Page 8 of The Dragon Shifters’ Enemy (Dragon’s Reign #7)

The commotion he caused by these words only seemed to please Anwar more. He was the center of attention and, therefore, in his element.

“Do you have some proof of this?” Marban asked.

He had sidled in without Valerius knowing.

Valerius turned to him and Marban gave him a nod.

Valerius nodded back. Marban, Wally and Rose were all standing together.

Wally had made himself a sandwich from the roast beef and was sipping a mug full of frothy beer.

Marban was drinking wine--absent Ambrosia--and nibbling on tomatoes filled with goat cheese.

Rose was beside him, holding her wine glass in both of her hands.

“I do have proof.” Anwar took his phone out of his back pocket and held it up as if it were an exhibit.

Valerius had the urge to snatch it from his hands and crush it.

There was no uber-Dragon. He and Raziel reigned supreme!

And yet, he was frozen as Anwar asked, “Chione, can I cast a video on a larger screen?”

Chione nodded. She placed her plate and glass on the table before going over to a touch pad by a set of doors on the right wall. A screen descended from the ceiling by the head of the table. She then went over to Anwar to help him connect to the system.

“You have a video of the Behemoth?” Illarion asked as he chewed with his mouth open. Valerius shuddered.

“I do and I will show you now,” Anwar said as he tapped on his phone and the screen at the end of the table ignited.

Valerius found that he was holding his breath as a grainy video began to play. It showed the desert at night. Rolling sand dunes silvered by the fat, white moon that hung huge and heavy in the sky. The footage was shaky as it was obviously taken on a phone with someone running low to the ground.

A woman’s voice, low and whispery, started to speak, “I followed her out here. I’ve known for months something was wrong.

She was secretive, which wasn’t like her at all.

She could never keep a secret for the life of her.

So it was obvious that she was holding back something big.

But it was the other changes that worried me. That scared me.”

The unseen videographer was crawling up a sand dune now.

Valerius could hear the shush of sand and the rush of her breathing as she scrambled up the soft side.

Finally, she reached the top of the dune and looked over.

She immediately slammed down to the ground.

The phone showed them only darkness before she lifted it and dusted sand grains from the lens.

Finally, she slowly and carefully lifted the phone up so that they could see whatever had caused her to hit the deck.

“There they are,” she whispered as the video showed a ruin that had no roof and was missing most of the walls. “She’s--she’s in the center by the fire.”

As the unseen videographer stated, there was a huge bonfire in the center of the ruins.

The golden-orange light showed dozens of people dressed in white robes surrounding the fire.

They were all facing the back wall, which was the one that was most intact.

And on that wall was a sculpture of a massive Dragon with many heads.

Valerius felt a strange thrill at the nape of his neck. Caden’s right hand curled around his and the White Dragon Shifter squeezed it as if giving him comfort. And it was comforting. He kissed Caden’s temple.

“I’ve not begun this the right way at all, Chadi. I should have started at the beginning. I’ll try now just in case I get caught,” the videographer said and he heard the sand shift as she dug herself deeper into it so that only the camera and her head were above the dune’s peak.

“I had told you how strange Sakhra was acting. About how we found the dead cats and then--and then little Layan.” There was a choked sound, but it was soft as she clearly feared discovery.

“Sakhra killed her, Chadi. I know that it is hard to believe. My sister! The one who used to pick up spiders with her bare hands and take them outside the house instead of squishing them. But she did it. I know .”

The robed figures began to sway. Their hands lifted up slowly towards the stone hydra and then to the stars above.

The camera followed them shakily, but going surprisingly steady when the night sky was revealed.

The stars were like jewels against the black backdrop.

There was no light pollution from cities to disturb that view.

Valerius had a momentary pang from memories of ages past where the sky had always looked like that.

“She mourned Layan’s death with the rest of us. But she never cried. She would pretend to, but there were no tears,” the videographer said. “There was only disappointment , I think. Disappointment that Layan had not become a Shifter.”

Valerius’ brow filled with thunder. This was connected with the Faith. As if the white robes didn’t give it away, this statement would. Caden looked up at him meaningfully. He thought the same as Valerius. The Faith. Behemoth.

