Chapter Two
TWO
CHARITY
“I don’t suppose you had any luck breaking into the asylum?
” The shadow that moved over my watercolor paper stopped when I spoke.
I glanced up and shaded my eyes to admire the man who stood before me.
He was so incredibly handsome, my stomach wobbled around.
No, I mentally corrected myself. Not man .
.. dragon. Demigod. Sexy-as-hell lover who made my heart sing a thousand songs of happiness whenever he was near.
Avval, the First Dragon, the progenitor of all dragons who ever were, and who ever would be, and incidentally also the love of my life, thought for a few seconds before answering in his usual grave, measured tone.
“No. The archimage Kostich is unreasonable, and quite possibly deranged. Archimages often end up so. In addition, he saw through the glamour I used in order to get into the facility. That is most annoying. I will have to order one for my next visit. Your clematis is lovely.”
“I bet you say that to all your mates,” I teased, setting down my paintbrush in order to stand and kiss him, the sense of rightness returning to my world. He smiled under the kisses I scattered along his delicious lips, his hands instantly on my hips, pulling me close against him.
“I don’t believe I have. Neither of them painted, although Maerwyn enjoyed embroidering things. I suppose that is similar. You missed me?”
“More than you can imagine,” I said, kissing him like I’d wanted to do for the three days he’d been gone. A flash of surprise and appreciation was visible for a moment in his beautiful eyes.
“I can imagine a great many things, but I will agree that this separation has been onerous. I have missed you greatly, as well. How do you feel?”
“Better,” I said, smiling at the way his eye color shifted from silver to a dark blue and then to gold.
I still hadn’t cracked the entire code, but I knew the colors were influenced by his emotions.
When he looked at me, his eyes went gold, bathing me in a warmth that made me want to purr like a cat in the sun.
“Thankfully, the worst was yesterday, which means in a couple of days I’ll be able to ride you like the dragon you are. ”
His eyes widened slightly at my not-so-subtle hint; then immediately the gold of his irises turned molten. “I have told you that I am not afraid of blood, but I assumed you were uncomfortable while your woman’s time was upon you.”
“I was. I am. Well, for another day or so, I’ll be a bit bloaty, but after that, all bets are off.” I pulled myself away from the lure of his mouth and took his hand, the feeling of his fingers twining around mine bringing me so much joy I almost burst into song. “Tell me what happened with Yrian.”
He did. It took about ten minutes, but when he was finished, we sat on a bench in the shade while I chewed it over. “Honestly, Avval, I think I should contact the mates.”
“Do you believe they can achieve what I cannot?” he asked, his tone grave as ever, but with an edge that I put down to his frustration with the situation concerning Yrian.
I hesitated for a few seconds. “Not in the sense you mean. I’ll admit the first time I joined the mates’ group chat, I thought it was just a way for them to gossip, but they have proven their claim that collective brainstorming can be productive.
Would you like me to share what’s going on with Yrian and the Asile? ”
His thumb stroked over mine as two butterflies that were fighting over the gorgeous purple clematis suddenly noticed Avval and immediately flew to him, where they clung to his shirt, gently fanning their wings at him.
Butterflies, I’d discovered, loved him, and always perched themselves on him until he noticed and carefully put them on nearby plants.
“I don’t think it would cause difficulty if you were to do so.
Perhaps it is as you say, and the dragonkin may see the problem from an angle different to that which Baltic embraces. ”
The edge to his voice grew a bit sharper.
I tried never to get between his relationship with his descendants, especially Baltic, the youngest of his actual sons, but over the last six months, I’d grown to agree with the mates that Avval was being a little harsh when it came to Baltic.
I gave his fingers a squeeze and said, “He tried. Three times, according to Ysolde, who said that Yrian refused his help every time. I don’t know what more Baltic could do. ”
“It should not have taken so many attempts to do what is natural,” was all he said.
I slid him a look from the corners of my eyes, wondering why he was so annoyed.
He must have sensed my concern, because his lips quirked.
“You are not pleased by my answer. Have you been listening to Ysolde’s opinion of me? ”
I laughed at that. “Of course I listen to her. She’s one of the mates, and I like her.
