The Summoned Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 4)

by Dan Michaelson

  “Why did you really come here?” Natalie approached carefully, and though I could sense her attempting to reach for the power of the dragons, she didn’t generate any pattern, and I couldn’t feel anything with the dragons the way I had when she had been a part of the cycle. “When you returned, I expected you to go back to the Academy.”

  “I’m still trying to figure out what I need to do,” I said. “Whether it’s at the Academy, the capital, or perhaps it’s just all of this,” I said, waving my hands around me. “Finding these memories.” I looked over to her. “What about you?”

  “I’ve been trying to understand where you went. I know you said you went to understand, but I feel like there’s more to it than that. What duty did you think you had?”

  Maybe I still had my duty to the kingdom, but maybe it was something else—some other need that filled me.

  Natalie watched me. “Are you really afraid of this?”

  “I saw how this memory very nearly overwhelmed the Servant.”

  “The Servant is dangerous. You saw what he did. You saw the way he targeted the kingdom,” she said.

  “I saw it,” I agreed.

  “My people know that the Vard have attacked the dragons,” Natalie said. It was clear from the way she said it that she was more concerned about that than she was about the Vard attacking the kingdom. “You saw what happened in Oranash and Thalar. I know that dragons died there.”

  “I think the Vard believed they had reason to do so,” I said.

  She watched me. “You’ve changed,” she whispered.

  “I wasn’t gone that long,” I said.

  “No, you weren’t, which is why it’s troubling that you’ve changed.”

  I smiled. “I didn’t let them do anything. I did what was needed.”

  Her hands were resting at her sides, but heat radiated from her. A streamer of fire drifted from one hand to the other, and within it, I could feel the pattern she was pulling upon—the energy she called.

  “Maybe it’s time for you to head back,” she said.

  “I will. I just wanted to see what was out here before I go back to the capital.”

  She shook her head. “Not the kingdom,” she told me. “If you still want to know so much about the Vard, then maybe you need to return to them.”

  I wished I could tell her something that would put her mind at ease, but I wasn’t sure if I could. It wasn’t that I cared about the Vard. It was that I had gone looking for understanding. She had to have known that. And what I had found . . .

  It was something more than what I had anticipated.

  “I could show you. That way you can understand.”

  “I don’t think there’s anything you can show me in the Vard lands. I don’t know what you’re doing, but you should be careful, Ashan. Whatever is pulling on you is going to tear you away from those who care about you.”

  Distantly, I could feel the dragon surging, like he was trying to let me know something. What I wouldn’t give to feel the cycle again.

  “What if the answers we need aren’t here?” I looked at her, forcing her to meet my gaze. “You were there when the capital was attacked. When they tried to make it seem like the Djarn had attacked. You were there when others made it look like the Vard had attacked. What does that tell you?”

  A troubled expression crossed Natalie’s face.

  “This is all connected. More than we know,” I said.

  I saw the conflicted emotions crossing her features. They played across her eyes, the power surging within her before retreating.

  “Why don’t you come with me? We can see what my father might be able to tell you about the questions you have,” she said.

  “You believe me now?”

  Natalie took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I don’t know if it’s a matter of believing you, but your instinct has been right so far. And I don’t want to be the one to make a mistake. Not if it means my people will suffer.”

  Her people. That was what this was about for her. Not the kingdom, but the Djarn.

  But what did I care about?

  She headed to her dragon and climbed onto his back while I climbed onto the green dragon’s back, still no closer to the answers I needed.

  Chapter Ten

  I followed Natalie, holding tightly to the dragon’s back. Heat radiated from him, and the energy building within him suggested he was calling upon his connection to fire in a way he normally didn’t. As I flowed with the cycle, connecting to the power within him, I felt something different. It seemed as if the dragon wanted me to be aware that I needed to maintain my connection to him, to the cycle flowing between us.

  I wondered why that would be. The dragon seemed to feel uncertain, which struck me as odd here in the kingdom, surrounded by familiar lands.

  I tapped on his side, feeling the strange power within him and trying to focus, to feel for the cycle that connected me to the other dragons, but it was still not as intense as I was accustomed to.

  I watched Natalie as the wind whipped her black hair and she kept her focus straight ahead. I kept thinking she was going to lead me back to the capital, but she veered in a different direction, heading off to the east, into a part of the kingdom I had not visited by dragon before. It was deeper into the forest. The ground rolled with peaks and valleys, though it wasn’t quite mountainous yet.

  I urged the green dragon to catch up to her, and I looked over. “Where are you taking me?”

  “You have questions. I’m going to provide you with whatever answers I can, but I can’t guarantee they will be the answers you want.”

  I frowned at her. “What kind of answers will they be?”

  She watched me, and for a moment, I thought I felt a hint of the power that flooded through her, a hint of the connection to the dragons in the cycle she was a part of, but then it faded, leaving me with nothing.

  We continued flying.

