Light Dragons 02 - The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons

thought. “I begin to wonder if I haven’t been misled by her.”
    “Misled how?”
    “I will go find this wyvern and inform him of my return,” Constantine said, becoming solid long enough to suddenly whisk me into an embrace and press a kiss on my lips.
    Baltic spun around and started toward him.
    “Adieu, my lovely. I will return to deal with your obnoxious mate another day.”
    A profanity shot out as Baltic lunged for Constantine, but the latter evaporated into nothing, leaving us alone.
    “Dammit,” I said, realizing that in all the confusion I had neglected to pin Constantine down about what I needed to do to reclaim his honor. “He left! I needed to talk to him.”
    “Be grateful for small mercies,” Baltic said, continuing to scan the surroundings. “I am.”
    “Yes, but now I’ll have to track him down again to find out what the First Dragon wants me to do for him.”
    “Bah. He is of no concern. I am more worried about why Thala has abandoned us.”
    “He may not be of concern to you,” I said, my shoulders slumping as I made myself comfortable on my rock, “but you don’t go dissing the First Dragon’s son without some sort of repercussions, and I don’t want to think about what those might be. He’s angry enough with me already.”
    Baltic, who had been looking out into the distance, turned to pin me back with a look. “Why do you keep saying that?”
    “Saying what? That the First Dragon is pissed enough at me, especially after he had to resurrect me a second time?”
    “No, before that.”
    I thought a moment. “That we shouldn’t go dissing Constantine? I know he irritates you, Baltic, but he’s dead, and is no threat to us anymore, so really, calling him petty names—”
    “You said the First Dragon’s son. You think Constantine is his son?”
    I looked into those fathomless eyes. “Yes. He is, isn’t he?”
    “No.”
    “But—” I shook my head. “He’s got to be.”
    “He’s not.” Baltic continued to search the surrounding area for only he knew what.
    “I think you’re wrong. I saw the First Dragon with him myself.”
    “Constantine is not the First Dragon’s son,” he repeated.
    “And just why are you so sure of that?” I asked, exasperated by his flat statements of denial.
    “Because I know who my brothers were.”
    “Goody for—” I stopped, my skin crawling as realization dawned in the dusty recesses of my brain. “Your brothers ?”
    “Yes.” He leaped down off his rock and held out a hand for me. “Come. I see no signs she left, which means she must be in the tunnels. We will follow her trail.”
    “Your brother s ?” He pulled me to my feet, but I stopped him before he could help me down into the lair. “Baltic, are you trying to say . . . ? You can’t be. You can’t mean . . .”
    “The First Dragon is my father, yes, mate.” He shook his head as he wrapped an arm around me and hefted me down into a dank opening into the earth. “My old Ysolde knew that. I don’t know how it is you have forgotten that fact, but you used to deal with it much better than you are now.”
    “Your father ,” I said, breathing heavily through my nose, ignoring the rich odor of the soil as Baltic switched on a powerful flashlight, “is the ancestor of all dragons? The most powerful being in all dragontime? On par with a god ?”
    “My old Ysolde used to call him an interfering arse,” he said, doubling over and leading me down a tunnel clogged with roots, debris, and dirt. “She was not intimidated by him. She once told him to mind his own business and let us get on with ours.”
    “By the rood,” I said, suddenly dizzy with realization. “No wonder he was disappointed in me. I used to lip off to a god!”
    “It was good for him. He left us alone after that,” Baltic said with satisfaction, pausing at an intersection to consider the ground. “You may do so again, if it will ease your distress.”
    “Sainted Mary,” I gasped, my eyes glazed and unseeing as Baltic led onward, into the remainder of the tunnels that once lay beneath Dauva. “That means—that means it’s you I’m supposed to help. It’s your honor I’m supposed to reclaim. It’s you who caused the death of innocents!”
    “You shouldn’t believe everything the First Dragon tells you,” he answered, flicking his light around. The tracks he was following seemed to end in a pile of smashed wood and stone.
    “That’s why you don’t like him! That’s why he knew