Path of the Flame (The Dragon Thief Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “So you have an egg but there were dragon bones that you aren’t terribly concerned about, and I hear there were dragon pearls…” Ty said.

  She turned, sniffing at the air again. “Not many have heard about the dragon pearls.”

  “Not many have the same resources that I do.”

  She smiled at him. “For someone who was found with the Dragon Thief but claims not to work with him, you have more information than I would have expected.”

  “Consider me well-connected,” Ty stated.

  “I do,” she said. “That’s why I made the agreement with you.”

  He regarded her for a moment, trying to figure out how to make the best bargain here. He knew where to find the egg. That was valuable. Now all he had to do was trade that for Eastley. “Is it true that the dragon pearls were found around the egg?”

  “Your contact told you that?” she asked.

  “My contact told me that the pearls were found around something. They didn’t say what.” Bingham didn’t know, but they both probably suspected the same thing. And if the pearls were around the egg, it seemed significant, for some reason.

  But were they the same pearls that had been in the temple?

  If the priests had both the pearls and the egg, it opened up a different set of dangers that he hadn’t fully considered yet.

  She turned back to him. “What you’ve heard is correct. The pearls surrounded the egg. It’s interesting that you know about them.”

  “Why?” Ty asked.

  “Because they have gone missing as well.”

  He tried to keep his face neutral. The pearls that he found must be the same ones, then. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Somebody had taken the egg and put it in the Flame at the temple, and they had taken the pearls that had been found around the egg and stationed them around the inside of the temple?

  Possibilities now shifted. Stories he’d heard, rumors, of the Dragon Thief came to him—rumors of valuable relics stolen.

  Who else wanted relics other than the priests?

  If the Dragon Thief were working on behalf of the priests, why would they leave the relics at the temple with Ishantil threatening to erupt? It seemed a mistake. If Ishantil did fully erupt, both the egg and the pearls would be lost. There were other temples that could be served by both.

  “So the Dragon Thief stole both,” Ty said.

  “Why don’t you tell me?” she asked.

  “I thought I had the egg on me when you captured me,” he said. “We didn’t find any pearls. I don’t know how we lost the egg.” He wondered if it had fallen out of his pocket when he had stumbled, though that seemed unlikely. It would’ve been loud. “I don’t know anything about the Dragon Thief other than rumors.”

  She frowned at him, and her cloak seemed to flutter, though there wasn’t much of a breeze. “I have also heard rumors, though lately they have been around the outskirts of the kingdom. The Dragon Thief finding his way through the kingdom, sneaking in under the cover of night, stealing from the king himself. I have visited many places where I have heard these rumors.”

  “You travel around the edge of the kingdom often?” Ty asked.

  “I am the king’s Tecal. I travel where he tells me.”

  “Just because he tells you, or do you do it for any other reason?”

  Gayal stared at him. “What are you getting at?”

  “I’m just trying to understand you a little bit. How do you become a Tecal?”

  Her gaze hardened and the shadows that flowed around her seemed to solidify for a moment. It seemed as if there was something controlling them.

  “I was chosen when I was young,” she said softly. “It is considered a great honor.”

  “What happened?”

  He was genuinely curious, and he doubted that he would have another time when he could learn much about the king’s Tecal. With the Dragon Touched, he had at least a passing idea about how they were connected to the king and the kingdom, and suspected it was all tied to their ability to use the dragon remnants and draw upon the power of the dragons. It was a rare gift—one that few people had. When it manifested, Ty could easily imagine the king calling those people to him to ensure they served.

  Tecal were something else though.

  They didn’t have any natural magic—at least, not that he knew about. From what he had seen of Gayal, though, he wondered whether that was even true. It seemed to him that she had some ability, something that was odd and off-putting, some way to detect something greater out in the world.

  The stories of the Tecal didn’t speak of any magic of their own, whereas everyone seemed to have their own story of what the Dragon Touched were capable of doing.

  “I was taken from my home, then brought to Durhold and trained, much like all of the Tecal before me,” she said.

  “How old were you?” Ty asked.

  “Young. Not all are able to serve as young as I did, but I showed promise early,” she said.

  “How early?”

  “I was five.”

  Ty frowned. Here he thought losing his parents at a young age had been difficult, but at least he had memories of both of them. Knowing that Gayal had been taken from her family at the age of five made him wonder just how strange and tormented her and her family’s lives were. He looked at Gayal in a different way now—almost with pity, though this wasn’t the kind of person who needed his pity.

  “What’s your training like?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Do you have interest in becoming Tecal? Unfortunately, you are probably too old to be selected. There are exceptions, though they are rare.”

  “I imagine he makes exceptions if someone has potential.” Ty hoped that might prompt her to tell him something more about the Tecal, but she didn’t respond—just turned, sniffing at the air.

  “What happens if Roson finds the egg before you?” Ty asked.

  Gayal looked over to him. “What did he promise you?”

  “The same as you.”

  A dark smile crossed her face. “I doubt that.”

