Page 17 of The Dragon Shifters' Enemy
“That is Caden’s choice to let you--youkisshis hands,” Valerius got out.
Caden ducked his head and grinned.He knew how hard that was for Valerius to not try and snatch his hands away.But it was a sign of respect for him.Equals.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, King Anwar,” Caden said as he gently disengaged Anwar’s hands from his.“What you’ve brought us here is extraordinary and frightening.”
Anwar nodded.His smile died and a troubled expression crossed his handsome face. “There has been so much unrest in these last years. I could not understand it all.People walking off into the desert.Artists going mad and babbling of a hydra.Looking into a friend’s eyes and not recognizing the soul behind them any longer.”
As Anwar spoke, Caden saw matching looks on all of the Dragon Shifters’ faces as if they, too, had experienced something of this.
“How I found Tamira’s phone was by following a friend’s footsteps in the desert,” Anwar murmured.His gaze turned inward.“I do not know if you have ever been to the desert.If you have ever stepped to the edge of town and looked out upon it.To see it is to know death.To go out, without shoes or water or a way back, is insanity.”
Dread grew in Caden’s chest.He could envision what Anwar was saying.He could see the vast and magnificent sea of dunes.Past a few palm trees that dotted an oasis to an endless ocean of sand.The moon and the stars gazing piteously down upon it.
There would be almost a siren’s call to that beauty.The sand would be cold beneath one’s bare feet.The night air would wrap around one’s bare limbs in an almost caress.To walk and walk and walk, not at a fast pace, but at a leisurely one.A stroll.To keep going for hours.To finally, turn around to look back at where one had come from andnotsee town.Only the desert and one’s footprints being erased by the wind. So if one wanted to go back, could one?
“So you have the same problems we do with versions of Humans First and the Faith?”Mei crossed her arms over her chest.“Human inequality.Shifter inequality.Everyone is feeling hopeless because they can’t all be on top.Despite what some people think.”She aimed that last barb at Tez.
“I only seek toflattenthings so that everyone has food, clothes, a roof over their heads and opportunity,” Tez retorted.He was onto shrimp now, devouring each one.
Kaila stole a couple and popped them into her mouth.“Everyone is so interested in material things.It only causes unhappiness.Why not love what we all have?The sea, the sun, the sand.”
“Because people won’t give you food for those things, let alone homes and vehicles and wifi!”Mei rolled her eyes.
Jahara had been studying the footage on a tablet with Chione and Esme.Tilly had also joined them and Jahara tilted the screen down for her to see.
“It looks so real,” Tilly stated uncertainly.“But movie effects could do all this, couldn’t they?”
“It’s hardly definitive proof of the Behemoth’s existence,” Jahara agreed with a nod.
“Your missing friend,” Marban said quietly, “It was Fadel Rahal, wasn’t it?”
Anwar turned to look at Marban with a lifted eyebrow.“Fancy you knowing that.And you are?”
“Forgive me, Anwar, I have not introduced you properly to everyone,” Valerius stated.“This is Marban.One of my Councillors and member of the Shifter Council.”
Though Marban didn’t show it, Caden knew he must be surprised to be addressed this way.Chione gave a wry smile though she didn’t look displeased at having a co-Councillor. Rose and Wally were also introduced as his Councillors as well as his parents and Tilly.Anwar kissed the back of his mother and Tilly’s hands, which had both women smiling and blushing.
He really is a charmer, Caden said.
He has his moments, Valerius replied dryly.
Marban inclined his head.“It is a pleasure, King Anwar.As to how I know, I must know such things to counsel King Valerius.You two were close?”
“We were lovers,” Anwar cut to the chase.His eyes narrowed.“And I could trust him completely so when he…changedI knew it was something more than simple unrest over Shifter and human politics.”
“Changed how?”Rose asked.
“He wasn’t Fadel anymore.He still spoke with Fadel’s voice.He still had Fadel’s face.But the soul in those eyes was not Fadel’s,” Anwar said and his upper lip drew back from his teeth.“He...no,itwas watching me.Playing its part.But it was a stranger. And then it went into the desert.”
One of Jahara’s hands tightened around the neckline of her dress.Caden saw something in her gaze.
“Jahara, what is it?Does this sound familiar to you?”Caden asked.
She nodded slowly.“There was a young woman I was considering to have join my own council.I had interviewed her many times.She felt like a sister to me.And then…” She swallowed.“I had her for tea one day, prepared to offer her a place with me, but she… she was different.I did not like what I saw.”
“And you obviously didn’t give her a place so what happened to her?Could we perhaps speak to her?”Esme asked.
Jahara shook her head.“She walked off into the jungle.Never to be seen again.People thought she had done it due to the shame of losing a place with me.”
