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

by D. K. Holmberg

  Ty needed it. Somehow, he was going to need to use that connection, especially if they were going to deal with the danger that existed here.

  “I still don’t feel anything more than just the stirring of heat.”

  Dorian glanced over, and then he nodded. “I did not say that you had to.”

  Ty snorted, which elicited a glance from one of the Dragon Touched along the street. They were shrouded in shadows, Dorian shielding them, but he must not have shielded the sound of Ty’s voice as well as he needed to.

  Dorian glanced over to him. “Some Tecal you’ve made.”

  Ty sighed. “I’ve been trying.” And it was true. He had been trying, but increasingly he felt as if he were failing at everything that Dorian and Gayal wanted of him. If only he could demonstrate the necessary technique, it wouldn’t have been such an issue, but he found himself failing at even that.

  “Have you angered the dragon?” Dorian asked, his voice low, little more than a whisper.

  In other circumstances, Ty would’ve thought that he was making a joke, especially given some of the conversations that they had shared lately. In this case, though, he wasn’t sure that this was a joke. It seemed to him that Dorian truly wanted to know.

  Ty focused inwardly, trying to feel for that burning heat of the dragon, knowing that if he could find it, he might have answers be able to use them so that they could reach the dragon power.

  “I think it should be me who’s angry at the dragon,” Ty said, “not the other way around. “The dragon hasn’t responded to me. The dragon was perfectly content to let me nearly die. The dragon did nothing when I was attacked.”

  “Are you so sure?”

  Ty rubbed at his side. It wasn’t entirely true. Dorian didn’t know the full details of what had happened to him, but Ty suspected that Dorian had more of an idea than he was giving the man credit for.

  He had been healed.

  Ty might have been hurt. Nearly put to death, but he had survived. Wasn’t that enough? Under any other circumstance, he might not have pulled through.

  In this case, it was because of the dragon that he had managed to survive. If not for the smoke dragon, what would have happened?

  Would Albion and Zara have been able to save him?

  Maybe not.

  Or it was possible that they would have. It was possible that the dragon had only come after he had no longer needed the dragon. It was possible that none of it made any sense.

  And because of that, it left Ty frustrated.

  “What did it take for you to understand your dragons?” Ty kept his voice low, pitched so that no one else would hear, though he suspected that with everything Dorian did to shield them, there wouldn’t be any way for anyone else to know that they were there, and likely no way for them to hear what he was saying and asking of him.

  “Which dragon?”

  “I suppose the first one. Why? Is it easier the more dragons you connect to?”

  “The first dragon is the most difficult,” Dorian said. “The first helps the others. Of course, finding another dragon is the challenge then. There are few dragons the Tecal can bond with.”

  It had taken a long time for him to get Dorian to share anything about himself, so Ty knew that he should be pleased that Dorian was willing to tell him so much. It wasn’t altogether that different than Gayal and how she had not shared much in the way of details about her experience with her dragon, other than that she had come to learn about her dragon when she was very young. It was that difference that set him apart. He had not come to the dragon early. Not the way they believed he should. He didn’t know what that meant for him, but he had a sense from them that they didn’t know either.

  “It is the connection. Once you understand that connection and can master it, you will no longer worry about your ability to even reach the dragons. The more time that you spend with them, coming to understand the dragons themselves, the more that you can truly know what it is that they need from you.” Dorian looked in his direction. “And trust me when I say that the dragon needs something from you.”

  “It seems like the dragon needs a place to hide,” Ty said.

  “Perhaps that is what it is,” Dorian said, his voice soft.

  “Which dragon did you connect to first?”

  Dorian shifted, looking along the street, the breeze pulling at his hair. “Wind,” he said.

  Ty thought that surprising. He would’ve expected the shadow dragon, or perhaps the stone dragon, rather than the wind dragon.

  “What does your wind dragon even look like?”

  It was the only one of Dorian’s dragons that Ty couldn’t even see. He could feel the effect of it, much like he could feel the effect of the other dragons Dorian had connected to, but he had not seen anything from the wind dragon.

  “What do you see when you feel the wind?” Dorian asked.

  “The wind is invisible.”

  “Is it?” Dorian asked. “Not to me.” His voice took on a distant quality. “I can see the rustling of the leaves on a tree. I can see the way it bends the grasses. I can see the way it pulls on my clothes, or my hair. I can see it rippling across the surface of water.”

  “So that’s how you knew that you were connected to a wind dragon?”

  “By the Flame, no. I knew that I was connected to a wind dragon because I saw the wind dragon.”

  Ty waited for him to say something more, but he didn’t.

  “That’s it?”

  Dorian shrugged. “What else should there be?”

  He found himself laughing. After so long working with Dorian, this was a side of the Tecal that he actually found amusing.

  “So you can actually see the wind dragon.”

  “You can see any dragon.” They had been sitting there for a while, and finally Dorian let out a gentle hum. He got to his feet. “This is not helping. The wind is not telling me anything beyond what we already knew. The Dragon Touched are not chasing the dragons.” He glanced over to Ty. “And it’s time for us to protect the Hatchery before they attempt anything. There are certain protections that we may be able to deploy.”