  I found myself turning and looking behind me, and at first, I thought I was looking back toward where we had landed, but eventually, I realized my focus was drawn beyond, toward the Vard lands, and even to Affellah. I couldn’t help but feel a strange compulsion to return after having spent time there and learning about the dangers that existed there.

  Natalie looked over, as if knowing my thoughts.

  We reached a massive, tree-covered peak. It reminded me of Affellah, though I had not spent any time along the slopes of the volcano. I had been near it though, had felt the energy of Affellah, and I had understood there was something to it. When Natalie started to descend, the green dragon circled for a moment, hesitating again.

  I cycled power through him, feeling it flowing between us. I wondered if I could push even more of my connection through him, perhaps use that to latch on to something greater, but every time I attempted to do so, a pressure pushed back against me, keeping me from reaching for the rest of the cycle.

  “We need to go down there,” I whispered.

  The dragon rumbled softly. He was generally quiet, never roaring or spurting flames like some of the other dragons, but he was filled with heat, a quiet intensity—a marker of some frustration.

  I could feel that frustration too, like the dragon wanted me to know what he was feeling.

  I patted his side, despite knowing it would do nothing to calm him.

  We had been through so much together, why would this be what caused hesitation for him?

  He continued circling a bit before descending and following Natalie.

  We reached the treetops, descending through the canopy, and the dragon streaked toward the ground, wings folded against his body, dropping rapidly. Maybe this was why he had hesitated.

  But then he unfolded them once we passed the upper reaches of the canopy, where he had enough space to maneuver. When he did, he caught some of the air, and we descended carefully, landing in a controlled manner.

  I found Natalie only a hundred paces away, sitting astride her dragon, watching and waiting.

/>   “Come along now,” she said.

  I frowned, looking over to the dragon for a moment. “What about him?”

  “He will be fine,” she said.

  “Are you sure?”

  Natalie arched a brow at me, looking over to the dragon before turning her attention back to me. “You think the dragons are in any danger from the Djarn?”

  I knew they weren’t. I knew her people would respect them in ways even the kingdom did not. They understood the truth of the dragons, and they understood how to connect to them, but it seemed to me there was something more to it.

  Not that they would harm the dragons, but perhaps they might try to force this dragon into a cycle—perhaps one he didn’t want to be a part of.

  Then again, that was assuming something about Natalie and her people that I had not experienced. I had not spent much time with the Djarn—only her and her father—though I had seen the Djarn and dealt with them in the forest.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to her. “I know I’m being unreasonable. It’s just—”

  “It’s just that you have spent too much time with them,” she said.

  It surprised me that she was as irritated as she seemed to be. Then again, I had gone to the Vard lands without really telling her what I was doing, what I planned, or why I was going. In her mind, it must’ve been a betrayal, but in my mind, it was a matter of trying to understand, to learn about the Vard, to have an opportunity to try to connect to a people we did not understand.

  But perhaps that was my mistake.

  She headed toward the trees, disappearing from view.

  I patted the green dragon on his side, focusing on the cycle between us and pushing power through him. Having felt the murtar as much as I had recently, I wanted to ensure I was not going to be caught off guard and hold onto as much power as I could.

  “I won’t be gone long,” I murmured. “If anything happens, I want you to alert me. Can you do that?”

  The dragon had already proven he had nonverbal ways of communicating with me, demonstrating how he could pulse his power and radiate heat so I could detect something greater. He turned to me, looking at me with golden eyes that seemed to have a brighter intensity and intelligence than they had before. As he watched me, I felt that pulsing of power, a burning that began to build, rising with intensity.

  Then it faded again. I had to take that as the dragon’s agreement.

  I headed through the trees, trying to catch up to Natalie.

  It was difficult to figure out where she’d gone. I couldn’t track through the cycle, which left me feeling on edge, but I hadn’t been able to follow her though it since I encountered her in the forest. That silence left me questioning whether there was going to be any way for me to feel that connection to her—and the rest of the cycle—again.

  I thought she was taking me to the Djarn, to her people, but that didn’t seem to be the case. If she would bring me to her father, it would give me the opportunity to have some questions answered. He was fairly high-ranking within the Djarn people, and he served the king, so he would know the mind of the king in ways even Natalie would not.

  I caught sight of her and hurried toward her. “Care to tell me where we’re going?”

  “You’ll see soon enough,” she said.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Natalie slowed and turned to look at me. “You know about my experience within the kingdom,” she said, her words soft, as if she didn’t want them carried out into the forest, as if she were afraid of the forest listening. Perhaps it could. Perhaps the dragons here were able to listen to her talking and knew what she was going on about. “And you know what my people mean to me.”

  That was the problem though. I didn’t know what her people meant to her. She had felt isolated from them, not connected as she needed to be—not by choice, but because of her father’s assignment within the kingdom.

  “Does this have to do with the way you are connected to the Djarn cycle?”

  She clenched her jaw for a moment. “It has to do with you not understanding,” she said.

