He just looked at me.
I sighed. “All right, so I can’t blame you if Thala is acting without your instruction, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that you didn’t bother to tell me about Fiat making threats against Brom.”
“I am a wyvern,” he said simply. “To protect you is my right and duty.”
The other men nodded their agreement.
“Well, Mr. Duty, thanks to you, I have to apologize to that bast—to Drake.” I turned around to face him. “It appears I was in the wrong again, Drake. I’m sorry for the rude things I said regarding your attempt to besmirch Baltic’s good name. However, if you think that means he was responsible for the other blue dragon deaths, I will be tempted to punch you again.”
“You do, and you’ll have me to answer to,” Aisling said with enough menace in her voice that we all looked at her in surprise.
“Mate, you do not need to protect me,” Drake told her with an exasperated expression.
“She hit you!”
“I allowed her to strike me. Do you seriously believe I cannot keep a female from hurting me?”
“You let me hit you?” I asked. “Why?”
“Because the vision you brought forth reminded me that I had, in the past, treated you with less respect than I should have.”
Aisling made a face. “That’s true. All right, I forgive you for punching him, Ysolde. He did have that one coming. But no more, all right?”
I looked at Drake. “What does the weyr intend to do about Fiat, and Chuan Ren’s death? You’re not planning on holding Baltic responsible because Thala is a few meatballs short of a spaghetti dinner?”
“We are outside of the weyr, Ysolde,” Baltic said, pulling me back against him. “They have already declared war on us. What they think does not matter to our sept.”
Drake was silent for a moment, his gaze meeting those of Kostya and Gabriel before turning on us. “In this, Baltic is right. From what Bastian said, Fiat and Thala parted ways immediately after he was released. Why she sought freedom for him is unknown—perhaps your mate can determine that fact. From what Bastian has ascertained, Fiat flew immediately to Hong Kong and dispatched Chuan Ren. Although I regret the death of a fellow wyvern, that tragedy has made it clear that Fiat’s madness is more profound than we imagined.”
“I’m surprised he could take her down,” Aisling told May, who nodded. “Chuan Ren is one tough chick.”
“It surprises me as well,” Drake said darkly. “I suspect he did not act alone.”
“Thala?” I asked.
“I don’t believe so, no,” Drake said with a glance at Baltic.
“Who would help Fiat?” Aisling asked.
Drake made an elegant shrugging gesture.
I slipped my arm through Baltic’s. “What about the murder of the blue dragons? You can’t still think that Baltic had anything to do with that.”
Drake looked weary as he sat down, pulling Aisling down next to him. “We are here to discuss that situation, and I am willing to do so. Do you have new evidence to present?”
“Not as such, no,” I said, sitting on the arm of Baltic’s chair as everyone resumed his or her respective seats. “But I’m sure—”
“It is still a matter of your word against that of the survivors,” Gabriel interrupted. “I was there, Ysolde. I saw them myself. I heard one man name Baltic as being on the scene. If you have no fresh proof of his innocence, I do not see what more we can do.”
I looked at Baltic. He looked back at me.
“Well?” I said, prodding him on the shoulder.
“Well, what?”
“Why don’t you make them believe you?”
“I have said I did not kill the dragons. They chose not to believe me. There is nothing more I can do.”
“Yes, there is. You can tell them what you were doing in the area if you weren’t there killing off blue dragons.”
He was silent for a moment, his eyes calculating. A thought occurred to me at that moment, of someone who might be able to clear up the whole thing. “Thala!”
“What did she do now?” May asked, her fingers playing in Gabriel’s shoulder-length dreadlocks.
“She was there with you, wasn’t she?” I asked Baltic before turning back to the others. “She’s his alibi! Thala can tell you all that Baltic didn’t kill anyone.”
His fingers, which had been on my leg, tightened for a moment.
“I’m thinking that Thala’s not horribly high in the weyr’s esteem right now,” Aisling said softly.
“We asked her about the night in question,” Drake pointed out. “She said she knew nothing.”
“Of course she did. Did she tell you anything you wanted to know? I just bet you that she didn’t say a damned thing. She’s the most stubborn, obstinate . . . Well, that’s neither here nor there except that if you were to say she gave you any information, I’d be surprised.”
“She didn’t, as a matter of fact,” Gabriel admitted. “We all questioned her, but got nowhere.”
“That’s because you didn’t let me have a shot at her,” Kostya said, cracking his knuckles in an obnoxious fashion.
“Oh, please. She’d have chewed you up and spat you out,” I answered.
His expression turned black with outrage.
“I simply meant that you never could strike a woman, and I doubt if you’ve changed over the centuries. No, only Baltic can get Thala to talk, so that’s what we’ll do.”
“It is, is it?” asked the love of my life with deceptive blandness.
“Yes.” I glanced at him. “It’s important, Baltic.”
He looked as if he wanted to argue the point, but just shook his head in resignation.
“There, see? All fixed. Thala will clear Baltic, and the weyr can drop their war against us.”
May avoided meeting my eye. Aisling coughed and looked at Drake, nudging him when he didn’t say anything.
“What?” I asked them all. “Why are you giving me that odd look?”
“You are too honest,” Baltic said, pulling me close to him. “It does not occur to you, as it does the others, that Thala’s word would not be accepted as the truth.”
Would Thala lie? I thought that over for a minute or two, then conceded that she might well lie if it suited her purpose. “She would tell the truth if you told her to, wouldn’t she?” I asked Baltic.
He hesitated a moment, but that hesitation was all that was needed for Kostya.
“Even he cannot control his lieutenant,” Kostya scoffed. “Why should we believe her word against the proof of a witness?”
My hope for peace died at that moment, and with its death, all the frustration and anger and a strong sense of irritation that had built up over the last two months rolled around inside me, blending into something that had me spreading my arms wide and shouting, “I have had enough! By the rood, either the weyr will believe us when we say Baltic is innocent of the deaths of those dragons or I will make you all sorry you ever thought to doubt us!”
“She’s casting a spell,” May said, looking surprised.
“As the waning moon fades,” I bellowed, determined to make them see the truth once and for all.
“Ysolde,” Baltic said on a martyred sigh, “have you not learned? They will not be led.”
“Grant knowledge of what has passed!” Light formed in my hands, the bluish white light of arcane power, tipped with dragon fire.
Instantly, Drake and Gabriel sprang into action, shoving their respective mates down behind various substantial pieces of furniture, despite the women’s squawks of objection.
Kostya looked around for a moment, realized he had no one to protect, and with an annoyed noise, started toward me, clearly bent on stopping my spell.
Baltic leaped past me toward him, and the two of them went down.
“Bring forth wisdom in place of fear . . .”
Drake and Gabriel hurled themselves toward me, Aisling yelling something about wards, while May disappeared
into thin air.
The light from my hands grew until it surrounded me, bathing me in the warmth of the dragon fire and the strength of the arcane power.
“. . . tolerance where there is only hate . . .”
Drake and Gabriel struggled to reach me, but the light held them back. Baltic slammed Kostya up against one of the glass-fronted cases, shattering the glass, his furious words punctuated by the gentle tinkle of shards striking the hardwood floor. “No one touches my mate!” he snarled.
“May!” Gabriel yelled. “Do not touch her! She will destroy you!”
Behind me, a shadow flickered, but I ignored it, focusing every iota of my being on the spell.
“. . . 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 t
he 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.
“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.
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