t stop there, however, and instead guided her through new tunnels, narrower than the others, without any decorations anywhere. Some of the paths they took were going up so quickly that they even had to climb some of the nets the Munsa seemed to be constantly weaving, which had been hung there for safety.
Alezya wondered if their clan had made their weaving techniques a strength both underwater and vertically as sheappreciated the strength of those nets while they climbed. So many of the dangerous climbs she’d undertaken before would have been made so much easier if she’d had access to such a thing...
Once again, Alezya couldn’t help but think of how much each clan would benefit from exchanging more than raw resources and wedding promises with one another. It was just a thought at the back of her mind, but she still felt like there was a better future possible, one where the clans helped each other, traded more, and trusted one another.
“We’re almost there,” Ekata told her as they were climbing a particularly long and upright corner.
“I’m alright,” Alezya nodded, glancing at Niiru, who was taking little jumps and flapping its wings to keep up with their ascent.
“You’re a great climber,” Ekata nodded.
Again, Alezya didn’t know what to do with the compliment, but she sure appreciated it. Ekata reached the top first and held out a hand to help Alezya up.
Just like she had mentioned, it was a tight opening in the mountain, but one that had a narrow view straight toward the south. It was too dangerous to stay close to the long, vertical opening that was nothing but a visible crack in the flank of the mountain, which explained why their ascent had been so steep and narrow.
They were just a foot away from the edge, with a dangerous cliff that promised a certain death right below them and a tiny vertical nook in which a male sentinel of the Munsa Clan greeted them.
“Anything?” Ekata asked him as she and Alezya took his spot by the opening.
“It’s already over,” the man said. “It looks like they launched a lightning strike because it happened so fast. The dragon flewoff just minutes before you arrived. We’re not sure which clan was attacked yet, but it sure looked like the Deklaan’s territory. The shouts echoed throughout the valley.”
Alezya squinted at the opening, disappointed she had missed Kein and potentially Kassein.
Sure, they would have been too far away to see her, hidden behind the smallest crack in the mountain, but she sure would have liked to see them.
She still hadn’t been able to confirm that Kein had delivered Lumie to Kassein. If not, what had it done with her? Did it keep her with it? Had it entrusted her to Lorey and Kiera? Or to Tievin, perhaps?
Alezya kept squinting toward her father’s mountain, trying to see something, anything, but the Munsa territory was too far away.
It was already impressive how much distance she’d covered in a few hours, and it was nighttime too; she couldn’t see anything, and her clan was probably hiding inside anyway.
She sighed and let Ekata take a look, grateful the Munsa Clan Chief had let her take a peek first.
“Why would they launch such a short attack?” Ekata frowned, squinting at the opening. “And using the dragon too?”
“...I’m not sure,” Alezya confessed. “Maybe... I’m thinking he might have been looking for me.”
