Sparks Fly: A Novel of the Light Dragons (36 page)

I was on fire, literally on fire, but even that didn’t distract me. I had one mission, one goal, one purpose to my being, and I would not let anything, not even the First Dragon, stand in my way.

He inclined his head in acknowledgment of my statement, his eyes, his damned all-knowing eyes, simply watching me as if I were a particularly interesting form of insect.

I punched him in the chest, just to see some sort of a reaction in his face or eyes. “Resurrect him.”

There were a couple of gasps behind me.

Slowly, the First Dragon closed his eyes.

“Resurrect him!” I hit him again, harder this time, my fire burning so bright, it spilled out of me and crawled over him.

“Why should I do so?” he asked.

“You’re his father!” I screamed, tears washing my
cheeks, the pain inside me so great it almost brought me to my knees.

“I am the all-father.”

“But he’s your son. Your last son.”

“I did not resurrect my other sons when they died,” the First Dragon said.

“You have to bring him back because I love him.” My voice was mostly a wail now, one painful to hear.

“Some of my other sons, too, had mates who loved them.”

“But this is different,” I gave in, sinking to my knees. “I can’t go on without him.”

“You are willing to die, as well? What of your child? Are you willing to leave him behind in your desire to quit the mortal world?”

I thought of Brom, the best part of me, my adorable, quirky child, and my heart contracted even more. “No. I can’t leave Brom. I can’t leave…no. I’m not willing to die. But if I have to live without Baltic, my heart will be dead. My soul will be dead. I will continue on because I must, and I will love and cherish those dear to me, but I will not truly live. I will just…be.”

He said nothing. I had to try to reach him. I had to try to make him understand. “You have to bring him back. He’s the last of your children.”

“All here are my children,” he said gently, waving a hand at the people collected. “Even you. Even the child growing inside you.”

“Whoa!” Jim said, squinting at my midsection. “You’re preggers?”

I put my hand protectively over my belly. “How do you know about that? I haven’t even told Baltic.”

He just looked at me with those wise eyes, and an emotion boiled up within me until I knew it would spill out like acid.

“I hate you,” I snarled, getting to my feet, ignoring the
distressed murmurs of everyone present. “You are an abomination. You call yourself the ancestor of everyone, but you don’t want the responsibility that goes along with that. I am ashamed to know that my child will bear your blood.”

“Ysolde,” May warned, her voice filled with shock. “Think of what you’re saying. Think of whom you’re saying it to.”

“I don’t care,” I answered, never taking my eyes from the First Dragon. “If you won’t resurrect Baltic, then I will scour the world to find a necromancer who will. I don’t care how long it takes, or how much it costs, or what I have to sacrifice to do it, I will bring him back. And when he is safe in my arms, then you will know my full wrath.”

He tipped his head to the side as he considered me. “You think to threaten me, daughter of light?”

“Yes,” I said evenly, letting him see the soul-deep intention in my eyes. “I am threatening you.”

“Oh, Ysolde, I really don’t think that’s wise,” Aisling said, starting toward me. She stopped when May put out a hand.

“No one has ever threatened me,” the First Dragon said meditatively. His gaze sharpened. “What would you give to return Baltic to your side? Would you give your son’s life?”

“No!”

“That of your unborn child?”

“Never.” I thought for a moment I would vomit, so sickened was I, but I managed to quell my emotions enough to speak. “You’re truly a monster, aren’t you? Are we all just a game to you? Something to amuse yourself with whenever you’re bored? You reprehensible, disgusting, vile—”

He held up a hand, stopping me. “You would not give your own life, and you would not give your child’s life. What, then, do you have to offer me?”

I stared at him, absolutely flabbergasted. “You’re…bargaining? You’re trying to cut a deal with me to resurrect Baltic?”

“I am asking what you would give to have him returned to life.” He was silent for a moment. “I did not ask you what you would give before, when I had him brought back. Now, I do so.”

“Before?” I shook my head. “You didn’t resurrect him. Thala did.”

I swear I saw a twinkle of enjoyment in his fathomless eyes. It just made me want to scream and rip his head off. “Baltic is my son. Even the most gifted of necromancers could not resurrect him without my guidance.”