  “No. He didn’t promise to find things out about my parents, but he did promise to release Eastley before the volcano erupts.”

  “And you believe him?” she asked.

  That was the real challenge. Did he believe him?

  But he knew the answer already. There was no way he could believe Roson James. No way he could trust him. No way he would put Eastley’s safety on what Roson promised. He couldn’t.

  “I’m not sure if I can trust either of you,” Ty stated.

  She regarded him in her strange manner, staring for a long moment, before chuckling softly. “A wise choice.”

  He stared at the temple. If this was somehow tied to an issue between the priests and the king, his brother would end up caught up in it. He didn’t want that either. He wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted, but he knew he had to get Eastley to safety. Albion had shown no interest in leaving the city, and Ty wasn’t going to be responsible for him. He was his older brother, after all, and if he couldn’t see the danger of staying in the city, then there wasn’t going to be anything Ty could do to convince him.

  It might come down to just leading Gayal into the temple and showing her the egg. What would happen then?

  He didn’t have the answer to that. Not yet. And maybe he had to understand the dynamic between her and Roson James before he made that decision.

  Gayal continued to watch him, though he still couldn’t read the expression in her eyes, nothing other than a lingering edge of darkness.

  “You still haven’t told me why you want the egg before Roson does.”

  She considered him for a moment. “Roson James has been chasing the Dragon Thief for the better part of the year as his way of proving himself to the king. In that time, he has found nothing.”

  “I thought the Tecal were the king’s spies.”

  “That would be one way of putting it,” she said. “Perhaps indelicately, but not inaccurately. I
have also looked.”

  “So this is a race between the two of you. Find the Dragon Thief before the other.” Ty started to smile. “Excuse me if I’m not at all interested in getting into a battle between the two of you.”

  “You aren’t. I only want the egg.”

  “And Roson?”

  “Oh, I suspect he will try to use it to draw out the Dragon Thief.”

  “Why would that work?”

  “Because the Dragon Thief has never failed when he has gone after a relic. We have chased the rumors of the Dragon Thief for an entire year. Rumors that have led us to places like Ferlinth, Isan, and Leth. Other places too, but Roson was closest to catching him in those cities, and I watched.”

  Something went cold within Ty. He had heard rumors, and he knew that the Dragon Thief went after remnants and relics, but why those specific places? Those were places he had recently heard Albion talk about. “What has he taken?” Ty asked.

  She regarded him, a hint of a smile spreading on her face. “So you can be inspired?”

  “Call it curiosity. All I’ve heard are the rumors.”

  “Dragon relics, and only valuable ones,” she said.

  “Any other eggs?”

  “Not that the king will acknowledge.”

  Ty jerked his head around, frowning at her. “Not that he will acknowledge? Does that mean there were other eggs?”

  Gayal held his gaze and repeated herself. “Not that he will acknowledge.”

  Ty thought about the dragon he had seen in the city, so similar to other dragons he had seen paraded through Zarinth before. That was what the king wanted?

  “All of this for a stunted dragon?” Ty asked, even though he knew this egg might be different.

  “Does it have to be stunted?”

  Was that her admission of the egg’s potential? “That’s what the king hatches,” Ty said. His dragons weren’t at all like the dragons of old. “And what about Roson? What will he get if he manages to find the egg before you? Is this all about proving who’s more valuable to the king? Some battle of Tecal versus Dragon Touched?” Ty started to laugh, but the hard expression in Gayal’s eyes told him that she didn’t find it amusing. But there was a part of him that thought he had hit it right on the head. “That is it.”

  “Perhaps,” she said softly.

  He glanced over to the temple before looking back at her. “What’s the prize?”

  “There is no prize.”

  “Then why work so hard?” Ty asked.

  “Because I serve the king and the kingdom.”

  “Doesn’t Roson serve him as well?”

  “I don’t know.”

  That was what it was about. Not about the egg or the Dragon Thief—at least, not entirely—but about whether Roson truly served the king. She was the king’s Tecal. She was his secret keeper, and she was looking for some secret about Roson.

  Ty wanted to smile, but Eastley was caught in the middle of this pettiness.

  “Would he release Eastley if I found the egg and gave it to him?” Ty asked.

  She looked at him, pulling her cloak around her. “Why him and not me?”

  “He’s the one who captured Eastley.”

  “You don’t think I can protect him.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “But it seems to me that both of you want the same thing, and I’m not sure I’m going to get what I want if you manage to find it—or if you manage to find it without me.”

  “I have given you my word.”

  “The word of one of the king’s Tecal. I’m not sure if I can trust that.”

  “Then you don’t know the Tecal,” she said, her voice quiet but firm.

  He snorted. “No. I don’t know the Tecal, but I know I want my colleague back, and I know I’m not with the Dragon Thief, but two of the king’s servants in the city are working to try to capture him, and must know that the Dragon Thief doesn’t have somebody else working with him. He watched her, noting she did not react to that. “And you knew it. You’re just using me. You’re just using Eastley.”

