The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons

by Katie MacAlister

  “. . . serenity where there resides anger.”

  “I’ll slap a ward on her. Effrijim, I summon thee!”

  “Oh, sure, now you summon me—hey, what’s going on?” The human form of Jim popped up into the range of my vision for a moment, before being yanked aside as Drake shoved both the demon and Aisling back to a large leather couch. “Why’s Ysolde lit up like a Christmas tree? Oh, man, she’s casting a spell that’s going to blow us all to Abaddon, isn’t she? Her hair’s standing all on end!”

  I brought together my hands in a clap that resounded with such volume that the windows rattled. “By my grace, this I cast!”

  For two seconds, everyone froze. No one so much as blinked while they all waited to see what was going to happen. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I was of that group myself, praying that my magic would have returned to me.

  The light expanded to fill the room, then suddenly contracted upon itself with a whipcrack sound, forming itself into the small round shape of an extremely surprised turtle. It fell a few inches to the table next to me, blinking in surprise at everyone standing frozen in the room.

  I glared at the turtle for a moment, then kicked the chair nearest me. “Well, that is just the most disappointing thing yet! A turtle? Really? I put every ounce of intention I could into that spell, and all I get for it is a turtle? I could just scream!”

  May emerged from nothing behind me, reaching out to touch the turtle. “It’s real,” she said, glancing at me with speculation. “Might I ask what it was you were trying to do to us?”

  I slumped down into the chair. “I was trying to cast a clarity spell on you all, to bring you wisdom and enlightenment, so that you would see that we were telling the truth. A turtle. I made a turtle. Hell.”

  “Abaddon,” Jim corrected, pulling out a cell phone to snap a picture of the turtle.

  “Turtles are supposed to be wise, aren’t they?” Aisling asked Drake. “Maybe your spell made a wise turtle instead of bringing us wisdom.”

  “I thought that was owls,” May said when Drake, with a quelling look at his mate, righted a few pieces of furniture that had been knocked over.

  “Could be worse, Soldy,” Jim told me.

  “I don’t see how,” I said, rubbing my forehead.

  “Could be an elephant. So, what’s been going on? Why is Baltic holding Kostya by the scruff of his neck? Hey, Drake’s missing a tooth. Man, I miss all the good meetings!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I think it’s just rude of Gabriel and Drake to do this to me.”

  Baltic, seated opposite me, raised an eyebrow. “I am a wyvern. It is beneath me to point out that I was right and you were wrong.”

  My lips thinned in irritation.

  “However, I was correct,” he continued, just as I knew he would. No one can resist a good I-told-you-so gloat. “They believe only what they want to believe, mate. It should no longer surprise you to be treated as if you were guilty.”

  I looked over his head to where Maata and Tipene stood against the door. Pavel was seated by the window, while the other windows were guarded by a man who had been introduced to me as Mikhail, the son of a black dragon who had survived Constantine’s slaughter. Mikhail watched me with an incredulous intensity that made me vaguely uncomfortable.

  Evidently, the noise of my spell backfiring had brought all the guards on the run. “Maata, do you think I would hurt May and Gabriel? Really hurt them? No, you don’t—It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? And yet those pigheaded wyverns insist that I have to be kept separate lest I cast another spell while they talk things over. As if I’d hurt anyone! Well, all right, at this moment I am sorely tempted to turn a couple of dragons into bananas, but I would change them back. Probably.”

  “Hey,” Jim said, poking its head in through the door as it bumped Maata and Tipene on their backs. “Balters, Drake says you’re supposed to come and talk with them.”

  “It’s about time,” I said, getting to my feet.

  “Just Baltic,” Jim said with a grin. “They say you’re too prone to flying off the hook, Ysolde, which when you consider Baltic’s tenuous grasp on sanity, is really saying a lot.”

  Baltic glanced at the demon, and set its shoes on fire.

  “Argh! Not the shoes! They’re Italian! Cost me a whole month’s allowance!” Jim danced around, slapping at its shoes.

  “If Drake has something to say to me, he can say it in front of Ysolde,” Baltic said.

