Chapter 82
Chapter 82
#82 The Last Week
Under Kareen’s impulse, their departure was put in motion quite promptly. None of them had much to
bring back to the Diamond Palace anyway, so they took their time having breakfast and let the servants
prepare whatever they needed to pack.
Once again, they had breakfast in the Imperial Concubine’s Garden, much to Krai’s pleasure, as he
could lay next to Cassandra and nap in the rising sunlight. S. As everyone had been woken up quite
abruptly, they somehow agreed to take their time while having breakfast. They even waited for
Missandra to wake up, and Anour showed up before their departure too. 2
As promised, they were ready to depart soon after dawn. To Cassandra’s surprise, The first Prince’s
concubines, who had heard of the news, showed up to bid her goodbye before she left. Cassandra
gave them a couple more recommendations about Prince Sephir’s health and politely said goodbye. (2)
Krai seemed ready for its flight, stretching its wings and walking around in the garden, a bit impatient.
To everyone’s surprise, Roun, Anour’s green dragon, actually showed up too. 6
“I’ll accompany you,” said the young Prince. “This way, I can take older sister Shareen straight to the
northern border and save you some time! I want to go help her at the border, too, the Imperial Palace is
so boring!”
“Fine,” said Kareen, with a pout. “Aren’t you two just in a hurry to leave me to go play with swords!”
After that, she got on Krai’s back, as if it was her dragon, Cassandra wondered what a young Kareen
handling baby Krai would have been like… The black Dragon always seemed happy to see the
Imperial Concubine, growling softly at her the same way he did Cassandra. She secretly wished her
own son’s dragon would have a similar attitude to her even when she would be old… (5
Missandra and Dahlia both agreed to climb on Roun’s back, behind Anour, as the Green Dragon was
smaller and less scary to them than Krai. Shareen climbed on Krai’s back after her mother, and both
her and Kairen helped Cassandra up.
Just like that, the little group took off without much of a ceremony.
It had been a little while since her last flight, and Cassandra took a deep breath, hoping she wouldn’t
get nauseous again. Slowly, the Imperial Palace got smaller under them, and she realized once again
how big it actually was. She thought about her Medicinal Garden, and wished she could have brought it
back with them. It was a pity she had only gotten to use it a couple of times… 3
As it was still quite early, the sky was colder than usual. Cassandra was wrapped up in one of the fur
coats, and held on tightly by her Prince, as usual, while Krai was peacefully flying to the Diamond
Palace. The Dragon knew the way all too well, and it was an easy ride for him. Actually, he even
bickered a bit with his younger brother, Roun and him fooling around, growling at each other and trying
to bite each other’s tail playfully. They kept changing spots, one above and one under until Kairen and
Anour had them stop before the women on both sides got sick. (3)
To Cassandra’s surprise, Roun was slimmer and smaller, but considerably faster than the black dragon.
His personality, for what she had seen so far, seemed to match that of Anour, too, being more cunning
and curious than Krai.1
The two of them kept playing more quietly for the rest of the ride, but, as they arrived above the
Diamond City, Krai got more interested in the Diamond Palace. He accelerated a bit, in a hurry to land
there. Both Dragons knew the place well, and didn’t need to be told where to go. Actually, another
dragon’s growls welcomed them as they landed in one of the larger gardens.
“Hello my darling,” said Kareen, getting off first.
Srai, the little Dragon, was excited to see her, jumping all around the place and growling loudly. He
even bumped into Krai a couple of times without even caring. While Kareen caressed him, calming the
young dragon a bit,
Shareen jumped off Krai’s back, and Kairen helped Cassandra down too. 3)
On another end of the garden, Anour was helping Dahlia and Missandra down, too. The two girls were
a bit green and white, but they took deep breaths once they were on the grass, relieved.
“I’m never, ever getting on one of those creatures again…” muttered Missandra, still shaking a bit,
walking back to Cassandra with a frown.
Dahlia was quiet, but her expression was not very good either. Cassandra felt a bit sorry for them. She
had ridden on Krai’s back over a dozen times, and was still feeling a bit sick at times. Moreover, the
Dragons had made the girls’ first trip a bit rowdy…
Behind them, Krai was a bit impatient. He kept growling and tottling in circles, getting grumpy. The
Imperial Concubine sighed.
“Oh, enough, enough… Let’s go.”
Cassandra, too, was sharing his excitement, just a bit more quietly. They followed the Imperial
Concubine into several corridors. Unlike the Imperial Palace, the Diamond Palace was more Dragon-
friendly, and full of roof-less rooms. Hence, even if the adult-sized Dragons couldn’t follow in one room,
they would find a way to reunite with the little group through another opening. Behind Cassandra,
Missandra kept staring around, impressed, just like her sister the first time. Cassandra chuckled once
she noticed this. Indeed, the Diamond Palace was much more to their taste, with all of its wild plants
growing freely, wide-open spaces, sunny chambers, and the many water fountains and natural rivers
crossing here and there.
