‘‘I don’t believe these lies,’’ Kostya said, shooting me an evil look. ‘‘She is the thief Mei Ling. She admits to taking my phylactery. She has concocted this smoke-screen to hide her actions.’’

‘‘If May had given me the phylactery, do you think I’d be sitting here now tolerating your abuse of her?’’ Gabriel asked, his muscles tensing up again.

Kostya was about to answer, but stopped, clearly baffled.

‘‘Despite my better judgment, I am willing to concede that I was wrong about Kostya,’’ Gabriel continued. ‘‘At least so far as him having the phylactery was concerned, although I reserve judgment about Maata and Tipene. It would seem that there is another player to this drama, one who has not yet unveiled himself. Someone who first removed the phylactery from Kostya’s lair, then returned it for some unknown reason. Someone who has employed the thief taker Porter, although whether he ordered Porter to retrieve the phylactery is not known. It could be Porter was acting on his own. Whoever is behind it, he had no difficulty in disabling either Kostya’s alarms or the protections he bound into the chest containing the phylactery. In other words, someone who appears to be manipulating us all without our knowing it.’’

‘‘Who?’’ Cyrene asked.

The dragons all exchanged glances.

‘‘No,’’ Drake said, shaking his head. ‘‘What you suggest is impossible.’’

‘‘Who?’’ Aisling asked, pinching the back of Drake’s hand. He covered her hand with his, still shaking his head at Gabriel.

‘‘It is not impossible. You found signs in Fiat’s house,’’ Gabriel said.

‘‘Signs of whom?’’ I asked Gabriel.

‘‘He’s dead,’’ Drake said, still shaking his head. ‘‘We all know he’s dead… Kostya most of all.’’

Kostya looked frozen, his face a mask. The two bodyguards had a similar frozen look. Who was it who could make two wyverns and a couple of dragons react in such a manner?

‘‘Who?’’ Cyrene and I said at the same time.

The dragons were silent.

‘‘I’ll say it if no one else will,’’ Jim announced, standing up and shaking itself. ‘‘The person in question is a wyvern, reportedly killed a couple hundred years ago by his right-hand man and heir to the wyvern throne, and is, in fact, the same wyvern who stole a silver dragon’s mate and made her his own. He is also the one responsible for the deaths of thousands of dragons, and not incidentally the one who cursed the silver sept. Yes, it’s the big kahuna, the whole enchilada, the dread wyvern himself-Baltic.’’

Chapter Nineteen

‘‘Baltic is dead. Kostya cleaved him in two long ago.’’ Drake’s voice, pleasant enough although not even close to being as delicious as Gabriel’s, seemed to hang in the thick silence that followed Jim’s statement.

‘‘That would seem to me to be pretty final,’’ I agreed. ‘‘I haven’t known anyone who could survive it.’’

‘‘That doesn’t explain the fact that someone is manipulating events to his wishes,’’ Gabriel said.

‘‘I don’t claim it does, but it doesn’t necessarily imply that the person behind the recent movements of the phylactery is Baltic,’’ Drake answered.

‘‘There is someone out there leading a group of dragons with no known sept or affiliation. You know that yourself, since you and Kostya were held prisoner by them,’’ Gabriel said.

I looked with wonder at Drake and Kostya. ‘‘Someone held you both prisoner?’’

Drake made an impatient gesture. ‘‘That was an isolated incident.’’

‘‘They were up a mountain without a paddle,’’ Jim said with blithe disregard. ‘‘Aisling had to save their butts.’’

‘‘It’s my job,’’ Aisling said with a humble smile. ‘‘I’m a professional.’’

‘‘You do it well,’’ Cyrene said. ‘‘I wonder if I could have your autograph later?’’

Aisling looked pleased.

‘‘So who are these dragons, then?’’ I asked the room at large.

Silence weighed heavy before Gabriel spoke. ‘‘No one knows. I thought they were ouroboros-outcasts, septless dragons who banded together for strength- but now I am not so sure. The way they took over Kostya’s aerie, the manner in which they dealt with Drake, and now this matter of the phylactery… it would take more than a small group of lawless dragons to coordinate those activities. There must be someone guiding the group, Drake, someone with a wyvern’s experience at leadership. It has to be Baltic-it can be no one else.’’

‘‘That does seem to make sense, sweetie,’’ Aisling said, leaning into Drake.

He shook his head a third time. ‘‘Baltic is dead. Kostya killed him.’’

I looked at Kostya with no little amount of speculation. ‘‘You’ve been awfully quiet the last few minutes, which I have to say is wholly unlike the ranting and raving manner you normally seem to adopt.’’

‘‘I have not said anything because there is nothing to say that Drake has not already mentioned,’’ Kostya said dismissively.

‘‘So… you don’t have anything to say about killing Baltic?’’

‘‘Such as?’’ Kostya’s face continued to remain an expressionless mask.

‘‘Such as did you really kill him? Or are you just saying you did?’’ I thought for a moment. ‘‘It strikes me that perhaps there’s another explanation for this. What if Kostya didn’t actually kill his wyvern? What if he made it seem like he did in order to put some grand plan into effect?’’

‘‘A grand plan whereby I am first exiled, then imprisoned for a few hundred years, abused, tortured, and starved for my own amusement?’’ he snapped back.

‘‘Perhaps,’’ I said slowly, considering the matter. ‘‘If it cemented the idea that you had killed off your wyvern, it’s within the realm of possibility that you would allow yourself to suffer, knowing that an end to all that would come soon enough. Fanatics have suffered much worse for their beliefs.’’

Kostya snorted and turned his back on me, but I noticed he didn’t dispute my comment.

I turned to Gabriel, who was watching Kostya with an equally speculative look in his eyes. ‘‘I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the story of what happened between you and Baltic firsthand,’’ he said evenly. ‘‘Why don’t you tell us about it now.’’

Kostya whipped around and leveled a glare at him. ‘‘I do not recognize your right to question me, Tauhou.’’

‘‘Perhaps not,’’ Aisling said with a misleading sweetness. ‘‘But I’m interested in hearing about this as well. So if you don’t want to end up with several different extremely nasty wards slapped on you, you’ll dish with the details.’’

‘‘Mate,’’ Drake said with a frown, pulling Aisling back as she struggled to get out of the couch. ‘‘I have told you that Baltic is dead. Threatening Kostya will do no good.’’

‘‘I want to hear about it nonetheless. And what’s that business Jim said about a black dragon stealing a silver’s mate? No one has ever mentioned that before.’’

‘‘It is old history and not important at this time,’’ he said stubbornly.

‘‘I’d like to hear it. I find all this dragon history fascinating,’’ Cyrene chirped. ‘‘It’s kind of romantic.’’

Aisling directed an inelegant snort to her husband. ‘‘Cyrene is right, not to mention the fact that dragons stealing each other’s mates is always an important topic. And don’t give me that ‘not pertinent’ crap. You said you were there when all of this was going down… Did you see Baltic’s body?’’

Drake was silent.

‘‘I thought so.’’ Aisling turned back to Kostya. ‘‘You know you’re going to have to go over it-we outnumber you. So why don’t you just tell us and save me the trouble of prying it out of you.’’

Kostya didn’t explode as I thought he would. He looked for a moment like he wanted to, but a glance at his brother had him marching back to the window, his hands clasped behind him as he glared out at the world at large. ‘‘I will tell you not because you threaten me with your pathetic Guardian powers-’’