As daylight began to break, I realized I wouldn’t be able to stay out here any longer than I already had. It would pose a danger to me, as well as the dragon. Besides, as a student at the Academy, I didn’t think I should be wandering the kingdom until I had a greater understanding of what was expected of me.
As we turned, I caught sight of something down below.
It was just at the edge of the forest, on the border of the Southern Reach. I frowned, and the dragon seemed to notice; he descended with me, gliding toward the ground. I looked all around us, checking to make sure there was no one else around, and when I was certain we were alone, we reached the ground. From there, I paused before climbing off the dragon.
There was a strange crater in the ground.
I hadn’t seen anything quite like it before. It looked like a cave, but it looked to be burrowed into the ground, as if some enormous worm had dug their way free.
I stared down into it as I approached, realizing that it descended into darkness. Stretching my hands apart, I let a band of power flow from one to the next, trying to push that power down into the opening, but it was deep and dark, and I couldn’t make out anything more than just the depths of the cave.
I glanced over to the dragon. We could try to descend into it, but I didn’t know if we would be able to get back out again. Without knowing how deep it was, and whether the dragon had enough control to fly out of it, I just wasn’t sure.
I made a circle around it. Everything nearby was flat grassland, though the grass had been trampled down around the crater. The air had a strange odor to it that reminded me of ash, though nothing here seemed burned. If we had still been in the Vard lands, I might have thought this was fire, but even in the Vard lands, I don’t remember seeing anything quite like this.
The ground around the opening was heaped, the earth piled up as if something had burrowed out and exploded the dirt around it.
There were symbols all around it, and something about them reminded me of the vases I’d found in the kingdom. I didn’t feel the same sense of pulling here, though.
Maybe they weren’t at all the same.
But it couldn’t be a coincidence that the lettering reminded me of the Djarn. I wasn’t sure what else it could be. If it were the Djarn, I didn’t need to be concerned. They wouldn’t have done anything to harm the kingdom. It was even possible that the Djarn were trying to create some sort of barricade between the kingdom and the Vard lands.
Strange.
Technically, I suspected this was a border of the kingdom, south of the actual border, and along the Southern Reach, which meant this place was more likely to be used for defense during the Vard skirmishes. Maybe our people—or the Djarn— had placed this here in order to defend against the Vard.
I’d have to ask Thomas about it.
For now, I climbed back onto the dragon. We took to the air, circling high overhead once again, and veered toward the capital.
As we did, I noticed something else.
I signaled for the dragon to descend again, and as we landed on the ground, once again still at the border of the kingdom and along the edge of the Southern Reach, I saw another of these strange pits.
This one was much like the last, perhaps a little larger. The ground around it was heaped up, though the earth was dry and cracked, which left me thinking this had been done long ago. There were more symbols around here that also reminded me of the Djarn. Finding two of them suggested that it really had been used in some sort of defense against the Vard. I couldn’t imagine how else the kingdom would’ve used something like this. What purpose would it serve?
Unless the Vard had used it against the kingdom.
It seemed odd that it would be so close to the border. Given how the Southern Reach had been relatively untouched, I wouldn’t have expected there to be any Vard presence there, or that we would have seen anything to suggest that the Vard had left their people.
Making a circuit around it, I found nothing to distinguish this one from the last one.
Perhaps there really was nothing to be concerned about here. It was strange, but probably only a remnant of a time before.
Climbing onto the dragon, curiosity struck me.
We flew, but this time I kept the dragon flying along the border of the kingdom, trailing along the Southern Reach, just at the edge of the forest. I counted several other circular pits. They must be some way of defending the kingdom. I didn’t remember seeing them before, though in the darkness, anything could’ve been hidden from me.
If only Thomas were here, he could have explained it, but now I’d have to wait for his return.
I veered the opposite way, heading west, and there were more of them, enough that I had to believe they had some purpose. They were spaced with a distinct regularity, though given that I was looking down from a dragon’s back, I couldn’t tell the exact distance between them.
As we started to turn back toward the city, something caught my attention.
It was in the outskirts of the forest. The Kings Road running alongside it. And an undulating plain stretching out from there.
It was my homeland. The plains.
I hadn’t intended to come so close to my home, but here I was.
I needed to return to the capital, and I wanted to be there before Thomas returned, but curiosity won. More than that, given what Manuel had said about the Vard, and what I had heard before, I wanted to ensure my homeland was protected and safe. How could I want anything different? Besides, there was no harm in heading toward Berestal. I might not be able to do it by dragon back without raising some questions, but I could certainly land near the farm.
My sister would be gone. I knew she wouldn’t still be at the farm. The last I heard, she had moved into the city. Why was it that I wanted to see it then?
The dragon seemed to recognize what I wanted, and we circled, following along the Kings Road. In the distance, I could make out the straight shot of road as it headed from the forest; the city of Berestal was off to the west, the massive tower rising above everything else.
