I swept along the edge of the city, searching, but did not find anything. I worried that if I waited too long, there would be no time remaining. And yet, there was also the danger of not waiting long enough. There were others who could possibly cause a danger to me.
As the day progressed, I found myself drawn toward the Academy again. I headed through the halls, my heart hammering, and searched for any of the instructors who might provide me with answers, but I didn't find any. Every so often, I felt something far away from me.
I needed to return to the dragon pen. That was where I had to go.
I started toward the city and paused as I moved past the pen. Cara was there, one hand gripping the bars, another holding a small canister, power coming from her and going into one of the dragons. I marveled at the nature of the power that flowed out of her. I wasn’t expecting her to be quite so potent with the dragons. When I had been around before, I had only known Brandel to be the one to have any sort of strength. This was more than what I had detected from Brandel, and certainly, more than I had detected from Cara in the past.
It was a surge of power, a pulsing of energy that seemed beyond what she was capable of. It rivaled what I had felt from most of the instructors at the Academy, for that matter. She should not have been able to call upon that much power.
Something was off.
She looked over at me, sneering as I jogged past her.
There came a surge from the green dragon that exploded within me, almost as if the dragon wanted me to turn back. When I did, I frowned. There was something wrong.
There was only Cara and the enormous power she commanded; it cycled out of her connected to a pale blue dragon resting on the ground, not far from the bars of the dragon pen, and then . . .
Then there was a hiccup. A pause.
That was what the dragon wanted me to know about. He wanted me to be aware that something happened here. He needed for me to recognize Cara was responsible.
I headed back toward her. “What’s going on, Cara?”
She looked over to me, glaring. “Mind your own business, Ashan.”
I looked through the bars of the pen, feeling the power coming off of the pale blue dragon, the way it poured through Cara then faded. It dissipated as she used it.
Stored.
“That’s a beautiful dragon there,” I said, looking at the pale blue dragon. “Powerful, too.”
“What do you know about it?”
“I can feel it.” I turned to her. “Just like I can feel what you’re doing.”
“What exactly do you think I’m doing?”
I nodded to the blue dragon. “Where is it?”
What I knew of Cara came back to me.
She, along with Brandel and several others, had trained with Elaine.
That had to matter.
She glowered at me. “Where is what? Honestly, Ashan, you people from the Wilds are all alike. Ignorant.”
I forced a smile. “Maybe. But I don’t have to be that intelligent to feel what’s going on here. You’re doing something to the dragon.”
The green dragon slipped over to the blue dragon, pressing up against him. I frowned, and I felt a surge of power coming through the green dragon, something that alerted me to what he wanted.
To connect to the blue dragon.
Doing so would defuse the effort drawing on him, but then there was a real possibility that there would be more power coming off of this dragon and the yellow-scaled dragon. If the green dragon connected to the blue dragon, it might not only impact the latter, but the yellow-scaled dragon, as well. I looked around the dragon pen. There were five other dragons resting. About as many as usual.
Would there be some way for me to connect to each of them?
If I could cycle those dragons, connecting that power in a way that allowed the dragons to link, then perhaps whatever Cara was doing wouldn’t impact this one quite so much.
“Maybe we are all alike, but we have a respect for animals,” I said.
“Respect. You do realize the dragons are tools of war? That’s the whole purpose of us learning this magic. The king wants to use us. Wants to use the dragons. He wants to use power so that he can continue to expand the kingdom.”
I looked over to her, watching, and frowned. “You say that as if you oppose it.”
“Of course not,” she said, still sneering at me. “Honestly, Ashan. You really don’t understand.”
I could feel the power fading from the blue dragon.
Whatever Cara was doing was different than what Jerith had done. He had siphoned power off the dragon, but he hadn’t pulled it off nearly as quickly. Whatever she was doing was rapid, and it drained the dragon far more quickly than it should. I could feel the way power poured off of the pale blue dragon, the way energy cycled out, held in whatever canister she had, and could practically see the dragon fading.
“You need to stop whatever you’re doing,” I said.
“What exactly do you think I’m doing?” Cara asked, turning to me. “I’m out here practicing with the dragons, testing my connection, no differently than you or any others have done. Now, if that is all?”
I opened my mouth to say something, but then realized Brandel and Dominic were approaching. I didn’t like the idea of confronting Cara with them there.
More than that, I didn’t know if I had time to linger too much longer.
There was something I could do.
I focused on the pale blue dragon and formed a connection, adding that to the cycle of the others. The connection formed within me, finding the power that flowed from the green dragon, and sizzled as it stretched between the two of us. There was a burst of power and a flare of fast-fading heat; once it dissipated, I felt a resistance, but more than that, I began to feel the connection.
There came a brief surge of power coming off of the pale blue dragon, flowing out from him, and it joined with the others. Power stirred, and I began to draw off of what Cara held.
