Thomas looked over to me, frowning deeply. “How well do you know the Djarn?”
“I’ve encountered them before. They live within the forest outside of the plains near Berestal, but I haven’t had any interaction with them. I have a friend whose father has.”
The timing of all of this was more than a little troubling. Not only had the Djarn begun moving, surrounding me in the forest during my test and now here again, but Joran and his father were visiting after having been with the Djarn. I wanted to think they weren’t connected, but I had to wonder.
Thomas turned back away, focusing on the Djarn. Heat radiated from him, the power of the dragons flowing off of him, flooding toward the Djarn.
“I don’t know what you think you’re going to do,” I said. “There are probably a dozen of them around us.”
“You can feel them?”
I shook my head. “I can’t feel anything. If the Djarn are here, it’s because they want us to know that they are.”
How is it that I knew this and Thomas didn’t?
Unless he’d wanted to come to face the Djarn.
I wanted no part of that.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the Djarn, but I didn’t want to see them slaughtered.
The heat of the dragon swirled around Thomas. It was faint, but it was at least easing, and there wasn’t much intensity to it—not at all like it had been before.
“Go ahead then,” Thomas said.
“Go ahead with what?”
“If you have some way of communicating with them, go ahead and do it.”
I shook my head. “I don’t have any way of communicating with them,” I said.
He glanced over at me. “You seem to know so much about them.”
I didn’t want to anger Thomas, but it seemed I already had. Now here I was trying to prove that I wasn’t somehow siding with the Djarn, but at the same time, I also knew that if I didn’t intervene in some way, Thomas would end up attacking. My experience with the Djarn had told me that doing that was a mistake.
“All they want is to be left alone,” I said, repeating something Joran’s father had once told me, hoping it was true despite what Manuel—and now Thomas—claimed. “They don’t care about the kingdom.”
“Exactly,” Thomas said.
“What do you think you’re going to do?” I asked.
Thomas turned toward me, glaring. Heat built from him, and I raised my hands.
“I’m not trying to challenge you. I’m just asking what you think you’re going to do against the Djarn. I can tell you there are more around us than you know.” Even as I said it, I could feel a hint of power. It seemed to come from the dragon in the distance, but it also seemed to come from somewhere nearby. It was almost as if there were a familiar sensation coming off of that dragon, something that triggered within me and told me that there was a power that I should be aware of. “Does the king want you attacking them?”
“The king wants to ensure the safety of the kingdom,” Thomas said quietly and carefully, with more than a hint of menace in his words. “If that involves ensuring the Djarn don’t continue their attack, then so be it.”
“Continue their attack?”
Could they be responsible?
Joran had said they wouldn't be responsible for it, and his father had more than a little experience with them, as the only person along the plains who traded with them. I found it easy enough to believe Joran, but what if they held that information back from him?
What reason would they have to share that with him?
When I had come here before and felt the dragons, I had felt there was some sense of energy that came from the Djarn.
I needed to know.
I looked past Thomas, stepping toward the Djarn.
“We’re not here to harm you,” I said, holding my hand up. I tried to focus on the connection to the green dragon, feeling that power within me, the energy that connected us.
As I did, I recognized that there was some hint of connection flowing from the Djarn. That couldn’t be imagined. It was real.
If that were the case, then it meant that the Djarn were somehow connected to the dragons, as well. Could they know something about what happened to the dragons?
I could feel a presence around me, though it was faint. It was enough to know that the other Djarn surrounding me were getting close enough that I could feel them—but not so close I could see them. I kept my focus on the one Djarn in front of me, the only one I could see.
Behind me, I could feel energy coming from Thomas. I had to be careful with him. He had taught me how to connect to the dragons, and I knew he had knowledge and experience, but if he intended to attack the Djarn . . .
“We’re looking for missing dragons,” I said, stepping forward, holding out my hand as I pressed toward the Djarn.
For a moment, I felt a surge of power that flowed around us. I glanced over to Thomas briefly to see if he were aware of it, but I couldn’t tell anything from his expression.
I turned back, looking for the Djarn. The face I could see was barely visible through the trees. I caught a glimpse of long hair—or so I thought, at least. Pale skin caught some of the light glowing from Thomas. Then it faded.
The Djarn retreated.
I took a deep breath, moving forward, trying to get closer to the Djarn, but even as I did, I knew they were already gone.
“Well?” Thomas asked.
“I think they’re gone,” I said.
“Can you follow them?”
I closed my eyes, focusing on the energy of the dragons, the connection I had felt flowing between the dragons. The energy seemed to have faded, leaving me with nothing.
I shook my head. “I can’t feel anything.”
He turned to me. “You will need to explain yourself.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to upset you.”
“I don’t mean it that way.”
“You don’t?”
Thomas shook his head. He whistled softly, and when he did, I could feel power building between him and the dragon. A soft stirring came as the dragon made its way toward us.
