The Caged Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 1)

by Dan Michaelson

  Elaine laughed slightly. “What did the two of you think you could do when it came to the Vard? They aren’t powerless. They caught me. The two of you should get back to Berestal. It’s probably safer for you to be there than out here.”

  I leaned forward. “I’m not going anywhere until I find my sister.”

  “There isn’t much you’re going to be able to find when it comes to your sister out here,” Elaine said. “If the Vard have her, and I’m saying if, especially since I don’t really know, the two of you aren’t going to be able to free her.”

  “What about you?” I asked. “What are you going to do?”

  Elaine glared at me. “Do you mean am I going to go after the Vard?”

  I shrugged. “Are you?”

  “I’ve dealt with them enough times.”

  I frowned at her. “That’s not much of an answer.”

  “That’s all the answer you need,” Elaine said.

  “Are you going to do anything about them, or not?” I asked.

  “You’re asking if I’m going to go after them and rescue your sister. It’s possible I will.”

  “Possible?” I asked. “We’re part of the kingdom and have been faithful citizens—”

  “Faithful?” She shot Joran a long look. “You use that term a little bit fast and loose.”

  “My sister and I are faithful citizens of the kingdom.” I waited for her to say something more but she didn’t. I nodded to Joran. “Come on. This is something I have to do,” I said. Whether or not you are a part of it.”

  Elaine chuckled. “You’ve got spirit. Can’t deny that. A man like that can be useful.”

  She regarded me for a moment. “ Have you ever given any thought to serving?”

  “No.”

  Joran watched me, with an unreadable look on his face. I shook my head, trying to ignore Elaine, trying to ignore the look that Joran gave me.

  “Let me tell you something about the Vard,” Elaine said, leaning forward slightly. “They have made a point of attacking more recently. You think this is the first time we’ve encountered them in the forest?” Elaine swept her gaze around. “You think I was surprised to find them here? Attacking people from the Wilds?” She turned and looked over to us, shaking her head. “ The answer to both of those questions is no. What does that tell you?”

  “It tells me nothing,” I said. I glanced over to Joran, wondering what he might know. If his family really were Vard sympathizers, then it was possible that he knew more than he was letting on. I was still surprised that he would have been caught up in any of this.

  “It tells me they think they’ve got something,” Elaine said. “Now, I’m not exactly sure what that is, but before I return, I need those answers. It’s more than just the Vard,” Elaine said. “The Vard hadn’t been willing or able to attack us until now. Something changed for them. ”

  I watched her, uncertain of what to say. I didn’t necessarily want to help her. But despite that, there was a part of me that felt like I needed to help. We were a part of the kingdom, after all, even if it didn’t always feel like it.

  “I need to understand what happened.” She looked from Joran to me. “I wasn’t alone in that wagon caravan. We need to figure out what they were after.” She looked off through the trees. I nodded, glancing over to Joran. “I’ll do it.”

  “Can I talk with you?” Joran asked.

  He motioned for us to move far enough away where Elaine wouldn’t be able to hear us. At least, where I didn’t think she’d be able to hear us. She was a dragon mage, after all, and I didn’t know what sort of listening powers she might have. Maybe there were none, but there was the possibility that she had some way of listening in.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “She’s with the Academy. We have to help.”

  He shook his head. “None of this is our responsibility.”

  “Alison is my responsibility.”

  “But she’s not concerned about your sister.”

  “She’s concerned enough about the wagons.” I had no idea whether Elaine really cared about my sister or not, but I had a sense that she wanted to remove the Vard. That, more than anything else, told me what I needed to do. If she was willing to work against the Vard, then we had to be a part of it.

  “And if she isn’t willing to help?”

  “Then we go after her on our own.”

  I turned back to where Elaine sat in the small clearing. My mind raced through everything that we needed to do, and everything that we had been through.

  I had to find my sister now, but even once I did, returning home put me in a very different situation. My brother might still be sick, possibly beyond recovery. My father was gone. And having seen my mother, and the truth of the way that she had reacted, I couldn’t help but feel as if I had been taken advantage of.

  We were close to the Djarn path. The sounds of the forest had diminished, but not so much that I couldn’t hear the faint rumbling coming from the mesahn. There were no other sounds. It was a strange realization. This deep into the forest I would’ve expected the chattering of squirrels, perhaps the hooting of owls, the chirping of other birds, or even the occasional cry of a wolf. There was none of that. The insects weren’t even buzzing. It was almost as if the forest itself held its breath, waiting. It was unnerving.

  Joran looked away from me. “I’m sorry about this. I told you that my mother was from the city. I should have said more, but I didn’t know how to bring it up. How can you tell your friend your family still has ties to…” He sighed, shaking his head. “Well, she has stayed in contact with other Vard. I never thought anything would come of it. She’s been working in the city, making contacts with people that she claims serve the Vard, but none of that has ever mattered. Gods, we barely have any people from the kingdom come through Berestal.”

  “There’s always a few who come through,” I said.

