“By the rood,” I said, suddenly dizzy with realization. “No wonder he was disappointed in me. I used to lip off to a god!”
“It was good for him. He left us alone after that,” Baltic said with satisfaction, pausing at an intersection to consider the ground. “You may do so again, if it will ease your distress.”
“Sainted Mary,” I gasped, my eyes glazed and unseeing as Baltic led onward, into the remainder of the tunnels that once lay beneath Dauva. “That means—that means it’s you I’m supposed to help. It’s your honor I’m supposed to reclaim. It’s you who caused the death of innocents!”
“You shouldn’t believe everything the First Dragon tells you,” he answered, flicking his light around. The tracks he was following seemed to end in a pile of smashed wood and stone.
“That’s why you don’t like him! That’s why he knew your name! It wasn’t because of you being kicked out of your sept. It was because you were his son! His youngest son!” I put my hands to my head, wanting to scream and shout and shake Baltic, all at the same time. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought you would eventually remember,” he said with a shrug. “The old Ysolde—”
“Was a twit, evidently!” I interrupted. “For the love of the saints, Baltic! You could have told me! You knew I was trying to do what the First Dragon—oh, dear god, he’s my father-in-law!—what he wanted me to do.”
“You told me you had to do something with Constantine, not with one of his sons.”
I ground my teeth. He had a point, dammit. “Are there any other family members I should know about? Your mother? Brothers?”
“They are all dead,” he said, examining the wood carefully. “Look at this—it is recent. Thala must have shut down this tunnel behind her as she escaped. The lair!”
He whirled and ran back the way he had come. I followed, my mind still reeling with all that I had just found out. “What exactly happened to get you kicked out of the sept?”
Baltic swore as he touched the silver-bound door that marked his lair. It swung open with a teeth-grating noise that left me clutching the wall. He plunged into the room; I followed more slowly, trying desperately to get my brain to function. The air inside was close and dusty, as if it had been closed for centuries, which until recently it had. His light flickered around the lair, catching first a broken iron trunk, then a heap of wood that had once been a chest. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dirt and dust, disuse and abandonment just as thick in the air.
A few cracked jars remained stacked in the corner, but the rest of the lair was picked clean, no doubt by Kostya. Baltic didn’t spare much of a glance for any of the remains, however; he went straight for the back corner of the room, kicking aside an elaborately carved chair that had been broken by a falling beam. He bent, pulling up a trapdoor, and jumping into the hole without a word.
“What’s that? Another lair?” As blackness surrounded me in a claustrophobic grip, I hurried forward, kneeling at the edge of what seemed to be a chasm to oblivion. The air seeping out of the hole was even more dusty and mildewed, making my nose wrinkle.
The light bobbled, then returned as Baltic heaved himself up, out of the sub-lair. “It’s gone.”
“What’s gone?” I brushed spiderwebs and dirt from his hair as he sat on the edge, his legs dangling into the hole. “What was in there?”
“My things.” His eyes caught and held mine. “Our things. Our private things. Not even Kostya knew about this vault. It’s where you put your love token before Dauva was destroyed.”
I touched the chain that hung around my neck, the oval silver pendant that Baltic had carved for me some four hundred years before nestled safely between my breasts. “What’s missing?”
“My talisman.”
“Is that something I gave to you?”
“No.” His expression was one of worry. I didn’t often see Baltic look worried, so I took heed, and followed him as he exited the lair.
“It’s important, this talisman?” I asked a few minutes later as we climbed out of the lair.
“Very.”
I grabbed at his belt as he started to stride off, making him turn around and raise an eyebrow.
“I know you don’t like to answer questions, but I’m going to keep at you until you tell me, so why don’t you save us both some verbal dancing and just spill now?”
He sighed heavily.
“And if you dare say the old Ysolde would never have pestered you this way, I’ll deck you,” I threatened.
He laughed and took the fist I was waving at him in his hand, pulling me forward to kiss me. “The old Ysolde would have done just as you are doing now, questioning me endlessly until she got what she wanted. The talisman was a gift from the First Dragon. It marks me as his child. My brothers and sister all had one when they formed their septs.”
“You have a sister, too?” I couldn’t help but ask, pausing long enough to grab the Larry rock before allowing him to escort me down the game trail, through the still-smoking scorched area, and out to where I had left the car.
“Had. She was killed a few years after she founded the black sept.”
“That must have been a long time ago.” I did some mental calculating. “Over a thousand years?”
“Yes.” He held the car door open for me, and it was a sign of just how bemused I was that I stuffed Larry into the backseat and didn’t notice that Baltic took the driver’s seat until we were already jetting down the road, coming close to plowing into a stone fence.
“Is it true that the First Dragon’s children founded the four original septs?”
“My three brothers and sister, yes. You are going to ask me why I was not given a sept, aren’t you?”
“Well, that and why you’re driving on the wrong side of the road,” I said, pointing to an oncoming car.
Baltic swore and jerked the car over to the proper side. “Mortals should standardize which side of the road they wish to drive on. I am the youngest son, Ysolde. You know when I was born—it was several centuries after my siblings.”