I stumbled forward, tears once again filling my eyes as I knelt before the First Dragon. “Then do so again. Please. I will give you whatever you want, so far as I can. I love him with every ounce of my being, and I swear before everyone here that whatever you want, you will have.”

“I’ve heard those words from you before,” he said, half turning from me. “I gave you a task, and you have not completed it.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, agony twisting sharply inside me. “I tried to redeem his honor. I tried to get him to apologize for his part in the death of Alexei and Maerwyn. But he doesn’t—didn’t—seem to understand how important that was.”

“I asked for you to ensure he paid for the deaths of the innocent,” the First Dragon said.

“That’s Alexei, isn’t it? And by extension, Maerwyn. I tried, but—”

“They are part of it, but they are not the only ones who have suffered because of my son.” His gaze went beyond me, to scan the face of everyone there. “Baltic is flesh of my flesh. He was intended to make the weyr stronger in times when it was weak.”

I closed my eyes again, insight smacking me upside the head. “But instead, the results of his actions tore it apart.”

“The endless war?” Aisling asked.

I nodded, wiping my face with my sleeve. “When Baltic refused to take Chuan Ren as his mate, the red dragons started the endless war.”

“Thousands of my children died. Hundreds of thousands of mortals did so, as well,” the First Dragon said.

“I don’t quite understand how,” Aisling said, looking warily at the First Dragon.

My stomach twisted with grief and rage and regret. “The red dragons killed Maerwyn, Baltic’s mother, which triggered the separation between silver and black dragons.”

“So Chuan Ren really
did
start the war,” Aisling said softly with a little whistle of amazement. “I knew it. I just knew she had to be behind it.”

“The black dragons were all but destroyed.”

“As were the silver dragons,” Constantine said, only faintly visible. “We suffered gravely because of Baltic’s actions.”

My gaze returned to the First Dragon. “You hold Baltic responsible for the deaths of all of those dragons? Everyone who has died since the onset of Endless War?”

“The deaths of the innocent weigh heavily on his soul,” he said, a typical dragon non-answer. “You were to redeem that sin.”

“The flesh of your flesh,” I said softly, fighting the pain so I could think. I knew that everything I was and would be depended on getting this right. “He was supposed to bring strength to the weyr—” I stopped, once again insight striking me with an almost palpable blow. “You want him back in the weyr. You want our sept to join the weyr. But why? Baltic doesn’t care anything about the weyr.”

“Man, what is it with you humans?” Jim asked, shaking
its head. “You guys fall off the obvious wagon when you’re young or something?”

“Jim, hush,” Aisling said quickly, turning to apologize.

I looked at Jim. It winked at me. Obvious? What was I missing that was so obvious?

“You had wanted Baltic to take Chuan Ren as his mate.” The words came out slowly, as my brain once again frantically squirreled around trying to piece things together. “But Baltic didn’t care about that, didn’t care that his actions would enrage the red dragons. He didn’t care to the extent that he was booted out of this sept, until Alexei accepted him back as heir when Constantine’s treachery was exposed.”

“Constantine’s treachery?” Gabriel frowned. “What treachery is this?”

“Nothing! There was no treachery,” Constantine said quickly, then glanced at the First Dragon and immediately disappeared. “I’m…er…low on power. I’ll claim you as my mate later, Ysolde, when everyone is gone.”

I waved a dismissive hand, not willing to be distracted. “It’s old history, Gabriel. I’ll tell you later.” I met the First Dragon’s gaze again. “You wanted Baltic to bring strength to the weyr. He was your only living child, and you wanted him to bring stability to a weyr that was imploding upon itself.”

“My children have always been fractious,” he said with the barest hint of a smile. “The dragon fire that burns within us manifests itself in many ways.”

“But Baltic didn’t do that. He didn’t care about bringing the weyr together. He cared about the black dragons, instead. He—”

“He cared about you,” the First Dragon interrupted.

At that moment the penny dropped. Memory after memory tumbled in my mind—Baltic telling me five hundred years ago that the weyr could go about its business
so long as it left him alone; Baltic not three weeks ago telling me the same thing. “You want him to care about dragonkin.”

“Oooh,” Aisling said on a long breath.

“He must pay for the deaths of the innocent,” the First Dragon said in that enigmatic way he had.

“You’re really irritating, do you know that?” I squared off as if about to fight him. “You couldn’t just say that—you had to make me jump through five million hoops? I’ve wanted him to rejoin the weyr all along.”

