Love in the Time of Dragons

Chapter Six

By-and-by, I thought, my heart filled with so much sadness I knew it must shatter into a hundred little pieces. By-and-by.

By-and-by? No, that wasn’t right.

“I said hi. Hello? Howdy? Hidy ho? Hi hi hi?” I blinked, the fog evaporating into nothing, the back of the bench once more solid under my hand. In front of me sat a large shaggy black dog, panting in the sunlight, long streamers of drool dribbling from his slobbery lips. I looked around for the dog’s owner, but no one was there.

“There you are. Ysolde, right?”

My eyebrows raised, I looked down at the dog. The voice was coming from him.

He tipped his head to the side and I swear he winked at me. “Wow, you look like hell. How ya doing after that header you took into Ash’s marble coffee table?” “Er…” My jaw sagged slightly. “Do I know you?” “Yeah. We met at Aisling and Drake’s house during the big birthing hullabaloo. I’m Jim. Effrijim, really, but that’s way too girly for a butch guy like me. You look kind of funny. You didn’t see me when May ordered me into human form, did you? Because that would explain why you look like you’re seeing a three-headed alien dance A Chorus Line.” “Human form,” I repeated stupidly. “No, I was…” I was dreaming. In the middle of the day? Panic gripped my stomach with clammy fingers. Now the dreams were coming to me while I was wide awake? “Dear god, the shock treatments are going to be just around the corner if my brain keeps going at this rate!” “Ya think?”

I stared at the dog; my thoughts panicked.

“Ouch. You look like you’re gonna pass out or hurl. If you’re going to do the latter, can you aim away from me? This magnificent coat takes forever to dry after a bath.” “I’m all right,” I said, managing to get a grip on my errant emotions. “You’re a dog, but you can use human form?” “I’m a demon. Sixth class, so it’s OK. I’m not going to rip your entrails out and drape them over a tree or anything like that. Besides, Aisling would lop off my package if I did that. She’s always threatening to lop off my package. I think she’s got a secret genitalia fetish, if you want to know the truth, but she’s a nice enough demon lord otherwise, so I don’t make a big deal about it. You sure you’re OK? Hey, put your head between your knees or something — you’re as white as Cecile’s underbelly fur.” I did as the dog — demon — suggested, wondering where I knew him from. Before I could even complete that mental sentence, I corrected myself. Demons, I remembered hearing one of my mage instructors say, were always referred to by means of gender-neutral pronouns. Why, I had no idea; it just was. “You said I know you?” I asked after a couple of minutes of trying to get a little blood back into my brain.

“Now you’re all red,” it said, giving its shoulder a lick. “You don’t remember me?” “I don’t remember anything,” I said with more honesty than I liked.

“Yeah?” Its eyes narrowed on me. “That looks like an interdiction on you. Kostich kick you out of mage’s camp?” I looked down to my chest where a faint blue swirly pattern glowed. “I’m not even going to ask how you know that, because frankly, if I have to listen to one more bizarre thing today, I’m just going to curl up in a little ball and pretend I’m a hedgehog, and then where would Brom be?” “Who’s Brom?”

“My son.”

“Oh, man! You have a son? Does Baltic know about it? If he doesn’t, promise me I can be there when you tell him, because he’s going to go totally psycho dragon. Well, more psycho dragon than he already is, which I gotta tell you is pretty wacked out.” I took a deep, cleansing breath of the grass-scented air. “For the sake of my sanity and my son, I shall now pretend you aren’t saying anything. In fact, you’re not even here. I’m all alone. And now I’m going home.” “Where’s home?” the demon asked, getting up as I gathered up my purse and started off toward what I hoped was the street. It didn’t seem to take the slightest offense to my comments, but on the other hand, it also didn’t seem inclined to leave me alone.

“Barcelona.”

“That’s gonna be a hell of a walk.”

