Light Dragons 01 - Love in the Time of Dragons

without a helm, his hair lank from the misty rain, straggling over his mail like inky fingers.
    “What are you doing out of the keep?” he yelled when he emerged from the last of the forest that surrounded Dauva.
    “I came to greet you.” My gaze passed from him to count the number of dragons who followed. It was a much smaller number than had set off, no more than a quarter returning. Sorrow, these days a constant companion in my belly, gripped me painfully. “You did not stop Constantine?”
    “No.” It was just one word, but in it was the full measure of despair that bound Baltic so tightly. His eyes were as bleak as his expression, flat, and without any hope. His shoulders were bowed, as if he were yoked to a great weight. “He comes for you, chérie . He is only a day behind me, less if he did not rest at night.”
    I shook my head, unable to believe it. “Why is he doing this? He knows I love you. He knows I want only you. I would never remain with him even should he take me from you.”
    He reached me, his stallion’s head hanging as low as my spirits. The horses and men looked exhausted, clearly at their limit of strength. I knew Baltic would have pushed both hard.
    “Why?” Baltic gave a hoarse bark of laughter. “He believes he can sway you, turn you against me.”
    “He’s wrong,” I said, urging my mare around so that we rode into the bailey together.
    “He has sworn that if he cannot have you, I shall not.”
    I glanced at him, startled by the pain lacing his voice.
    “Yes, my love,” he said, taking my hand in his. His gauntlets and bracers were stained brown with blood. “He has threatened to kill you if he cannot steal you from me, this one who professes his great love for you.”
    “He is a fool,” I said grimly, the dull thud of hooves on the dirt the only sound.
    Baltic noticed the silence. He lifted his head, glancing around. “Where is everyone?”
    “I sent them away.”
    He looked at me for a moment, his eyes so stricken I wanted to crush him to my bosom and comfort him. Slowly, he nodded. “Why let others suffer for my folly?”
    I said nothing until I had him inside, arranging for the two remaining maids to bring water for a bath. Pavel, silent and filthy with blood and dirt, helped me remove Baltic’s armor.
    “I’ll send one of the maids to help you,” I told Pavel as he gathered up the discarded mail.
    His lips twisted in a wry half smile as he bowed and closed the door quietly behind him.
    “It’s over, chérie ,” Baltic said, slumping into the chair before the fire. “Constantine will win. He will take Dauva, take you, and I will die.”
    I knelt before him, my hands on his knees, sliding up his legs to take his hands in mine. “Then I will die, too. For I will belong to no one but you.”
    “I would rather you lived,” he said, a faint smile coming to his lips, but there was no humor in it. “I would rather we both lived.”
    “There has to be a way we can stop this, stop Constantine. He has all but destroyed this sept.”
    “There are only eighteen of us left,” Baltic said in a voice stripped of emotion.
    “Dauva is strong. We will survive,” I said, refusing to give in to the despair that tainted the air around us.
    “It is strong, but with time, Constantine will find a way in. We can hold it only so long with only a handful of men.” Suddenly, he lifted his head and looked about the chamber. “Where is Kostya?”
    “Er . . . about that.” I rose and opened the door for the maids, who lugged in four leathers of water. I waited until they were gone before continuing. “I realize that now is not the best moment to break this news to you, but . . . well . . . I’m carrying . . . that is to say—”
    “You’re with child again?” Hope flared to life for a moment in his eyes. “ Chérie , how can you think I would not be pleased with that news?”
    “No, I’m not going to have a child. It’s something else I’m carrying,” I said, sick with the knowledge of what I had to say. I took a deep breath and said quickly, “While you were fighting Constantine, I went to Paris. There I met with Kostya and a green and a blue dragon. I told you that I was going to use the phylacteries to re-form the dragon heart, and so I did, only . . . I failed. It wouldn’t allow me to re-form it, and when it broke into the shards again, instead of going into the Choate Phylactery, it . . . it went into me. Into my body.”
    Baltic stared at me as if