The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons Read online

  She flung down the sword and spread wide her hands, a horrible noise coming from her mouth, part wail, part spell.

  Baltic shouted and lunged toward me, knocking me down behind the couch, covering me with his body. For a moment, it seemed as if time itself stopped, the air inside the house gathering itself; then it was released in a shock wave of fury that exploded outward, taking with it everything in its path.

  I opened my eyes to find a blurry face just a few inches from mine. I screamed and tried to sit up, clunking my head against something rock hard. “Ack!”

  “Ow! Oh, man, you broke my head!”

  I blinked rapidly, and my vision cleared enough for me to see that the face belonged to a furry black dog, who was now rubbing the top of its head along the edge of the mattress upon which I was lying. “Jim! What the devil were you trying to do?”

  “See if you were still breathing. You were making funny little grunting noises.” It lifted its head and bellowed, “She’s awake!”

  I realized at that moment that I wasn’t alone in the bed. The familiar warm, solid form who lay next to me was too still, however. I pulled myself up again as I bent over Baltic, who was lying on his stomach, and I noted signs of serious wounds in the process of healing. “Saints of the apocalypse, what happened to his back?”

  Aisling bustled into the room, May on her heels. “Oh, good, you are awake. How do you feel?”

  “Confused. What’s happened to Baltic?”

  “Dirge at point-blank range,” Jim said, peering over the bed to look at the bruised and battered back. “He takes a licking but keeps on ticking, doesn’t he?”

  “Dirge . . .” Memory returned to me. “Thala!”

  “I’m so glad you told us where you were going, or we wouldn’t have arrived just as she brought the house down on you,” Aisling said, fetching a soft robe from a wardrobe. Absently, I put it on over the nightgown in which I’d been dressed.

  “Baltic took the brunt of it, but Gabriel and Tipene worked over him and Pavel all night.” May’s blue eyes considered me with a frankness that drove home the debt we owed them. “You weren’t hurt badly, but the others . . . well, I’m just glad that Aisling and Drake brought you to us in time.”

  “I will move heaven and earth to repay all of you,” I swore, tears swimming in my eyes as I gently touched the marks on Baltic’s back. He moaned into the pillow, moving restlessly. I couldn’t keep from bending down to kiss his cheek, whispering, “It’s all right, my love. You sleep. I’m right here.”

  He murmured my name, his body relaxing again as I stroked his shoulder.

  “If you can stand a visitor, I know of someone who’s anxious to see you. Jim, stop touching Ysolde with your nose. It’s unhygienic,” Aisling scolded, shooing him toward the door.

  “Sheesh, you yell at me for not wanting to see her when she’s all bloody and gooey, and now you’re yelling because I’m just checking that she’s OK. Inconsistent much, Ash?”

  “Sullivan?” Brom appeared in the door, his face anxious. I slipped out of the bed and met him halfway, hugging him as tightly as I could without cutting off his oxygen. “Nico said you’d be OK, but you didn’t look like it when they carried you in.”

  “I’m absolutely OK,” I said, giving him one last squeeze before he started casting glances at the others in the room. “So is Baltic. I’m sorry if we frightened you.”

  “I wasn’t scared,” he said with all the insouciance of a nine-year-old. He glanced again at Baltic, then gave a little twitch of his shoulders. “Not much. I’m glad you’re back, though. Jim says Thala went postal and exploded the house. Is the basement blown up as well?”

  I smiled, relieved that the strained expression had faded to one of purely mercenary interest. “I’m sure it was. We’ll have to get you some new equipment for your ghastly experiments, all right?”

  “OK. Nico says he’ll go with us the next time Maata and I go to the British Museum. He says he knows someone who works there who will let us see behind-the-scenes stuff. He says they have mummies that they don’t even let people see, but that he can talk to them and they might show them to me. He says they have mummies of cats.”

  “You’re just a really weird kid,” Jim told Brom. “Luckily, I like weird.”

  “And once again balance is restored to the world,” I said, smiling.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Mate, stop fussing over me.”

