Time to Meet the Clan Leaders
“How long have I been asleep?” I asked as I munched, feeling a little awkward with the silence that fell between us.
Izel tilted his head to the side as he thought about my question. “My guess is that it is close to midday. Your body clearly needed the rest, and I wasn’t going to wake you when the others could manage things for now.”
“What do you mean, manage things? What’s going on?” I demanded, worry causing me to drop the bread I was eating. “Has something happened to Vasin or Gavin? Speaking of the crown prince, where did he end up in all this? I can’t believe I forgot about him!”
I shot to my feet without thinking, and the shooting pain in my leg took my breath away, making me immediately fall back onto my chair.
“Calm yourself, My Queen,” Izel murmured as he rested a hand on my shoulder. “Dayson and May have been looking after him…”
He was going to say more but then seemed to think better of it.
“Where are they looking after him?”
It was written all over his face that he didn’t want to tell me, but he sighed and answered, “In a cell. The rest of the people refused to let him wander around and didn’t listen to us guardians when we wanted to put him under guard in a dwelling away from the others.”
“He’s in a cell? Take me to him right now!” I shouted.
“As you wish, Your Majesty,” Izel answered as he bent down to pick me up.
Izel moved swiftly and smoothly down the trail, bringing us to the cavern’s main area where I saw people gathered around the firepits, working and cooking while children played under the watchful eyes of their mothers.
How could they sit here like nothing was wrong when a man who’d done nothing to them was sitting in a cell?
Had I been wrong about these people? They spoke of the clans and their love and loyalty to one another, yet when I told them Gavin had my protection, they ignored it.
My heart sank when we left the main area and entered another tunnel that led deeper into the mountain.
At the end, there were two guards armed and at the ready with grim looks on their faces.
When they saw us approaching, they stood at attention, bowing to me as Izel stopped before them, setting me on my feet.
“Is it true that Crown Prince Gavin is locked up here?” I asked, needing to hear it from someone who wasn’t one of my guardians.
The two men looked at each other with a worried look. “Yes, Your Majesty, he is in a cell with two of your guardians.”
“Did my guardians ask you to remove him from the cell?” I pushed.
“Yes.”
“Then could you explain to me why he is still there?”
“The clan leaders disagreed with your guards that he should be free to wander. That it would be better to keep an eye on him here,” one answered, not meeting my eyes as he spoke.
I turned to Izel. “Now correct me if I’m wrong, as I’m still learning the finer details of being queen, but aren’t you supposed to be able to speak for me in matters I cannot oversee myself?”
“That is correct, Your Majesty,” Izel answered with a glint of irritation in his eyes over the matter.
Bringing my focus back to the two guards, I tried to hold back my anger, knowing it wasn’t their fault. They were listening to the leaders they had been following their entire lives. I was new, and unlike what Ballard had me believe, not everyone was happy to have royalty back in the clans.
“Would you be so kind as to get my guardians and Prince Gavin?” I asked, falling back on my mother’s training to keep my emotions from showing.
“It seems there needs to be a meeting with the clan leaders over this matter. Therefore, I will keep him with me until we can find a more fitting resolution to this issue.”
Both guards bowed and headed deeper into the tunnel to do as I asked.
“Izel, it seems I have yet another thing to add to my growing list of things to handle. How long would it take to get all the clan leaders together? I feel the matter of who is in control needs to be addressed first and foremost, or nothing will get done.” I sighed.
“Once Dayson and May join us, I will personally gather them,” Izel answered, resting his hands on my shoulders.
Instinctively, I leaned into him, letting him take some of the weight off my leg.
If you’d told me six months ago that I would allow someone I hardly knew to touch me in such a manner, I would have laughed.
Initially, Abbott and Cole had been extremely careful with me, keeping their physical interactions minimal.
Once I stopped flinching whenever they reached out toward me, casual touches became more common, and I grew more confident.
It didn’t take long for the guards to return with Dayson, May, and Gavin following them.
Gavin seemed a little frazzled, with his thick, curly blond hair wild and dark shadows around his deep blue eyes from lack of sleep.
When he saw me, his relief made me feel even worse about the whole situation.
I bet a crown prince didn’t have much practice being a prisoner, and in the past few days, he’s been held captive by two different groups.
If I wanted any chance of building relations with the king and queen, I needed to fix this quickly.
“Are you all right, Your Majesty?” I asked once they reached us.
“I am very thankful to be out of that cell, but your guardians made sure I was looked after and had everything I needed,” Gavin answered, giving me a half-hearted smile. “It seems you have come to my rescue once again, Lady Cassarah.”
My cheeks heated with his words. “Just doing my part as someone who was once your subject.”
“My Queen, if I have your leave, I will leave you with Dayson and gather the clan leaders as you asked,” Izel cut in, drawing my attention back to the other people standing here.
I wasn’t sure if it was a side effect of the prince’s Birthright that I always seemed to lose myself in his presence. “Yes, thank you, Izel. I’ll be fine.”
