Smoke and Shadow: An Epic Fantasy Progression Series (The Dragon Thief Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Do you care to tell me how you recovered so quickly?” Albion said, dragging a chair over and sitting next to him.

  Ty took a deep breath. He must have slept a little bit, as he felt better than he had before. “Only if you care to tell me who she is,” he said, nodding at the door. “The two of you obviously are comfortable with each other. Is she some woman you’re seeing?” Ty grinned. “I mean, she is pretty enough, but I didn’t think thieves liked to get involved.”

  At least, Ty had never gotten involved. Partly that was because he had played up his role, but partly that was because he knew that the kind of work he did was dangerous and didn’t need to get anybody else mixed up in it, unless they already were.

  “Something like that,” Albion said softly. “But you know I’m not really a thief.”

  Ty frowned. “What do you mean something like that?”

  “That’s Zara. That’s my wife.”

  Chapter Nine

  Albion had left Ty alone while he was doing something, likely trying to hide something more from him. At this point, he didn’t even know anything about his brother other than the fact that he hid things from him. Not only had he not revealed his real reason for joining the church, but he had hidden that he had become the Dragon Thief, and now he had a hidden wife?

  How much else had he kept hidden?

  Ty sat up. He rubbed his side, shocked to find that the wound was gone.

  That had to be the effect of the smoke dragon, but why would the smoke dragon bother healing him like that? Why wouldn’t the smoke dragon have helped him before he was wounded?

  Albion returned, taking a seat in the chair. His eyes were drawn, and there were hollowed, darkened edges along the lower surfaces of his lids, as if he’d been awake for a long time. He crossed his arms over his chest, watching him. “What happened?”

  Ty chuckled. “I don’t think so. We’re going to talk about you first.”

  “What’s there to say?”

  “I don’t know. How about ‘Ty, I’d like you to meet my wife Zara,’ and give me a chance to talk with her?”

  “I will. I had planned on it.”

  “When? Before or after you lured me out to this dangerous part of the city.”

  “It’s not supposed to be dangerous,” Albion said.

  “Nothing is supposed to be dangerous in the capital, but obviously it is. The Order of the Flame has enough influence out here—”

  “It’s not the Order of the Flame,” he said. He looked up, holding his gaze for a moment. “They want you to believe they are members of the church, but they are not.”

  He knew they were not and that they had presented themselves as members of the church. He’d dealt with them enough to recognize the true danger of the Order.

  “Sort of like you?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Oh, good. I was afraid you were going to deny that to me.”

  “Deny what to you? I told you the truth.”

  “You told me the truth after you were captured.”

  Even then, Albion hadn’t really told him the truth. He had found out any truths through others. When it came to his brother, there was no truth, at least not the way he believed there to be.

  “I told you the truth when it became necessary,” Albion said softly.

  “Why couldn’t you tell me before?”

  “Because you wouldn’t have been ready for it before,” he whispered.

  “And I am now?”

  “No, but I don’t have much choice in it now.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because it seems you became the target, rather than what it was supposed to be.”

  “Roson James.”

  Albion clasped his hands together, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his thighs. “I was supposed to be the target. He was supposed to look for the Dragon Thief, and for a while he did, but then he began to suspect something was off.”

  “How?” Ty was incredibly curious about all of this. He’d only caught snippets of it from Gayal, not enough to truly understand what was going on or why his brother got involved in it, but he wanted to know. He felt as if there was something about what had happened that he needed to know.

  “I can’t say that I have the answer to that,” Albion said. “We knew there was an infiltration within the kingdom. Somebody looking for power they should not have. We knew that somebody was working on behalf of the Lothinal.”

  “That’s what Gayal told me.”

  “Lothinal is a dangerous land. They want nothing but violence and destruction and are willing to use whatever they can to destroy the Flame. Trust me, Ty, you don’t want to cross them.”

  “I can’t really trust you with a whole lot of anything,” he said.

  “I suppose that’s true,” Albion said. “What do you want to know about?”

  Ty looked over at his brother and shook his head. All this time when he’d wanted to see his brother, to find him and discuss what had been going on, he had never thought there would come a time when he would have to decide which of the things he would ask was most important. He had never imagined that not only would Albion be the Dragon Thief, but he would also be working on behalf of the ghost king, however peripherally. Ty would never have imagined Albion had some connection to a different power, but at the same time he also would never have imagined he had a connection to some hidden power.

  More than that, regardless of what his brother admitted to him, Ty couldn’t share anything with him. And he wondered if Albion knew.

  If he told him, then he ran the risk of Dorian learning he’d shared, and he ran the risk of this being some sort of test that he needed to pass. The only way to pass was to hide and conceal the fact of why he was in the city. If it wasn’t some sort of test, then he had to abandon the possibility of bringing his brother along and using what he might know.

  Either way, Ty couldn’t tell him.

  “Why don’t you tell me about the Dragon Thief?”

  He chuckled. “That’s what you want to know about?”

  “Should I ask about you joining the priesthood?”

  “That was where I initially thought I would serve,” he said. He stared off into the distance, his eyes closing slightly. “When I first joined the Priests of the Flame, I thought that I was serving the Flame.” He smiled softly and closed his eyes. “I did go intending to serve. There was no other purpose than that.”

