Page 30 of The White Dragon Revealed

Rose let out a sigh. “You’re always so--so…” She sighed again. “I may have mentioned to Marban your idea about bringing Iolaire to the Below.”

“Okay.” Caden frowned, clearly not seeing a problem with this. “We probably should coordinate with him about--”

“He took the idea and ran with it,” she cut him off.

Valerius pinched the top of his nose. He had thought that by sending Marban to the ends of the Earth to get people for the Shifter Council that he would be out of Valerius’ hair. But no, no, of course not.

“All right.” Caden was still not seeing a problem clearly. “So what--”

“He’s already announced it,” she continued quickly. “And he’s making it like a joint thing and--”

At that moment, Chione came out of the castle doing one of her fast walks that meant she’d seen something she had to tell him about or show him. He did not keep a phone on him often. He liked to avoid the news like the plague. She made him acknowledge some of it.

“Valerius, you best see this,” Chione was saying as she thrust her tablet at him.

At the same time, Rose said, “He’s told everyone that Iolaire will be theretoday. Like in a few hours. As his special guest!”

Valerius saw the same announcement running on the news that Iolaire would be exclusively appearing in the Below with Marban at two that afternoon. Kaila was suddenly at his shoulder, edging Chione out.

“Oh, that looks fun!” Kaila enthused. “I want to go!”

THE RULE

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you, Marban?” Valerius said to the smirking--it wasn’t a grin, it was a smirk!--Swarm Shifter who stood like a supplicant in front of him.

Valerius had told Chione to summon Marban from the Below and have him marched to the throne room.No cozy meeting in his quarters. No come at his convenience. It was come now, bring Rose, and not to speak until spoken to. He'd sent Rose immediately to Caden. So Marban would feel the full weight of his fury!

Except Marban seemed not to feel that weight at all but was now smiling benignly at Valerius, seeming as happy to meet in the throne room as anywhere else. Maybe he hadn’t been smirking earlier either. It was hard to go from enemy to ally without some kind of carry over belief that the person was trying to still get one over on you.

But he has gotten one over me! He is trying to use Caden and Iolaire for his own personal gain! To burnish his new found respectability a little more…

If we send a fire stream at him, the bug will sizzle and snap!Raziel added his growl as it looked at Marban’s Spirit form in the mirror.

In that mirror, the room appeared filled with a swarm of wasps who flew like one entity, forming elaborate shapes in the air.

The human form of Marban spread his hands wide and the waspsformed what looked like two giant wings.. The sleeves of his monk’s robes--for gods’ sake, he was wearingmonk’srobes to accentuate the idea he was a wise and kind--fell back as he did so. “My king, I am uncertain why you are angry with me. I thought that you would be thanking me.”

“T-thanking you!” Valerius sputtered.

Fire erupted from Raziel’s mouth as it, too, could not believe the Swarm Shifter’s gall. Chione, who was standing to his right side, gently pressed a hand on his shoulder. She didn’t want to see him use hellfire again that day. Really, it was going to take ages to fix the dungeon. If he destroyed the throne room as well… No, he would keep his temper.

“Indeed,” Marban answered with another benign smile and no fear whatsoever. Either he thought he was in no danger or he had ice water in his veins. Likely a little bit of both. Valerius wasn’t a murderer… not anymore in any case. And Marban had weathered the storms of his temper before. “The children had this plan.” He chuckled indulgently. “And, while their hearts were in the right place, the plan wasn’t very… well,good.”

“Caden and Rose only had ashadowof an idea! But then you came, heard Rose’s hopes for it and set adate! Atime! You sent outpress releases! You are sellingmerchandise! So do not blame this on the children!” Valerius roared.

“But they were going to do it no matter what I did.” Marban tented his fingers together. “And they were going to do itwithouttelling you. You did just find out about it now, correct?”

Valerius gave Marban a death stare. That was true. Caden had sputtered out this shadow of a plan to him after the phone call with Rose ended. They hadn’t really figured it out yet! They were working on it! They would have told him… eventually. If they thought it wouldn’t make him mad. And that he wouldn’t say no. Okay, so maybe they wouldn’t have told him and would have asked forgiveness afterwards. Caden had then given him puppy eyes, which had Tez melting, Esme looking indulgent and Kaila petting Caden’s head and saying, “Nice puppy Dragon.”

Valerius had then sent Caden with the others to Esme’s rooms. Caden wasnotto go anywhere until after Valerius had interrogated Marban. Except it seemed that Marban was interrogatinghim. Or, at least, Marban was asking the questions.

“Yes, I can see that is true.” Marban nodded sagely. “So I knew that they would do this and would not tell you and, of course, make amess.”

“So you made it a bigger mess? I’m failing to see where the thanking should be coming in,” Valerius retorted dryly as he shifted in his throne. The long black fur coat slid over his leather pants.

“On the contrary, I have made sure it will work,” Marban insisted. “Rose was sohopefulthat this would bring awareness of some of the problems in the Below to the wider world. The White Dragon comes there to play with the children, being unafraid of a Swarm Shifter, and treats the people in the Below as… well,worthyas everyone else at attention.”

Valerius squeezed the top of his nose. He felt a headache coming on. This sounded exactly like Caden and Rose. Well, more like Caden than Rose. She was far more practical. But Caden seemed to be bringing out the romantic in her too.

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