Dragons had visited Berestal before, and I didn’t necessarily fear any danger were I to land atop the tower, but I certainly wasn’t sure I’d be welcomed in the same way the instructors from the Academy would’ve been. I was still a student—one who had proven themself troublesome, at that. Maybe when I was truly a dragon mage, I could visit without hesitation, but not quite yet.
We followed along the road, and eventually, I saw the farm site.
It looked so different from the air than it had from the ground. Smaller. Tucked in along the side of the road, the farm looked like a little white speck down in the distance. I couldn’t tell if there was any smoke streaming from the chimney, as there had been every day of my childhood. I could see the barn, but no animals. I wondered what happened to our horses and the livestock I had taken such painstaking care of over the years. I could just make out the fence I’d been working on before I had departed for the city the last time, little more than a faint line running across the ground.
The dragon took a leisurely approach, flying slowly, as if giving me time to continue studying the ground, staring down at it. I pressed power through the cycle, trying to tell the dragon that wasn’t necessary, and we started toward the forest.
We didn’t need to do that, either.
I guided the dragon, steering him north. We were heading away from the Kings Road, but we were heading someplace I thought I could visit. I didn’t know if I could head into Berestal itself, not with the dragon, but I could go and visit with Joran and his family, and perhaps make sure my sister was well. Manuel might have been keeping tabs on her, but it wasn’t the same as having someone I knew, someone who cared about my family, watching over them.
When Joran’s farm came into view, we looped around before I guided the dragon behind the hillside to land.
I scrambled off of the dragon’s back. “Will you wait for me?”
The dragon sent me power t
hrough the cycle, and I took that as agreement.
From here, everything was familiar. Beyond the ridge in the distance would be Joran’s farm. I had climbed the nearby trees when I was younger, scrambling over branches to see which of us could climb the highest. We had all played games around here—Joran and his sisters, me and my sister. Kicking balls, hiding, and living as children. There was something powerful about returning.
It was easy to lose sight of my purpose in the capital. I had gained an understanding of the dragons, and I had connected to them, but it had to be about more than that. I needed to know that what I did—my reason for being in the city—had purpose and meaning. I needed to know I belonged there. I needed to know I should remain, and I didn’t need to return here to check on my sister and my family. For so long, that had been what had driven me. I had wanted to serve my family, to help them, to protect them as best as I could. Leaving had left me conflicted, feeling as if I had abandoned them.
At the same time, leaving had given me an opportunity to learn more about myself and my connection to the dragons; it had given me the chance to understand I could be something more, that there was a larger world out there.
I took a deep breath. I had been awake most of the night, but was not nearly as tired as I would’ve expected. I headed up and over the hillside, moving slowly at first, though I increased my pace as I got closer and closer to Joran’s farm. I could smell the smoke coming from the house, along with a mixture of other smells—aromas that suggested they were home.
It was comforting to me—familiar.
Everything had been so foreign and strange over the last few months that it was nice to have a bit more familiarity.
When I crested the rise, I saw the house. I had no idea what time it was, though I suspected it was early. I hadn’t seen any sign of Joran or his father or sisters, though they would have to be there somewhere.
I approached carefully. As I did, I reached for the dragon power, then realized the foolishness of that. I had lived on these lands my entire life without needing to access the energy of the dragons, and the first time I returned I felt as if I needed to?
That wasn’t necessary.
I pulled on the power, cycling it through me, using it only to help me stay a little more awake, and then released it, pushing it back toward the dragons. There was no need for me to hold on to that cycle any more than I already had.
I took a deep breath, and when I let it out, I again started toward the home.
It was a small home, all stout wood, a single story that had been added on to over the years to give Joran and his family a bit more space. It was a place that had once seemed so large compared to my own home, but having been in the capital, having lived within the Academy, and having visited the palace, it seemed cozy, but certainly not large.
I stepped up to the door when it came open and a small form slammed into me.
Sophie was Joran’s youngest sister, and she had her brown hair pulled back in pigtails, her head lowered so that when she rammed into me, she knocked the wind out of me. She bounced off, and looked up, frowning. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t know that we had . . . Ashan?” She stepped forward, grabbing my jacket and holding on to the fabric. “What are you doing here? What are you wearing?”
I chuckled. “Hey there, Sophie. It’s good to see you too.”
“You’ve been gone,” she whispered. “Joran told me you left.” Her eyes widened slightly. “You went to the capital. To the Academy.” She looked at my jacket with a renewed interest, her eyes staying wide. “Is that really where you went, or was Joran lying to me?”
I nodded slowly. “I’ve been training at the Academy.”
“Training? He said you were trying to reach dragon magic? You can’t do that, can you?”
It might be easier to explain I was a dragon rider than it would be to explain I was a dragon mage. When I’d left, Manuel thought I had potential to be a rider, as far as I knew. Perhaps he had known I could be a dragon mage, as well, though he had not said anything about it. The only thing he had told me was that I had a connection to the dragon and I owed it to myself to try to understand that connection and master it.
