Path of the Flame (The Dragon Thief Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “I wouldn’t tell him. I can’t have him know that.”

  “What does he think you’re doing?” Ty asked.

  She held his gaze, a different defiance in her eyes now, but he thought he understood. “My father believes I was apprenticed to a seamstress.”

  “And your mother?”

  “I think my mother knows,” she said. “I tried to keep it from her, but I don’t know.”

  As much as he hated it, he actually understood her reason for using him. She had thought to pay off a debt. If he had the chance to help his parents, wouldn’t he? It was the reason he had taken up this line of work in the first place.

  He might not be able to trust Olivia fully, and he suspected that if there was an opportunity to betray him again to save her family, she would do it, but he understood her.

  “That’s why you’re still here?” Ty asked.

  “I have to get them and my sister out of the city,” she said. “I’m not going until I can. But now it seems like it’s going to be too late.”

  Ty took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Maybe not.”

  “How? If the palace didn’t have anything we can use, how are we going to buy our way out of the city?”

  “Because I was offered a deal.”

  “What is it?”

  He started to answer just as he saw a shadowy figure making their way down the street. “I’ll tell you about it, but only once Bingham gets here.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ty straightened and looked along the street as Bingham made his way toward them. His gray hair was brushed back, and he was dressed casually in a dark blue cloak, one that almost gave him an air of respectability.

  Where had he been?

  Bingham watched Ty as he approached, then flicked his gaze to Olivia.

  “Why does he seem annoyed to see me?” Ty asked.

  “You aren’t used to that reaction?” Olivia responded.

  “Not from Bingham.”

  At least, not often, though he had dealt with Bingham’s irritation on more than one occasion.

  Bingham glanced in either direction along the street before he paused for a moment, then stopped. “Where have you been?”

  “It’s good to see you, too,” Ty said.

  “Olivia told me you got caught. If you were caught, you shouldn’t be here.”

  “Unless I made a deal,” Ty replied.

  Olivia looked over to him, her eyes widening.

  “Not like that,” Ty said. “I made a deal to find something.” He looked along the street. “Do we have to do this here, or can we go inside your shop? It might be easier.”

  Bingham motioned for them to follow. Ty frowned as they passed his shop and continued on the street.

  “What is it?” Ty asked, dropping his voice.

  “Just wanting to make sure I don’t draw any unnecessary attention,” Bingham said. “I have enough the way it is, and these days, you can’t be too careful.”

  “These days?” Ty asked, frowning at him again. He resisted the urge to look over, wondering what it was that bothered Bingham. The city was still unsettled, but it surprised him that Bingham would avoid going to his home. “I was the one who got caught,” Ty said.

  “Exactly,” Bingham replied. “Which is why I have to make sure it makes sense to go back.”

  “You don’t think I know how to keep track of any tail I might have? Eastley and I both did.”

  “I didn’t work with him as hard as I worked with you, so if they managed to get you…”

  Ty supposed he should take it is something of a compliment that Bingham thought it was surprising for Ty to have gotten caught; breaking into the palace hadn’t been the most difficult job he had done, but it certainly had exposed him more than others had.

  They turned a corner and started toward the center of the city before taking a narrow alley, Ty glancing behind before they ducked along it. It might be his imagination, but he could almost sense movement, a cloaked and hooded figure following them. If that was the Tecal, then they were going to need a different tactic.

  “I think she’s following us,” Ty said.

  Bingham had been right to be concerned, and it didn’t surprise Ty that Bingham’s instincts would be accurate about something like this. They usually were. It was part of the reason he had thought that Bingham had offered them the best chance of getting into the palace—and not only getting in, but getting out as well.

  “You know this person?” Bingham asked.

  They continued along the street. Ty paused every so often, looking behind him and watching for any sign of the shadowy cloak, anything that would suggest she was back there.

  “I think it’s the Tecal who released me,” Ty said, lowering his voice. “Gayal Holt.”

