The Caged Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 1)

by Dan Michaelson

  “We could watch just a little while longer,” she said.

  “We could, but that’s not why we’re here.”

  “We’re here to see all of this,” she said.

  I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, nodding. There was no reason for me to tear her away. It would only upset her.

  We reached another intersection, where a troupe of musicians were singing, their voices combating the chaotic sounds of the crowd, rising in an excited chant. Their clothing was dy ed in hues of deep greens in stripes of varying intensity with swirls of brown worked into it. The women’s dresses were all low-cut, revealing more cleavage than what was typical in the city, and the men had their arms exposed, showing off their tattoos. I didn’t know where they were from, but there was something fascinating about them.

  They were good. Much better than the normal musicians we saw. Even I found myself listening to the song. It was a tale of the time before the kingdom had claimed Berestal.

  “They’re from the Wilds,” Alison whispered.

  “They have to be, to be singing a song like that,” I said. There was a vibrating energy to their voices, a rising chorus that was so distinct from how those within Berestal would sing.

  “I’m surprised they would sing that kind of a song here.”

  It was the kind of song that was bound to get noticed, but only if soldiers came around. With the crowd around them, they had a little time. I imagined them moving on if they were caught, regrouping and starting again.

  I shrugged, sweeping my gaze around the crowd. We were jostled from behind, as people pushed us. I tried to ignore them, and to focus only on the minstrels, wanting to listen to the song, to be caught up in it.

  “When I was with Joran and his family, his sister revealed that there are quite a few Vard supporters within the city,” I said, lowering my voice. It was difficult to do and still be heard, though I didn’t want to shout anything out about the Vard openly. Especially not with the king and his men here.

  “Supporters?”

  I shook my head. “I suppose that’s not quite the right word. I think they said sympathizers.”

  “I’ve heard that,” she said. I looked around. There were banners for the king all throughout the city, though some still flew the old Berestal banner from when it had been free. “I don’t know if we had much of a choice. You’ve heard how Dad talks about it.”

  “I don’t know what to make of what our father says,” she said. “When he talks about some of the things he’s seen and done, it’s almost as if there’s more to him than we know. Other times, I think he’s delusional.” She looked over to me. “Like when he talks about the darkness in the forest that attacked him.”

  “I know,” I said softly.

  “I wish that day had never happened.”

  “Me too.”

  We fell silent again.

  The troupe was singing about how the rains danced as they pattered over the plains, and how the people joined together. There was something to the song that pulled on some part of me, almost as if it were trying to dig out some buried aspect that pulled on the longing within.

  “I don’t recognize the song,” Alison said.

  “I don’t think that we’re supposed to recognize it. It might be an original. It’s more about the message within the song.”

  “I still can’t believe they would sing it,” she said.

  The minstrels cut off suddenly, as they packed their instruments and began to disperse, spreading in every direction. I stared for a moment until five soldiers marched along the street, all dressed in maroon and gold , the silver of their helms glittering under the sunlight.

  I chuckled softly. “It seems we were right,” I said.

  Berestal was normally tolerant of such things, a tolerance born by how close to the border of the kingdom they were, but with the king’s men in the city, tolerance had changed.

  “Still, they were here,” she said.

  “And we shouldn’t be,” I said. “It’s time for us to keep moving.”

  “I thought you were willing to stay,” she said.

  “I am willing to stay,” I said, “but we don’t need to stay here.”

  I took her hand, not wanting to lose Alison in the crowd, as I pulled her along. We headed down the street, following the flow of the crowd. There was a certain current to it. On one side the people seemed to be moving toward the Marshal’s Tower, but on the other side of the street, they were making their way toward the gate. “We aren’t going to be able to see anything when we get there,” I said, noticing just how many people were heading in the same direction as us.

  “You don’t know that,” she said.

  I frowned, shaking my head. “I don’t, but look how many people are around us.”

  We reached another intersection, and Alison stopped, looking along the street before turning her attention back to the tower. “We could sweep around,” she said. “The crowds aren’t likely to be as thick in the other parts of the city.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “If most of these people aren’t from Berestal, and if they’ve come in from the surrounding villages, they might not know the city nearly as well as we do.”

  I chuckled. “I don’t know if I would claim either of us knows the city all that well.”

  “Better than some. Come on, Ashan… ”

  I let her lead me. We took one of the side streets. The crowd was still thick here, as it moved toward the main street, though not nearly as dense as it had been. We weren’t shoulder to shoulder anymore, elbowing our way through the crowd. Eventually, we even found a few carts set up with food and drinks, and Alison convinced me to buy roasted meats and sweet breads. We moved on, eating in silence, looking around as we headed through the city.

  “What kind of test do you think the Academy performs?”

  I shook my head. “I have no idea. There are different needs within the Academy.”

  “What if they’re here to test for dragon riders?”

  I chuckled. “Then they’ll be disappointed. Probably here for the traditional Academy needs. Scholars. Historians. That sort of thing.”

  “You don’t think anybody in Berestal has the potential to become a dragon rider?”

