The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 105

#105 The Art of Deception
Cassandra and her sister exchanged glances, worried. For a long while now, they had been looking at the long, long line that was waiting to enter the Capital, among a massive crowd of people. Dozens of people of all ages were waiting to come in, a lot of them surprised by this impressive security check. Around ten guards were lined up, checking every man and woman, even the children.
The sisters, both hidden in the crowd, were wondering how they were going to be able to come in, and how risky this could be. The soldiers were scrutinizing every person, not even letting a toddler in without glancing at them. Cassandra and Missandra had covered themselves under newly bought shawls and were trying to avoid suspicion. There were actually quite a few habitations and shops outside the walls, so the crowd wasn’t that surprising, and they could easily hide like trees in a forest. Kassian was sleeping in Cassandra’s back, but Kian kept trying to pop his head out of Missandra’s bag and tried to bite her fingers every time she pushed him back in, thinking she was playing. 5
“They are really checking everyone,” whispered Missandra. “This is definitely one of this stupid Prince’s moves to prevent you or the War God from coming back…”
Indeed, this much checking at the wall wasn’t normal. Usually, people could come in and out as they pleased, the guards at the doors only checked to see if they weren’t carrying weapons illegally, or would check the merchandise. Cassandra bit her lip. She truly hadn’t predicted such a problem. Moreover, with their white skin and green eyes, the sisters would be recognized immediately if they tried to go in like this. She couldn’t even sneak Missandra in, her sister would fit most of the description Vrehan could have given about her!
“Alright, plan B then I guess,” sighed Missandra, suddenly opening the little pocket where she kept their money.
“What plan?” Asked Cassandra, surprised.
Missandra kept looking counting how much money they had left and nodded.
“We need someone’s help to get us in, and I do happen to know someone who could help with that, but not unless we give him lots of money, so… I really hope you still have that residence and people who can at least feed us afterward.”
Cassandra hesitated for a while, and suddenly remembered a little detail.
“Mie… You’re thinking about the men you owed money to?”
“Yeah. I mean, I owe them a lot, but if your Prince can pay once this is over, and I tell them they can make more if they help us, then…”
“Missandra, I’m… not sure those people you owed money to are alive anymore?”
Missandra lifted her head from the bag, frowning.
“How is that?”
“When we were looking for you, Princess Shareen and I ran into a bunch of bandits, with tattoos. She and Krai kind of killed them all…”
Missandra seemed surprised for a moment. Then, she seemed to think deeply, lost in her thoughts, and turned to Cassandra again.
“How many people do you think they killed?”
“Maybe about… twenty or thirty, in total? I’m not sure.”
“Oh, that’s fine then. I pissed off more people than that.”
Cassandra stayed speechless while Missandra went to the closest shop. There, she bought some paper and ink and wrote a note quickly. Then, her younger sister found a young boy in the crowd, and gave him the letter, asking
him to deliver it to the Red District in exchange for a bit of gold. The boy nodded and happily took it.
The two sisters watched him walk up the line, but Cassandra was still unsure about this plan.
“Is it fine if he just hands it to anyone in the Red District? Didn’t you have a name or something?”
Missandra smirked.
“I really pissed off a lot of people there.”
Cassandra nodded. Well, she did remember the quite exhaustive list of establishnients that kept a bitter memory of her younger sister, for having visited each of them and listened to Missandra’s mischief first hand.
“Trust me,” added Missandra. “If we don’t hear anything in the next hour, it only means that boy kept the gold. I can always send another one.”
So they waited. To Cassandra’s surprise, the answer wasn’t long to come. The sisters watched an older woman storm out of the gate, carrying a bag, clearly glaring at the crowd as she seemed to be looking for someone. Of course, Missandra had watched the whole scene from afar with a little smile on.
“Not a bad pick, I guess…”
They didn’t approach, waiting for that woman to spot them. When she did, she ran their way, looking furious. While Cassandra was worried, Missandra was quietly waiting, with a hint of a smile on, crossing her arms.
The woman was about twice their age, very muscular, with short black hair and some tattoos on her face. She looked like a furious tiger as she approached.
“You little bitch! I can’t believe you have the fucking balls to send me this crap!” She yelled, throwing Missandra’s not at her feet.
“Nice to see you, Verna. I missed you too.”
“Don’t give me your arrogant crap, Mie; I only came because you owe me some damn money, a fucking lot, and you paid that boy three gold coins! Three! Where is my money? Give me my money!”
The woman tried to grab Missandra’s bag, but unfortunately for her, it was well guarded. As soon as she reached her hand for it, Kian furiously tried to bite it, making her scream and retract her hand quickly. Missandra chuckled, while the woman had her eyes wide open in shock, staring at the bag.
“What the heck was that thing? What was that?”
“A unique security system,” said Missandra. “Now, before I give you any money, did you bring what I asked?”
The woman frowned, dropping the bag at her feet.
“I did, you damn little… Yes, I do have it, but I want my money, you little swine!”
Ignoring her, Missandra crouched down to inspect the content of the bag, Cassandra frowning behind her. To her surprise, her younger sister pulled out some little pots, what looked like some makeup, two big circles of metal, and two white dresses.