  “Yes! Absolutely! We’re not stupid, you know! They just want to separate us so they can do mean things to Baltic. I’m not going to allow that.”

  “Ash said you and her and May could talk about your little problem on the verandah,” Jim added once it had stuffed its shoes under a couch cushion to extinguish the flames. “Man, and I thought demon lords had hairtrigger tempers.”

  “What problem do you have with the verandah?” Baltic asked me, looking mildly confused.

  “I don’t have a problem with any form of architectural structure, not that I know of, at least. Jim, what in the name of all that is good and glorious are you talking about?”

  Jim sighed. “Next time I’ll brush up on grammar, OK? Aisling wants to talk to you on the verandah. About your little problem.”

  Both Baltic and I looked with incomprehension at the demon.

  “What, I have to draw you a picture?” It waved its hands around in the air. “Your oblempray with Ostichkay’s awnspay.”

  “Oh.” I glanced at Baltic. “Er . . . perhaps you should talk to the dragons, Baltic. After all, we are here to clear your name.”

  “That is your goal, not mine.” His dark, deeply mysterious eyes considered me for a minute. “What problem do you have with Kostich?”

  “Nothing. Not personally. I have a little job I have to do for him, but that’s all.”

  “What sort of job?”

  I avoided the penetrating look that was attempting to bore into my head. “Just something I agreed to do in order to have him lift the interdict.”

  “You will tell me about this job.” That was an order, not a request, and luckily, Baltic knew well that I didn’t like to be ordered around, because I didn’t even have a chance to get my glare really warmed up before he lifted one hand in capitulation. “Pax. I will speak with the wyverns as you have asked me to, but when I have done so, you will fulfill my request to explain what you are doing for Kostich.”

  “Fair enough. But no antagonizing the situation, not that we’re sitting horribly pretty at the moment, but there’s no need for everyone to get riled up again.”

  With a noise of impatience, he rose to leave the room, standing aside when May and Aisling entered. He shot me one last penetrating glance before Pavel and he followed Jim out the door.

  “We’re good, if you guys want to take a little break,” Aisling told the three guards. Maata and Tipene exchanged glances, hesitating.

  “We promise we won’t do anything but talk,” May added with a smile. The two silver guards nodded and left the room, leaving us with Mikhail, who still watched me with fascinated anticipation.

  “Boo!” I told him.

  He jumped a good foot in the air.

  “Shoo. We want to be alone,” Aisling said, holding the door open for him.

  He gave me a big berth, but left the room.

  “Finally,” Aisling said with a sigh, sitting across from me. “Before we get started, I wanted to ask you about Jim.”

  “I’m really sorry, Aisling. I’ve tried everything I can think of to change it back.”

  “Is it your magic gone”—she waggled her fingers in the air—“wonky?”

  “I think so. Nothing seems to be coming out right.”

  “I thought having the Grace of the Magi put on you was going to correct that,” said May.

  “I thought so, too, but it hasn’t. Obviously, something else is messing with my ability to draw the magic correctly. You tried to order Jim into doggy form?” I asked Aisling.
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  “Several times. And although it changes to its normal form, it pops right back to the human one after a couple of minutes. It’s like whatever you did is overriding its choice of form.”

  “That’s just bizarre. I have no idea what happened with my spell to do that to it.”

  Jim, who had come back into the room in the middle of the discussion, gave me a pathetic look. “I’m not going to have to stay this way, am I? This form totally sucks. I can’t pee on things in the yard, I can’t lick my own package, I can’t slobber on Cecile’s adorable furry little ears. . . . It just sucks.”

  Aisling shot it a quelling look. “Go sit with the others.”

  “Why?” it asked suspiciously. “You going to talk about something racy? You going to compare techniques, or sizes, or the way—”

  “Go!” Aisling ordered.

  Jim went, slamming the door behind it.

  “I can’t believe I’m suggesting this, but it does seem to be in distress,” May said, once the demon was gone. “Can’t you talk to Dr. Kostich? Maybe he could help you.”

  “He wasn’t very happy with me when I saw him last. But . . . oh, what the hell. It’s not like he can do anything else to me, right?”

