Page 32 of The Dragon Shifters’ Enemy (Dragon’s Reign #7)
Treasure
V alerius and Marban had discussed the “unfortunate” Alice, Rachel and Sam with Tilly from every angle possible. They’d mostly focused on what Tilly’s plans should be going forward regarding friends. Alice, Rachel and Sam would not be roasted at this time. But they wouldn’t be rewarded either.
Marban was quick to point out to Tilly that she would have far more people wanting to be her friend going forward than those who rejected her, likely in a bid not to be rejected by her.
It was also determined that she should have those who had remained loyal to her over for lunch the next day. Valerius had granted they could even use the royal dining room.
“Will the servants be serving us food?” Tilly’s nose had scrunched up at the thought.
“Are you going to run back and forth yourself to get food while your guests are sitting there?” Valerius had asked. “It’s quite the walk.”
“Oh, I guess I see your point. But I don’t want to make the staff do more work for us. Maybe sandwiches or something that they can set out and not worry about?” Tilly suggested, still looking uncomfortable at the idea of being served.
“You should talk to Moreno, the head chef, and work out what you would like,” Valerius had suggested.
Tilly’s eyes had gone huge. “The head chef? He’d speak to--to me? About what I want for lunch?”
“You’re living in High Reach, my dear,” Marban had explained gently, understanding where she was coming from before Valerius did. “You are the sister of the ninth Dragon Shifter. Speaking to head chefs and being served will become normal.”
“I don’t know if I want it to be normal,” Tilly admitted as she stared into the fire speculatively.
“Are we ever going to go back to our house and live? Like when this is over? Not that this place isn’t totally cool and amazing, because it is!
But everything happened so fast, I didn’t even get a chance to…
to… I don’t know what I’m trying to say. ”
Valerius thought about how to answer this.
He met Marban’s dark eyes. In the Swarm Shifter’s face he read there that this was delicate ground.
Valerius was not delicate. Dragon in a china shop more like.
But he didn’t think that lying to Tilly or even giving her false hope was wise.
He wondered if he should give her a glass of wine for this, but then he reminded himself that 13 year-olds weren’t offered wine in the United States.
Just because it had become his territory, he hadn’t changed any of those laws.
So nothing to soften the blow, Valerius thought.
She misses her lair. It is probably a pink and white lair, but it was hers, Raziel stated. Its eyes were closed to mere slits and smoke drifted out lazily between its sharp, pointed teeth.
Yes, she likely did not have a chance to say goodbye to it. And when she’s here, she has Illarion chasing her around the dining room. Not an auspicious beginning, Valerius muttered.
She outwitted stupid, slow Green Dragon, Raziel stated with evident glee.
Valerius almost smiled at the image, but he realized a smile now would be incredibly confusing to Tilly. So he quickly adopted a sober and serious expression with as much tenderness as he could bring up.
“No, most likely not,” Valerius answered her.
She blinked rapidly--probably to stop tears from coming again--and bobbed her head.
“I thought not. I just… I thought my old life was so dumb and boring. Here, Caden is a Dragon Shifter, and I get to meet you guys and all the other Dragons. Everything is so… so… amazing. So why do I just miss my own bed?”
“Change is the most difficult thing we face, Tilly,” Marban told her. “So it is quite understandable you feel this way.”
She quickly swiped her face with the back of her hands. “I’m sorry. You both are really important. This isn’t. I should go.”
“Wait, Tilly,” Valerius found himself saying.
She looked up at him expectantly. He shifted from foot to foot. He was terrible at talking to little girls. Even ones as smart and direct as Tilly Bryce.
“Raziel thinks…” He cleared his throat as her eyes widened. Marban’s did too. “Raziel thinks you need to have your own lair again.”
“My… lair?” Both of Tilly’s eyebrows shot up.
“A place that is yours alone. That you feel safe in. And… have your treasures,” Valerius answered.
“The Black Dragon said that?” Tilly sounded awed.
“Yes, Raziel did. And I think Raziel is right. Once you have a lair again, it doesn’t matter what changes come your way, because you have your safe spot,” Valerius told her.
“Now, your things from your old lair have been brought to the castle, but because your new lair here is so different, it might be hard to see it as your own.”
Tilly shrugged. “I guess so. But it is a beautiful room though. I’ll get used to it, I’m sure.”
“Undoubtedly you will. But hold on a moment. Let me get something,” Valerius said.
