“I hope so.”
“Besides, we haven’t heard much out of the Vard these days.”
“We haven’t?”
Had Thomas so deeply restricted access to what happened that even somebody like Walter wouldn’t have known about it? What was the point or the value in doing something like that? It seemed to make much more sense for the instructors to know what they were dealing with, and to be prepared for the possibility that they might need to fight the Vard, especially within the city. If they didn’t know, how could they be prepared for it?
Unless the king feared what would happen if word of those attacks got out. I could see the danger in that, and I recognized why the king might not want others to learn of such attacks. Unfortunately, it seemed to me to pose a different sort of obstacle. It made it difficult for those within the city to realize the threat of the Vard, and to recognize just how deeply they had infiltrated.
“The Vard wouldn’t dare continue their attacks upon the kingdom. They know they are outnumbered.”
“What if it’s not the Vard we need to worry about?” When he looked at me strangely, I added hurriedly, “I just mean there might be others intent on attacking the kingdom.”
Walter frowned for a moment, then shrugged. “Few would threaten us, as we control the dragons. I suppose if they had some way of accessing that kind of power, then it would pose more of a danger for us. Then again, the Vard have been searching for that answer for many years. The king has done well in restricting it.”
“What if he fails?”
“If he fails, then the dragon mages and the dragon riders will be enlisted to ensure the safety of the kingdom.” Walter formed another cage around himself, demonstrating the same barrier again, pushing outward; the large ball of fire crackled in the air. It illuminated the inside of the training chamber, yet the upper reaches were still darkened, barely more than shadows visible overhead. “The Vard might learn how to access some of the power, but they would still be outnumbered. There are far too many within the kingdom who have access to power, and far too many dragon mages.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said.
“You don’t have to worry about it, Ashan. We are well protected here.”
I nodded, and though I attempted to replicate the same technique Walter had shown me, it wasn’t the people within the city who I worried about. It was the people within Berestal. My home. My sister. My friends. That was who I worried about.
Somehow, I was going to have to learn what was taking place beyond the forest and out upon the plains. I would need to figure out whether this mysterious threat still posed a danger to us.
7
I stood in the center of the dragon pen, nothing but bright moonlight shining down, illuminating my slow, steady steps. My heart hammered in my chest, and I couldn’t help but feel as if I were making some sort of mistake, but it was one I thought I needed to make in order to know whether this was right.
As I neared the deep green dragon, large enough now that I thought he might be able to carry me out of the city, I heard a soft shuffling behind me.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I turned to see Thomas standing near the black dragon, his hand resting on the dragon’s side.
“Nowhere,” I said.
Thomas took a step toward me, and the dark cloak hanging around his shoulders fluttered slightly in the late breeze. Energy built from him, and though I was aware of it, I couldn’t feel how far it cycled. It was different than what I felt from the dragons connected to me. There was a certain excitement to them, an energy and vibrancy that seemed to flow through them, almost as if they were perfectly willing to continue to cycle that power to me in order to carry me out of the city.
“You are going somewhere,” Thomas said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come to the dragon pen at this time of night.”
“I just came to visit with the dragons,” I said.
Thomas chuckled, though his voice didn’t carry very far. “Visit with them?” He studied the deep green dragon, looking almost black in the darkness of night. “Given your connection to the dragons, I doubt you needed to come out here to study anything.” He turned his attention back to me, arching a brow. “You wouldn’t have come out here for a different reason, would you?”
“What reason is that?”
I debated how much I wanted to tell Thomas at this point.
I felt as if I were the only one looking around the capital for additional threats. No one else had been, not that I could ascertain. The Academy had been infiltrated twice. Or perhaps once, but by more than one person. First with Elaine, and then with Jerith and Donathar. How many others were like them?
It was part of the reason I was unsure of whom I could trust.
Surely Thomas had to understand.
“Because you think you need to go see whether Berestal is safe.”
“Is it?”
“I don’t know,” Thomas said.
“But you’re out of the city, chasing rumors of the Vard.”
“I was. I was chasing rumors of the Vard out of the south.”
The hammering in my chest began to slow, if only a little bit. “Out of the south?”
Thomas took another step toward me, and I recognized the power glowing within him. It was faint and steady; he was prepared for something.
Could it be me?
I didn’t want to get into a fight with Thomas. It was certainly not one I could win. He had far more experience with power than I had. I’d seen how he had the ability to cycle power through multiple dragons within the dragon pen, and though I didn’t know if he had connected them in the same way I had, or whether he even understood what I had done, it didn’t mean he didn’t have enough power to utilize, were it necessary to do so.
“That is where the Vard have been the most active. I know you fear them attacking your homeland, but the king has prioritized Berestal. He has agents working there to ensure the Vard don’t take hold within the city.”