“Here it is.”
For once in the Palace, Kareen had to open a lock for them to access to another large indoor garden. It
could be accessed through the open roof for the dragons, but for humans, it would have been
impossible to climb, with such height and the slippery stonewall.
Hence, when she walked in, Cassandra found Krai already circled up around his egg, rubbing his snout
against it.
Cassandra couldn’t describe the warm feeling that filled her heart upon being reunited with the Dragon
Egg. She walked up to it, putting her hands on its warm shell.
“Is that…” asked Missandra.
“Our future nephew’s Dragon,” explained Shareen.
Quickly, she explained to the younger sister about the Dragon’s eggs and birth, while Cassandra and
Krai were happily re-discovering the egg. It had indisputably grown since last time. It was now about as
tall as a ten-year old child! Once again, it reacted to Cassandra’s presence, the shiny light inside
glowing where she was putting her hands, or where Krai was sniffing.
“You’re telling me the… The Black Dragon is a female?” Whispered Missandra, confused.
“Dragons are agendered, they are neither female or male. Dragons are a unique kind of creatures, as
they don’t reproduce like humans or animals.”
“They just need to pee and poop.”
“Shareen!”
Behind them, Anour laughed, but was soon interrupted by some furious growls. Roun and Srai, curious,
had shown up, the first above and the second from the door, and were brutally growled at by Krai.
The Black Dragon was fiercely defending its egg, warning the two other dragons from coming closer.
Actually, Cassandra noticed that, aside from her prince, Kareen and her, none of the other people
present had walked further than the entrance of the garden. Though she could understand about
Missandra and Dahlia standing away from the black Dragon, as his size was taking up most of the
space, she was surprised that Anour and Shareen had
stayed back too.
She had thought it was because there wasn’t much space, but seeing how even Roun and Srai couldn’t
approach the egg, Cassandra realized Krai would have probably chased them too…
She gently patted the black dragon to calm it down, while the other two gave up and retreated a bit.
“This egg is getting bigger than expected…” said Shareen.
“Is it a problem?” asked Cassandra, worried.
“Of course not. Your son will probably be stronger than the norm, but that’s not so surprising given his
lineage!”
Cassandra smiled. How she wished she could see her baby and his dragon soon! She wanted to guess
it’s size, it’s color, but she truly had no idea. Would he be black like Krai? Or maybe another color?
Roun and the other dragons were all of amazing colors as well.
Krai, too, was affectionately rubbing his snout against his egg, growling softly. Had he missed the egg
as well? After a while of watching the dragon’s affectionate behavior, Cassandra stood up and walked
to Kairen, hugging her Prince. Sometimes, she forgot that Krai was an embodiment of his tamer’s
emotions…
The War God hugged her, keeping her in his arms, gently caressing her back.
With a gesture from the Imperial Concubine, everyone else but the couple and the black dragon
cleared the room in a few seconds to give them some privacy. As they were now alone in the little RêAd lat𝙚St chapters at Novel(D)ra/ma.Org Only
garden. Cassandra smiled and, with a bit of boldness, stood on her toes to kiss him lovingly.
Of course, Kairen answered her kiss back. For a while, they were alone with his Dragon, exchanging
tender kisses and hugging. Truth was, Cassandra hadn’t been able to relax like so in a while. Not since
they had left the Diamond Palace, actually. Now that they were back in Lady Kareen’s domain, the
young concubine could finally breathe a little, and not be on guards at all times. Missandra was there
too, so she didn’t have to worry about her younger sister either.
Those feelings transferred into her bold kisses and the hands with which she gently caressed her War
God, her man. Kairen was agreeably surprised. He had noticed Cassandra was uneasy during their
stay at the Imperial Palace, but he had never thought coming back to the Diamond Palace would free
her like so.
For a while, they kept exchanging kisses, hugging and caressing each other. However, they were
unwilling to leave this room. As they both run out of breath, Cassandra chuckled, resting her head on
his shoulder, in a way that she could look at the egg and Krai wrapped around it.
“I hope it will rain soon,” she whispered. “I don’t want to part with you yet…”
“I will be back as soon as I can. You can stay here, and rest. Take care of yourself and the baby.”
She nodded, putting her arms around his neck. Cassandra wasn’t worried about staying behind at the
Diamond Palace, but she hated the idea of parting with him. She had such fond memories of her time
with him in the north, in the military camp…
However, things were different this time; she couldn’t follow him into this battle. Cassandra sighed and
turned to Kairen.
“We have about a week, right?” she whispered.
“Until the Imperial Army reaches here, yes.”
“Let’s just stay together as much as we can… please?”
Cassandra’s begging voice, when she was pleading like that, was the most desirable thing in the world,
in the War God’s eyes. Kairen softly smiled and, without saying anything else, suddenly lifted her,
taking her into a wild kiss, out of the room and to where they could really be alone…