The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 109

#109 The Machinations
Cassandra had the urge to cry when they left the residence, and did her best not to. Even Missandra had her little good bye moment with her nephew and his dragon, but she didn’t say anything. She knew she couldn’t afford to be emotional now, they had to focus on this plan and ensure their survival. Even if she had agreed to it, Missandra was still not feeling anywhere near confident enough. Anything could get them killed, the slightest mistake could end their lives in a split second.
At least, they looked different now. With green dresses on, their skin darkened to match those of the people and their hair completely black as ink, they would be harder to spot for the soldiers. Not having a baby or a young dragon definitely made i easier to move around, too. They also had an extra asset, as Mira had warned some of the former servants of the house. They quickly met the three girls in the middle of the market, where no one would be suspicious. They were all familiar to Cassandra, as they had worked under the same roof briefly. Moreover, these three had been there the day she had freed the residence, and even if they were now working on the Imperial Palace, they were happy to look out for her and help the sisters as repayment.
This was also a good point in Missandra’s opinion. The two sisters would be less likely to be noticed if they walked into the Palace as a group of five servants instead of a duo. They still had no idea if the second Prince was looking only for Cassandra or for the two of them, but in any case, this was still working in their favor.
They walked towards the Imperial Palace, and seeing the high walls from up close gave Cassandra an unexplicable feeling of nostalgia. She hadn’t come to this place in weeks and, this time, she wasn’t with Kairen. She had never liked this place, but this felt even worse. To Cassandra’s surprise, the soldiers weren’t very familiar with the servants going in and out all day. They checked their belongings in detail, but they didn’t find Missandra’s hidden dagger or hers. She realized there were truly too many servants for the soldiers to bother recognizing all of them. The Imperial Palace was gigantic, with all of the Imperial Concubines, Princes and Princesses, that the servants probably knew a lot of changes every single week. It was probably the same for the soldiers as well. Unless the same soldiers would be affected to the same doors every single day for weeks and weeks, it seemed hard to think they’d remember the faces, unless they were memorable.
Ironically, one of the soldiers even smiled at Missandra, those his eyes were focused a bit lower. Cassandra had a little fright, but to her surprise, her younger sister even had the guts to wink at the soldier! She kept her head low, trying to pray silently until they were inside, and away from the soldiers. All the girls smiled at each other.
“I can’t believe we’re in that easily…’ whispered Cassandra.
“That’s because the Imperial Family isn’t actually in danger all of the time,” sighed one of the girls. “You know, the danger usually comes from the inside. They poison each other and find excuses to murder each other more efficiently than any assassin out there. Even so, they have dragons! Like, those creatures are terrifying!”
Cassandra and Missandra exchanged glances. The two dragons they had been living with over the past few days weren’t exactly terrifying, though they did understand the girls’ concern. They probably didn’t picture Kian and his meat buns while saying that…
“I don’t even think they ever bother to hire assassins…” added the other with a nod. “You know, sometimes, those women scare me more than the dragons themselves; On a tantrum, they can have you tortured or killed!”
As the girls kept agreeing, Cassandra realized this was the reality, for them. She had always been protected by Kairen, his dragon, and his family, but for any servant working in the Imperial Palace, they were risking their lives every day. This wasn’t normal, and it also probably explained the big turnover and high salaries…
After reaching one of the servants resting rooms, Missandra and Cassandra parted with the girls, thanking them for their help until now. Somehow, Cassandra felt like they were now in the part of their plan where everything could go wrong very fast…
Walking with trays of food as if they had been asked to deliver them somewhere, they tried to find their way through the corridors. The sisters had previously agreed to not go anywhere near Lady Kareen’s apartments, or Kairen’s or Shareen’s, as they would be very likely watched. Those would be the first places Vrehan would expect
her to hide, so they had to avoid this aisle at all costs. Another thing Cassandra was worried about were the concubines.