  “No other purpose?”

  “It was shortly before we lost our parents,” Albion said.

  “I remember,” Ty whispered.

  “Everything that happened is tied to the Flame. I know that when our parents disappeared, it was hard on you, but they aren’t gone. They’ve just gone to serve the Flame, the same way as I have. I’ve tried to understand what the Flame asks of me, so that I can do what is needed. I’ve wanted to find the Manifestation of the Flame.”

  Ty frowned at him. “What is the Manifestation of the Flame?”

  Albion took in a deep breath. “It’s something that the king and his Tecal and his Dragon Touched don’t even believe, but the priests do. I do.” He leaned forward. “When there are times of great difficulty, the Flame provides answers. That is the Manifestation. We have searched for those answers, and believe that a time is coming when the Manifestation will be needed.”

  Ty wasn’t sure what that meant, but he could tell from the way that his brother stared so intently at him that he did.

  It was about the Flame.

  Always with Albion.

  “You could’ve talked to me,” Ty said.

  “Perhaps I should have. Especially given everything that you must have been going through. I am sorry. I can’t really explain what my thought process was at the time. All I know was that I believed that I was protecting you. I was protecting myself. And I reacted.” Albion opened his eyes, and he shrugged. “I was a foolish boy making a foolish decision.”

  “But you did it because you truly serve the Flame?
”

  Albion had always followed the Flame, so why was Ty surprised in that now? He shouldn’t be.

  No. He couldn’t be.

  Albion nodded. “I’ve always wanted to serve the Flame so I could know the power and know that there was a purpose in things. I had believed there was something more.” He smiled slightly. “Mother had convinced me of that. It was the one thing that she had given me.”

  “What was that?”

  “Her faith. Coming to Zarinth as we did, living in the jungle like we did, I had known the power of the Flame in a different way than most. Even within the priesthood, there were those who didn’t know and feel the Flame the way I did intrinsically. Partly that came from having traversed Ishantil many times, but partly it came from a separation from the city, the separation of the kingdom.” He smiled, shaking his head. “Did you know that many of the priests have never been to Ishantil? They claim they follow the Flame, but they never go and visit the true power.”

  “That’s not the true power,” Ty said, shaking his head.

  “No?” Albion cocked his head to the side, pressing his hands together, watching Ty. There was something very much of the priest in the way that he studied him. Maybe it was the warmth in the sparkling reflection in his eyes, or maybe it was the half smile on his face. “What would you say that the true power is?”

  Ty shook his head. “Ishantil is a volcano, Albion. I’ve lived in Zarinth long enough to know that it’s nothing more than that.”

  “And I can say with absolute certainty that I was there when you learned it was something more than that.”

  Ty took a deep breath and shook his head, staring at his brother. “Did you know what would happen?”

  “I didn’t know, but I suspected.”

  Ty frowned. It meant Albion knew about the dragon, and he knew what had happened.

  “I think there was some part of me that always knew that there was a power there, and going to serve the Flame helped me find and understand that power. I had been working with the Tecal, but when I reached Ishantil, I knew what needed to happen. I understood my real purpose, and how I could truly serve the Flame.” He shook his head. “Maybe that’s foolishness, and yet if it is, I don’t know that I even care. At this point, it doesn’t matter.”

  “Why doesn’t it matter at this point?”

  “Because I have seen and experienced more. I have come to understand that the Flame is more than just a dragon.”

  “What is it, then? If you’re saying that it’s not Ishantil like so many of the priests celebrate—”

  “The priests celebrate the representation of Ishantil, but they don’t necessarily celebrate Ishantil.” He chuckled, smiling at Ty. “Perhaps if you would’ve spent more time going to the temple, you would have understood this. The Flame connects us. All of us. Some of us can access the power of the Flame more directly, but others can only observe it. Most of the Priests of the Flame are only able to peripherally observe it, though there are some, a precious few, who feel its calling more directly.”

  “Like the Dragon Touched,” Ty said. He wasn’t about to tell his brother anything about the Tecal, though he wondered if he knew.

  Maybe with his connection to the priests, to Gayal and everything that he’d experienced, his brother already knew about the Tecal and their connection to dragons.

  If he didn’t, then he wasn’t going to be the one to reveal that to him. He wasn’t going to be the one to share details, especially not anything that could expose the Tecal beyond what they wanted to have exposed.

  “Something like the Dragon Touched, though not entirely. You see, the Dragon Touched have a particular kind of power, but the kind of power they have is different and unique.”

  “I understand that.”

  “No, that’s the challenge, I think. Very few people really understand what the Dragon Touched can do. They connect to remains. It’s a very distant and vague sort of connection.”

  “You mean the dragon remnants.”

  “Bones. Even artifacts that were made by artisans over the years out of the remains. You can even take a dragon claw, or perhaps even a scale, and you can turn that into something one of the Dragon Touched can use.”

  “I know,” he said.

  He regarded him for a moment. “I suppose you do. The other Dragon Thief in our family.”

  “I was never the Dragon Thief. At least, I was never the Dragon Thief like you were.”