“I’m staying with some people in town.” “May and Gabriel, yeah, I heard Ash dumped you off on them because you’re Baltic’s long-lost love. What’s it like doing the humpy-jump with a crazy dragon?” I glanced down at it as I walked. “You are the single most strangest demon I have ever met.” “Face it, babe — I’m the best, aren’t I?” it asked, cocking a furry eyebrow at me. Catching sight of someone, it yelled, “Hey, Suzanne! Look who I found!” A small blond woman hurried over, a leash and a plastic bag in her hand. “Jim! There you are! I thought I’d lost you. Oh, you’re Ysolde, aren’t you? Hello.” “My name is Tully,” I said. “Although to be honest, I’m about ready to give up and change my name because no one listens to me.” “Ysolde’s feeling crappy,” Jim told her. “I think we should take her home. Wouldn’t want her to turn into road pizza because no one was here to watch her.” Suzanne glanced at her watch, but agreed.

“That’s not necessary. I’m quite fine on my own. I’m just a little insane, not bad enough I would do something crazy like take off all my clothes and dance on Nelson’s Column.” “Damn,” Jim said, looking disappointed.

“I think perhaps we should accompany you,” Suzanne said, giving me an astute look. “You seem somewhat distraught.” “Distraught… insane… it’s really a moot point by now.” They came with me as I strolled toward Gabriel’s house, my thoughts a jumbled mess that I didn’t want to examine. Jim chatted nonstop all the way, insisting on accompanying me inside.

“If you want to pay back my chivalry with belly scratches, go right ahead,” it said, rolling over onto its back at my feet when I collapsed bonelessly onto a leather couch in a green-and-brown-toned study.

I complied silently, my thoughts still tangled around the vision, Gareth’s cruelty, and my newly granted membership in the Club of the Mentally Bewildered.

“Suzanne says you’re not feeling well?” May said, coming into the library with Gabriel on her heels. “Jim, really! Do we need to see that?” “Can’t have belly scritches without barin’ Jupiter, Mars, and the really Big Dipper,” Jim answered, its back leg kicking slightly in the air as my fingers found a particularly itchy spot on its stomach. “Oh, yeah, baby. I really dig chicks with long nails.” “Time to go,” May said, prodding the demon with the toe of her shoe. “Thanks for bringing Ysolde back, Suzanne. We’ll take it from here.” “But I want to stay!” Jim complained as it followed Suzanne out of the room. “I never get any excitement anymore, what with Drake not letting anyone in the house unless he has five references and a comprehensive background check… ” The door closed on the demon’s voice. Gabriel knelt next to me, tipping my chin up to look into my eyes. I let him look, feeling mentally battered. “What has happened to you?” I hesitated for a moment, remembering Gareth’s words. “They will kill you,” he had warned, but that didn’t make sense, not on an intellectual or an emotional level. The only vibe I was getting from May and Gabriel was one of sympathy and concern.

“Baltic,” I said, licking my lips, my thoughts finally stopping their endless spinning to coalesce into one solid thought. My voice was rough, my lips dry, as if I’d been exposed to the elements for a very long time.

May murmured something and moved over to pour me a drink. It was spicy, very spicy, redolent of cloves and ginger and cinnamon, and it burned as it went down my throat, but it was a good burn. It filled me with energy as it pooled in my belly, allowing me to focus my thoughts.

“What about him?” Gabriel asked.

I took another sip, enjoying the burn. “Is Baltic here? In London?” Gabriel and May exchanged glances. He said, “He was here the day you collapsed. After that, we believe he returned to Russia.” “To lick his wounds, most likely,” May added. “He was soundly defeated by Gabriel, Kostya, and Drake. Three of his guards died, and we captured his lieutenant, a woman named Thala.” “Well, unless I really am going insane, I think he’s returned. I believe I saw him in Green Park.” I explained about seeing the two men, and the vision that followed, although I left out specific details. “There’s just one thing that confuses me — the man I saw in the park does not look like the man I’ve seen in my dreams. If it’s Baltic I’ve really been dreaming about, then he couldn’t be the man in the park.” “Yes, he could,” Gabriel said slowly, getting to his feet. “I think something happened when Baltic was reborn. I think it changed his appearance, both dragon and human.” “He was reborn?” I asked.