When I’d last seen Joran, I still hadn’t managed to do much with my power.
Now . . .
Much had changed.
“How have you been?”
“You mean since the last time you were here? The storms have been pretty bad this season. We try to deal with them as much as we can, but there has been flooding.” Her eyes took on a brief sparkle. “Maybe you and the dragons could help with that.”
“What do you think we can do with flooding?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Dragons have magic. You can ask the dragons to burn off the flooding. That way we don’t have to deal with it.”
“Sophie? Why haven’t you closed the door?” a voice called from inside the house.
“Because I’m talking to Ashan,” Sophie yelled.
“Ashan isn’t here. You know he went—”
Tara stepped forward, looking over at me. She was a few years younger than me and had dark, almost black hair compared to Sophie’s brown hair. She had a round face and full lips, and wide, dark eyes that watched me. Everything within her went tense the moment she saw me.
“It’s okay, Tara,” I said.
“What are you doing here?”
Sophie turned to her sister. “This is Ashan,” she said. “He can be here. Well, he can be here if he has the permission of the dragons.” She glanced over to me. “Did you have to ask the dragon’s permission to come?”
I smiled. “I sure did.”
“So, a dragon told you it was okay to come?”
“A dragon brought me here,” I said.
Sophie’s eyes widened again. “A dragon brought you here?”
“Don’t mind him,” Tara said. “Even if he were able to train as a dragon rider, there’s no way they would have allowed him to leave the city on his own with a dragon. He’s only been gone the better part of a year.”
Could it really have been that long? Sometimes, though, it felt as if it had been a lifetime. The world I had known when I lived here was so vastly different from the world I know now within the capital. There it was a matter of navigating between instructors, working with dragons, and doing things I once would have deemed impossible. Here it was a matter of getting up in time to start my chores for the day, feeding the livestock, making repairs around the farm, and keeping it running as well as I could.
Other times, it felt as if it had only been the day before. There were times when I’d wake up early, get out of my bed, and start out the door before realizing I was within the Academy and I didn’t have my chores to do. Those days were often harder than I thought they needed to be. It wasn’t that I missed the chores—at least, not most of the time. But chores were mindless, and though it had often been unpleasant work, it was easy. I always knew exactly what I needed to do.
In that way, especially, I suppose the Academy was different for me. There were times I didn’t know what was expected of me, or whether I should be studying or practicing or doing any number of different things.
I didn’t know how much Joran would have shared with his family. Maybe not enough for them to know what I’d learned.
“He told me the dragon is here,” Sophie said, glancing back at me and grinning. A playful look flashed across her eyes, and I could imagine her running out around the hillside to see if I really had brought a dragon. “And you know Ashan never lied to me.”
I nodded slowly. “I never have. I could have him come, if you’d like?”
“Him?” Sophie said. “Don’t they have girl dragons too?”
“There are girl dragons, but the one I rode here is a beautiful, green, boy dragon.”
“Could you take me for a ride?”
“Even if he did bring a dragon,” Tara said, and there was an edge to her voice, suggesting she didn’t believe it, “you
could not ride it. Honestly, Sophie.”
She joined her sister at the door, looking me up and down.
“Is Joran here?” I asked.
“He’s out with Father in the east fields,” Tara said.
Which meant he might even have seen me arrive. There was no real way of hiding a dragon, and given how we had circled down before we descended, I don’t think I would’ve been able to conceal our arrival.
I looked off to the east, and my stomach rumbled.
“Listen to him,” Sophie said. “He sounds like he’s a dragon.” She laughed and hurried into the house, leaving me standing there with Tara.
“Why did you come back?” she asked.
There were many reasons I could think of saying, but the truth fit the best. “I wanted to know how my family was doing.”
“They’re in Berestal.”
“I know.”
“Then you could have gone to Berestal.”
“I could’ve, but not the way I traveled.”
Her brow furrowed as she frowned at me. “By dragon.”
“By dragon,” I agreed.
“Am I really to believe you came by dragon alone?”
I shrugged. “You can believe whatever you want, Tara.”
She fell silent, and I could feel the hesitation within her, the uncertainty that I suspected stemmed from what had happened when I left before. I knew she was connected to the Vard, and her mother was connected to the Vard, though I didn’t know how tightly bound within it they were. I had a new understanding of the Vard, one I hadn’t possessed before, and one I now began to question. It left me filled with concern for anyone who might try to ally themselves with the Vard. Even my friends.
“I didn’t know,” she said softly.
“What was that?”
She took a deep breath, shaking her head. “I didn’t know about your sister. To be honest, I don’t know that my mother knew either.”
“Your mother being more tightly connected to the Vard than you?”
Looking at Tara and really seeing her—as my friend’s sister, as someone I’ve known for her entire life—made it difficult to reconcile her with what I had seen of the Vard the night before. There was nothing to Tara or her mother that would make me think they were similar to the Vard, that they would share those views. It was almost impossible for me to believe she would have been involved in any of that.
The Lost Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 3) Page 12