  “Gabriel says—”

  “I don’t care what the silver wyvern says. You will cease trying to force me into bed, and instead give me my trousers.”

  “You haven’t rested enough!” I stuffed the pair of pants that one of Drake’s men had brought into the wardrobe and spun around with my back to the door. “Gabriel was very clear that your injuries were sufficiently serious that you needed time to finish the healing he started. That doesn’t mean you can get up a few hours after you were just about blown to kingdom come!”

  “I will not be ordered around by Gabriel Tauhou!” Baltic stormed, marching toward me in all of his naked glory, his scowl truly magnificent. He held out his hand. “Give me my trousers.”

  “If you go back to bed, I’ll give you a sponge bath,” I said, batting my eyelashes.

  That made him pause, but after a long consideration, he shook his head. “I could not make love to you in the home of the silver wyvern. Give me the trousers!”

  “How about this?” I cooed, sliding my hands up the muscled swell of his chest and stroking his neck as I nibbled on his lower lip, my body moving gently against his. “You get back into bed, and I’ll give you a massage to work out the kinks in all those poor abused muscles. I bet I could get some massage oil . . . the lickable kind.”

  Passion kindled in his eyes, and for a minute I thought he’d go for it, but at last he shook his head, reaching behind me to yank open the wardrobe door. “I know you desire me as much as I desire you, Ysolde, but this is not the place to perform those acts in which I clearly see you wish to indulge yourself. We will return home, and then you will lick oil off me.”

  The faint sound of voices yelling reached my ears, followed by the thump of footsteps.

  “Our home is nothing but a heap of stone and timber,” I said, sighing as he pulled on the pants. “Thanks to your crazy ex-girlfriend. It sounds like we’re going to have company.”

  He grabbed a shirt from the wardrobe, and was just buttoning it when Jim burst into the room, its eyes round with excitement. “Good, Balters is up. You’re going to want to see this.”

  “See what?” I asked as the demon turned tail and ran back to the stairs.

  “Is my son here?”

  “Yes, Aisling left him here when they went off to save us, not that I expect they knew that they would be called on to do just that. She just said that she was worried because I babbled something about Thala wanting to hurt you, and she convinced Drake to make sure we were all right.”

  Baltic made a noncommittal noise and put on his shoes, which oddly enough hadn’t been destroyed in the explosion. “Gather your things. We are leaving.”

  I smoothed out the dress that Aisling had lent me, May’s clothing being too small for me. “Things? What things? This is pretty much it.” I looked up to find him disappearing out the door. “Baltic, wait! You’re not fully healed—”

  Raised voices could be heard filtering up the stairwell. Baltic paused for a moment as he listened, then sighed his best martyred sigh and took my hand as we continued to the ground floor at a more decorous pace.

  The hall of Gabriel and May’s house was large and filled with plants. A heavy round table dominated the center, upon which an elegant vase sat filled with a beautiful flower arrangement. Now, however, the flowers and vase lay in ruins on the marble floor, the glass shattered and water creeping across toward a gorgeous old handworked rug. Brom peeked out around Pavel, who stood guarding a doorway, Nico hovering protectively behind both of them. Gabriel was being held back by Drake and Tipene, while Aislin
g and May stood on one side, expressions of incredulity on their respective faces. Standing on the table was a thickly built man, his voice filling the hall as he declared, “I don’t care what your name is or who your father was, or what you used to be, you are no longer wyvern! I brought this sept into being, and I will not allow another to be wyvern so long as there is breath in my body!”

  “Constantine,” I said, sighing right along with Baltic. “I might have known he’d find his way here.”

  Baltic said nothing, just dropped my hand and strode forward. Constantine spun around, his eyes lighting with pleasure as he jumped off the table, obviously intent on giving Baltic yet another piece of his mind.

  He didn’t have the chance to, however. Baltic’s fist shot out, sending Constantine flying backward a couple of feet, his body hitting the ground with a loud whump.

  May grinned. Aisling applauded. Jim whistled as it peered into Constantine’s face. “He’s out like a light. Nice one, Baltic.”

