Page 9 of The White Dragon's Dilemma

“You look very cozy!”Esme’s bright voice called to him as she came up in a shimmering blue dress that looked like ice captured in fabric.

“You look beautiful,” Caden told her earnestly.

“Oh, flattery will get you everywhere!”Esme twittered and kissed both of his cheeks as she held his hands in hers.When she pulled back, she studied his face critically.“How are you doing?”

“Not… not really good,” Caden admitted then sighed.“But I should be glad.Everyone but the one bomber is okay.My mom is fine!Rose and Marban are good!Valerius is wonderful, as always.And I’m…”

“My dear boy, no one expects you to be fine.I’m not!”Esme admitted.

“You lost your friend,” he said, thinking of Serai.

Esme’s expression grew pensive.“Was she my friend?I hardly feel like I know her at all.” She shook herself.“You’ve come into quite the mess, haven’t you?Well, I suppose it is to be expected.Another Dragon Spirit wouldn’t have just appeared when things were calm.”

“How did…” Caden stopped himself.Asking for her backstory might be rude or presumptuous.

But she smiled as she finished his sentence, “How did I join with my Spirit?Oh, now that is a tale!I will tell you theabbreviatedversion.”

She looked out at the slowly darkening horizon and said nothing for a long time despite her smile and light laugh earlier.It likely wasn’t a happy story.Valerius had indicated that none of the other Dragon Shifters were made because of good things.

“I had been in service to a king of a country that I will not name,” she said finally.“I had outlived most everyone.My faculties were still remarkably good.I was considered both ancient and wise for the time period.People did not live so long back then.”

Caden resisted the urge to ask her how long ago this was.

“But my time as counselor to kings was coming to an end. But my enemies--and I had so many of those--determined that I should not go into that good night peacefully,” she remarked dryly.

“They wanted to kill you?”Caden sounded aghast.

“Oh, yes.”Her smile was still amused.“And rightly so!I hadearnedtheir enmity.And I didn’t blame them for their actions except…” She bit her lower lips for a moment.“I wonder if those in the Faith who are behind Serai’s part knew this about me.”

“Knew what?”

“As I said, I did not blame them for wishing me dead or seeking to kill me, but they involved aninnocentto do it.”Her face looked pale and drawn for a moment.“She came for tea, as she always did, and brought me some of her mother’s special medicine that helped with aches and pains.But this time it was poisoned.”

“She didn’t know?”Caden guessed having heard the word “innocent”.

“No, she didn’t.She saw me start to froth at the mouth when I took it.She was screaming and calling for help.I slumped to the floor.Everything was terribly distant except for her face,” Esme mused.“She looked like she’d been stabbed in the heart and then she…”

Esme went silent.Her hands flexed and released in front of her.

“She took the medicine and drank it down herself,” Esme said simply.

“Oh, my God, Esme…”

“It was when she was dying that Scylla came to me,” Esme continued.“You see she was my granddaughter and… and her own mother--my daughter--had sent her with the poison.”

Caden opened his mouth and nothing came out.

“Scylla asked if I wanted revenge.And as my dear granddaughter lost her life, I saidyes.Give me life so that I might take revenge,” she answered.

“I--I’m so sorry!I shouldn’t have--”

She tightened her hands around his.“You should ask.It’s important.History doesn’t repeat so much asrhymes.And the truth is that remembering the innocent in all of this--the ones that will be twisted to another’s purpose--will give us the strength to do what is hard when the time comes.”

Caden could only imagine how hard it had been for Esme to take revenge against her own daughter.He couldn’t imagine what Esme had been through to do it. Yet Esme had said her enemies had been right to hate her and seek her death.What had happened between her daughter and her to earn that?

Caden caught movement at the edge of his vision.His head turned as he saw that in the distance was a fogbank.It was huge and seemed to shimmer with its own light.

“Ah, she’s here,” Esme said with satisfaction.“Queen Jahara has arrived.”

---