“Do you have a better idea, perhaps? We were going to see if the Emperor can be saved anyway, Missandra. Perhaps Glahad won’t move a...claw to help us. At least it’s better than nothing, right?”
“This is us reducing our chances of getting killed by a dragon’s hair! And I know they don’t have any!”
Next to them, the young Concubine stood back up again, shaking her head. She grabbed Cassandra’s hand, as she was trembling herself, whilst looking her right in her eyes.
“Did you just say the Imperial Dragon’s name? Are you going to see the Emperor? Please, Lady Cassandra, you have to save him!”
Both sisters were flustered to see the young woman suddenly begging, but neither of them could react to her new burst of tears, as she held on desperately to Cassandra, her lower lips trembling. She didn’t look anything like the elegant young woman Cassandra had met only a few weeks ago. This was just a desperate girl, a mother begging for help to save her and her child.
“Please, you’re the Imperial Physician. You have to save his Highness! If the Emperor dies, I know he will kill us! The Second Prince will have us all exterminated, our children too!”
Against her leg, the young girl started crying too, echoing her poor mother’s distress. Cassandra’s heart broke. This little girl was so young, and she had just lost her father. How many of those children would have to grow up without their father now? They were all so terrorized already, but they were now living with the fear of their uncle finishing the job. Cassandra turned to her sister again, a determined expression in her eyes. Missandra couldn’t say anything, not anymore, not when they were so frantically being begged like so. The younger sister kept shaking her head in disbelief, but she didn’t voice her opinion anymore.
“I... I’ll go see the Emperor, Lady Chiara. Stay here with your daughter, it will be safer. Do not tell anyone you’ve seen us, please?”
“Of course, Lady Cassandra. Please, be careful. Some of my Prince’s Concubines are desperate. We are not stupid, none of us think Lady Berissa would have ever tried to harm our Prince! Even some of the Princesses are afraid!”
“What about the other Princes, by the way?” asked Missandra.
“We don’t know.”
Cassandra frowned. This was one thing she wished she could have resolved now. Not only were they in a den of wolves, but they couldn’t even be sure who was their enemy or not. She nodded, and gently retrieving her hand, she turned to Missandra.
“We should go, now.”
After checking their appearance, making sure nothing had been undone, the sisters left Lady Chiara, their hearts a bit heavier than before. Cassandra couldn’t get that little girl’s face out of her mind. She realized that somehow, she vaguely looked like her own son. Maybe it was because they were young, but those two children still had the same grandfather. That child was Kairen’s niece. So many innocent young lives were trapped here! The Concubines were more or less circled in the Second Prince’s residence. None of them had the means to leave, and they had no dragon to defend them either! With Sire locked in the cells underground, those women were nothing but prey for Vrehan to play with!
“We need to stop this,” muttered Cassandra, as they walked alone in a corridor.
“Let’s stay focused, we cannot make a mistake now,” whispered Missandra. “We’re lucky no one has recognized you yet, and that psycho isn’t here. Now, where is the old man?”
“The Emperor’s quarters were behind the room used for the banquets.”
“Why is this place so damn big!”
As they were about to turn left on a corridor, the sisters heard a ruckus, and stopped their steps at the exact same time, both frowning. They listened for a few seconds, but the situation was rather heated.
“You damn little bitches! I’m so fed up with this crap! You sluts! Get the fuck out of my way, go back to my pervert brother before I ruin my nails on your ugly faces! Uglies!”
Cassandra and Missandra absolutely froze. Though they had their doubts, this masculine voice and the mention of a pervert brother were enough clues to guess they had almost run into the fourth brother. They waited to see if he was coming this way, but it didn’t seem so, the sound of the man’s steps and whoever was following him were getting further away. Cassandra let out a silent sigh, while Missandra raised an eyebrow.
“Well, that explains why that one doesn’t have kids,” she muttered.
“Why?” asked Cassandra, confused.
Missandra rolled her eyes.
“That guy is definitely not into women. Trust me, I’ve seen a lot of guys like that in the Red District. This one is definitely a man-player. Plus, the only person I’ve heard being sassier than that guy is Lady Shareen, and that alone says a lot.”
“Oh...”
That did solve one mystery about the lack of descendants from Opheus, the Fourth Prince. However, that didn’t give any insight into his position towards his brothers. Was he affected by Sephir’s death? On Vrehan’s side, or uninterested? What of Prince Lephys? After what they had just heard, Cassandra crossed out any thought she ever had of asking for help from one of the other Princes. The relationships between all the siblings were too complicated and she had no idea who could be trusted or not at this point. Neither the Fourth or Fifth Prince had seemed close to Kairen, or even Sephir, from her experience. Nothing said they would agree with Vrehan becoming the Emperor either, though.
Waiting a bit for the path to clear, the sisters kept walking, until they finally arrived in the Banquet Hall. It was deserted at that time, and most importantly, the area was completely unused at the moment. It would have been suspicious for two servants to walk into a room not in use, with food trays, so the two sisters had to act quickly and not linger.
Cassandra remembered that whenever one of the Banquets she attended in the past was over, the Emperor left through a door behind his Golden Throne. The Emperor’s seat was so large and impressive, it seemed like a wall behind him, but Cassandra clearly remembered seeing Glahad curled up in that space, between the actual wall and his owner’s seat. No one wanted to go anywhere near the Imperial Dragon’s favorite spot, but she knew the doors to the Emperor’s apartments had to be behind that throne.
However, as soon as the sisters pretended to walk through the Banquet room, both noticed the men guarding that door. They pretended to chat and leave the room, but as soon as the door was closed behind them, Missandra shook her head.
