Page 2

PERSPECTIVES

C aden stood on the plaza outside of the throne room. He was dressed in one of Valerius’ large cable knit sweaters whose sleeves hung a few inches below his fingertips and the hem brushed the tops of his knees, along with his favorite jeans and boots. He’d never seen Valerius in a sweater, let alone this one, but the Black Dragon King had fished it out of somewhere and helped Caden put it on, smoothing his hands down Caden’s shoulders and arms.

“It’s a little big!” Caden had laughed.

“It is perfect,” Valerius had countered, his eyes hooding, as if it pleased him to see Caden in his clothes.

“It smells like you so I love it,” Caden had murmured.

They’d kissed, and to Caden, it felt like expecting to fall but flying instead. His heart had seemed to expand several times larger as he pressed his face against Valerius’ chest afterwards and the Black Dragon King stroked up and down his back.

“I wish we could just stay here and ignore everybody and everything,” Caden said, relishing the coziness of Valerius’ tower.

“I know. I feel the same,” Valerius murmured. His breath puffed against Caden’s hair. It was warm. Valerius was always so warm. Caden snuggled closer.

“But we can’t, right?”

“Are you asking or confirming?” Valerius chuckled.

“I know we can’t,” Caden sighed.

“Your parents and sister will be here soon. Along with Wally and Rose. I’ve invited them for dinner,” Valerius told him.

“To talk about everything?” Caden tensed as he went over in his mind for the seemingly thousandth time what had happened in the Below.

“Yes, but also to plan what to do about your identity. We need to tell them what you want to do,” Valerius reminded him.

“Hide here with you. That’s my plan,” Caden stated.

Valerius’ shoulders lifted as he chuckled almost silently. “I wish you would hide behind me, but whenever I wonder where the trouble is all I need to do is find you .”

Caden snorted. “Yeah, well… I feel like I’ve had enough excitement today.”

They pulled back from one another, though Caden’s hands lingered on Valerius’ waist. Valerius was also dressed, but no oversized sweaters for him. It was all silk and leather and black knee-high boots. He looked delectable. He looked like what he was: the Black Dragon King.

“Is there anything I can do?” Caden asked.

Valerius lifted an eyebrow. “About what?”

“Everything?”

Valerius smiled. “No, not right now. You are a symbol to the Faith so perhaps later I will ask you to speak to Jennifer and Cary again to make sure they know nothing more but…”

“But?”

“I tend to think they weren’t given more information than they needed to know. They’re true believers so they wouldn’t have asked any questions either.” Valerius frowned, his plush lips flattening.

“What will the other Dragons say about this?” Caden asked.

“We will find out. Tonight.” Valerius leaned in and kissed Caden again.

Caden could still feel that kiss as he watched the sunset. He wrapped his arms around himself and leaned on the plaza’s balcony, looking over Reach. It wasn’t cold exactly but he felt cozy and Valerius’ scent was still all around him, which made him feel safe and loved. He thought briefly on all of the other relationships he’d had in the past. Nothing came close to this one. Even as the world was crazy, he felt so sure and steady with Valerius.

He half turned his head as he heard Valerius’ voice as he spoke to Chione in the throne room, filling her in on all that had occurred. He was just telling her that he would address the dragons at dinner after Queen Jahara’s arrival.

“King Anwar will not appreciate that,” Chione warned. “Perhaps we should wait for his arrival tomorrow?”

“He should fly faster if he does not wish to be left out!” The scowl was deeply evidently in Valerius’ voice.

Chione sighed. “You do not mean that--”

“Perhaps he should have taken a plane and then he would have been here--”

“You are just worried he’s going to judge your decor again.” Caden could hear Chione’s indulgent smile.

“He said it looked like ruin chic last time. I think he only meant the ruin part.” The scowling tone was more intense.

Caden couldn’t help grinning, but the grin quickly died. He tightened his hold on himself.

What are we going to do, Iolaire? How can you face an enemy that could be anyone?

His Spirit cooed its own concern.

Maybe we should wait for King Anwar. Maybe he’ll have some ideas that aren’t about High Reach.

The White Dragon Spirit appeared to be smiling. It loved High Reach because the entire castle felt and smelled like Raziel. Even with the other Dragons here, Valerius and Raziel reigned supreme in Iolaire’s eyes.

Yeah, I agree.

Caden heard the crunch of footsteps on the stone steps that led down from the plaza to the lower level of the castle. Illarion’s head appeared and then the rest of the well-dressed Green Dragon King followed after. Caden grimaced. This was the last thing he needed! He thought about making a quick retreat into the throne room, but then held his ground. He had wanted to see the sunset. He wasn’t going to let Illarion chase him away.