  “I don’t really know anything about dragon riders,” I said.

  Alison shot me a look. “Ashan Feranth. We both know that’s not true. You wanted to be a dragon rider when you were just a child. If anyone were to know anything about dragon riders and what was involved , it would be you.”

  I sighed. “That was a long time ago,” I said. “And I never looked into what would be involved. Only that I know we’ve seen a mere handful of dragons in all the time we’ve lived here.”

  “Just because we’ve only seen a handful of dragons doesn’t mean there aren’t dozens upon dozens. Hundreds. I imagine the king has a whole menagerie of dragons.”

  I glanced over, grinning at her. “A menagerie?”

  “I don’t know. They are somewhat like birds, aren’t they?”

  “Enormous, fire-breathing birds.”

  “So, would you say a flock of dragons?”

  I laughed again. “I suppose so.”

  We continued along the street, as we turned a corner heading toward the tower, but now we came at it from a different direction. The crowd wasn’t nearly as thick here. I finished the roasted meat that we purchased, wiping my hands on my pants, and pulled the sweet bread out of my pocket, unwrapping it to take a small bite of it. It wasn’t nearly as good as the sweet breads Alison made, and I told her that.

  “Maybe I should set up a cart and sell my goods here,” she said.

  “I think you would do well.”

  “Had we known about this I could’ve done it earlier,” she said.

  I eyed her, still not convinced that she hadn’t known. “We don’t come to the city enough for us to have known.”

  “Mom does.” She looked around, and pressed her lips together as she frowned
. “I wonder if she knew that the king had sent the Academy here for a selection.”

  “Now you want to blame Mom for keeping something from you?”

  “She’s in the city two or three times a week,” Alison said.

  I frowned at her. “She doesn’t come that often.”

  “She does. She leaves me with Dad and Thenis. I’m surprised you haven’t noticed.”

  “I’ve noticed her gone sometimes, but the work on the farm takes most of my attention,” I said.

  “It can’t be more than once a week.”

  “You ask her.”

  We neared a section of the city where the crowd began to thicken again. We had passed a series of wooden homes, each one seemingly larger than the last. As we neared the Marshal’s Tower, the homes had some green space around them, along with high stone walls that prevented anyone from getting too close. This was the wealthier section of the city and a place where neither of us had spent much time.

  “I imagine they don’t love that the crowd is spreading all the way out to here,” I said.

  “I suppose not,” Alison said, laughing. “With the Tallman Festival, they mostly stay out of the city.”

  “Even with the Midlon Festival there isn’t this kind of a crowd.

  It celebrated the end of the dry season as it headed into the wet season. It was a time where people gathered to pray to the storm gods to give them a gentle rain.

  It was a festival I’d always found entertaining, though not one I put much stock in. Living out in the plains, farming and dealing with the livestock, there was a certain practicality we needed. I wasn’t superstitious enough to think that prayers impacted the rain or the weather at all.

  We neared the crowd, and I pressed up close , trying to make our way through. We got a few angry looks, but I ignored them.

  “We aren’t going to get close enough to see anything,” Alison said. “If there’s some sort of a selection, all we need to do is—”

  Somebody shoved us. I staggered back, trying to stay close to Alison. We got separated for a moment until I forced my way forward and grabbed hold of her arm. That was one advantage of working on the farm. Dealing with stubborn animals, I didn’t lack for strength. I also wouldn’t hesitate fighting my way through, especially when it involved my sister.

  “Stay close to me,” I said.

  Alison looked over, her eyes wide. “I didn’t expect to get shoved like that,” she said.

  “I know, but with this many people it’s going to be hard for us to stay together. Don’t let anyone pull you away from me.”

  “What happens if we get separated?”

  I looked around. It would be difficult to do anything if that were to happen. “If we get separated, let’s meet back at the stables. Laret will let you stay there until I get back.”

  “Are you trying to put us together?”

  I snorted. “I think I would rather you and Joran be together than you and Laret.”

  “You don’t care for him?”

  I laughed again. “It’s not a matter of not caring for him. I think you could do better than Laret, as nice a man as he is.”

  We forced our way through the crowd, moving deeper and deeper into the throng of people. I had to stay close to her, but it was difficult to keep my hand on her. As we went, I started to take the lead, forcing my way past her.

  The crowd suddenly opened up.

  There was an enormous cobblestone courtyard outside of the Marshal’s Tower. The caravan of wagons was arranged alongside it. The sunlight shining down caught the maroon and gold painted lead wagon in such a way that made it look even more regal, if such a thing were possible. The flags sitting atop each bore the king’s standard, the dragon flying in such a way as to appear both threatening and reassuring. It was almost as if I could feel the energy of the king and his dragons from the standard alone. A dozen men and women were nearby, though they didn’t seem to pay any mind to the crowd.

  “Why isn’t anyone getting any closer?” Alison whispered.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s almost as if people are afraid to.”

  As we continued forward we found a line of soldiers blocking us from getting any closer. They were dressed the same as the others we’d seen on the city wall, their armor gleaming. Each of them carried a sword with their hands resting on the hilt.

