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QUEEN JAHARA

V alerius lifted his head. The scents of the continent of Africa swept on the wind to him: the dusty spice of the desert, the warm sweetness of the jungles, the icy rush of the mountains, and the bitter, burnt scent of humanity.

Chione, who was in the middle of relaying who would be their guests for dinner that evening--Marban and Rose, Wally and the Bryces--stopped in mid-sentence as Valerius got up from his throne.

“What is it?” she asked, head cocked quizzically to the side.

“Queen Jahara is here,” Valerius said and stepped down from the throne.

He headed towards the plaza where Caden and Esme stood, arm in arm, gazing out at the horizon that was a wall of glowing white fog. Valerius could see people in the streets staring out at the unnatural phenomena, pointing and talking amongst each other. After all they had endured recently, Valerius hoped they were not afraid of Jahara’s sideshow.

Chione quickly followed Valerius onto the stone plaza, but Illarion practically pushed her out of the way as he settled himself at Valerius’ left side. Tez, seeing Illarion positioning himself as an equal, did the same at Valerius’ right. The urge to grasp both of their heads and knock them together was almost overwhelming.

“What are you doing?” Valerius growled.

“We should all greet Jahara as the equals we are,” Illarion remarked.

The Green Dragon King seemed awfully pleased with himself. Valerius had glimpsed him speaking with Caden earlier. He had almost stalked out there to put an end to it, but the conversation had appeared relatively congenial and Caden had made no signs of distress.

“And why are you scampering up beside me, Tez?” Valerius asked.

“Because the Green Dragon is lesser than the Gold,” Tez said with a wink at him.

Valerius stopped in mid-step, which had the two Dragon Shifters stumbling forward. This allowed Chione to step up to his side. She smiled and shook her head as she joined him. He offered her his arm, which she took. They walked past the Green and Gold Dragons who were scowling at each other and not him, as if the other were responsible for losing face.

“Well played,” Chione murmured with amusement.

“I have my moments,” he answered.

Upon hearing his voice, Caden turned excitedly towards him and jogged the ten feet that still separated them. There was high color in the boy’s cheeks and his eyes were wide with excitement. Valerius grasped him around the waist and lifted him up before spinning him around. Caden laughed. He gently set Caden down on his feet. The young man leaned against him still, cheek turned to the side, resting against his chest, humming softly.

“Hey!” Caden cried. “Queen Jahara is coming! I mean Esme says the fog--”

“Yes, that is her. She controls the wind and can create fogs and mists that can stagger the senses.” Valerius squinted at the fog wall approaching. “That one is 100 feet tall, I think. Impressive.”

“It’s so cool. I’m really excited to meet her!” Caden enthused.

Valerius was not surprised. Queen Jahara rarely left the continent of Africa, which was her entire territory, yet much was known about her as the causes she supported were wildly popular. With her stewardship, all of the African nations had entered a time of historic prosperity for all of their people and not just the lucky or corrupt few at the top.

The African wildlife that ignited so many people’s imaginations not only was protected under her reign, but thriving. Creatures that were feared to be near extinction were making huge comebacks. And she had merged her conservationism with technology. Science and nature combined in ways only imagined in books and on the screen. It was indeed Afro-futurism taking place in real life.

Caden went on, “She’s like the person on climate change and space technology and--”

“Queen Jahara is a wise steward of her territory, and…” he sighed, “some would argue the whole of the planet.”

“Yeah, I heard that all her cities now are completely green and she’s introducing hover cars essentially and--”

“Yes,” he replied dryly.

“And people are actually getting chip implants and--”

“Yes, she’s wonderful, yes,” Valerius interrupted with a sigh. “I hear quite enough about all of that from President Goodfellow.”

Caden grinned at him. “Are you jealous of Jahara’s good press?”

Valerius sniffed. “Never.”

Caden got up on his tiptoes and kissed Valerius’ nose. “You shouldn’t be jealous! You’re wonderful, too.”

“Hmmmm. Not in the aspirational way that Jahara is.”

“You’re just… a little scarier.” Caden grinned.

“Jahara would not actually be pleased by that,” Valerius said dryly. “At least, she wants her enemies to fear her and her friends to love her, though she has few of those.”

Caden cocked an eyebrow in surprise. “I know that she pretty much has instituted a matriarchy in her territory, and that took some violence in the beginning, but things are pretty peaceful there now, aren’t they?”

“They are, because she has an iron grip on her people as strong as Illarion does, but in a slightly different way,” Valerius explained. “She has more of a velvet glove over that iron fist.”

“Oh, that’s not what I expected,” Caden said.

“She does not trust people easily,” Chione remarked mildly, which really was mild. Jahara believed the worst of people, but, then again, she’d been given reason to by the nearest and dearest to her.