“Of course — you don’t know. Or rather, you don’t remember,” Gabriel said. “Baltic was killed three hundred years ago.” Well, that was a bit of a kicker. “Who killed him?” “His right-hand man. Kostya Fekete.” “Kostya?” I gaped at him, truly gaped. “Tall, black hair and eyes, little cleft in his chin, square jaw — that Kostya?” “Yes. You’ve seen him?”

“In my dreams, yes, but he is Baltic’s friend.” “Was. He was Baltic’s friend,” Gabriel said. “The day came when Kostya realized that Baltic’s mad plan to rule the septs was destroying the black dragons, and he put an end to it by killing Baltic, but not before the damage was done. The black dragons were all but exterminated.” “By who?” I asked, my voice a whisper.

“Constantine Norka, the wyvern of the silver dragons.” I slumped back, my brain reeling. It was just too much to take in, especially since I realized with a shock that, cling as I might to the idea that I was insane, I was beginning to believe that they could all be right, and I really was a freak of nature, a dragon trapped in a human body.

How sad is it that insanity was preferable to that?

Three hours later I sat surrounded by dragons. Evidently a sárkány was a big deal, being held in a large conference room of a very chic hotel, and attended by a number of people who looked perfectly ordinary. A long center table that would seat about twenty dominated the room, while chairs lined the walls. A podium stood at one end of the room, and at the other end a huge white screen was lowered, indicating there was going to be some sort of visual display.

I let my gaze wander around the clumps of approximately thirty people standing and chatting. Without exception, the expressions turned toward me were hostile. Tired of that, I looked at my neighbor to the right. “How long do these things usually last?” “Depends,” Jim said.

“On what?”

“Whether or not your boyfriend starts mowing everyone down like he did in Paris.” I shook my head, not sure if I should goggle at him, blink my eyes in surprise, or do the “water on a duck’s back” thing and let it all roll off me. “I think I’ll go with ‘roll off me,’ ” I told Jim.

“Really? Like roll in the hay? With someone else, or with Baltic?” “Baltic tried to kill people at a sárkány?” I asked, taking a firm grip on myself. I had decided that I would not go insane. Brom needed me, especially now that I knew what a bastard his father really was, and I couldn’t take care of him if I was locked away, drawing pictures on the padded walls using only my own drool.

“Yeah, a while back. I wasn’t there because Aisling was about to pop with the spawns, but I heard it was a real Wild West shoot-out. Until May exploded the dragon shard and blew up the top floor of the hotel.” I let that, too, roll off. In fact, I would have just sat back and closed my eyes in an attempt to let everything and everyone roll off my back, but a woman was approaching us with a glint in her eye.

“Jim, so help me, if you’re bothering poor Ysolde—” the woman said as she stopped in front of us, her hands on her hips.

“Hey, I’m just sittin’ here partaking in polite chitchat, being my usual Mr. Helpful self. Right, Soldy?” “The name is Ysolde,” I said stiffly, then realized what I’d said. “No, it’s Tully! Tully! My name is Tully, not Ysolde. Oh dear god, now you people have me doing it!” “This is Aisling, my demon lord. She had twin spawns the day you keeled over in her house,” Jim told me as Aisling clucked her tongue sympathetically at my outburst.

“You’re a demon lord?” I asked, finding it hard to reconcile the image of the pretty woman with curly brown hair and hazel eyes, and a being who commanded demons.

“Yup. May says you don’t remember anything, not that we met, but still, that has to be a serious pain in the butt. I’m married to Drake. He’s the wyvern of the green dragons. That’s him, over there, the good-looking one.” I looked to where she was pointing. Several men were clustered together at the far end of the room. I hated to say anything because they all looked pretty darn good to me, but a vague sense of recognition twinged in the back of my head when my gaze reached a tall man with dark hair. “And are you a dragon, too?” I asked Aisling.

