The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 108

#108 The Sisters’ Plan
Despite all her worries and the thoughts she had, the exhaustion from the journey allowed Cassandra a long and deep sleep. She and Missandra were finally able to sleep in a real bed after a long bath, a real meal, and also, without having to get up to tend to the babies. Kassian and Kian were carefully watched by Yasora and the young Mira and Ethen, who made sure the two young babies didn’t miss a thing. Cassandra wouldn’t have entrusted them to anyone else, but she really needed one night of interrupted sleep.
When she woke up the next morning, she was feeling refreshed, and her mind was clearer, too. However, Cassandra’s opinion hadn’t changed. She was only left to trying to convince Missandra to participate. This wasn’t just about having her sister concur, it was also because she realized her younger sister’s wits may be a life-saving skill if she had to infiltrate the heavily guarded Imperial Palace. Missandra had demonstrated that she had her own resources over the past week, and the points she and Cassandra were different about might be crucial.
Hence, when she walked in the little room that had breakfast waiting for them, Cassandra tried to think about how to approach her sister. Carrying Kassian, how was a bit grouchy from having just woken up, she sat next to her.
“Good morning…”
“Morning,” yawned Missandra, her hair still over the place on her shoulders.
Somehow, Yasora seemed to have understood that the two sisters would have important topics to discuss because none of the younger servants were around, and everyone around them was simply busy with their tasks, not staring or asking any questions. They started eating in silence, only Kian and Kassian making little noises. While the baby was being breastfed, Kian was devouring a full plate of meat buns, apparently his new favorite food.
Cassandra waited a bit before opening her mouth, trying to gauge her sister’s mood, but Missandra was being a bit too quiet.
“Missandra…”
“If this is about last night, Hinue, my answer is still no.”
Cassandra sighed. She knew how stubborn her sister was. This wasn’t going to be an easy one…
“Missandra, we cannot stay passive.”
“Yes, we can. We are not going to get ourselves killed by infiltrating a Palace guarded by hundreds of guards under this maniac’s control just to save an old man who, if were that unlucky, might even be already dead.”
“The Emperor isn’t dead yet,” retorted Cassandra. “Missandra, I cannot stay hidden here while he might be dying when I can probably save him.”
“You don’t know if he’s really dying, if he’s fine or dead already! You don’t know if you’ll be able to save him either, Cassandra, and that might actually cost your life! The only thing we do know for sure is that the crazy second prince wants to kill you, and Kassian. That’s about it. We don’t even know if your Prince is fine and still alive!”
“I know Kairen is fine,” retorted Cassandra, almost angry now.
Missandra shook her head. She didn’t like to be scolding her older sister, but she was terrified that Cassandra was about to put herself in danger, once more, and she wouldn’t be able to stop her. Missandra put down her plate and turned to Cassandra, looking very serious.
“You barely escaped him once, Cassandra,” she said. “You barely did. If it wasn’t for the Diamond People, or for Lady Kareen buying us some time, we would already be dead, or worse, dead in his dragon’s stomach. This psychopath might even have taken his sweet time and tortured you, just to piss off the War God. In any case, I will not abide by anything that might put you and I anywhere near that guy. Not until we are sure to be safe, and that includes the Second Prince or Lady Shareen being around.”
Cassandra sighed. She understood Missandra’s reasons and, in many ways, her younger sister was actually right. It was a miracle that they had been able to come here safe and unharmed. Cassandra had gotten a new scar on her arm, but it was healed already, and probably not a too bad outcome considering what the sisters had been running from.
However, something was telling her to go to the Imperial Palace. Not only for the old Emperor, but she felt like something much bigger was going on, and they had to stop it before it was too late. If her Prince was still caught up in a war, how could she stay here and drink tea?
“Missandra, I can’t. I can’t stay hidden here. We already made the biggest of the journey, our goal was to arrive in the Capital.”
“Yes, because we thought the Old Emperor could save us. We had no idea he wasn’t doing well! If we go there, we can’t be sure he will protect you or Kassian!”
