Ty studied the nearest of the sculptures while Olivia stayed behind him. He could practically feel her pressing in close, the heat of her body. He tried to ignore it, tried to tamp down the attraction he still felt for her, knowing she had only encouraged it and used him, but he couldn’t.
When he looked at the sculpture like this, he could almost imagine what the dragons of old had been like—dragons that had once flown over these lands, calling the jungle itself their home. They were enormous, at least from the size of the remnants he had seen and recovered over the years. They were nothing like the small dragons the king kept, or the small dragon that had been in Zarinth. These sculptures depicted majestic, enormous, and powerful dragons, making him think they somehow still existed. Their bones were occasionally found around Zarinth.
Would that be what the egg would hatch?
Not if the ghost king got it back, according to Bingham. He wanted the small, controllable dragons, though based on what Ty had seen, he’d suspected this dragon would be far from that. He’d felt its heat and power when he was sneaking through the palace.
The sculptures featured prominent wings; on the one nearest him, they wrapped around, as if creating a shield to protect the dragon. Massive talons stretched from the ends of each wing, and sharp, curved fangs reminded him of the tooth he had left on top of the building near his home.
Ty felt drawn to it, and traced his hand along its warm surface. The warmth seemed to come from someplace at the sculpture’s center. Ty tried to shift position so he could look around the sculpture and get a better sense of it, but he couldn’t see anything else. Only that the sculpture had power to it.
He looked over at Bingham, who had paused at another sculpture, studying it the same way he’d studied the others. He traced his hands around it, then waited a moment before moving on to the next. When he came back around, Bingham was gone.
“Where did he go?” Olivia asked.
Ty shook his head. “Bingham is too much like Eastley,” he whispered. “Eastley never pays attention on jobs, and always sort of wings it.”
“I didn’t realize the two of you worked together.”
“Not very often. And not for the same reason you and I don’t work together,” Ty said, frowning at her. “Eastley just tends to be a little too unpredictable for me. And—”
“And you like working on your own.”
He shrugged. “So what if I do?”
“Then this must be killing you.”
It wasn’t killing him, but it was hard for him. He had to find a way to let the others help him, but in this case, it wasn’t so much about helping him as it was about helping Eastley.
Maybe if Bingham drew the priest off, it would give Ty a better opportunity to take a look himself.
They should’ve talked about that; it would be a reasonable strategy. Bingham could distract the priest, give Ty a chance to explore, and buy them time to find answers without having to sneak through the temple. Bingham was respectable, so it would bring less attention, though at this time of night, it didn’t make that much difference.
Ty moved on to the next sculpture, and much like the last, he felt the heat radiating from it. It seemed as if this dragon were watching him, as if there were something in the eyes that saw him. He touched the obsidian, running his hands along the smooth surface. Heat suddenly flashed, flaring up from deep within the sculpture, and Ty jerked his hand back.
“What was that? You’re moving too fast. You’re going to get us caught,” Olivia stated.
Ty ignored her and turned his attention back to the altar.
It might be his imagination, but it seemed as if the Flame at the center of the altar burned a little brighter.
Was the priest doing something to the sculptures? He traced his hand over the sculpture again. The heat within it remained, radiating outward and building in intensity. That’s different.
This was even different from the obsidian sculptures he had claimed before.
Ty continued to trace his hand along the obsidian. After a moment, he pulled his hand away and moved on to the next. This sculpture looked as if it were ready to attack. There was something about the way the dragon was perched, staring at him, that left him feeling uneasy. There was power in the sculpture, in the dragon it depicted, and there was something within the dragon’s posture that seemed as if it were preparing to leap forward in flight. It was terrifying.
The artisan had been incredibly skilled. These days, there weren’t any artisans who could create anything similar out of obsidian. It was why these sculptures were so valued and revered by the king. He had wanted to know how to recreate them, but had never uncovered the key.
Ty looked toward the altar. The priest was gone.
Ty ducked behind the sculpture and steadied his breathing, looking around, trying to see if there was any sign of the priest, but he wasn’t there. Where had he gone? Where was Bingham, for that matter?
Neither of them were there, which left him wondering if perhaps Bingham had drawn the priest off. Ty tried to peer around the dragon, when something caught his eye.
A flash of color had grabbed his attention, standing out against the deep black of the obsidian. He reached for it, and when he did, he found a small shelf on the backside of the dragon, where a spherical orb rested.
As he touched it, he realized what it was. A dragon pearl.
Something like that might even be enough to buy passage out of the city. He had planned on convincing Gayal to help, but what if she didn’t? This pearl might be the difference between them remaining stuck in Zarinth while Ishantil erupted and finding a way to escape.
It wasn’t what they were after, but it was something. He slipped it into his pocket. He might as well hide it for now. If he told Olivia about it, there was no telling what she might do.
Where is Bingham?
He glanced back at the other sculptures. How many of them had dragon pearls hidden inside?
Maybe there was more of a prize here than he realized. If the egg wasn’t in the temple, Ty wasn’t above stealing from the priests. He wondered if Bingham would feel the same way.
