Page 88 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“At least I give them some news!”
“Only because Adda doesn’t leave us unless we give her a letter to bring back home.”
“Sadara only uses her dragon like a bloody messenger bird, anyway...”
She stopped talking for a bit as she filled her mouth with meat on a skewer. Kassein glanced down, catching Alezya staring at his sister with a confused but curious expression. Not used to meat on skewers? Or was it his sister’s terrible table manners? She hadn’t reached for one, focusing on her bowl first, but now, she seemed quite interested.
“Alezya,” he called her.
There was always that tingle of excitement whenever she reacted to his voice and her name, and sure enough, she turned her head back to him with those big black eyes full of curiosity. He took her bowl to hold it for her and handed her the last half of the skewer he’d started right before. Alezya took it, and after inspecting it, she ate it like she’d seen his sister do, using her teeth to rip the meat off the skewer. He could tell right away she liked it... Then, attracted by the smell, Kein sniffed in their direction, turning its big orange head and making Alezya stop eating. Kassein pushed his dragon’s snout away with his boot and an annoyed click of his tongue. Kein had already been brought a full bear to eat on its own, as did Kiki, and the two dragons were already stupidly trying to steal each other’s prey despite having the exact same meal. Except because of the humans on their backs, neither could use more than one paw and their heads without getting scolded, making them growl in frustration.
“Tsk.”
They all turned heads, surprised, as Alezya had just imitated his tongue clicking. She blushed to be having all eyes suddenly on her and turned to Lorey as if hoping she would explain what she’d just done.
But Lorey just smiled, amused.
“It looks like she was curious about that habit of yours,” she chuckled.
“For goodness’ sake, don’t let her pick it up,” Kiera groaned. “I already get scolded a ton by Mom when I do it... I swear between that and her stubbornness, we all got the worst of Grandma’s traits.”
Tievin couldn’t agree more. The tongue-clicking was a mere sound, but it was enough to terrify anyone who’d worked in the Imperial Palace long enough to know it was a warning, and a bad one at that. The current Emperor’s grandmother used to clickher tongue every time something annoyed her, and it had been passed down the Imperial bloodline like a unique curse word...
“...Anyway,” Kiera said after filling her mouth again, “what are you going to do about her?”
Kassein glared at his sister, not liking how she was pointing at Alezya with her skewer. Kiera already had terrible table manners, but she was also painfully blunt at times.
“What do you mean?” her brother asked with a warning in his deep tone.
Kiera wasn’t one to be impressed by her younger brother, but between them, Alezya had stopped eating, and her eyes were going from one sibling to the other with the fear of someone who couldn’t understand what was going on. Lorey had stopped smiling too to eat silently, letting those two deal with one another.
“You know what I mean, Kassein,” Kiera retorted. “You need to know what her deal is. She is not supposed to be here. Let alone the dragon’s dung heap of problems that are not going to fail to drop if Kassian hears about this, you still have the whole tribes’ situation to figure out.”
“She was kicked out by her tribe,” he hissed. “She’s not with them anymore.”
“She is still a foreigner,” Kiera replied, way calmer than him but firm in her tone. “You can’t ignore that you do not know her intentions.”
“Did you not hear me? She was–”
“Kicked out, yes. But why?” His sister waved her skewer. “Why would they kick a woman out? Have you ever actually stopped to give it some thought? Kassein, you’ve been living here for years now, but you have never seen a woman from the tribes before, have you? No one in the Empire has, not that we know of. Whatever happens in those mountains, they don’t usually kick their women out. They don’t even let them in our sight, but allof a sudden, that woman was thrown out and within our reach, twice. Even if she was indeed exiled, didn’t you ever wonder why? What could she have done to warrant such horrible treatment? There are few criminals that we punish this severely in the Empire, Kassein. The tribes might be very different from us but I am pretty sure they aren’t savages who collectively beat women for no reason, or just for the fun of it.”
“...What are you implying? She’s not a criminal.”
“That’s exactly my point, you don’t know that!” his sister exclaimed. “I’ll concede she’s not any kind of fighter, judging by the little amount of meat on her bones and how she’s scared of her own shadow. But you saw it earlier. She didn’t flinch at the sight of blood and she wasn’t scared by dead bodies, open skulls, and exposed guts. She approached a fight without batting an eyelid to inspect a bloody corpse. That’s not the reaction of someone who’s never seen such things before.”
“...She’s scared of men.”
Both siblings turned their heads to Lorey, whose calm tone had taken them all by surprise. Even Tievin, who had quietly listened to the siblings’ arguments, raised an eyebrow.
“What?” Kiera said, confused.
“Alezya is scared of men.”
“Men,” Alezya repeated, recognizing the word.
Lorey gave her an encouraging nod and smile, before looking up at Kassein.
“She’s far more wary of men than she is of blood or dragons. Only you and Tievin seem to have earned her trust. Every time a soldier comes near, she shows signs of nervousness.”