“What if he can? What if we can save the Emperor and end this? Missandra, another thing we know almost for sure is that the Second Prince isn’t there, right?”
The younger sister frowned, but before she answered, Yasora cleared her throat.
“He is not. Actually, news came in very early this morning. Two of our people who were in the market said the second Prince was on his way here, but still a couple of cities away.”
“See?” Said Cassandra. “We will know right away if Prince Vrehan comes here, Missandra, his…”
“He is on his way back!” Yelled Missandra, getting on her feet. “Cassandra, this cold blooded murderer, and his crazy bitch sister might be only a few hours away from here!”
“This is exactly why we have to move now! The longer we hesitate, the more time we will lose! What if this is our chance to beat him, heal the Emperor and punish Vrehan and Phetra for what they did?”
Missandra stayed silent for a few seconds. This was really too crazy. She was the one trying to hold Cassandra back, and her sister the one who wanted to take action? This was truly too much! This was a life and death kind of decision, and she was scared they were running into a trap.
“What if they expect us? What if we run into a trap? Have you thought about Kassian? And Kian?”
Cassandra looked down at her son and took a deep breath.
“I’m thinking about him. If his grandfather dies, what do you think will happen? Maybe something will happen to his father, maybe Kairen won’t be able to keep Vrehan from becoming Emperor. I am done letting Kairen fight every battle for me. I am good at one thing, Missandra, it’s healing people. If the Emperor is sick, this is my call. This is up to me to do what I can. I will let Kairen deal with Vrehan, but the Emperor’s health became my responsibility the moment I heard about it. Doing nothing is the worst thing. I’d rather die attempting to do something than stay here and close my eyes, hoping someone else will solve the problem for me.”
Missandra opened her mouth, but she found no words to respond to that. She was annoyed. Annoyed, as her older sister was probably right. No man could save the Emperor better than Cassandra at that time. The second Prince wasn’t expecting them to be there. He wouldn’ know until he returned to the Capital, and they still were a little bit ahead. Moreover, they had a chance that the War God would return, too, but they didn’t have more information on his whereabouts. Actually, the information they had was that neither of the princes was there, and the old Emperor, however, was there, and sick. She let out a long sigh of frustration.
“…What about Kassian?”
“We can watch him here,” immediately replied Yasora.
“What tells me you can trust you?” Retorted Missandra, a bit too coldly.
The middle-aged woman put her fists on her waist. She knew that the young lady was Cassandra’s younger sister,
but she could use some manners!
“Well, you’re still alive, miss doubtful, aren’t you? Also, there isn’t a single human being in this Residence that don’t owe their life to Cassandra. She freed us from slavery or servitude that was just as bad. Everyone here would die for her.”
Missandra pouted. Why was it that Cassandra always had that kind of effect on people? The North people, the Diamond people, and now those servants, everyone loved her. Was it okay to trust them? If it was Missandra, she wouldn’t even have entrusted them with a single hair of her nephew! She let out a long sigh, turning to her sister once again.
“I suppose we don’t have any better option?” She asked, totally ignoring Yasora’s glare.
“I’m afraid not,” said Cassandra. “No one knows where I came from, or that I’m in any way related to this place, aside from the Prince. At least Vrehan won’t be able to find them here, even if something happens to us.”
This way, even if something happened to Cassandra, Kairen would immediately know where to look for their son. She didn’t say that at loud, though, as Missandra was already rather upset.
“Fine, admitting that I do agree to all of this, what’s the plan? How do we get into the Imperial Palace? Because the heavily guarded situation is still pretty much there.”
Cassandra took a minute to think about it. Unfortunately, there was no way the dragon they had could have the two of them fly into the Palace. This was the way she had most used, recently. The only exception had been with Shareen when she had gone downtown, but they had used the main gates and this was out of the question. 1
“You could use the servants’ entry?”
