12. Mis-Judgment
MIS-JUDGMENT
V alerius tugged his hood up as he stepped out from behind the stall and into the crowd to watch Caden, Iolaire and Rose’s triumph. Kaila followed after him. She was huffing and fussing with the matching hood and cloak she wore and mourning her hoverboard. He’d made her leave it behind.
“This cloak smells musty!” she hissed.
“It’s leather. It’s meant to smell that way,” Valerius said, nettled despite his happiness that things seemed to be going well for Caden and the others. “You did not have to wear one. In fact, I believe I told you that two tall hooded figures--”
“Three! Iolaire was wearing one too!” Kaila corrected him. At least, she remembered not to use Caden’s name when they were in the crowd.
He grimaced. “Correct, three people in black cloaks and hoods would look suspicious. I recommended that you stay behind the stall.”
“But I couldn’t see!” Kaila complained. “And I came here to see things! So here I am!”
“I thought you came here to support Iolaire and Rose.” Valerius gave her a reproachful look as she shifted under her hood and cloak like a person wearing a very bad disguise. Luckily, all eyes were on Iolaire and Rose at that moment.
He noted the awe-filled gazes in the people’s eyes. Not just awe-filled but almost giddy looks that people were giving Iolaire. The children who were in the front row--and were being lined up expertly by Rose to pet Iolaire--were blissed out with delight.
I do not think that people look at us that way, Raziel , Valerius said to his Spirit, half in jest and half in… well, he wasn’t sure what.
No, but it is not our role to be beloved, his Spirit surprisingly answered. Let them love Iolaire. Let them fear us.
And Valerius saw the logic in this. Iolaire and Caden could be--actually perhaps already were --the silk glove over his and Raziel’s steel fist. While it would be beneath his and Raziel’s dignity to let a child ride his tail--which was happening right now with Iolaire--it was Caden and Iolaire’s joy to do so. And it only added to their mystique which was, again, so very different from his and Raziel’s. Raziel curled in a ball and let its eyelids slowly close as it dreamed of Iolaire.
“Do your people adore you and Lana like that, Kaila?” Valerius was honestly curious. The two of them had not ever let their conversations stray beyond what needed to be said. Kaila, honestly, exhausted and irritated him with her boundless energy and humming bird-like thoughts.
Kaila cocked her head to the side, considering this, which also caused her hood to sag. “The dolphins do.”
“I meant your human and Shifter subjects,” Valerius said dryly.
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think so. They are happy to see me as I make sure their nets are full of fish but they are not...” Kaila paused as she tried to sum up the emotion in the Below, “drunk with happiness like this. Here it is as if Iolaire is the sun and they are all flowers starved for light.”
Considering that the Below was indeed starved for sunlight it was an apt description. Valerius frowned as he took in the faces around him. Many looked haggard, cheeks hollowed out and dark circles under their eyes.People had clearly dressed in their very best but the clothing was still a little ragged. The world in which he had been born into had always had the haves and the have nots. In fact, there were far more have nots than haves back then. In many ways that hadn’t changed.
As he continued to look around, Valerius felt a sense of dissatisfaction. He had never been the type of ruler who had pledged to end inequality. He did not believe that was possible. He was not the type of ruler to pander to the poor either, promising them things he could never deliver. He didn’t pander to the rich either. He ignored everyone. But what he saw here was troubling. This was his main city. His castle was perched high above these people perhaps so far above them that he hadn’t seen them or the desperate poverty and want that was before him now.
“Look at all the little fish wary of the big fish! Just waiting to be eaten,” Kaila said with a shake of her head.
It took him a moment to understand what she meant. Her “big fish” were the Swarm, Rat and Snake Shifters who ran the gangs while the “little fish” was evidently everyone else.
Marban had his “big fish” patrolling the “little fish” to make sure there was no crime or violence to ruin the show. Considering all the cameras here filming not only Iolaire, but panning across the crowd, Valerius understood on some level why. Anyone misbehaving who was from the Below would be used as an example of every person from the Below. In fact, a reporter was breathlessly saying something akin to that to her colleague.
“I have to admit, Roger, that I haven’t ever been in the Below other than during my time as a local reporter doing crime stories,” the reed-thin peroxide blond said to a smiling man in a well-cut suit.
