“Drake would never attack you,” Aisling said, looking mildly offended.
“Nor would Gabriel.”
“I know that, and you both know that, but Baltic . . . well, you have to remember what he’s been through. My death, his death, his resurrection . . . it’s taken a toll on his emotions, and I suspect it’s going to be some time before he realizes I’m not going to be snatched from him again.”
“You know,” Aisling said, dabbing at her eye with a tissue, “when I first saw Baltic, I figured he was a madman. But I can’t imagine what it would be like to survive when your mate was dead. The pain he must have suffered for all those years . . . it doesn’t excuse his actions, but it does make me understand his motivation behind them.”
“There’s no excuse for him shooting at you all at a sárkány, certainly,” I answered, sniffling back a couple of tears of my own. “But I’m glad that you guys have come to realize that he didn’t kill all those blue dragons.”
“Someone did,” May pointed out. “Fiat won’t talk, but pretty much everyone agrees that it would have been physically impossible for him to have killed all of them. He must have had help, but who helped him?”
“I don’t know, but I’m determined to find out. I want this stupid war to end. I want us to be part of the weyr. I want to be able to invite you over for dinner.”
“Dinner? Ooooh, I’m so there,” Jim said, plopping itself back into its seat. “Can I come for a visit?”
“Jim!” Aisling scolded. “You don’t ask people to visit them, you wait for them to offer it first. Besides, I’m not going anywhere that you need to stay with Ysolde, and if I was, I’m sure May would be delighted to have you.”
“Of course,” May said, although she looked anything but thrilled at the thought.
“May knows I love her, don’t ya, May? But the eats are better at Soldy’s place, and it’s always fun to watch Baltic come unglued.”
“Regardless, you’re not going to invite yourself to Ysolde’s house when she has so much on her plate right now. And speaking of that, you were going to tell me about this new vision you had. May said it was something different.”
“Oooh, gossip,” Jim said, looking interested. “Spill!”
By the time I was finished explaining about the vision, our lunch had come.
“Well,” Aisling said, her fork poised over a plate of seared pork loin and caramelized onion. “That certainly is different, all right.”
“Obviously the First Dragon wants me to do something about Constantine, but I’m at a loss as to what,” I said, admiring the oak-roasted salmon and new potato salad that sat before me.
“No fries?” Jim asked, looking up from its mammoth hamburger. “How can I eat a burger without fries?”
“Too much fat,” Aisling replied with a meaningful look at its midsection.
“I’m not the one who was just telling Drake she’s still got to lose her baby fat,” it answered.
“Do you want to eat that hamburger or wear it?” she asked sweetly.
“Sheesh! You guys are witnesses. Cranky demon lord alert.” Jim went back to its hamburger with only a few mutters.
“As for your situation, Ysolde,” Aisling continued, “I’m at a loss as well. Unless you think that the vision meant Antonia von Endres killed Constantine and that you’re supposed to avenge his death.”
“But did Antonia kill Constantine?” May asked. “All Gabriel’s said is that Constantine disappeared right at the time that Kostya killed Baltic. Which we now know is when Ysolde died.”
We were silent for a moment. I knew that they were seeing the same remembered image as I was—that of my body lying in the snow, still and unmoving, while a man stood over me with a blood-drenched sword.
“He killed me, but I’m supposed to avenge his death?” I asked the table at large.
“It does seem rather odd,” May agreed, munching on a grilled tuna, chickpea, and coriander salad. “But like Aisling, that’s the only thing I can think of.”
“It’s just so vague,” I said, feeling a bit overwhelmed. “I wish I knew for certain what it was I should be doing.”
“You could always ask the First Dragon,” Jim said around a mouthful of hamburger.
We all stared at the demon dog.
“What?” it asked, a piece of onion dangling from its lips.
“Just when I think you were only sent to me to torment me, you pipe up with a bit of genius like that,” Aisling said, giving it a hug.
“Does that mean I can have some fries?” it asked hopefully.
“No.”
