Within the Dragon's Jaw (The Dragon Thief Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “I was always taught that they test for a connection to dragon magic when you are young. At least out here. In Zarinth, we are given the same chance.”

  As far as Ty knew, there had to be some within Zarinth who had the ability to use dragon magic, but Eastley wasn’t wrong. He didn’t know of anybody within Zarinth who had developed the talent to be Dragon Touched, but considering how many that they saw here, and as many as were present within Zarinth, it had to be relatively common.

  “Let’s say that you can sneak up on one of them,” Ty began carefully, and when Eastley started to grin, he shook his head. “Let’s just start there. I’m not saying it’s a good idea, but if we say that we can sneak up on one of them, and we get close, what are you going to do? Knock him out, take his clothing, but then what? We still have to sneak up on a second one.”

  “Well, I’m thinking we have to keep them tied up while we pull the job.”

  “So we keep them bound, and we sneak into the fortress, and—”

  “And we find your brother,” Eastley said. “Once we’re in, we can use his Dragon Thief skills to get us back out. He has to have some technique, doesn’t he?”

  Ty snorted. “I don’t think my brother has access to any magic.”

  But then, he wasn’t exactly sure if that was true or not.

  When Albion had been the top of Ishantil, facing Roson, Ty hadn’t known if he had access to dragon magic, or if it were tied to some dragon pearl that he was using to defend himself.

  Until he reached his brother, he wasn’t sure if he would know.

  “Well, let’s say that he doesn’t,” Eastley said. “It might make things a little more difficult, then. I have a few ideas, still, but we might find it more challenging to sneak around.”

  Ty arched a brow at him. “We might?”

  “I think we snag the jackets, and then…” Eastley grabbed him by the arm, and he pulled him down the street. “Well, maybe we need to get out of here for now.”

  “Let me guess, they noticed that we were there?”

  “One person did.” They hurried into the streets, reaching a point where they were hidden within the crowd. At least, Ty hoped they were hidden within the crowd. Eastley stood out. He was large enough that he was visible pretty much anywhere they traveled. Ty had an easier time blending in, but they were dressed differently than most within the city. It was likely that they would be noticed.

  Worse, when they had bought supplies in Zarinth, they had prepared for a brief stay here. They hadn’t brought clothes to change into, nothing that would help them blend into the city more effectively. Had Bingham managed to stay sober, it wouldn’t have been so much of an issue, but with him out of commission as often—well, continuously—as he had been, they had been forced to flounder on their own without anybody who knew the city. Esme hadn’t seemed interested in helping them. She was more irritated with Bingham and wanted to get her revenge for whatever had happened between them.

  “I don’t suppose you have any money, do you?” Ty asked.

  “How much are you talking about?”

  Ty glanced behind him. He saw a pair of Dragon Touched that seemed to be shadowing them, and he motioned for Eastley to duck down, keeping him low. For the first time since they had come to the city, he wished that Olivia had been with them. Not that he would have trusted her, but she might have had a way of getting out of this that the two of them didn’t.

  “We have to change our clothing,” he said. “We’re too noticeable this way.”

  “I don’t think that’s the answer,” Eastley said. “Besides, aren’t we just going to be taking clothes off of the Dragon Touched and then moving from there?”

  “Well, that’s your start, but we still don’t even know if that is where we need to go first.”

  “We haven’t heard of any other prisons in the city,” he said. “The Dragon Touched act as the constabulary within the city. I’m not sure there is any other place where your brother might be held. Besides, didn’t you say that one of the Dragon Touched had dragged him out?”

  “You know that he did,” Ty said.

  “I’m just trying to get you to be practical about this.”

  Practical.

  Coming to the capital, thinking that they might be able to find information about the prison that was holding his brother, and then figuring out a way to break into that prison and get to his brother was not practical.

  Nothing that he had done ever since Ishantil had started to threaten to erupt had been practical. The idea that he would break into the palace in Zarinth had been impractical.

  Ty?” Eastley said.

  “Nothing. Maybe I just need to eat.”

  Eastley looked up. “I’m going to see if I can’t get them to follow me. Why don’t you get some food, if that’s what you need?”

  Ty looked up, and he realized that Eastley was motioning to three Dragon Touched that were heading down the street.

  “I can meet you back at the tavern later.”

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” Ty said.

  “When have I ever done anything stupid?”

  Eastley slipped away, and Ty ducked down, still holding onto his belly. The burning persisted, and he couldn’t shake it.

  As the Dragon Touched moved past him, he waited, half expecting that one of them would turn toward him, but none of them did. They followed Eastley.

  Now what was he going to do?

  Get a change of clothes.

  He had some coin, though for the longest time Ty had held onto his money, hoarding it so that he could use whatever he managed to obtain in order for him to pay for answers.

  He could spend a little. Besides, at this point, he no longer knew whether he was going to get answers about his parents.

  Gayal had promised him, but she had only released Eastley and had not offered him any other answers about his parents.

  He worked his way through the city, looking for a shop where he could purchase something more local, when he saw a familiar caravan.