“Why?” Caden asked, his gaze flickering between him and Chione.

Their eyes met. How much to tell? Normally, Dragons were reticent about telling others of their creation stories. But each of them knew one anothers and Caden was now one of them.

Valerius said, “Her father bartered her to others to pay his debts.”

“ Bartered ?” Caden’s forehead furrowed and then cleared as horror crossed his face, “You mean sold her--her body to--”

“Yes.” Valerius frowned. Just talking of this angered him. What had happened to Jahara had left a mark that had not left her to this day. She had an antipathy towards men that was well earned. But she was suspicious and quick to suspect treachery from everyone. “But she was very smart and very patient. She slowly stole and hid the things she needed to escape her father and her abusers and for her to take her revenge.”

“How? What did she do?” Caden looked to be all huge eyes at that moment.

“One day, when her father went to town, she slipped her bonds and managed to elude her jailors,” Valerius explained, imagining her fleet-footed race on bare feet into the thick jungle, heart in her throat, eyes wide with adrenaline and fear as she looked for predators both animal and human. “Her father and three others tracked her, but what they did not understand was that she was tracking them in return.”

“Things did not go well for them, I take it?” Caden guessed.

“She used poisoned blow darts to take down three of the four men. Her father first,” Valerius explained dryly at Caden’s wince. “But the last man caught her. She is not a large person. She struggled, but physically, she was no match for him.”

“Please tell me that her Spirit found her then.” Caden’s eyes glowed for a moment with a white light much like his did when anger suffused him and Raziel surfaced. But Valerius’ eyes glowed red while Caden’s glowed white.

“Zephyra found her,” Valerius assured him.

“I can well imagine what happened to that guy attacking her.” Caden was grinning.

“Yes, you can. One of Zephyra’s abilities is to create a scalding mist. His meat was cooked on the bone,” Valerius explained.

“Oh, gross! Deserved but gross!” Caden twisted around to look at the fog bank that glowed of its own accord. He squinted and let out a gasp. “I see--see a line of cars?”

“Yes, Queen Jahara--unlike some people --would not assume Dragon form in my territory without permission,” Valerius stated with a side-eye at Illarion, who pretended not to notice.

“So she’s able to use one of her gifts without shifting,” Caden mused.

“All of us can to a certain extent,” Illarion said, which surprised Valerius. The Green Dragon King held what gifts he had and could use very close to his chest.

“What can you do, Illarion?” Caden asked innocently.

Valerius met Illarion’s gaze. He shrugged at the Green Dragon King, basically telling him that he had opened the door now he had to decide whether to walk through the open doorway or have it hit him in the face.

“I can do… things,” Illarion muttered.

“Things?” Tez smirked, scenting a teasing moment appearing.

Illarion’s eyes narrowed at him. “Yes, things that I will tell Caden at another time if I so choose and--”

“Telling him you have poison breath is hardly news” Tez pointed out. “I’m betting that’s all you can do.”

Illarion’s eyes narrowed more. “I can assure you that if I wished, I could melt the flesh from your bones right now with--”

“Guys, not everything is a fight,” Caden interrupted gently.

“Oh, anything can be made into one.” Tez smiled winsomely.

Caden shook his head. He wasn’t angry, but he said firmly, “Some aren’t worth it.”

“I’m just teasing the Green Meanie,” Tez pouted.

“Yeah, I know.” Caden shook his head as if Tez were a big child, which he sometimes was. “And, Illarion?”

The Green Dragon King lifted an eyebrow.

“You’re big. You’re bad. Everybody knows it. Happy?” Caden asked.

Illarion pursed his lips and then laughed. “Perhaps! Happiness is overrated. But I am content that the truth is known.”

Tez rolled his eyes. “Stroking his ego won’t help, Caden! He is a bottomless pit of insecurity, because he knows that Valerius could wipe the floor with him.”

Valerius grinned but hid it by stroking his beard. Illarion growled, bared his teeth, and went over to the railing, pouting. Caden turned back to Valerius.

“Tez is right,” Caden whispered. “But, hey, you aren’t insecure.”

Valerius kissed him.

Esme smiled at Caden. “I’m curious what all of your and Iolaire’s gifts are.”

“Yeah, gifts. I guess I have those?” Caden smiled uncertainly. It was more of a question than a statement.

He is still unsure of himself, Raziel , Valerius said.

Raziel, who was resting its chin on its front legs, let out a breath of smoke, showing that it, too, could obscure the air just as well as Zephyra. Iolaire is strong, if small. Special.

Special how? Valerius lifted an eyebrow.

Special. Raziel’s face was obscured by smoke except for its red eyes.

