“Don’t worry, he won’t do anything to you.”
Cassandra walked her to the inner court, where the other slaves ran to take care of the young woman, giving her some clothes and checking her injury. Behind Cassandra, Krai noticed she was out, and stepped down to follow her, completely forgetting all about the building it had just destroyed. The slaves were still frightened by the dragon, but watching it happily growl at Cassandra and rub its snout against her arm, was definitely a unique sight.
“How many slaves are there?”
“About sixty,” said Ethen. “And about as many servants.”
Cassandra sighed a bit. She had hoped it’d be less.She was about to turn to walk out and ask for Kairen’s permission, when she stopped. She remembered his words, right before she walked in here. She should do this on her own this time. No more asking for permission. Taking a deep breath, she turned again, facing the crowd in the outer garden.
“I’m on my way to the Slave Market, to get this thing off my neck. I…I am an Imperial Concubine, now. If you want to follow me, I can do the same for you.”
“Where will we go next?” asked one of the middle-aged women.
“I can offer you jobs…but not to everyone. Some will have to find work on their own. I only need about twenty people to accompany me back to the Onyx Castle.”
A lot of people were hesitating. It was disheartening to Cassandra, but she easily understood them. Most of these people had spent their whole lives working in this place. In the outside world, they had no idea of what they’d become. Even if it was a different person holding it, they would always fear the whip of another Master.
Suddenly, someone banged on the door behind her.
“You wench! You shall die by the-!”
*chomp*
Cassandra turned to look at what the odd sound was. Behind her, Krai froze like a dog caught doing something wrong. The dragon turned its red eyes to the side, obviously to avoid hers. The inert leg hanging out from its maw was a dead give-away, though.
“Krai…”
The Black Dragon turned its head away, pretending not to hear. Behind her, all the slaves were silently horrified. Did that dragon just…? Someone in the group loudly threw up, while Krai was trying to chew slowly, as if Cassandra couldn’t see it. There was only one shoe left on the ground.
She sighed. She didn’t think the dragon would really eat him…
“Did your dragon eat the Master?” Innocently asked Mira.
“We’re all dead,” whispered one of the men. “They won’t forgive this… The family… They will kill her and kill us for this…”
Cassandra turned to him, annoyed.
“This is an Imperial Dragon! No one will do anything to you anymore, I promise!”
“You’ll just sell us to the next Master! What do you care, now that you’re one of them?”
“Cassie won’t do that!” yelled Mira, running to her side. “She is our friend!”
Most of the young people nodded in agreement. To them, Cassandra had been like an older sister, silent and helpful most of the time. Even if she had been gone for months, they remembered her gentleness that no one else had shown them after she had left. Ethen, along with a few young slaves, confidently walked over to her side as well.
“Nowhere can be worse than here anyway,” growled the woman from before, joining them.
After that woman spoke, a few others came along. Cassandra knew most of them, but they had barely interacted before. That woman was known as Yasora, one of the slaves that worked in the kitchens. The ones staying behind were all staring at her with defiant looks, either doubtful or scared of the Dragon.
Cassandra sighed.
“Fine. We can...”
“Cassandra.”
She turned around. Kairen, impatiently, had arrived inside. As he came to her side, a few people stepped away, too afraid of an Imperial Family member. Though he didn’t wear any purple clothing, they could tell who he was just by the scales left on his skin, his armor, and his behavior.
He wrapped his arm around her waist, glancing at the people present.
