Katie MacAlister - Playing with Fire

A horrible thought came to me-what if Porter was working for Magoth? Was this some sort of a test? Was I about to be replaced? I dismissed the notion almost immediately; if Porter was in Magoth’s employ, he would certainly know exactly what I was. His threat of the dreadlord killing me if I mentioned the amulet just didn’t fit.

None of which explained why Magoth was so interested in the contents of Kostya’s lair.

‘‘You play games with me, and yet, they are not the games we can both enjoy,’’ he said in a light tone, but the undercurrent of menace was enough to turn my blood cold. ‘‘Answer the question, servant. ’’

The word stunned with the force of a lash. I didn’t want to tell him the truth, but I could not refuse to answer a direct question. I could, however, censor out any information not specifically questioned. ‘‘I didn’t have much time to spend in the dragon’s lair. I took only one thing away, a gold amulet in the shape of a dragon.’’

‘‘An amulet?’’ He frowned, sitting up. I was pleased to notice that his erection had ceased being quite so rampant. ‘‘What sort of an amulet? Describe it to me.’’

‘‘It was nothing special,’’ I said, relieved that he hadn’t asked me either what I’d gone there to find, or who had sent me to take the amulet. It was far, far better that he think Gabriel had sent me to rob another dragon than to hear of the phylactery. ‘‘It was about so big, made of gold, but not made very well, as if it was a child’s toy.’’

He froze. ‘‘Describe it.’’

‘‘I just did.’’ Why was he so interested in the amulet? I shook my head at his odd reaction. ‘‘It’s just an amulet. Gold, shaped roughly like a dragon, very primitive and quite honestly, not attractive in the least sense. It was in the unlocked chest, so it can’t be worth much to anyone.’’

‘‘The Lindorm Phylactery,’’ he murmured, his gaze filled with disbelief and confusion.

My jaw just about hit the floor at his words. ‘‘The… the what ?’’

‘‘Could it be?’’ His eyes narrowed as he thought about it. ‘‘I had not heard of it surfacing. It was in an unlocked chest, you say? That does not seem right, not right at all.’’

‘‘The phylactery? Are you saying that ugly little lump of gold was the phylactery ?’’ I shook my head. ‘‘It can’t be. It’s not at all like the Gulden Phylactery you made me take from that oracle in South Africa. That was a lovely crystal vial. The thing I’m talking about is an amulet, a primitive-looking amulet of a dragon.’’

I hurriedly scooted out of the way as Magoth rose from the chaise, mindlessly pacing back and forth as he thought out loud. ‘‘What would a dragon be doing allowing the most valuable artifact of his kind to sit in an unlocked chest? It does not make sense, and yet the description matches.’’

‘‘It doesn’t make any sense at all. I might not have a great knowledge of dragons and their society, but from what Gabriel told me-’’ I stopped in horror of what I’d said, one hand going to my mouth.

Magoth spun around, his gaze so intense it slammed me backward a good six feet to the wall. My ears rang with the blow, giving me a moment of disorientation.

‘‘The wyvern spoke to you of it?’’ The temperature of the room dropped ten degrees as Magoth took a deep breath. I’m not a cowardly person in general, but at the look of unabated fury on his face, I crumpled into a ball on the floor, covering my head with my hands. And not a moment too soon.

‘‘You were sent to take it!’’ Magoth roared with a fury I’d never heard, loud enough to shatter every bit of glass in the room. Glass shards from the windows, pictures that hung on the wall, light fixtures, and assorted other sources rained down to the floor, several pieces piercing my skin.

I stayed curled in a protective ball until the worst of it was over, then carefully lifted my head and eyed Magoth.

His eyes were lit with a glow that left me terrified. ‘‘Where is the Lindorm Phylactery, May?’’

‘‘I don’t have it,’’ I said quickly, my gaze darting around the room for a possible escape.

Magoth eliminated that idea by simply grabbing my neck in one hand and lifting me a good two feet off the floor. ‘‘Where is the Lindorm Phylactery, servant ?’’

‘‘I don’t know.’’

He shook me as effortlessly as if I were a dish towel. I clutched at his hand, trying to ease its grip enough to allow air into my lungs. ‘‘Where?’’

‘‘The L’au-delà has it!’’ I cried as wavering black blotches appeared before my eyes. ‘‘They took it from me. It’s in their vault.’’

He opened his hand, allowing me to plummet to the floor. I lay stunned for a few seconds, rubbing my neck as I dragged in huge, gasping breaths. Before I could do anything else, he jerked me onto my feet, his eyes boring twin holes into me as he spoke.

‘‘You will find the phylactery and bring it to me.’’

My voice came out as a croak. ‘‘You can’t possibly want it. It’s a dragon artifact-’’

‘‘You will find the phylactery and bring it to me,’’ he repeated, but this time, the power he put into the words stung my skin like a million little snakes.

‘‘Why?’’ I cried, ignoring the pain.

He released me, strolling back to the chaise, where he took up a reclining position. He didn’t answer for a few minutes, but finally he turned his head to me and gave me his usual sardonic smile. ‘‘I want it.’’

‘‘It has no power you can use,’’ I said, still massaging my neck. ‘‘It can have no value to you.’’

‘‘It does not have power over mere mortals, true… but it is the basis of all power to dragonkin.’’

I shook my head, retucking the blanket that was wrapped around me. ‘‘If that’s so, the item I saw wasn’t it. I would have been able to feel something with that much power in it, and I’m telling you that this lump of vaguely dragon-shaped gold did not have any sort of emanations other than age.’’

‘‘You are not a dragon.’’ His eyelids dropped halfway, shielding his gaze. ‘‘It has no power for you to feel because it is not connected to you as it is to them.’’

‘‘All right. Let’s say for the sake of brevity that the gold blob was the phylactery-not that it looks anything remotely like a vessel-’’

‘‘It is a vessel,’’ he interrupted. ‘‘It is part of the dragon heart, that which holds the essence of the first dragon. Your wyvern didn’t tell you that when he ordered you to steal it for him?’’ He shook his head in mock sorrow. ‘‘Regardless of what you think, it is of value to me.’’

My head was still reeling from the last few minutes, leaving me feeling particularly stupid. Now it made sense why Porter had wanted me to steal the amulet, but it didn’t explain why Kostya would keep something so precious in an unlocked chest. Nor did it explain why Magoth wanted a dragon relic when it held no power over mortals-over whom he was always trying to gain control-or over any other beings in the Otherworld. Other than the dragons, of course… The light dawned at last. ‘‘You’re going to use it against the dragons,’’ I said, horror mixing with bile in my gut.

The long, slow smile he gave me would have stripped a few decades off the lifetime of a mortal.

‘‘You can’t control them,’’ I said quickly, fear bitter on my tongue. ‘‘They’re dragons, Magoth. They do not bow to Abaddon. They never have.’’

‘‘Never before has a demon lord held the Lindorm Phylactery,’’ he said in a soft, sinister voice that left me sicker than ever. ‘‘With it, and with the other pieces of the dragon heart, the weyr will come to heel… and I will have the chance to establish a presence in the mortal world.’’