Page 198 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“No,” Alezya replied, a bit too abruptly. “First, I’m not pregnant. I fooled my father into thinking I was. Even if I was, dragons aren’t... born like that. Niiru probably belongs to a child from the Dragon Clan, and he won’t grow into an adult size until much, much later. The orange dragon is so big because it belongs to a grown man, but not all adult dragons are the same either.”
“How many dragons have you seen...?”
“Only a couple,” Alezya confessed, “but I’ve learned enough.”
Ekata gave a slow, thoughtful nod.
“No wonder your father was so... excited about you possibly controlling one of them. If we could have at least one of those dragons, like the Dragon Clan, we wouldn’t lose any battles anymore. Any clan who can get their hands on one of those dragons would be able to force all the others to submit to them.”
“Dragons aren’t meant to be weapons,” Alezya suddenly said.
Ekata blinked, staring at her with surprise, but Alezya was looking down at Niiru, who was quietly napping in her arms.
“Dragons aren’t meant to win battles for humans,” she said. “They aren’t the brutal, man-killing monsters we thought them to be. I’ve seen it myself. They can be kind, caring creatures. Protective, even. They let humans sit on them to keep warm, Ekata. They can play around like young snow leopards, tease one another, and be silly. They will let a human they trust and care about order them around, and yes, they do not hesitate to kill, but never because of something like hunger or hatred. Every time I’ve seen the orange dragon attack, it was to protect someone else.”
To protect me, Alezya thought.
Kein had killed several men of the Dragon Clan, men it had known for longer than her, simply because she had been in danger, and the dragon wouldn’t tolerate that. She took a deep breath in.
“We should stop looking for ways to win against a dragon,” she said, “or against the Dragon Clan. Our clans are capable of so much more, and we would be capable of wonders if we could learn to really work together, not merely coexist. The emergency of our survival has blinded us. I have no idea what has been attempted before, but if we actually tried to make peace with the Dragon Clan...”
“It’s not like no one ever hoped for peace before. But we hoped for the Dragon Clan to be gone, not to... befriend them. You’re the first person of our kind to speak some of their language in centuries, if not... ever,” Ekata mentioned.
“I know, but after witnessing the gathering and spending time with the Dragon Clan, I cannot help but think there has to be a better future for all of us. My father is blinded by greed, andhe is setting us all up for extinction when we should be aspiring to coexist with the Dragon Clan. If their dragons do not need to eat us, why would they keep fighting unless we push them to? I... I’ve lived with them. I’ve seen all that they have that we don’t, and I don’t think they envy us at all. If they have nothing to gain from fighting us, why should we keep pushing them to?”
“Is that what you’ve come to think? After spending time with them?”
“I’ve seen what I have seen. The Dragon Clan was attacked far more often by our people than they attacked us. It might be easy for the dragon, but the climb is hard and tenuous for their people. My clan has nothing they could want, Ekata, nothing. I was given far better treatment as a... guest in their clan than back when I was the Clan Chief’s child. They eat meat and take hot baths every day; they have far more clothes than they need, and they fight covered in clothes of stone. The Deklaan Clan is of no interest to them, merely a bothersome piece of rubble under their feet. I don’t know about the other clans that have been attacking them, but it is unfair that all of us live in fear and keep up this fight when we’re being punished for a few men’s decisions.”
“...You speak like a true clan chief.”
That took Alezya by surprise, and she glanced at Ekata, who was staring at her with a smile.
“I mean it,” she continued. “I was raised my entire life to fit this role, but you, Alezya, are a natural-born leader.”
“I don’t think so,” Alezya muttered, her eyes going back to Niiru.
“You were smart enough to learn a completely different language in a matter of days,” Ekata said. “You can command a dragon. You survived on your own despite being your clan’s pariah, and you managed to befriend the one clan everyone’s scared of. I saw the way you stared at the Exkiu Clan bastardyou were married to and at your father. You’re no helpless woman, Alezya. You’re strong and brave. And even when you’re alone, miles away from anything and anyone you know, you still manage to care for a baby dragon and think about the future of all the clans. That’s the kind of leader any clan needs.”
Alezya didn’t answer that.
She knew what a bad leader was: a man like her father, who was blinded by ambition and greed, dreams of victory and glory, so much so that he was dragging his own people to ruin. But for her to be a leader?
She had been her clan’s daughter and then an outsider.
She was a mother and, certainly, a survivor.
At the moment, she also felt more feminine than she had in a long time because she was missing Kassein terribly. She hadn’t allowed herself to feel vulnerable in a long time, but the mere thought of that man’s embrace was enough to bring tears to her eyes.
“Let’s get you in front of more clan chiefs,” Ekata finally said. “If there’s any chance of peace with the Dragon Clan, I believe you might be our best one yet.”
Chapter 16
“Commander.”
He didn’t react to the General’s voice.
Kassein was holding another man at the end of his sword, bleeding on the ground. He would have felt sorry if the man hadn’t fought him with blatant hatred in his eyes, or if he hadn’t pushed a woman out of his way to get to him earlier. Now, there was no mercy left.