“Of course,” May said slowly, a smile forming on her lips. “Ysolde can summon him. We can just ask him what he wants her to do.”
“We could . . .” I considered this idea. For some reason, I was hesitant to go to the trouble of summoning the ancestor of all dragonkin, but really, did I have a choice?
“She can’t summon him if her magic is still wonky. I don’t supposed Dr. Kostich has lifted that interdiction on you, Ysolde?”
“No. I sent him a letter telling him that since he managed to blackmail that mage sword away from Baltic, the least he could do was lift the interdict and let me rejoin the Magister’s Guild, but he sent back a bill for the thirty-seven years of training I had while I was his apprentice, so I figured I’d better let it drop.”
“He’s such a pain,” Aisling said.
“A huge pain,” May agreed.
“Just like a sharp stick shoved up the—” Jim’s eyes opened wide when Aisling removed its plate from in front of it. “Hey! Demon starver!”
“Hardly.” Aisling gave it back its hamburger and we all resumed eating our lunches.
“I don’t like summoning him without a very good cause, and I’m not entirely sure I can do it again, since I wasn’t trying to summon him before, but I don’t see any other way to determine just what I’m supposed to be doing.” I took a thoughtful sip of lemon water, then added, “I’ll do it tonight. Baltic is supposed to go down to Burleigh House to eyeball the rough plan Pavel made, so he won’t be in my way when I summon the First Dragon.”
May and Aisling looked at me in surprise. “You know about Burleigh?” Aisling asked.
“Drake’s house in the Sussex countryside? Of course I do.”
“Well, hell. That was supposed to be a secret from you guys. I guess I’ll have to tell Drake that Baltic knows where Thala is being held.”
“As we’re on the subject of Thala . . .” I bit my lip. “I don’t suppose you two would like to help me get her out of there?”
“Ahem!” Jim said loudly.
“Sorry—you three. And Cyrene, of course, assuming she’s back from her water thing by then.”
“You want us to help you break out the weyr’s prisoner?” Aisling was clearly astonished by the idea.
“Yes, I do.”
May and Aisling exchanged a glance. “Let me make sure we’re all on the same page, here. You want us to set free the woman who helped Baltic attack our house the day I had the twins?”
“I realize that she’s no one’s favorite, but yes, I would like your help. In fact, I need your help.”
“Why?” May asked.
“Why do I need your help?”
“No, why do you want her out?”
“Oh, well, a number of reasons,” I said, putting down my fork and leaning back against the curved settle. “For one, Baltic wants her out, and if we don’t get her out peaceably, he’s going to attack. I don’t think anyone wants more dragon deaths—certainly I don’t.”
“But she’s Baltic’s lieutenant,” May protested. “They worked together to try to destroy us.”
“Yes, but that’s all changed.” I waved away the pesky events of the past. “Things are different now. And besides, she’s Antonia von Endres’ daughter. That might have some significance to the First Dragon’s task.”
“There is that,” Aisling said thoughtfully.
May gnawed on her lower lip for
a moment. “Gabriel would be very angry if he knew I was working to free the weyr’s prisoner.”
“Drake wouldn’t be angry,” Aisling said with a wry smile. “He’d go ballistic. It was our house that Antonia helped Baltic destroy. Drake’s still a little cranky about that day.”
“Well, I was kind of hoping you guys wouldn’t tell.”
May and Aisling exchanged another glance.
“We couldn’t do that,” May said slowly, a light of amusement in her blue eyes. “But I think there’s a way we could work out a deal.”
“What sort of a deal?” I asked, suddenly wary.
“Dragons love deals,” Aisling told me. “You wouldn’t believe the things I can get Drake to do if I present it in the light of negotiations.”
“Yeah, like the time you negotiated him into chasing you around the house while you wore nothing but a gold chastity belt?” Jim asked, snickering.
“It was a medieval girdle, not a chastity belt, and from here on out I’m going to lock your door at night.”
“Meanie. Bet Soldy would never lock me in my room just so she and Baltic could have a kinky three-way orgy with Pavel.”