You are of no help.

“You seem to have gifts that counter ours so far, Caden,” Tez remarked. “That ability to force us back to human form for one. Which means that, even though you are the smallest Dragon, you become the largest in comparison!”

“Are you worried about that, Tez?” Esme asked.

“Me? Bah! No! Eldoron is too beautiful for Iolaire to send it away!” Tez crossed his arms over his chest.

“I wouldn’t use the power on you, Tez. I just had to stop the fight,” Caden assured the Gold Dragon King. “I promise.”

Tez hummed but then beamed. “I believe you! It would just be so unnerving! To shift without the desire to do so.”

“I’m sure,” Caden sounded sorry.

Valerius nearly rolled his eyes. “Illarion had it coming.”

“Yeah, he did. Besides, it didn’t hurt him permanently or anything,” Caden murmured.

“Only his pride, dear,” Esme remarked as she looked at Illarion’s back that was stiff as a post. “I do not think that will ever recover.”

“What a shame,” Valerius remarked dryly.

Kaila suddenly burst out of a side door dragging Mei behind her like a kite.

“Is she here?! Is she here yet?!” Kaila cried as she pulled Mei all the way to the railing and then leaned them both over the side so that they were dangerously close to falling over. With the hand that wasn’t surgically attached to Mei’s wrist, she waved frantically at the fogbank.

“I do not think she can see you yet, Kaila.” Mei yanked her wrist free of Kaila’s hand and rubbed it.

Kaila bobbed up and down on the balls of her feet. “She’s coming! She’s coming!”

Mei’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, so she is. How wonderful .”

“Is Mei not a fan of Jahara’s?” Caden asked. “I would have thought with both of them being so into technology that they’d be fast friends.”

Valerius snorted and ran his hands up and down Caden’s back. “Mei thinks of technology as something to be utilized. Jahara views it as something to be coaxed.”

“Huh.” Caden frowned.

“Jahara views Mei as part of the problem in many ways,” Valerius said.

“She believes that technology can be abused . It’s absurd!” Mei sneered. She smoothed her hand down the front of her crimson silk shirt and black pants. “And you shouldn’t expect her to like you either, Caden.”

“Why?” Caden frowned.

“Mei, it is not all men that Jahara dislikes,” Chione said firmly.

“ All men are suspect until she checks them out. Caden is not just a man but a Dragon. One that came out of nowhere,” Mei answered with a wave of her hand. Her smile was not kind. “Valerius, you know her. She will not be friendly.”

Caden blinked. “But--”

“It is all right, Caden,” Esme stated. “Jahara will be suspicious, but you’ll win her over.”

“That is highly unlikely,” Mei scoffed. “Look at that fog wall. It’s a show of power. We can’t see how many people she brought with her.”

Mei was right, but he had no concerns about Jahara. If she brought an army, he could deal with them just as he had dealt with Mei’s people.

“Mei is not so brave without her mechanical men,” Illarion snorted.

Her arms crossed over her chest tightly. Her eyes narrowed. “You speak tough now, but Jahara has absolutely no love for you, Illarion.”

“As if I care.” Illarion shook his head in disgust.

“Not even you can ruin the Iridescent Dragon’s appearance!” Kaila cried at Illarion. She was still bobbing up and down eagerly.

“You two are great friends, Kaila?” Caden asked with a gentle smile.

“Indeed! Zephyra and Lana are close. Zephyra’s scales are a brilliant, shimmering blue, purple and green. She has orange wings. She is beautiful!” Kaila said with almost childlike enthusiasm.

“Wow, she sounds amazing,” Caden responded kindly.

“She has always been good to the creatures of the sea. I am certain she will like you, too, Caden,” Kaila assured him.

Valerius put an arm around Caden’s shoulders. “Indeed, she will.” Unspoken, but heard by all was the addition, Or she will regret it.

Illarion let out a dark chuckle. Tez’s eyebrows rose. Mei smiled with a wicked satisfaction while Esme simply shook her head.

“She is our guest, Valerius,” Chione chastised mildly.

“I do not recall inviting her. But she will be treated with respect,” he answered just as mildly with the unspoken, So long as she acts with respect .

“Oh! The fog is almost here! It’s so cool!” Caden exclaimed and pointed towards the towering wall of white streaked through with blue and white light.

All of them went over to the railing to watch as the fog wall reached the bottom of the mountain that housed Reach. Valerius watched as the city was swallowed up and the lights seemingly extinguished. The wall drew closer and closer. It reminded him of boiling clouds. Caden drew closer to him as the first wisps of it touched their faces, kissing their skin with dampness. If Jahara was attacked, this cloud would have been a scalding mass which would have burned flesh from bones, cooking people where they stood in their own fat, and turning lungs to leather. But it was not. It was merely a parlor trick.