  The room was uncomfortably silent as not one single person in it met my eyes.

  I sighed. “Yeah, he could. All right, I’ll talk to him tomorrow. I think it would be best if Jim came with me, though, in case Kostich can lift the spell, or whatever it is I’ve done.”

  “He’ll meet you at the hotel,” Aisling promised.

  “Maybe if you came with us, Kostich might be more prone to fix things?” I suggested.

  Aisling made a face. “There’s no love lost between us, but I’ll go with Jim if you think it would help. Speaking of Dr. Kostich and your job, though, May told me only the barest of information about it. What exactly is it you need help with?”

  I gave them a succinct description of my meeting with Violet and her father.

  “Dr. Kostich has a granddaughter who’s a dragon?” Aisling’s jaw sagged for a few seconds before she gave a hoot of laughter. “Oh, I can’t wait to tell Drake! To think that Kostich has a dragon in the family—that’s rich. That’s really rich. But who are the ouroboros group this granddaughter is hanging around with?”

  “I have no idea. I was hoping that perhaps you two might be able to tell me more about ouroboros dragons.”

  “I don’t know much about them,” Aisling admitted, leaning back as she thought. “We ran into some in the aerie in Nepal, but Drake wouldn’t tell me anything other than they didn’t belong to any sept.”

  “Yes,” I said slowly, thinking of the vision with a sense of dread that clutched my stomach with cold, clammy fingers.

  May watched me with interest. “Is something bothering you?”

  The door opened before I could answer, and two pairs of arms shoved Jim inside the room before the door was slammed shut again.

  Aisling raised her eyebrows.

  Jim grinned. “They kicked me out of their meeting. Something about not contributing to the discussion in a manner that was helpful. Man, those dragons are a pushy lot. Literally. You guys hatchin’ a plan to take down Kostich?”

  “Good lord, no!” I said, startled by the idea.

  “Crap. That would’ve been fun. So, what are we doing if not taking down Mr. Important?”

  “I was about to tell May and Aisling about the vision I had.”

  “Did I miss another group one? I’m gonna be pissed if I did, because those are always fun. Cold, but fun. So what was this one about?”

  I hesitated for a few seconds, then carefully picking my words, described the scene at the weyr.

  Aisling looked confused for a few minutes. “That must have been right when Kostya was imprisoned. But who was the woman? And you said there was a ghost who was her servant? Why would a woman with a ghost be interested in capturing Kostya?”

  “That’s a really good question.” I glanced at Jim doubtfully. “You’ll keep quiet about what’s said here, right, Jim?”

  “Of course it will,” Aisling answered for it, leaning forward toward me. “Spill.”

  I took a deep breath. “I can’t think of any reason someone would be interested in Kostya unless that person was also a dragon. Thus it makes sense that the woman who was in charge of the ouroboros group had to be a dragon, and I can think of only one person who is a dragon and yet has the ability to raise ghosts.”

  “Kostich’s granddaughter,” May said, her eyes widening as she thought it through.

  I nodded. Jim whistled.

  “This Maura person is responsible for Kostya being confined in his aerie?” Aisling asked, her brow wrinkled. “Why? What would she gain from it?”

  “I have no idea. That’s why I hoped you two could tell me about this group of dragons.”

  “Tribe,” May said absently. “Gabriel told me that ouroboros dragons form tribes, led by a chieftain, instead of forming septs. The question is, why would Maura’s mother make it sound like the tribe is holding Maura against her will if she’s really their leader?”

  “Another good question. The Akashic League said she would be in touch with me, but I haven’t heard anything yet. I plan on telling her that I’d like a dragon resurrected, in order to meet with her in person and assess the situation. I have no idea what I’ll tell Dr. Kostich if it turns out she’s leading the band of dragons that’s plaguing him.”

  “Yes, that might do very well,” Aisling said slowly, lost in thought. “Resurrecting a dragon is a good excuse, because it’s such an involved act, and it takes time to prepare, which would give you some space to figure out what Maura’s role is in the whole shebang.”

