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

by D. K. Holmberg

  It wasn’t a matter of controlling it. Regardless of what Dorian might claim, or how Gayal had tried to instruct him, this was about finding a way to connect to this dragon. Not control. He had no interest in controlling this dragon. It didn’t seem right to him. He had no idea what to call it, though. Maybe understanding it would help.

  And when he had visited the Hatchery, he had seen how the other dragons had all been different as well. They were stunted, twisted, and there was a strange sort of power within them all that filled them with an energy, but it was a different energy than what he felt within himself.

  “You have to force the dragons to work with you,” Dorian said, taking a step toward him.

  Once again, Dorian held his hand out and this time a swirl of power came off him, and Ty could feel how he still pulled the dragon to him, as if he were trying to wrest control of the dragon away from him.

  The dragon fluttered, and he recognized that fluttering, that sensation deep within his belly, and he pulled back on it, using what he could feel within him to help the dragon solidify within his belly and stay with Ty.

  Ty had to call upon that energy.

  If he could find a way to grasp that power and energy, then he might be able to help the dragon. He might be able to use the energy, and he might be able to do something more with it.

  But first, he had to find it.

  Ty pulled on it again, and he focused on the burning within him. It was that burning he needed to reach. That burning seemed to matter. It was that burning that seemed to give him the connection to the dragon, and it was that which he needed to master and use.

  He breathed in and out, focusing on the pain that he had experienced before. That was what the dragon had helped with. If he could use that, if he could find a way to connect to that energy, then he might be able to find something more. The dragon had wanted to restore Ty.

  It was all about Ty, and the connection he shared with him.

  That was what the key was.

  The dragon had only come when he had reacted. It only came when he had needed it. The dragon had not come when he had been uninjured.

  What would it do if he were in danger now?

  Maybe nothing, especially as he had realized that the dragon had not initially done anything when he’d been injured the night before. When the fake Order of the Flame had shot Ty with a crossbow, the dragon had not helped then.

  Why had it waited?

  That was a part of all this that he didn’t really understand. He had no way of knowing why the dragon would react at one time and not another. It seemed to Ty that there had to be something that mattered, some piece of it, some connection to it, that made a difference to him, and if he could find what that was then he might be able to know just how he could work with the dragon, but it was a matter of connecting to it, of finding that power and energy and an understanding.

  He focused once again, thinking about the power within him, the energy of the dragon, and he focused on that, using it in order to connect to it.

  There wasn’t anything there, nothing other than the faint sense of the dragon, but what he could feel was something more. As he called upon that energy, he tried to draw upon it, and to grasp it to see if there might be something more that he could use as he summoned that energy.

  “There might be something that I can do to stimulate your connection to this dragon. It is time that we improve that. You cannot take so long to maintain that connection.”

  Dorian took a step toward him, stretching his hand out and touching his shoulder.

  When he did, some part within Ty began to shift.

  Suddenly the burning he felt in his belly, the burning that stretched from his torso all the way out into his arms and legs, flared, and heat raced through him, surging outward, and a massive plume of smoke blasted away from Ty. As soon as it did, it withdrew again, drawing back into him, and then retreated completely.

  As the smoke began to clear, he looked over to see Dorian lying on the ground.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Ty headed toward Dorian and held his hand out. Again, Dorian tried to beckon toward the dragon, but again the plume of smoke exploded out from him, and it blasted Ty backward but also kept Dorian from reaching him. As it did, he looked over to see a smile spreading across his face.

  “Very good,” he said.

  “You wanted me to do that?”

  “What I wanted you to do was to find a way to connect. It seems like you have begun to reach for that connection.”

  Ty looked over at the Tecal. He slowly got to his feet, though he didn’t have to exert much energy of his own. He climbed up, ascending like he was drawing upon the power of dragons. Dark tendrils of energy began to stretch away from him, and there was something more to it, before settling back into him again.

  “Now,” he said. “I would like for you to try to master your control over that. It should be fairly straightforward. All you need to do is hold onto the energy that you unleashed. Do you think you can do that?”

  He didn’t know. He could feel that power. It stayed deep within, a bubbling sort of energy that connected to him, though as he focused on it he was aware of it doing something more. It was moving, shifting around in his belly, sliding up and down, and not staying still at all.

  It was almost as if the dragon wanted him to be aware he was there and that he was no longer alone. It was almost as if the dragon wanted to assist him in some way.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what the dragon can do.”

  “That’s a matter of practice. What do you think connected you to the dragon?”

  “I think the dragon reacts when I’m under duress.”

  “Only then?”

  Ty shook his head too quickly, though he didn’t think that Dorian knew exactly where he’d gone the night before, but at the same time he was not in any mood to explain what had happened to him. He didn’t know how he would react and didn’t know if he would even care.