“I have never had an orgy, three-way or otherwise,” I told the demon, setting fire to its napkin with a flick of Baltic’s dragon fire.
“OK, OK! No need to go overboard! You almost burned my garnish!”
Jim went back to munching on its frilly lettuce as I considered the two women sitting across from me. “What deal is it you want to make?”
“You want Thala free,” May said simply.
“Yes.”
“And you’re mated to Baltic.”
“Yeees,” I said again, slower. “I don’t see where this is going.”
“You want our help to free her.”
“Am I supposed to be seeing something?” I asked, confused.
“I’m a silver dragon,” May pointed out. “And what do the silver dragons have to do with Baltic?”
I shook my head. “I still don’t—Oh! The curse!”
“Yup.” Aisling nodded. “We were going to ask your help with that anyway, but this is the perfect opportunity to get both things done at once. May and I will help you break out Thala, and in return Baltic lifts the curse that he put on the silver dragons when you died.” She paused for a few seconds. “You’d think he’d let the silver dragons find mates now that you’re alive.”
“You’d think,” I said, sighing. “He does like his grudges, though. He still feels that since a silver dragon killed me, it’s only right that none of them should have any mates born to them.”
“Dragons can be so stubborn sometimes,” Aisling agreed. “Where were we? If you get Baltic to take off the curse, then when Drake and Gabriel find out what we’ve done, they won’t be able to be all pissy, because the curse will be lifted. Kind of a ‘you scratch our back and we scratch yours’ situation, only with dragon claws and stubborn wyverns.”
“I’ve asked him a couple of times about lifting it, and he seems pretty adamant that it’s not going to happen,” I said with deliberation. “So I can’t promise you he will lift the curse, but I can swear to do everything in my power to make that so.”
“We need that curse removed,” May said warningly.
“I know you do, and I promise I’ll move heaven and earth to make it happen, but it might take a bit of time, more time than we have right now. Baltic is going to Riga for a few days to start the reclamation work on Dauva, which means it’s the perfect moment to deal with the situation concerning Thala. I can’t guarantee he will lift the curse in the next day or so, but I know that if I have some time to work on it, eventually I can make him see reason.”
May looked skeptical, but after exchanging yet another pregnant glance with Aisling, she acquiesced. “I don’t like it, but I guess that’s the best we’re going to get. We’ll consider your word as your bond on it, though.”
“Thank you. And I will start working on Baltic right away. I’ll talk to him before he leaves for Latvia, and after he’s gone, I’ll summon the First Dragon.”
“I wish I could be there,” May said with a sigh. “But Gabriel would never allow it.”
“This might help with the weyr situation as well,” I pointed out. “If we get Thala out, she’s likely to talk about what happened during the time Baltic was in France when all those dragons were killed.”
“Then again, she might have been the one to kill them,” Aisling said.
“I don’t think it’s likely she’d do something against Baltic’s wishes, and he had no reason to want the deaths of those dragons. His involvement with Fiat was simply an arrangement dating back to Baltic’s resurrection.”
“There will have to be some terms, you know,” May said, sipping a glass of white wine. “Such as prohibitions against attack by Thala.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I think we can get her to agree to anything in order to get out of her prison,” I said, filled with confidence.
“You don’t know that for sure,” May said. “We are at war, after all.”
“Yes, but she takes orders from Baltic, and he doesn’t have any desire to attack anyone now that he and I are together. The war was declared against us, remember. Unless you guys can get them to call it off?”
“I wish it was that easy.” May shook her head. “Every time I talk to Gabriel about it, he tells me it’s weyr law, and no matter how he may feel personally, he is duty bound to uphold weyr law.”
“Drake more or less said the same thing. Honestly, if they weren’t sexy to the tips of their toes, I’d be completely fed up with dragon stubbornness,” Aisling said, moving her plate away from Jim’s covetous stare.
“What we need is to get everyone together in a nice quiet place—the wyverns, and Thala, and even Fiat. I just know if we could get them all together, we could clear Baltic’s name.”
