Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

Paris?”
    “How long does it take to get a few guards?” Gareth grumbled to himself as he peered out through the open door toward the stairs. “I could have gone to Seville and back by the time she stirs her stumps. What? Yes, we took you to Paris, fat lot of good that it did us. It turned out that anyone we could have ransomed you to was dead, so we were stuck with you. Ruth was ready to drop you in the Seine, but then you went into one of your funks and started manifesting gold, and we knew we were set for the rest of our lives.”
    “The fugues,” I said, rubbing my forehead before glancing back at Brom. He had gotten dressed, and was sitting on the edge of his bed, watching with silent interest. “They started all the way back then?”
    “Why else do you think we’d keep you around?” Gareth answered with another of his unpleasant smiles. “Every six months you’d drop to the floor and go to sleep for a few weeks, changing lead to gold in the process. Everything was fine until you decided you wanted to have a husband and a kid.”
    I straightened up, ready to leap on him if he said anything unkind toward Brom, and since I didn’t want him to pursue that line of thought, I said with a nonchalance I knew would goad him, “It seems to me, then, that I’ve more than paid you for supporting me, and later Brom. This particular goose will not be laying any more golden eggs.”
    “How do you know?” He looked me up and down. “You didn’t manifest during your last fugue, when you were with the silver dragons, but that was because they didn’t put lead in the room with you, right?”
    “No, they didn’t, but that doesn’t mean anything. The dragon inside me is waking up, Gareth. Slowly, but it’s waking up. And that means that whatever weird circumstance that caused me to alchemize gold is no longer there.”
    “You don’t know that. In another few months, we’ll know, but until then, we want what’s due us.” He cocked his head to listen. “Finally. Where the hell have you been, Ruth? It’s not enough that Sullivan has to make me get up at this ungodly hour, now you’re dragging your feet and keeping me from going back to-what are you doing here?”
    “I’ve been asking myself that for weeks, now,” a female voice answered, and to my utter surprise, a buxom woman, who was a little bit taller than me appeared in the doorway.
    “Maura?” I said, a little spurt of anger following the word. “I imagined you’d be in Nepal with your boss. If you’ve come here to kidnap or shoot us again like you did in Latvia-”
    She raised her hands in a gesture of peace. “I wouldn’t dream of doing either, and even if I wanted to-and I assure you I’ve learned my lesson when it comes to shooting anyone-I couldn’t.”
    “Why?” I asked, my curiosity (as always) getting the better of me.
    A man answered. “Because I wouldn’t let her.”
    “Who the hell are you?” Gareth demanded to know as Savian loomed up behind him, a gun in his hand. Before he could answer, Gareth narrowed his beady-eyed gaze on me and added, “Just how many people did you bring with you?”
    I reached behind me for Brom, pulling him tight against my side. “As many as it takes to ensure my son is safe.”
    “Sullivan!” Brom protested, his face filled with embarrassment.
    I loosened my hold on him a little, watching Maura carefully.
    “Hullo,” she said to Brom.
    “Hi,” he responded, giving her a thorough once-over. “You shot Baltic?”
    “My men did, but I didn’t mean for them to do so.”
    I glared at her.
    She coughed and looked away. “It was all very unfortunate. I was extremely upset about everything, and still regret that things turned out the way they did.”
    “How did things turn out?” Brom asked.
    “It’s not important,” I said, transferring my glare from the untrustworthy Maura to Gareth, who was sidling around her to get out of Savian’s line of sight. “What is important is what on earth you’re doing here. Or, wait, are you still doing Thala’s dirty work? Or are you now out for hire, and Gareth has hired you to help him kidnap an innocent child?”
    “I do not kidnap children,” she said, straightening her shoulders, giving her long brown hair an annoyed flick over her shoulder. “Dragons do not war against children. Everyone knows that.”
    “Gareth doesn’t,” I said somewhat acidly. “Where’s Baltic?”
    “At the foot of the tower, beating back a handful of dragons