“I hear you, Linda!” Roger agreed with her over brightly. “I have to say that things down here are hopping! I haven’t seen so many smiles since… well, since Iolaire made its appearance in Dragon Strike Square.”
Linda nodded so loosely that Valerius thought that she might have strings controlling that movement. “Indeed! And wasn’t that a lovely time! Do you think now that Iolaire has made an appearance in the Below and Mid that we can expect the ninth Dragon Shifter to show up on every level?”
Roger laughed avuncularly. “Well, we already know Iolaire is spending quite a bit of time in High Reach meeting its brethren. But we can always hope!”
“Oh, look! There seems to be some sort of commotion over there! With that young boy and one of the, ah, uhm, Snake Shifters, I think?” Linda gestured towards where a bald man with a snake tattooed around his throat like a noose had clamped a hand down on the back of a boy’s neck.
The boy didn’t look to be more than thirteen to Valerius. He scowled as he watched the Snake Shifter lift the boy up to a standing position, he’d been sitting, and spin him around. His eyes were narrowed and a decidedly nasty look was on his face. It was then that the Snake Shifter realized that one of the cameras was pointed towards him. He suddenly smiled--smiles did not seem to come naturally to him--and wrapped a seemingly friendly arm around the boy whom he pressed close against his side. He waved as if he were excited to be on television.
“I guess it wasn’t what I thought. Appears that they know one another,” Linda burbled and the two of them went back to discussing just how clean the Below was.
Valerius watched as the Snake Shifter, now no longer on television, turned the friendly hug into a headlock and dragged the boy through the crowd towards the back wall. Valerius started moving after them. Kaila followed him.
“Where are we going?” she asked avidly.
“To see what Marban thinks justice looks like,” Valerius answered her.
He might have allowed bad things to happen in the Below when he wasn’t looking, but he wasn’t going to let something occur right in front of his eyes. He took one glance back at Iolaire. There were over a dozen children riding Iolaire’s tail now and even more climbing onto its back. Iolaire was making it snow.
Rose was involved in a raucous snowball fight. Valerius smirked when a snowball hit Marban’s bald pate. Rose put her hands up to her mouth to keep the laughter in as the snow and ice slid down his face. Valerius paused, wary that Marban would get angry at the affront and ruin everything, but the wily Swarm Shifter suddenly ducked down like a man half his age to form a snowball of his own that he threw at Rose. Soon, Marban was tossing and dodging snowballs. Satisfied that everything and everyone here was all right, he turned back to the boy with the Snake Shifter.
He and Kaila glided through the crowd. People made way even in the densely packed space. They didn’t know who he or Kaila were, but everyone sensed not to get in their way. One man went so far as to suck his stomach in to give Valerius another inch of space. Kaila poked him in the tummy causing the man to grunt and let the air out. She chuckled as they passed.
“Kaila, we are keeping a low profile. The cloaks and hoods, remember?” Valerius hissed at her.
“Oh, you’re no fun!” She sighed but stopped herself from touching any other pedestrian.
Valerius watched as the Snake Shifter took the boy through a door guarded by two Rat Shifters. The Rat Shifters immediately sidled back into place, blocking the door completely even though neither of them were more than five feet tall and skinny as rails.
Few people were scared of Rat Shifters. In Wally’s former life, Valerius remembered that he had made his mark in the underworld by being smart and using force as the last option. He’d also organized the Rat Shifters into large groups that bound together. There was nothing quite as horrifying as hundreds of rats swarming. But Marban hadn’t kept Wally’s way of running the Rat Shifters. Or maybe with the crowds there simply weren’t enough Shifters to keep more than two Rats together.
The two Rat Shifters noticed Valerius and Kaila approaching--and how could they not both of them towering over much of the crowd, not to mention the hoods and cloaks?--and immediately their noses were twitching. Valerius could almost imagine the whiskers that would be there in their rat forms .
Valerius stopped about two feet from the Rat Shifters. He loomed above them. He doubted they could see his face clearly even this close up as the shadows were much deeper here away from the stage.
“Get lost, long legs!” the Rat Shifter to the right said with a stab of one pudgy finger towards Valerius’ stomach. He would have had to lift his hand higher to aim at Valerius’ chest.
“Long legs? Oh, that’s a great nickname! Now do me! Do me!” Kaila clapped.
The two Rat Shifters looked at one another as if Kaila had lost her mind. Valerius did not blame them. He often thought the same.
