He stood up when we entered the room, smiling and bowing politely. Kostya hurried over as we pulled up short at the sight of the red dragon.

“Where is Chuan Ren?” Drake asked, his eyes flashing.

“She is not here. Her mate is acting as her envoy. You will, naturally, respect the laws governing envoys in times of war and not attack him.”

Drake gave his brother a look that made the latter flush slightly. “I have yet to attack any of the red dragons without due cause. The green dragons will defend themselves, but they have not, to date, initiated any hostile moves against the red sept.”

“Just so,” Kostya said.

“Li Jiaxin,” Drake said, bowing in a formal manner to Li. The red dragon bowed first to Drake, then to me.

“Bastian, I’m ashamed of you letting Kostya tie Gabriel up like this,” I said, giving him my very best frown.

Bastian held up his hands. “I just arrived a few moments before you. He was like that when I came in. I was trying to reason with Kostya when you arrived.”

“Uh-huh. Hello, Li. It’s a pleasure to see you again,” I said politely, then turned to Gabriel. “I’m so sorry about this, Gabriel. We had no idea he’d go off the deep end and do this to you guys. We’ll just untie you so we can talk things over in a civilized manner.”

“Thank you,” Gabriel said, his voice polite, but the anger in his silver-gray eyes enough to set steel alight.

“Do not touch him, Aisling!” Kostya said in what I was coming to think of as his trademarked bossy voice. “We will hold this conclave with the silver dragons bound.”

I ignored him and went around the back of Gabriel’s chair to see how best to undo the ropes that held him there. Kostya leaped toward me, grabbing my arm and jerking me backwards. Before I could do so much as gasp, Drake had Kostya pinned against the wall, his face a scant inch away from his brother’s.

“Do not touch her again,” he snarled.

Kostya’s eyes narrowed as he shoved Drake, sending him staggering backwards a foot or so. “I told you on the phone to think long before you opposed me, brother. Once our ties are severed, they will not be mended.”

“Talk about being a drama queen,” Jim muttered softly.

I agreed completely, wanting to tell Kostya to knock off the dramatics, but I was now familiar enough with the dragons to know how they did things, so I kept my thoughts to myself. Besides which, I felt he had a certain cause to be upset. If I’d been through what he’d been through the last few hundred years, I’d probably have a lot of issues to work out, too.

Drake, however, was made of sterner stuff and had no love for the posturing that meant so much to people like Chuan Ren and Fiat. “Don’t be any more of a fool than you have al ready been, Kostya. István, untie Gabriel. Mate, come here.”

He waved an imperious hand for me, but I was whole heartedly behind his efforts to control the situation. I smiled at Gabriel and took my place at Drake’s side.

“Now we will discuss the situation,” Drake said, but just as István cut the bonds that held Gabriel, the silver dragon was on Kostya, knocking him down, pounding his head against the carpeted floor.

“You’d get a better brain bashing if you pulled back the carpet and did that on the bare floor,” Jim offered.

“Oh, for god’s sake! Stop it! All of you!” I yelled as Drake and Pál pulled Gabriel off Kostya.

Bastian helped Kostya up, tsking at the bloody nose Gabriel had given him. “What you need is a Taser. Those things pack a hell of a kick.”

“Hey! No taking sides,” I told him, making squinty eyes that had him clearing his throat and sidling away. Drake shoved Gabriel in a chair and told him to sit there, before turning a glare on his brother that would have struck down anyone mortal.

“I will have Aisling ward the next person who moves from his chair,” Drake threatened, spreading his glare around the room. Pál had cut the ropes on Tipene and Maata, both of whom looked perfectly willing to jump into the fray.

Gabriel, with self-possession that I wanted to laud, told them to sit down.

“This is my conclave,” Kostya announced, stomping over to the middle of the room. “I will stand.”

Drake ignored him, turning to Gabriel. “What happened?”

Gabriel’s dimples were nowhere in evidence, his face unusually somber. “Need you ask? He forced his way in, babbling something about having the means to bring us back to the black sept. I told him what I told you yesterday—the silver dragons will discuss the issue only in the forum of a weyr synod. He struck before we could defend ourselves.”

“What’s a weyr synod?” I whispered to Pál, who was standing near me.

“It’s a formal meeting of the leaders of all the septs. Sort of an elite council.”

“Oh. But the black dragons aren’t recognized as a sept anymore, are they?”

“No.”

“You would hide behind the weyr rather than facing me?” Kostya asked, his voice filled with disdain.

“We are not going to rejoin your sept,” Gabriel said, slowly getting to his feet. Instantly Maata and Tipene were at his side, presenting a united front. “There is nothing you can do, nothing you can offer us that will induce us to dissolve our sept and rejoin that which we left so many centuries ago. Too much blood has been spilled over this issue, and although we do not want war with you, we will fight to the death any attempt that is made against our sept.”

“Do not mistake me for Baltic,” Kostya said, a slight smile on his lips as he withdrew from his inner jacket pocket the small lumpy gold figurine, tossing it in the air. Gabriel’s eyes widened as he saw what it was that Kostya held. “I will not be so foolish as he was, to effect a war upon you. I have seen the outcome of such ignorance. I will, however, petition the weyr to restore to the black dragons what was illegally taken from them. Your beloved Constantine was many things, but a man learned in the laws of the weyr was not one of them.”

I scooted over to Drake, bumping his hand to get his notice. “Is he saying what I think he’s saying?”

“I believe so.” Drake frowned at his brother. “What is it you are hinting at, Kostya?”

“I hint at nothing, brother. Once formally recognized by the weyr, I will, however, present the evidence that Baltic had ignored for so many centuries—proof that the silver dragons were never formally admitted into the weyr, and thus their sept is not a separate entity in its own right.”