“A great king?” He snorted in derision. “I resented every moment of being king until Caden arrived. I did not wish to be bothered. Everyone and everything annoyed me. I did not see it as a blessing, but a burden,” he reminded her. “You had to constantly cajole me to do the minimum.”
She paused, one bare foot outstretched, and shook her head. “All the power you have and all you wanted was--”
“To be left alone.” Valerius grimaced.
“To have the world not need you. To have people behave as they should. For there to be peace and justice and--”
“The world is not like that!” He hunched his shoulders. “You make me sound like a romantic fool.”
“No, just a noble man--a noble king--who wants what is best for his people,” she corrected.
“Chione…”
“If I am here or gone, what will you do?” she asked.
He imagined he felt the warmth of her against his back. She would have to be on her tiptoes to look over his shoulder at him as he imagined her doing.
“I will keep everyone safe,” he answered.
“Yes, and what else?” she wheedled.
“Is that not enough?!” he cried. “If I had been more concerned with enemies, I would have known the Behemoth was at our gates! I would have stopped Anwar’s lover from being taken out of the Wheel of Life! I would have saved you… I will still save you”
“Looking for enemies would have not helped you in discovering the Behemoth any faster than you did,” she reminded him. “Looking for solutions to the unrest, the people’s unhappiness, was the only thing that would have led you right. Don’t you see?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “I see. And I intend to do things differently from now on. No Dragon is on their own. We are together. United. We will figure out…”
She was nodding and smiling. She no longer had her tablet and his heart seized in his chest. They were no longer in the throne room, but a golden field of wheat and was that--was that the Nile behind her?
“You’re going to be fine--no, you’re going to be better than that--with or without me,” she said.
“You’re wrong. I--”
But she was shaking her head. He saw a boat slowly floating down the Nile. He caught glimpses of people reaping wheat. The pyramids rose, beautiful and new, in the far distance. It was peaceful here.
“Chione,” he whispered.
She had turned her head to look at the boat. She was farther away from him.
“Chione,” he repeated.
She turned back, her head cocked to the side.
“Chione, please stay and be a part of this. See it through with me. Please,” he begged.
There was a sudden jerk and Valerius was jostled out of his imagination. He was almost glad of it. That had been painful. Too painful. And it hadn’t been real, of course. Chione was going to live. That was it.
But what had caused him to be so violently jostled? They’d dropped. By about ten feet as if Iolaire’s flying had been interrupted. He quickly glanced around, but everything seemed all right. Without Raziel in the lair, he could not hear either Caden or Iolaire’s thoughts, but he had seen them looking down at him with concern every half hour or so. He’d smiled up at them, giving a thumb’s up sign, because the wind whipped away his voice and he didn’t want to distract them from flying.
They had never flown so far or fast before. Valerius didn’t know how much strength Iolaire had built up in the Spirit Realm, if any, to fly like this. But every time they had opened their hand to look at him, he noticed they had been flying more slowly and strain had shown up in Iolaire’s sweet face. He could tell now that the swift, sleek movements Iolaire usually made were now ragged and jerky.
They’re tired. At the end of their strength. And I do not think we are at the sun yet.
He managed to lift his head and peek out between two of the claws to see ahead of them. The sky appeared as velvety dark as when they had left Reach. Maybe there was a slight lightening in the east, but that just might be his imagination. But they were definitely going much slower and gliding a lot more. They were flying ever lower too.
It had been his and Raziel’s intention to strengthen Iolaire and Caden’s flying skills. To have them go for longer and longer flights to increase their stamina. If he were honest, he and Raziel had not been too worried about it, because they would be there. They would carry Iolaire and Caden if they had to. But now, the littlest--if fiercest--Dragon had to do everything on its own. Valerius was merely a burden, not a help.
Caden, can you hear me?