Though there weren’t a lot of Princesses hanging around, the concubines were often going from one place to another, chatting with each other in the gardens and wandering around. Cassandra was afraid one of them would recognize her if they crossed ways, and this was bound to happen. She made sure to keep her head down, hoping her appearance and green dress would do the trick. Moreover, as Missandra had reminded her, even Cassandra’s body shape had changed a lot over the past few weeks. The only thing that may give her away was her green eyes, and she kept them down all of the time they walked.
It worked. Despite a few frights on the way, Cassandra made sure to walk behind her sister and, indeed, none of the concubines they crossed paths with recognized her. Most of those women didn’t even give spare them a glance, they were used to the servants getting out of their way and crawling away…
The Imperial Palace was so vast, it took them some long minutes to finally get to their first destination.
Prince Sephir’s apartments.
Despite Missandra’s words, Cassandra just couldn’t come here without checking what had happened to the first prince or to his concubines and children. Moreover, if she had any allies left between those walls, it would most likely be those women. She vaguely remembered the configuration of the first Prince’s apartments, and the sisters quickly moved.
The atmosphere was heart-wrenching in here. Some of the women were still silently crying and mourning the death of the Prince, but at least, most of them seemed safe, the children also. Cassandra was extremely careful while moving around. She wasn’t sure where the two concubines she was looking for resided exactly, so Missandra eventually asked another servant they met, pretending she was new in the Imperial Palace.
Once they found their rooms, Cassandra knocked, a bit afraid. To their surprise, a little girl in a purple dress came to open. She was four or five years old at best.
“Silena, don’t just… Oh, by the great Dragon!”
The young concubine ran to them and pushed the sisters inside before hurriedly closing the door. Then, she turned around, completely stunned.
“What are you doing here…” she whispered.
She had obviously recognized Cassandra, so she put down the tray on a table. They were alone, too, and the room was now closed, despite Missandra sending regular glances towards the other openings.
Lady Chiara walked to Cassandra, staring at her as if she had seen a ghost, looking on the verge of tears.
“By the great Dragon, Lady Cassandra, I can’t believe you’re here…” she whispered.
“Are you alright?” Asked Cassandra, as the young woman seemed completely in shock.
The young concubine immediately shook her head, look horrified, and about to cry.
“You shouldn’t have come here! The Second Prince wants to kill you…”
“Noted,” said Missandra, rolling her eyes.
“No, no, this is serious!” Insisted Chiara. “He… he said you poisoned my Lord…”
“What happened?” Asked Cassandra, hoping she would calm down a little bit to explain.
The young concubine shook her head and fell on her knees. Her daughter immediately ran into her arms to hug her, and she held her child, crying silently.
“I’m not sure… It all happened so fast! Everything was just as usual, and one evening, I heard people yelling,
screams… The other concubines kept saying our Lord had died. Prince Vrehan came out of his room, all of sudden, dragging Lady Berissa by her hair, calling her a murderer! He yelled at everyone that he had caught her poisoning his brother with something the white witch had given her! Everyone started screaming, we knew Lady Berissa was innocent, but… His dragon… he killed her there, and… They said my Lord was dead…”
The poor concubine was bawling out in front of them. Cassandra exchanged a look with Missandra, horrified. What had Vrehan done? How could he push all the blame on Berissa and kill her there without a proper trial, or even any decent proof!
“How could the Emperor let that happen?” Said Cassandra, shocked.
“It happened so fast…” cried Lady Chiara. “When his Highness the Emperor came, he was devastated… about my Lord’s passing, and he was furious at Prince Vrehan, but the second Prince said he had acted impulsively out of anger.”
“That’s the most bullshit excuse I’ve heard, even coming from that dickhead,” hissed Missandra.
Cassandra was in complete shock. She hadn’t thought things had been so tragic here! The poor Lady Berissa, she had been the cruel victim of Vrehan’s machinations to get rid of her and his brother… Cassandra was completely revolted. This was so unfair! Those people were innocent, Prince Sephir had never even been a threat to him! Vrehan’s cupidity was absolutely disgusting! Had Kassian’s birth really made him panic and kill his own brother? Did the news of her pregnancy accelerate the second Prince’s agenda.