Ty crept forward, looking for signs of the priest. He still didn’t see him. The temple was empty. He slipped along the wall, and when he reached the next sculpture, he ducked behind it, grabbing the pearl he found there. This one was maroon, almost perfectly so, with stripes of black along the surface. It was warm like the other.
Ty looked up then moved on.
He went from sculpture to sculpture, collecting a dragon pearl from each one. He was careful as he went, trying to conceal his actions from Olivia and managing to slip them into his pocket without her seeming to notice. By the time he neared the altar, he had begun to move more openly, though he knew he shouldn’t. He had to stay careful, even though he was seemingly alone inside the temple.
There was no sign of Bingham, no sign of the priest, and no sign of anyone else besides Olivia.
Ty didn’t see any other sculptures near the altar, so he had to backtrack.
When he had gone about halfway around the inside of the temple, two priests strode down the hall that he and Bingham had come in through. One of them was Albion. Ty tensed, staying near the wall and pressing his back up against it.
He stared at his brother, willing him to not look in his direction. He and the other priest went to the altar where they knelt down, bowing in prayer.
Ty breathed out and kept moving. They had to get out before Albion saw him.
He tried not to think about how it now felt like he was stealing from his brother.
Albion wanted to stay in the city, but with the pearls, Ty could bribe his way out.
Olivia followed him as they crept around the perimeter of the temple. With these dragon pearls, they could not only buy their way out of the city, but Ty could also definitely set himself up after leaving Zarinth. Why had he never thought of taking from the temple before?
Probably because Bingham had never sent hi
m to the temple, but also because there was a part of him, as much as he tried to deny it, that hated the idea of stealing from here. Maybe that was his brother’s influence.
There was noise from the far side of the temple.
Ty looked over to see Bingham there, creeping toward them.
The priests turned.
Ty darted forward, reaching the next sculpture and grabbing the pearl quickly before racing forward and grabbing the next one, then finally heading toward the last. He heard Bingham talking loudly from the far side of the temple.
What is he doing?
As he reached the last of the sculptures, he ducked behind it, grabbing for the dragon pearl and stuffing it into his pocket with the others. The heat from them was enormous, radiating through him and leaving him feeling uncomfortable.
Now it was time to go. He wanted to get out of there, to get away, and he wanted to get Bingham away from there as well.
How was he going to do that?
Maybe he didn’t need to.
His brother and the other priest guided Bingham toward the temple’s main entrance. When they were moving past, Ty pushed Olivia back so they stayed hidden behind the statue, then Ty looked forward, toward the priests’ entrance.
“Be ready,” Ty whispered.
“Where are we going?” Olivia asked.
“There,” he said, nodding toward the hallway.
After Bingham and the priests had passed, Ty made sure that he had enough of a window, then he darted forward with Olivia.
“Hey!” a voice shouted at them from behind.
Ty resisted the urge to turn. It was his brother.
“Keep moving,” he hissed at Olivia.
He hoped his scarf and hood would keep him concealed. Olivia had on a gray cloak to help her blend in, but it could also draw attention to her, making her appear more like a thief.
Ty tried not to think about that.
When he reached the door, he threw it open and darted out into the night.
They ran. It wasn’t until they were on the far side of the courtyard that he finally slowed, looking back. There was movement in the temple, priests appearing at the doors, but none of them attempted to step out onto the street.
Ty patted his pocket. “We have to get moving. We can’t let them chase us.”
He hadn’t found the egg. Worse, he didn’t have any ideas about how to find it, either.
But he had the pearls.
If it came down to escaping from the city or burning, he would use the pearls to get all of them out. He might even be able to trade with Gayal for Eastley.
He looked back, but he didn’t see Bingham coming. Had he been caught by the priests? He hadn’t been doing anything illegal, so even if they had held him back, it was unlikely they would detain him for long.
Ishantil trembled, as if trying to remind Ty of the time crunch they were dealing with. Not that he needed the reminder. They had two days. And in that time, he had no idea how he was going to find what he needed.
“Where is Bingham?” Olivia asked, her voice hard.
“I don’t know. Let’s head back to the shop and wait for him. He’ll join us later.” At least, Ty hoped he would.
Olivia glanced over, frowning. She didn’t argue though, and he was thankful for that.
He clutched the dragon pearls in his cloak, racing onward. He couldn’t go back to the shop yet. There was a stop he had to make first. Not just because he wanted to keep from drawing the attention of the Dragon Touched to Bingham’s shop, but because he wanted to keep the dragon pearls hidden until he knew whether they were going to have to use them.
“Go ahead. I have something I need to do first,” Ty said.
“Don’t you think about ditching me,” she said.
He resisted the urge to make some comment about how it wasn’t him who had ditched her, but he only said, “I’m not thinking about ditching you. We’ll meet at Bingham’s shop. I’ll be there.”
She frowned at him again, and he thought it interesting that she was worried about him being the one to abandon her, but didn’t say that either.
