Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

he seemed to have adopted Baltic as a hero figure. I’d caught him more than once watching Baltic closely, as if fascinated with the way a wyvern acted, but I think it went deeper than mere curiosity about the dragons with whom we now found ourselves living. He’d started parroting Baltic’s likes and dislikes, even going so far as to spurn food I knew he didn’t really mind.
    “Are you going into London today?”
    “Nice change of subject, and yes, I am.” I shook off the last few dregs of anger over the idea that the First Dragon had tried to force Baltic into taking a mate, and finished putting away the shirts I’d bought in a local shop. “Where is Nico taking you today?”
    “He wants to go see a history museum.” Brom looked thoughtful. “It has ships and stuff, but no bodies, although Nico says there might be some surgeon’s tools. When are we going to get our own house so I can set up my lab again? You said you’d start looking right away, and it’s been forever.”
    “Four weeks is hardly forever.” I smiled and gave him one of the three daily hugs he allowed. “But I’ll ask Baltic again about a house. Would you mind if we lived outside of England? He’s likely to want to be near Dauva in order to oversee the rebuilding, and I hate to make him travel between here and Riga all the time.”
    “Are there mummies in ... ” His face screwed up in thought.
    “Latvia?” I finished. “I have no idea, although it is close enough to visit St. Petersburg, which I know has some fine museums. Whether or not they have mummies is beyond me. You can ask Nico, though. Perhaps he’ll know.”
    “OK. Will he come with us? Because he’s a green dragon, and not in Baltic’s sept, I mean.”
    “I’m sure Drake will give him permission, since he’s agreed to let Nico tutor you for a year. Oh, you haven’t had your allowance yet, have you? Let me get my purse.”
    Brom’s expression turned painful for a few seconds before his shoulders sagged, and he said with obvious reluctance, “Baltic gave it to me this morning when he got home from Nepal.”
    “Uh-huh. And were you going to tell me that, or just let me give you more?”
    His lips twitched. “Well ... no. But if you wanted to give me more, that would be OK.”
    I laughed and gave his shoulder a little pat. “I’m sorry to have burst a burgeoning scheme to get money from both of us, but you really don’t need more than one weekly allowance.”
    “How am I going to buy supplies when we get a house?” he asked as I herded him before me back into the narrow hallway. The floor and walls, wooden and uneven, made me feel as if I were walking at an angle. I didn’t complain, though; I found the small pub run by some human friends of Pavel, Baltic’s second-in-command, charming and quaint in its Elizabethan Englishness. Baltic insisted we would be safe there should Thala, his former lieutenant, decide to try to kill us again. I had no doubt that he would keep us safe no matter where we were located, but like Brom, I was growing tired of such a transient lifestyle, and I yearned for my own home where we could settle down once and for all.
    “When we have room for you to set up another mummification lab, I’ll buy you some supplies. Although, really, Brom, couldn’t you find some other hobby than mummifying animals?”
    “You said it was illegal to mummify a human,” he pointed out as I tapped on the door to his tutor’s room. “Besides, I don’t know where to find a dead person.”
    Nico, an auburn-haired, studious green dragon who had charge of Brom’s education for the last few months, greeted me and grabbed up a small backpack. “Did Brom tell you that we’re going to the naval museum today?”
    “Yes, despite the fact that it won’t have bodies.” I shared a smile with Nico before reminding Brom to behave himself. “I won’t be back until just before dinner, but Pavel said he was going to cook up something special, so be home by six.”
    “Absolutely,” Nico agreed, and with a glance at his watch, hustled Brom down the stairs. I heard the rumble of male voices drift upward after them, and waited, wondering how best to broach the subject of my vision.
    Baltic appeared at the head of the stairs, his hand quickly whipping away from his pocket as he spotted me.
    “You didn’t!” I said, frowning as he approached, Pavel on his heels. “Baltic, really, it’s too bad of you!”
    Guilt chased across his face, followed