There would be no reason for her not to. She was the king’s Tecal, and she would be able to claim the egg—unless doing so would only inspire agitation with the king, and she wanted to avoid that.
The High Priest continued to chant, the Flame burning with a pale blue light that he had seen when they were here when he discovered the egg was here, and he was left trying to figure out what they needed to do.
Finally, he stepped back out of the temple, running his hand through his hair as he found Olivia standing across the street.
“Well?” she asked.
“We can watch for a while. They are in the middle of the Asharlath Ceremony. And there’s more going on than we know of.”
“We need to get the egg and make the transaction.”
“I know,” Ty said.
“Then stop waiting.”
He let out a slow sigh. She was right. He did have to stop waiting. It was time to make a move. This would be even more challenging than what the Dragon Thief had done. How could Ty match that level of skill?
He had to find a way to get the egg from under the nose of the actual Dragon Thief, all while the Tecal sat among the celebrants, watching?
It seemed impossible.
But if he could pull this off, then maybe he could truly call himself the Dragon Thief.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ty crouched outside the temple, watching as much as he could, though he knew he wouldn’t be able to watch all vantage points from his position. Olivia was on the far side, watching from a different direction, though Ty didn’t expect anything to happen at the main entrance. If the High Priest was going to disappear from the temple, he anticipated it would be out the side door, and from there he might travel…
He didn’t know. At this point, he no longer knew anything.
Ty looked along the street. As he stood there, staring at the temple, he tried to think of what he would say to his brother if he suddenly appeared. He hadn’t come up with an answer. Not yet.
Every so often, Ty heard a shout in the city, and he tried to position himself so he could see where it came from, but he didn’t hear anything more now. Anyone who was faithful to the Flame had headed to the temple, and while the temple itself was filled, the street outside was also filled with those who followed the Flame, making it crowded. It was difficult for Ty to move, so he stayed in place, watching. Waiting.
He had to figure out the next move. He had to keep an eye out for the High Priest, and he had to figure out how he was going to get in and get the egg. Answers hadn’t come to him, but he thought he would eventually find a lull in the ceremony and be able to sneak in then.
So far, he hadn’t gone anywhere, hadn’t seen anything, which meant he didn’t know if there was anything more he needed to look into. Maybe he was wrong about the High Priest.
Unfortunately, he didn’t think so. The more he thought about it—and the time he had spent outside throughout the day had given him plenty of time to think—the more he began to realize he was right. The High Priest fit.
A figure came streaking along the street.
Ty shifted back into the shadows of the alley across from the temple and tried to make himself look as inconspicuous as possible. The figure came running straight up to him.
“Ty,” Olivia said, panting. Sweat streamed down her brow and she wiped it off, shifting her cloak and bunching her hair beneath it. He was surprised that she had stayed and helped. He kept expecting her to betray them, but so far, she had not. “They’re moving.”
“Who?”
“The priests. All of them.”
Ty frowned. “What do you mean, ‘they’re moving’?”
Olivia grabbed his arm and dragged him along the street.
Ty looked over at the door, but it had not been touched.
If the priests were moving, it would be an opportune time for the High Priest to slip out of the temple. He could disappear into the crowd and no one would know he was the Dragon Thief. There would be no reason for anybody to question him.
“Come on,” Olivia said, pulling on Ty’s arm again.
He followed Olivia, and as soon as they made a small curve around the outskirts of the temple, he realized he had been watching the wrong door. There was movement, but it was more than that—it was an entire train of people making their way out of the temple.
“There are so many,” he whispered.
Olivia nodded. “They started coming out a little while ago, and they’ve continued to come. Most of them are priests, or those serving them, but I haven’t been able to figure out what they’re doing. I figured this is what you were looking for, right?”
Ty noticed the High Priest as part of the procession. They were moving slowly, dressed in their full robes. He noticed his brother among them, also wearing his formal robes of office. Based on how they were making their way along the street, Ty again questioned whether he was wrong to think the High Priest could be the Dragon Thief. Maybe he had been wrong about all of it. This was a situation in which he wanted to be wrong.
There were probably twenty people in total—six or seven priests and their servants. They slowly headed past the palace, then to the west.
“Where do you think they’re going?” Olivia asked.
Ty shook his head. “I don’t really know. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
A chanting began and started to build, rising above the noise of the crowd. Ty listened to the sound of the chanting and tried to make out the details of it, but he couldn’t. It was part of the priests’ call to the Flame—some aspect of the spiritual ceremony, he suspected.
“I thought the Asharlath Ceremony was inside the temple, but maybe it’s not. Why didn’t Albion say anything about this?” Ty spoke mostly to himself, but Olivia watched him, saying nothing.
As he followed the priests and the procession, he saw something. He grabbed Olivia, dragging her off to the side of the street. They ducked into the shadows of a small alleyway, where they could continue to watch the priests without being seen.