I breathed out, looking around the dragon pen and cursing myself briefly for my foolishness. Here I was thinking that I was going to have to sneak out and take one of the dragons, hoping it would carry me to Berestal. Even if it did, what would I do then? I didn’t know enough about controlling the dragon to fly well with it.
Perhaps that was my next step. If I took the time to learn to ride the dragon, then maybe I’d have a way of getting out of the city if it came down to that. I didn’t want to be stuck here any longer than necessary, especially if there came a time when I’d need to go.
“Why wouldn’t you have told me that before?”
“Did I need to?”
“I just thought you could offer me more than what you did. I know you don’t believe me that this is more than just the Vard, but I know what I felt,” I said to him. “I know what Donathar and Elaine said.”
He watched me, and finally shook his head. “You have been stubborn ever since I first met you. That has been useful at times, but this time, I’m not so sure.”
“Thomas—”
He shook his head again. “If you intend to investigate, then do it with me. I will show you what we’re dealing with.”
He climbed onto the back of the dragon, and with a powerful whoosh of air, his black-scaled dragon took to the sky, circling for a moment before heading toward the forest.
Thomas wanted me to come with him.
I’d traveled by dragon only once before, and that had been somewhat terrifying. It wasn’t so much the idea of riding atop a creature like that—having been around animals my entire life, that wasn’t going to scare me. It was more the fear of falling that had stayed with me.
I headed toward the green dragon, resting my hand on his scaled side, feeling the heat radiating from him. “What do you think?” I whispered.
The dragon looked up, locking eyes with me; there came a pulse of power from him.
Was that agreement?
It seemed to me I needed
to better understand the way the dragon communicated with me. He was trying to tell me something; I could feel that coming from him, but I couldn’t use what I felt in any meaningful way. If I could . . .
I tried to climb onto the dragon’s back, worried that he might be upset with me. As far as I knew, the small dragon hadn’t carried anybody before, and I didn’t know if he were strong enough to do so. After I mounted his back, I sat there for a moment, waiting.
The dragon got to his feet. I clung to him, wrapping my arms around his neck as best as I could, feeling heat radiating from him. That heat continued to build, rising within him, and then he leapt into the sky.
The suddenness of it jarred me, startling me, and I had no idea whether the dragon was strong enough or powerful enough to keep up with the other dragon, but as I held on to him, I felt something: the cycle of power coming through me. I knew better than to interrupt it. As it cycled, I could somehow feel its flow, and I could feel the way it seemed as if it came from the other dragons, lending the small green dragon enough power to fly even more effectively. As it soared into the sky, going higher and higher, I could feel the cycle giving the dragon strength and speed.
It didn’t take long before we caught up to Thomas and his dragon.
He looked over. “You made it. I wasn’t sure. Most don’t manage to succeed the first time.”
“I didn’t know if I were going to be able to do it or not,” I said.
Thomas looked over at the dragon. “He’s small, at least for a rider, but powerful, it seems.”
For a moment, I felt Thomas attempting to connect to the dragon, as if he were attempting to cycle through the dragon’s power, but the dragon resisted, sealing off any connection to the other dragons. It seemed the dragon didn’t want Thomas to know how he had bonded to the others.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To show you the real danger of Vard influence.”
Before I had a chance to say anything, he veered off, heading south.
We traveled quickly. It was late, and I was tired, but my heart raced, and it kept me awake. I looked down at the ground as we flew, the forest undulating beneath us. I imagined the Djarn were down there, probably aware of our presence, though I couldn’t see any of them. Could they see us? The Djarn had a way of connecting to the dragons—at least, some of them did. I suspected that some of the Djarn down there might know we were traveling overhead.
As we traveled, I focused outward, searching for the connection to other dragons. Some of the dragons that were part of the cycle were out in the forest, far enough away that they provided me with a bit of information about where they were, but not what they were doing. I could only tell that they were out and circling, some hunting, some actually moving through the forest itself, and still others were resting. The cycle informed me of all of that, despite it being a relatively new sensation for me, something that I did not fully understand.
We traveled quickly, moving over the dark forest. I had no idea what else was down there, only that the forest remained. Every so often, I looked over to see Thomas flying in front of me. He sat comfortably atop the dragon’s back, his posture slightly leaned forward, tilted so that he could look over the side of the dragon. What did he see when he looked down at the ground? Maybe nothing more than what I saw.
Although, maybe Thomas had some connection to the dragon magic that permitted him to see the ground in a way I couldn’t.
After a while, the darkness below us shifted, and the forest seemed to ease, not nearly as dark as it had been. Now there was something else down below. It reminded me of the plains where I’d spent so much of my life, though this was far hillier. There were no buildings, nothing that stood out in the darkness. Moonlight shone down upon the ground, casting beams of silver that seemed to flutter and slide as we flew. A bit of starlight shone down as well, though not nearly bright enough for me to see much of anything. Hopefully we were little more than dark streaks against the night.