It doesn’t mean I approve of, or agree with, her statements that you deliberately rejoice in dropping cryptic requests that she do something, but I will admit that I’m not sure what’s natural about Baltic trying to drag Yrian into the twenty-first century. ”
“That was not his goal,” he answered, and, rising, led me from the garden to the house, pausing along the way to relocate the butterflies onto a flowering orange tree.
“Speak to the mates if you desire. I must contact a former Sovereign to locate a better glamour. She always seems to have exceptional ones, and if that annoying archimage can see through the ones I make, then I will simply avail myself of Sally’s artificer. ”
I paused on the way to the small, sunny room I used as a studio. “What’s an artificer when he’s at home?”
“One who creates glamours. Ah, it is you.”
“Yup, it sure is.” The dark-haired Asian woman who trotted lightly down the stairs flashed a nervous smile at Avval. “I didn’t realize you were back. Should I ... er ... make myself scarce?”
“Of course not,” I said, giving Elle a reassuring smile. She was my bestie and the only person from my past with whom I kept up. “The First Dragon is off to do important dragon things while I contact the mates. You want to join me? They’d love meeting my soul sister.”
“Sure,” she said, scooting around Avval as he watched with mild amusement lighting his gorgeous—if changeable—eyes. “Sounds like fun meeting your other family.”
Avval gave me a little nod of the head. “You will tell me if you need pain medicines.”
“I would never keep my crampiness from you,” I told him, and blew him a kiss before joining Elle in my studio, plopping down on an overstuffed chair next to her.
“I know you’re intimidated by the First Dragon, but you really don’t have to worry.
He’s delighted you came for a visit. We don’t normally get many people here, so stop feeling like you have to leave us alone together. ”
“Well, he is a demigod,” Elle said with a twist of her lips, then laughed and shook her head.
“I know, I know—he’s not going to smite me on the spot because I didn’t take care of you like I should have when we were both in the foster system, but man alive, Charity—he’s a dragon god!
Of course that means I’m going to watch my p’s and q’s around him. ”
I would have scoffed at such an idea but admitted to myself that Avval’s presence was naturally one that demanded respect, and instead spent an hour arranging to chat with the mates of all the wyverns.
“OK, I get that the leaders of the dragon septs are called wyverns,” Elle said ninety minutes later, when we sat before my laptop waiting for the video chat room to open. “And the nonofficial groups are called tribes, and they have mates, as well.”
“The tribe leaders are called masters, not wyverns,” I reminded her. “There are a couple that are more or less adjacent to the weyr.”
She frowned in concentration, glancing at the cheat sheet of names and brief explanations that I had given her. “Got it. I’m just confused as to who are actually the First Dragon’s kids, and who are his descendants.”
“Every dragon is a descendant, but Baltic and Yrian are the only ones of his actual children who are still alive. Well ...” I looked toward the door, and, after a moment’s thought, got up and closed it before returning to my chair.
Elle’s eyebrows rose at the action.
“He has another child living,” I said in a suitably hushed tone, then threw understandable pronoun use to the wind by adding, “But he disowned him thousands of years ago.”
“A bad seed?” Elle asked, her eyebrows rising higher.
“Very bad. You’ve heard of the demon lord Bael?”
She nodded.
“That’s him. He was the second child born, and his name was Kashi until the First Dragon stripped him of his dragon nature due to .
.. oh, a whole lot of truly reprehensible things involving much death and sorrow.
No one calls Bael by his original name except his older brother, Yrian, who I gather wasn’t around when Kashi ‘became’ Bael. ”
“Wow, that’s just ... I mean, everyone knows about Bael,” Elle said, blinking a few times. “But isn’t he out of commission now? I thought I heard he was stuffed into some afterlife.”
“The Egyptian underworld, yes,” I said, tapping in a quick message when Aisling texted to ask if we were ready to go. “It’s called the Duat, and the First Dragon’s brother Osiris runs it.”
“Osiris? You mean the actual Osiris? The god one?” she said, gawking at me.
“That’s him. And just to totally blow your mind, you’ve heard of Odin and Freya, yes?”
Her eyes huge, she nodded.
“Freya’s his sister. He has a lot of cutting things to say about Odin, but I gather he and Freya are pretty close. She invited us to visit them so I could meet her, but that will have to wait until things have calmed down with the dragons.”