  “And you must find the way the dragon reacts and figure out whether there’s anything that you can do to prompt a greater reaction from him. Once you understand that, and when you can master it, then you can reliably access that power.”

  “I thought a dragon would be more helpful in defending me. When I faced Roson James, he was there, swirling around me, offering me a bit of assistance, but since that time…”

  “Since that time, there has been no need for it to do so, and you have lost a measure of control,” Dorian said. “The key with the dragons is maintaining that control at all times. You must hold onto that control, master it, and force the dragon to assist you as much as you can.”

  Ty didn’t know if the dragon would react that way. Of course, Dorian might be right. He had not needed the dragon to react in the last month or so ever since dealing with Roson James. He had been uninjured and didn’t face the same danger that he had faced before. If he had, then maybe the dragon would’ve reacted.

  It wasn’t until he was truly under duress, when he had truly been injured, that the dragon had finally reached out to him once again. And then, though it had responded, he wasn’t even sure that he had any control over how it had responded.

  The dragon had reacted, lashing out, but it had done so by healing him.

  Why couldn’t it have helped him?

  “Are some dragons fighters and some are not?”

  “A very good observation,” he said. “That is another part of your training. You need to understand what your dragon can do. What it’s willing to do. As you can see with the shadow dragon, this dragon is willing to do certain things other dragons are not. The more you come to understand your dragon and what its strengths and limitations are, the easier it will be for you to know how to work with that dragon and to know what it needs from you.”

  “Why would the dragon need anything from me?”

  “Do you believe the connection you share with the dragon is one-sided?”

  “I don’t really k
now. I guess I didn’t give much thought to what the dragon might need from me.”

  Now that he thought about it, Ty wondered if perhaps it was a mistake. Maybe he did need to be thinking about what the dragon needed from him. Maybe that was part of the problem. He wasn’t offering the dragon anything. He was only asking, never providing.

  Until he offered something to the dragon, and until he was able to give the dragon something that it did want, he might not be able to use its power the way that he wanted quite as well as he needed to.

  Ty focused on that energy. “What do you need from me?” he murmured.

  It felt strange talking almost to himself, but he also knew that the dragon was there, burning within him. There was a fluttering. It came the same way that he felt it work up and down through his body, as if the dragon were trying to respond but it didn’t know how to do so in a way that was meaningful. He focused on the fluttering, trying to draw upon that energy, that power, and he tried to feel for something more within it, but there wasn’t anything there.

  He looked over at Dorian. “What do your dragons need from you?”

  “Each dragon needs something different. What you will find is that unless you provide what the dragon needs, they will not respond as well as you need them to.”

  “Why haven’t you told me that before?”

  “Because you needed to learn how to access the connection first. That has been the greatest challenge that you face. Once you are able to access the connection, then you can begin to do so reliably, and then you can form something more.”

  “A way to use the dragon.”

  Dorian smirked at him and started to chuckle. “Do you think it is so one-sided as that?”

  “From the way you describe it, I sort of assumed it was.”

  “Why would the dragons choose to stay with us if it was so one-sided?”

  “I don’t know. They’re different?”

  “What do you mean that they are different?”

  Ty shrugged. “I’ve seen the dragons in the Hatchery, and I know that the dragons there are quite different than the dragons that you and Gayal are connected to. Quite a bit different than the dragon that I am now connected to. I don’t really know what to make of it, only that the connection is different, the dragons are different, and there’s something about all of it that is—”

  “Different?” Dorian chuckled. “You’re not wrong. There is something different about the dragons. These are not stunted like the kingdom’s dragons. These are special, unique, and yet at the same time they exist for a very particular reason. They bonded to the nearest person at their hatching, and they latched onto that person, somebody who has the ability to connect to them, to provide something for them, and over time that bond becomes stronger.”

  “It becomes stronger until you take it from somebody else,” Ty said.

  “We would not take them if it weren’t necessary. But dragons like this need the bond, and they need those that are connected to them. You will see,” he said. “You may not believe it now, but if you progress and continue to control the dragon, gaining understanding and mastery of that connection, then you will start to see that there are certain things the dragons need. If they are not provided for, then somebody needs to step forward and offer it to the dragon. Until it’s done, the dragon suffers just as much as you do.”

  Ty frowned, backing away, and couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps the dragon did suffer because of him. Could he not be providing something the dragon needed? And if he didn’t, what way would there be to find understanding and begin to provide the dragon with what it needed?

  He closed his eyes, feeling for the fluttering within himself, searching for that energy, that heat, and strained to connect to the dragon.

  As before, the fluttering came, but there was nothing else with it. He hoped for some connection to the dragon that would share with him that he had a greater sense of control, but unfortunately, there was nothing to it. As much as Ty strained, struggling, he could not feel it.

  It was what Gayal and Dorian both wanted him to do.