  Ty smiled to himself.

  He hurried toward it and wound along, searching for Maggie.

  As he made his way along the wagon caravan, he realized that it wasn’t Maggie.

  It looked like her wagons, but there was no sign of her.

  A tattooed man looking down at him shot him a hard look, and Ty backed away. Maybe it wasn’t Maggie’s wagons. Maybe it just looked like them.

  He watched the caravan move past, disappearing from view.

  He shook his head. It was foolish for him to want the familiarity of the caravan that rarely spent any time in Zarinth, but he had.

  Ty took a deep breath. Find a shop to buy new cloak, return to the tavern, and meet up with Eastley.

  From there, they could plan what they needed to do next.

  All while staying away from the Dragon Touched.

  But even that didn’t get many closer to his brother.

  Ty started to worry that he wouldn’t find any way of learning where Albion ended up. The entire reason for coming to the city might’ve been for nothing. All to try to find his brother, learn what he had left him, but he hadn’t gotten any closer.

  He reached into his pocket, running his finger along the note. He had not studied it much, but other than the strange writing that Albion had use, Ty doubted that he was going to learn much from it.

  Another pair of Dragon Touched seemed to head toward him, and Ty disappeared into the crowd. Stay ahead of the Dragon Touched. Get back to the tavern. Force Bingham to come around so that he can help us.

  And then he would get answers from his brother. He had to.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Ty had been wandering for the better part of several hours by the time he saw the first of the Priests of the Flame. There was no mistaking them. The priests were dressed no differently than they were within Zarinth, wearing dark robes, carrying the sigil around their necks, and some even carried a long staff that made Ty think that perhaps th
ey used it in their ceremony. The staff was new compared to other priests he had seen.

  He found himself following them.

  Within the capital, seeing Priests of the Flame was supposed to be rare. The priests and the king didn’t get along, viewing dragons and their power in different ways, which meant that there was always some tension between the two.

  Of course, the Priests of the Flame served all throughout the country, and despite the tension they had with the king, they still were afforded a level of freedom that others were not.

  Maybe he could use the Priests of the Flame to figure out more about what had happened to his brother. He trailed after them.

  He had been wandering the city, looking at buildings, looking at taverns, looking at shops, all of it different than what he knew in Zarinth. The style of buildings was significantly different, and not just the architecture but the scenery around him too. Within the Dragon’s Jaw rising up on either side of the city was a looming threat of power. So far, the only prison that they had learned about was the one in the Dragon Touched fortress, and that was not a place that Ty thought that he could infiltrate easily. There was also the palace, a massive structure situated in the center of the city, and given that Albion had been the Dragon Thief, there was the possibility that he had been brought there for questioning.

  If it were one or the other, Ty did not think that he would be able to get his brother out.

  Somehow, he had to get answers, though.

  He slipped forward, moving slowly.

  As he rounded a corner, the priests moved away from him.

  Ty hurried after them, curious where their temple was within the city. He hadn’t seen any traditional temples here and mostly suspected that was because the city was relatively new, at least compared to Zarinth. Zarinth—the old part of Zarinth, at least—was old. Ancient. The stone structures had been there for generations, long before the kingdom, long before the king and his ancestors had founded it, claiming Zarinth from the outskirts of the kingdom.

  He turned and saw three people who marched along the street. They were dressed in jackets and pants, the symbols etched into their leather lapels unmistakable. Dragon Touched.

  Dressed the way that they were, they would be powerful Dragon Touched.

  There were tiers of them. Some were more powerful and better equipped to use the magic trapped in the dragon remnants than others. All of them served the ghost king. How many had actually seen the ghost king, though?

  Probably none.

  He stayed off to the side as they moved past, tracing his finger over the dragon-bone dagger, thankful that they didn’t seem to detect it. Then again, in a city like this, there were probably dragon remnants scattered all throughout the city. They would not have any reason to note a single dagger, especially when there were other powerful items here as well.

  “They aren’t going to hurt you.”

  Ty jumped, turning, and looked up at a face that he hadn’t seen since she’d left Zarinth.

  Gayal Holt was dark-haired, and despite her diminutive stature, she had always given off a dangerous vibe to Ty. Then again, as one of the Tecal, spy masters for the king, she would be dangerous.

  The fact that she had found him meant that it wasn’t chance.

  “You knew I came,” he said.

  Gayal grinned at him. “Did I?”

  “I would not have expected that you would’ve known, but considering the size of the city, I wouldn’t have any reason for you to know how to find me here.”

  “The city isn’t so large that you would be able to mask your arrival here.”

  It sounded almost like a threat. “My arrival? I didn’t do anything with my arrival that should have gained any notice.”

  “You would be surprised at what goes noticed,” she said, smiling at him.

  He regarded her for a moment. She looked no different than she had when he had seen her in Zarinth. Her dark cloak fluttered, almost as if it were a thing alive.

  “So the ghost king noticed me?”

  He wanted to hear from her that she had spent time with the king, but doubted he’d be given that gift. Rumors said no one spent time with the king.

