The War God’s Favorite

The Dragon’s Egg
The next morning Cassandra woke up early, around sunrise. Someone was slowly caressing her hair and bare skin. Remembering the events of the previous day, she opened her eyes and checked around, worried.
“My Lord!”
Kairen was indeed there, on the side of the bed, sitting there while watching her. She jumped, her arms wrapping around his neck to hold him, letting out all her worries from the previous night. Cassandra was so worried, she even checked his torso for injuries, but he only had a couple of thin black scale lines on his arms, already healing themselves. She let out a long sigh of relief and the Prince put his hand around her neck.
“I was so worried.”
“You’re fine now.”
Didn’t he understand that she was worried about him at all? He only kept looking at her for a long time, like he was trying to capture her face in his mind, until Cassandra blushed. Kairen seemed a bit odd this morning.
“Is there something wrong, My Lord?”
“No.”
He got up and brought her one of the usual gold trays, with fruits, meat, and cheese. Cassandra was a bit lost though and ignored the food. She tried to think of what could be wrong.
“When did you get back, My Lord? I meant to wait for you, but I fell asleep…”
“Late in the night.”
“Did you get any sleep at all?” she asked, worried.
“I did.”
She frowned. She couldn’t even tell if he had slept beside her, she was too exhausted herself. Suddenly, she thought of something else.
“Is your dragon back yet?”
Kairen immediately frowned slightly.
“Not yet…He will be here soon.”
Was the problem with Krai then? Cassandra couldn’t help but worry about its absence. It didn’t seem usual for the dragon to leave, and go so far away and for so long, without its master. Did that explain Kairen’s odd behavior this morning?
Probably no one else but Cassandra would have noticed anything was different with the Prince, but she was sure. He even seemed a bit…uneasy. She grabbed a bit of food, eating in silence, lost in her thoughts. Kairen didn’t say a word either, watching her eat, sometimes taking some meat as well.
After a while, a little knock was heard on the door.
“Your Highness? May I come in?”
Nebora walked in as soon as Kairen gave permission, bringing in hot water and soap for Cassandra. Kairen got up and left without a word, leaving his concubine even more confused than before. She turned to Nebora.
“Nebora! Do you know what’s going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. His Highness is acting…odd.”

Her friend frowned, turning her head towards where the Prince had just left.
“Odd? How so? Come, I’ll help you bathe.”
It was weird to have her own friend help her take a bath, but Cassandra didn’t say no. She had gone to bed quite dirty last night and this was more than welcome. She got into the bath, where Nebora poured the hot water, and started washing herself.
“I don’t know, he seems uneasy.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Cassie. His Highness isn’t like usual? I couldn’t tell the difference. But the dragon isn’t back yet. Maybe it has to do with that. We saw it leave in the direction of the palace, didn’t we? Perhaps something happened there? I guess we won’t know until it comes back. Oh, I’ll wash your hair too, give me that.”
She let Nebora tend to her and help her wash her long brown hair, trying to relax a bit. Maybe she was just worrying too much and it was nothing. Yet she couldn’t shake off this feeling that something big was about to happen.
“He retrieved our stuff, by the way.”
“His Highness?”
“Yeah. He came back late last night with the chariot and everything in it! I already took your herbs to the storage, as we had discussed. Oh, and he even killed some snow leopards! It’s awesome, do you know how expensive their fur is? We can make you some great coats with that!”
Cassandra didn’t feel much about getting a snow leopard coat, but she was impressed by her Prince once more. He had managed to kill several of those beasts all by himself and carry their cart back home? The War God was truly worthy of his title!
Once she was done bathing, Nebora picked a new red dress for her and insisted that Cassandra wear some jewelry. After a bit of arguing, she was made to wear some little ruby earrings and a gold hairpin. Nebora even helped her apply a bit of lip balm and scented cream on her neck.
Cassandra felt a bit odd wearing so much, but she was prettier than ever. When she and Nebora got down to the castle’s open area, Marian and Prunie ran to them, all sparkles in their eyes.
“Cassandra, you look so pretty!”
“Are those real rubies?”
“Hands off!” said Nebora. “Don’t forget, Cassandra is our friend, but she’s also His Highness’ Concubine. Don’t touch her stuff with your dirty hands!”
“Nebora, you meanie!”
Cassandra chuckled at the girls’ bickering. She had missed all of them, and insisted on making some tea for them. They walked to the kitchen, meeting the rest of the castle’s staff there. Cassandra brought out some of her new herbs to make tea, all the younger girls watching her with expectation.
“It smells so good!” said Bina, humming.
“It’s citrus and mint tea,” explained Cassandra before serving them.
“A Concubine shouldn’t be pouring tea for servants,” said Patrina with a frown.
Nebora rolled her eyes at her.
“Who caies, it’s just tea and we are the only ones here.”
“Do you know where Krai or His Highness are?” asked Cassandra to Patrina.
“His Highness just went to the dragon’s field. His dragon might be coming back soon.”
“The dragon’s field?”
“More like his playground,” explained Nebora. “It’s the black dragon’s favorite spot, it usually lands there instead of directly inside the castle like last time.”
Cassandra immediately put down her teapot and grabbed her coat again, hurrying outside. Did this mean Krai was about to come back? Nebora and Prunie ran after her, but she was walking too fast. Nebora helped her find her a way outside to a little hill, where indeed, her Prince was standing still, a hand on his sword. He was looking at the sky when Cassandra walked up to him.
“My Lord?” she softly called him.
“Cassandra. What are you doing outside?”
It wasn’t so cold though and she walked easily through the thin coat of snow to get to him. He grabbed her as soon as she was in his reach, pulling her against him.
“Are you waiting for Krai to come back, My Lord?”
“Look.”
She turned her head up to where he was hinting at, a little dark shape appeared a couple of seconds later in the sky. Krai! It was obviously a dark dragon and she recognized its large size and way of agitating its tail even from such a distance. How high was it? It was slowly going down to them, getting closer with each flap of its wings. Cassandra felt her heart warm up a little as the dragon was coming down.
Something felt wrong, however. Krai was more agitated than usual. What was going on? It took her a while to realize a silhouette was standing on its back. Did the black dragon usually let someone ride it? Who was that?
With Krai coming closer, preparing to land, she finally recognized the feminine silhouette, totally surprised.
“Princess Shareen?”
A minute later, there was no more place for doubt. Krai landed swiftly, though it immediately ran to Cassandra, disregarding its rider.
Imperial Princess Shareen didn’t seem to be unbalanced, however. She got down with a little jump, landing perfectly on the snow. She was wearing a sexy purple dress and a little fur cape on her shoulders. She smirked upon seeing Cassandra, and Kairen next to her.
“Sister.”
“Hello, handsome. Happy to see your older sister?”
“Shut it. How did it go?”
Shareen stopped smiling, crossing her arms.
“Not as we expected, unfortunately. Someone took it before us.”
Kairen’s anger on his face scared even Cassandra, who had no idea what was going on. She slowly stepped aside, as Krai kept nudging her with its head, growling softly, repeatedly asking for her attention. 1
“Who?” asked her Prince, not hiding his anger.