“No. Not to me. What you describe is important, Ashan. Perhaps more than you know. When the time comes, you will need to explain to the king how you detected the Djarn.”
11
The halls of the Academy were quiet. It felt like every step I took thundered loudly, disrupting the somber air inside, as if the quiet were determined to mock me for my mistake. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d somehow angered Thomas and had done something that disrupted his plans, along with the king’s plans.
I paused for a moment, looking at one of the dragon lanterns set into the wall. The flame pouring out of the dragon’s mouth made it look as if it were breathing fire, leaving the eyes of the sculpture glowing as well. Heat radiated from it, though not nearly as potently as it would feel from a real dragon. I could feel energy coming off of the dragon sculpture and the lantern, but not so much that it felt like a danger to me. I didn’t know why I paused in front of this one in particular. It was as if there was something about this lantern that called to me.
I felt like I needed to do something. Ever since returning to the city with Thomas, I’d felt that I needed to do something more. I’d made a mistake approaching the Djarn, keeping Thomas from attacking them, but at the same time, it had felt right.
Dragons had gone missing, but why would the Djarn suddenly be accused of being involved?
A strange sense came to me.
At first, I wasn’t sure what it was, but it burned in my belly.
The power of the dragon.
Surprisingly, this sensation was close.
Almost as if it came from within the Academy.
I wandered through the halls, focusing on that strange sense, but couldn’t feel anything more.
Then it was gone.
As I was making my way through the halls, I came across Ames. He was staring at his feet, and he nearly
ran into me. He muttered a quick apology.
“What’s wrong?”
Ames looked up. “Oh. It’s you.”
I had had some interaction with Ames in my time since coming to the Academy—enough to know that he wasn’t unfriendly, just sour. “Is anything bothering you?”
Ames shook his head. “You know, I know the others give you a hard time about coming from the Wilds, but sometimes I wonder if you might have it better not having come from the city.”
I frowned at him, not even interested in correcting him that I didn’t come from the Wilds. Something else bothered him.
“Is there something going on?”
He glanced behind him. “It’s just . . . I don’t know.” He lowered his voice, and he leaned closer to me. “You were there when I told that instructor about the missing dragon. I just haven’t heard anything. And the others won’t talk about it.” When I didn’t answer fast enough, he shook his head. “That’s what I’m saying about you not being from the city. It is something. If dragons go missing, and if the Vard managed to use them, we might find ourselves facing a dragon war. A full-on battle. And since we are training to be dragon mages, who do you think will be pulled into it?”
I hadn’t given it that much thought, but he was right. That was what all of this training was about, after all. I was training to be a dragon mage. I had some idea of what that involved, but not entirely.
“What happens if the dragons are missing?”
Ames shrugged. “I don’t know. The instructors won’t talk to me. If you hear anything, let me know.”
I nodded, and he shouldered his way past me, staring down at the ground as he headed through the halls.
I started toward Jerith’s office, hesitating a moment at the door before knocking.
Much like all of my instructors, his oak door had three dragons etched into its surface; each instructor’s dragon etching took a different shape, as if each office were meant to depict the dragons in a different way.
The door opened and Donathar stepped out. He tipped his head, nodding, and smiled. “I’ve seen you working with Thomas Elaron.”
I blinked. I suspected Thomas would have informed the other instructors that I was working with him. He would have to, especially as it would keep me out of some of my sessions with other instructors. Given that he was the chief dragon mage, I didn’t think that would be too much of an issue.
“Only a little bit,” I said.
“You should be careful with him. He may not be here for long.”
He winked, then strode off down the hall.
Jerith step toward the door, frowning at me.
I looked behind me, back to Donathar. Thomas wouldn’t be here for long?
I knew that he traveled, so maybe that was true. He might not be in the city for very long. Which meant that I needed to take advantage of the time that I had.
“Ashan. I wasn’t expecting to see you today.” He looked along the length of the hall. “Is everything all right?”
I nodded. “I suppose.”
“You suppose?” He started to smile before ushering me in.
I followed him into his office. It was simple, which fit the man that I knew Jerith to be. The walls were all bare, revealing the dark gray stone. A hearth at one end of the room crackled with a warm flame, giving heat to the room. A sculpture of a dragon sat up on the mantle, smaller than some of the other sculptures, though no less intricate for its construction. A small cylinder of pale grey metal resting next to the dragon sculpture had strange writing on it that reminded me of the Djarn. There was a door leading to the back room, where I knew his sleeping quarters to be. The outer room was mostly his personal office, and the place where he, like the other instructors, welcomed students to visit.
I had come to Jerith’s quarters a few times over the months I’d been in the city, though I rarely came in the evening. Most of the time, I came with questions about my assignments, and had pestered him, along with other instructors, looking to try to better understand the connection to the dragons.
I headed over to the fire, standing in front of it, and clasped my hands together, focusing on my breathing. Almost without meaning to, I connected to the green dragon within the dragon pen.