  He wanted to protect the dragon, to help it.

  “Now that you have this, it’s time for you to find what else is needed. I will continue to work with you, as will any of the other Tecal that you have an opportunity to meet, but we must gain full control. You must gain full control. Find what the dragon needs from you and offer it willingly.”

  It was strange for him to feel like Dorian was actually helping him. It was stranger still that he felt like it worked.

  “Something happened last night,” he said, looking up and meeting his eyes.

  Dorian frowned at Ty. “Is that why you now have a connection to this dragon?”

  Ty hadn’t been sure whether or not he wanted to tell him, but now that he stood here with him, he couldn’t help but feel as if he needed to share. Only, he didn’t know whether there was anything that he could reveal to him, anything that would matter to him, anything other than what he had told him already.

  “What exactly is it?”

  “I was attacked by the Order, and they took the dauvern. I worry what they will do with it.” He looked over to Dorian. “They already have shown that they want this dragon,” he said, waving to himself and hoping that Dorian understood. “And if they learn to use it, they might be able to steal your dragons.”

  The darkness started to shimmer around him, along with the light. Dorian took a deep breath and then everything started to tremble. “You lost it.”

  “They attacked me,” Ty said carefully.

  The smoke shimmered within him, and he had to think that if he were under any danger, the smoke would react. It would somehow protect him, but what if it didn’t? What if the smoke dragon decided not to defend him?

  “This is unfortunate,” Dorian said carefully. “The dragons bonded to a Tecal are protected, Tydornen. They are provided for, and there is very little that could be done to steal them from those they have connected to. It is the nature of the bond, at least with those who understand it. But that is not what I would be concerned about. Not at all.”

  Understanding began to flash within Ty.

  The Hatchery.

  And if they went for those, what would happen?

  “You think they will go after the Hatchery?”

  “They should not be able to, but then again, they should not even know about our dragons. We will do what we must to ensure the safety of the Hatchery. And you will be a part of it. That will be how you serve your dragon.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Ty crouched along the street, following the direction of Dorian’s gaze. It had taken most of the day for Ty to convince him that they needed to investigate the Dragon Touched, as if the Dragon Touched were immune to infiltration. Ty knew better. Roson James had been one of the Dragon Touched, and there were bound to be others who had followed him. How many was something that they had not yet uncovered, but it was a danger not knowing.

  “What are we supposed to be looking for?”

  “Whispers,” Dorian said softly.

  “What sort of whispers are you expecting to find?”

  Dorian had tried to let Ty go off on his own, but he had pushed back. He was supposed to learn how to connect to the dragon, and he wouldn’t be able to do that without Dorian. But it was more than just that connection to the dragon that he needed. It was also an understanding of how Dorian had mastered his connection over many dragons.

  “What do you hear?” Dorian finally asked.

  The street was relatively empty, though that was not uncommon for this part of the city. They were near enough to the Dragon Touched fortress that he wouldn’t have expected too many others to have been out on the street. There were pale blue dragon lights glowing in the stone, but nothing else to suggest that there was any other dragon magic here. There didn’t need to be. The fortress itself had plenty of dragon remnants stationed around it. Carvings made out of bone that he suspected were there so that the Dra
gon Touched could call upon that power if they needed to.

  “I don’t hear much of anything,” Ty said, looking over to him. He was supposed to be trying to connect to the dragon, using his connection to the smoke dragon so that he could call upon even more power, but even as he tried he could not feel anything more.

  “If you listen to the wind, you may hear some answers,” Dorian said.

  And with an understanding, Ty realized that Dorian was calling upon his wind dragon, though he had no idea what that might look like, nor did he have any idea how that worked for him. He could only tell that Dorian was using some connection. Ty couldn’t feel it, though. In his mind, it seemed to him that there should be some signal about what Dorian was doing, something that would tell him how he was using the dragon, but there was nothing.

  Dorian breathed in and out slowly, and as he did there came a faint stirring along the road. “I doubt we will find anything here,” Dorian finally said, tearing his gaze away. “It was a thought, little more than that, but an unlikely one.”

  “Unlikely, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible,” Ty said. “We don’t know how many people Roson James has working with him, only that they have no hesitation to attack within the city.”

  They’d known that he had the dauvern. He believed that.

  It was gone. Now Roson James, and his people, had it. What would they do with it?

  “Which is why we listen,” Dorian said. “When you listen, you can hear the wind talking to you. You can hear the side of the breeze the way it speaks to you if only you are willing and able to pay attention.”

  Ty shook his head, not really sure how to answer that. He was willing to listen. He had been trying to listen as Dorian suggested, but it wasn’t the wind that Dorian wanted him to listen to, and he knew that. Dorian tried to get him to focus on what he could of the smoke dragon, but the smoke dragon remained silent to him as well.