I summoned energy and began to pull power out of whatever canister she used. I could feel Cara attempting to resist, but now that this dragon was connected to the others—and me—it flowed away from her, then disappeared altogether. She staggered back, frowning as she stared at the dragon.
“Is he bothering you?” Brandel asked as he approached, looking over to Cara before sneering at me. “Because if he is, I am supposed to report him to the instructors. Especially given his ties to Thomas Elaron.”
Cara looked over. “Go ahead. We should report him. He comes out here and demands to know what I’m doing with the dragon. I’m sure he intends to sneak more of the dragons off to wherever he is taking them.”
I shook my head. “I’m not doing anything.” I could pull power off of what Cara held and didn’t need to link the other dragons, though I wondered if I could. I turned my attention to a smoky gray dragon resting near the far corner of the pen. He had considerable power, which shimmered, though I was unable to connect to it directly.
Power surged between me and the others, forming a connection. That energy built in a way that told me I could link to this dragon. Could I link to the others? I attempted to do so, but didn’t know if I had time.
Brandel stormed over to me. “What do you think you’re doing?”
I looked up at him. “Practicing, the same as Cara told me she was doing.”
“Are we really to believe that’s what you’re doing?”
“You can believe it or not,” I said. “I don’t really care.”
He grinned at me. “Don’t you? You might care when you’re brought for dragon justice.”
“Really?” I asked, irritation filling me. I needed to be careful with him, not challenge him, but Brandel irritated me. “I have some credibility. I did reveal the presence of an infiltrator within the Academy. One I believe you worked with.”
Brandel frowned, and he glanced over to Cara before looking over to Dominic. “That was you? You’re the reason that Elaine was lost?”
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Brandel approached, and there was a hint of power coming out of him, more than what I had detected before. It reminded me of what Cara had been doing. I could feel the way the energy was cycling out from him, circling away, and heading toward one of the dragons in the dragon yard. Rather than trying to connect to that dragon, I wondered if I could latch on to what he was doing.
I attempted to draw power off him and it circled toward me, filling me.
Brandel pulled on that power, resisting my attempt. He glared at me. “You’re making a big mistake here, Ashan.”
I shook my head. “I think you’re the one making a mistake. What would your father think of what you’re doing?”
Magic flared.
The power coming off of him was strong enough for me to feel the energy circling out from him, flowing in a way that was difficult for me to fully grasp. I had to limit it. The only way that I could think of limiting him from connecting to these dragons would be by linking them all together. I had to act quickly.
I went from one to the other, adding them to the cycle of the dragon power, linking together as many of them as possible, and using that connection to bridge them so he couldn’t reach their power. There came a surge, and suddenly the cycle that flowed through me was even more potent than it had been before.
He could no longer call on the dragons.
His jaw was locked in frustration and anger. He darted toward me, bringing his fist back in rage and slamming it into me. It was filled with power when it struck.
He was not much younger than me, and he had far more experience as a dragon mage than I did.
I staggered back, crumbling to the ground. I hurriedly began to use the connection to the other dragons, letting that power cycle through and then out in a burst of uncontrolled power, which exploded into Brandel.
He was thrown back, landing near Dominic, who helped him to his feet, along with Cara.
“You’re going to regret that.”
I shook my head. “I think I understand what’s been going on with you.”
Brandel sneered. “Do you?”
I knew Elaine had betrayed the Academy, but I still wasn’t convinced she was Vard.
And now I knew Brandel and Cara, at least, had a vessel—similar to the one that I had found beneath the Academy—that allowed them to draw upon the dragon power and store it. I was certain the writing on that vase was Djarn writing.
A surge of power came through the green dragon. The circle of power that cycled between me and the other dragons was enormous now; considerable energy connected us. It distracted me, and I turned away from Brandel and Cara, focusing on the green dragon. As I did, I noticed something else.
The reason that the green dragon had triggered me.
Not only did he want to alert me of something, but he wanted me to get moving.
At first, I wasn’t sure why there was a sudden urgency. I should deal with Brandel and Cara and whoever else might be with them, but at the same time, there was something distant, faint and faded, some hint of power that called to me, warning me.
I realized what it was.
A dragon.
Not just that, but a fading dragon. Power drained from it.
The irritation.
It was near enough that I could find it, but not if I waited much longer.
A burst of power struck me, and yet, there came a surge from the green dragon that protected me, almost as if he did so instinctively.
I looked over to Brandel, shaking my head. “I’ll deal with you later.”
“You will deal with me now,” Brandel said. “Because I’ve about—”
I turned away, ignoring him.
The faint energy coming off of the dragon persisted, but I knew it would soon disappear. I needed to find him now.
Brandel called something out to me, but I ignored him. I focused instead only on the dragon and how to quickly find him.
