Page 26 of The White Dragon's Dilemma

Marban’s eyes widened a fraction at his defense.Valerius was surprised he had made it so now he had to deal with the consequences.

“If you want to consort with criminals, Valerius, what do I care?”Illarion’s eyes gleamed with dark amusement believing he had found a soft spot in Valerius’ armor.

“Sometimes you need a criminal’s point of view,” Marban said easily, not ruffled at all.

Perhaps he might have been offended on some level, but Valerius guessed since he had spoken up for him that Marban was not one to care about Illarion’s regard.

“Marban and I have had our differences, but I can assure you that he is one of the smartest people in the world and eminently suited to helping find a solution,” Valerius stated.“And we need his viewpoint as well asmostof yours.”

Marban beamed grandfatherly at them all.He was practically preening.But what Valerius had said was true. He would likely never hear the end of it either.

“But his plan will take too long!”Kaila slapped a palm against the stone railing.“Many will die before we find out anything through these spies! We must do something now!”

Esme looked at Kaila with compassion.“What would you have us do, Kaila?Our gifts are far more suited to attacking enemies we can see and sense.These Faithful are invisible to us until they strike.”

Kaila crossed her arms over her chest.“I do not understand these people! The Spirits are all about life.Not death!”

“But like with Caden, the Spirits will try to save all those they can if that death comes.”Tez patted her arm and shook his head sadly. “It will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“So we send out these spies and wait? We do nothing else?”Kaila nearly wailed, but Valerius couldn’t blame her for it.He felt like wailing too.

And then all of them were looking at him.Raziel snorted in surprise--and maybe alarm--that they were seeking guidance so nakedly from them.Even Illarion was staring at Valerius with a sort of beseeching gaze.He had clearly found no solution--no long term one anyways--in his concentration camps.Packing people like that together in misery and despair would be like stacking dry tinder near an open flame.

“No, we cannot just go with one plan of attack,” Valerius agreed.“But what those other plans are… we need more input. It is not just our fellow Dragons that we need to speak to, or our closest advisors, but the humans in power need to be told of this too.”

“But how can we trust any of them?”Illarion burst out.

“He’s right,” Marban said with a grimace.“How many more Serais are there out there?”

Esme looked down at her clasped hands.“I’ve gone over and over in my mind her behavior for the past year.I cannot say that I detected any perfidy.”

“Because she loved you.She loved the Spirits.She thought she was protecting us all,” Chione answered sadly. “So it would not have come across as betrayal in her actions and words because to her it wasn’t.”

“Can we really keep the leaders of the humans unaware of what is going on though?”Valerius asked them. “How many of these Faithful could there be in the higher echelons of government?”

Illarion took a swig from the vodka bottle.“I found those traitorous scum at the highest levels of mine!”

“You did?”Esme stared sternly at Illarion.“It sounds like you had a full on civil war on your hands.Why did you not speak to us? Why did you keep this to yourself?”

Valerius thought of how he had dismissed the rumors of the camps from the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada as just Illarion being cruel.His biggest concern had been fightingoneDragon.Now that seemed almost quaint.He would have loved to just fight Illarion and have all the problems in the world cease.But now things were so much more complicated.

Illarion gritted his teeth and ground out, “It was an internal matter! Do you tell Valerius when your people shit the bed, Esme? You are not as open with him as you are asking me to be!”

“If my territory were on the verge of collapse, you better bet I would have let Valerius know!”Esme snapped, high color in her cheeks.

“If one territory falls then the rest of ours are in danger too.The whole world could drop into chaos,” Tez said with a death stare at the Green Dragon King.

“I was not going to fall!” Illarion was purpling again.

“Civil war is on the horizon in your territory and you thought that would have no nevermind for the rest of us?”Esme stood up very straight.

“Do not worry, I have a plan for when he falls,” Mei said.“If he cannot handle his people, I can.”

Illarion whirled around on Mei.“I destroyed your mechanical men! ME!I will destroy them all!”

“You bastard!”Mei was on her feet.

The two of them were about to shift.Valerius was about to grab them both by the scruffs of the neck and throw them outside.But the doors to his rooms burst open and Caden, followed by Jahara, swept into the room.Caden’s eyes held that strange white color that entered them when he was accessing his gifts.

---