  Olivia frowned, keeping an eye on him, as if she didn’t trust him. Then again, he had been captured, so how would he react if the situation were reversed?

  He thought he understood why Bingham was taking this roundabout way, and why Olivia was here.

  Had they planned it?

  Ty wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Bingham had seen him watching his shop and had sent Olivia to scout him out, testing whether he could be trusted. It was exactly the kind of thing Bingham would do.

  “She let me go because she wanted me to find something,” Ty said again, glancing from Olivia to Bingham. “But not either of you. So if we’re going to do this, we can certainly do it here, or I can tell you back in your shop. Either way, I would much rather get away from her.” He didn’t like the idea of her following him. Not that he thought she might harm him. She had released him, after all, but the idea that she had such an easy time finding him in the city left him feeling strangely unsettled.

  Bingham glanced over to him, finally shaking his head. He tried to push past Ty, but the alley was too narrow. Ty pressed up against the wall to give him room, but Bingham remained motionless, trying to look past him.

  “We should move more quickly,” Bingham said.

  He slipped off, darting into the darkness, Bingham moving faster than he seemed capable of moving.

  They reached an intersecting street and turned, taking another alley and darting along it. Bingham began to wind through the city, weaving from place to place, cutting out of alleys and heading through streets before ducking down different alleys. Each turn he took brought them in a circle. He knew exactly where he was going.

  “There might be an easier way to do this,” Ty said.

  Ty slipped past him the next time an alley opened up into the street. He turned, squeezing down the next alley, and halted. He worked his hands and legs into the stone on either side of him and made his way up until he could get onto one of the rooftops. If Gayal was going to follow them up to the rooftops, it would make her far more visible, and he thought he could see her coming.

  He reached down, grabbing for both Bingham and Olivia. They climbed quickly, scurrying up the side of the stone, then crouched down next to him.

  “How is this better?” Olivia asked.

  He watched her for a moment, trying to hide the suspicion in his gaze. He noticed her own feeling of suspicion, as she did very little to hide it from him. “Just wait.”

  They crept to the front of the building, and Ty poked his head up just enough to look out over the street. They didn’t have to wait too long. A pair of soldiers swept along the street and looked down each alley, shining something. Dragon light. He lay there for a long moment until they were past. Bingham started to get up, but Ty held him down.

  “Not just yet,” Ty said.

  He kept his head down, staring along the street, and was finally rewarded with a flicker of black shadows moving in the night. The Tecal. He was sure of it. Ty nodded down the street, and Bingham leaned close.

  “Dangerous,” Bingham said. “Having the Dragon Touched in the city is bad enough, but this…”

  “I know,” Ty said.

  He watched until the shadows disappeared.
>
  When they were gone, he climbed down from the rooftop into the alley again, and helped Bingham and Olivia down as well. They waited along the street, and when Ty was certain there was nothing else moving, they hurried along to another intersecting alley, then to the back entrance of Bingham’s shop.

  “This is where you were heading, wasn’t it?” Ty asked.

  Bingham watched him. “If you end up having the Dragon Touched come to my shop and get me targeted…”

  “They don’t have any reason to come here.”

  “They didn’t, but are you so sure they don’t now?”

  “Not with Ishantil acting the way it is,” Ty said.

  “I don’t think they care that much about Ishantil,” Bingham responded.

  “More than you know. They admitted we don’t have much time. Three days. At least, that’s what the Tecal claimed. After that, she told me that she couldn’t guarantee how much time we had.”

  “Until what?”

  “Until the volcano erupts,” Ty said. “So I—we, if you’re willing to help—have a job to do to save Eastley.”

  Bingham watched him for a moment, a debate waging in his eyes. Finally, it seemed to end, and he unlocked the door, using several different keys, then pushed it open. He waited outside for Ty to go in first, then glanced behind him before hurriedly closing the door once more.

