The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons

by Katie MacAlister

  “No.”

  “Father!”

  “No!” he said louder, his glare shifting to Violet. “You don’t know what she’s done, Violet.”

  “No, but I know Tully, and she wouldn’t do any of the things you mentioned a few minutes ago.”

  “Well . . .” I gave her a weak smile. “I did actually shoot a few balls of energy at him, and they happened to turn into bananas, but that was only because he was trying to kill Baltic, in the process of which he ruined a couple of chairs and a tray full of antique crystal. And for the last time,” I said, turning back to Dr. Kostich, “Baltic is not fat! He’s a dragon! Their dragon form is bigger than their human form!”

  Violet blinked a couple of times.

  “Not to mention the fact that Baltic willingly gave up the light blade to you when he didn’t have to. I think it’s only right and fair that since he did that”—I wasn’t going to mention that retrieving the famous von Endres sword was third on Baltic’s list of things to be done, right after freeing Thala and rebuilding Dauva—“then you should take the interdict off me.”

  “That does seem only fair.” Violet nodded, looking thoughtfully at her father.

  “No. She must be punished for the way she betrayed me. She—what is it now, Adam?”

  The young man I assumed was the apprentice who replaced me stood in the doorway, holding a phone. “It’s from the head of the watch, master. He says he must speak to you about an urgent matter in Paris.”

  Dr. Kostich sighed and got up, bending a prohibitive look upon both Violet and me. “I forbid you to discuss any more of this, Violet.”

  She rolled her eyes and waited for him to leave the room before asking, “Just how did you betray Father?”

  I grimaced. “I didn’t, not knowingly. I couldn’t help it if there’s a dragon buried deep inside me and I didn’t know it. I thought I was mortal.”

  “Even I could see you weren’t mortal, but you do appear to be human,” she mused, examining me closely. “Clearly Father is going to have to lift the interdict.”

  “If you can convince him of that, I would be eternally grateful.”

  “Grateful enough to help me?” she asked quickly.

  “You need my help? With what? My magic isn’t very good, if you remember.”

  “No, no, it’s not your magic we need.”

  “What exactly do you need help with?”

  “A dragon. No, more than one, a group of dragons.”

  “Which sept?”

  “I don’t know. That’s part of the problem, you see. Do you remember Maura? No, come to think of it, that was before I met you.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t recognize the name, no, but I do recall that you had a daughter.”

  “Did I ever tell you that, oh, about ninety-five years ago, I was madly in love with a red dragon named Lao?”

  I shook my head, even though I was startled by what she said. “As I said, my memory was pretty much destroyed.”

  “No matter. There isn’t much to tell. We lasted for a few years, then parted ways. But he left me with a little present in the form of a baby daughter.”

  I stared at her with growing amusement. “Dr. Kostich has a half-dragon granddaughter?” I couldn’t wait to tell Baltic!

  “Yes, but he doesn’t discuss her much with people. He doesn’t like to dwell on what he refers to as ‘my little indiscretion.’ ” Violet laughed. “He dotes on Maura, of course, because she is a dear girl, if a bit headstrong, but that she gets from Father, as well.”

  I bit back a little giggle at the thought of Dr. Kostich and his headstrong granddaughter.

  “Maura is very smart, just like Father. Being part dragon, of course, she didn’t inherit any of his mage skills—well, to be fair, none of us did, although my brother Mark is able to do some simple polymorphs on rocks and other inanimate objects—but Maura did turn out to be the most gifted Summoner.”

  “Summoner?” I asked, the word ringing faint chimes in my brain. “That’s something to do with ghosts?”

  “Yes, she’s very talented. She raised an entire village of Turks two summers ago, when she was spending some time at an archaeological dig. Not only can she raise ghosts, she can also raise shades, and you know how difficult that can be.”

  “Shades? I don’t think . . .” I searched the black mass that was my memory. “Aren’t they ghosts, too?”

