Me and My Shadow - Katie MacAlister [105]
She snarled something that was most likely obscene, but yielded when both Drake and Jian grabbed her arms. With an immense amount of control, she shook off both men and stood watching Fiat with hooded eyes. “I repeat: you are no longer recognized by any sept within the weyr.”
“You are mistaken,” Fiat said just as calmly, rubbing his wrist where the handcuffs had bound him. “I am the wyvern of the red dragons.”
“You lie,” Chuan Ren spat. “You have never challenged me for my sept. You were too cowardly to even face me when I was released from Abaddon.”
“I don’t have need to challenge you,” he said, shaking his head as if saddened by her ignorance. “I challenged, and defeated, the previous wyvern, the one who took over when you were banished. Thus, by the laws that govern the weyr, I am the recognized wyvern, not you.”
Chuan Ren seethed, positively seethed with fury.
“I’m surprised she’s not exploding all over him,” I murmured in Gabriel’s ear.
“She has been wyvern for more than a millennium,” he answered in an equally low tone. “You do not remain in power that long without having the ability to control your emotions.”
“Drake will tell you that I am right,” Fiat said, nodding toward the green wyvern. His eyes flickered around the room, pausing for a moment on his uncle Bastian before moving on to us. “As will Gabriel. Tell her. Tell her that I am the wyvern.”
Drake and Gabriel and Bastian all exchanged glances that were silent, but filled with meaning.
“I do not have to challenge you. Bao was never wyvern, so you defeating her did nothing other than eliminate a troublesome sept member.”
“And yet your own son acknowledged her as wyvern,” Fiat said smoothly.
Everyone looked at Jian, who avoided meeting his mother’s eye.
“Is this so?” she demanded.
He hesitated a moment, then nodded.
“You see? Everyone knew you were in Abaddon and would not be released anytime soon.” Fiat shot me an acid look before continuing. “Thus my challenge and victory over Bao was perfectly valid, and it is you, my dear, who is ouroboros, not me. I have been gracious in allowing you to live despite your attempts to usurp me, but should you continue to try my patience, I may regret such generosity.”
Chuan Ren turned to stone, or at least that was what it looked like to me. She froze for about forty seconds, her body so tightly strung I was sure even her vaunted control would snap, but she was made of sterner stuff than I had imagined.
Slowly, inch by inch, her muscles relaxed. Her husband and son watched her warily, though, as if she might go off at any second. “Your words are meaningless, as usual. It matters not whether my son recognized Bao—he is not my heir.”
Jian shot her a startled look.
“Perhaps not, but the rest of your sept accepted her, as well, as did the weyr,” Fiat said.
“I think the time is right, mate, for you to tell just what you saw two months ago,” Gabriel interrupted, causing everyone to look in surprise at him, including me.
We had agreed not to mention those events, since it would leave me open to a challenge by Fiat, but evidently Gabriel had changed his mind. Or perhaps given the current situation, he felt there was little to fear.
“Approximately seven weeks ago my twin, Gabriel’s guard Maata, and I made a covert call on Fiat’s house in Italy.”
Fiat spun around and focused his sapphire gaze on me, making me feel stripped and powerless. Gabriel’s hand brushed mine, restoring my balance.
“We entered through a subterranean passage several meters beneath the surface of the lake. There we were witness to a scene between Fiat, Bao, and Baltic.”
“This is news to me,” Bastian said, frowning as he turned to Drake. “Were you privy to this information?”
“Yes.”
Bastian didn’t like that, but was wise enough to hold his tongue.
“It was clear to all of us that Fiat and Baltic had some plan under way, although what that was we didn’t know. When Baltic left, Fiat was left alone with Bao. The two of them were also working together, a relationship that ended when