Love in the Time of Dragons (11 page)

Pain lashed me at the invocation of my name. I stood up, not knowing what I could say or do to make him change his mind. “I was making progress,” I said sadly. “I almost have that spell down to clear out a plugged ear.”

“A child of four could deal with the earwax spell better than you after four months’ study at it,” he snapped.

“I’ve tried,” I said simply, my spirits leaden.

“Foolishly, yes. I have not doubted your devotion; it is your ability for which I’ve made allowances, and now that I know the reason for your lack, my path is clear.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, ridiculously wanting to cry. “I never intended any deception or insult to you, and if there was some way I could make it up to you, if there was some epic sort of task I could undertake, or some hugely intricate bit of magic I could perform to show you how serious I am about my career as a mage, I would do so.”

He was silent for a moment, and I was convinced he was going to turn me into a toad, or worse. But to my surprise, he said slowly, “There is, perhaps, a way you could serve me. It will in no way influence my decision to remove you as apprentice, but if you truly wished to be of service to the L’au-dela, then perhaps we can come to an understanding.”

I bit the inside of my lip, wanting to tell him that if I was going to do him a favor, I expected to be reinstated to my position, but I had been acquainted with him long enough to know that he couldn’t be pressured into any act. But perhaps I could sway him with my devotion and dedication.

“What would that be?” I asked.

“There is a dragon that you have no doubt heard of,” he said, his voice deep and persuasive. “He is known as Baltic, and he possesses most alarming skills and abilities, one of which is to enter and leave the beyond at his whim.”

I sat somewhat numb, wondering if the whole world revolved around the ebony-eyed Baltic.

“I wish to know how he has come by the arcane skills he has shown on numerous occasions. His companion, whom we captured the day you collapsed, refuses to talk despite being threatened with banishment to the Akasha. I also wish to know how he obtained Antonia von Endres’ light sword, and remove it from him.”

“Baltic has a light sword?” I asked, confused. “But that’s made up of arcane magic. No one but an arch image could wield it.”

“And yet he does, and quite proficiently, I will say,” he answered, rubbing his arm as if it hurt.

“You want me, an apprentice of little power and skill—”

“You are no longer an apprentice,” he interrupted quickly, his eyebrows making elegant arches above his long nose. “Nor can you wield any power with the interdict upon you.”

“You want me, with no power and skills, completely unable to work any sort of magic, to take a priceless sword away from a dragon mage-warrior?” I shook my head. Even to me it sounded like the sheerest folly. “I wouldn’t have the slightest clue how to do something like that, even assuming I could.”

“Your inability to see all the possibilities is your failing, not mine,” he answered, his attention returning to his laptop.

“But I don’t even know how to find this Baltic—”

“When you have something to report to me, you may contact me. Until then, good day.”

“Perhaps if we were able to talk this over—”

He looked up, power crackling off him. I was at the door before I realized he had compelled me to move. “Good
day
.”

A few minutes later, I stood outside the hotel, buffeted by happy tourists and visitors, numbly aware of people and traffic passing by me, but unable to sort through my thoughts. They all seemed to whirl around in a horrible jumble that I doubted I could ever unravel.

The silver dragons thought I was mated to Baltic. The dreams I had focused on Baltic. Dr. Kostich wanted me to retrieve something from Baltic. “I’m beginning to hate that name,” I muttered to myself.

The doorman shot me a curious glance. I moved a few feet away, not sure where I was going to go. “Can I help you?” the doorman asked.

“I . . . I have some time to kill. Is there a park nearby?” I asked, falling back on an old standby that never failed to leave me comforted.

“Six blocks to the north, ma’am. Straight up the street.”

I thanked him and walked quickly, needing the calming influence of green, growing things to restore order to my tortured mind. I felt better almost the instant my feet hit the grass, the scent of sun-warmed earth and grass and leaves from the trees that ringed the park fence filling me with a sense of well-being.