May entered the room just as she laughed. “Oh, lord no. I was as human as they come before I met Drake. I was a courier, and we met when he stole the aquamanile I was taking to Paris. It was very romantic.” Jim choked, coughing and hacking as if he’d swallowed a hairball. “Romantic!” it finally said. “Man, if you knew what sort of hell she put us through while she was deciding to hook up with Drake—” “Silence, furry demon.” She smiled at May as she joined us. “It was almost as romantic as May and Gabriel’s courtship.” May rolled her eyes. “What courtship? One minute I was myself, the next Gabriel was there demanding I be his mate. Not that I minded, but still. Oh, there’s Cy. That means Kostya won’t be very far away. Excuse me a minute.” “I forgot for a minute she was a doppelganger,” I said as May crossed the room to join the woman who’d just entered. Although they were dressed differently, and the other woman’s hair was longer, it was clear they were identical twins.

“Cyrene is more or less the mate to Kostya,” Aisling said. “It’s kind of confusing, really, but basically, he’s accepted her as his mate, but she isn’t technically a wyvern’s mate, if you get my drift.” “I don’t think I do, no.”

“Well, as I understand it, it means that she is his mate in the eyes of the weyr, but can’t be taken by another wyvern.” “Kidnapped, you mean?” I asked, confused how that could have bearing on anything.

“No, taken as in challenged for. Say if Bastian — he’s the handsome blond on the right — if he wanted Cy as his mate, he couldn’t challenge Kostya for her, because she’s not technically a wyvern’s mate. Whereas he could challenge Drake for me, or Gabriel for May, because we are mates. Does that make sense?” “Only if it means that there is some bizarre rule to this world that says one man can steal someone else’s wife. Er… mate.” “Archaic, huh?” Aisling asked with a little shrug. “That’s the dragons for you — they look hip and modern and may have lusts for all things technological, like Drake, but deep down, they’re still in the fourteenth century.” “You mates should unionize,” Jim suggested, wiping a tendril of drool on the empty chair next to it. “Mates Local 51. Make a new rule prohibiting mate swapping, and go on a sex strike if they refuse to negotiate.” Aisling looked at her demon with a startled expression. “That’s not a bad idea,” she said.

“Really?” Jim sat up a little straighter. “Can I watch when you tell Drake that you’re not going to let him chase you naked through the house anymore?” “You were supposed to be asleep!” Aisling said, leaning across me to pinch the demon on its shoulder. “You did not see us! You couldn’t have!” “Let me tell you, the sight of nursing boobies flopping all around while you tear through the house isn’t something I’m going to forget anytime soon,” Jim added, leaning away from me so Aisling couldn’t reach it again.

“That’s it! From now on, I’m locking you into the bathroom at night!” “You’re just lucky Drake didn’t put an eye out with his gigantic—” “Silence!” Aisling roared, and all of the occupants of the room turned to look.

She smiled at everyone before turning a look on Jim that would have scared a couple of years off my life. “Ignore Jim, please,” she added. “It has moments of derangement. Oh, look, there’s Chuan Ren and Jian. Chuan Ren is the red wyvern. Those are her bodyguards with her, although I don’t see her mate, Li. Jian is her adopted son. I’ll take you over and introduce you. She hates me, so it’s always fun to say hi.” Aisling spoke cheerfully enough as we strolled over to the newest arrivals, a group of four people, all Asian, three men and one woman. The woman had long, straight black hair, and a figure that belonged on a runway. Two of the men were rather short but powerfully built; the third was tall and also would have been perfectly at home as a model.

“Hello, Chuan Ren. Hi, Jian, nice to see you again. Hi, Sying and Shing. This is—” “Ysolde de Bouchier,” the woman named Chuan Ren said, her gaze locked onto mine. “So, you are not dead as they said you were. Too bad.” She turned on her heel and marched off, her two guards in tow.

“She’s in a good mood today, I see,” Aisling said to the remaining red dragon.