  The inside of the shop was darkened. The air was stale, almost still, reminding Ty of the prison for a moment. A lantern flickered briefly before glowing steadily with a soft white light.

  “Take a seat. You might as well,” Bingham said.

  Ty sat and looked over to Olivia, who was standing with her back up against the wall, watching him. Her lips were pressed together in a frown, and the hard edge to her eyes remained, as it often did these days.

  “I made a deal. The Tecal wants me to find something.”

  “That’s all we need to talk about,” Bingham said. “It seems to me that the Tecal wouldn’t want you to find anything. No real reason for it. Not saying you aren’t capable—we both know you are—it’s just that the Tecal have assets that you don’t.”

  “I know,” Ty said.

  “So if you know that, then you would know there’s nothing you can offer the Tecal, which means…” Bingham frowned. “Which means you wouldn’t have made it up.”

  Ty shook his head. “Nope. I wouldn’t have made this up.”

  “You believe him?” Olivia looked from Ty to Bingham, her frown deepening. “When you sent me to talk to him, to see what he might have heard, I thought that you—”

  “You can just ask me,” Ty said.

  Bingham shrugged. “We didn’t know. The city has been crazy. Caravans heading out, others coming in, many of these wagon drivers thinking they’re going to get rich here, but rich on what?” He shook his head. “Then the stories of those who can’t catch a ride on one of the wagons, who can’t bypass the safety and security of the soldiers or the Dragon Touched who are guarding them. They’re trying to work with the smugglers to get out of the city. Not much for them there. They make a run for it into the nearby hills, and the Dragon Touched chase them back.”

  “You thought it was going to be like that.”

  “We knew it was going to be like that, yes,” Bingham said. “But I didn’t know the people would make a run for Lothinal.” His voice trailed off. “Dumb bastards,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Now we have Lothinal thinking to attack. Anybody who gets close to the border gets targeted. I’ve heard rumors of hundreds of people slaughtered thinking to cross the border. Lothinal don’t want our stragglers, not if it means they can’t torment the king.”

  “I have a hard time thinking the king cares,” Ty said.

  “Maybe not,” Bingham said. “But Lothinal is more than happy to use our people to thumb their nose at him.”

  “Then the people staying…” Ty said.

  Bingham snorted. “The faithful.”

  “You don’t care much for them?”

  “I understand the faithful. Been around quite a few of them in my day. I think your brother is probably among them.”

  Ty nodded. “Unfortunately.”

  “They aren’t going anywhere. They believe the Flame will provide, and they will be protected from Ishantil.”

  Ty breathed out. “I don’t know if there will be any safety from Ishantil. The Tecal seems to think the eruption is imminent.”

  “Do you care to tell me what the two of you have in store?” Bingham asked.

  “I don’t have anything in store,” Ty said. “It’s more about what happened. Eastley and I encountered the Dragon Thief.” And a dragon, he hadn’t shared, but that didn’t matter—unless Roson James used the dragon to hunt the Dragon Thief.

  Olivia’s breath caught. She leaned forward, stepping away from the wall, clutching her dress in her hands.

  “Rumor,” Bingham said.

  “That’s what we thought too,” Ty said. “But apparently this is more than just a rumor.”

  “You saw him?” Bingham asked.

  “Saw him, knocked him out once, then Eastley did another number to him—conked him over the head and knocked him out again. He was going after a dragon egg.”

  Bingham stared at Ty.

  Olivia looked from Ty to Bingham. “No jewels? No gold? That’s the entire reason you went there—the entire reason you broke into the vault.”

  “There wasn’t anything like that. There were some dragon remnants and maybe a relic or two, but we didn’t even have a chance to look, really. The Dragon Thief got there ahead of us, which made it difficult. We had to move quickly and we grabbed what we could—a collection of remnants and the egg that the Dragon Thief had gone after—then made a run for it. We didn’t get very far.”

  “I hear you got out of the palace,” Bingham said.