There were a great many people out in the park that day, no doubt enjoying the late summer day before the fall gloom set in. Groups of children raced after Frisbees and remote-controlled helicopters, couples lay in languid embraces, harried mothers and fathers herded their respective broods, and great giggling groups of schoolgirls clustered together to fawn over a musical group that was setting up on an entertainment stage in the corner of the park.

I headed in the opposite direction, breathing deeply to fill my soul with the smell and sensations of green life, eventually settling on one of two benches that sat back-to-back next to a boarded-up refreshment stand. No sooner had I slumped onto my claimed bench than two young women who appeared to be in their late teens hurried over and grabbed the one behind me, shooting me brief, curious glances.

I smiled and closed my eyes, turning my face up to the sun, hoping they wouldn’t stay long in such an out-of-the-way place, not when a band was going to be playing elsewhere.

The girls evidently decided I was harmless, because they started chatting in voices that I couldn’t help but overhear.

“I can’t believe that he had the balls, the steel balls, to tell me he’d rather go visit his parents in Malta than go with me to Rome, but he did, and that was it, that was just it as far as I’m concerned. I mean, Rome versus Malta? Rome absolutely wins.”

“Absolutely,” the second girl said. “You are so right to dump him. Besides, that leaves you free for doing a little shopping in Italy, if you know what I mean. Italian men are so lickable, don’t you think?”

“Some of them,” the first girl allowed. “Not the really hairy ones. They are just . . . ugh.” She shuddered and I started glancing around to find another spot. “I mean, my god, the things they stuff into their Speedos! It’s positively obscene!”

My phone burbled at me just at that moment, causing me to send up a prayer of thanks as I flipped it open, expecting to hear Brom asking if he could have another advance on his allowance for some horrible instrument of mummification. “Hello?”

It wasn’t his voice that greeted me, however. “Sullivan? What the hell are you doing still in England? Brom said you were staying there! Is this some sort of a joke?”

“Gareth.” The two girls glanced over their shoulders at me. I half turned away and lowered my voice. “I wondered when you would think to call me.”

“Think to call you? Are you daft? I’ve been trying to get hold of you for weeks. What is Kostich making you do?”

“It’s a bit complicated,” I said, mindful of the girls, although they seemed to have moved on to judging the qualities of every male who wandered past. “I’m still here because I had an episode.”

“What?” His shriek almost deafened me. “When? How? What the hell are you thinking?”

“I wasn’t—I was asleep. And I don’t know how or why, it just happened. I’ve been staying at the house of some people Kostich was working with. They took me and Brom in.”

“Did you manifest?” he asked quietly, but I could hear the eagerness in his voice.

“No. But that brings up a very good question—how long have I been doing that?”

“What?” His voice was wary.

“How long have I been making gold for you? Dr. Kostich says you’re immortal. How long have we been married?”

“You know how long we’ve been married—ten years. You’ve seen the license.”

I had? “I don’t remember any of that. Have you been doing something to my memory?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” He sounded furious now, speaking in a low, ugly voice that sent goose bumps up my arms. “If you’re trying to distract me because you manifested for some bastard who took you in—”

“I just told you I didn’t. Fortunately, no one had large chunks of lead lying around.”

“Fortunately? You stupid bitch. Do you have any idea how much that’s going to cost us by missing it? How the hell am I going to tell Ruth?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t appreciate being called names. Look, Gareth, things are a bit confused right now. Dr. Kostich kicked me out of the magister’s guild, and I—”

“He
what
?” Profound swearing followed, for a good two minutes. “What did you do?”

“Nothing, I swear.”

“Then why did he kick you out?”

“It’s because of these”—I cast a glance over my shoulder, but the girls had their heads together, watching as three young men in soccer outfits strolled past—“because of some dragons.”

“Dragons?” he repeated, his voice suddenly very small.

“Yes. The people I’m staying with are dragons. They’ve asked Brom and me to stay with them for a bit while I try to figure things out.”

Silence filled my ear for a good minute. “Get out,” he finally said.

“What?”

“You heard me—get out. Get away from the dragons.”

“Don’t you think that would be rude? They’ve given me a lot, Gareth. The wyvern’s mother herself tended me while I was in the fugue—”

“Get out, you stupid woman! Do I make myself clear? Get out before they kill you!”

