Holy Smokes (28 page)

“Fiat must have come by some of Baltic’s library,” Drake insisted, pacing behind where I sat as the four demons I had summoned worked on unmaking the last of the wards. Demons can’t, as a rule, unmake a ward, unless the wards drawn were of a demonic nature, which surprisingly these were. The prohibition—a weakish sort of curse—had already been lifted, as well as the curse proper; those required a creature of dark being to create them, and thus, assuming you had the capability of summoning and commanding demons, were easily destroyed. “There can be no other rational explanation. Baltic is dead. I saw him die. He was cleaved in two. Not even a dragon can survive that.”

“Yeah, well, Gabriel thinks he’s alive. Maybe he wasn’t cleaved all the way through?” I said, watching the demons as they unmade the last ward.

Drake whirled around to face me, Kostya leaping up from where he’d been sitting on a rock. “What did you say?”

“I said Gabriel thinks Baltic is alive. I told you on the way down from that aerie about the conversation I had with him.”

Drake rubbed his eyes for a moment. “I was tired and not listening as well as I ought. Are you sure he said Baltic was alive?”

“Well…he didn’t say that in so many words, but he spoke of Baltic in the present tense. I got the distinct feeling the guy was still alive and kicking.”

Drake and Kostya exchanged glances.

“You both were there when you saw him die?” I asked, momentarily distracted from the puzzle of Fiat’s lair door.

“Yes,” Drake answered, looking away.

“Oh, like that’s not a red flag she’s gonna pounce on?” Jim asked from where it lay on my feet. It shook its big furry head.

I crossed my arms. “Go on. You know I’m not going to leave it alone until you tell me about it.”

“This is none of your business,” Kostya said firmly, marching over to glare at the demons.

Drake pinched his lip.

“Sweetie?” I asked, waiting for him to spill.

“Technically, he’s right. It has nothing to do with the green dragons—”

I stopped him. “If it includes you, it’s my business.”

He was silent.

“Oh, go on and tell us,” Jim urged. “You know Princess Nosy isn’t going to be happy until you spill, and I gotta admit, I’m a bit curious, too. We never got news of dragon stuff in Abaddon. Except the plagues, of course, which ticked off the lords because they thought you guys were encroaching on demon territory. But other than that—nada.”

“You know I hate to agree with Jim on the sheer principle of the thing, and I won’t soon forget that Princess Nosy comment, but what did happen to Baltic?”

Drake was silent for a handful of seconds, then said simply, “Kostya killed him.”

I thought my eyes were going to bug right out of my head. “
Kostya
killed Baltic? Your brother Kostya, not some strange Kostya I don’t know about?”

He nodded.

I looked at the man pacing back and forth behind the demons as they worked. “But…he’s a black dragon! Baltic was his wyvern! You can kill your own wyverns? Isn’t that, like, really bad?”

“Yes. It is not something that is done often, and it’s not a subject I am prepared to discuss with you at this time. You wished to possess the facts, and now you do. Explanations will have to wait.”

“Do you seriously think you can drop a bombshell like that on me and not answer the hundred or so questions I have about it?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said in his most quelling manner.

I opened my mouth to protest, but the glint in his eye was one I didn’t particularly wish to mess with.

“Will wonders never cease? You got her to shut up. That’s gotta be a first.”

I pointed at the large stone door. “Right, Mr. Mouthy. Go work on the bane.”

Jim’s eyes widened. “Me?” it squeaked. “Those things are dangerous! I could get killed!”

“You can’t be kil—”

“My fabulous form could be destroyed!”

“Is the bane really that dangerous?” I asked Drake.

“It could destroy whoever tries to break it if it is not handled properly,” he answered grimly.

“Oh, lovely.” What constituted handled properly? I wondered.

Was that a little inner monologue? Dare I point out that the answer to all your questions is at your fingertips?

“That is why you will have the demons and your steward break it. I will not risk the chance of harm coming to you,” Drake added.

“Uh-huh. We’ll get to that in a minute, oh ye of the annoying subject changes. I understand if you don’t want to get into a lengthy discussion of dragon politics at this time, but you can answer one question for me. I thought Kostya was a Baltic supporter—he sure sounds like one when he talks about annexing the silver dragons. But if he actually killed Baltic—or tried to—then I’m confused.”