The Green Dragon King obviously knew he was there but he sauntered over to Caden, hands in the pockets of his well-tailored suit, and eyes on the horizon, as if he didn’t. He stopped a foot away and leaned on the railing without saying anything. Caden clenched his jaw harder.

“What?!” Caden snapped finally.

Illarion turned his handsome head to look at Caden, eyebrows rising as if surprised by Caden’s snappishness. “Do you have some reason to be angry with me?”

Caden’s mouth opened and shut. “Are you serious?”

Illarion leaned his hip against the railing. “Yes, of course. Why would I not be?”

“You--you came here flying and all rude and attacked Valerius and--”

“That was to get Valerius’ goat, not yours,” Illarion said with a wave. “I came here to--”

“Claim me as your mate ?” Caden’s lifted eyebrows and words had Illarion nodding and looking slightly sheepish.

“Yes, well… that may have been premature .”

“Premature?!” Caden hadn’t thought his eyebrows could go higher. “You didn’t even wait to meet me before you proclaimed I was yours! As if that was ever going to happen. Not.” Caden shook his head. “You didn’t even know if you liked me--”

“I do like you. You’re fiery!” Illarion laughed then seeing the growing scowl on Caden’s face, he held up his hands as if in surrender. “I mean… you speak your mind.”

“I’m surprised you like that considering what you do to your people,” Caden retorted.

In a surprisingly mild tone, Illarion asked, “What do you know of how I treat my people?”

Caden realized somewhere inside of him that he should quit this topic or go inside or do something-- anything --than confront the titanic Green Dragon King. He was probably creating an international incident or something. He was, undoubtedly, causing trouble for Valerius, which he most certainly did not want to do. But his mouth seemed to be operating separately from his body. After the day he’d had, maybe that wasn’t totally surprising.

“You put people in camps! Prison camps! There’s no freedom in your territory! I’m sure you do terrible things, but since there’s no press in your territory we only hear rumors. But they are enough!” Caden yelled and his eyes darted over Illarion’s shoulder to the throne room, but Valerius and Chione were still deep in conversation. Simi and Ngoye had joined them.

“Yes, I do. After what has happened today, can you blame me?” Illarion’s eyes were narrowed, but his tone was more conversational than angry.

Caden wondered how much Illarion knew about today’s attack. Probably more he should.

“I…” Caden’s voice dropped off then he said, “not everyone is a terrorist! Not everyone is an enemy! There are innocent people that you are locking up!”

Illarion bobbed his head. “Yes, you are likely right that there are some currently innocent people in the camps.”

“ Currently ?!” Caden’s eyebrows were practically joining his hairline now.

Illarion’s eyes and voice became serious. “You are very young and naive.”

“I--”

“If you do not know this about yourself, the world will teach it to you,” Illarion interrupted Caden’s outrage. “Caden, there is the possibility of violence in every person. Push them hard enough and you will find it. And if they are the type of person pushed in the wrong direction by what you want then they will cause you and yours trouble.”

Caden couldn’t deny that. “Putting people in camps isn’t the answer!”

“Then what is?”

Caden’s mouth opened and shut. “Is that why you’re doing it? Not just to shut down dissent?”

Illarion leaned his back against the railing and crossed his arms over his chest. “In Russia, things are felt deeply. The people there have suffered. Every generation has had something to bear. Famine. War. Pogroms. Plague. It has made the people there hard and strong, but when you feel like there is nothing to lose, you will throw yourself into the fire.”

Caden frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve sensed unrest since the beginning. I knew that, eventually, humanity would catch on that they were going to be last and least .” Illarion grunted. “And when they did, anyone who offered them a dream of changing that would succeed in riling them up. And then I have Mei on my backside!”

“What about Mei?”

“She plans to attack me. She is preparing for war. She wants more land and I have it,” he said with a shake of his head. “I cannot let my territory be weakened by dissent on the inside when I have her just waiting on the outside with her mechanical men!”

A sudden thought occurred to Caden and, once more, his mouth opened, “Did you… were you behind Mei’s robots going crazy?”

A sly smile crossed Illarion’s face. “In my territory we have the best hackers.”

“So you did it!”

“I did not say that. Did I?” Illarion winked at him.

“Valerius needs to know that hacking Mei’s robots isn’t part of the Faith’s abilities!” Caden protested.