At one point, Thomas looked back and nodded. “We’re at the edge of the kingdom.”
It might have been my imagination, but it seemed as if there were a faint tingling over my skin when he had said that. Could there be some sort of magical barrier?
“Are all of these Vard lands now?”
“These are unclaimed lands. We call this the Southern Reach,” he said.
“I thought the Southern Reach was all part of the kingdom,” I said.
“Most do, but that’s because the king wants people to believe that. We’ve never claimed it. We certainly don’t protect it.”
As I looked over the side of the dragon, feeling the fluid movement as we soared above the ground, I saw no buildings. No signs of life. No signs of anything. “Do the people here know that the king doesn’t claim them?”
Thomas shook his head, laughing loud enough that it carried to me. “There are no people here, Ashan.”
When I was in Berestal, there had been talk of trade out of the Southern Reach. It was infrequent, not enough that anyone could ever claim they knew the lands well, but I knew there had been travelers from there.
“Is this all Vard controlled?”
“The Vard would like to think so,” he said.
“So it isn’t, or it is?”
“It depends on who you want to believe,” he said. “According to the Vard, these lands are all part of their control. They’ve tried to influence those who come through here. None live here. It’s too dangerous.”
“Why?”
“If we came in the daylight, you would see why.”
We continued flying.
“If these are contested lands, and the Vard are near, why are you taking me this far?”
“You question the danger of the Vard,” he said.
“It’s not that I question the danger of the Vard, it’s just that I—”
I didn’t get the chance to finish. In the distance, I could make out flames burning.
At first, I thought it was some massive fire, but the more I stared, the more I came to realize that it looked as if the earth itself was alight with flames. It was close, too.
Far closer than it should have been.
As we approached, Thomas slowed the dragon, and my green dragon started to slow as well, seeming to recognize the danger. We neared the flames shooting up out of the ground, and I stared down, struggling to comprehend just what I was seeing. I had never seen anything quite like it. The flames licked across the ground, moving slowly and steadily.
“That’s lava,” I said.
Thomas looked over, nodding. “The Vard call it Affellah. They view it as something sacred.”
“The lava or the fire?”
“Neither. The source of the lava.”
We turned and flew slightly west, but still south. As we neared the flames, the heat intensified, rising up from the ground and radiating toward the sky. Smoke filtered around us, and I realized why Thomas didn’t fear the Vard recognizing us. There was no reason to fear. Wrapped in smoke as we were, there would be no way for the Vard to even see us.
Gradually, the smoke started to clear. A soft wind picked up, blowing around and making it so I could see the bright flames all around us. They were mostly behind us now, but there were some in the distance, all tracking toward a single location.
That had to be Affellah. It rose up out of the ground, a towering spire of fire and rock. I never seen anything quite as impressive: the rock stretched up from the ground in front of an enormous, bleak-looking stone, and a glowing red peak rose above it all. Smoke and steam filled the air around it, and it felt as if power emanated from it. It was a strange thing for me to be aware of, though I could feel it distinctly.
We slowed as we neared it. Thomas signaled for me to join him, and I looked up into the distance. “That is Affellah,” he said. “Beyond that is all Vard-controlled lands.”
“I never knew fire separated our land from theirs.”
“Only across the Southern Rea
ch. There are other places where it’s easier for them to cross.”
“Such as the eastern edge of the kingdom?”
Thomas locked eyes with me for a long moment before nodding slowly. “Such as there. And south of Berestal, as well.”
“I see.”
“I don’t think you fully do. Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because there is much here that is far more dangerous than you can even understand. I will try to show you.”
We veered off, moving west.
The dragon seemed to take its cues from Thomas and his dragon. We flew quickly, soaring above the ground, the heat and fire beneath us radiating upward, casting off enormous flames. Every so often, there came a shooting of fire that seemed to streak into the sky, causing Thomas to veer off so as to avoid it.
We moved around Affellah, then beyond it. As we did, we flew higher and higher into the sky. At first, it was a subtle shift, one that I barely recognized, but over time, I could feel the air grow thinner and colder. Though the dragon didn’t seem to struggle, the cycle through him increased, more power flowing outward, called forth from the other dragons and joining within him. I looked down, and Affellah, along with the flames behind us, seemed even more distant than they had been before.
“Why did you bring us higher?” I called. It was harder to talk up here, and I struggled to get the words out.
“You will see,” he said.
I continued staring down at the ground, struggling to track what was out there, but couldn’t make out anything beyond the darkness and the flames behind us.
There was a part of me that was thankful the flames were so far behind us, that I didn’t have to deal with them, and that the Vard didn’t target us, but a strange sense came from them, from their energy, leaving me distinctly aware of the heat.
It reminded me of the energy coming from the dragons, though in a different way.
The Lost Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 3) Page 9