  “Well, technically, yes. Evidently there are all sorts of flavors of spirits, but where a typical ungrounded ghost is bound to the Summoner until Released, shades have more autonomy. They can become corporeal for periods of time, and usually aren’t bound to anyone. Maura is one of the few Summoners who can successfully raise shades, although she is very careful about misusing her gift. And that’s another bone Father has to pick, since he’d much prefer her to be under the purview of the L’au-dela rather than that of the Akashic League. Still, she’s happy with her job . . . or she was until she fell in with some bad dragons.”

  “And you don’t know what sept they belong to?” I wondered if they had something to do with the blue dragons.

  “No, that’s just it—they don’t belong to any sept. They’re a tribe of—what do you call them?—outcasts.”

  “Ouroboros dragons?” I blinked a couple of times, thinking briefly of telling her that both Baltic and I were ouroboros in the eyes of the weyr.

  “That’s the word. Evidently when you’re an outlaw, you form a tribe rather than a sept, or some such nonsense.” She made a dismissive gesture. “And Maura is in up to her neck with those outlaws, Tully. She’s caught up in some horrible tangle and is too stubborn to ask for help.”

  “What sort of a tangle?” I asked, still a little bemused by the whole idea of the dragon-hating Dr. Kostich having a half-dragon granddaughter.

  “I don’t know,” she said simply. “She won’t tell me. But I know she’s in trouble, and dragons being what they are, it’s impossible for me to get an outsider to help her. But you are a dragon now, aren’t you?”

  “Well . . . kind of. My dragon is essentially dormant, but I am a wyvern’s mate, and evidently that’s quite a big deal in the weyr.”

  “Yes, exactly.” She nodded. “You’re important, and have powers, and these dragons who’ve waylaid Maura will be in awe of you. You are the ideal person to help us.”

  “I don’t quite see how, but of course I’ll be happy to be of any use I can.”

  “And you will be rewarded, naturally. Father will lift the interdiction, and you will help keep poor Maura from doing something she would spend the rest of her life regretting.”

  Dr. Kostich reentered the room, his eyes snapping with irritation as he glared at his daughter. “I specifically forbade you to mention that subject to strangers, Violet.”

  “Tully isn’t a stranger, Father,” she said with a stubborn look that matched his own.

  “She is no longer one of us. I do not recognize her as a mage,” he argued.

  I sighed. Why was nothing in my life ever easy?

  “I don’t care if she’s a demon lord!” Violet said, getting up and marching over to her father, her hands on her hips. “She’s said she would help us with Maura, and that’s all that matters. But she won’t do that if you don’t lift the interdict!”

  “I have no intention of doing anything of the kind, and we do not need her help!” he snarled back at her.

  The argument went on for another twenty minutes before Dr. Kostich, saying extremely rude things about his daughter in Latin, snapped a very testy “I will not lift the interdict. To do so now would be the sheerest folly. But I will agree that if she can help with Maura, I will remove the interdict then. And I do this only because Maura is foolish enough to get involved with dragons! I hope that will serve as a lesson to you both!”

  “I need to be able to perform magic if I’m supposed to put the fear of god into a bunch of outlaw dragons,” I pointed out.

  “Yes, she does. As entertaining as it sounds to turn things
to bananas, I don’t see that the bad dragons are going to have a whole lot of respect for that.”

  He ground his teeth for a moment. “I will not lift the interdict.”

  My hopes were dashed on the rocks of despair.

  “However, I will temporarily bestow upon her the Grace of the Magi. That should allow her to perform such magic as is necessary to free Maura from the hold of the ouroboros tribe.”

  He made an intricate gesture over my head, bathing me in a blue light that skimmed along the surface of my skin until it disappeared with a residual tingle. I took a deep breath, aware of a warm sensation that seemed to wrap around me. “Without intending to sound ungrateful, I’d rather have the interdict lifted.”

  His eyebrows bristled at me. I had the feeling I was just seconds away from total annihilation.

  “Er . . . that is to say, thank you. I’m sure your blessing will help. Violet, if you would please give me all the information you have about Maura and these unknown dragons, I’ll add her to the list of things I must take care of.”

