Page 49 of The Dragon Shifters' Enemy
“Oh, man, could there be another wall here?”Caden looked horrified.
Valerius ground his teeth.The Gray Mountains werehis.He and Raziel had literally lifted them from the very earth themselves.To think that the Behemoth may have polluted them was beyond aggravating.
“Even if you do not intend to fight the Behemoth, you might have no choice if you walk into its lair,” Mei stated.“Let me send Adama to go for you or, at least, to accompany you if you will not let us help.”
“I need you to be protecting the people of Reach,” Valerius told them, the vision of the explosion running through his mind’s eye again.“If something goes wrong for Caden and I, you will know. But a stream of all the Dragon Shifters to the Gray Mountains will cause too much interest.”
“Adama can cloak itself and become invisible,” Mei said.
Valerius blinked.“Become… become invisible?”
“Yes,” Mei sounded pleased at his stunned intonation.“Adama has many features--”
“Including ones that you intended to use to spy on me?”Valerius asked.
There was a slight pause then Mei sighed, “Well, of course, but I’ll be taking Adama back with me now that Illarion destroyed my other robots.”
“Yes, you will.Iinsist,” Valerius said, not caring that she was taking back hergift.He and Raziel would have just used it for target practice in any case.
“A robot spy is a bit conspicuous, Mei,” Esme sniffed.“I would have thought you'd have fashioned something more… discrete.”
“Sometimes more is more,” Mei stated with Valerius imagined with a shrug.
“And now all of them are slag,” Illarion chuckled darkly.
“All the ones Ibroughtwith me,” Mei responded sweetly.
Illarion went quiet.
“We have to go, guys,” Caden said.“Make your Dragon Spirits tell you--or better yet--show you the battle. As soon as we find out anything, we’ll be back.”
“Caden!”It was Tilly.
“Hey, Till, you okay?”Caden’s voice softened.
“I’m fine.I’m here with all these Dragons, even the big green meanie would likely defend menow,” Tilly said and Valerius imagined her giving Illarion the side-eye.
“I was not going to hurt you, little girl.You should have just given me the phone,” Illarion said.
“Chione gave it tome.It’s a sacred trust,” Tilly sniffed at him.
“Anyways, Till?”Caden prompted as he clearly wanted to take off and find Landry.
“Oh, just… What should I tell Mom and Dad?”she asked.
Caden drew in a deep breath.“Nothing.”
“Oh,” Tilly’s voice was small.
“Tilly, normally I wouldn’t ask you to keep things from them, but if you’re going to be my Councillor--”
“I’m a Counsillor-in-Training!”she cried gleefully.
Caden smiled affectionately.“Yeah, well, in that case, you have to understand that what you learn about Dragon business--”
“Stays Dragon business?”she finished for him.
Caden nodded even as he said out loud, “Yeah.Can you do that?”
