‘‘It’s a bit more complicated than that. It concerns me being the phylactery for the dragon shard.’’

‘‘Oh! Speaking of that, where is it?’’

The road was particularly twisty as it followed the ragged coastline, but I chanced taking my eyes off the road for a moment to shoot a surprised look her way. ‘‘Where is the shard?’’

‘‘Yes. Is it inside you, like a tumor or something? Can you feel it? Does it hurt?’’

‘‘I believe it’s inside me, yes. There’s a small mark below my rib cage that wasn’t there before the Lindorm Phylactery exploded. But it doesn’t hurt.’’

‘‘So you don’t even know it’s there?’’ She blew out a relieved breath. ‘‘That’s good.’’

I didn’t correct her. The fact that I was slowly losing myself to the dragon-heart shard would become apparent in time; until then, I wouldn’t mention it.

‘‘What do Jian and his mother have to do with the shard inside you?’’

‘‘A few months ago Aisling banished his mother, Chuan Ren, to Abaddon.’’

She nodded. ‘‘I heard that. That’s some kind of awesome, huh?’’

‘‘Impressive, yes. Jian wants us to get her back. Specifically, he wants me to get her back.’’

‘‘You?’’ Her forehead wrinkled. ‘‘But you didn’t cast Chuan Ren into Abaddon, Aisling did. Why isn’t he asking Aisling to bring her back?’’

‘‘That’s where the complicated part comes in. I guess he tried, and Drake wouldn’t consider the request. It’s understandable given how delicate Aisling is right now.’’

‘‘I suppose, although she doesn’t strike me as particularly delicate.’’

I grinned at her. ‘‘To be honest, I agree, but I do understand Drake not wanting her to get involved. Chuan Ren must be absolutely furious with her.’’

‘‘So that’s where you come in? Gabriel is doing this as a favor to Drake?’’

I hesitated for a moment, using a tricky turn as cover for my silence. ‘‘Jian asked me if I could use my connection to Abaddon to locate and free his mother. In exchange, he offered us the use of the dragon-heart shard that the red wyvern holds.’’

‘‘Why do you need that?’’ she asked, still wearing a puzzled expression.

I explained briefly about the dragon heart.

‘‘So, the red dragons will hand over their piece, and that will give you two of the five?’’

‘‘Temporarily hand over, yes. It’ll be returned to them.’’

‘‘Two isn’t going to do you much good,’’ she pointed out. ‘‘Not if you need all five shards.’’

‘‘Gabriel has that worked out. Drake will loan us his piece in exchange for helping Jian.’’

‘‘Why would he want to help Jian . . . ? Oh. To end the war?’’

‘‘Yes. That’ll be part of the deal Chuan Ren is going to have to agree to in order to be freed. Assuming I can free her, that is.’’

‘‘You’re going to need Magoth for that, I bet,’’ Cyrene said with surprising prescience. ‘‘Do you know where he is now?’’

‘‘Oddly enough, he’s been keeping a low profile. Gabriel has had people watching for him, but as far as we know, Magoth and Sally are holed up in his house in Paris.’’

‘‘Hmm. I’d have thought Magoth would have been raising hell by now. Ha. Hell.’’

I couldn’t help but smile. ‘‘I’m sure he would if he could, but I think he’s finding out just how limited he is without any powers.’’

‘‘Is he going to be able to help you with Jian, then?’’ Cy asked.

‘‘He should be able to, but whether or not he will remains to be seen.’’ I skimmed over the horror that thought brought me. I truly did not want to think of what I’d have to do in order to get Chuan Ren released.

‘‘That still leaves you two shards short of a complete dragon heart.’’

‘‘One. The blue wyvern has a shard, as well.’’

‘‘Oh. So who has the fifth one? Gabriel?’’

‘‘No.’’ I was silent for a moment. ‘‘We think the dragon I saw in the shadow world has the fifth shard.’’

Her eyes widened. ‘‘Baltic, you mean?’’

‘‘Yes.’’

She whistled. ‘‘That’s going to be a hard one to get.’’

‘‘It will indeed. The hope is that the other four shards together will give us the ability to get the fifth.’’

‘‘Hmm.’’ Cyrene thought for a few minutes. ‘‘I bet that Bao is going to have a thing or two to say about all of this.’’

‘‘I’m sure she will, but that’s no affair of ours. Jian insists that Bao is not what she seems, and she has no right to bear the title of wyvern. We really have no reason not to believe him.’’

‘‘You don’t really have a reason to believe him, either, but I guess that point is moot. Oh! That’s it, over there,’’ Cyrene said, pointing to a stretch of beach and sapphire water that was glimpsed between starkly white stone buildings.

It took a few minutes to find a spot to park, so popular was the surfing event, but at last we tucked the car away in the shade of a church and walked the length of the town to the beach, where a large crowd was gathered around a couple of rickety tables. Surfboards lay glistening in the sun up and down the beach, their owners standing negligently beside them, or bent over them waxing the colorful boards with gentle caresses.

‘‘Which one is Neptune?’’ I asked, allowing myself a moment to admire all the eye candy. Most of the surfers were shirtless, wearing standard knee-length cargo shorts, or brightly colored wet suits, all of them showing off physiques honed by years of swimming and surfing. There were surprisingly few women included, although the ones who were there were as buff as the men.

‘‘I think that’s him, down there,’’ Cyrene answered after scanning the people. She pointed to the far end of the beach, where two men were emerging from the foaming surf, water glistening on their wet suits, their boards slung to their sides. A third man stood with his board balanced on his head, clearly about to go into the water.