  Dr. Kostich, still muttering, shot me a look that for ten seconds held me frozen in time, my heart stopped, the air locked into my unmoving lungs, my blood slowing until it lay limply in my veins. He released me just as he left the room.

  I sank into a chair, raising a shaky hand to my throat. “I really hate it when he does that.”

  “Stop your heart? He does it just for effect, but I’ve told him many times that he doesn’t have to be quite so extreme to get his point across.” Violet sat down at an elegant antique writing desk and made a few quick notes. “Last I heard, Maura was in Germany. Here’s the address I have for her, but I will warn you that she’s fairly resistant to being helped. She claims she can handle the situation, but things have gone from bad to worse, and I think it’s long past the time when she can hope to escape without the direst of repercussions.”

  I took the sheet she handed me, wondering if Baltic would know about this group of dragons. “What are they doing that puts your daughter in such dangerous circumstances?”

  Violet stood, clearly ending the conversation. “They attacked Suffrage House, and stole several items of immeasurable value from the L’au-dela vaults.”

  “They stole from the headquarters of the Otherworld?” I shook my head. “How is that possible? I thought the security there was impossible to break.”

  “That’s exactly what Father wants to know.” She looked down at her hands for a second before leveling a steadfast gaze at me. “He’s had to put out a price on all their heads, Maura’s included. But that’s not the worst.”

  “I’m fairly certain I don’t want to know what could be worse, but go ahead—I’m braced.” I got slowly to my feet.

  “The artifacts they stole are theurgical in nature.” She waited a moment for that to sink in before nodding. “Yes. Clearly they intend on challenging the powers of the L’au-dela itself, and we both know how that’s likely to turn out. Save my daughter, Tully. Save Maura from what will surely be her destruction, and Father will lift the interdiction. I will see to it that you can name your reward, as well.”

  A vision of the light sword danced in my mind. I straightened my shoulders and gathered up my things. “I’ll call you when I have some news.”

  “Tully . . .” She bit her lip. “Maura believes she is stronger than she really is.”

  I gave her hand a squeeze. “Don’t lose heart. I may not be much of a mage, but dragons are very hard to kill, and with your father’s blessing, I’m confident that I’ll be able to get Maura back to you without too much trouble.”

  Don’t you hate it when your words have a way of haunting you?

  Chapter Five

  “This is so Mission: Impossible! It’s just like the old days when I helped you out, Mayling!”

  The expression on May’s face was completely missed by her oblivious twin. “Er . . . yes. Aisling, what do you see?”

  “Two guards along the south side, just as Drake said there would be.” Aisling lowered the night vision goggles and lifted her wrist to press a button on her watch. “The new shift should be coming in another fifteen minutes.”

  “Are you sure this is the time to be doing this?” I frowned into the darkness. The house loomed up as an inky shape against an only slightly lighter sky. Fantastically shaped blobs of darkness lay scattered between us and the house, giving the eerie sensation that the house was guarded by more than just a handful of dragons. I eyed one of the shapes, convinced I had seen it move, but I knew it must just be a trick of the dim moonlight. They are only yew hedges, I told myself. They just happen to look like mangled, unspeakably frightening beings. “The new guards will be wide-awake, won’t they? They’ll have a better chance of seeing us than tired guards.”

  “True, but the shift change gives us a couple of minutes when the guards’ attention is on each other, rather than the house,” Aisling pointed out. “That’s the best time to make our move.”

  “Don’t worry, babe, we’ve done this before,” Jim said, snuffling my leg. “When Ash and May broke into the vault at Suffrage House, they did it right at a shift change, too. Worked like a charm.”

  “I don’t mean to make trouble, but I’m a bit worried about my magic. It was never very reliable, and I haven’t had a chance to try it out since Dr. Kostich gave me the Grace of the Magi. I used to suppose things went wrong because I lacked the skills to control the magic, but now I gather that’s because I’m not supposed to be able to use magic at all due to the dragon inside me. Did that shrub just move?”

  The three women turned to look where I pointed.