  “Are you disappointed?”

  “Learning that my brother was the Dragon Thief?” Ty shrugged. “Maybe jealous is the right way to say it.”

  “You would have preferred to be the Dragon Thief?”

  “I wouldn’t have minded,” he said.

  He grinned at Ty. “There’s still time, Ty.”

  “So you believe the power of the Flame connects all of us.”

  “I believe the power of the Flame connects all living things, but there are those who are more finely attuned to it.”

  “Like the dragons,” Ty said.

  “Exactly. The dragons are innately attuned to the power of the Flame. We have long known that even the king’s small dragons are connected to the power of the Flame. The true Flame. You must be able to understand that. Even in Zarinth, we have seen those dragons. But few really understand the Flame. None in the kingdom fully understand it. There are those who have tried, and they have failed, all searching for knowledge about the power of the Flame, trying to track through that energy to see if there’s anything that they might be able to use when it comes to mastering it.”

  “By mastering it, you mean borrowing it.”

  He chuckled. “Borrowing. I suppose that is true. The king has searched for a way to access the Flame directly. Others as well. They all look for that Manifestation.”

  There was something about the way he said it that left Ty worried for his brother and worried about what he might intend.

  “And not through the dragons?” That surprised Ty. Knowing what he did of the Tecal, and the kind of power that they had by accessing the dragons within them, he would’ve expected that they would have simply used the dragons.

  “Some don’t need a dragon to call upon that power. There are some who have a way of reaching for the Flame directly.” Albion sat back, his brow furrowed and his mouth pinched in a tight frown. “And it’s different than the Dragon Touched. They don’t need the power of an ancient relic in order to call upon that energy. It is different. Even the priests recognize that there is likely to be some way to tap into the Flame, but we have not been able to find it.”

  Ty almost smiled at his mention of we, before realizing the greater concern that he had shared. That was what he had been after.

  “So that is why you and the Tecal invented the Dragon Thief?”

  “That was how it started,” Albion said. “They knew there was something going on, a threat to the kingdom, and they needed somebody who could help. I saw it as a way of serving the Flame. And over time, it became something more for me. My way of chasing the Manifestation of the Flame. How could I not? That is more important than anything else.” He leaned forward, looking at Ty. “I wish I could help you understand. I wish that you truly believed in the Flame the way that I do.”

  “You wish that you could force your beliefs on me. I don’t know that I can believe in the Flame the way that you do,” Ty said.

  “For years, I would have said that it was nothing. That the Flame was something that we cannot access directly. That the Flame was something too mystical and powerful for us to be able to reach on our own. I was taught by the Priests of the Flame that we could not touch it directly or else it would burn. This despite the fact that the Flame flows within us, that it is the very essence of life itself. That in knowing the power of the Flame, we can truly understand something more. Something greater,” Albion said.

  “What changed for you?”

  “I saw for myself.”

  “You saw it?” Ty asked.

  A
lbion nodded. “I saw something,” he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “And I felt it.” He inhaled deeply. “I was new to the Priests of the Flame. I still didn’t know my place, though I was learning. I was trying to understand just what they were asking of me, wanting to know how I could best serve the Priests of the Flame, and as I worked at that I learned that I had an affinity. You could say that I had the potential to be one of the Dragon Touched, but serving the priesthood made me something different.”

  “One of the Order of the Flame,” Ty said.

  He tipped his head. “Very good. The Order of the Flame is real, and there are those who serve it within the church and serve it faithfully. This was what I believed my fate to be. When I learned that I had a certain potential, I can’t deny that I was elated by it. I wanted to embrace that power and I wanted to serve the Flame as it called to me.”

  “And then you saw this other?”

  “I was serving in the city of Norvel. I don’t know how well you know the geography, but it’s far to the south of here, situated near a steam field.” Albion pressed his hands together, and there was something about the gesture that reminded Ty of his father, the way that he had once looked. “A place of power for the Flame if there ever was one. Much like with Ishantil, the steam swamps are quite impressive, though in a very different way. They burst periodically, sending plumes of steam and heat rising in the air, and it’s a place where the priests have long celebrated the Flame, recognizing the power that exists there, recognizing the energy of the Flame, and trying to celebrate it, trying to capture just a hint of it so that they can share it with others.” He smiled. “And surprisingly, it’s a place of dragon relics. Much like in Ishantil, where the dragons have prowled around the heat and the fire, as if that fire itself gives rise to them, the steam swamps of Norvel are much the same. Powerful, and they put off massive amounts of heat. It is an unsurprising place to find those who celebrate the Flame, much like Ishantil is an unsurprising place to find those who celebrate there.”

  “And this is where you saw this person?”

  “I thought it was a priest,” Albion started. “I followed them, making my way across the steam swamp. I had learned to detect the presence of dragon remnants. It is something that is required of those within the Order of the Flame, and I could easily tell when a person had a dragon remnant upon them. Much like I can tell that you carry your dagger, something else in your pocket, and then something that is strange.” He shook his head. “I learned to feel it. To be attuned to it. And I was good at it. So as I followed this man out into the steam swamp, I uncovered something about him. Something unusual.”