“I don’t think Drake would go for that,” Aisling said, chewing thoughtfully on her lunch.
“Gabriel might, if the curse was lifted.” May’s expression showed there wasn’t much hope otherwise.
“Baltic is going to be a bit sticky,” I said hesitantly. “He’s bending over backward now to make me happy because . . . well, to be honest, because he’s so grateful we found each other again. But he’s still rather hard to persuade about some things, and the weyr is definitely one of them. But . . . hmm . . . if we add meeting the wyverns to the conditions for freeing Thala, in addition to lifting the curse, it might be possible to get him there.”
“Are you sure?” May asked somewhat skeptically. “That seems like a lot of concessions for him to make, and even since you showed up, he doesn’t strike me as the sort of man who makes concessions easily.”
“No, he isn’t, but really, does he have a choice?” I set down my fork and ticked off items on my fingers. “You won’t help free Thala unless he lifts the curse on the silver dragons. I won’t rally you both into helping with Thala unless he agrees to meet with the weyr. And Gabriel won’t agree to a weyr meeting to end all this ridiculousness unless the curse is lifted. Therefore, in order to free Thala, he’s going to have to agree to meet with the weyr and to lift the curse. It’s just that simple.”
Aisling laughed. “I doubt he’s going to see it that way.”
I had my doubts as well, but I kept them to myself.
“So how are we going to get Thala out, assuming all goes according to plan?” May asked. “There’s no way you’re going to convince the weyr to release her just because he lifts the silver curse. No one really cares about that but us.”
“I care,” Aisling pointed out. “Ysolde cares.”
“That’s because you’re two sane women, and not stubborn wyverns.” May gave a little grimace. “Drake would probably agree to her release because he and Gabriel are friends, but Bastian and Jian have no reason to want Thala loose, and I doubt if even Kostya would sanction letting her go.”
“We’re simply going to have to get her out ourselves,” Aislin
g said with a cheerful smile.
“Oh, man, not another one of your plans from Abaddon?” Jim grumbled, perusing the menu again. “We gettin’ dessert? I could go for some tiramisu right about now.”
“Hush, demonic annoyance. I’m not a professional Guardian for nothing, you know. I got Drake and Kostya out of that aerie prison, so there’ll be no trouble getting Thala out.”
May looked as doubtful as I felt.
“Yeah, you and your professional Guardian skills did . . . and Gabriel and Maata and Tipene and me, but we’re just little bits of squashed egg beneath your august toes, huh?”
Aisling shot it a narrow-eyed look.
I considered the matter for a moment, then said, “I’m simply going to have to use some magic. With my magic, and Aisling’s Guardian skills, and May’s . . . er . . .”
“She’s a master thief,” Aisling said with a smile at May. “She’s even better than Drake.”
“You can imagine how thrilled I am with that praise,” May answered with a grimace. “But Aisling’s right—I can get into places unseen, and given the agreement we have been discussing, I would be happy to do whatever I can to free Thala.”
“But your magic is kind of odd because of the interdict,” Aisling pointed out.
I sighed. “Yes, it is, which means I’m going to have to go see Dr. Kostich and insist that he lift the interdict. I haven’t really pushed him about it before, but I think it’s time to strip off the kid gloves and make him do it.”
“Oooh,” Jim said, its lips an O. “Can I watch when he melts you into a puddle of goo?”
“Ignore it,” Aisling said, throwing her napkin at the demon. “I have faith in you, Ysolde.”
Silence fell for a few minutes as we all considered what had to be done.
“There’s no sense in delaying,” Aisling said abruptly. “The sooner we get this done, the better for everyone. I’ll talk to Drake tonight about a big sárkány with Fiat and Thala, and you and Baltic.”
“And I’ll explain it all to Gabriel,” May agreed.
“I’ll tackle Baltic tonight as well.”
“Yeah, but are you going to talk to him, too?” Jim asked with a lascivious wink. “Or will you have time to talk with all that tackling going on?”