He nodded into the distance and pointed to the mounted form of Roson James. He and several of the soldiers sat on the other side of the road, watching the procession move past. There were a pair of Dragon Touched with him. In between was the black dragon, a chain around its neck.
“Who is that?” Olivia whispered. “And is that—”
“The dragon,” he said. “And that’s the Dragon Touched. I suspect the Tecal is somewhere here as well. And if they’re both here, and if the High Priest has the egg…” But if he didn’t, then maybe Ty could grab the egg. This was the lull he had been hoping for. “Both of them have been chasing the Dragon Thief for the last year. It’s like they want to prove themselves to the king. At least, that’s the way it sounds.”
“So Eastley really is some part of a game?” Olivia asked. “Are all of us?”
“We aren’t,” he said. “We could have left at any time.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why not? Couldn’t your family have gotten out?”
“Not without the right resources,” she said, lowering her voice. She glanced behind her before turning to focus on the procession.
“There’s something off here,” Ty said. “Look at Roson. He looks unhappy.”
“Maybe he is unhappy,” Olivia said, motioning toward the palace. “The procession and the crowd are blocking the road. There are still people trying to get out—people with money. People the king cares about.”
And Roson wouldn’t be able to unleash the dragon on them.
It was more than just a block in the road. He slipped along the alley, dragging Olivia with him, and they made their way to a side street where they could loop forward, slipping past most of the crowd, and get in front of the procession. If they stayed on the main road, they were going to head toward the jungle, which didn’t make a lot of sense, especially given his experience with the Flame, but perhaps the priests were going to try to speak to Ishantil—to calm
the volcano, to try to soothe the Flame in order to quiet it.
Ty saw it as an opportunity to slip in and check for the egg.
“Wait here for me,” he said to Olivia.
Racing inside the temple, Ty found it empty, and there was no egg in sight as he approached the altar and the Flame.
What if the priests had it?
He darted back out and managed to get ahead of the procession again. Surprisingly, there was another shadowy figure not far from him, also watching the procession.
He pushed Olivia back.
“What’s that about?” she asked.
“I’m not even sure. The Dragon Thief stole the egg, and both the Tecal and the Dragon Touched want it back, but now we are in the midst of the Asharlath Ceremony and it seems to me he is taking the egg somewhere.”
Why would the Dragon Thief steal the egg, then bring it out with both the Tecal and the Dragon Touched around? It seemed a dangerous risk.
But not entirely. There was a crowd around them, which would make it difficult for Roson or Gayal to do much of anything. Not only that, but there were priests around. The king wouldn’t attack the priests or the celebrants of the Flame.
At least, under normal circumstances—though these weren’t normal circumstances.
How much of this had his brother known about?
He hadn’t pushed Albion, but Ty started to question whether he had known about the egg—which he should have—and whether he had known the truth about the High Priest. Then again, Albion probably wouldn’t have told Ty anything.
The procession approached and the chanting persisted. Every so often, Ty caught a word of it.
Ishantil.
Ty was increasingly certain that he knew where they were headed, but he didn’t know why.
“What are they doing?” Olivia asked, staying close to him. She was pressed up against him, and he tried to ignore the way he responded to her when she did that—tried to ignore his attraction to her. He couldn’t trust her. He couldn’t even trust his response to her.
“It looks like they’re heading up to Ishantil. It must be part of the Asharlath Ceremony.”
She looked over to him. “Did your brother tell you anything about it?”
“No, but he invited me along.” Ty should have pushed to learn more, but he’d been focused on other issues.
She glanced behind her. “The volcano is going to erupt at any time.”
“We have the day,” Ty said.
She shook her head. “We think we have the day—you’ve been told we do—but we don’t really know how long we have. It’s time for us to go.”
“We don’t have Eastley.”
“And if they get the egg, we aren’t going to get Eastley. Even if we do get the egg, we probably aren’t going to be able to save him in time. It’s time for us to save ourselves.”
“I thought you didn’t have enough money,” Ty said.
“I don’t, but I think I might have a way.” She looked back, and he saw her gaze drifting toward the temple. “These people can stay and die. I don’t care. But I’m going to get out of the city, I’m going to get my family out, and I’m going to make sure Bingham has a chance to get out. You could come.”
Was this another part of her act?
Ty didn’t know, but she wasn’t wrong. He knew he should leave. It was the sensible decision. But there was that part of him that still didn’t feel as if he could abandon the city—or Eastley. He still had time.
“I can go up ahead of them, maybe cut them off and get to the egg,” Ty said.
“Ty—”
He shook his head. “I know it’s stupid. I just can’t leave him.”
Was it about Eastley now—or his brother?
If it was about Eastley, he only needed to tell Gayal that the High Priest had the egg.
But Albion…
Olivia closed her eyes and breathed out slowly, and in that moment, Ty thought maybe she would stay with him, help him get Eastley. If she did, they might not even have to go after the egg. They could break into the palace again, though he suspected that would be difficult even now. But then she opened her eyes, stepped up on her toes, and kissed him briefly on the cheek.
