Page 62 of The Dragon Shifters' Enemy
Do Dragons kiss, Iolaire?Caden asked.
Iolaire tucked its head under one wing almost shyly and showed him an image of Iolaire and Raziel with their foreheads pressed together.
So that is Dragon kissing! It’s beautiful.Nothing to be embarrassed about,Caden assured his Spirit.
Iolaire drew its head out of its wing and blew snow up into the air.The glittery flakes fell all around its snow-white body.
“Are you excited to start your new job with Justice St.John, Mr.Bryce?”Rose asked after chuckles turned to silence.
“Grant, please, Rose,” his father reminded her with an indulgent chuckle.“But yes, I am.I’m actually excited about the law again.I haven’t felt this in…” Caden imagined him glancing affectionately over at his mother as his father ran the years back in his head, “well, averylong time.”
He’s been so unhappy, Iolaire, Caden mused.I didn’t truly realize it.Maybe I did, but there was nothing I could do.
Iolaire nodded its large head and let out a soft whistling breath of agreement.
There are many good things about us joining, but I have to say that I didn’t think of my dad getting a better job being one of them,he told the Spirit.
“You’ll have the ear of the Supreme Court itself!”Wally sounded a bit awed.“As powerful as the Dragons are, since Valerius lets the laws mean something, you’ll be having evenmoreof an effect on this territory than Caden even.”
“I don’t know about that,” his father said, but his tone clearly showed he was chuffed with the compliment.
Caden didn’t bridle at this talk at all.He was glad to share the burden of leading people with the court and with his father.Even if they were to solve the problem of the Behemoth, that still left the very real problems of inequality and prejudice to be dealt with.
Would there ever be a time when there wasn’t anusversusthemsociety?He used to think that there was a lot more tolerance than there actually was.He had been protected from so much of it because it wasn’t aimed at him so he could ignore it happening to others.But now he couldn’t ignore it.He wouldn’t.He had to become an advocate.
But other than treating people as they should be treated and being an example of that as much as he could, listening to others who had something legitimate to say, speaking up when he saw injustice and urging his fellow Dragon Shifters to do the same… Well, he didn’t feel it was enough.But what other solutions were there?One couldn’t rule people into feeling a certain way.And if one did, that led to problems all of its own.
So he was definitely glad for the court and for thoughtful people like his father and Justice St.John to be on it.He was grateful that he would have Wally and Rose to advise him.There were plenty of ideas out there.Potential solutions.He had to find them, listen to them, and promote the people and ideas that would help and not hurt.
“You’ve been getting calls from the Faith all night, Mrs.--Ellen,” Rose changed to his mother’s first name mid-sentence.“What are they asking you?”
Caden knew that Rose was curious, but he had a feeling that she was also asking onhisbehalf as a Councillor and not just as his mother’s friend.
“They want to meet Caden, of course,” his mother said, sounding a little overwhelmed with this very private part of her life becoming so public.She paused for a moment and he imagined her drinking down her wine.The splash of liquid in a glass that followed soon after that silence and she murmured, “thank you, Grant” told him that he was right.“I don’t mind that.The excitement, you know? If I knew someone whose child became the ninth Dragon Shifter, I would be pressing for a moment to speak to him or her, too.It’s…”
“You don’t know if you can trust them,” Rose filled in with what he was sure was a knowing nod.
“The people who helped plant the bombs at that celebration in the Below?They were so unassuming!Sonice.I would haveneverthought they would do something so--soevil,” his mother said and he imagined her shivering after saying words that she meant.
“I suppose it just goes to show that we can’t assume we know what’s in anybody’s heart,” Wally opined.
“Exactly!”His mother set her glass a little heavily on the table and there was aclack.
They were so convinced of the rightness of what they believed, remember, Iolaire? In a quiet, crazy way,Caden remarked with a bitter twist of a smile.Humans First think they’re right, too.They shout it to the heavens.
Iolaire hooted softly and its head hung a little.It showed him the image of two opposing forces.Both sides were decked out in beautiful armor, flying equally lovely flags, with their faces lifted up to the sun, believing it was shining more brightly on them.Then the clash began and the battlefield was stained red with blood that flowed equally from both sides.And the blood was the same no matter which side spilled it or which side bled.
Then there was a dark shadow that covered the battlefield.Everyone looked up to see what it was.They wiped sweat and blood from their eyes.They blinked as the darkness blocked out the sun that they had thought shone just for them.Their expressions went from weary puzzlement to shock then to terror.
The Behemoth flew above them all.
Some dropped their weapons and tried to flee from the field, but the Behemoth’s many heads sent floods of icy waters to drown them and poisonous fogs to choke them and flames to fry the flesh from their bones.No one was spared.No matter what the side.No one was safe.The Behemoth wanted war and chaos and fed upon it.It was the only victor.
Is that all it wants, Iolaire?Caden pressed.Your mind was linked to its mind for a time.
He recalled all too keenly how Iolaire had woken up during the other Dragons attack on the Behemoth.He didn’t want to cause Iolaire pain by asking it to remember that time.But maybe there was something in those memories that could help them defeat it.
Death,Iolaire whispered and tucked its head in its wing again.Its voice was more like a mist being blown through Caden’s mind than an actual word.Death.