“Baltic was…difficult,” Drake said, looking up when Pál and István entered the cavern.

“They are all still out, although we are running out of time,” Pál told him. “The building is secured, and there are no signs that anyone outside it is aware of what’s going on.”

“And the one in the subterranean apartment?” Drake asked.

István shook his head. “We didn’t find him, although there were signs someone had used the bolt-hole recently.”

“He must have noted our presence here before we became aware of the apartment, and left rather than risk meeting us,” Drake said.

I raised my eyebrows. “Makes you wonder just who it was.”

“It could be that he is amongst the guards we took care of.” Drake rubbed his chin in thought. “But I suspect not.”

“Would you recognize Baltic if you saw him again?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“What about Pál and István?”

“Pál was not born when Baltic was killed,” Drake answered. “István saw him at weyr meetings.”

Pál gave me a wry smile. “I’m the young one.”

“So I gather. Well, it may be as you say then—the person staying in that odd apartment had Baltic’s books, and Baltic is dead. Gabriel is either confused, or I misheard him.”

Drake said nothing but continued to rub his chin.

It took the better part of the last hour we had there for the demons and Traci to break the bane. But break it they did, with only the loss of three demons (or rather, their forms).

“Love and kisses to Bael,” I told the lone surviving demon before I dismissed it.

It looked at me like I had beans sprouting out of my ears.

“If you do not mind my asking, lord, why did you summon Lord Bael’s minions and not your own?” Traci asked as the dragons pushed past it to get into Fiat’s lair.

“I’m trying to make a point. Did you send out those e-mails like I asked?”

It nodded, looking much put-upon. “I fear you have not thought through your actions thoroughly. They will be sure to anger the other lords and enrage Bael.”

“Perfect,” I said with a satisfied smile. “What time did you set the meeting for?”

“Tomorrow at noon, as you requested.”

“Great. Thanks for your help with the bane.”

Traci looked faintly shocked. “I am your servant, Lord Aisling. I am ever at your bidding.”

Jim poked its head out of the lair. “Ash? You coming? The guys are having ore-gasms in there, and I think you’re going to have to bitch slap a couple to calm them down. Ore, get it? Like gold ore? Heh heh heh. I slay me.”

“If only, Jim. I’ll see you tomorrow before the meeting, OK, Traci?”

The demon bowed and disappeared. I followed Jim into the lair, which was nothing more than a huge walk-in climate-controlled bank vault. The shelves were filled with priceless objects of art, most of them jewel-encrusted gold, but there were also other items of value—artwork, ewers, statues, boxes of raw gems…the list was endless, al though thankfully the vault wasn’t.

“So, how does it stack up to your lair?” I asked Drake.

He stood in the center of the lair, his body trembling slightly. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, an expression of bliss on his face, no doubt the effect of being in proximity to so much gold. “It is
nearly
comparable.”

“Really? Wow. I can’t wait to see yours.” I watched him for another second, smiling at the look on his face. “This stuff really is like an aphrodisiac to you guys, isn’t it?”

“Oh, yes,” he said, a reverential tone in his voice.

I ran my hand down his chest. “So if I was to strip off all my clothes and lie on a pile of gold coins…?”

His eyes popped open, fire leaping in a ring around us. I was startled by that—I wasn’t pulling the fire, which meant Drake had momentarily lost control. “You would just barely survive.”

“Oooh,” I said, burning even more from the passion in his eyes. “I think we’re going to have to try that when we get back home.”

He growled at me, a low rumble that was both primal and erotic as hell. I had the worst urge to pull him into a corner and have my way with him, but remembered in time where we were.

“Right, well,” I said, clearing my throat. “As Pál said, we’re running out of time, so why don’t you pick out the biggest and best of Fiat’s treasures, and we’ll get going while the going is still good.”

Pál and István had been opening lockboxes and turning out shelves, making little cooing sounds of pleasure as they touched the treasures. Kostya was in the back of the vault, his eyes glittering onyx as he flung open the lid to a wooden box. It was filled with ancient gold coins.

Drake pulled himself together, shot me one last sultry look, and began scanning the shelves for items.

