Light Dragons 01 - Love in the Time of Dragons

it.”
    He grimaced. “It’s better if you don’t know.”
    I turned my attention to the other two men. “I take it that you have your respective septs’ shards, as well?”
    Both men nodded.
    I raised my eyebrows as I glanced at Kostya. “Then all we are missing is the shard belonging to the First Dragon. Do you know where the Choate Phylactery is?”
    “Yes. I have it, as well.”
    “How did you get that?” I asked, amazed. From what Baltic had mentioned over the last two centuries, the Choate Phylactery’s whereabouts had been unknown since the weyr had formed.
    He looked away. “That is another thing you don’t want to know.”
    On the contrary, I very much wanted to know, but now was not the time to pursue such an intriguing subject. “Then nothing is stopping us from doing it now,” I said, my palms suddenly damp at the thought.
    “No.” Kostya turned to a small satchel on the ground. He pulled out a wool cloth and spread it out, gesturing toward it. I knelt on one corner and removed my cloak, shivering a little in the cool morning air as I pulled the gold-chased vial housing the dragon shard from beneath my chemise.
    One by one, the other dragons knelt at the remaining three corners of the blanket, each removing from their safekeeping the phylacteries that bore the precious shards.
    “Baltic never told me much about the shards,” I said nervously, rubbing my palms on my skirt before placing the shards in a line before me. “All he said is that there are five of them, and that together, they make up the dragon heart, the most powerful relic known to dragonkin. What exactly is the dragon heart? And why does it have so much power? It can’t really be the actual heart of the First Dragon, can it?”
    Kostya shrugged.
    “I know less than you do about it,” Allesander said. “All I have been told is that it is too powerful to remain whole, and thus it was broken into shards and placed with each sept for safekeeping. Except the silver dragons, but that is only because your sept was not formed when the heart was first sharded.”
    “So I gathered. Drake, do you know anything about it?”
    Drake glared over my head to a point in the distance. I turned to look. Three women were clustered together at the edge of the bog. All three waved and giggled when they noticed he looked their way.
    “I take it you’re not mated,” I said, unable to keep from smiling despite my nerves.
    He snorted. “Nor will I be, if I have a choice. Women are good for one thing only, and I don’t need a mate to get that.”
    “Evidently not.” The women clutched each other and giggled more, waving and calling to him, trying to tempt him over to them. I looked again at the shards, touching each one of them, hoping against hope that I would be able to do what needed to be done. “Well. Shall we get started? Do you have the words, Kostya?”
    “I have them,” Allesander said, pulling out a piece of battered parchment. He handed it to me, grimacing at the large blots on it. “I’m not very good at writing, but I took it down just as I heard it from Merca.”
    “It’s in Zilant,” I said, deciphering with some difficulty the handwriting on the parchment.
    “Yes. You speak that, don’t you?”
    “I’ve picked up a little over the last century.” I read silently for a moment. “All right, shall we try?”
    “I would prefer that you succeed rather than merely try,” Kostya said, his face grim. “There will be no black dragons left if we do not stop your mate.”
    Guilt weighed heavily on me. “I’ve tried to stop him, I truly have.”
    “This war is not your doing,” Drake said, his arms crossed over his chest as he knelt across from me. His eyes were almost like a cat’s, so brilliant were they.
    “I did not start it, no, but it continues because . . .” I hesitated, wanting them to know the truth, but wary lest they use that information against Baltic somehow. Drake and Allesander said their respective septs desired peace, but could I trust that? The dragons had been warring for over a hundred years, and I was no longer sure whom I could trust.
    “It continues because Constantine, Baltic, and Chuan Ren will not be happy until there are no dragons left but their own,” Kostya said bitterly, making a sharp gesture.
    “That’s not true. Baltic does not desire the elimination of other septs. . . .” Their expressions told me it was useless to continue. I sighed and placed the shards before me.