  “Yes, but not any farther than that. I had the egg on me, but when I was put into my cell, they claimed it was gone.”

  “Do you think they were using you?”

  “I don’t even know,” Ty said. “To be honest, I might have lost it when we were running through the palace. I tripped at one point, and didn’t think I had lost anything, but I don’t even know.”

  “So, what?” Olivia asked. “You have to go after this egg?”

  Ty nodded. “They want it. Both the Tecal and the Dragon Touched.” He looked over to Bingham. “It’s Roson James. The Wyn Killer.”

  Bingham’s breath caught.

  “What is it? Who is that?” Olivia asked.

  “A dangerous man,” Bingham said. “When they brought the dragon here, I knew there was something more going on. It’s how I knew…” He shook his head.

  “It’s how you knew what?” Ty asked.

  “It’s how I knew there had to be something valuable from that expedition. I thought it was all dragon relics, which is typically what brings the attention of the king, especially with how many Dragon Touched he’s brought to the city. Occasionally, a large find of dragon remnants will also bring his attention, but those are usually to help the Dragon Touched. He brought a dragon to the city this time.” Bingham leaned forward, locking eyes with Ty. “That suggested there was something different here, but I never would’ve expected a dragon egg.”

  “Can he hatch it?” Olivia asked.

  “I don’t know. I suspect they intend to try.” Ty looked to Bingham. “And the Tecal made it sound like it’s a different kind of egg.” He waited to see how Bingham might react.

  “He’ll not have any more success than he’s had so far. He likes his little pets,” Bingham said. “They’re powerful, but he wants something he can control. I doubt the king wants a full-size dragon.” Bingham ran a hand through his hair, letting out a frustrated sigh. “Knew the dragon was here for a reason. Probably to protect the egg so the king could keep his prize intact.”

  “When I was there, I didn’t realize he’d found an egg. I thought he…” Ty shrugged. “I guess I didn’t really think much
of it. I thought the dragons had eggs, and that was where he got them from.”

  “I don’t know,” Bingham said. “I’ve never known. I’ve never really cared. And at this point, the only thing that matters is that we now have a prize.” He looked over to Olivia. “That’s going to be our ticket.”

  Ty wasn’t sure about that, but his focus now was getting to Eastley, and getting out of the city somehow.

  “That’s going to be how we get Eastley out,” Ty said.

  “Does that matter so much to you?” Olivia asked.

  He looked over to her. “He was a part of the team,” Ty said. “Now he’s held by Roson James.”

  “Not your Tecal?”

  Ty arched a brow at him. “My Tecal?”

  “Whatever,” Bingham said. “Why do you think the Dragon Touched has him?”

  “Because she made that clear. She gave me time to find the egg and report it to her, and told me she would keep him from execution in the meantime. Once we find the egg, then Eastley will be released.”

  “Are you sure?” Bingham asked.

  “No. But I trust her more than I trust Roson James. He…” Ty hesitated. “He’s a dangerous man, Bingham.”

  Bingham watched him, a question in his eyes. Did he know Ty had made another bargain? That he had negotiated for something else?

  That was the real reason he cared.

  “How do we know the egg is even still in the city?” Olivia asked.

  Bingham didn’t look over to her when he answered. “There are too many Dragon Touched in the city. Too many along the road. And it’s too dangerous to go anywhere else.”

  “We’re talking about the Dragon Thief, right?” Olivia asked.

  Ty looked over. “We are,” he said.

  Olivia leaned forward. “Well, all of the rumors say that the Dragon Thief is able to break into any place, right? He’s able to go anywhere. What makes you think he can’t just slip away?”

  “I don’t know,” Ty said. “And I don’t know if we can know, but I’m hopeful that the number of Dragon Touched in the city means it would be too difficult for him to do that.”

  Finding the Dragon Thief was what he had planned on, the only thing he had planned on. If the Dragon Thief wasn’t in the city, Ty wasn’t going to be able to find him. They would not be able to do anything.