“Then there were the other deaths. The beggars. The old people. Those who had no family to mourn them properly. She was always nearby when it happened. I swear she gave the beggars poisoned food and the elderly injections!”

The woman’s voice rose and one of the figures down below looked up and she laid flat again and remained silent. There was only the hiss of wind over the sand. When no one came, she lifted the camera.

“It is insane that someone who loved life would become a killer,” the woman said. “So there had to be a reason for it. Some good reason. And that’s when I followed her to the meeting. It was a Faith meeting, but hidden. Why would one hide a Faith meeting?”

But all of them in the room listening to this knew why this meeting would be hidden.

“They spoke of a coming war, Chadi. One between Shifters and humans. They said that there are too few Shifters. They need to make more,” the woman whispered. “But that requires death. Many, many deaths.”

Valerius felt a cold finger wind down his spine. In his mind, he could see Raziel and Iolaire gazing at one another, but not with the normal love and devotion. But with worry.

Why are they looking like that, Valerius? Caden had noticed it too.

Valerius frowned deeply. Before Caden, Valerius would have thought that there was complete transparency between him and Raziel.

But then the mate thing happened and he had been thrown for a loop.

What if there was more he did not know? What if there was more that Raziel simply wasn’t telling him or hadn’t mentioned?

“Wait, wait,” the woman’s voice on the video was frantic and Valerius’ attention snapped back to her. “Something is happening! The sky… what is happening to the sky?”

Something wasn’t right about that sky. There was a jagged line of red like a lightning bolt caught on film. Except this wasn’t a still image. It was a live recording. The bolt pulsed and that red light streamed down towards the ruins.

The camera jerked as she moved to get a better angle.

For a moment, it showed the group of Faith worshippers.

What Valerius saw, but the videographer evidently didn’t, was that there were two moving towards her position.

She’d been seen! Valerius went rigid. The urge to cry out and warn her had his lips parting.

But this was a video. It wasn’t the present time. He was watching the past.

“The light! What was that light--NO! NOOOOOO!” the woman screamed and thrashed as she was caught hold of by two of the Faith.

The phone fell and the camera lens was facing towards the sky. The scream was suddenly muffled and Valerius imagined that someone had stuffed a rag in her mouth to silence her.

“You shouldn’t have followed me, sister.” It must have been Sakhra who spoke.

There was another squealed response and crying. Begging, but the words were indistinguishable under the gag.

“But there is no worry. It needs more lives,” Sakhra said in a tone that had the hair on the back of Valerius’ neck rising once more.

There were more muffled cries and screams, which faded off into the distance.

The camera continued to record the night sky and the whisper of the wind over the tops of the dunes.

But suddenly there was an eerie shout from many throats and a red light flashed over the camera’s lens before everything went dark and quiet once more. Anwar turned off the recording.

Everyone stood there, uncertain of what they had seen or what to feel.

Esme tapped her chin with her wine glass.

Jahara stared off into the distance with a worried expression on her face.

Mei bit her lower lip. Kaila, who rarely sat still for any length of time, was frozen in place. Tez gulped wine. Illarion chewed.

“I saw no Hydra other than the stone one,” Illarion said between bites. “Not afraid of a sculpture, are you, Anwar?”

“There’s something more, yes?” Marban asked.

He looked grim. Rose glanced down at her “grandfather” and whatever she saw there caused her to pale. Wally, too, looked uneasy when he saw Marban’s expression. These two knew the king of the underworld better than he did.

Anwar nodded. “This phone belonged to a young woman named Tahira Antar. Her sister, whom she named was Sakhra Antar. Both of them were reported missing. Chadi was Tahira’s boyfriend. He was the one who found the phone and the ruins.”

“Did they find Tahira?” Tilly asked, her voice small.

Ellen pulled her daughter close to her.

Anwar shook his head. “No. They did not find anyone. No bodies. No bones. No footprints leading into the desert. Nothing. But it is in what they did not find in addition to the people that is important. Look.”

Anwar fiddled with his phone and two side by side images came up.

One was clearly the still of the back wall from the video with the Hydra clearly seen on the back wall.

The second was a picture taken during daylight hours of the ruins but the back wall had no Hydra on it. It was simply smooth stone.

Caden leaned forward. “Where did it go? Where did the Hydra go?”

Anwar spread his arms. “That is the question.”