Light Dragons 02 - The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons

right now. Drake found out I was gone, and it was a short hop from that to what we’re doing. He had his jet turn around while they were over the Channel. He’s furious, and no doubt calling up all the dragons in the area to rout us out and safeguard Thala.” While she spoke, she worked on the wards, finally giving up to simply force her arm through them to open the door. In the dimly lit room sat a woman in an armchair, holding a book and looking up as Aisling, grunting and swearing, pushed herself through the wards into the room.
    “Hi. You’re Thala, right? I’m Aisling Grey. We’re here to get you out, but we need to be quick because Drake knows what’s going down.”
    The woman, of medium height with coppery brown hair, stood up slowly, confusion fading from her face at Drake’s name. “Did Baltic send you?” she asked.
    “Er . . . not really. I’m afraid we don’t have time for you to collect your things. I’m also afraid I’m going to have to shove you through the wards, and it may pinch a little. I wish I could make this easier for you, but needs must and all that.”
    “Understatement of the year,” Jim said with yet another pointed look at me.
    “I said I was sorry,” I told it quietly. “I don’t know what happened to change you, but I’m really, really sorry, all right?”
    While I was apologizing, Aisling pushed Thala through the wards, the latter’s face distorting wildly as the ward fought to keep her from passing. But Aisling isn’t a Guardian savant for nothing, and after only a few painful moments, she and Thala emerged from the grip of the ward, both of them panting as they collected themselves.
    “Thank—” As Thala turned to thank Aisling, her gaze fell on me. Her eyes widened in shock for a few seconds, before filling with a fury unlike anything I’d ever seen. “Ysolde!” she hissed.
    I took a step back at such blatant hostility. “Hello. I’m afraid I don’t remember if we’ve met before.”
    “You live? How? You were beheaded! How did you survive that?” She grabbed my arm in a painful grip, shaking it as she spoke.
    I jerked my arm back, rubbing the bruises she left. “I didn’t. I was resurrected.”
    Her anger seemed to grow. “Who resurrected you!” she almost screamed.
    Immediately both Aisling and May hushed her, glancing nervously down the hallway.
    “This can wait. We have to get out of here. Now ,” May said authoritatively. “We’ll go out the way we came.”
    “I’m not going anywhere with her,” Thala said, her face suffused with color. I thought for a moment she was going to spit at me.
    “She’s the one who arranged for your release,” Aisling pointed out.
    “Why are you so angry with me? Did we know each other?” I asked, confused and hurt by her reaction to me. “Is it something to do with Baltic?”
    “We really don’t have time for this,” May said, her head cocked to catch noises from the stairwell. “I hear more voices than I should. We need to move now.”
    “This way,” Aisling said, pointing toward the hall behind Thala.
    She crossed her arms and sent me a look that said in no uncertain terms that she’d have liked to see me beheaded again. “No. I will not leave with her.”
    “I don’t understand why—” I started to say when Cyrene, with a roll of her eyes, reached out and shoved her Taser on the back of Thala’s neck, causing the woman to jerk a few times before dropping to the ground, her eyes rolled back in her head.
    “I love this thing,” Cyrene commented with great satisfaction as she examined the results of her handiwork. “I’m going to carry it with me everywhere!”
    “Thanks, Cy,” May said, hurrying back to us. “Let’s get her out of here.”
    “Why is she so pissed at me?” I asked, moving to her legs. “What did I do to her?”
    “No clue, but we don’t have time to work it out now.” Aisling started to help me with her legs, then stood up. “It would take too long for us to carry her that way. Jim, so long as you’re in human form, you can carry her.”
    “Me!” Jim squawked. “I’m a Newfie, not a pack mule!”
    “You’re also stronger than any of us, and we’ll move faster if you sling Thala over your shoulder and carry her. Now get cracking! We have to get out of here before Drake lands at the nearest airport.”
    “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—nothing good ever comes of human form,” Jim complained as it bent over to pick up the