  “What dragon?” Jim asked, plopping itself down on the couch next to Aisling.

  “I don’t know. Does it matter?” I asked.

  “Sure it does. A little itty-bitty dragon wouldn’t be much trouble. What you want is a big dragon, someone important, someone who is going to give this Maura chick some trouble. Someone like Constantine.”

  I stared at Jim. “Constantine? Why him?”

  The demon clicked its tongue at me. “Ash says the First Dragon wants you to restore Connie’s honor, but you don’t know how to do that, right? So you ask the man himself.”

  “Resurrect Constantine?” Aisling asked.

  “Sainted Mary,” I said, picturing what Baltic would have to say about that. “I don’t think resurrecting Constantine is going to be a good thing.”

  “Not good at all,” May said quickly, a frown between her brows. “Gabriel is wyvern of the silver dragons. If Constantine were brought back to life, he would want the sept, and Gabriel would never give it up. It wouldn’t work out well at all, no matter how much Gabriel respects him.”

  “It’s a moot point, I think,” Aisling said. “Maura can’t resurrect, can she?”

  “Not rez, no. But she can bring Connie up as a shade,” Jim answered. “That’s what Summoners do.”

  I thought about that for a moment. “Ghosts can’t challenge anyone for a sept, can they?”

  Aisling looked thoughtful. “I can’t imagine how they could. They’re, you know, ghosts.”

  I nodded. “If a ghost couldn’t try to challenge Gabriel for his sept, then that would be all right. And it would certainly help if Constantine could give me some pointers on how I go about clearing his honor of my death, but . . . but how do you go about raising a dragon’s spirit? I can’t imagine it’s an easy thing, and Maura is bound to want some help doing it if I ask her. Where would we even start?”

  Jim shrugged. “You got me. Kostich’s grandkid is bound to know.”

  “Hmm.” I mused on the best way to achieve two goals with one effort. “If I had Maura raise Constantine’s spirit, I could conduct a public ceremony of forgiveness, or whatever it would take to restore his honor, and also spend enough time with Maura to figure out what’s going on with her. Brilliant idea, Jim. I owe you a dinner.”

 
; The demon looked smug. “I’m there, babe.”

  We discussed the issue for another half hour, before Maata returned to inform us that our presences were desired.

  As I entered the sitting room, my eyes went straight to where Baltic stood at a window with his back to the rest of the company. His body language read annoyance and impatience, but not the fury that would have boded ill for everyone.

  “So? Have you guys worked everything out so that you can cancel the war and they can rejoin the weyr?” Aisling asked, going straight to Drake’s side.

  “Not as such.” Drake considered me for a few seconds. “Bastian is mounting a search for Fiat. Chuan Ren’s heir appears to have disappeared. Until we can talk to both of them, we are at an impasse.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” I murmured under my breath, moving over to stand next to Baltic. He didn’t take his gaze from the window, but did put his arm around me when I leaned into him. “At least Bastian didn’t claim Baltic is behind it all.”

  “Actually, it’s the opposite of that,” Gabriel said, smiling at May. She smiled back, and I thought for a second he was going to kiss her in front of everyone, but he remembered in time where he was. “Evidently Fiat came back to his prison and slaughtered a half dozen of his attendants and guards before Bastian could get to him.”

  “Oh, those poor dragons. Bastian must be beside himself,” Aisling said.

  “Don’t tell me that Thala was there helping him,” I said, my stomach in my feet.

  “No,” Baltic answered before Drake could.

  I eyed the man who filled my soul with so much joy. “How do you know that?”

  Baltic said nothing.

  I poked his arm. “You watched him, didn’t you? Fiat, I mean.”

  “Yes,” he answered, finally turning to face me. “He sent me a message telling me he would make me suffer for my part in his downfall. While he was imprisoned, his threats did not worry me overly, but the blue wyvern has been careless in the past with Fiat, and I suspected that the next time he escaped, he would come straight for you and Brom. I was wrong.”

  “And how,” May agreed.

  “I love you,” I told him, standing on my toes to press a kiss to his lips regardless of the others in the room.