Page 33 of The Dragon Shifters’ Enemy (Dragon’s Reign #7)
“Caden! You’re here! We’re having so much fun!
Marban and Valerius are giving me advice and it's actually really good,” she enthused, which had Valerius giving another grunt as to her surprise at their good advice, but then she sobered and asked, “But what’s wrong?
Have your friends been mean to you too?”
And over their bond, Valerius felt the crushing grief Caden had for Landry. He was only keeping it away by hoping against hope that Landry could be restored to life in some way. A magical death might mean a magical rebirth. Considering they didn’t know how the walls worked, Caden could be right.
“Till…” Caden said and Valerius felt the words stick in Caden’s mouth like shards of glass.
Landry had been Tilly’s friend, too. And considering what she’d just been feeling, adding a death on top of it…
Well, it might be much too much. Caden saw the dagger that she had stuck through the loop of her jeans. “Hey, where you’d get the treasure?”
“Isn’t it beautiful? It was a lady’s! King Valerius gave it to me! He’s like one of those knights in the stories!” Tilly beamed.
Valerius had not been like those noble knights.
Butchery had been more his trade. Rewarded with coins at the end.
He had been death incarnate on the battlefield.
There were only a few moments where he’d risen out of the blood-soaked miasma in which he existed to spare a flower or two.
But Tilly did not need the burden of that knowledge.
And he saw Caden not wanting to burden her with his knowledge either.
Send her to your parents, Caden, Valerius urged. Let them be the ones to tell her. Besides, you have something to discuss, yes?
Yeah, oh, man, yeah, Caden said.
Caden dropped down so that he was more or less eye-level with his sister and rubbed her arms. “Till, Mom and Dad want to talk to you. They’re back in our tower. Can you go there?”
Tilly gave her brother a narrow-eyed look. “You’re trying to get rid of me.”
“No--”
“But I’m your Councillor-in-Training!” she cried.
“That’s true and you’re doing a great job,” Caden assured her. “But our parents need to speak to you and I need to talk to these guys.”
“But--”
“Till.” Caden gave her a meaningful look.
Tilly pouted, but with an exasperated sigh said, “Fine! Fine! You go and have your special talk while our parents pretend to have something to say!”
Except, of course, it wasn’t pretend. Caden looked like he was being weighed down by chains.
“It’s important, Tilly,” Caden insisted. “Trust me.”
Tilly looked slightly alarmed, but finally nodded. She turned and grabbed another piece of bacon-wrapped sausage and said, “Thank you both so much, Marban, King Valerius!”
“You’re quite welcome, Tilly. You must let me know how things go with your friends,” Marban urged.
“I will!” Tilly left the tower.
Rose gazed after her and turned worried eyes towards Marban. Valerius had not sensed any ill intent from the Swarm Shifter, but he was sure that this behavior brought back unpleasant memories for her of when she’d been young and Marban had offered her a hand up.
“What has happened?” Valerius asked Caden, going over to the young man and drawing him into his arms.
He had thought it would be relatively safe for Caden to simply go to his parents’ tower. And yet, there was another crisis. The image of the wall appeared in Caden’s mind, but this wall was not in the mountains, but down below. Valerius went rigid.
“Where?” Valerius asked, his voice dangerously soft.
Everyone but Caden stared at him in confusion.
“The Below. Rose said she saw it after some construction had been done in one of the back passages. They’d knocked a hole in one of the brick walls and there was a corridor and then… there it was,” Caden explained.
Rose blinked. “I can’t quite get used to you being able to talk without talking.” But then she shook herself. “Not important right now. I know. What is important is that I can lead you to the wall.”
“We talked about that, Rose,” Wally said.
The wispy hairs on his head waved wildly.
“Our enemies don’t know we know about this wall.
If we go marching down there half-cocked, we’ll give ourselves away.
But if we set people to watch it, sooner or later we’ll find someone sniffing around there who shouldn’t be.
We follow them back to their leader or their group or whatever and we interrogate them. ”
Marban’s head had been snapping between all the parties. “You’ve found another wall in the Below?”
“Yes, Grandfather,” Rose said, dropping into her old ways of speaking to him as she grew tense.
“Why was I not told of this discovery when it was made?” Marban’s voice was congenial still, but Rose trembled a little.
