Page 28 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
Was it the same day, even? She couldn’t be sure, she had been unconscious with no notion of time. Alezya tried to think. From then on, she was going to act and plan as if Lumie werealive, and she could get back to her. The odds were put back into the corner of her mind; even if it was slim, she was going to focus on the hope and possibility that someone had found Lumie and saved her. If so, then there were two probabilities: either another clan had found her, or her father’s.
Even if it was another clan, she couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t hand her back to her father if he claimed the white-haired and white-skinned child was theirs. If so, Lumie’s chances were even slimmer... Perhaps he’d wait until the next council gathering to harm her?
Alezya tried to remember; she vaguely recalled her father mentioning when the next gathering would be, but she had been too preoccupied with getting Lumie to safety. Usually, she wouldn’t be important enough to be told when the next gathering of the clans would be as she was never included. To be exact, no woman ever was. They didn’t even allow the women-led clans to partake.
Anyhow, she had to retrieve her child before this council gathering was held. Knowing her father, Alezya had no doubt he’d have no second thoughts about sacrificing her child as he had planned to. Worse, if he had already mentioned the sacrifice to other clans, he would stop at nothing to get his hands on Lumie and avoid the humiliation of a man not living up to his words.
How long until that damned council gathering? A few days, maybe? She was sure she’d heard before that they often held it on the night of a full moon, as it was in an open area. She most likely had until the next full moon then. This was just one in an already hazy pool of possibilities anyway... but Alezya held on to what she could.
Would she be able to walk within a few days? Her broken feet were her worst nightmare. She couldn’t be stuck at such a time! She’d expected to die; instead, she lived but was nowunable to go and save her daughter. What kind of twisted fate was that? She let out a desperate sigh.
The worst part was, maybe she was doing it all for nothing... Either way, she had to do her best. Forcing herself to believe she could still save Lumie was the only thing keeping her together.
Alezya found herself tired once she was done eating and drinking; it seemed like her body had used the last of its strength just doing that. She laid back down, right when the man walked back in.
She hesitated. Perhaps this was his bed and he’d take it back?
He walked up to her, but to her surprise, it was only to pull the fur back over her shoulders. That gesture took her by such surprise that she didn’t react at all. He didn’t say anything this time, but he only glanced in her eyes once before turning around.
He went to the corner to grab one of the blades, a long one that was about the size of Alezya’s leg, and came back toward her. He sat down against the end frame of the bed, near her feet, facing the fire. Then, he simply began cleaning and sharpening his weapon in silence. Alezya was still utterly confused by each of this man’s actions, but at least, she didn’t feel any malice from him anymore.
She hadn’t even flinched when he’d brought a weapon toward her... She could genuinely feel no threat coming from him. In fact, she was deeply shocked at how she’d already grown to be less afraid of a man who looked strong enough to end her life in an instant. She’d grown afraid of men that were familiar to her, like her father, her once husband, or any other man of her clan, but not this foreigner?
She stared, still confused about her own thoughts. Despite his appearance, he’d been incredibly gentle and was able to dothings no clansmen would lower themselves to like it was no big deal. That stranger was truly too different and always took her by surprise...
She kept staring, thinking maybe she was underestimating him. Men could be treacherous and surprisingly good at using a woman’s feelings against themselves... but this was the back of the man who was going to spend his evening quietly taking care of his weapon.
Feeling a bit better, she slowly curled up under her blankets, allowing herself to drift into what would be, hopefully, a restful sleep.
Alezya woke up to male voices talking near her.
After a couple of seconds remembering where she was and what had happened, she opened her eyes.
The habitation was in complete darkness. She recognized the silhouette that was seated in the same position she’d last seen him at the end of her bed, and another man was standing by the entrance. It was obviously dawn outside, allowing her to partially see his frame, but he seemed skinnier than the warrior who had taken her, although he was wrapped in the thickest fur coat she’d ever seen. He seemed tall too, and she wondered if the men of the Dragon Clan were naturally taller than her clansmen. She’d only ever seen a handful of them from afar, so she had never noticed, but it wouldn’t have been surprising. She thought the warrior was the tallest man she’d ever seen, but maybe this was the norm here... although the other one seemed remarkably skinny.
The two of them were talking in a low voice, and she realized the man standing couldn’t sit down in front of the warrior to talk. He was just standing there in the opening, no matter how uncomfortable it was, showing their difference in status.
She had no idea what they were talking about, but she had a vague impression it could have been about her. Her eyes drifted back to the seated warrior, and this time, instead of his sword, he had a strange little bottle he was turning between his fingers. It seemed the two men were arguing from their way of speech, but the warrior clearly was the one to decide. The other man sighed.
She couldn’t tell if they could see she was awake, given how dark the room was. Probably not; the man standing was too far and the warrior had his back turned toward her, so she was only at the very edge of his peripheral vision...
Alezya silently curled up a bit more under the sheets, closed her eyes, and kept listening. She couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying, and her hopes were disappointed as she had thought to be able to learn at least a new word from listening. Their tongue was more guttural, with lots of sharp sounds and quick tongue clicks. It had something warm about it though. Especially the warrior’s voice. It was like hearing a large beast purr when one would only expect growls...
She chased those thoughts to the back of her mind, feeling ashamed. How could she think such things at a time like this…?
It was clearly morning when she woke up again.
Alezya stared toward the open entrance, wondering if it had been two, three, or more days since she’d been brought here. The stabbing pain in her heart rose anew.
Once again, the thought of each second she’d spent away from her child broke her heart. It was out of sheer will and hope that Lumie was alright that she’d been holding on until now, pushing the darkest thoughts into a corner of her mind just to tell herself she had to hang on a bit longer…
The man had probably opened the fabric flap to air out the space, and it felt good to have some fresh, cold wind gentlygreeting her face, by contrast to the rest of her body still warm under the blankets.
There was a fresh layer of white snow from what she could see of outside, meaning it was probably a clear, blue sky day. The perfect white snow made her think of Lumie. She missed her baby so much already...
They had never been apart for this long since her birth. It felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest and left somewhere. Her throat tightened a bit, and she hardly suppressed the urge to cry. Instead, she tried to focus on something else.
Soon enough, she noticed the little bowl that was on the small table next to the bed. Alezya forced herself to sit up, careful about her legs. At least her wounds were healing properly, it seemed. Whatever medicine that man was using was quite efficient... and all of her bandages had been changed again without her noticing. After months of living afraid of everyone, Alezya had learned to sleep lightly, an ear out for the smallest sound, so it was astonishing to her that she could have slept so soundly while someone moved her and changed her bandages.