Olivia darted off, slipping into the shadows and disappearing. He realized then that she really was skilled—far more so than he had given her credit for.
It was everything else that had been an act.
He waited by the temple for a few moments, hoping to see Bingham come out. When he didn’t, Ty let out a frustrated sigh and darted off into the night.
Chapter Eighteen
Ty’s street was quiet, and he made a point of sticking to the shadows, hurrying toward his home while checking for anybody who might be following him. He could’ve sworn there had been somebody after him at one point, but then that feeling had faded, leaving him thinking it was just his imagination. In this part of the city, there were no caravans readying for departure, no soldiers, and no Dragon Touched—nothing other than the empty streets. Plus, it was late enough that he didn’t expect anything else.
Once he arrived at his home, he closed the door behind him and turned on the lantern with the dim light. He then hurried to his back room and began to carefully pry up floorboards, stuffing a single dragon pearl under each section. He moved around the room then back out into the main part of the home, keeping the dragon pearls separated until they were all hidden beneath the floorboards. He had hoped that keeping them separated like that would not draw the attention of the Dragon Touched.
When he was finished, he wondered why he had even bothered to hide them. If he had to come back here quickly, he wouldn’t be able to gather the dragon pearls easily, but he wouldn’t be able to gather his coins easily, either.
But he knew it was safer this way. He still had two days, and he was determined to use all of that time.
There was a part of him that wondered whether he should have left when Maggie had offered him the opportunity. Then again, she had been offering him the opportunity to go with her for the better part of several years. Maybe if he had done that, he would’ve found something out about his parents before now. Maybe he would have found a way to start fresh.
It took Ishantil nearly erupting for him to decide it was time to go.
A knock came at his door, interrupting his thoughts, and everything went cold.
Who would be knocking now?
He paused in front of the door, pulling it open a crack, and the door snapped forward.
“Dammit, Ty.” Bingham stepped forward and shoved the door closed behind him. “You disappeared. Why did you come back here?”
Ty looked at the door, wondering if Bingham had been careful on his way back. He also wondered if Olivia had followed him. Thankfully he had managed to have time to get the pearls hidden.
“You never came out of the temple,” Ty said.
“Because your brother saw me. Couldn’t have him see you as I gave you a chance to grab it.”
“Grab what?” Had Bingham known about the dragon pearls? He didn’t think so. He didn’t think Bingham had even seen him. But maybe he’d been wrong.
“The egg. You didn’t see it?”
The egg was there?
“Where?” Ty asked.
“Damn,” Bingham muttered. He started making a small circle around the kitchen, pacing around the table. His limp seemed more pronounced than it had been before. “I wasn’t sure if you were right. To be honest, I didn’t expect to find anything. Why would there be a dragon egg in the temple? But it does make sense. No Dragon Touched is going to be able to track anything in that place. There would be too much interference from the dragon relics.”
“You saw it?”
“In the Flame,” Bingham stated.
Ty stared straight ahead. In the Flame?
Ty had seen it burning, had seen the strange blue light and the energy that was there. He had known there was something there. There had to have been something there.
“I’ve seen the Flame burning with strange colors before, but nothing like that. I didn’t know what
to make of it. Went slipping along, thinking I would just get up to the altar, show my celebration of the Flame, then head away, but damn if you weren’t right.” Bingham shook his head. “They had it set inside the Flame.”
“Why would they have it there?” Ty asked.
Bingham shook his head again. “Normally, the Flame glows a vibrant orange. Not any other color. But tonight it was blue. I only noticed that after I went up there.”
“I saw when we first went in,” Ty said.
Bingham looked over, frowning. “I suppose you did.”
“What did the egg look like?”
“I thought you said you held it?” Bingham asked.
“I did, but only before it was set into the Flame.”
“That’s not going to do anything to it.”
Ty realized he was being foolish—and he realized he was putting some belief into the Flame that he had never thought he would.
“How are we going to get it out of there now?” Ty asked.
“I don’t know. They put into the Flame, and now I have to wonder what happens if it hatches.”
Ty started to laugh, but Bingham just glared at him.
“It’s not going to hatch. The ghost king has a hard enough time hatching eggs, and he has access to far more resources than we do. I doubt that any temple Flame is going to make a difference. I still think the Dragon Thief put it there to hide it from the Dragon Touched,” Ty said.
“He still has to get it out,” Bingham replied.
He would, which meant the Dragon Thief was still around.
“First the pearls, and now the egg,” Bingham muttered.
Ty’s heart hammered briefly. “What about pearls?”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter if I tell you now. We’re deep enough into this shit that it shouldn’t make a difference. I figured you would find pearls when you went into the vault. That’s why I made it clear that you needed to grab them if you found them. I heard from one of the archaeologists, who got a little too deep into their drink, that the expedition had found a clutch of dragon pearls. I didn’t know if that was true or not, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to look. The damn man assured me they were there—maybe a dozen of them, more than they’d ever found in one place before.”
Path of the Flame (The Dragon Thief Book 1) Page 18