The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 106

#106 The Capital’s Gate
The wait in the line was awfully long. There were a lot of people waiting to get inside the Capital, a lot of them getting impatient too. Cassandra and Missandra did their best to keep their heads low, the younger sister trying to mimic her older sister. The big rings of metal around their neck were actually old slavery collars that Verna had retrieved from girls that had bought their freedom. The lock was broken, and they could easily be opened, but it wouldn’t be visible to the guards, as they were wearing shawls and covering their napes with their hair.
Verna was the worst actress of the three. She kept glancing down at Kassian, looking very awkward. The baby didn’t seem to care much for who carried him, his eyes were constantly following his mother. Meanwhile, the one supposed to return as his mother looked like she was horribly embarrassed to be carrying a baby. Thankfully, Kian was quietly staying in the forest. Cassandra was scared, though. Even if, after several attempts, she had managed to have him stay behind, actually ready for a little nap, she was afraid the baby dragon would come out at any . moment and betray them. She was counting on the crowd, though. Kian had never seen so many humans in one place since he was born and stayed away from strangers too. Hopefully, he would find something to distract him long enough in the forest before she called him to fly over…
When they were only a few people away from the guards, both sisters tried to pay close attention to the guards. The men were obviously not paying much attention and bored with that job. Moreover, people were angry about waiting, several officials didn’t even hold back on complaining and scolding them. Hence, the soldiers were doing their best to check on the people quickly and move on to the next one. This was a piece of good news. They probably wouldn’t check too long either.
“You, with the baby,” called one of them when Verna stepped forward. “Is that your kid?”
“It’s my niece, I’m bringing her back to my brother, his wife couldn’t take it anymore and left him alone with the kid. Can you believe that?”
“What bitch. Your niece is cute! My wife just had twins, all they do is cry… You look lucky, she’s quite behaved. Can I see your bag?”
“Sure, here. So far so good, but it’s almost her milk time. Gotta give her back to her dad…”
“Oh, sure. Wait, are those slaves with you?”
Missandra and Cassandra, keeping their heads down, stepped closer to Verna. They could barely breathe, but everything was going well so far…
“Yeah. Is there anything wrong?”
“You have two slaves? You don’t look that wealthy…”
Missandra felt a pearl of sweat going down her spine. That damn guard, couldn’t he just mind his own business!
“Hey, I don’t have the looks but I work hard. Red District pays well, hun. I actually got those two from their masters, at a good price too. Just check the bag, you’ll see I have plenty of what I had prepared left.”
“Oh… I see. Be careful though, they’re being stricter on the laws about the slaves. Well, those two look pretty fat, probably not too bad, eh?”
Cassandra went red. That was her first time being called fat! She had just given birth, but still! Missandra, making sure to keep her head down, could keep herself from rolling her eyes. Stupid soldier.
“Alright, you’re free to go. Come on people, let’s get moving!”
Finally, they were able to get in, making sure to walk away from the crowd and get into one of the narrower streets. Cassandra let out a long sigh of relief.
“I can’t believe that worked…
“Me neither, but anyway,” said Verna. “Just take back your kid anyway…”
Cassandra happily opened her arms. She was glad to finally take back her son, and the baby immediately gripped a strand of her hair. She smiled at him, but Kassian really didn’t look upset in any way, his eyes riveted on the strand of black hair with a familiar little frown on.
“Good one, making him pass for a girl,” chuckled Missandra. “You’re smarter than you look.”
Verna glared at her while taking the bag away from Missandra, furiously starting to rummage through its content.
“Oh, shut up. Now, where the heck is my money! You better…”
Before Verna could finish her sentence, a sudden ruckus was heard behind them. Cassandra went white. People were screaming towards the gate, some pointing fingers towards the sky. Someone yelled about a horrible monster flying. Missandra grimaced.
“I think the other baby decided not to wait for the cue…”
Sure enough, they soon spotted Kian, quickly flying their way, shedding off some of his fake feathers and his wings flapping off a lot of dust too. Somewhere behind him, the girls heard some soldiers scream about a chase. They would have no problem chasing the dragon now!
“Oh, crap!”
Reacting immediately, Missandra grabbed her sister’s hand, and they ran away, taking a different street. Verna didn’t follow them and ran in another direction, holding their bag closely. The two sisters had no time to care about that theft. They started running across the streets, trying to hide from the soldiers. Behind them, Kian had fun flying to follow them, but Missandra quickly caught the baby dragon, making sure his flying above their heads wouldn’t give away their position.
Cassandra was holding Kassian tightly, completely panicked. She had no idea where they were headed, she was blindly following her younger sister and praying. They ran for a while, until Missandra suddenly grabbed Cassandra’s hand, pulling her into her hideout. It was a garden’s little back door, who looked locked from the outside, but only needed a little push to be opened on an abandoned garden. It was a very small one, where Krai wouldn’t even have been able to lend on. Both sisters ran in, and Missandra quickly closed the door behind her. They put their backs against the door, immediately getting quick, listening to the soldiers’ steps. It was hard to know their position, the men kept yelling orders at all times. They heard them running past the door, and waiting, trying to control their breathing and hold on to both babies.