“I’m sorry,” she said and spun, darting away.
He watched her for another moment before turning and hurrying along the alley, disappearing into the darkness. Ty focused his attention back on the procession.
At this point, he wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to do. He could follow all of them, but he wasn’t sure if that was the right strategy. He hurried forward, slipping along the street and keeping just behind Roson and the other soldiers. He watched the priests, but he wanted to see his brother, to catch his eye and alert him of what they were doing.
He slipped around, moving off and darting past the procession, getting ahead of it. He reached the border of the city and the jungle, where he crouched near the trees, hiding under the canopy. From here, he could hear the insects chirping, the steady buzzing from within the jungle, and felt the humid breeze drifting out of it, but he focused on the procession making its way along the street. Every so often, he thought he heard the cry of a velum not far behind him, but then it disappeared. He tried not to pay any mind to that.
The procession approached, and the chanting persisted. They headed toward what was known as the Path of the Flame, a staircase worked into the stone that led up to Ishantil. It was considered a sacred path, one that only the priests were permitted to take, and the people within Zarinth generally avoided. The servants stepped forward as if part of some ceremony, and they presented a cloth to a priest, who took it. Two other priests flanking him helped him with the cloth, and they set it atop a basket. Neither of the priests were his brother—or the High Priest.
For that matter, he didn’t even see Albion with them. He must be behind the others.
The chanting picked up again and Ty listened. He couldn’t help but feel a bit of a pull, some sort of stirring deep within him, as if they were speaking to him directly, trying to call some hint of power forward.
He tried to watch for the High Priest. He couldn’t see him anywhere, but he had to be there somewhere.
The chanting reached a crescendo. The one priest stood, holding on to the basket with the maroon fabric draped over his hands, the two priests standing right behind him, and they started forward, continuing toward the trees and the Path of the Flame.
Ty watched them starting up the path as he stayed in the shadows under the canopy. He half-expected that his brother would trail after them, that the rest of the procession would follow, but other priests took a position around the path, blocking it. The servants did the same. He noticed Roson and the soldiers standing there, watching, a tight look on Roson’s face. Ty suspected he was none too pleased with the fact that he was prevented from following the priests, though he couldn’t tell anything else from his stance. Ty waited for a moment, but saw no sign of Gayal—or his brother.
Where had he gone? And where was the High Priest?
Ty scanned the street. Had Albion drifted off in the middle of the ceremony? If he had, Ty might not have seen it, but it would’ve caught somebody’s notice. It would’ve looked strange.
Ty had been standing there for a while, watching the celebration for long enough that he would have noticed something like that.
A velum cried out behind him again, the loud call echoing in the trees. Ty turned.
He had heard that call before, a dangerous sound, one he remembered from his childhood spent in the jungle—a time when his mother had guided him through here, trying to teach him their calls, along with ways to call to them. He had never mastered it—not like Albion had.
Someone had passed through here, disturbing the velum.
It was far enough up into the forest that he wouldn’t have expected the priests to have gotten there yet. They weren’t moving that quickly. They were taking a more measured pace, making their way along the path slowly, deliberately, an
d he could hear their chanting, so he knew they were still close by.
Why would the velum have cried out like that?
Someone must have disturbed them.
Ty lingered for a moment, then turned, running up the mountainside and staying off the path. The only reason someone would have snuck along the path was because they were after something.
Or someone.
And he was going to get there first.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ty darted through the trees, hurrying past massive trunks, ducking underneath vines that threatened to snag his head, and jumping over shrubs that grew in the jungle. An occasional thorn snagged him, but he ignored it. He had plenty of experience navigating through the jungle, but not nearly as much experience trying to run through the jungle. At this point, he tried to keep the path on his right, but doing so proved far more difficult than he expected. He continued to have to veer gradually toward the left, trying to follow the natural contours of the jungle as he went up the slope. If the goal was the peak of Ishantil, whoever was heading there wouldn’t be able to stay on the path, though he wasn’t entirely sure that was their goal.
He knew the priests wouldn’t go all the way to the peak if they were going to try to soothe Ishantil. They would stop at the lava lake.
Ty heard a rustling near him and froze.
He turned, looking all around, and saw a face up in the trees.
One of the velum.
This was a small one, and it had a furry face that looked somewhat human. It stared at him, something penetrating and terrifying in its gaze. Ty waited, knowing that if the velum decided to call to the others, they might attack him, and he wasn’t at all prepared to deal with a whole pack of velum.
But it disappeared, drifting farther off into the trees.
Ty let out a soft sigh.
He started forward again, now trying to be quieter.
He could still make out the priests’ chanting, though it was growing increasingly faint. He thought it was downslope from him.
He raced along the slope, moving as quickly as he could, but paused when he heard the cry of another velum.
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