Me and My Shadow - Katie MacAlister [11]
“Yes, but I expected that we’d try to find it together,” I answered, laying emphasis on the last word. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you have been taking lessons from Drake on how to be an annoying wyvern. Spill.”
Gabriel’s grin took a wry twist as he nodded again at Savian. “Her every wish is my every command. Spill.”
“All right, but I’d prefer not having anyone angry at me.” Savian paused for a moment; then he, too, grinned at me. “Unless there’s a chance it’ll tick you off enough that you dump the boyfriend and hook up with me?”
Gabriel’s quicksilver eyes narrowed with deadly intent.
The dragon shard considered Savian’s question. I told it to knock it off, and simply gave him a look that warned him he should know better.
“Can’t blame a man for trying,” Savian said with a mock sigh as he readjusted his position.
“Oh, I believe I can,” Gabriel said softly.
The threat just made Savian smile for a moment before he rearranged his expression to be one of businesslike focus. “Here follows my report for the past week. Per your instructions, I checked locations in Berlin, Paris, St. Petersburg, and Riga. There were no signs of activity by the individual in question in any of the cities but the last one.”
“Riga,” I mused, digging through my brain for any information on the location of the city. “Russia?”
“Latvia,” Savian corrected.
“I think I know where that is,” I said, nodding. “But why are you trying to hide the identity of the person Gabriel sent you to find? I assume that’s what all this is leading to—that you were sent to track down Baltic?”
Savian looked uncomfortably at Gabriel, who made a little gesture of unhappiness. “We both know how important it is to find the shard. I just took the most expedient method of doing so.”
I eyed him for a moment, ignoring the shard’s demand that I do inappropriate things to him with scarlet-tipped claws, and a decidedly unforked tongue. “Agreed, but why did you feel it necessary to pursue this without involving me?”
“You are involved, little bird. You are more involved than just about anyone else I could name,” Gabriel said dryly. “I simply asked the thief taker to locate the missing shard.”
“Which led him to Baltic.”
Gabriel pursed his lips, obviously about to add the usual rider he felt was necessary whenever I named the mysterious dragon.
“You said it was clear who he was, Gabriel. I think the time has come to move past any remaining identity questions. He is Baltic.”
To my surprise, he nodded. “I agree. I have not yet fathomed how he was resurrected—dragons are not like mortals, easily returned to life, and wyverns more so. As a rule, once we are dead, we stay dead—but it was not that statement I wish to dispute. We have no proof that Baltic still holds a shard. It’s my belief it is no longer in his possession, and was given to Kostya. Or rather, its location was made known to him.”
“Why do you believe that?” I asked, intrigued enough to be sidetracked momentarily from Savian’s report. “You know how Kostya is about the shard we took from him—he was ready to wipe out all the silver dragons to get it back, and I can’t see him acting like that, risking all-out war with not only us but the green and blue dragons, as well, if he already had a shard tucked away.”
“I do not mean he possesses the Modana Phylactery already. Baltic, as he himself stated, was not the type to give up something so valuable to a mere heir. But Kostya was recognized by him as being such, and that means Baltic must have entrusted to him the location of his lair, and given him the means to access it.”
“An interesting thought,” I said slowly. “It makes you wonder why Kostya didn’t go after Baltic’s lair when Baltic was killed. Assuming he actually was killed, and later resurrected by some means, and not just gravely wounded.”
“What makes you think he didn’t?” Gabriel asked.
Savian’s head had been