“Agreed,” I said, nodding.
“Me, too,” May said.
“Excellent. Mmm, this roast pork is really outstanding. Would anyone like a bite?”
Jim lifted up its head hopefully. “Yeah, I—”
“Anyone human want a bite?” she corrected with a meaningful look at it.
May pursed her lips.
“Oh, sorry. I forgot you’re not . . . never mind. Ysolde, would you . . . no, you’re not, either. Er . . . moving on. I believe that’s taken care of all the business at hand, so if there are no other issues to deal with, I move we call this meeting officially over.”
I smiled and lifted my wine. “To the successful completion of whatever it is the First Dragon wants of me.”
“To no curse on the silver dragons,” May said, lifting her glass.
“To peace amongst the dragons,” Aisling said, clinking our glasses with hers.
“To sexy little Corgis with the fuzziest butts imaginable,” Jim added, slurping loudly out of its water bowl.
Chapter Four
“You are being ridiculously obstinate.”
“And you are being unrealistic.” Baltic jammed a few articles of clothing into a small bag. “I am the wyvern, Ysolde. You are the mate. I have yielded to you on more occasions than I like, but about this I will not.”
It came as no surprise that he outright refused to lift the silver dragon curse. What did take me aback was his flat refusal to even consider the idea of meeting with the other wyverns.
“If you don’t agree to meet with the weyr, then the whole thing is off.” I couldn’t help the note of pleading in my voice as I followed him when he went from the closet to the bed with a few more items of clothing. “Thala will remain a prisoner, and we’ll remain at war.”
“The war doesn’t matter to me, and Pavel and I will effect Thala’s release when we return.”
“At the cost of how many dragons?” I asked, slapping my hands on my legs as he zipped up the bag. “You said yourself that there was far more protection around her than you imagined. You can’t just waltz in and get her—you would have to fight, just the two of you against Drake’s huge army of men intent on keeping her prisoner. And much as you annoy me at times, I don’t want you killed!”
“I will not be the one to die,” he said with brash arrogance.
“By the rood, man! I don’t want anyone to die!”
He dropped the bag onto a chair next to the bedroom door. “I have decided, mate.”
Tears of frustration sprang to my eyes. My throat worked for a moment as I watched him gather up his keys, wallet, and cell phone. “Please,” was all I could get out, but the word was imbued with emotion.
He turned slowly toward me, his face dark. “You ask too much, Ysolde.”
“I know. But I have to. Don’t you see? I want you safe, but I also want to have a future. You keep saying I’m a dragon, but you’re denying me the chance to have roots. I want to explore my dragon self, but I can’t so long as we’re outside of the weyr.”
“The two things are not mutually exclusive,” he said, taking my hands in his and gently pulling me against him.
“They are for me. We did a war once, Baltic, and it ended in unthinkable misery. I will not go through that again.”
His eyes closed for a moment, his face twisted with the same pain I felt so deep inside me.
“Please,” I whispered against his mouth, allowing myself to melt against him. “Talk to the weyr again. With Thala and Fiat cooperating, we can get all of the issues straightened out, and then we can be happy.”
“I have you. I am happy.”
I melted a little more, reveling in the taste and scent and feel of him, my hands drawing intricate patterns on his back. “Meet with the wyverns, give serious thought about lifting the silver dragon’s curse, and I swear that Aisling, May, and I will have Thala free by the time you return from Dauva.”
He was still and silent for so long that I was about to give in to despair, but at last he swore under his breath, and kissed me swiftly. “I will do this one last thing for you, mate, but this is it! There will be no more boons! It is the absolute last one—do you understand?”
“I understand,” I said, smiling up at him.
His gaze slid toward the bed, but before I could do so much as kiss him, he sighed and gently put me away from him. “I will miss my flight if I allow you to thank me properly. I do not like this plan you have to free Thala, but I am aware that it is not you the wyverns want dead, so you may proceed with it despite my misgivings. You will not put yourself in any danger, however.”
“So bossy,” I said, giving in to my desire and kissing him. “Fire. Please.”
He bathed me in his dragon fire as he took charge of the kiss, allowing me to feel both his passion and his love.
“Farewell, my heart,” I said as he picked up his bag. “Come back to me safe.”
He paused for a minute at the door, a curious look on his face. “You said the exact same thing to me three hundred years ago.”
“But then you were going out to battle Constantine. You won’t be doing that this time,” I said, smiling a little at the bittersweet memory.
“Perhaps. Perhaps not,” was all he said before leaving.
I stared at the door for a few minutes wondering what the hell that meant, but chalked it up to Baltic’s indulging in a little mystery. He liked to do that, claiming it was his way to bring back all the many missing gaps in my memory. To be honest, I thought it was more his way of teasing me, but since I enjoyed puzzling out a good mystery, I didn’t quibble.
Two hours later I watched the sun begin its descent into the gentle hills to the west before considering the chair that sat before me. I stood in a back corner of the velvety green lawn, well away from the house and anything that might accidentally get in the path of my sometimes wonky magic.
The frog that sat on the chair in a glass jar looked back at me with shiny black eyes.
“Just in case something goes wrong and I turn you into a banana, I want to apologize now. I don’t think it will, but I feel obligated to warn you that with the interdict on me, my magic doesn’t quite do what I intend it to do. Also, in case the banishing does work, please note that I have fixed in mind a location two miles from here next to a stream, so you should be able to find a new home there. I hope you won’t mind relocating. Are you ready? Good. So am I.” I closed my eyes for a moment to gather my thoughts, and remember exactly what I had said two months ago when I inadvertently summoned the First Dragon by means of a banishing spell.
“Taken with sorrow, all I cast from me,” I said, taking strength from Baltic’s dragon fire, which still mingled with my own deep inside me. “Devoured with rage, banished so you will be.”
I opened my eyes, but nothing happened. The air didn’t shimmer; no dragon formed out of nothing; the frog wasn’t even gone. He belched at me and ran his tongue over his left eyeball, clearly not the least bit impressed.
“Maybe I didn’t concentrate hard enough. Let’s try it again.” I took another deep breath, focused my attention on thoughts of the First Dragon, and repeated the spell.
All was silent around me except for the chatter of birds in the distance and the subdued hum of a couple of bumblebees as they flitted amongst three scraggly wild rosebushes.
“Right,” I told the frog. “I see what the problem is. The first time I did this, I wasn’t trying to summon the First Dragon—I was trying to banish everyone else. So I’ll focus on that instead. You ready for a little journey? Here we go.”
I recited the spell a third time. The frog fell asleep.
“Stars and stripes forever,” I snapped, storming around the chair. I tried it four more times, but I didn’t banish so much as a blade of grass. “And I didn’t even get a banana.” The now-freed frog made an unsympathetic noise as it hopped away into the garden.