  “There might be something that you could convince the Dragon Touched to help with,” Ty said, glancing along the street toward the fortress. “That is, if you trust any of them. Which, if I were honest, I don’t.”

  “Not all would be with him,” Dorian said.

  “How many of them would want the dauvern for themselves?”

  “If they knew what it did?” Dorian shrugged. “It’s possible more of them than we realize. The Dragon Touched can call upon the power of dragon remnants, but those who are particularly skilled can actually access the power of the dragons. It’s almost as if they can channel the heat and fire of the dragons. It’s why the king uses his most powerful Dragon Touched when he brings the dragons out of the city on patrol.”

  “Not so much patrol as it is an intimidation.”

  “Only if you oppose the kingdom.”

  He looked over, regarding Ty, and there was a darkness in his eyes, a look that suggested that he was concerned about him.

  It wasn’t all that different than the way Gayal looked at him, the concern that he had seen etched in her eyes. It was a concern that was born of his comment about not having any interest in serving the king. And he still was not sure of what her look truly meant.

  They headed away from the fortress, still shrouded by Dorian’s dragons, and then he paused, the Hatchery in the distance. Ty was fully aware of the Hatchery and could feel it. There were several Dragon Touched patrolling around it, though it didn’t seem as if they were paying any special attention to it. Just a patrol. It was almost as if they wanted to make their presence known but didn’t want to be too obvious.

  “You already had Dragon Touched here,” Ty said, looking over to Dorian.

  “Of course,” he said. “They don’t have to know why they are here, and there are ways of managing what they do and what they come into contact with
. Besides, the king commands the Dragon Touched.”

  “And the Tecal.”

  Dorian glanced over. “There you go again.”

  “With what?”

  “With your hesitation to follow the king.”

  “There isn’t any hesitation,” Ty said.

  “What would you do if you were able to connect to this dragon?” Dorian asked, the wind sealing their words inside of what seemed like a small bubble. “How would you choose to serve?”

  It had to be some sort of a test.

  Gayal had asked him some of those questions, but never before had there been the same weight behind them, as if he answered the wrong thing that he might find himself on the wrong side of the law.

  He was one man connected to a dragon he had no control over and confronted with a powerful Tecal in a city that was not his own.

  All of it seemed to scream to Ty that he needed to be careful and needed not to say or do anything that would risk his position.

  But he couldn’t help feeling as if he needed to be honest with Dorian, but it was more than just that. He felt as if Dorian wanted him to be honest.

  “I want to keep Roson James from using the dauvern. I’ve already seen what he’s willing to do, and I know that we haven’t seen the full extent of his plans. I don’t know what they are, but I do know that I want to be a part of keeping him from succeeding.”

  “Spoken like somebody who wants vengeance.”

  Ty held his gaze. “Is that wrong?”

  “What happened with your friend who wanted the same?”

  Why was he surprised that Dorian knew?

  He probably had heard from Gayal, who had likely told him about Eastley, his captivity in Zarinth, and his subsequent demise at the hand of Roson James.

  “He didn’t have a dragon.”

  “Right now, neither do you.”

  Ty breathed out heavily. “Fine. I want to stop him from using the dauvern. I don’t know exactly what he intends, but he will use it to take dragons, won’t he?”

  “Yes,” Dorian said. “Either the Hatchery, or from those who lack the necessary control to maintain their connection to it.”

  That was why Dorian had been around him.

  He had wondered why he had not sent him away, but it was probably no different than why there were Dragon Touched patrolling around the Hatchery. How many Dragon Touched were patrolling on behalf of Ty?

  “You fear that I might lose control over this dragon?”

  “Until we know what he intends, I think it is reasonable to question and prepare. He has proven himself a dangerous opponent, and we must be ready for the possibility that he will use everything that he has learned in his service to the king against us.”

  “You really think that he was serving the king?”

  Dorian held Ty’s gaze. “No, he would be serving Lothinal. Which makes me question how any of this will help with Lothinal’s goals.”

  “What happens if he succeeds?”

  Dorian frowned at him. “Do you really care?”

  “I care enough to want to know what would happen.”

  Ty didn’t necessarily have any strong feelings one way or the other about Lothinal. The only thing he knew about their neighboring country was that traders had a hard time navigating through the jungle and bringing goods to Zarinth. That and how Maggie had traversed those lands, though she had seemingly risked much in order to do so.

  “Lothinal would see the kingdom destroyed. They would do whatever they thought necessary in order to accomplish that goal. It doesn’t matter if that involves destroying people, places, or dragons.” From the way that he said it, Ty had a sneaking suspicion that he was far more concerned about the idea of Lothinal destroying dragons than he was with any other part of it. “And I am tasked with ensuring that they do not succeed. If you choose to become one of the Tecal, that will be your task as well.” He looked toward the Hatchery. “That is what they would use the dauvern for. I don’t know whether they will go after these dragons, or yours, or perhaps none of it, but I know that we are prepared. We will stop him. And we will keep Lothinal from whatever they intended to do to the kingdom.”

