Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

the blue dragons,” I started to say, but I was interrupted before I could hone my outrage to a needle-sharp point.
    “I will have Pavel get the phylactery for you.”
    “Pavel who you said yourself was not a very good thief?” I kissed Baltic’s chin, ignoring the gagging noises from Constantine’s side of the room. “There are few beings more suited to the liberating of stolen items than a shade, my darling. And look at it this way-it will give Constantine something to do, and it will vex Kostya in the bargain.”
    Baltic’s expression went from outraged to thoughtful. “That does have a certain attraction. Very well, I give my approval to him reclaiming our shard. What is the second job?”
    I took a deep breath. This was going to require a more delicate touch. “Dr. Kostich refused to help us with Thala.”
    “Then we will use the other archimage of whom you spoke.”
    I shook my head, grateful Constantine was keeping quiet for a change. “I don’t know her well enough to really gauge whether or not I can convince her to assist us. We’re not in the weyr, Baltic, and thus not officially recognized by the Otherworld. She has no reason to help us.”
    “The same applies to the deranged archimage; yet you thought he would do so.”
    “That’s because I’ve known him for such a long time, and worked for him, and helped Violet with Maura, although admittedly that didn’t turn out very well.”
    “I liked the part where her men shot Baltic.”
    “Hush, Constantine.” I gave Baltic a meaningful look. “There is another option, and that’s to use someone against whom a necromancer’s powers are ineffectual.”
    By the time I finished the sentence, Baltic understood where I was heading. He rolled his eyes in a dramatic gesture. “You can’t think to use Constantine to subdue Thala! He’s a shade!”
    “A very good shade! You wish you could be such a shade!”
    “Time-out is incoming if you don’t be quiet,” I told the part of the room where Constantine was lurking. “And I mean it!”
    An injured sniff was the answer.
    “He would not be a shade if you hadn’t had him raised as such,” Baltic accused me.
    “Which I wouldn’t have done if your father had just bothered to tell me outright what he wanted me to do, as I told him the other day in the sex shop, but he just looked at me the way he does and ignored that whole issue. He’s so frustrating at times.”
    Baltic froze. “You summoned the First Dragon to a sex shop?”
    I damned myself for that verbal slip. I hadn’t intended on telling him about the little chat I had had with his father. “I didn’t summon him at all. He just kind of appeared. It must have slipped my mind to mention his little chat with me, what with Brom’s being kidnapped.”
    “Hmm.” Baltic didn’t look convinced, but he let that point go to pounce on what I least wanted his attention focused on. “For what purpose did he seek you out?”
    “I was there, too. Ysolde admired my spectral whip. I believe she desires one.”
    “Constantine-” I said warningly.
    “You have lost that little zest that I so admired in you in the past,” he said in an aggrieved tone, but fell silent again.
    “I don’t want a whip,” I told Baltic, just in case he believed Constantine. “Not the spectral kind, anyway. I saw a very interesting soft leather device in the fetish area ... . Never mind.”
    The expression in Baltic’s onyx eyes was only too readable. I cleared my throat and continued on a different tack. “The First Dragon wanted what he always wants with me-to tell me I’ve failed yet again, and to get on with redeeming your honor, or else. It was all too annoying, and I told him that, so you can stop looking martyred about the whole thing.”
    “If I look martyred, it is because I will hear about your conduct at a later time,” he said with a sigh. “I’ve told you before not to heed what the First Dragon says. You have yet to take this advice, but I assure you it will make both our lives easier.”
    I took his hands in mine and rubbed his knuckles on my cheek. “He says he loved your mother, you know.”
    Baltic’s fingers tightened in mine. “We are not here to discuss the past, mate. My objection to Constantine stands.”
    I allowed him to change the subject, since I knew he would feel uncomfortable talking about his parents in front of an audience. “Shades are powerful against necromancers, my love. Constantine is willing to help us with