“Tell them your suspicions then. But simply because someone other than the Faith may have had a hand in it this time, does not mean they could not be behind it next,” Illarion responded with a shrug. “But the destruction of Mei’s little army has bought me time as she frantically seeks a solution to it. Can’t go to war if you can’t trust your army.”

“You and Mei can’t go to war at all!” Caden cried and he knew it sounded ridiculous. He was just walking right into Illarion’s judgment of him being naive.

Illarion though was more surprised that he said it. “You think we can choose this?”

“Yes, of course! You guys want to fight? Fine. But not now! We need to face the Faith and fix that problem before anything else,” Caden told him. But even as the words came out, he knew that they were foolish again.

“Caden, so innocent!” Illarion chuckled, but not cruelly. “This thing with the Faith, the other thing with Humans First, and even the other, other thing with Mei, none of them will ever be fixed .”

“You make war and strife sound inevitable.” Caden’s shoulders slumped.

“This 30-years of peace has been the anomaly, Caden. Not the war coming. That is what is normal,” Illarion said and patted his shoulder almost kindly. “You should align yourself with the strongest Dragon so that your life, at least, can be safe and secure.”

Caden straightened and said stoutly, “Valerius is the strongest.”

He expected Illarion to scoff at this, but the Green Dragon King said, “He could be. But he cares too much. Today, that speech was beautiful. I felt it in my own bones. He should have taken advantage of it and led the people to tear down the temples of the Faith, make some of the Faithful hate Shifters instead of wanting to blow up people to make more.”

“You mean incite a mob? Valerius would never do that!” Caden shook his head violently.

With a sad smile, Illarion nodded. “I know. And that is why he is not the strongest.” Illarion pushed off of the railing and headed towards the throne room. He threw over his shoulder, “Think on it, Caden. We may not share a bed. But I could give you the peace you want. You would love my territory with its mountains, lakes and rivers. Iolaire would have plenty of snow-kissed land to enjoy. Your family would be treated as royalty. And, in the end, what is better than that?”

Caden frowned after Illarion’s retreating back. He wanted to answer: justice, prosperity and peace for all. But that sounded naive even in his own ears.

But just because it might not be possible does it mean we should just give up? Shouldn’t we just keep trying to make a more perfect world?

“He does not understand you would never choose safety over Valerius,” Tez said from the darkness of the steps where Illarion had emerged from. “You both are so romantic!”

Caden’s frown became a smile. “Tez, you were eavesdropping.”

The Gold Dragon King grinned and hopped up the stairs two at a time to join Caden. “Maybe a little. It was such a fascinating conversation and I cannot believe I am saying fascinating in the same sentence as Illarion.”

Tez’s mouth flattened after saying the Green Dragon King’s name as if it tasted bad. That caused Caden to smile more.

“He was a little… different this time around,” Caden admitted. “Not as, uhm, well…”

“Stupid as he normally is? Yes, I agree,” Tez answered with a nod. “He so often plays the strong man who seems only to see the surface layer of things that one forgets there is some depth to him.”

Caden shifted his position so that his right hip was resting against the cool stone. “Do you think he’s right?”

Tez gave a cough-laugh. “No, well, not exactly.” He flashed very white teeth at Caden. “I think dissent from one’s people is a good thing. Too often those in power forget what it is like to be at the bottom. They take for granted that what they experience is what everyone experiences. They forget the least of us. So the people must rise up!”

Tez’s arms lifted as if conducting an orchestra of the discontented. Caden could almost see villagers grabbing their torches and pitchforks.

“Even violently?” Caden thought of what would have happened if even one of the planned bombs had gone off as it should have.

“Yes, even violently.” Tez nodded and the feathers in his hair bobbed along with him. Caden must have looked horrified as he added, “Sometimes the only way people will listen is if you have a gun to their heads, Caden.”

“What about the innocent victims? The people in the Below have nothing! And now they have to be afraid of being blown up, too?” Caden gripped the railing.

Tez’s expression was thoughtful. Like Illarion, he did not react in anger to Caden’s arguments. Caden realized that this had to be because of age. The dragons had lived so long and seen so much. They thought about things rather than reacted. At least, they were this way with him. Patient and trying to teach. But he didn’t know if he wanted to learn their lessons.

“One way the Faith could have looked at this is as that those in the Below would be best served by the bombs,” Tez said finally.

Caden goggled at him. “You can’t be serious!”

Tez put a hand on Caden’s right forearm. “But don’t you see, Caden? The best and most immediate way out of poverty and the underclass is to become a Shifter. The Faith wanted to give the people in the Below that chance.”

“And those who weren’t so lucky would get death?” Caden’s voice was bitter.