  “I don’t think so. Do shrubs move on their own?” Cyrene asked doubtfully.

  “No, of course they don’t,” May said calmly.

  “Not normally, but what if those aren’t ordinary shrubs?” I asked, watching one of the dark blobs with suspicion. “What if Drake did something to them?”

  “Man, someone’s going to give me the heebie-jeebies if she doesn’t stop with all the inanimate-objects-moving-on-their-own bit,” Jim muttered.

  Aisling snorted. “I assure you he hasn’t done anything other than make sure there’s round-the-clock security on the house, and let me just add that it wasn’t easy getting details on exactly who is here on guard duty, and when the shift change happens. I had to pretend I wanted to stay at this house in order to get the details, and even that wasn’t easy. We’re just lucky he had to go to Budapest for a couple of days to take care of some business concerns, because there is no way in Abaddon I could have slipped out without him knowing I was gone. Jim, stop leaning so hard on me. The bushes aren’t evil. Ysolde is just seeing things.”

  “I’m sure it’s just the moon going behind the clouds,” May said after giving the shrub in question a considering look.

  “Hmm.” I looked at my own watch. Twelve minutes to go. “Is Gabriel away from home, as well, May?”

  She smiled. “Home as in his house in Australia? No, we’re still here in London until a few things are taken care of.” She gave her twin an odd look, but Cyrene, sitting on the ground with her back to a tree, was too busy sending a text message to notice.

  “Actually, I meant is he gone from your London house, so that you could help me out with this project.”

  “Oh, no. He’s in England.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Did you have to go into the shadow world to sneak out?”

  “I didn’t sneak out.” Her smile widened. “Gabriel’s here. Well, in Reevesbury, not out here with us, obviously.”

  Both Aisling and I gawked at her.

  “He’s right here?” Aisling asked.

  “That Gabe’s a deep one,” Jim said as it wandered over to Cyrene, where it peered across her shoulder to read what she was texting. “Whoa, you’re saying that to Neptune?”

  “Jim!” Cyrene shoved it aside, hastily tucking her phone into her pocket. “It’s illegal to read someone’s text messages!”

  “In town here, y
es,” May repeated, dragging her gaze off her twin.

  “Is Brom with him?” I asked, worried that Brom might somehow get involved with my plans.

  “No, he’s still in London with Maata and Tipene. I believe they were going to have a mummy movie marathon tonight. We thought it was best he stay there until you pick him up tomorrow. You didn’t want Gabriel to bring him, did you?”

  “No. Not that I think there’s going to be any trouble, but I’m much more comfortable knowing he’s out of the blast zone, so to speak.”

  May took in our worried expressions. “Don’t worry that Gabriel’s going to do anything to interfere with our plans. He realizes that this is probably our best shot of getting Baltic to lift the curse. Plus he never really saw the reasoning in keeping Thala prisoner any longer.”

  “A sane voice in a crowd of maniacs,” I murmured.

  To my surprise, Aisling laughed. “If you knew how often I’ve thought that about dragons . . . But you gotta love them despite their archaic rules.”

  Aisling, May, and I smiled. I thought of Baltic, so infuriating at times that he made me want to pull out my hair, and yet so filled with love that just thinking about what he’d been through had the power to bring tears to my eyes.

  “Why don’t you try your magic now?” May suggested as Cyrene rejoined us, Jim following her. “We’ve still got nine minutes. It would be a good opportunity to see if this Grace Dr. Kostich gave you will help.”

  “Good idea.” I looked around for something upon which I could cast a spell.

  “Oooh, magic!” Cyrene said. “I love magic. Can you change Jim into something? Like a toad?”

  “Hey!” Jim protested, backing away from her.

  “Tempting, but I think I should start smaller.” I narrowed my attention on a small rock that was partially visible in the soil at the base of a nearby willow tree. “I’ll do a simple spell to turn that rock into a tongue stone.”

  “What on earth is a tongue stone?” Aisling asked, moving next to me to watch as I picked up the rock and dusted off the bits of grass and dirt that clung to it.