She thinks we cannot see her in this pea soup! Raziel muttered. The moment she gets close to our jaws...

She just wants to “appear” before us as if by magic, Valerius stated with mild exasperation.

The fog completely obscured the plaza now. The very top of High Reach was covered over as well. He could barely see Caden who was mere inches from him. But Valerius turned to look towards the center of the plaza, nonetheless certain Jahara was there. Caden clung to him, clearly discombobulated by the thick whiteness all around him.

Then the fog disappeared.

It did not lessen and drift away. No, it simply vanished. And ten feet from him was Queen Jahara and her retinue of matriarchs. She wore bold, bright colors that shimmered in the dusk light. A crimson skirt that flared wide at the knee down to her feet. A loincloth of pink over it. There was a slash of bare skin across her midriff showing a flat, muscled stomach. Her top was made of fine blue and gold material. Bracelets lined her forearms and others curled around her upper arms. A large gold choker encircled her neck and a single gold circlet was around her forehead. Jahara was beautiful, elegant and imposing. Even if she were dressed in rags, one would know she was a queen. She wore her nobility like armor.

While Jahara appeared to be a woman in her late twenties, the women who surrounded her were of all ages from one that looked no older than thirteen to others that were clearly grandmothers or great grandmothers. Many of their dark skinned faces reflected lives that had not been easy.

Many of these matriarchs had done back breaking labor for over half a century while others had been the heads of companies, lawyers and doctors. They were the wisest women from villages and cities all over Africa. In order for an idea to reach Jahara’s eyes and ears, it had to get past them. And they had advised her well so far.

Jahara’s green eyes fixed upon Caden. Her expression was as hard as diamonds for a moment. The suspicion that Mei had credited her was showing full on. But then it softened into something much closer to confusion. Caden, in a sweater too big for him with those large, innocent eyes, hardly looked the part of any villain. Not that looks couldn’t be deceiving but still.

For his part, Caden was staring at her with amazement and interest. Jahara blinked and quickly looked away from the young man as if he affected her in ways she had not expected. Her gaze landed on Valerius. He knew better than to expect a bow. Jahara bowed to no one. But she did incline her head as did her wise women in greeting.

“King Valerius, thank you for your hospitality,” Jahara intoned in her rich, low voice.

“You are most welcome, Queen Jahara. I am pleased to have you in my territory,” Valerius answered coolly. He was polite, but his displeasure hosting all of them was not lost.

Before she could respond, there was wild clapping and Kaila barrelled out of the group and dashed towards Jahara. There was a faint smile on Jahara’s face before it was obscured by Kaila engulfing the smaller woman in a hug then Kaila spun her around, much like what Valerius had done to Caden.

“Jahara! I’ve missed you! That was a wonderful trick to appear like that!” Kaila squealed in delight.

“Kaila! I am happy to see you as well. My heart sings, my sister. But please set me down,” Jahara said to the Turquoise Dragon with a self-conscious laugh.

Kaila gave her one more squeeze before setting Jahara on her feet again. “You must not be so formal, Jahara! You are here among friends!”

Jahara’s gaze swung to Mei. “Hmmmm, friends.”

Kaila clasped both of Jahara’s hands in hers, and just like with Mei, she tugged the other Dragon queen after her right over to Caden. Like a proud child showing another child her toy, Kaila gestured to Caden.

“This is Caden! His Spirit is Iolaire! He is the White Dragon King!” Kaila exclaimed. “And, Caden, this is Jahara!”

Chione was looking down studiously, her lips twitching suspiciously. Esme did not hide her amusement at all. Illarion stared up into the air, letting out sighs of boredom. Tez looked like a little boy looking for an opportunity to tug Jahara’s ponytails. If she had any.

Caden smiled sweetly and said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Queen Jahara.”

He extended his hand and Jahara hesitantly took it in a loose grip.

“And you, King Caden,” she answered.

“Oh, I’m not--”

“Yes, Caden, you are,” Valerius reminded him softly.

Caden blinked. “Uhm, okay, sure.”

“You do not claim your title?” Jahara’s sculpted eyebrows.

“I…”

“You do not wish territory?” Jahara pressed.

“Well, uhm…”

“You are always there when tragedy strikes?” Jahara’s eyes narrowed.

“Now, no, that’s not always true!” Caden looked alarmed.

“None of these terrible things are Caden’s fault,” Valerius informed her coldly. “As you will discover at dinner.”

Jahara tilted her head to the side. “I am all ears and eyes, Valerius. I cannot wait to hear the explanation for how Caden and Iolaire do not live up to their name and history.”