He crouched down and leaped onto one of the platforms above. He went to his clothes platform and found the gold jewelry box. He flipped open the lid. Inside was a small curved dagger in a jeweled hilt. He took it and lightly leaped down onto the ground floor again. Tilly’s mouth was agape.
“That is--that jumping and landing thing is way cool,” she breathed.
“Some of us just have to show off,” Marban muttered.
Tilly giggled at the old Swarm Shifter. “You’re normally the center of attention, Marban, you have to give King Valerius some moments, too.”
Marban put a hand to the center of his chest and said with mock shock, “Me? Center of attention? Never.”
Tilly giggled again. She turned back to Valerius who held out the dagger to her. Her eyes were widening again.
“Is that for me?” she asked.
“It is,” Valerius said.
“You would give a girl a weapon,” Marban snickered, but not unkindly.
She took the beautiful dagger out of his much larger hands into her two small ones. She drew the blade out halfway. It glittered.
“Be careful, it is sharp,” Valerius warned.
She nodded and carefully resheathed it before turning it over and over in her hands, looking at the rubies and emeralds set into it.
“It’s beautiful,” Tilly breathed.
“You must have treasures in your lair,” Valerius said, passing along Raziel’s thoughts on this.
His Dragon Spirit did not like to give away anything shiny and the dagger was shiny. But it had never really belonged to them. It felt right that they should pass it on to Tilly.
Tilly looked up at him. “Whose was it? Before yours?”
“She was around your age, but already married,” Valerius said.
“Ick. Married?” Tilly looked horrified.
“People died young back then. Thirty was old so you would be at almost half your lifespan already,” he explained.
“Whoa, that’s freaky.” She looked down at the dagger again and smoothed a thumb over the rubies. “Who was she?”
“I never knew her name. She was a noble and I was one of the hordes that washed over the castle’s walls,” he said, remembering the screams of men and women, the acrid scent of smoke and crackling of fires. “I found her hiding in a crawlspace. She had that dagger.”
Tilly drew in a sharp breath. “You didn’t--no, you wouldn’t kill a little girl, would you? Even if she was married?”
He shook his head. “No, though she was intent on sticking me with that until I convinced her I wasn’t going to hurt her.”
He would remember quite clearly the look of confusion and then hope that had appeared on her cut and bruised face. Her royal robes were tattered. Her hair had fallen around her face. He’d offered his hand to her.
“Come with me,” he had said, “I will get you out of here safely.”
“What about her husband?” Tilly asked.
“Died in the fighting. But he was an old man compared to her. And none too kind to her from what I could tell,” Valerius said.
“She did not mourn him. I got her to a sea port so that she could escape from that land. It was all going to be blood soaked and burned to the ground before the year was out.”
“And she gave you this dagger as thanks?” Tilly asked, clutching the dagger to her chest as if protecting the young noble woman she had never known.
“Yes. I did not want thanks. I just wanted…” Valerius’ lips pressed together. “I just wanted to see one thing unblemished.”
Too much death, Raziel rumbled, remembering that time, too. And for the Black Dragon to say that, it meant something.
Tilly nodded. He wasn’t sure she truly understood, but she clearly felt for him. He shook himself.
“So it seemed right to give it to you,” Valerius said, trying to sound everyday about this.
Tilly though was giving him one of those Caden-smiles that had him shuffling and unsure what to do.
“You’re wonderful, King Valerius!” Tilly cried.
And then she was hugging him. He stood there quite awkwardly. Marban mimicked putting his arms around her, which Valerius did. Gingerly. Finally, she released him from the hug, though she kept smiling and gazing upon him with that utter trust in his wonderfulness.
Valerius cleared his throat. “Yes, well, let’s sit back down and eat. Raziel is hungry.”
“Dragons need to eat a lot,” Tilly agreed and they both made their way back to the grill.
A comfortable silence fell as they ate bacon wrapped sausage and peppers stuffed with cream cheese.
Of course, that’s when things got interesting again.
Caden, Rose and Wally burst into the tower, which had Marban lifting an eyebrow as he delicately wiped cream cheese from his chin.
Valerius had a mouthful of steak and could only make a grunt as to what was the matter.
Tilly jumped up and embraced her brother around the waist, somehow not managing to drop or get on Caden the little sandwich she’d made of pepper, sausage and bacon.