“So you were kind of an afterthought?” I grinned at him.
He looked outraged. “Hardly. My mother was the First Dragon’s descendant, a black dragon. He seduced her, and I was born. I was not given a sept because I was born into the black sept.”
I gawked at him. “Your father seduced his own descendant? That’s incest!”
“Every dragon is descended from him. Technically, you and I are related.”
“Yes, but at a distance! Several generations and whatnot! By the rood, Baltic! That’s beyond creepy. Your mom wasn’t your sister, was she?”
“No.” He swore as several car horns blasted him. I refused to look, deciding it was just better that I not know what he was doing. “She was the daughter of his great-granddaughter.”
“Wait a minute—” I shook my head, trying to untangle his family tree. “You’re a wyvern. That means you have to have a human parent, and if your mother was also your . . . I don’t know, your great-grandniece? Whatever the relationship, how can she be human?”
“She wasn’t. She was a black dragon.”
“But wyverns have to have a human parent,” I argued.
“Other wyverns, yes. But not those who are sired by the First Dragon,” he pointed out with complacency.
I thought about that as he parked illegally and hustled me out of the car and into the train station, growling when I insisted that he go back to retrieve the rock.
“But how—” I started to say when he slammed it down next to me, causing a little piece of it to chip off. I winced, hoping it was nothing Larry would mind losing. Assuming, that is, that I could turn him back into a dragon.
“I am done answering questions, mate. Do not glare at me—we have more important things to do than discuss ancient history.”
“What important things? Track down that sneaky Maura and the two remaining Stooges?”
“More questions! My old Ysolde would
have known when it was time to stop questioning me.”
“Did your old Ysolde ever pop you on the nose? Because the new one is sure thinking about it. . . .”
It took us three hours to get to England, and that was only after we used a portaling service to zap us to a dirty fish-and-chips shop located on the fringes of London, the local airline not wanting to give in to Baltic’s demands that it reroute airplanes to accommodate us.
“All right,” I told him as I breathed in the air of London and immediately choked on the grease fumes. “I haven’t asked you a single question for several hours, so you can answer a couple more without spontaneously combusting. Why do you think Thala has gone off in a huff after raiding your lair?”
He hailed a taxi, grumbling when I insisted that he put Larry into the car as well. “You saw the signs as well as I did.”
“Yes, but I don’t know why you’re suddenly suspicious of her. I agree that it’s odd that she disappeared like she did, but perhaps those ouroboros dragons made her break into the lair and then took her away with them.”
One chocolate brown eyebrow rose. “Do you seriously believe that she would suffer any such thing?”
“I suppose not,” I said after a moment’s thought. “Anyone who calls herself a dirgesinger isn’t someone who would let herself be kidnapped. You think she’s betrayed you?”
“It’s possible. We have never seen eye to eye on certain subjects, and it could be that she’s decided to put into motion plans that she desired.”
“What sort of plans?” I asked softly, so the taxi driver wouldn’t overhear us.
“She wishes to restore her mother to a place of power.”
I don’t know what I expected him to say—perhaps something to do with Thala at Baltic’s side and me long gone—but certainly not anything to do with her mother. “She wants to resurrect her, too? The famed Antonia von Endres? The archimage who was so powerful, she once bested the ruling prince of Abaddon? The one you slept with?”
He made a face. “I knew you would not forget that.”
“Of course not. I also haven’t forgotten that you slept with Thala.”
“That was a good century before I met you, mate.”
“Which is why I’m not belaboring the point, although how she has the nerve to tell me she’s not in love with you . . . well, that’s another subject. Surely Antonia von Endres is in the beyond?”
Baltic looked unconcerned, his fingers idly tracing patterns on my leg. “She went wherever mages go when they diminish.”
“That’s the beyond.” I frowned, remembering something May had told me. “But you can go there, too. Have you been there to see her?”
“We are light dragons, Ysolde. We both are able to access the beyond in a limited fashion.”
“Did you go to see her?”
He sighed yet another of his put-upon sighs that didn’t garner any sympathy from me. “It is hard for me to compare, but I believe you are even more jealous now than you used to be, which was then of a level that made it uncomfortable to have any female around me who wasn’t human or ugly enough to make you retch, and even then there were a few instances when you insisted that I lusted after leprous hags.”
“Nice attempt to change the subject. Answer the question, dragon.”
“I have not seen Antonia von Endres since she diminished some six hundred years ago. You may now kiss me and beg my pardon for suspecting me of an interest in any female other than you.”
I couldn’t help but smile at his demand, and did, in fact, kiss him, giving him just a little taste of his own dragon fire before apologizing for my dark suspicions.
He left me off at Dr. Kostich’s hotel with a word of warning. “Do not do anything that will result in you dying again. I have reached the limit of the number of times I can survive your death, no matter how short that period lasts.”
“I promise I won’t do any magic that threatens my life,” I said solemnly as he walked me to the elevators, fighting hard to keep my lips from twitching. “Did Pavel say he had any leads on Thala?”
“No, but she had an interest in a building here in London. Pavel is waiting for me there.”