Tez nodded sadly. “That is the price.”

“I’m surprised you would be okay with this, Tez!” Caden cried.

“I would like a solution that benefits all, but there is always a cost, and oftentimes the poorest of us pay it,” Tez explained. “So it is not that I am okay with it as you say. I just acknowledge the truth of it.”

“Are you going to say I’m naive, too, like Illarion for wanting a different solution? A different paradigm?” Caden asked.

Tez smiled broadly at him. His sunny face became even more appealing. “Not in the least! I think that Iolaire and you are here to bring hope . So keep believing in that other solution. Keep seeking it. Maybe you will find it while others have not.”

With a final squeeze of his forearm, Tez too walked off towards the throne room. But Caden was not left alone for long.

“You look very cozy!” Esme’s bright voice called to him as she came up in a shimmering blue dress that looked like ice captured in fabric.

“You look beautiful,” Caden told her earnestly.

“Oh, flattery will get you everywhere!” Esme twittered and kissed both of his cheeks as she held his hands in hers. When she pulled back, she studied his face critically. “How are you doing?”

“Not… not really good,” Caden admitted then sighed. “But I should be glad. Everyone but the one bomber is okay. My mom is fine! Rose and Marban are good! Valerius is wonderful, as always. And I’m…”

“My dear boy, no one expects you to be fine. I’m not!” Esme admitted.

“You lost your friend,” he said, thinking of Serai.

Esme’s expression grew pensive. “Was she my friend? I hardly feel like I know her at all.” She shook herself. “You’ve come into quite the mess, haven’t you? Well, I suppose it is to be expected. Another Dragon Spirit wouldn’t have just appeared when things were calm.”

“How did…” Caden stopped himself. Asking for her backstory might be rude or presumptuous.

But she smiled as she finished his sentence, “How did I join with my Spirit? Oh, now that is a tale! I will tell you the abbreviated version.”

She looked out at the slowly darkening horizon and said nothing for a long time despite her smile and light laugh earlier. It likely wasn’t a happy story. Valerius had indicated that none of the other Dragon Shifters were made because of good things.

“I had been in service to a king of a country that I will not name,” she said finally. “I had outlived most everyone. My faculties were still remarkably good. I was considered both ancient and wise for the time period. People did not live so long back then.”

Caden resisted the urge to ask her how long ago this was.

“But my time as counselor to kings was coming to an end. But my enemies--and I had so many of those--determined that I should not go into that good night peacefully,” she remarked dryly.

“They wanted to kill you?” Caden sounded aghast.

“Oh, yes.” Her smile was still amused. “And rightly so! I had earned their enmity. And I didn’t blame them for their actions except…” She bit her lower lips for a moment. “I wonder if those in the Faith who are behind Serai’s part knew this about me.”

“Knew what?”

“As I said, I did not blame them for wishing me dead or seeking to kill me, but they involved an innocent to do it.” Her face looked pale and drawn for a moment. “She came for tea, as she always did, and brought me some of her mother’s special medicine that helped with aches and pains. But this time it was poisoned.”

“She didn’t know?” Caden guessed having heard the word “innocent”.

“No, she didn’t. She saw me start to froth at the mouth when I took it. She was screaming and calling for help. I slumped to the floor. Everything was terribly distant except for her face,” Esme mused. “She looked like she’d been stabbed in the heart and then she…”

Esme went silent. Her hands flexed and released in front of her.

“She took the medicine and drank it down herself,” Esme said simply.

“Oh, my God, Esme…”

“It was when she was dying that Scylla came to me,” Esme continued. “You see she was my granddaughter and… and her own mother--my daughter--had sent her with the poison.”

Caden opened his mouth and nothing came out.

“Scylla asked if I wanted revenge. And as my dear granddaughter lost her life, I said yes . Give me life so that I might take revenge,” she answered.

“I--I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have--”

She tightened her hands around his. “You should ask. It’s important. History doesn’t repeat so much as rhymes . And the truth is that remembering the innocent in all of this--the ones that will be twisted to another’s purpose--will give us the strength to do what is hard when the time comes.”

Caden could only imagine how hard it had been for Esme to take revenge against her own daughter. He couldn’t imagine what Esme had been through to do it. Yet Esme had said her enemies had been right to hate her and seek her death. What had happened between her daughter and her to earn that?

Caden caught movement at the edge of his vision. His head turned as he saw that in the distance was a fogbank. It was huge and seemed to shimmer with its own light.

“Ah, she’s here,” Esme said with satisfaction. “Queen Jahara has arrived.”