Tilly nodded. He wasn’t sure she truly understood, but she clearly felt for him. He shook himself.
“So it seemed right to give it to you,” Valerius said, trying to sound everyday about this.
Tilly though was giving him one of those Caden-smiles that had him shuffling and unsure what to do.
“You’re wonderful, King Valerius!” Tilly cried.
And then she was hugging him. He stood there quite awkwardly. Marban mimicked putting his arms around her, which Valerius did. Gingerly. Finally, she released him from the hug, though she kept smiling and gazing upon him with that utter trust in his wonderfulness.
Valerius cleared his throat. “Yes, well, let’s sit back down and eat. Raziel is hungry.”
“Dragons need to eat a lot,” Tilly agreed and they both made their way back to the grill.
A comfortable silence fell as they ate bacon wrapped sausage and peppers stuffed with cream cheese.
Of course, that’s when things got interesting again.
Caden, Rose and Wally burst into the tower, which had Marban lifting an eyebrow as he delicately wiped cream cheese from his chin. Valerius had a mouthful of steak and could only make a grunt as to what was the matter. Tilly jumped up and embraced her brother around the waist, somehow not managing to drop or get on Caden the little sandwich she’d made of pepper, sausage and bacon.
“Caden! You’re here! We’re having so much fun! Marban and Valerius are giving me advice and it's actually really good,” she enthused, which had Valerius giving another grunt as to her surprise at their good advice, but then she sobered and asked, “But what’s wrong? Have your friends been mean to you too?”
And over their bond, Valerius felt the crushing grief Caden had for Landry. He was only keeping it away by hoping against hope that Landry could be restored to life in some way. A magical death might mean a magical rebirth. Considering they didn’t know how the walls worked, Caden could be right.
“Till…” Caden said and Valerius felt the words stick in Caden’s mouth like shards of glass. Landry had been Tilly’s friend, too. And considering what she’d just been feeling, adding a death on top of it… Well, it might be much too much. Caden saw the dagger that she had stuck through the loop of her jeans. “Hey, where you’d get the treasure?”
“Isn’t it beautiful? It was a lady’s! King Valerius gave it to me! He’s like one of those knights in the stories!” Tilly beamed.
Valerius had not been like those noble knights. Butchery had been more his trade. Rewarded with coins at the end. He had been death incarnate on the battlefield. There were only a few moments where he’d risen out of the blood-soaked miasma in which he existed to spare a flower or two. But Tilly did not need the burden of that knowledge. And he saw Caden not wanting to burden her with his knowledge either.
Send her to your parents, Caden, Valerius urged. Let them be the ones to tell her. Besides, you have something to discuss, yes?
Yeah, oh, man, yeah, Caden said.
Caden dropped down so that he was more or less eye-level with his sister and rubbed her arms. “Till, Mom and Dad want to talk to you. They’re back in our tower. Can you go there?”
Tilly gave her brother a narrow-eyed look. “You’re trying to get rid of me.”
“No--”
“But I’m your Councillor-in-Training!” she cried.
“That’s true and you’re doing a great job,” Caden assured her. “But our parents need to speak to you and I need to talk to these guys.”
“But--”
“Till.” Caden gave her a meaningful look.
Tilly pouted, but with an exasperated sigh said, “Fine! Fine! You go and have your special talk while our parents pretend to have something to say!”
Except, of course, it wasn’t pretend. Caden looked like he was being weighed down by chains.
“It’s important, Tilly,” Caden insisted. “Trust me.”
Tilly looked slightly alarmed, but finally nodded. She turned and grabbed another piece of bacon-wrapped sausage and said, “Thank you both so much, Marban, King Valerius!”
“You’re quite welcome, Tilly. You must let me know how things go with your friends,” Marban urged.
“I will!” Tilly left the tower.