They turned around. The young Mara had just come back, carrying a big bowl of meat buns since Kian had happily emptied the previous one. She carefully put the new bowl close to the young dragon, making sure to keep her fingers away from him, and sat on her knees, close to Cassandra.
“The servants’ entry?” Asked Cassandra.
The young girl nodded.
“Do you remember, when you came back and the Dragon ate the master? A lot of the other servants left, but some are still my friends, and now, they work at the Imperial Palace. They said the servants’ entry is not well-guarded, there are only two guards!”
Cassandra and Missandra exchanged looks, a bit doubtful. Only two guards? That almost seemed a bit too good to be true. She actually had no idea there was a different entry for the servants but, remembering her days at the Imperial Palace, Cassandra had indeed noticed that they always seemed like they would come out of literally nowhere… They had to stay out of sight as to not annoy the many members of the Imperial Family. The Imperial servants were often invisible to most people, walking quickly and keeping their heads lowered. In a strange way, it almost made sense that how they got in and out of the Imperial Palace would be a bit less tightly secured. So
bother with the lower-class people?
“We are still white,” Missandra reminded her.
“Well, we are already good at disguising ourselves, aren’t we? If you managed to have us fool them once when we only had a bit of makeup and a few trees to hide, you should be able to do it once again, right?”
Missandra was bitterly starting to regret her display of makeup skills now. She sighed and turned to Yasora and Mira.
“Do you think you could get us some servant outfits and makeup?”
“Anything you need! We have servants going to the market and shops every day, no one will suspect a thing…”
Just like that, Missandra and Cassandra started reviewing each step of their plan, with Yasora and Mira’s help. The more she heard her sister, the more Cassandra knew she was going to accept this. Missandra was making sure every detail of their plan to infiltrate the Palace could work, and there was no end to her questions. Just from hearing her talk, she could tell her younger sister had much experience in dealing with all kinds of people. She was talking about the guards’ rounds and breaks, the servants’ schedules, the rotations and tasks inside the Palace.
However, they didn’t have that much time to lose in talking, and no matter how long they planned this, they wouldn’t be able to prevent everything that could go wrong from happening. Hence, Yasora sent a couple of servants to go and grab the things Missandra listed her, and while they waited for their return, the sisters agreed to go to the Palace early that afternoon. Cassandra didn’t want to lose any more time and, right after lunch, the activity inside the Palace would probably be lesser, as it would be time for court. Cassandra only had a glimpse of the Emperor’s activities, but with his illness, she expected the ministers and generals to have even more work to make up for his absence. Also, asking Mira and what she knew from her friends, they roughly knew which areas to avoid. They agreed that neither the fourth or fifth princes were to be trusted. Cassandra wasn’t too sure about Opheus, but she definitely didn’t want to meet with Lephys. Missandra’s opinion was simply to avoid anyone wearing purple and get as quick as possible near the Emperor’s quarters.
When the servants came back with all the makeup, they ate a quick lunch and started getting ready, being even more cautious about the tan and re-dying their hair of a deep black once again; This felt all too familiar, but this preparation time was necessary. Once the sisters were ready, Yasora nodded.
“You do like our people now… except for your eyes, of course.”
“We’ll have to remember to look down,” said Missandra.
Meanwhile, Cassandra was hugging Kassian. The baby hadn’t been very noisy during their preparations, but now, as if he knew what was going on, he was starting to cry and get upset. This broke Cassandra’s heart. She had beer with her son for a full week now, and if this wasn’t so important, she wouldn’t have separated for him, even for a short while. She hugged him closely, kissing his forehead, whispering to calm him down. At her feet, Kian too seemed nervous, walking in circles and emitting quick little high-pitched sounds, trying to get her attention.
“It’s going to be fine, my love,” she whispered. “Your mom will be right back, I promise…”
Kassian started crying even louder, and she had to take a deep breath before hugging him and the baby dragon one last time. It was hard, to feel their warmth and part with it. She gave her baby to Yasora, and promised to herself internally. This wasn’t going to take long.
She’d definitely be back soon for her son.