Light Dragons 01 - Love in the Time of Dragons

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