“I know what you and Jerith were planning.”
He chuckled. “Jerith has his uses. Just like the Djarn have their uses.” He looked down at the vase. “I wouldn’t have learned about this particular technique had I not spent as much time there as I had. I had to coerce the king into sending me as an envoy, but thankfully he believed the Djarn needed one. Much like others thought the Vard needed one.” He laughed. “Because of what I uncovered, we will have found the key to what we intend to do.”
“It’s not going to matter,” I said. “I helped the dragons.”
He tapped on the vase he held. I noticed a surge of energy, and something shifted. There was a drawing of power that came off of me, siphoned from me. “Oh. I’m well aware. I’ve felt what you’ve been doing. At first, I didn’t know what it meant, but I now realize you were helping.”
Had I been helping? I had been rescuing the dragons, connecting them so they could . . .
No.
I’d made a mistake. I’d not only saved the dragons, but I’d linked them with others. With the vases, and a way of controlling the power within it, Donathar could use the power of a dozen dragons—all of whom I had attempted to control and connect to with the intention of saving and protecting them.
Donathar grinned at me. “You see, don’t you.” His face contorted in a sneer. “Soon it won’t matter. And look. You’ve brought each of them to me. I thought I was going to have to use the primary vessel to call upon the power of the other vessels, but you’ve saved me the need to do so.” He grinned at me again. “I will take the vessels now.”
“You aren’t going to have them,” I said.
“I think you are mistaken.”
A surge of energy built from him and slammed outward, cascading toward me. It took everything in my being to try to shift the call of power, but as I attempted to do so, cycling that energy through me, using the energy I felt within the vase, I could feel that he had a greater control over it.
“What do you intend to do with us?”
He grunted. “Once I have control over this power, then the city—and the king—are an easy thing to conquer. How do you think this city was conquered?”
He intended to overthrow the king.
Not Vard.
Not Djarn.
Something else. Like Elaine.
I needed to stall him while I attempted to figure out if there were some way for me to connect to the dragons that would make a difference. While I already had a connection to them, it didn’t seem strong enough to conquer Donathar’s actions.
“You’re not with the Djarn, are you?”
Donathar took a step toward me, grinning. Power flowed from him, and I did everything to resist his hold over me. It was a battle—one I didn’t think I could win.
“The Djarn? They have their uses, but their use is more in the unique connection they have to these creatures.” He glanced over to the dragon, and power began to fade from it once again. With much more time, the dragon would fade altogether. “It took me a long time to piece together the key. They thought to intervene, but their devices only delayed us a short time.”
Could that have been what Joran’s father had brought to the city?
Donathar would have known if there were Djarn here, but someone not of their people might have been able to get through.
“The king had me working with the Djarn. Can you imagine what it’s like to live among those savages?” He shook his head. “Far easier to understand the rationale for overthrowing them.”
I frowned. “It’s not the Vard either. You’re with whomever Elaine worked with.”
He chuckled. “Interesting that you would be the one to reach that conclusion. It doesn’t matter. We’ve infiltrated far more than any will ever know.”
“Whom are you with?”
“We work in the shadows. They’ll never see it until it’s too late.”
Power continued to cycle out from me and I struggled to hold on to the energy. I could feel each of the dragons, but each time power circled, all of it ended up drifting into the vases, which made it even harder to hold on to.
The dragons would fade. Not only the dragons that had initially connected to the vases, but other ones. The yellow-scaled dragon. The dragons within the dragon pen. The green dragon I had rescued.
All of them would be claimed by him and whomever he worked with.
All of them would be used to overthrow the kingdom.
I couldn’t find any way to separate him from the pull of power. He was too strong.
He had connected to the vases. Somehow, that was the key. He used that power in a way I could not.
But why couldn’t I?
I could feel the power flowing through and coming out of the vases—and the way he drew on that energy.
It flowed through me, as well.
Which meant it flowed through him.
It was a cycle of power between the two of us. I had formed it unintentionally, building it over time, but that cycle seemed to matter—only I didn’t know what to make of it. Energy continued to spill out of him, and I changed my approach.
Rather than trying to pull upon the power, and trying to regain control, I did something different. I started to focus on him. If I could affect Donathar—if I could find a way to somehow drain his power into the vase, as mine had been—I could possibly mitigate his advantage.
I worked through my lessons, realizing that they had been taught to me by Jerith, one who had intended to overthrow the king, but they were still useful despite that. I called power to me, focusing on my breathing and the heat within me—that knowing energy that made it feel as if I had swallowed smoldering coals—then relaxed.
I opened myself to that power.
The dragons flowed through me. That was easy. They had always flowed through me. I connected to their energy and felt for something more. I felt for Donathar. He was a part of the cycle, whether he wanted to be or not. There was no way for him to reach for the power of the dragons without completing the cycle. For him to use these vases, and for him to use the dragons against me, he had to be a part of that cycle.