“I understand you’ve been working with Thomas Elaron,” Jerith said, taking a seat at his desk.
I glanced back at him. There were stacks of papers and books and sculptures all piled onto his desk. It was the only part of his room that looked messy. The rest of it was sparse. There was a chair near the hearth, a bookshelf with a smattering of books—though not nearly as many as the bookshelf would have allowed.
“I have,” I said. “He found me outside of the dragon pen one evening and decided to work with me.”
“You should be honored by that,” he said.
I turned back to the fire, nodding. “I was. I mean, I am.”
Jerith chuckled. “Do you care to tell me what happened?”
I approached his desk, pacing in front of it. “He was determined to help me find a way to connect to the dragons—better than I have already.”
“That would be welcome. You have potential. We’ve known that ever since you first came to the Academy, but potential and the ability to reach potential are very different things. In your case, we knew you could and should be able to reach for that power, but it’s a matter of you finding it within yourself.”
I took a deep breath, holding on to the power within the dragons, recognizing the way it flowed. I held my hands together, letting that power flow through me, cycling as it had when I was out in the dragon pen. Gradually I started to separate my hands, forcing some of that power down so that the flames began to crackle with a thin line between my fingertips.
Jerith leaned forward. “I would say it’s been successful.” He looked up at me. “Very few gain control that quickly. He probably won’t be in the city for very long.”
“That’s the same thing Donathar said.”
Jerith shrugged. “Unfortunately, it’s probably true. Thomas rarely spends much time in one place, especially these days. But while he’s available, you should learn what you can. His lessons might be invaluable. What has he taught you?”
I looked around the inside of his office and considered asking him about Elaine while I was here, but I didn’t want to draw that kind of attention to myself. The fact that I had traveled with Elaine outside of the city tied me to the Vard, at least in the eyes of the instructors within the Academy, even though I remained uncertain about whether Elaine had truly been with the Vard.
“He has been having me work on my connection to the dragons, mostly by trying to get me to reach for the power and feel it flowing through me, cycling through the dragon.”
“That would be one way,” he said.
“I’ve been trying to let power come through me. I know you want me to connect to as many dragons as possible, but I find I’m best connected to only one of the dragons.”
Jerith stared at my hands, watching the way that the flames crackled between them. I tried to focus on the power, letting it flow from one finger to another. I hadn’t yet begun to work on sending it up my arms, back through me the way I’d been instructed, but I thought I could if I needed to. There was still so much I needed to learn about controlling the dragon magic, but having the ability to do anything was a blessing.
“It begins with a connection. I suspect that’s more than enough for you. The more you hold on to that connection, the more you can begin to know just how powerful it is for you.”
I forced more of the power down into me, pressing my hands together, then finally released the connection to the dragon. “I know I need to learn more, but I . . .”
I turned away, staring at the fire.
Jerith chuckled. “Go on with it. Get it out there.”
“I think I made a mistake,” I said. “When I was traveling with Thomas out into the forest—”
Jerith got to his feet. “What do you mean you w
ere traveling with him out into the forest?”
I turned back. “He brought me into the forest this morning. I guess he’s been looking for the missing dragons. He thought I might be able to help him.”
“You’re a student at the Academy. A relatively new student, at that. What would he be thinking bringing you out with him? Especially with what has been going on with the dragons.”
I didn’t know how many dragons were missing. There was the red dragon that Ames had noticed, and there was the rumor that Manuel had mentioned, but I didn’t know any other specifics. Any dragon missing was too many, though.
“I don’t really know. He brought me there, and . . . well, I felt something. We landed, and we followed what I’d felt, and we came across the Djarn.”
“The Djarn shouldn’t be so close to us in the forest,” Jerith said, frowning to himself.
“I don’t know anything about that, but when you had tested whether I could detect the dragon, I came across the Djarn that day as well.” I hadn’t shared that with him before, and that was a mistake.
“You came across the Djarn near the outskirts of the forest?”
“It wasn’t so much the outskirts. We were deeper into the forest.”
“How deep?”
“I don’t know. I sort of got lost.”
I hated admitting that, but it was the truth. Jerith had been good to me in my time at the Academy, and I didn’t want to lie to him about what I had gone through and what I had done.
“That explains it, then,” he said. “Why it took you so long to return. I know there were rumors going around about what had happened with you, and while I don’t normally put much stock in those rumors, the fact was that you had taken quite a while to get back.”
“I followed the dragon into the forest. Maybe I should’ve told you this before, but when I got deep enough into the forest, I was surrounded by the Djarn.”
“They surrounded you?” He frowned at me, glancing down at something on his desk before looking back up. “The Djarn shouldn’t attack you while on a testing, especially not dressed in your Academy robes.”
“There were at least two spears, which suggested there were more that I didn’t see. Then they disappeared.”
The Betrayed Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 2) Page 12