22
I could faintly trace the dragon near the outskirts of the city on the westerly edge. I approached slowly and carefully, and found a dilapidated building that looked as if it had once been a tavern or an enormous home, but now was in a shambles. The stones on the outside of the building had cracked and fallen inward. It looked completely abandoned . . . which was exactly the kind of place where I would expect to find a dragon.
I could feel the energy somewhere.
I didn’t know that I would be able to head beneath the ground the way I had in the Academy, not if it involved crawling underneath crumbling stone. I might be able to defend myself with a connection to the dragons, but I had to be careful.
The dragon continued to fade as I neared. I approached slowly, trying to connect to this dragon, but some aspect of it rebuffed my attempt.
I stepped over the outer wall that shifted as I did. The stone felt as if it moved with my step. Once on the other side of the broken and cracked wall, I entered what appeared to be the main hall of this abandoned building. Windows let in faint light, and much like the outside of the building, vines crept up inside.
I focused on the dragon, opening myself to it, following the steps I’d learned in my time at the Academy. As I did, I reached for power as quickly as I could until I felt it flowing.
I was not far from him.
I stepped forward. Then I slipped.
I landed on the stone, which crumbled underneath my elbow.
That was strange. Why would the stone itself crumble so much?
As I got to my feet, I breathed in, noticing the faint stench in the air. It was a smoky sort of aroma, one of char—and violence.
Dragon fire.
That was the reason for the stone degrading. The dragon—held and trapped—must have been struggling to get free the entire time. I moved through the building, slipping through a doorway, worried the wall would crash down around me, but thankful it did not.
I found the dragon on the other side. It was small, shriveled, and weak looking.
Much like the one in the basement of the Academy, this dragon was chained. He barely raised his head as I approached, and when he eventually did, I realized that it wasn’t a he but a she. There weren’t that many female dragons. Certainly not enough that we could risk losing them.
I had seen this dragon before. She had been within the dragon pen early on during my time at the Academy, but she was one of the dragons that had been absent for weeks. Possibly one of the earliest dragons to have gone missing.
A small metal vase rested near her, power flowing out from her and into it.
I crouched down next to her, touching her on the side. Her scales were cool, not holding the same heat I normally associated with the dragons. Normally, they were filled with enormous heat that exploded out from them.
In the case of this dragon, the energy within her was faint and fading.
“Let me see if I can help you,” I whispered.
She lowered her head. There was a resigned look in her eyes, and some of the energy seemed to fade even more. I touched the cuffs around her legs, pushing power through them until they snapped open.
She still didn’t move.
I had to find a way to undo what had happened to her. The vase held much of her power. I lifted it, looking at the writing on it, reminded of the Djarn symbols upon it. It was much like the other one.
I focused on the green dragon, feeling for the connection to the others. They were linked through me. I needed that power to go into this dragon. I needed to replenish her. I needed her to have added stores of energy.
Only . . . I also worried it wasn’t going to be enough.
I sent more power out from me, trying to link to her, to connect in a way that would fill her, give her the strength she needed to hold on to life, if only for another moment.
With more power flowing, I finally began to feel the connection form. It was slow—much slower than when I’d connected to the other dragons before. Power surged through this dragon, linking me to her and to the others. The other dragons
seemed to recognize her weakness, and power flowed from them, through me, and into her.
Now that I was linked to her, I could feel the effect of that vase of power and held on to it, pulling more energy back and away from the container. It took everything in my being to do it.
The dragon raised her head, looking at me. There was a little bit more vibrancy in her eyes. Heat began to build along her scales.
“You’re free. You can slip out from here, head back into the forest, and find one of the others.”
The dragon rested there.
Maybe she wasn’t going to be able to get up quite yet. She was still faded and weak, and needed time to recover. She had suffered. Until she had a little bit more time and strength, she might not be able to get moving.
I tried to let energy flow through me and into her, filling her with the power of the other dragons. Gradually, it worked. Strangely, I found I couldn’t help as much as I had before. It took me a moment to realize why, but it was because of my connection to the other vase and this one. That required most of my focus.
A surge came from the green dragon, followed by a flare of the now familiar irritation. It was a signal for me to keep looking.
This dragon would survive. I could feel she would survive. I needed to figure out how to undo what had happened to her, but until I did, I wasn’t sure that I could do anything more for her.
How many had Jerith claimed they had? Five, if my memory served me.
I had found two. That meant there were three more. Given what I had felt from this one, I needed to act quickly.
Crawling over the stone and back out onto the street, I stood there, leaning up against the stone wall. Something shifted and the stone crumbled, crashing down behind me.
I looked through the stone, but the rest of the structure stayed intact. Let the dragon get away when she could. The other dragons who were connected to her now could help her. I didn’t know how they would summon her, but I believed they had some way of communicating to each other.
The Betrayed Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 2) Page 24