“That’s…”
“My plan,” said Missandra with a little smile. “I know it’s probably no good memory for you, but we are going to have to disguise ourselves as slaves to get in. Those men won’t spend too much time checking slaves when they think they are looking for a concubine.”
“A concubine?” Repeated Verna, glancing at Cassandra. “Mie, what the hell have you done this time?”
“Mind your own business, V. Anyway, thanks, you did get everything!”
“Hey, I want my money, Mie. Now, Or I’m bringing you two to the soldiers. I’m not stupid, you know!”
Missandra sighed, took out the little purse, and threw it to her. Vema reception it, avidly counting the money. It took her a minute, but she soon went back to her angry expression. 1!!
“Are you kidding me! There’s not even a finh of what you promised! I know I couldn’t trust you!”
Don’t you think I’m walking around with gold bars in my purse? You’ll get the rest once you take us inside!”
Verna seemed to hesitate, glancing at Cassandra and Missandra. Her eyes fell on kassian, too, for a couple of minutes. The baby was now awake, but quietly hanging in the fabric tied around his mom, his mouth making a little O. Verna spent a few more seconds, detailing his features, his mother’s skin tone, and her eyes went back to Missandra’s bag with a suspicious frown.
“A concubine, you said…? You’re not going to get me into more trouble, are you?”
“I promise, as soon as we get to my residence safely, I’ll make sure you have your money,” said Cassandra.
She was a bit desperate, but if that woman didn’t help them now or decided to sell them to the soldiers, the situation would take a tragic turn in minutes. Cassandra could only hope that the people at the residence still had enough money left, but at least, once they would be inside the Capital and past the gates, they would be much safer. Moreover, she didn’t want to lose any more time. If Kassian cried or Kian got impatient, the soldiers could notice them and capture all four of them.
Verna clicked her tongue.
*Fuck you, Mie, you better have my money! Or I swear I’m denouncing you to the first guard I see!”
Missandra nodded, gathered everything that was inside the bag again. Then, she grabbed Cassandra’s arm, pulling her sister further away from the crowd, in a spot under the trees, where no one would come.
“So, these people are probably going to be looking for our physical description, even if we disguise as slaves, we can’t just going in. That’s why I asked Verna to bring all these.”
“You want us to disguise ourselves as Dragon Empire people? Is that even possible?”
“Of course. You have no idea how much the girls spent on makeup inside the brothels… This is for dying our hair black, first. It’s rather quick, they used it all the time. It was a ruckus every time someone spotted white hair… Oh, and this is for naturally tanning the skin. I’m not sure how much it can work on us but at least we won’t look as white. Crap, I hope there’s enough… Well, we don’t need to look healthy, and we can always cover our arms and be careful about our hands.”
Cassandra kept nodding, truly impress. Her sister had truly become a master at deceiving people… To even think of such a plan so fast. It was a little bit scary but still impressive.
“What about Kian and Kassian? They are going to search our bags, and if they find us with a baby…”
“We can have Verna carry him, she doesn’t look anything like you and thankfully, he looks more like his dad too.”
“Excuse me!” Said Verna, looking astonished. “I never agreed to smuggle someone else’s brat!”
“Stop fussing, think about the money,” retorted Missandra, brushing her aside. “The problem is Kian… It’s not that easy to conceal a dragon, he’s already almost too big for the bag and they are definitely going to check it…”
Cassandra glanced at the sky, with a little frown on.
“We can try having him fly over the wall… If he follows me, he might not like the crowd and fly over us naturally.”
“Yeah… That could work. We just need to make sure the baby flying lizard looks like a bird. A big bird…”
Hence, the two sisters spent the next hour dying their hair black and covering their skin with that bronzing powder, making sure nothing was amiss. They couldn’t hide the color of their eyes, but this was another
advantage of posing as slaves: their eyes would be riveted to the ground with no one to question that. It actually took them not too long to cover Kian with some dust, making sure his silver scales weren’t shining anymore, and covering his tail with leaves to make it look like feathers. The result was really strange, letting Verna, who was still speechless about seeing a baby dragon, with a grin.
“You think people will take that for a bird? Are you insane? He would have more chances of posing as a cat with wings!” 1
“Oh, shut up,” retorted Missandra. “We’re not taking him to be examined from up close anyway, he just needs to fly above us for less than a minute and come back. No one will care about a bird, there are several falcons and all living in this area. We just need the illusion to last for as long as it takes us to cross that frontier.”
“You’re crazy,” concluded Verna. “A crazy genius, but crazy. I’m still waiting for my money, though.”
“Stop whining. We just need to equip you with Kassian, cross that stupid gate and you’ll get your money.”
Cassandra frowned. She was very reluctant on letting another woman carry her child, aside from Missandra. However, they didn’t have much of a choice, and it would only be for a few minutes. The two girls made sure the baby was comfortably hung against Verna, and Cassandra kissed his forehead gently, making sure he wasn’t too perturbed by the change. He had been carried by Missandra several times before, and barely cried anyway. Kian was usually the one getting impatient first.
Cassandra focused on him for the next minutes, while her younger sister checked her hair once more while braiding it quickly.
“Alright, it doesn’t really suit you, but at least it should deceive the guards unless they are makeup experts, which I highly doubt.”
“Can we just go already?” Sighed Verna.
“Ready, Hinue?”
“Ready…” sighed Cassandra.