  Was that what Ty wanted?

  Was he willing to do whatever it took to keep Lothinal from succeeding?

  He didn’t know.

  And from the way that Dorian stared toward the Hatchery, as well as the power that he felt from the Dragon Touched, he couldn’t help but think that they should be well-positioned to keep Roson James from succeeding.

  Why did he feel so troubled then?

  Chapter Twelve

  Ty pulled open the tavern door, his arm heavy with fatigue. At the same time, he could still feel the energy of the dragon fluttering through him. It was a strange sensation, stirring around within him, and stranger still that he could feel it working from his head to his toes, extending through his hands and legs, almost as if it wanted to radiate smoke around him.

  Maybe that was what Dorian meant about having a connection to the dragon at all times. If he maintained that connection, if he somehow held onto that, Ty might be able to use it the same way that Dorian did.

  And then he wouldn’t have to worry about being able to access it.

  Ty stepped inside the tavern.

  It was dark, though there were a couple lanterns that glowed, and a bit of smoke drifted from the hearth in the back of the room. A musician strummed a lute in one corner, singing with a warbly voice. Esme stood near the counter, and she held out a pair of glasses, cleaning them quickly before setting them down. She nodded to Ty as he entered the tavern and started to come around the counter when Ty shook his head.

  Instead, Esme pointed, and Ty turned to see Bingham sitting at a table by himself, watching the musician. He had a mug of ale resting on the table in front of him, and he tapped one foot in time with the music.

  As Ty approached, Bingham didn’t even look up. “Tydornen. I heard you come in,” he said.

  “Am I making so much noise these days?” He certainly had made quite a bit when he’d been under attack the night before.

  “It’s not that you make that much noise. It’s more a matter of recognizing your patterns.”

  “My patterns?”

  Bingham looked up at him. There was a hint of worry behind his eyes that surprised Ty. He wouldn’t have expected Bingham to be worried about him, but he couldn’t help but feel as if Bingham did have some concern burrowed on his brow. “You don’t think you have patterns?”

  “I guess I didn’t pay any attention to it.”

  “Everybody has patterns. Even you, Tydornen, have your own particular patterns. Some of it is in your breathing, some of it is in the shuffle in the way you walk, and some of it is in the rustle of the fabric as you make your way toward me.” He shrugged. “And here you must’ve thought I taught you everything.”

  Ty took a seat next to him. There was no point in hurrying off at this point. He needed to get ready to depart, but at the same time having a chance to sit and speak with Bingham gave him an opportunity to have a sense of normalcy.

  “I guess I didn’t think that you taught me everything. Especially since you don’t know everything.”

  Bingham looked over, chuckling at him. “What’s wrong? You look troubled.”

  He shook his head. It would’ve been so much easier if he could share with Bingham everything that he had experienced, but unfortunately because of the Tecal training, he couldn’t share with him much at all about anything he’d been doing. Instead, he could only share with Bingham about his brother.

  “I was attacked last night when I went to find Albion.”

  “I heard,” he said. “Your brother sent word. He was worried about you. He said something was off with you.”

  Ty leaned back in the chair. “Something’s off with me? I would say the same about him.”

  “I figured it would be beneficial to understand your brother a bit more, especially given everything that you have gone through
in pursuit of the Dragon Thief and trying to find your parents.”

  Ty didn’t know how to feel about the idea that Bingham was talking to his brother, and he was even less certain how to feel about the fact that he hadn’t shared that with him until just now. He had known that Bingham had a relationship of sorts with Ty’s mother, but hadn’t known that Bingham and Albion had known each other too.

  Ty leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning at Bingham. “You told Albion to come and talk to me?”

  “I figured you wanted a chance to meet with your brother. Was I wrong?”

  He let out an annoyed sigh. “You weren’t wrong,” Ty mumbled.

  Bingham shrugged, looking at Esme again. “It’s difficult when you know you might have disappointed someone. You try to tell yourself that there are any number of reasons not to go and make amends, but the simplest one is simply fear of taking the first step.” He looked over at him. “It’s the hardest one, you know. Once you make that first step, then you can take the next. But it’s that first one…”

  “Albion didn’t have any reason to fear talking to me.”

  “Didn’t he? If you would ask your brother, I suspect he would feel that he very much had reason to fear talking to you. He disappeared, went into the priesthood, and then became something different, all without sharing with his caring brother about what he’d done and the reason he’d done it.”

  He didn’t know if that was all that it was for Albion, or maybe there was something more to it. Maybe he had avoided him for a very different reason, or perhaps because he was trying to protect him.

  What he’d said to him alluded to that. He made it seem as if he couldn’t protect himself, as if Albion needed to be there for him and to defend him, but Ty didn’t need that from him.

  Perhaps when he was younger he would have, but then again, Albion hadn’t been there when he had been younger. He had disappeared, heading into the priesthood before their parents had vanished, leaving him alone. And after that point, when he had needed his big brother, he hadn’t come for him. By that time, he had been too caught up in the activity of the Dragon Thief.