“You are watching way too much TV, Gareth, you really are.” I kept my voice low, but allowed anger to sound in it. “If these people wanted to kill me, all they would have had to do was to dump me in the Thames while I was asleep.”

“Listen carefully to me, Sullivan,” he said, breathing heavily. “You may think they’re your friends, but they aren’t. You have to get away from them, today, right now.”

“That’s not going to be quite so easy,” I said, hesitating. I really didn’t want to talk to Gareth about Gabriel and May. Somehow, it seemed that it would taint the relationship if I were to try to explain them to him. “I told them I’d stay for a while. I’m having . . . well, they’re kind of dreams, and they’re—”

“I don’t want to hear about your goddamned dreams!” he thundered, breathing like a bulldog for a few minutes before continuing. “I can’t leave just yet. Ruth and I are . . . we’re following up a potential client. But I’ll send someone to help you.”

“Will you please stop doing the Darth Vader impression and listen to me?” I lost all remnants of patience with him. “Brom and I are fine. The dragons aren’t going to hurt us. We don’t need anyone to help us, because we’re fine, just fine!”

“Be prepared to leave tonight,” Gareth said. I clenched my teeth against screaming in frustration. “Don’t tell anyone. Stay in your room.”

“By the rood, Gareth! If I wasn’t already going insane, you’d be enough to push me right over the edge, do you know that?”

“Wait a minute—did you say Brom was there?”

“Yes! Yes, I did! Hallelujah and let fly the doves! You actually listened to something I said!”

He cursed again, but under his breath this time. “Well, it’s of no matter. They can’t want him. You’ll just have to tell him to stay there until Ruth or someone can get him.”

“You’re nuts,” I said flatly, so flabbergasted that he actually expected I would leave my own child, my brain couldn’t come up with anything more than that.

“They won’t harm him,” he said testily. “Just make sure you’re ready to leave.”

The very idea that Gareth was willing to abandon Brom, his own child, to people he considered dangerous was so obscene, I sat staring at the grass in utter disbelief. At that moment, I knew the marriage was over. I could not remain married to a man who cared absolutely nothing for his son.

Gareth, obviously taking my silence for compliance, warned me again to have nothing to do with the dragons until I could be rescued.

“What do you expect me to do even if I were to leave the dragons?” my curiosity forced me to ask. “I’m not an apprentice anymore, and I’ve had an interdict placed on me. I can’t practice arcane magic at all.”

“You’ll get your job back,” he said grimly.

“How?”

“That’s your problem,” he said, echoing Dr. Kostich. With one last word of warning he hung up, leaving me to shake my head. It was all so much to take in—first the dragons, then the dreams, and now the scales falling from my eyes where Gareth was concerned. How had I lived with such a monster for all those years?

“Holy Mary, mother of god,” one of the girls behind me said as I tucked my phone away in my purse. “Get a look at those two. Mmrowr! I call the back one.”

“Oh! I was going to call him. I suppose I’ll have to take the tall one in front, then. What do you think—seven? Seven and a half?”

“Are you kidding? He’s too intense. He probably has OCD or something. Five at the most. Now, the one behind him, he’s a definite eight point nine.”

I glanced between them to see who they were talking about. Two men were walking parallel to the bench, some thirty feet away. I couldn’t see much of the far man, although glimpses indicated he was in his late thirties, with short dark hair and a slight goatee. An intricate Celtic tattoo wrapped around his biceps was made visible by a black sleeveless shirt. His companion, nearest me, was taller, and of a similar coloring. He also wore black, unremarkable except for the way the wind rippled the man’s shirt against his chest. He moved swiftly, his long legs making nothing of the expanse of the park, his body moving with an almost feline grace.

Something about him struck me as familiar. I turned a little more to get a better look as they continued past. The nearest man, the one with the graceful walk, had shoulder-length dark chocolate brown hair that was pulled back from a pronounced widow’s peak into a short ponytail. He was clean-shaven, although a faint hint of darkness around his jaw hinted at stubble.