Page 47 of The White Dragon Revealed

“Three! Iolaire was wearing one too!” Kaila corrected him. At least, she remembered not to use Caden’s name when they were in the crowd.

He grimaced. “Correct,threepeople in black cloaks and hoods would look suspicious. I recommended that you stay behind the stall.”

“But I couldn’t see!” Kaila complained. “And I came here to see things! So here I am!”

“I thought you came here to support Iolaire and Rose.” Valerius gave her a reproachful look as she shifted under her hood and cloaklike a person wearing a very bad disguise. Luckily, all eyes were on Iolaire and Rose at that moment.

He noted the awe-filled gazes in the people’s eyes. Not just awe-filled but almostgiddylooks that people were giving Iolaire. The children who were in the front row--and were being lined up expertly by Rose to pet Iolaire--were blissed out with delight.

I do not think that people look at us that way, Raziel, Valerius said to his Spirit, half in jest and half in… well, he wasn’t sure what.

No, but it is not our role to be beloved,his Spirit surprisingly answered.Let them love Iolaire. Let them fear us.

And Valerius saw the logic in this. Iolaire and Caden could be--actually perhaps alreadywere--the silk glove over his and Raziel’s steel fist. While it would be beneath his and Raziel’s dignity to let a child ride his tail--which was happening right now with Iolaire--it was Caden and Iolaire’s joy to do so. And it only added to their mystique which was, again, so very different from his and Raziel’s. Raziel curled in a ball and let its eyelids slowly close as it dreamed of Iolaire.

“Do your people adore you and Lana like that, Kaila?” Valerius was honestly curious. The two of them had not ever let their conversations stray beyond what needed to be said. Kaila, honestly, exhausted and irritated him with her boundless energy and humming bird-like thoughts.

Kaila cocked her head to the side, considering this, which also caused her hood to sag. “The dolphins do.”

“I meant your human and Shifter subjects,” Valerius said dryly.

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think so. They are happy to see me as I make sure their nets are full of fish but they are not...” Kaila paused as she tried to sum up the emotion in the Below, “drunk with happiness like this. Here it is as if Iolaire is the sun and they are all flowers starved for light.”

Considering that the Below was indeed starved for sunlight it was an apt description. Valerius frowned as he took in the faces around him. Many looked haggard, cheeks hollowed out and dark circles under their eyes.People had clearly dressed in their very best but theclothing was still a little ragged. The world in which he had been born into had always had the haves and the have nots. In fact, there were far more have nots than haves back then. In many ways that hadn’t changed.

As he continued to look around, Valerius felt a sense of dissatisfaction. He had never been the type of ruler who had pledged to end inequality. He did not believe that was possible. He was not the type of ruler to pander to the poor either, promising them things he could never deliver. He didn’t pander to the rich either. He ignored everyone. But what he saw here was troubling. This washismain city. His castle was perched high above these people perhaps so far above them that he hadn’tseenthem or the desperate poverty and want that was before him now.

“Look at all the little fish wary of the big fish! Just waiting to be eaten,” Kaila said with a shake of her head.

It took him a moment to understand what she meant. Her “big fish” were the Swarm, Rat and Snake Shifters who ran the gangs while the “little fish” was evidently everyone else.

Marban had his “big fish” patrolling the “little fish” to make sure there was no crime or violence to ruin the show. Considering all the cameras here filming not only Iolaire, but panning across the crowd, Valerius understood on some level why. Anyone misbehaving who was from the Below would be used as an example ofeveryperson from the Below. In fact, a reporter was breathlessly saying something akin to that to her colleague.

“I have to admit, Roger, that I haven’t ever been in the Below other than during my time as a local reporter doing crime stories,” the reed-thin peroxide blond said to a smiling man in a well-cut suit.

“I hear you, Linda!” Roger agreed with her over brightly. “I have to say that things down here are hopping! I haven’t seen so many smiles since… well, since Iolaire made its appearance in Dragon Strike Square.”

Linda nodded so loosely that Valerius thought that she might have strings controlling that movement. “Indeed! And wasn’t that a lovely time! Do you think now that Iolaire has made an appearance in theBelow and Mid that we can expect the ninth Dragon Shifter to show up on every level?”

Roger laughed avuncularly. “Well, we already know Iolaire is spending quite a bit of time in High Reach meeting its brethren. But we can always hope!”

“Oh, look! There seems to be some sort of commotion over there! With that young boy and one of the, ah, uhm, Snake Shifters, I think?” Linda gestured towards where a bald man with a snake tattooed around his throat like a noose had clamped a hand down on the back of a boy’s neck.

The boy didn’t look to be more than thirteen to Valerius. He scowled as he watched the Snake Shifter lift the boy up to a standing position, he’d been sitting, and spin him around. His eyes were narrowed and a decidedly nasty look was on his face. It was then that the Snake Shifter realized that one of the cameras was pointed towards him. He suddenly smiled--smiles did not seem to come naturally to him--and wrapped a seemingly friendly arm around the boy whom he pressed close against his side. He waved as if he wereexcitedto be on television.

“I guess it wasn’t what I thought. Appears that they know one another,” Linda burbled and the two of them went back to discussing just how clean the Below was.

Valerius watched as the Snake Shifter, now no longer on television, turned the friendly hug into a headlock and dragged the boy through the crowd towards the back wall. Valerius started moving after them. Kaila followed him.

“Where are we going?” she asked avidly.

“To see what Marban thinks justice looks like,” Valerius answered her.

He might have allowed bad things to happen in the Below when he wasn’t looking, but he wasn’t going to let something occur right in front of his eyes. He took one glance back at Iolaire. There were over a dozen children riding Iolaire’s tail now and even more climbing onto its back. Iolaire was making it snow.

Rose was involved in a raucous snowball fight. Valerius smirkedwhen a snowball hit Marban’s bald pate. Rose put her hands up to her mouth to keep the laughter in as the snow and ice slid down his face. Valerius paused, wary that Marban would get angry at the affront and ruin everything, but the wily Swarm Shifter suddenly ducked down like a man half his age to form a snowball of his own that he threw at Rose. Soon, Marban was tossing and dodging snowballs. Satisfied that everything and everyone here was all right, he turned back to the boy with the Snake Shifter.

He and Kaila glided through the crowd. People made way even in the densely packed space. They didn’t know who he or Kaila were, but everyone sensed not to get in their way. One man went so far as to suck his stomach in to give Valerius another inch of space. Kaila poked him in the tummy causing the man to grunt and let the air out. She chuckled as they passed.

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