  I nodded toward them. “At least now we know why people aren’t getting any closer.”

  “Those soldiers wouldn’t keep everyone back—”

  An enormous roar erupted, and my eye was drawn up.

  A dragon.

  Not just any dragon, but the same blue-scaled dragon I’d seen the other night was now perched atop the Marshal’s Tower. The stone itself gave off an energy that radiated around the city. Shadows stretched away from the tower as if crawling toward us in the courtyard.

  Heat radiated off the dragon, and I could practically feel it washing over me. My skin began to grow tight, and when a burst of flame erupted from the dragon’s mouth, the crowd gasped. There was some part of me that felt a burning deeper inside, as if the heat was working its way through me.

  “A dragon,” Alison whispered.

  “I didn’t see it fly in,” I said.

  “Did you think you would?”

  “It means it’s been here for a little while.”

  “We don’t know that,” she said.

  I shook my head. “Maybe , but…”

  The dragon roared again, and another burst of flame shot out. My skin felt tight again. There was nothing quite like that dragon, nothing quite like the heat that I felt, and nothing quite like the strange certainty that rolled within me of the power that the dragon must possess.

  “That’s why the crowd isn’t getting too close,” Alison said.

  I nodded.

  “Aren’t you glad we came?”

  I shook my head slowly. “I would have been just as content staying home.”

  “Liar,” she said, laughing.

  The dozen people near the wagons turned as one of the men stepped forward. He raised his hands wide, and I noticed that he was wearing a black robe. The dragon standard of the king was sewn into the robe in a bright maroon embroidery. Flames streamed from his hands, and they spiraled up, forming the same shape over him. Everyone in the crowd gasped.

  “A dragon mage,” Alison breathed out.

  Dragon riders were rare. Dragon mages even more so.

  Out of everything that defended the kingdom, dragons were the most fearsome, if only because they were so visible. A person could see a dragon, could feel the heat , and would know the danger such a massive and violent creature posed. The dragon mages posed a different sort of threat, one few ever witnessed. A dragon mage could move through the kingdom unnoticed and undetected.

  “Let the testing begin,” the dragon mage said, his voice carrying.

  I wasn’t sure what that involved but people began separating from the crowd, pushing forward. I glanced over to Alison. Her eyes widened as she was pulled from my grasp, and went staggering toward the courtyard as if drawn by an invisible band.

  8

  I reached for Alison, but I wasn’t fast enough. The soldier closest to me unsheathed his sword, pointing it right at me. My eyes went straight to the gleaming blade, unable to look away from it.

  “That’s my sister,” I said.

  The soldier shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. She is going for testing.”

  “She didn’t come here for testing,” I said.

  The soldier chuckled. “Everybody comes for the test,” he said.

  “We only came here for…”

  I wasn’t even sure what to say what we had come here for. Certainly not this. We hadn’t even known that there was going to be a testing like this at all.

  Alison looked back at me.

  She wasn’t the only one drawn out into the courtyard.

  All around us the crowd parted as people of various ages were drawn toward the drago
n mage. Most of them were younger than Alison. There were a few who looked to be about the same age as her. They all had the same wide-eyed expression on their face, as if they didn’t know why they were summoned.

  I had no idea how or why she was summoned.

  “At least let me go with her,” I said.

  The soldier stared at me. “Go with her? Were you summoned?”

  “How would I know? She wasn’t summoned.”

  He grunted again. “Wasn’t she?”

  The people that were called forward began to approach the dragon mage. He had short dark hair and black eyes. The symbol above his head crackled and simmered. The air seemed to hiss with energy. A strange heat washed over me and I looked up to see the dragon, but it had disappeared.

  I tried to push forward again, but the soldier kept blocking me.

  He was a little bit shorter than me and not as muscular, but with his blade I doubted I would be able to make it very far. As much as I wanted to get to Alison, I didn’t dare push past the guard. All I could do was watch.

  I took a step back, staying close to the front of the crowd, watching the people lining up near the dragon mage. The soldiers motioned them into place, forming an orderly line. As they lined up, the dragon mage motioned for one to step forward. It was a young girl, probably eight or nine years old, wearing a pale-yellow dress with her hair braided into pigtails. She approached the dragon mage slowly, nervously, with her hands clasped in front of her. He crouched down next to her and pressed two fingers forward, touching her forehead. As he did, the girl jerked her head back.

  The dragon mage motioned.

  One of the soldiers guided the girl away and brought her back to the crowd. Someone within the crowd reached for her, pulling her back.

  I frowned. Did that mean that she didn’t pass the test?

  I couldn’t tell what was going on. It had to be some trick of the dragon mage, an aspect of his magic, but I didn’t know what.

  Another person was summoned forward. It was a boy who looked to be about Alison’s age. He was dressed in a tattered shirt and pants. He likely came from the plains, possibly even a farmer like myself. He approached with a bit more confidence than the girl and looked up at the dragon mage with a hint of defiance in his eyes.