Light Dragons 02 - The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons
heaven’s sake—you’re the same size as Baltic, and I’m sure that your genitalia aren’t so massive they can’t fit into a pair of jeans.”
“Yeah, well, you try stuffing a human package into a pair of jeans without a pair of shorts on,” it answered, still squirming. “That’s a sensitive area, you know! You can’t just cram them anywhere and expect them to be comfortable.”
“I told you to take what you needed from Baltic’s closet. You could have gotten a pair of underwear.”
“I’m not wearing another guy’s shorts!” it answered, looking appalled. “I don’t know where they’ve been! Well, I do, and that doesn’t reassure me any. Plus, do you think Baltic would like knowing you’re handing out his clothes?”
“I think he’d prefer that to having you wandering around wearing nothing but a sarong made of two sweaters. Stop clutching at yourself and sit down. I want to talk to you.”
“Uh-oh,” it said, backing away. “You’ve got that scary-mom look on your face. Talk about what?”
“Ouroboros dragons.”
Jim blinked a couple of times. “You could at least feed me before you interrogate me.”
“It’s two o’clock in the morning, Jim. You don’t need to eat now!”
“Sure I do. I spent a lot of energy hauling Thala around. She’s no lightweight, you know.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but thought better of it. Jim was an endless mooch for food, and would likely be more forthcoming if it was fed. “All right, I’ll make you a blue-cheese-stuffed burger, but you will tell me everything you know about outlaw dragons.”
“Deal, but it ain’t much, only a few things I’ve picked up from Ash and Drake.”
By the time I made us each a burger, Jim had acclimatized itself to wearing clothing and sat docilely enough at the kitchen table.
“Baltic said that Fiat and some of his followers had been named ouroboros recently,” I said, sitting down to my very belated dinner. “I know those dragons are considered outlaws now, but what about the others?”
“What others?” it asked around a mouthful of hamburger.
“Surely there are other dragons who have been kicked out of their septs at one time or another? Or are the blue dragons it?”
Jim shrugged, dribbling a bit of blue cheese as it chewed. “I don’t know of any personally, but there were some at Kostya’s aerie, or so Gabriel said, and I don’t know why he’d lie about that unless it was ex–silver dragons holding Kostya prisoner, and I think he’d know if it was.”
“Kostya,” I said slowly, considering Baltic’s former friend. “I’d forgotten that he was holed up in an aerie for so long. Who held him prisoner?”
“Dunno. Drake still hasn’t figured it out, and although he talks about going back to the aerie to look for clues, he’s too busy fawning over Aisling and the spawn to go to Nepal again.”
“What does Drake have to do with it?”
“He went to rescue Kostya and got nabbed himself. Ash and I rounded up a posse and went to rescue them. I lost a couple of toes in the process, but got them back again with my fabulous new form.” Jim looked down at itself with morose dissatisfaction. “My former fabulous new form. When are you going to change me back?”
“I don’t know how to, or even that I could if I did know. So Drake was at the aerie, too? That means he must have seen the ouroboros dragons as well. Hmm. I think I’m going to have to talk to Kostya, since Drake is probably quite angry and not likely to tell me what I want to know.”
Jim cocked an eyebrow and licked a bit of mustard off its upper lip. “And you think Kostya will tell you?”
“Yes,” I said after a moment’s thought. “His animosity toward Baltic aside, yes, I think I can get him to open up. If the dragons who imprisoned Kostya did so before Fiat and his followers were removed from their sept, then that means there must be two separate tribes out there. But who are the second group? And why would they want Kostya imprisoned? Why would they want to steal things from the L’au-dela?”
“You got me. You going to eat that half?” Jim asked, nodding toward the remains of my hamburger.
“Go ahead, but don’t come running to me if you’ve got an upset stomach in the morning.” I shoved the plate across the table to it and rose. “I’m going to get a few hours’ sleep. Can you keep an eye on Thala until I get up?”
“Aw, man! Why do I get guard duty?”
“Because you’re the
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