“He threatened to kill us?” My voice was downright squeaky with surprise. “Why?”
Baltic maintained a stony expression.
“Why?” I asked again, nudging his arm.
His brows pulled together. “I will tell you later, when we are alone.”
“That sort of attitude is just going to make everyone suspicious. Why would Fiat want Brom and me dead?”
“There are times,” Baltic answered, breathing heavily, “when I long for the days with my old Ysolde.”
“Oh, I would have pestered you without mercy until you answered me back then, too.”
He grinned, taking me by surprise. “Yes, you would have. You would have me bare my soul before other wyverns without the slightest regard for my consequence or tradition, just as you do now.”
“I’m here to keep you humble,” I agreed, and waited.
He flicked a glance at the other men, all of whom wore expressions of sympathy. “Fiat blamed me for his current situation. He knew the worst thing he could do to me was to take you from me, so he was plotting with a group of his followers to have you and Brom captured and killed.”
My blood felt like ice in my veins. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“What good would it have done to do so? I would never allow anyone to harm you or my son, so it was of no concern to you. He was safely held by the blue dragons, and I knew his influence would not reach to you.”
I slapped my hand on his chest, drumming my fingers with more force than was absolutely necessary. “We are going to have a little talk later about sharing important information, Baltic.”
A familiar martyred look crept into his eyes. “I have no doubt that you intend to do so, but we have more pressing things to discuss.”
“Was that where you were instead of Riga the other day? In Italy checking up on Fiat?”
“Yes. I was uneasy when I heard that ouroboros dragons had been seen in the area.”
“Why didn’t you stop Thala if you were there?” I asked.
His lips tightened. “She wasn’t in Italy when I was, nor did I know that she intended to free Fiat.”
“For the love of . . . Do you have any idea how hard it is to make people believe you’re innocent when stuff like this happens?”
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.”