“Lady Cassandra, you shouldn’t be here… They all think you’re a murderer, the soldiers will arrest you…”
“What about Prince Sephir’s son?” Asked Cassandra, ignoring the Concubine’s plea.
“I don’t know…” cried Chiara. “We haven’t seen him since our Prince’s death… By the great Dragon, if something happened to Prince Seban too…”
The poor concubine hugged her daughter closer and cried even more. Cassandra and Missandra exchanged a silent glance; They wouldn’t say it in front of this poor woman, but they feared the young prince’s fate was unfortunately already sealed… Vrehan may have taken the young dragon, too.
After all this, no wonder this whole aisle of the Imperial Palace felt so abandoned and at a loss. The Second Prince had wreaked havoc in his brother’s entourage. Cassandra felt like it was a miracle that little girl in the concubine’s arms was still alive. If she had been born a boy, her uncle would have gotten rid of her, most likely…
“What about Prince Sephir’s Dragon?” Asked Missandra, frowning.
“He’s here, but… He hasn’t been able to fly,” said Chiara, her voice hoarse. “Prince Vrehan had Sire locked down in the dungeons, saying he could be dangerous for everyone in the palace without his master to guide him. I’m not sure… He didn’t even try to free himself when they took him!”
The cells! Cassandra remembered seeing some of the dragons behind bars, the first time she had been in the Imperial Palace. Those who were too unruly had to be chained or place in cages for their sizes. However, she clearly remembered that the pale blue dragon wasn’t among those who had to be put in an actual cage! That was definitely another one of the second Prince’s horrible lies.
“So the Prince is dead for real, and his dragon is grounded,” sighed Missandra. “Anything else we need to know?”
“What about the Emperor?” Asked Cassandra. “Have any of you seen him lately?”
“No… Most of us haven’t dared to leave those apartments! Everyone is so scared since our Prince died! However, some of the other concubines came and said he’s ill… The Emperor fell sick soon after my Prince… They say he was so depressed with my Lord’s death that the Emperor fell sick too… We haven’t seen him in days…”
“How convenient,” muttered Missandra.
Cassandra didn’t believe this lie at all either. For something to happen to the old Emperor so soon after his first
son’s death was nothing but the result of some vile plan. He wasn’t such a weak man, even if his son’s death was depressing indeed. Whatever sickness had fallen upon the old Emperor was definitely not the result of sadness or even an accident. Missandra shook her head, disgusted once again.
“Hinue,” she said using their native tongue. “I’m pretty sure he won’t be as stupid as to leave his old man without any sort of security around him. What if this is a trap? I can’t believe no one was able to see the Emperor. This guy definitely has something up, and I’m not sure we should run into this mess. We can still go back!”
“We can’t, Missandra. We haven’t learned anything we didn’t already suspect, but the second prince still isn’t here. I’m still sure this is our only chance to save the Emperor if that is still possible. If the second Prince comes back and is somehow crowned before my Prince comes back, the situation will be even worse than this! Not only Sephir, but he will also get rid of all of his brothers and their concubines! This will be a slaughter!”
“He can’t just…”
“Missandra, he killed Sephir! He killed the first Prince and his favorite, and probably their son too, unless he’s captured, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t care about anything but that boy’s dragon! If we go back now, Vrehan might be able to kill his father even faster, and what then? He’ll just do what he did here to all the concubines! The only people left will be the ones who didn’t oppose him, his concubines, and his sisters!”
“This is too dangerous! That psycho had no problem killing his own brother under the Emperor’s nose. If the Emperor is too ill to protect you, what do you think will happen to you? He’s capable of feeding you to his dragon and stating his damn lizard mistook you for a beefsteak once the third Prince comes here! There is no one here who can help you!”
“Actually, we might have another ally…” sighed Cassandra.
“Who?” Asked Missandra with a frown.
“…Glahad, the Golden Dragon.”