Then she firmed her stance and said, “Because it didn’t seem important. I realized now I should have. But, at the time, it just looked like some grotesque artwork. It was a wall! Who would be alarmed at a wall?”
Valerius understood and it seemed so did Marban though he did lecture Rose a little.
“Now you understand why even the littlest things are important,” Marban said to her.
She nodded, looking rather miserable. “Yes, I do.”
“I get what Wally’s saying, but those walls are dangerous!” Caden cried. “Even now, people could innocently be going up to it and they could be sucked in!”
“It was in this little passage,” Rose said. “Off the beaten path to be sure. I don’t understand how a Dragon could get through there.”
“The other wall wouldn’t let a Dragon through either,” Caden admitted.
“All the more reason that we watch and see,” Wally said. “I’m betting that this Behemoth has a human form. We find out who that is? We’re golden!”
“I believe you are quite right, Wally,” Marban said.
“Though it pains you to say it, I’m sure.” Wally gave his old enemy a cool stare.
“You know me, I am a practical person. I find value in everything and everyone,” Marban answered, eyes narrowing.
Even though every single atom in Valerius wanted to storm down to the Below and rip that wall out of his city to protect their people, he knew that Wally’s plan was the right one.
What if the wall opened and out came their enemy?
They would finally know his or her face!
That would be invaluable. He put his hands on top of Caden’s shoulders and squeezed.
“I understand your fears, Caden. I do not want what happened to Landry and those others to happen to anyone else, but I think that Wally’s plan is the correct one to follow,” Valerius said.
Caden’s shoulders slumped. “Y-yeah, I guess you’re right. I just feel so helpless!”
“I do as well.” Valerius grimaced. “It is not a pleasing feeling.”
“Don’t worry about other people getting hurt, kid,” Wally said and put his hands on his hips, straightening himself up to perhaps five feet. Still he had a kind of nobility despite his small size. “I’ll make sure that no one gets within 100 yards of it.”
“Wally, are you going to be one of the watchers?” Caden looked alarmed.
Valerius understood this, too. Caden did not want to lose yet another friend to the wall.
“I think it should be me, kid. I’m one of the few Rat Shifters who can operate my rat bodies truly independently,” Wally told him with a little bit of pride. “So some of my rat bodies can always stay by the wall while others follow anybody suspicious.”
“That is true, but I do have quite the skilled Rat Shifters under my command as well,” Marban said.
“Not as good as me, Marban!” Wally wagged a finger at him.
“But, surely, you could have two Rat Shifters or--” Rose began.
“We don’t want to expose people to danger. If one person can do it, then it should only be one,” Wally interrupted. “Plus, let’s be honest here, we don’t know who we can trust outside of ourselves.”
“Are you sure you should be playing hero when you’re now a Councillor?” Marban asked.
“Caden’s largest concern is this wall. As his Councillor. I need to take care of it,” Wally answered as he lifted his chin. “And, besides, Landry was my friend, too. I tried to help her and it didn’t work. I can, at least, stop other people from suffering the same fate."
In a way, it was almost comical to see this little Rat Shifter with this much gumption, but Valerius appreciated that Wally was a Shifter of action.
“We need to set up a camera system as well,” Marban said, stroking his chin. “You cannot be on 24/7, Wally, no matter your skills.”
“I can easily set up small cameras. My rat-hands are the best!” Wally held up his human hands.
“I have equipment that will work just for this purpose,” Marban said and nodded. “We can start whenever you’re ready, Wally.”
“Now, I’m ready now.” Wally quivered with eagerness. “Can you lead me most of the way there, Rose?”
“Absolutely,” she said with a nod.
Valerius felt Caden stiffen again. Yet another of his friends was going near a wall. Valerius held him tighter.
“I know you want to come down with us, Caden, but you can’t. Your face is pretty famous,” Rose said.
“Yeah, yeah, just keep in touch all of the way, okay? And come back as soon as you can,” Caden told her and Wally. “Don’t take any chances. If there’s even a chance you’ve been spotted, get out of there.”
“We’ll be careful, kid. Don’t you worry.” Wally nodded.
“I will wish to have access to this video feed immediately,” Valerius said. “Marban, make that happen.”
“Oh, it will be done.” Marban’s eyes glittered. “That this enemy has moved into my territory… well, it shall regret it.”