  “Should he not? You do, after all, have a connection to someone he has struggled with.”

  “My brother,” he said, nodding. “I suppose you know that’s why I’m here.”

  “I suspected,” Gayal said.

  “We had a deal. I find the egg, and you provide information about my parents.”

  She tilted her head slightly, sniffing in the strange manner that she did. When she turned her expression back to him, there was a dark smile on her face. “The deal was the egg, but seeing as how I don’t have the egg, I think the terms of the agreement were modified. I seem to remember you wanting a certain friend of yours rescued, and my role in ensuring that he was freed. Since he has come to the city as well, I could round him up…”

  “Eastley hasn’t done anything.”

  She arched a brow at him. “Other than break into the palace within Zarinth. Do you care to tell me what brought you here?”

  “You know why I’m here. My brother.”

  Gayal turned her attention to the palace in the distance. It was enormous, a sprawl of stonework that rose up over the city. Even from here, Ty could make out the glowing in the upper reaches of the palace, as if it were attempting to compete with the temples.

  “You think you could find your brother.”

  “I had hoped to have an opportunity to visit him,” he acknowledged.

  “He won’t be easy for you to reach,” she said.

  “Not easy doesn’t mean that it’s not possible,” he said.

  “No. That is true.”

  “But?”

  She smiled. “What makes you think there is a but?”

  “Well, it’s your hesitation. You imply that there is some reason that he can’t speak with me.”

  “You aren’t wrong,” she said. “Your brother is a captive of the kingdom, and given what he has done, it is only right he remains where he is.”

  “And that is?”

  “I’m not going to be the one to help you reach your brother.”

  Ty wasn’t sure what to say or how much to push her, especially knowing that she was one of the king’s Tecal. Maybe he could get answers. Then again, he wondered if she knew that Roson had returned to Zarinth.

  “We returned to Ishantil,” he said, looking along the street. The crowd parted around them, giving space. “I went back to the lava lake. I wanted to try to understand what my brother had been doing there.” He watched her, wondering if Gayal might provide answers, though didn’t really expect that she would. She said nothing. “While I was there, I saw Roson James.”

  She frowned, and the slight tension at the corners of her eyes told him that she hadn’t known.

  He smiled. “Not so much a spy, are you? You didn’t know that he was there.”

  She shook her head once. “There should be nothing for him.”

  Which meant that she didn’t think that Albion had gone after anything else in the city.

  “That is why you are here. Not just to rescue your brother, but you wanted to know what Roson might have learned from him.”

  Ty shrugged. “So what if I do?”

  She sniffed, her head tilted strangely. “If you think to break into the fortress, you will find it difficult to get past the Dragon Touched. Even if you attempted to go to the palace, you will find it a challenge. Not at all like it would be for you to venture along the Dragon’s Jaw.”

  “Why would I care about the Dragon’s Jaw?”

  “I figured you would find it intriguing.”

  “Because I’m from Zarinth?”

  She shrugged, and Ty just shook his head. He knew there were people in the capital who viewed Zarinth as somewhat backward. It was the reason that part of the city had been built to look more like the capital, an attempt to change that perspective, though there was always the dra
w of those who preferred the old appearance of the city, wanting it to look more like it once had. They tried to keep that historical appearance, though Ty would not have expected that Gayal would be one of those.

  Of course, he didn’t really know anything about Gayal. She was implying something, and Ty had to try to understand what it was. Was she helping, or was this some other goal that she had?

  He regarded her, but he didn’t have any real answer. She stood strangely, her body slightly twisted, the dark cloak hanging almost limp, but every so often it seemed as if the wind would catch it in ways that were unnatural.

  “If you’ve never been to the city, there are many things that you might be intrigued by. Perhaps you would like to see some of the sites?”

  Ty tried to figure out what sort of trap this was but wasn’t exactly sure. He had Albion’s letter, but she couldn’t have known about that. Maybe she intended to take him with her so that she could uncover what secrets he might be keeping from her.

  But he could do the same thing, couldn’t he?

  “Why would you show me around the city?”

  “Because you intrigue me.” She turned, and her cloak seemed to flutter.

  He was curious what was underneath it, as if there was some creature beneath her cloak struggling to get out.

  “You want to know if I’m going to attack the palace or the fortress.”

  She arched a brow at him. “I have warned you what would happen if you did.”

  “But I am supposed to find the Dragon’s Jaw interesting?”

  He looked off into the distance, where the stone seemed to curve ever steadily inward, as if it truly were some massive dragon trying to swallow the city.

  “The Dragon’s Jaw is naturally occurring, much like the ring of Flame around the kingdom itself. There are some who feel that it was formed by ancient dragons and that their bones sit beneath each of the teeth, causing the mountains to rise up out of the ground.”

  “I wouldn’t necessarily call them mountains,” Ty said.

  “Only because you have visited Ishantil. For those who haven’t…”

  “Do you suppose those who have not seen Ishantil would see it as a mountain?”