“All right. Baltic . . .” I bit my lip, unsure if my uneasy feeling was justified or not. “I’m grateful that you had Pavel remove Brom from the house just in case Thala went there and was out of control, but do we really need to hide out at a hotel? She seemed very reasonable the last time we talked, not at all like she used to be. I’m not saying she doesn’t have something up her sleeve, because I can well believe she does, but if she’s not jealous of me because she’s in love with you, then she really doesn’t pose a threat to Brom or me.”
“I will not risk either of your lives until I speak with her,” he said firmly. “It goes against my desire to have my son placed with the green dragons, but at least I know he will be safe there.”
“It was nice of Nico to ask Aisling to take them in for a few hours,” I said absently. “I’ll pick up Brom once I’m done here. But do you really think—”
“Yes.” Ignoring the stream of people entering and exiting the elevators, he pulled me to his chest. I melted against him, as I always do, the sensation of the hard lines of his body against mine never failing to send a little zing of pleasure down my spine. “Be cautious, Ysolde. You are everything to me.”
I defy you to not turn to mush at a man declaring such a thing, doubly so if you know it’s the literal truth. “Likewise. If she’s got an axe to grind, I’d rather it not be upside your head.”
His head dipped down to claim my mouth, dragon fire whipping through me. Mindful of the people around us, I tamped it down so that it wouldn’t manifest itself visibly, feeling that we were drawing enough attention without setting the lobby on fire.
I watched him walk away, aware that he didn’t even notice the women who stopped and stared at him with mouths agape and eyes bugged out. Still shirtless, his hair loose around his shoulders, with a determined set to his jaw, and a powerful stride that was downright feral, he was indeed a sight to behold.
And I would do anything to keep him safe.
Chapter Nineteen
Jack opened the door to Dr. Kostich’s suite with only a raised eyebrow at the large runed stone I held in my arms. “Tully. Er . . . Ysolde.”
“Hi, Jack. Is he here?”
“He is.” Jack stepped back, waving me in.
“You didn’t get in trouble for letting me in last time, did you?”
He made a wry face. “Not much. Just a little raking over the coals.”
“I’m sorry—”
He stopped my apology with a smile. “It was worth it to see you again. Would you mind if I asked why you’re lugging around a big rock?”
“His name is Larry. He’s really a blue dragon.”
Jack stared at the stone. “I thought the master placed the Grace of the Magi on you.”
“He did. It doesn’t really help a whole lot.”
“Ah. He’s in the sitting room.”
Jack escorted me to the main room, murmuring my name by way of an announcement as I entered. I was relieved to see that Violet was still with her father, the pair of them looking up from small plates of cake and tiny sandwiches.
“Tully! You’re just in time for tea,” Violet said, waving me in and pouring a fresh cup for me.
I paused a moment, waiting to see if Dr. Kostich was going to kick up a fuss at my arriving unexpectedly again, but he simply frowned and said, “Since you offered me hospitality at your table, it is fitting I should do the same.”
“Thank you.” Gratefully, I took the cup Violet handed me, as well as a plate laden with teatime goodies. “Ooh, cucumber sandwiches. I do love them.”
“You have news of Maura?” Dr. Kostich asked, bending his frown upon me. “You have located her?”
“Yes, and yes.”
“Oh, thank the stars,” Violet sighed, relief causing her to sag against the couch. “I knew you’d save her.”
“I haven’t quite done that. Yet.”
Dr. Kostich set down his plate. “Why are you here, then?”
I took a deep breath, followed by a big swig of hot tea. “I’m here to have you change a rock back into a blue dragon, if you can, and to remove the interdiction bound on me.”
His face was as solid and unmoving as Larry’s stone. “We had an agreement, Tully Sullivan.”
A little pinch of pain shot through me as he flexed his arcane muscles. “Yes, we did. I promised to try to help Maura, and I’ve done so. I met with her. I talked to her about getting away from the dragon tribe.” I took another sip of tea, more for time to gather my courage than anything else. “I offered her my help. She doesn’t want to leave them.”
“I told you that,” Violet said, sitting upright again. “But she’s scared, Tully. Underneath that bravado, she’s scared. I just know she is.”
I sorted through my impressions, slowly shaking my head. “I hate to contradict a mother’s feelings, but she didn’t strike me as scared.”
“How did she strike you?” Kostich asked, his voice level, but I could feel anger building in the air.
I met his gaze. “Not frightened or intimidated or even unhappy. She seemed very much in charge of herself . . . and others.”
He made an annoyed click of his tongue.
“No, that can’t be right. It was an act, Tully,” Violet protested.
“I don’t think it was. Believe me, I wish there was an easy way to fix things, to help her escape the hold these dragons have on her, but the truth is that they have no hold. At least not the kind you mean. Far from it, I’d say. She was in command of the dragons—until they attacked us, that is.” I explained briefly about the resurrection of Constantine and the subsequent assault by Larry, Curly, and Moe.
Kostich rose and went to the window, his fingers absently drawing little clarity spells on nothing in particular. “You say that one of the dragons referred to someone else, someone other than Maura?”
The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons ld-2 Page 26