He made a face. “Chuan Ren has had a trying time the last few weeks. Her mate, Li, has disappeared.” “Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that, although he obviously can’t be dead or we’d know it,” Aisling said, glancing at Chuan Ren.

“How would you know?” I asked.

“Wyverns can’t survive the loss of their mates,” she said simply before waving at the blond she’d called Bastian. “I’d better see what the latest gossip is about Fiat before things start. Ysolde, it was a pleasure to meet you at last. If you need any help with things, let me know. I know how hard it is trying to come to grips with some of the dragon lore.” She left us, and after another moment of polite chat with Jian, I was about to return to my chair when I turned and saw a man standing in the doorway staring at me, his eyes burning with black heat.

“Kostya,” I said, the word a whisper on my lips.

He nodded slowly, stalking toward me. “It’s true. They said it was, but I didn’t see how it could be possible. I saw your body. I saw your severed head.” I touched my neck, horror crawling up my skin at his words.

“I… I really don’t know what to say to someone who tells me he saw my severed head,” I admitted. “ ‘Hi’ seems a little bit of an anticlimax.” I swore he was going to bare his teeth at me, but he managed to stop. “A miracle has happened, Ysolde de Bouchier.” “Tully Sullivan. I’m thinking of having it tattooed on my forehead.” “A miracle has happened, and now the time has come for you to pay in like coin for all the deaths, for all the suffering.” “Punky! There you are!” May’s twin appeared at Kostya’s side, alternating glances between me and him. “Hi, I’m Cyrene. You must be Ysolde. May’s told me all about you. I don’t blame you one bit for losing your memory. I would have, too, if I’d had to be mated to Baltic.” “Pleasure to meet you,” I said, unable to break Kostya’s gaze.

He leaned forward, his voice low. “If there is any justice in the world, you will suffer as long as the black dragons have suffered.” “Kostya, I thought Drake said you weren’t supposed to scare Ysolde,” Cyrene scolded, taking his arm and tugging him toward the big table. “Ignore him. He’s a bit grumpy because we ran out of his favorite cereal for breakfast.” He stopped glaring at me and transferred his glare to her. “You did not just tell her that! For the love of the saints, woman, I am a wyvern! You do not tell people I’m grumpy over breakfast foods!” “If someone makes a fuss about not having Cap’n Crunch, then that someone is just going to have to take his lumps,” she said, blithely unaware of his furious gaze. “Come on, I think they’re waiting for us.” Kostya turned without another word and stomped over to the table, Cyrene at his side. I returned to my chair and watched with interest as the wyverns gathered around the table. There were only five chairs there, and before they sat, Gabriel, Drake, and Kostya all made a point of retrieving a chair and placing it next to theirs. The guards and the other dragons in attendance all took up spots on the chairs lining the wall.

Jim gave me a poignant look, but bound to silence as it was, it said nothing. I was grateful for that, since it meant I could try to sort through my mental turmoil while the dragons went through the formalities of their meeting.

“Kostya Fekete,” the blue wyvern named Bastian said. “You have called this sárkány on behalf of the black dragons. State your business.” I looked up from where I’d been sightlessly staring at my hands.

Kostya stood at the foot of the table and looked at all the wyverns present. “I am here to seek reparation. The mate of Baltic has revealed herself, and the black dragons demand that she be held liable for the crimes he committed against the weyr.” “What?” I asked, standing up, so stunned by Kostya’s demand I forgot that May warned me not to speak before I was called upon. “That’s ridiculous!” Bastian frowned at me. “You have not yet been recognized by the weyr. Please remain—” “I will not remain silent!” I stormed over to the table, suddenly furious. “Certainly not while you people accuse me of something I didn’t do.” “You are the mate of Baltic,” Kostya snarled. “By the laws that govern the weyr, you are just as responsible for his actions as he is.” “I am not his mate. I am not even a dragon! I’m human! You all must be able to tell that!” The wyverns exchanged glances.