“Maybe you can answer something for me,” I said as I opened a velvet box, admiring the Victorian sapphire necklace and earrings within it. “You told me a while ago that dragons can’t summon demons.”

“We can’t,” Kostya answered, running his hands through the gold coins. His voice was rich and thick with pleasure.

I mentally rolled my eyes at the dragons and moved on to another jewelry box. This one contained old Greek-looking gold and silver jewelry. Museum-quality stuff—I wondered how many of the world’s treasures were being held by dragons.

“Then how did Fiat come to have all sorts of dark power–based wards on his lair door? And that bane—that was broken by the demons, and they couldn’t have done that unless a demon had been used to make it in the first place.”

“Fiat obviously engaged the services of someone who could call demons,” Drake answered, his voice muffled as he poked around the back of the vault.

“So, why can’t you call demons?” High on one of the metal shelves, a small unadorned wooden box sat. I squinted at it. A ward was barely visible on it. I used the small ladder to climb to the top and pull down the box.

“You need to be a part of the Otherworld in order to summon its members. Dragons are bound by the laws of the weyr, not the Otherworld. We are outside of its sphere of influence. However, because of the long-standing treaty the weyr continues to honor, interaction between dragons and non-dragons is tolerated. That courtesy does not, however, extend to the summoning of its denizens.”

“Huh. I didn’t know you were not part of the Otherworld.” I opened the box and pulled aside a bit of blue silk. Inside lay a rough lump of gold, fashioned into a shape that looked vaguely dragonish. A thought struck me. “But…I am a part of the Otherworld.”

“Yes, you are.”

I climbed down the ladder and moved around the tall metal stand that stood in the center of the vault and frowned at Drake as he squatted next to Kostya, the two of them removing the side of a glass case that held what looked like illuminated medieval manuscripts. “Doesn’t that mean we have a conflict of interest?”

Drake looked up. “How so?”

“Well, you’re in the weyr, governed by its laws. I’m in the Otherworld, bound to uphold it.”

“You’re my mate. You are a member of the weyr as well. That takes precedence to your loyalty to the Otherworld. There is no conflict.”

I wasn’t sure I bought that, but I wasn’t willing to argue the point in front of Kostya. “What did you guys find? Anything übervaluable?”

Drake put the manuscript back in its glass case. “Everything in here is valuable.”

“But nothing stands out as something he’d move heaven and earth to get back?” I asked.

“Nothing leaps out at me, no. Kostya?”

He shook his head, dusting off his knees as he got to his feet. “There is nothing outstanding. The gold is of a very nice quality, though.”

“Why don’t you just take some of that?” Jim suggested, nosing around the box of gold coins. “If someone took my big ole herkin’ box of gold, I’d want it back. And I’m not even a dragon with a gold fixation.”

Drake pinched his lower lip as he looked around. “I would not tolerate anyone taking any treasure from me, but Fiat might not feel it was a sufficiently valuable hostage. I do not see anything that I would value above all others, and yet…” His voice trailed off as he looked around the vault. “And yet I feel as if something is here. Something…important. István? Pál?”

The two other dragons stopped rummaging and stood with Drake for a moment, the three of them making a slow circuit of the room.

“Yes,” István said, nodding. “I feel it, too. Something very old.”

“Something gold,” Pál said, lifting his chin to scent the air. I sniffed as well. I didn’t smell or sense anything different.

“Kostya, do you feel it?”

Kostya paused for a moment, then shook his head. “You green dragons have a better sense of smell than I do.”

“What exactly does it smell like?” I asked, wondering if my super–Guardian vision could pick up something that was identifiable only by its scent.

Drake slowly paced the aisle of the vault, his eyes narrowing on me. “Like…you.”

“Me?”

His eyes focused on the box in my hand. “What are you holding?”

“This?” I held up the battered figurine. “I think it’s a kid’s dragon toy. An old kid’s dragon toy. The details aren’t very good.”

Drake sucked in his breath, his eyes as brilliant as green crystals. “Aisling, do not drop it.”

I looked at the blobby dragon in my hand, trying to see what it was he was getting so worked up about. “Is it valuable?”

The other three dragons descended on me the same time as Drake, all four of them staring with wonder at the thing.