  “What if it has to do with me trying to understand?”

  She regarded me for a long moment, and I could see the struggle in her eyes, mixed with a hint of irritation, which I wasn’t accustomed to seeing in her. Normally, there was a connection between the two of us, almost a playfulness. In addition to helping me understand certain aspects of my connection to the dragons that I hadn’t even learned within the Academy, Natalie had helped me feel as if I belonged.

  She turned, heading deeper into the forest, and I followed her, the darkness of the forest swallowing us, then opening up.

  The forest was dense at points, and I struggled to work my way through a narrow path that Natalie had been following, picking my way through the brush, over vines, and around trees with roots that threatened to grab at my ankles. When I finally paused, looking up, I realized she had led me toward an opening in the trees.

  But it wasn’t an entire opening. It was almost as if buildings were built to look like trees. They were tall, narrow, and had massive canopies that would resemble trees from the air. They looked like enormous mushrooms, their surfaces painted and designed to resemble branches and leaves.

  I had been to a Djarn city before, but hadn’t seen anything quite like this. There were other, smaller buildings within, one and sometimes two stories tall, but there were bridges connecting the taller structures to each other, and I realized they created a ring around the central area, with the upper portions tilted ever so slightly inward, to shield it.

  It would keep dragons from finding it from above.

  There were no dragons here though—at least, not that I sensed. I focused on the heat within me, trying to feel that power and energy. If I could connect to the dragons in my cycle, I would at least know for sure whether they had any dragons here, but I detected nothing. I doubted the Djarn wouldn’t have dragons in a place like this, but I could only feel my green dragon.

  That said, the farther we had gone into the forest, the more distant he had started to feel. I focused on him and began to cycle through him, and his magic soon burned within me again. I needed to hold on to that. I needed his protective power.

  Was I unsafe here?

  I wouldn’t have thought so before, but Natalie had been acting strangely ever since I had encountered her in the forest.

  I had expected this Djarn city to be filled with life, happiness, and an abundance of excitement, but there was no sense of any of that here. Surprisingly, I didn’t even see many people. I could feel something, just the edge of some energy, but nothing more than that.

  “What is this?” I asked, looking over to Natalie. “Where are your people?”

  “This is not where my people are staying,” she said softly.

  “And why did you bring me here?”

  “Because you wanted to understand.”

  She strode forward and stretched her hands above her head. When she did, I begin to feel power building from one palm to the next. An arcing flame extended between them, then she pressed it outward, forming what looked to be a cycle of energy unlike anything I had felt from her before. She was showing far more control than I had ever seen from her. I had known that Natalie had some connection to the dragons that made her skillful and talented, but I had not known she was able to do anything quite like this. As I looked over to her, I found myself frowning, uncertain.

  How did she have this level of control?

  “What are you trying to show me?” I asked her.

  She held her hands still. The flames continued to twist and dance, and as they did, a pattern began to emerge. She then seemed to move her fingers ever so subtly, weaving them together in such a way that the flames cascaded from one hand to the next and caused a rippling, a shimmering.

  “Can you feel this?” she asked without turning back to me.

  “I can feel something of what you’re doing,” I said. “And I can tell it’s conn
ected to your cycle.” Her cycle, I realized. “You aren’t using the dragon cycle that I had connected you to.”

  She glanced over to me. “I told you something happened to it. As soon as you left, there was a change. I’m not sure what it meant, only that I no longer could feel you the way I had before.” She watched me for a moment. “Can you feel me? The dragons?”

  I shook my head. I hadn’t been able to feel that ever since leaving to go to the Vard lands. Even now, back in the kingdom, I hadn’t been able to feel the cycle the way I needed to. There was an awareness of it, but reaching that power had proven difficult.

  While in the Vard lands, I thought they had limited me, but now that I was back here, I questioned if that were the case. Something had changed, but I didn’t know what.

  It was more than that though, and from the way Natalie was looking at me, I could tell she was troubled by it. Through my cycle, I should be aware of her, Thomas, and the power that flowed within me. I should be aware of all of that, but for whatever reason, there was only an emptiness, an absence.

  “What are you saying?”

  “Something has begun to change,” she said and looked over to me. “I’ve been trying to reach you, to call to you, to use the cycle to get you back.”

  “Why?”

  I felt a growing fear about the reason, but I wasn’t exactly sure if she was going to be completely honest with me. That was my experience with Natalie, for better or worse. She had hidden things from me in the past that had been tied to the Djarn, things she thought she needed to conceal because she wanted to protect her people, but they were things that would been beneficial for me to have known earlier, especially as learning them might have offered me the ability to help. Had I known about the Djarn in the way I needed to, I might have understood what was happening in the kingdom when I had first gone to the Academy. Then again, Natalie hadn’t known me, and she hadn’t known whether she could trust me, so a part of me understood why she had kept that from me, even if I didn’t care for it.

  “My father was called back to my people. And I had to go. Have to go.”