The Rat Shifter to the left growled at her, “How about I call you 'dead meat', because that’s what you’re going to be if you don’t beat it!”
“That’s not very nice. I was hoping for a nickname, not an insult!” Kaila fumed.
“What’s in there?” Valerius asked.
“Nothing you need to know about, long legs!” the right Rat Shifter spit.
Valerius envisioned ripping back the hood and leaning down right into those pugnacious faces and watching as their looks of defiance became ones of fear. But he couldn’t do that because news that he was there would spread. It would likely cause a riot, not because people would be running towards him--asking for pets or tail rides, thank goodness!--but rather racing away in terror. The last time he was here, he’d killed people after all. So relying on who he was wasn’t going to work.
“I’m curious about the boy the Snake Shifter brought in there,” Valerius said.
The two Rat Shifters looked at each other like two ugly book ends and chortled.
“Ah, little Stevie will finally get what’s coming to him!” The Rat Shifter on his right held his stomach as he let out a deep belly laugh.
“What is Stevie’s supposed crime? He looks all of thirteen,” Valerius said.
“Stevie’s been a thief since he came out of his mama’s womb and stole her life!” The Rat Shifter on the left found that little line hysterical.
Valerius’ hands fisted at his sides. “And he was caught stealing now?”
“Pickpocketing! I’m sure George found him trying to lift a wallet or two.” The Rat Shifter on the right shrugged.
“He’s violated Marban’s rules. He’s bound to get the Chop!”
More chortling.
“What do you mean ‘the Chop’?” Kaila was frowning at them. Valerius could hear it in her voice but couldn’t see her face.
“None of your business, dead meat.” The Rat Shifter on the right found that even funnier than anything they’d said so far.
But Valerius didn’t imagine anything named “the Chop” could be good. He thought of how thieves in certain cultures had their hands chopped off. Could that be what was to be Stevie’s fate?
“Marban wants a tween to be punished severely for pickpocketing even if he doesn’t have enough food to eat or shelter to keep himself warm and dry?” Valerius heard the outrage in his voice.
The Rat Shifter on the left snarled, “Marban does what he can for those who can pull their weight and follow the rules. If you want to blame someone, blame fate.”
“Blame the President of the United States! Blame King Valerius!” The Rat Shifter on the right gave him a narrow eyed glance.
“You blame Valerius for this? For the evil you do? For the harming of a child?” Kaila growled. “If not for Valerius, the Shifters would be on human dissection tables or in their jails or buried six feet under! If not for Valerius, Illarion would have you all in his work camps or Mei would be putting your little rat brains in her mechanical men! Valerius makes it possible for you to live a good life and do the right thing! If you choose not to… well, that is your choice!”
As she made this impassioned defense of him, she put her hands on her hips which caused the cloak to flare out and reveal a snippet of her island outfit. The Rat Shifters’ beady eyes lit up. They thought they saw a mark. And that gave Valerius an idea. He needed to get past the Rat Shifters and into that room without picking them up like the sacks of garbage they were and throwing them, which would cause a commotion. If Kaila lured them away then his problem would be solved
“Dear, your defense of Valerius is quite vociferous, but I think you’re not going to convert others. These two have their ideas pretty set,” Valerius said.
“Hell, yeah!” The left Rat Shifter pounded one fist into the palm of his open hand. “If I had Valerius here I’d show him what’s what.”
“Indeed, you look quite capable of taking down the largest Dragon Shifter in the world,” Valerius replied dryly. If Raziel hadn’t been asleep, Valerius could only imagine what his Spirit would say to the Rat Shifter’s boasts.
“Don’t we though!” The two Rat Shifters elbowed each other.
“Quite. Dear,” he said to Kaila, “these gentlemen seem very keen connoisseurs of your clothes. I think they would appreciate your jewelry even more. Perhaps you could show it to them.”
Kaila’s voice was filled with disgust, “My jewelry? But they’re Raaaa--”
“I think they would appreciate it. Over there.” Valerius pointed to a rather dimly lit corner. “Where it would be safe to show them. Away from other prying eyes that wouldn’t be as noble as these two.”
Valerius hoped he wasn’t laying on it too thick but these two didn’t look like their brain pans were too large. He only hoped that Kaila got his intentions. Kaila stared at him blankly. Maybe he could just tell the two bastards that he’d give them “dear’s” jewelry if they stepped away quietly. But he tried with Kaila one last time.