“You see? No one is denying it, because it’s true. I’m human.” “You appear human, yes,” Drake said in a voice that held an Eastern European accent. “But Gabriel’s mother assures us that your dragon self resides within you, simply waiting for you to waken it.” “Even if that’s true, that doesn’t give you people the right to try me for a crime I didn’t commit! Don’t you watch CSI? That’s totally illegal!” Kostya’s scowl darkened. “You are a mate, his mate. And unless you’d like to bring him before us, then it is you who will pay the price for his crimes.” “What crimes, exactly? The war with the silver dragons that Gabriel said wiped out your sept?” I made a disgusted sound. “If the dreams I had were actually echoes of the past, then you were a part of that sept, too, which means you were a part of the war. How many silver dragons did you kill, Kostya?” He snarled something extremely rude under his breath. “We are not discussing my actions. I have made my peace with the weyr.” “Oh, did you really?” Furious, I did something I never do — I made a scene. I leaped onto the conference table and stomped down its length to stand in front of Kostya. “You supported Baltic in everything he did! Everything! He couldn’t pass gas without you telling him how fabulous he was!” Kostya growled, positively growled as he leaped to his feet, his chair flying backwards several feet. “That is not true!” “Do your friends here know just how much of a yes-man you really were? Do they know how you followed him around like a puppy, doing anything he demanded?” “My past has nothing to do—”

“Do they know how you let Baltic hold a sword to my throat and threaten to kill me just because I was born a silver dragon?” My voice rang out loudly.

The entire room was silent.

“Er…” I cleared my throat as I realized what I’d just declared. “That’s assuming that I am what everyone says I am, which I still maintain is very unlikely.” Kostya, goaded into a fury, yelled at me. “I am not to blame for Baltic’s actions! I kept him in check until he rescued you. He was unbalanced then, but he became uncontrollable after you sided with Constantine Norka against him.” “I what?” I asked, feeling at a loss.

“I might have been able to reason with him if it wasn’t for you!” Kostya accused me. “He wanted you. He was willing to take you despite the fact that you were a silver dragon.” “Should we be offended by Kostya’s implication?” May asked Gabriel. “I have my dagger. I could poke him with it a few times.” Cyrene shot her twin an outraged look.

“Perhaps later,” Gabriel told May.

“But you spurned him, and bound yourself to Constantine Norka instead!” Kostya’s face was dark with anger. “Baltic was furious! His madness knew no bounds after that.” “I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, my anger starting to cool. I looked around at the dragons gathered at the table, embarrassed by my show of temper. “Sorry, can I just… thank you,” I said as Bastian stood and held out a hand to assist me off the table.

“You cannot deny what happened in the past,” Kostya said, his voice and face sullen.

“I wouldn’t dream of trying. But I don’t think I’ve gotten to this betrayal in my visions. I assume it will come at some point, but I have to say that I find it difficult to believe.” “Kostya, this is old history,” Drake said, one eyebrow raised at the black dragon. “The blame for the Endless War has long since been settled. You cannot try Ysolde for that crime.” “There wouldn’t have been an Endless War but for her!” Kostya declared.

“I thought Chuan Ren started that war?” Aisling leaned close and asked her husband.

Chuan Ren narrowed her eyes at Aisling, her mouth moving silently as if she was speaking a curse.

Aisling quickly drew protection wards over herself and Drake.

“Kaawa said Ysolde tried to stop the war by bringing the dragon shards together to re-form the dragon heart,” May said. “She would hardly do that if she was responsible for the whole thing.” “That was later, after she realized what she had started,” Kostya said stubbornly.

“You know, not even I think that makes any sense,” Cyrene said, looking at him. “Seriously, punky, I think we’re going to have to go to some anger management classes. You need to learn how to let go and move on.” “The black dragons—” he started to say.

“Are not the reason Ysolde has been called before the sárkány,” Drake interrupted in a forceful voice.

“Exactly what crime did Baltic commit that you’re all so intent on punishing me for?” I asked, suddenly tired and emotionally drained.

Drake looked at me with eyes that held infinite sadness. “The deaths of sixty-eight blue dragons, killed by Baltic almost two months ago.”