Gabriel had killed a second of Baltic’s men, and was now battling the third, who had ceased searching for me when Gabriel descended upon him, eyes blazing, sword flashing. I averted my eyes from the sight of the corpse, knowing they would have destroyed us without a single thought, and searched through the rubble for any signs of Kostich.

I found him as Gabriel and Kostya battled furiously.

“Dr. Kostich, can you hear me?”

“Yes.”

He lifted his head as I pulled a piece of wall off him, his face battered and bloody, pain dulling his eyes. “Can you move, or are you badly injured?”

“Not badly. I shielded myself with a cushion, but I believe my arm is broken.” He winced when I pulled a piece of twisted metal and wood off his left side.

I grimaced. “It looks like it.”

“Wrap it for me,” he said, gritting his teeth.

I looked again at the bloody, torn mass of his arm.“I do not have the healing abilities of the silver dragons—”

“I know that. Just bind the damned thing so I can move.”

I will do my utmost to forget the five minutes that followed. I certainly hope Dr. Kostich does, as well, although he didn’t say a single word as I ripped off the bottom half of my embroidered tunic, using it and some of the wood to fashion a crude splint.

He was pale and shaking, sweat beading his brow despite the cold air pouring in around us, by the time I was done. I didn’t feel much better, but I managed to get him to his feet, the battle still raging around us as I propped him up against the stairs, well out of the way of the battle. “My apprentices,” he croaked, his body shaking with shock. “I need them to channel for me.”

“Master, we are here,” Jack said from behind us. He emerged from the shadows, half-dragging, half-carrying Tully out of the passage leading to the kitchen. There was blood on her hair and face, and she looked dazed and confused, as if she was only partially conscious.

“You are injured,” Kostich said, momentarily closing his eyes.

“Tully hurt her head, and I am cut up by flying glass, but I am able to serve you.”

“Get her to safety, then return to me,” Kostich ordered, his voice a pale imitation of its normal self.

“Go below, to the basement,” I told Jack. “The lair is down there. Take her there and Kaawa will tend to her.”

Tully roused herself enough to protest. “Take her to the kitchen, then,” I said, pointing. “She can recover there.”

Another crash shook the room, but this time it was from the impact of a heavy dragon body being slammed into the wall.

Baltic screamed for his man to get me, and headed toward our spot on the stairs. Gabriel, fighting to keep the dragon as far from me as possible, likewise screamed. “May! Go to the Dreaming!”

I stared at Gabriel for a minute, then nodded and shadowed.

Baltic stopped his charge, laughing as he faded from sight. He’d gone into the shadow world, fully believing he’d find me there.

Clever, clever Gabriel.

Dr. Kostich got to his feet with Jack’s help. “Did he just . . . ?” He gestured to the spot where Baltic had disappeared.

“Yes,” Jack said grimly, one arm around the archimage’s waist. “Can you walk, sir?”

“This is unprecedented,” Kostich muttered as I hurried, unseen and silent, up the stairs. With everyone down in the lair, attention was drawn away from the upper floors, just as Gabriel had known it would be. His ploy to get Baltic out of the way for a few minutes was just what I needed to escape without anyone noticing where I went.

“I just hope I can do this,” I murmured to myself as I fled down the hallway of the third floor to the room that had been given over to me. I pulled out the strongbox that Gabriel had told me would be under the bed, and persuaded the lock to open.

The phylacteries lay within. I spread them out on the bed, pulling out another box, this one unlocked, bearing the five gold-bound crystal amulets we’d chosen to house the shards. Each unfilled phylactery was chased with gold, bearing the emblem of a sept. Gabriel and I had worked hard on the designs, and I touched them now, pleased with the results.

A roar from below alerted me to the fact that Baltic had discovered I wasn’t in the shadow world with him.

“Do it, May. Gabriel’s going to run out of ways to keep Baltic distracted,” I scolded myself, my hands cold and shaking as I knelt by the bed, trying desperately to calm my mind and heart. Kaawa had stressed the fact that the dragon heart must agree with my wishes for the re-formation to be successful, and it wouldn’t appreciate my full-fledged case of the nerves. I spread my fingers over the four shards that lay before me, aware of a dull heat inside me where the shard resided. It hummed with energy, and I knew it recognized both my intent and the nearness of the other shards.

I cleared my mind and, with a prayer that went out to any deities that might wish to answer it, began the incantation. The words, spoken in Zilant, were themselves meaningless to me, but Kaawa had explained what I was saying. “In my thoughts I have seen the heart that is within all dragons, echoing with essence of the First. I am humbled before thee, before it, before all dragonkin. I beseech thee to show me the brilliance of the First again, in order that I might ensure its safety and purity for all ages. Heed me, heart of the dragon, and lend thyself to my hand that I might preserve thee.”

The words hung heavy and awkward in the air, as sounds of battle drew nearer. I put away from me the worry that Gabriel would not keep Baltic from me, that I’d re-form the heart just in time for him to steal it and destroy everything, put away even the distress that I wasn’t downstairs fighting with him. I focused on the shard, double-checked my memory, and spoke the words again. “Heed me, heart of the dragon, and lend thyself to my hand that I might preserve thee.”

Nothing happened. The sounds of fighting had reached the floor below me. I ran desperately over the ceremony that Kaawa had described, my own heart wailing that I had failed.

“In my thoughts I have seen the heart that is within all dragons—” I started to say a third time, then stopped. It was wrong. I could feel the shard reacting to what I was saying, and it was unmoved by it. The formal words weren’t what it wanted from me. Kaawa was going by the description Ysolde gave when she re-formed the heart—perhaps the words had to be unique for each person?