Which meant I could influence that.
There. I could feel him. I began to focus on his connection to the cycle, and the way he was bound within it, and started to shift his flow of power.
I did it subtly. It wasn’t something I even fully understood. All I knew was that I was using a bit of power that seemed familiar to me, power that came from the dragons, and guidance that came from them as well.
All along, I’d wondered whether the dragons had some way of communicating. Perhaps they couldn’t speak—though I wasn’t at all convinced they couldn’t—but they could communicate with me through their connection to power. I just had to be open to it and acknowledge that power. As the energy flowed, I recognized what the dragons were doing and how they guided me. They showed me what needed to happen, sending power sweeping into the vase.
That power was what I needed to control, what I needed to hold on to—and what I could use.
I started to push it into the vase.
At first, Donathar didn’t seem to know what I was doing. He grinned at me, and I realized he had still been talking. I had been so focused on trying to connect to the dragon energy that I had ignored what he said.
“Thomas is coming,” I said.
I needed to delay him. I didn’t know what else I might say to him in order to do so.
“Thomas has gone in search of the Djarn. He’s been convinced that they intend to attack.”
“Because of you.”
He shrugged. “I can’t deny that. It’s been far too useful for me to convince him of that. Much like convincing the king to chase the Vard has served our purposes.”
“Thomas is on his way back to the capital. It won’t be long before he returns.”
Power flowed out of him. Before long, he would overwhelm me with it.
“You have some potential. I can understand why he wanted to work with you. H
ad you some more time to experience your connection, perhaps you might have understood what needed to be done, but unfortunately . . .”
He continued calling power, and it continued to flow out from him, drawing off of me as well. Here I thought I could use what I knew about the dragons and the connection between them—that I could summon that power so I could prevent him from surging energy—but he was far too skilled.
What had Thomas said about that though?
The Academy believed skill mattered more than strength.
There was an element of skill that was important. I didn’t know nearly what I needed to about the power of the dragons, and perhaps I might not learn it quickly enough.
What I had was strength.
I could feel it burning within me. That strength was what had drawn Thomas to me, what had drawn the green dragon to me, and what allowed me as an older student to have success in the Academy, where I was not meant to thrive.
That was what I needed to draw upon.
I could use that. I had the strength necessary to do what needed to be done. I had the necessary power. All I had to do now was open myself to it, feel that energy, and let it flow into me.
And I had to stop him.
It wasn’t so much a matter of knowing more than him. He had knowledge. What I had was a connection to the dragons, which granted me strength. I had formed this cycle. There was ownership to it, and that ownership mattered.
I focused on the green dragon. He was the first one I added to the cycle. I moved on to the golden-scaled dragon, and then with each dragon I focused upon, the cycle formed within me more solidly. Finally, I worked through the captured dragons that I had added to the cycle, and then to Donathar—the last part of the cycle.
Then I forced his energy through the vase. I made sure his power went in and what was in the vase came out and to me. That was how the cycle formed, and that was how I could command it.
He gasped, his eyes going wide.
I dropped the other vases I held and darted toward him, but he reacted. He started to call upon power, though even as he did, I forced more of it into the vase, confining his own energy.
“You’re a part of this as well,” I said.
He glared at me. “Do you think you can hold me?”
I grunted. “No.”
I could still feel something though. There was a new sense of energy nearby.
It seemed to hurry down the stairs, and suddenly Donathar turned toward it.
He tried to grasp for the power of the dragons, attempting to wrest control over the cycle from me, but he could not. I had that control. I maintained it. And I made certain to hold onto it, ensuring I trapped that energy here.
I could feel something moving, energy flowing, and I raised my head slightly, turning in the direction of the staircase.
When I did, my heart skipped.
I didn't know if I was saved—or doomed.
Thomas arrived, the king one step behind him, dressed in a flowing gray gown. The Sharath was with him and his gaze lingered on me before turning to Donathar.
“What is this?” the king demanded.
“It’s this student,” Donathar said quickly. “I caught him down here. He’s been working with Thomas, as you suspected, and has attempted to use the power of the dragons to overthrow you.”
The king turned his attention to me. “Is that true?” He glanced past me, looking to the three vases now resting at my feet.
It looked bad. I knew it did.
“I caught him here,” I said. “I felt dragons throughout the city. Dragons that were injured. And then there was this dragon,” I said, stepping off to the side and motioning to it.
Thomas gasped. “There you are,” he whispered.
I frowned. “There who is?”
Thomas nodded. “This was the very first dragon I bonded to.” He glanced over to the king. “This is why you accused me?”
“There was an energy signature that suggested your responsibility,” the king said. “I didn’t want to believe it, which is why I gave you the opportunity to prove yourself.”