“But you have not accomplished that task.”

“What more do you want from me?” I yelled, slapping my hands on my legs. “I’ve tried and tried and tried, and I swear that I’ll continue to move heaven and earth to make you happy. I swear I’ll redeem Baltic’s soul. I swear I’ll do anything, anything at all. Just bring him back!”

“Mate, do not grovel.”

The First Dragon’s lips tightened, as if he’d heard it all before.

“I can’t offer to do anything more than that!” I grabbed the First Dragon’s arm and shook it. “I love him. Do you understand that? Our love goes beyond death. It’s…It’s…It’s
everything
to me.”

“Always you must make dramatic scenes. He enjoys them; you do know that, yes?”

“Baltic is the beginning, and the end, and…and…” I stopped, my heart beating wildly as a warm, familiar presence made the skin of my back tingle.

My heart, my soul, the very essence of who I was, came to life once again. I staggered a step to the side with the overwhelming surge of emotion. “When?” I asked the First Dragon.

He knew exactly what I was asking. “When I felt his loss.”

“You bastard!” I swore, slapping my hand on his chest. “You let me go through all that when he was already alive? You heartless bastard! You cruel, manipulative—”

“
Chérie
, do not finish that sentence,” Baltic rumbled behind me, his arms sliding around me. I turned, tears of happiness spilling over my lashes. “I have already had to endure one lecture from the First Dragon this day—I do not wish to hear another, and if you continue, that is exactly what will happen.”

“You’re alive,” I said, taking his face in my hands and gently kissing him.

“I am.” He brushed away a long trail of tears. “You wept for me?”

“I offered my soul for you.”

“This is the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen,” Aisling said, sniffing and dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. “I wish Drake were here to see it.”

“Serious chick flick stuff,” Jim agreed, nodding.

May wrapped her arms around Gabriel and held him as he stroked her hair.

“It is not good for you to be so upset,” Baltic said, frowning down at me. I could have cheered for joy at the sight of that lovely frown. “You must remember your condition.”

“My—you know?”

“Of course I know. I am not stupid. I can use a calendar as well as you.”

“Congratulations, by the way,” Aisling said, still sniffling.

“Oh boy, another pregnant mate in the weyr.
Sárkánies
are sure going to be fun.”

“We are not in the weyr,” Baltic said, allowing me to kiss the breath right out of his mouth.

“Oh yes, we are.” I took a step back from him, my foot tripping over something hard. I bent to pick up Baltic’s talisman, leveling him with a look that didn’t just read
volumes; it could have filled an entire library with my ire. “We are joining the weyr.”

He crossed his arms.

“Don’t you dare cross your arms at me.” I stormed forward, gesturing toward the First Dragon. “After what I went through with him, we are joining the weyr, and that’s that.”

“Mate—”

“We’re joining the weyr! And you’re going to start caring about other dragons!”

“That madwoman/psycho/scary face is good on you, Soldy,” Jim said, tipping its head to the side. “Kind of a ‘three bread crumbs short of a meat loaf’ look, but effective.”

Baltic sighed, glanced at his father, and made an annoyed gesture. “Very well. I will give in to your demands this time, but only because I do not wish for you to be further upset. I will allow the weyr to accept the light dragons as members.”

“Thank you,” I said, kissing him again before turning to face the First Dragon, Baltic’s arms around me. “And thank you, too. For everything, but mostly for giving me Baltic.”

He was silent for a moment, then smiled, his body shimmering into that of a dragon, one whose scales held all the colors of the spectrum. The colors seemed to dance along his scales; then he was gone, leaving behind nothing but the faintest sparkle of color in the air.

“S
weetie? Baltic was dead, but he’s alive again. I thought you’d want to know. Ysolde’s talking to Maura now. She says that she has Violet, and they’re starting down the mountain, so assuming they make it to the town OK, Operation Save Violet is good. Oh, you missed Ysolde punching the First Dragon.” Aisling, who had moved a short distance away to speak on her cell phone, listened for a few seconds. “No, she’s alive and well, too, despite the punching and saying some pretty harsh things to him. Did you find Thala? Rats. Well, come on back. Things have settled down here. Is Magoth still with you? Ah. OK.”