Kassian was wiggling around in Cassandra’s arms, looking uncomfortable, probably unhappy about the race from earlier. Kian, too, didn’t like being kept. He struggled in Missandra’s arms, his tail wagging angrily. Thankfully, she had learned better about how to handle a baby dragon and kept her hand tight around his snout to avoid any bites.
The sisters waited like this for a few more minutes. They needed to catch their breaths, and they were both terrified. Those men had seen Kian, and they would probably realize Cassandra was back into the Capital too… After a while, everything was back to being quiet around them. Cassandra fell on her butt, her back still against the door, sighing. She couldn’t believe it… They really made it with her sister’s crazy plan. She took off the fake collar, leaving it there, and rubbed Kassian’s little hands to calm herself.
“I’m so exhausted,” sighed Missandra. “I hope your people have a good bed for us…”
“Me too. That woman took our money…”
“Verna? No, she didn’t. I have it there.”
Missandra suddenly pulled out the little purse from under her shawl. Cassandra had lost hers while they were
running, but that didn’t matter much anymore. She frowned.
“But she had it while we were checked. How did you…”
“When she grabbed the bag away from me, ironically.”
Cassandra sighed.
“Mie…”
“What? We need that money, just in case. Plus, she won’t even know where we are going now, so…”
Cassandra kept shaking her head. Missandra was truly another level of mischievous. Well, at least they had some money left for them not to worry in case something happened at the residence. Cassandra didn’t know what to expect there, but she hoped her friends would be able to help them out. They had been sleeping in the woods for a week with a baby and a dragon baby, and they could use a good night’s sleep…
“How did you know that door wasn’t locked?”
“I know several good hideouts like these throughout the City… It’s kind of useful when you need to run away.”
“Missandra…”
“What? I already told you I really pissed off a lot of people!”
“We need to talk about your debt once this is all over,” sighed Cassandra.
Missandra shrugged.
“Anyway. Do you know how far we are from your residence?”
Cassandra took a deep breath, trying to remember which part of the Capital they were in, first. It was such a large city, and they had run through several streets, too. Cassandra wasn’t familiar with all the districts, but she could remember the way from the gate. Judging from how much they had run earlier, they probably weren’t too far.
“About ten minutes away…”
“Alright, then let’s wait a bit more to be sure those soldiers are gone and go…”
Cassandra nodded. She got up and, as all gardens had one, went to wash away the tan from her hands and face. With her shawl and their spare clothing gone, there was no use trying to walk around with her hands and face being darker than her arms. She quickly washed all of the dye away, Missandra doing the same after her. They still both had black hair, but their skin was back to their original porcelain color.
Meanwhile, the young Prince and young Dragon had been playing next to them, on the shawl Missandra had laid down for them. The human baby was still too young to move around, but he’d grab Kian’s tail and hold on despite the young dragon’s attempts to waggle him off. Cassandra chuckled about catching that scene, and took Kassian in her arms, kissing his plump little cheek gently. The baby grabbed her dress with a pout on.
“Alright, let’s go,” she sighed.
They couldn’t put Kian in the bag anymore, as Verna had run away with it, so Missandra wrapped the little dragon in her shawl, trying to cover his head as much as she could like he was some package. Thankfully, it was dusk now. The sky was getting darker, and hopefully, their chances to be spotted as well. Both sisters carefully walked out of their hideout, Missandra walking ahead to check each street first. They were extremely careful, but luckily, they didn’t run into any soldiers. Following Missandra’s directions, they went to the most crowded streets, hiding among the people, acting as if they were just passing by. Cassandra was afraid to be spotted the most. Holding Kassian against her chest, she desperately tried not to look up the sky. If only a black dragon could have appeared now…
Finally, after waiting in a narrow street for a bunch of soldiers doing their patrol to leave, they arrived in the street of Cassandra’s residence. She felt a bit nervous. What if Vrehan knew about this place? What if something had happened while she was away? What if they were locked out, without any help and only a bit of money left?
Cassandra took a big breath, and knocked at the door, while her younger sister was watching around. The street
was deserted, thankfully, but at first, no one answered her knock. She tried again, worried. She hadn’t come here in ages…
“This is a private residence!” Yelled a voice from behind the door. “State your name and your business!”
Despite the rude answer, Cassandra smiled immediately.
“Yasora! It’s me, Cassandra. Open please!”
“Don’t yell that!” Missandra said, looking worried.
“Oh, by the Gods! Finally!”
Finally, the woman opened the door, and grabbed Cassandra’s wrist, pulling her in. Yasora was wearing a green dress, her hair was braided down, with some white streaks in it. She seemed to have aged a bit, but she actually looked much healthier than the last time Cassandra had seen it, with a bit more weight on.
As Missandra and Cassandra walked in, they were surprised to see several lights on in the residence. Yasora wouldn’t let go of Cassandra’s hand, almost shaking.
“We were waiting for you two!” said the older woman, her eyes looking as if she was about to cry. “I was starting to fear something had happened to you! Now, come in!”