  “Yes, nice one,” Gabriel agreed, shaking off Tipene and Drake to stalk forward to us. “I take it we have you to thank for resurrecting Constantine?”

  “Yes, because it’s not enough I have a lieutenant who wishes to destroy my mate, and a former heir who insists on taking what is not his. I must add the treacherous bastard who slayed Ysolde into my life, as well,” Baltic answered with a grim look.

  Gabriel’s fury dissipated somewhat, but before he could say anything, a feeble voice spoke from the floor.

  “I told you that I did not slay Ysolde. How could I slay her when I gave my life for hers?” Constantine groaned as he sat up, gingerly wiggling his jaw.

  “You what?” I asked, shaking my head. “No, you killed me. Baltic and I shared the vision. We saw you with the bloody sword, standing over my body.”

  “I found the sword,” he said wearily, getting to his feet. “Lying next to your body. I knew someone had slain you, and that I could not survive your loss.”

  “She is not your mate!” Baltic bellowed, starting toward him. Pavel was immediately at his side, as was Drake, both of them blocking him. “She’s mine! It was me who died when you killed her!”

  “I didn’t kill her!” Constantine yelled back. “Are you deaf as well as stupid?”

  “Hey!” I said, pushing Pavel aside. “I will not tolerate any name-calling!”

  Baltic shoved me right back behind him. I pinched his butt.

  “I gave my life for yours,” Constantine repeated. “I sacrificed myself for you. Just ask the First Dragon.”

  My skin prickled as I moved around to Baltic’s other side, leaning into him for comfort. “You did? That was you? The First Dragon said that someone . . . But I thought you killed me. If you didn’t, then who did?”

  “That I do not know. I found the sword next to your body, and tracks leading off, but did not see anyone.” Constantine sniffed and looked haughtily down his nose at Baltic. “I did not have time to follow. I knew that I must save you. I could do nothing more than give my life for yours.”

  To my surprise, Baltic suddenly gave a short bark of laughter. “You could do nothing more. Do you think I have forgotten the past, Constantine? I know why you sacrificed yourself, and it had nothing to do with your professed love for my mate.”

  Constantine’s gaze shifted to Gabriel. I got the feeling he was extremely uncomfortable. “The past is where it should be—long buried. It is the present that concerns me, and the welfare of my sept.”

  Gabriel’s jaw worked, but respect for the founder of his sept clearly held his tongue silent. May moved close to him, her fingers twining through his. “Has there ever been precedence for a wyvern being resurrected?” she asked.

  “No—” Drake started to say, but Baltic interrupted.

  “He is not alive. He is a shade. Take my advice and call an exterminator.”

  Constantine’s eyes widened with indignation. He spat out something in Zilant that had Jim looking shocked.

  “Your opinion concerns me not,” Baltic told him, wrapping an arm around me. “We will go home now.”

  “I told you that we don’t have a home. Besides, Thala is still out there, doing who knows what.”

  “Thala?” Constantine asked. “Von Endres’ daughter?”

  “Yes. She resurrected Baltic, but evidently she’s been using him to bring the dragon heart together.”

  “Really,” Aisling said softly, nudging Drake. “I told you it had to be something like that. I told you that if it wasn’t Baltic killing those blue dragons, then it had to be Thala.”

  We all looked at her in surprise. “You think Thala killed the blue dragons instead of Fiat?” I asked.

  “Sure. It makes sense if she really wanted the dragon heart.” She looked around the room at the expressions of confusion and continued. “You said she was using Baltic for her own purposes, right? What’s the first thing any good plan of attack does? Divide and conquer. So she made everyone in the weyr think Baltic really is the dreadest of all wyverns.”

  “I am,” he said with a grim look at Constantine.

  “Baltic is buddies with Fiat because he gave him succor or some such thing as that, so Thala played on that fact and made it look like Baltic was working with Fiat to hurt the weyr. I bet it was Thala who was behind your kidnapping,” Aisling said, turning to Tipene. “May said it was ouroboros dragons who grabbed you guys, right? I bet she was working with Fiat’s ex–blue dragons.”

