Light Dragons 02 - The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons

the car. “Brom visits the silver dragons and has a green dragon tutor, and you meet with the mates. . . . Does it really matter if the war continues?”
    “Yes, it does. Just because things are amicable now doesn’t mean they won’t go all pear-shaped later, and I want us to be a part of the weyr so we have some protection if that happens.”
    Baltic sighed, but took my hand and led me up the stairs, at the top of which stood two large figures.
    “Good morning, Maata. Tipene. Are you guys banished to the outside, or are May and Gabriel not here yet?” I asked.
    Both of the silver guards greeted me, nodding to Baltic. “It was decided that all guards are to remain outside for your meeting.” Maata looked like she wanted to smile, but she held it back. “We were going to have a stroll around the gardens that you designed. Perhaps Pavel would care to join us?”
    “Oh, that sounds wonderful. I hope we’ll have time to join you later. I’d love to see the flowers again. . . .”
    Baltic gave me a little shove toward the big double doors.
    “Gardens. How delightful,” Pavel answered, looking as if he’d rather have his fingernails yanked out one by one.
    “It won’t hurt you,” I told him, laughing as he followed the two silver dragons.
    “Come. Let us have this over with,” Baltic said, throwing open one of the doors. I hesitated at the threshold, since the last time I had attempted to cross it, I’d been pulled into the beyond, the shadow world that paralleled our reality, where I had seen Baltic watching a bittersweet vision of our past.
    His eyes met mine. I tightened my fingers in his, smiled, and allowed him to see the love in my eyes before I crossed into the house.
    “Well, I might have known this would happen,” I said a moment later as a bone-freezing cold seeped into my awareness. The world shifted and lost color, resolving itself into a grey-toned scene that I realized was colorless because the building in which I stood was made of stone and metal. I rubbed my arms and looked with curiosity around what appeared to be a lobby of some sort. “Brr. Where is this, I wonder?”
    “I do not know, but I dislike it.”
    I spun around to find Baltic directly behind me. “You’re getting into more and more of my visions. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I think this is the aerie.”
    “What aerie?” His eyes were as unreadable as his expression as he looked around and then grimaced. “Ah. The one that belongs to Kostya. End the vision, mate.”
    “End it? How am I supposed to do that? What dragons live in Nepal? Red?”
    Noise behind me had me considering the figures of three men who emerged from the other side of the lobby.
    “No,” Baltic said, grabbing me and pulling me backward, as if he feared we’d be seen.
    “They can’t see us,” I said, escaping his hold, curious now as to who the dragons were. I stepped into the lobby, pausing when a fourth man walked straight through Baltic toward the group.
    “Is it done?” the fourth man asked the others.
    One of the three nodded. “Aye. We have control of the aerie.”
    “Kostya?”
    “Locked in a storage room until his cell is readied.”
    “Good. I’ll pass that on to the chief.”
    “We’re right—this is where Kostya went after the destruction of Dauva,” I said to Baltic. “I remember Aisling saying something about him being held prisoner. But who are those dragons? What sept do they belong to?”
    “None. They are ouroboros. Come, mate, we have tarried too long. The wyverns are waiting for us.”
    The word “ouroboros” rang in my head like a bell. “I really want to see this, Baltic. I think it’s important somehow.”
    “It is not.”
    “How do you know that?” A sudden horrible thought occurred to me. “By the saints! Are these your dragons? Was it you who had Kostya imprisoned? It was, wasn’t it? You couldn’t kill him outright because of your past relationship, but you wanted him out of the way, so you had him locked up in his own hidey-hole?”
    “I am not responsible for this, no,” he said, his lips thinning.
    I avoided his hold and moved closer to the group of dragons. “Then you know who did.”
    “—how long we’ll have to stay here?” one of the men was asking the obvious leader. “It’s bloody cold.”
    “We’ll stay as long as we have to. You might as well see if there’s any food. The chief will be here at any moment, and I’d like to be able to tell her that all is taken