Page 39 of The Arrival of the Dragons

“I do not know that she ever actually married him, but he did supposedly love her. I just know that she slaughtered everyone that stood in her way,” Wally remarked dryly.

Caden put a shaky hand up to his forehead. “Does Valerius know the true story?”

The Black Dragon King had told him that Dragon Shifters did not get their Spirits by doing good and noble acts. So he, undoubtedly, knew that Mei wasn’t some orphaned girl who had taken her revenge. But still.

“I imagine he is not blind to her nature,” Wally said. “He’s a wise, if gruff, person, our King Valerius.”

“But those soldiers.” Caden shook his head in dissatisfaction. “Mei gets her way through subterfuge! Those soldiers are like that wooden horse story.”

“Valerius isn’t foolish. If he’s let her bring them in, he’s done it for a purpose, Caden,” Rose assured him.

“Indeed, Caden, do not worry,” Wally told him.

But Caden couldn’t help but worry. He pulled out the phone to call Valerius, but people flooded into the store. He had only a moment to text a “CALL ME” to Valerius before the store was overwhelmed with people clamoring for Red Dragon plushies.

LIKE THE MOON

Just as the doors to the throne room were being thrown open to Mei, Valerius felt the cell phone that was just for communications with Caden buzz in his pocket. He immediately pulled it out and saw that the young man had texted him in all caps.

CALL ME.

So Valerius' head was down, staring at his phone, like a teenager when Mei swept into the room. He was texting back as she was announced.

What’s wrong?Valerius texted.

His heart was thudding heavily in his chest. What was wrong with Caden? Had Humans First done something?

He probably has argued with his birth humans again,Raziel muttered, its massive head resting on its front claws.

But that was not the case as Caden texted back,It’s Mei! Wally told me the truth about how she got her Spirit! The soldiers have got to be Trojan Horses!

Valerius frowned. What was Caden on about? Did he think the mechanical soldiers held human soldiers? No, that couldn’t be. As the thumping of the metallic feet of Mei’s honor guard of mechanical soldiers as well as Mei’s voice, musical and lovely, rose up to greet him, Valerius continued texting with Caden and didn’t acknowledge her at all.

What do you mean? Trojan Horses?Valerius texted.

She’s bad! She tricks people! I can’t text everything. Can we talk? Please?Caden responded.

Chione cleared her throat noisily. Otherwise silence had fallen in the throne room. He glanced up. Mei was bowing before him, holding herself very still, her arms prettily spread at her sides, her long black hair falling forward like a waterfall of black silk. About two dozen of her mechanical soldiers flanked her in a V-shape. They, too, were bowing.

Esme’s mouth was twitching suspiciously. Tez was openly staring at the phone in Valerius’ hands with shock. Illarion scowled, but because he always did that there was no saying it was due to the current situation. Valerius shifted on his throne for a moment.

“Please excuse me. I just need to… finish this important communication,” Valerius told them, feeling rather like a teenager caught out by his parents texting at the table, he quickly tapped back to Caden,Be at ease. I am aware of Mei’s character. I will call you soon.

Then he quickly slipped the phone in his pocket and faced Mei, who was still bowing.

“Queen Mei, I welcome you to High Reach. I apologize for that--that distraction. It was a very important communication,” Valerius said smoothly. “Please rise.”

She gracefully rose up with a smile that, surprisingly, didn’t look at all plastered on her face. Her arms were still spread to her sides as she regarded him with seemingly nothing but pleasure even though heknewthat his behavior with the phone must have been galling. He had not meant to insult her, but Caden was his number one priority.

“King Valerius, it has been so long since we have been in one another’s presence. I am greatly honored to be here,” Mei said sweetly and disingenuously.

“Yes,” was all Valerius responded. “I see you have come with quite the entourage.”

She put one hand up to her perfectly painted mouth. “Yes! My soldiers! I have brought one as a gift for you.”

She turned around and gestured for the largest of the mechanical men to step forward. It stood around seven feet tall and had a mixture of black and silver metal armor on the outside. The visor for where the eyes were showed two glowing red beams. The armored skeleton showed multiple moving parts that opened and closed, flexed and tightened as the creature moved. It walked up a few steps closer to him than Mei and then got down on one knee before bowing its head.

Valerius stared at it silently for long moments. Why had Mei given him this creature? Surely, it could not be built like the rest of her tin pot army! She would not want him to have a chance to reverse engineer it, even though he was certain that Raziel could turn them all into slag no matter what they were made of or how they worked. But he also had no doubt that she would have anticipated this and created some kind of backup for this defense. Perhaps they would explode when exposed to great heat and release toxic gasses or nuclear material that would poison the land and its people.

---