“Take them over there , dear,” Valerius emphasized the location.
Kaila followed his repeated gesture. Finally, knowledge bloomed on her face. “Oh! Yes! Let me show you!” Kaila turned towards the Rat Shifters and exposed the bands of bracelets set with precious jewels that went up and down her forearms. “Aren’t they lovely? You can take a closer look over there.”
“Well…” The right Rat turned to the left one, their bushy brown eyebrows communicated that this was too rich an opportunity to pass up. “You won’t be coming with us, long legs? ”
“No.” Valerius did not indicate what he was going to do. They likely guessed he was going inside, but the jewelry was too much of an enticement to turn down. Little did they know that Kaila could handle them with both hands tied behind her back.
“Come along, gentlemen. I can’t wait to show you everything,” Kaila grinned.
The three of them went off together, and immediately, Valerius went for the door. It was locked. He noticed there was a sensor pad to the side. He growled. But then his hearing caught a sharp yelp from a teenager’s throat. Valerius immediately thrust through the door. The door shattered into toothpick-sized shards and he raced inside.
The room itself was not large, about twenty by twenty feet square. It was cut out of the living rock, but there were computer monitors attached to every wall and bright fluorescent lights made the room practically glow. Valerius blinked and lifted an arm to shield his eyes even with the hood.
There were wild shouts and he felt a thick, hard body slam into him. He braced himself and skidded only a foot or so along the floor before he was an immovable wall. His vision cleared and he realized he was being tackled--or attempted to be--by a Bear Shifter. For a Shifter, the bear was large and burly, but Valerius was something else altogether.
Fists started flying towards him, but he easily blocked ninety percent of them. The ones that made it through felt like light taps, which for normal people or even Shifters, would have laid them out. It just made him angry though Raziel didn’t even stir in its snooze.
“Enough,” Valerius said and struck the Bear Shifter once with the flat of his hand.
He kept the blow light, but the man keeled over like a tree felled in the woods and landed on the floor with a thump. Then he turned to the other people in the room. There was only the Snake Shifter called George and the pickpocket, Stevie. But the activities that he saw them in were not what he thought.
George was seated at a desk, watching the monitors. Stevie was standing there with a mop and bucket. George had something in his hand. It was a rubberband. He was firing rubberbands at Stevie as the young man worked.
“I thought that Stevie was getting the Chop,” Valerius found himself saying.
“Who are you?” Stevie’s voice was high and tight. “Is Burry dead?”
Burry must be the Bear Shifter who was unconscious in a pile on the floor.
Instead of being the savior, Valerius realized how he must have looked: cloaked, hooded and huge, having laid out their Bear Shifter and demanding to know why Stevie wasn’t getting the Chop.
This is going all wrong.
“Burry is fine. He just should--”
Kaila danced into the room. She was laughing and spinning. “Those Rat Shifters have learned their lesson about trying to steal jewelry from--”
“You hurt Ralphie and Dickie?” Stevie cried.
Kaila stopped dancing. Now they were two hooded and cloaked figures who had taken out their compatriots.
Things are really going badly.
“Isn’t this the boy who was going to have his hands chopped off or something?” Kaila pointed to Stevie.
“My--my hands cut off?” Stevie squeaked.
“What does ‘the chop’ mean?” Valerius demanded of George.
“It means that his freedom is limited until he makes amends! Jesus, man, what do you think? That I would hurt a kid?” George looked outraged.
Valerius’ shoulders slumped. Marban was better than most Dragon Shifters would have been. He had misjudged the man. Well, maybe he wouldn’t go that far. He turned to Kaila with a kind of dread. “Please tell me that you didn’t kill those Rat Shifters.”
“What? No! They were sort of cute actually. I said I’d meet them for drinks later after they woke up,” Kaila said brightly.
“Oh, good.” Valerius smiled and turned back to George. That was when he happened to see the image on the monitors over George’s shoulder and he tensed .
Streaming down the steps, having somehow gotten through the Claw up above and Marban’s Shifters down below, were members of the Faith in their white flowing robes.
His mind went to the fact that the crowd here was huge.
An explosion here would definitely cause many deaths.
And perhaps an opportunity for people to join with Spirits.