Page 220 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“My father has been lying through his teeth for years,” Alezya retorted. “He’s the one who’s been launching attacks and forcing them to respond in return! I wasn’t sent to the Dragon Clan on some master plan; my own father chased me from my home once I wasn’t of any use to him anymore! I was left for dead in the mountains when the Dragon Clan Chief found me and saved me. The only reason I returned was for my child whom my father kept captive!”
“...The cursed child,” someone muttered, immediately getting a glare from Alezya. “But... someone saw you feed it to the dragon.”
“My child is alive,” Alezya hissed, her eyes blurring with tears of frustration. “She is alive and safe with the Dragon Clan. And as soon as I get back to their Chief, I’ll see my baby again.”
Those last words weren’t to convince anyone but herself. If she had even dared to think that things might not have gone as she hoped, if she had lost faith in Kein and Kassein, she might as well have abandoned any hope she had now. She had doneeverything for Lumie’s sake. If her child wasn’t alive and well, there was absolutely no point to all of this.
Alezya was pulled from her thoughts by Ekata’s gentle but firm hand on her shoulder. The two women exchanged a silent understanding nod before she turned back to the other clan representatives.
“...We’ve chosen to believe Alezya,” Ekata said. “Our clan has never been willing to believe in the Deklaan’s claims, and we won’t start now because we’re guided by fear.”
“That’s easy to say when you live on the other side of the mountains,” someone muttered. “You guys will be the last ones killed!”
“And we have nowhere to run,” Ekut retorted. “But even if we’re the farthest, so what? You’ve all heard how fast the Dragon Clan is progressing. Entire clans are fleeing this very second, and it’s only a matter of days before they reach us. Trusting this woman who already survived them once is the only way to go forward. Fighting will only precipitate our end.”
“Who’s to say she isn’t a spy for her father? What if Darak is merely testing us all before he raises an army?!”
“My father is a cunning man, but even he can’t anticipate the Dragon Clan’s attacks,” Alezya said, “and I have nothing to gain whether you believe me or not. The only thing I know is that I will most likely be safe from their attacks, but I can’t say the same for everyone else.”
“Don’t be stubborn and get yourselves killed,” Ekata insisted. “Come on. We reached out because we know we can survive and we want as many clans as possible to survive too. Many of us didn’t trust Darak before, why should we trust him now? That plan of his is madness! Do you guys seriously believe we have a chance against the Dragon Clan? Darak is the one who’s been claiming they’re invincible all these years, and we’ve lost countless men to his battles!”
“...How can you guarantee we will be safe?” someone asked Ekata, although their eyes drifted to Alezya.
“I can talk to the Dragon Clan Chief,” Alezya insisted, stepping forward. “He listens to me—”
“Why would the leader of the most powerful clan in the world listen to a woman?!” the old man grunted again. “This is nonsense! That witch is doing that tyrant’s bidding, that’s what this is! She will sell us all out after she sold herself!”
“Watch it, old man,” Ekata hissed, drawing her blade out.
“I knew it! Traitors! You summoned us here to sell us out!”
Things were escalating too quickly, and Alezya realized this meeting had been a mistake.
No one was concealing their voices anymore, instead shouting at each other, meaning they could be heard down the valley at any moment now, and depending on who heard it, things could potentially get much worse. Alezya looked up again nervously, silently hoping Kein’s orange scales would cover the skies right this instant, but all she got was the cloudless night and wind shuddering the trees.
“The Deklaan Clan are liars!”
“We can’t trust the Munsa! They hid that witch while we were all running from our homes!”
“She’s our only way to survive, you fools!”
“These negotiations are a trap,” the white-haired man hissed to the others. “We should just capture that woman and use her as a hostage! The Deklaan Clan will know what to do with her!”
“Touch me, and that will be the last thing you do, old man,” Alezya hissed, her eyes darting back to him.
“W-wait,” a man from a different clan exclaimed. “You can’t decide for all of us! What if she’s telling the truth? If you harm her, you might condemn us all! No, our clan will go to our elders and explain—”
“Nonsense! There isn’t a minute to lose! Capture that woman, now!”
The man took a step toward Alezya, ready to cross the thin stream, and all hell broke loose at once: she pulled out her blade and slashed his wrist in one movement, but at the exact same moment, someone grabbed and brutally pulled her back.
Alezya felt the pull, her feet slipping on the wet ground and her body inevitably losing balance.
She didn’t have time to lower her arms, only to see the men on the other side either draw weapons and launch themselves toward them or run away, and then, her vision toppled. Ekata shouted something, and right after, Alezya’s body hit the ground, not in a singular, violent shock, but instead she felt different parts of her body hit the uneven ground, causing more pain in certain areas than others.
Shouts echoed just as her head rang, and someone screamed in pain, a voice that sounded like hers, as deafening as the violent pain that hit her limbs.
The fight got louder above her, and it took her a second to recover, find the ground she’d brutally hit, and feel the tears welling in her eyes.