  “No one that the Vard would ever be interested in. I never got involved. Tara did. But I was content to stay on the farm, to work with my father, and to stay out of it.”

  I just shook my head. “You might need to find out what they were planning.”

  “I don’t think they were planning anything,” he said.

  I fixed him with a hard gaze. “You told me yourself you went into the city because of the Academy. Your sister was with you. It sounds to me like they knew something was going on, and it sounds to me like they were determined to be a part of it.”

  Joran licked his lips, swallowing. “They wouldn’t have done anything to your sister.”

  He was my friend. And I knew his family. Had Tara known Alison would be chosen and then part of an ambush, I had to think she would have done something differently. “Still, if your mother has been working with the Vard, it’s going to be a little difficult to separate the two.” I left him, heading back toward Elaine.

  As I approached, she looked up.

  “I need your help. I know you have no interest in helping one person, but if you’re going after the Vard, and considering the fact that you have waited here, rather than leaving altogether, it suggests to me that you intend to do something, and I’m going to be a part of it. I might not be with the Academy, but I’m willing to work with you to help Alison.”

  “And if they don’t have her?”

  “If they don’t have her, then…” I glanced back to where Joran stood at the edge of the clearing. He had his arms crossed in front of him as he watched me, uncertainty in his eyes. How much more did he know about the Vard and what had taken place? I wanted to believe him, but he would protect his family the way I had protected mine. Joran might not be involved, but how deeply were his mother and sister?

  “If they don’t have her, then I still think we need to rescue whoever the Vard have captured.”

  Elaine watched me. Finally, she nodded. “I could use some help. I do not tolerate anyone challenging my authority though. As a dragon mage my authority comes directly from the king
. And we must find this girl.”

  “So long as we get my sister out of here, then I don’t care. I will do whatever it takes.”

  14

  We moved through the forest quickly. Elaine navigated through the trees easily, as if she knew exactly what she was doing and where she was going. Every so often, she would pause, and flames would crawl around her hands, pouring out into the darkness, before retreating. That energy was amazing. I found myself staring, watching as she wrapped that power out and away from her. There was a pattern to what she did, though I couldn’t always tell just what it was.

  “I never thought that I would ever be so close to a dragon mage,” Joran said.

  There was something impressive and majestic about it.

  I hurried up to her, and she glanced over at me. “Do you have to be connected to a dragon to use that power?”

  She frowned. “Do you always ask so many questions?”

  “It’s just that we don’t get much experience with dragon mages near Berestal.”

  “No. I suppose that you don’t.” She raised her hand and flames started to twist along her fingers, running down her arm, spreading wider and wider until we both took a step away. “I do not need to be close to a dragon.”

  “How do you do it, then?”

  “There is a way of holding power,” she said.

  “Holding a dragon’s power?” Joran asked.

  “It’s not something that I can easily explain to those who don’t have potential.”

  He shared a look with me. “How is that supposed to help us find Alison?”

  “His sister?” Elaine asked, looking over to me.

  I nodded. “She was selected in the test when you came to the city. ” The memory of when she was pulled away from me stayed with me. At the time, I had no idea what was going on, and then when she passed…

  It had been a mixture of emotions. Pride. Sadness. And then a desire to say goodbye.

  When I finally found Alison, rescued her—and I would—I needed to talk to her. I could help her get to the Academy. Even if I had to escort her all the way there, then I would do it. Alison deserved that much at least.

  If only he had been a part of the caravan, then maybe Alison wouldn’t have been captured. Or, if they had brought a dragon, it might have been different.

  “Does he always do the testing?” I asked.

  We came across another path. A Djarn path. How had she managed to find it?

  It had to be tied to the magic she used.

  “He doesn’t always. I believe the king sent him.”

  I frowned to myself. There was something off here, though I wasn’t quite sure what it was. “You didn’t know he was coming.”

  “No,” she said.

  That explained why the dragon came later with the dragon mage.

  “Why do you think he sent him?” Joran asked.

  “The king can choose.”

  “Do you think he knew the Vard might attack?”

  Elaine’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know.”

  We continued through the trees as we picked along the Djarn path, moving quickly. Every so often, she would pause and look behind her before hurrying onward. It was almost as if she heard or felt something, and then we would move onward. After a while, I stopped pressing for answers.

  “Can you lead us back to the caravan?” I asked.

  “First I need to find this girl. Once I do…”

  Every so often, I heard the rumbling out in the forest, that of the mesahn. It seemed like it was closer.

  “Why have we never heard that creature before?” Joran asked.

  “Because they aren’t common,” she said.

  “If they’re not common, then why is it here now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Are the Vard using it?”

  She looked over and shook her head.

  That couldn’t be it, and the Vard had seemed afraid of it.

  Maybe the mesahn were just one more type of creature that prowled in the forest. It was a strange enough place as it was, and dangerous. Perhaps the Djarn used the mesahn.

  “Are you going after that woman so you can see if you can use that creature?” I asked.