“It’s Donathar. There are others involved. One of the instructors at the Academy. I’m sure you came across Manuel in the hallway. He’s injured and needs help—”
“He’s already had the help he needs,” the Sharath said.
Manuel appeared out of the darkness and stepped into the hall. The king turned to him.
I was fading.
If Donathar took control of this power, I didn’t know what would happen.
Could he overwhelm Thomas? The king?
Probably.
I strained.
I had to hold it.
Only a little longer . . .
“Well?” the king asked Manuel.
Manuel glanced from me to Donathar, and finally to the dragon. “He speaks the truth.”
The king frowned. “Which one?”
“Ashan. Donathar attacked me.”
With that, Donathar suddenly surged, and he again tried to wrest control of the dragon cycle from me.
I resisted.
Power from the cycle filled me, but I couldn’t fully control it.
I created a looping band of flame, sending it sweeping toward him.
He pulled through the cycle, trying to steal power from me.
With more time, he might succeed, but a thought had occurred to me. I wasn’t strong enough to withstand him, but I didn’t have to be.
I pushed him back.
I had enough strength for that.
He stumbled, landing near the dragon.
All I’d wanted was to knock him over and give me time. Nothing more than that.
Instead, the dragon did something unexpected.
He lifted his head, more movement than I’d seen from him in the time he’d been here, and he snapped up Donathar in his massive jaws, ripping him in half with one sharp movement and a spray of blood across the ground.
Donathar cried out but was quickly silenced.
The power in the cycle flashed—then it poured into me as control over the cycle came free of Donathar’s influence.
The dragon belched out a hint of flame, settling his head back to the ground.
It all happened so fast that I had no idea how to react.
The king just grunted. “Well. That settles that.” He nodded to me. “Deal with this, all of you.” He nodded to Thomas, then to the Sharath, and finally paused on Manuel, leaning in and whispering something to him before leaving. I sank to the ground, exhaustion striking me, and drifted off without meaning to.
24
When I woke, I was resting near the massive black-scaled dragon, still in the lower chamber beneath the palace. I was still tired, and everything within me seemed to throb. Power continued to stream off of me, leaving me fading. Whatever was happening meant that energy drew off of me in a way I couldn’t completely control.
I sat up, looking over to see the dragon watching me. The power cycling through me and through the vases continued, and it was more than what I could command.
“You will have to work with me.”
I looked over to see a familiar face. It took me a moment to process what I was seeing. “Natalie?”
She scooted closer, collecting the four vases and nodding. “You’re going to have to work with me.”
“I don’t understand. What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean?”
I looked toward the tunnel. “I mean, what are you doing here? In the palace?”
She smiled slightly. The light in the room was dim, only a few lanterns casting a flickering glow, and even that seemed to shift and shimmer every so often. “I told you my family moved around.”
“You did.”
“It was because of my father’s posts.”
“Your father . . .” I frowned, thinking about something I had overheard the Sharath say about moving around in his service to the kingdom. It fit with what Natalie had described. “He’s the
Sharath.”
She nodded slowly. “He is.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“There wasn’t any reason to tell you before.”
“Were you sent to watch me?”
She chuckled. “Not you. I was sent to watch Thomas. My father doesn’t care for him that much. Then when the dragons started disappearing, I was to keep an eye on them.”
“He’s not the one responsible.”
“I know. My father knows that now, too.” She looked up at me, holding her gaze for a moment. “I’m going to need you to help me.”
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I need you to help me with this so we can release the dragons’ energy from here.” She pulled one of the vases in front of her before moving so that they could all be situated in front of her. I sat up, crossing my legs and watching her. “If we don’t release the energy, the dragons will suffer. Eventually . . .”
“Eventually, they’re going to fade,” I said.
She nodded. “Unfortunately, I think they would. Do you think you can help?”
“What do you need from me?”
“What I need is for you to focus on what you can feel from the dragons, and I need you to work with me to help release the power in each of these vases. It’s not going to be easy.”
“How is it that you’re the one doing this?” I looked toward the distant stairs. Where was Thomas? Manuel? The Sharath?
“They thought it might be easier for the two of us to do this, given our friendship. Besides, it seems as if the Academy has some accounting to do with those who might have infiltrated it. You told Thomas there was an instructor working with the Vard.”
I nodded. “He was.”
“Considering that, and what you encountered on your way to the city, I think the king wants tighter control over the Academy. It means Thomas will need to have a firmer hand in its running.”
“There were some students, as well.”
“I’m sure there were,” she said.
There was something about what I had seen from Brandel and Cara that wasn’t quite right. I would have to talk to Thomas about it. Elaine’s influence. Donathar’s attack. They believed the Vard were involved, but I knew better.
Only, those who could speak the truth were dead.
The Betrayed Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 2) Page 26