Izel waited until Dayson was by my side before he let go of my shoulders, bowed, and headed quickly out of the tunnel.
Tilting my head up to see Dayson’s gaze, I resigned myself to what I had to ask next. “It would seem I’m not allowed to walk on my own two feet, so if I might impose on you—”
Before I could finish the sentence, I was swept up into his arms. I wrapped mine around his neck, holding him tightly as he immediately started out of the tunnel.
“There is no reason to formally request my help, Your Majesty. I’m your guardian and here to assist and keep you safe.
Letting you walk on that leg would mean I am failing at my true purpose. ”
I let out a bark of laughter at his words. “It is not your job to carry me around like an infant, Dayson.”
“On that, we will have to disagree. Now, what is this about Izel gathering the clan leaders?”
Sensing I wouldn’t win this argument, I allowed him to change the subject. “Seeing as it was their call to overrule me and my guardians and keep the crown prince locked up, I felt we needed to sort out a few things.”
May chuckled from where she was walking next to us. “This is going to be fun. How do you think those old coots will take being scolded by our new queen, Day?”
“Seeing as one of them is my father… not well,” Dayson muttered.
“Your father is the leader of the Bronze Reaper clan?” I gasped.
“My Queen, you picked sons from all the leaders of the other clans,” May chimed in, far too pleased with being the one to share this information.
“Vasin, in the days when the magic picked out the guardians for the king or queen, were they offspring of the clan leaders?”
“During that time, there were no clan leaders. This started once a new king or queen became more infrequent.”
“Do you think my magic picked them because they were?”
“I’m not sure there is an answer I can give to that question, but I do know your magic will always do what is best for you and the clans. If it felt that having them as your guardians was the best option in bonding them all together once more, then yes.”
“Do they have a place here for you to be comfortable? With everything that happened last night, I feel like I abandoned you and Gavin.”
“Dear Cass, do not worry about me. I am fine now that you are back. I could feel how tired you were on top of being in pain, so I do not mind. Try not to worry about things that do not need your worry. This place was made to house dragons, and I have Tahir to keep me company. He has been sharing his stories of his adventures with Jade.”
“Anything I should know about?”
“No, I will let the man tell you himself when he is ready, but I am no longer worried about you being safe with him since he bears your mark.”
“Does that do anything special?”
“Yes, but we will deal with that once you’re finished with your clan meeting. One step at a time, Cass, and remember, you are not in this alone.”
Letting out a huff, I pulled my attention back to my current surroundings, being carried into a good-sized cave with a large table in the middle of the space.
This had to be a strategy room because in the middle of the table was a massive map of our country and the lands that bordered it.
Dayson set me down at the head of the table and pulled out a chair, but I ignored it to hobble over to the map.
I leaned over the table and absorbed everything I saw.
This had to be one of the most detailed maps I’d ever seen of the place we called home.
It had more to it than most I’d used with my father and showed places I didn’t even know existed or we’d mapped out.
“There are Unclaimed Dragon Lands?” I asked no one in particular.
“You have a dragon, and you don’t know this? Where do you think all the dragons who don’t bond with someone go?” a snide voice asked behind me.
I stiffened at his words which sounded so much like something my mother would say to me.
Gripping the back of the chair next to me, I turned, putting all my weight on my good leg to face off with whoever this man was.
He was far older than me with a harsh-looking face as if he’d been out in the sun too long for many years.
His white hair was pulled away from his face in a low ponytail, giving him an even more severe appearance.
His ice-blue eyes gave away which of my guardians he was a father to.
I hadn’t spent much time with Payson, but he seemed to be the exact opposite of his father, which I was now very grateful for.
Plastering a pleasant smile on my face, I greeted the man. “Who might I have the pleasure of addressing?”
“Porvan, clan leader of the Wind Fist clan and father to your guardian, Payson,” he answered without any sign of respect for who I was to his people.
Porvan might not see me as his queen, but I would attend to that issue later.
There was no way I could let him show me such disrespect in front of the other clan leaders.
If I completely lose the respect of one, then the rest will quickly follow after.
That was just a fact. From all my training, I knew this is where battles were won and lost. If the leadership couldn’t work together, then everything would fail.
Porvan would have to fall in line or be executed—there was no in-between.
If I banished him, he had too much knowledge that would cripple us, even if it might give me more favor with the people.
I prayed I might win him over, or my first act as queen would be to kill the father of one of my guardians, and that was not the best scenario.
I decided to wait on the matter since Ballard, three other men, and the rest of my guardians entered the room.
“Looks like we are all here. Let’s take our seats, shall we?” I offered as I took a tentative step forward.
I managed to keep the pain off my face, but I knew I wouldn’t make it to my spot on my own.
Without asking, Payson walked right up to me and took my arm in his so I could lean against him.
Clinging to him, I managed to move without much of a limp, refusing to look weak in front of the wolves in the room watching for any sign I might crumble.
This was my audition, and it had to be perfect.