  “The Djarn do not hunt with mesahn,” she said.

  Djarn? I thought she said she was from the Wilds. “Then what are you… Oh.”

  I looked over to Joran before cutting off. The forest opened up into a wide clearing. In the distance, a city spread out among the forest. It was like no other city that I’d ever seen, and it seemed to grow amid the forest. The buildings were all heaped and massive mounds of earth, some piles of stone and trees appeared to grow out of the middle of it. In the darkness it was difficult to make out any detail, though enough moonlight streamed through that I could see some of the features of the city. There was a strange energy in the air, and a strange odor as well.

  “Is this what you were looking for?” I said.

  “Not this,” Elaine whispered.

  I looked over to her, and she sent out streamers of fire that cracked along the forest floor, leaving the air sizzling with the energy coming off of it.

  “This is abandoned,” she said.

  “You were looking for a Djarn city?” Joran asked.

  “Did you know they had cities like this?” I asked

  Joran shrugged. “I didn’t know, but it only made sense. I think my father suspected that they did. They would travel a long way in order to trade with us, but this doesn’t seem nearly as long.”

  “Maybe it goes faster when you’re taking one of the Djarn paths,” I said. “Or maybe they have magic.”

  Joran just nodded. He stopped in front of one mound of earth, running his hand along it. “My father always said they were connected to the forest itself. He spoke of them as if they were something mythical, powerful.”

  “Look at all of this,” I said, sweeping my gaze around the forest. Were it not for the moonlight shining down overhead, I wasn’t sure that we would be able to see much of anything. It took Elaine’s magic for us to be able to make out most of the city. Even what we could see was impressive. Not just because of the structures, but how it flowed with the forest, and a realization struck me. “You wouldn’t see this from the sky,” I realized.

  The trees had openings in them, enough that the moonlight could shine through, but with the way that the forest grew around the buildings, I could easily imagine how difficult it would be for anyone to see this space from above.

  Elaine stopped at one structure that surrounded a massive tree. She circled the entirety of the tree, coming to stop on the far side of it, sweeping her gaze all around her. “We knew they had cities, but we’ve never been able to find one.”

  “You found this one just fine.”

  She cocked her head, looking at me. “I was following the girl. I want to help her. The Vard captured her the same way that they captured me, and I feared that if she got too far into the forest…”

  “We haven’t seen any sign of her, though,” I said.

  “No.” Elaine continued looking around her. “Maybe she managed to escape.”

  I couldn’t tell if she was disappointed or pleased. Either way, I didn’t know that it even mattered.

  “If this was where you were coming, it’s time for us to head back to the wagon so that we can find my sister.”

  “We have time,” she said.

  “How do you know?”

  “The Vard aren’t abandoning those wagons.”

  “What if they—”

  “They are not abandoning the wagons,” she repeated.

  I decided not to argue. There was no point in getting into a battle with her over that.

  Instead, maybe I should use the opportunity to explore the Djarn city as well. I doubted I would ever find another one. It was hard enough for me to find my way through the forest in the first place, so to think that I might find my way all of the way through the forest and uncover another Djarn city seemed impossi
ble.

  Joran followed me for a little while before stopping in front of a building made out of stone. It was piled up and stacked in such a way that it looked to be leaning off to the side. I was tempted to join him, but I headed to the edge of the forest. I lingered there for a moment, looking out into the darkness. I listened, but no longer heard any sound of the mesahn.

  It had been getting closer up until recently. Why would it suddenly have stopped?

  I turned before I saw something.

  Eyes that glowed out of the darkness. They were bright, yellow, and intense.

  At first, I feared it was a wolf, then maybe even one of the camin. Here in the forest, either would be dangerous.

  But the size was wrong.

  It was enormous.

  I couldn’t shake the feeling of the enormity of the creature, or the sudden trembling fear that struck me.

  It was a mesahn.

  I’d never seen one before, but having seen the pawprint, having heard it howling in the forest, I felt as if I knew the creature, even without seeing it.

  Through the trees, it seemed that the mesahn regarded me, as if trying to decide whether I was a threat or not. There was a level of intelligence in the creature’s eyes that was more than what I would expect. Having been raised on a farm, I’d been around animals my entire life. Some gave off the impression that they were smarter than the others. There was no doubt in my mind that some horses were incredibly intelligent, though like with people, that didn’t apply to all of them. Over the years, we’d had incredibly bright dogs as well. The last one had been several years ago, lost in the same accident that had claimed my brother and father, but all of the dogs we ever had had possessed a level of intelligence.

  This creature watched me with something more than that. It was bordering on human-level intelligence. It was a feeling I had, and I had no idea whether or not that feeling was justified, only that as I watched the mesahn watching me, but he regarded me with a stare that carried with it the knowledge and understanding that an animal shouldn’t have.

  I took a step to one side, and the mesahn followed. I moved to the other, and the mesahn still followed. Each time I moved, I had a feeling that the mesahn was tracking me, trying to decide what level of threat I was, or trying to decide when to attack.