Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

hesitated a moment, her expression thoughtful as her gaze drifted over my shoulder.
    “You suspect what?”
    “I suspect she’s going to Russia.”
    “You said that earlier.” That was uncomfortably close to Latvia, and Dauva. “Whereabouts in Russia? Moscow?”
    Maura shrugged. “I don’t know. Wherever the sepulcher is.”
    “The light sword,” I said softly, my mind whirling with a thousand things to say to Baltic. Part of me wanted to demand we leave the country immediately and go somewhere safe, but I knew that if I did get him to take Brom and me elsewhere, he’d return to oversee the building of Dauva. Not even the pain of temporary separation would keep him from that. And that would only leave him exposed to whatever foul plans Thala had for us. “Far better for us to stay together,” I murmured.
    “Safety in numbers,” Maura agreed.
    My gaze slid back to her. “If you’re no longer working for Thala, then why were you in the Spanish castillo with her tribe of dragons?”
    She glanced at the window, slapping her hand on the glass again.
    “What?” Savian responded with annoyance.
    “How much longer are you going to be in there?”
    “I’m trying to shave. Stop moving your arm or I’ll cut my throat. And don’t say what you’re going to say, and yes, I know you’re thinking it.”
    Maura gave me another considering look, then made a short nod, as if she’d come to a decision. “Mum said you were her friend for many decades, so I’ll trust you. When I returned to Spain from Ziema two months ago, I was appalled and shocked at Thala’s plans for you. I told her so. I objected to the fact that she had undermined my authority with men who were placed in my charge, but more, I objected to her plan of violence. Thala told me I had no voice in the matter, and my job was simply to get the location of the sepulcher from Emile, and that she’d had her plans in place for too long for them to be messed up by the likes of me, and ... and ... oh, just buckets more of that sort of thing. I was never comfortable having to use my family like that, but the violence against you and Baltic was the final straw. The end result was that I renounced the tribe and prepared to leave them.”
    She stopped, the fingers of her free hand playing with the belt loops on her jeans.
    “I’m glad to know you weren’t a part of the plan to harm us,” I said somewhat dryly. “And I’m sure Dr. Kostich will be relieved to know you won’t be pumping him for information that he surely would not tell you.”
    Pain flashed across her face as she leaned against the house. “That’s just the trouble-he’s got to tell me where it is.”
    “So you can tell Thala?”
    She nodded, her eyes closed, her face weary.
    I studied her for a moment, trying to piece together the bits of what was puzzling me. “Is Thala blackmailing you for it?”
    She nodded again.
    “What, exactly, is she-”
    “Ysolde!”
    The roar that carried my name from the other side of the house was a familiar one, the fury in it warning me that it would be folly to remain where I was in order to pin down Maura for more information.
    “My beloved! Do not heed the traitorous one. He is weak, as he has always been.”
    “Traitorous!” Birds squawked like crazy as they flew out of the nearby trees in protest of Baltic’s bellow. It was amazing how well the sound carried. I imagined the people in town some four miles away could hear him. “I am not the traitor here!”
    “You stole the black sept from me!”
    “I challenged you and won it from you! You lost!”
    “Because you cheated!”
    “Sadly, that voice is also familiar,” I said, sighing.
    “You shouldn’t have had me summon him, then,” Maura said with a wry smile.
    “Hindsight, twenty-twenty, and all that,” I told her, heading off to interrupt what was sounding like a huge fight between Baltic and Constantine. “We’ll continue this discussion later.”
    Unfortunately, that hindsight didn’t just fail me when it came to the subject of resurrecting spirits-it also let me down with regard to Maura.
    It took a good hour to get Constantine out of our hair, and by then, Savian had taken off for parts unknown with Maura in tow. Pavel left shortly after that to return to England in order to gather up our belongings, leaving Holland to complete his recovery with us.
    Duty-bound, I tried calling Maura’s mother, but for the third time in a week, I wasn’t able to reach her. After