  She had no reaction to that either.

  “You have just over one day left,” she said, then started away.

  He should tell her about the egg, but he needed answers before he could reveal what he knew. And he figured he could find her again. Or she’d find him. Either way, he still had time before Ishantil erupted—and before Bingham did something stupid and went after the egg for himself.

  Ty knew what he should do, but how could he tell her that he thought he knew the identity of the Dragon Thief?

  Chapter Twenty

  Ty was exhausted. He had spent much of the night trying to decide what he was going to do. He had found Gayal, and she had made it clear that she would have the egg, but so had Roson James. Now he knew where it was, but he wasn’t sure who to tell. He knew he needed to keep an eye on the temple, though; otherwise, he wasn’t sure if he would get the answers he wanted.

  Morning had broken as he crouched next to the temple, wanting to make sure Bingham didn’t go after the egg himself. That was the next issue he would have to deal with, though Ty thought he could work around that. He could delay him, if it came down to it—and he would, if it meant he would be able to get Eastley out.

  He looked up as a figure approached, coming straight toward him. He wasn’t surprised to see that it was Olivia. She had on her gray cloak with her hood down, revealing her red hair, and a deep, shadowy frown crossed her brow.

  “We thought you would have returned before now,” she said.

  Ty kept his gaze on the temple. “I wasn’t willing to leave. There’s an answer here, I’m sure of it, but I just don’t know what it is.”

  “The answer being that we get the egg and give it to your contact, then we get Eastley.”

  “Something like that,” he said.

  The Dragon Thief. The High Priest.

  Having faced the Dragon Thief, and seen the High Priest, he knew they had the same height and build. It just seemed so difficult to believe a priest could be a thief. Especially that thief.

  Those were the thoughts tumbling through his head.

  She grunted. “Just ‘something like that’?”

  He sighed. “I don’t know. I’m starting to question whether we’re going to get what we want here.”

  “What I want is to get my family out of the city.”

  Ty looked over to her as she crouched down next to him and glanced toward the temple. Was she going to stick with that story? Maybe it was the truth.

  He wasn’t even sure if that mattered anymore. With Olivia, anything she told him could be a lie, but it could also be true—or partially true.

  “We still have at least a day,” Ty said. After that…

  After that, he didn’t know. Gayal had made it clear that he had three days, and he had spent two of them already. This was supposedly the last day they had before Ishantil erupted. He suspected she had insight about the truth of the potential eruption—and whether there was a real danger—but he also knew they would need to get moving.

  Some part of him worried that even leaving wouldn’t be enough. How could it be? If the volcano erupted, there remained the very real possibility that they couldn’t outrun the flow of lava. The only advantage they might have was that the contour of the valley tended to slope up as it headed toward the rest of the kingdom. It would act like a bowl, but a bowl that trapped the lava, destroying all of Zarinth—and anyone who remained behind.

  Ishantil trembled.

  “I haven’t been to the temple this early in the morning in a long time,” Olivia said.

  Ty looked over to her. “Were you a regular attendee?”

  “Once,” she said. “Not lately.”

  “I don’t come to the temple at all these days. It’s too hard.”

  “Look at how many people are here,” Olivia said.

  Ty had noticed the same thing. There was a crowd forming, far more people than he had anticipated coming out, but then again,
the people who had remained in the city were the devoted ones—the ones who believed the Flame would save them, protect them even, somehow keep them safe from Ishantil.

  The Flame provides.

  That was the motto of the church, what his brother had told him so many times that Ty had grown sick of hearing it, yet these people lived it.

  It wasn’t only them though—it was his brother too. As far as he could tell, Albion hadn’t left. He was still here, which meant he would go down with the temple.

  “If the goal is to get the egg, then we’re going to have to go in,” she said. “And I don’t know that waiting is going to make it any easier. It seems like there’s been more and more activity.”

  “My brother mentioned a celebration,” Ty said.

  “What sort of celebration?”

  He shrugged. “The call it the Asharlath Ceremony. He didn’t tell me when it was going to take place, only that I was welcome to be his guest. Maybe they’re going to celebrate as the city falls apart.”

  “Or maybe they believe they have some way of controlling the Flame,” she said.

  It was possible. In the past, they had believed they could control Ishantil’s trembling, claiming to have kept it from erupting over the years, but that didn’t make sense either.

  He would have to get to the egg and make sure Bingham didn’t go for it, but that was his secondary target inside the temple. He needed to get to Albion first. He had questions.

  After talking with Gayal, he had started to wonder about something that seemed almost impossible to believe, but everything fit.

  The places Albion had visited with the High Priest were the same places the Dragon Thief had targeted, and the egg was hidden in the temple. It made more sense than any other answer Ty had, but it still felt strange and surprising to him.

  “Why don’t we go inside and scope it out? If today is the ceremony, it might be busy the entire time. We’re going to need to figure out how to create a diversion so we can grab the egg,” Ty said.

  “Bingham was supposed to be coming by soon.”