  “She didn’t have to,” I said slowly, my gaze meeting Baltic’s. He looked thoughtful.

  “Really? Why not?”

  “She had her own tribe.”

  “Oh. Well, that works just as well. She does what she can to raise havoc and mayhem in the weyr, including either killing the blue dragons, or helping Fiat kill them, and making it seem like Baltic did it. I guess that means the weyr owes you guys an apology, right, sweetie?”

  “Hardly that,” Drake said, his lips tight. “It seems we have much to discuss at the sárkány, however.”

  “At the very least, you can officially call off the silly war.”

  Drake turned his glittering emerald eyes on Aisling. “Silly?”

  “Sorry. Regrettable war.”

  “Better.” He turned back to us, his eyes examining Constantine for a moment. “I do not know what has passed to leave your lieutenant trying to kill all three of you, but I believe there will be no problem in the weyr retracting its declaration of war. As for the issue brought to head by Constantine’s shade . . .”

  Constantine stopped glowering at Baltic and directed his attention at Drake. “I remember you. You’re my godson’s younger brother, the one claimed by the reeve for the green sept. You share her genetic traits, but you are not a reeve yourself? Interesting.”

  “Of course he’s not a reeve,” Aisling said, smiling up at Drake. “That would mean he could have more than one mate, and he’d never do that.”

  Drake looked startled at the thought.

  “What exactly is a reeve?” Jim asked.

  “One whose bloodline is particularly close to the First Dragon,” Constantine answered.

  Next to me, Baltic stiffened.

  “Close?” I asked, my blood turning cold. “Close how? Really, really friendly? That sort of close?”

  “We will leave now, Ysolde,” Baltic declared, all but shooing me past them.

  “Close as in close. Biologically so,” Constantine said with a shrug. “Ask Baltic. He knows—as the son of the First Dragon, he also is a reeve.”

  Baltic swore under his breath, then took my arm.

  “Baltic is the son of the First Dragon?” I heard Aisling gasp as I turned to face the man whose love was everything to me.

  “You’re a reeve?” I asked him.

  “Whoa, he’s a first-generation son. Didn’t see that coming,” Jim said in tones of amazement.

  “Now, chérie—” Baltic started to say, his eyes going all warm and soft with emotion.

  “You can have more than
one mate? What was all that business about you dying because he killed me?” My voice rose as I jabbed my finger in Constantine’s direction.

  “I believe I’ve already established my innocence on that front—” Constantine started to answer.

  I spun around and shot a fire-tinged ball of arcane light toward him.

  “Er . . . my apologies for interrupting. You go ahead and continue yelling at Baltic,” he said quickly, eyeing the hole in the wall where the ball hit.

  I turned back to Baltic.

  “Ysolde—”

  “Don’t!” I held up my hand to stop him. “Just answer one question, Baltic. Can you take another mate?”

  “There is no other female in the world for me.”

  “That’s not what I asked!”

  He pulled me up against his chest, allowing me to search the depths of his eyes. “There is no other female but you. There never will be.”

  “But you could—”

  His fire wrapped around us, sinking into me, merging with the slumbering fire that was buried deep within me, his mouth moving on mine. “You are my life. You are my soul. You are the beginning and end to me. It will always be so.”

  I stopped fighting him, accepting the love that was so evident in his eyes, in the beat of his heart, in everything he was. We were together, and there was nothing that could change that, not even death.

  “That is so romantic,” Aisling said with a little sniff.

  “Serious Hallmark moment,” Jim agreed.

  “Why don’t you ever say things like that?” May asked Gabriel.

  “He’s still a reeve, you know,” Constantine said, marching over to us as Baltic released my lower lip. “Whereas I’m n—”

  Baltic’s fist shot out again. I stared into his beautiful dark eyes, basking in the glow of love and desire and need that shone in them. Behind me came the sound of wood crashing to the floor accompanied by a large, heavy object. “I love you, too.”

  “Come, mate.” He held out his hand for me, then cocked an eyebrow at Brom, who slipped around Pavel and obediently trotted after us, Pavel bringing up the rear with a twitch of his lips.