Smoke and Shadow: An Epic Fantasy Progression Series (The Dragon Thief Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  There was a time when Ty would have liked more space to spread out or cared more about the furnishings, but now that he was trying to learn something different, something that he wanted to believe was more useful than what he had done before, he didn’t really care.

  “You don’t approve?” he asked, taking a seat on the bed and leaning back. He winced when he did.

  Bingham’s gaze lingered on his ankle, frowning for a moment. “It has nothing to do with my approval. It’s just… I wasn’t expecting that you would have stayed here.”

  “I’m still trying to uncover what I can about Albion.” Gayal had made it clear that he was not to reveal his training to anyone. Even to Bingham.

  That was the hardest for him, though it surprised him that it would be. Bingham had known Ty’s mother, but he wasn’t sure how well he knew Albion. He knew Albion’s role, and he had connections that Ty didn’t, so it left Ty compelled to try to see what Bingham might know.

  “Didn’t you hear your brother was freed?”

  Ty sat up and worked his ankle. Nothing felt broken since he had been able to walk on it, but there was still some stiffness.

  There was a time when an injury like that would’ve been far more challenging to him. Maybe it still would be, depending on what Gayal asked of him. He wasn’t sure what more she might want.

  “He’s free,” Ty started, wincing a little bit as the pain flared again in his ankle. “But I haven’t been able to see him. I know he’s here somewhere.”

  “If you know he’s here, then it shouldn’t be all that difficult for you to find him.”

  He arched a brow at Bingham. “This is Albion we’re talking about.”

  “The priest.”

  “If he was only a priest, then none of this would be an issue.”

  “Did you know I heard another story about the Dragon Thief?” Bingham said, sitting up and leaning forward. “Apparently, there was another sighting recently.”

  “Was there?”

  “There was. A small city not far from the capital. Apparently, the Dragon Thief has been accused of taking a relic.”

  Ty shook his head and muttered to himself. “Bastard.”

  “You didn’t know.”

  He looked up. “Do I look like I knew?”

  Bingham shrugged.

  “That can’t be the reason that you came here,” Ty said.

  “Not particularly. I came because there was an opportunity in the city for me.”

  “It doesn’t have to do with Esme, does it?” When Bingham shrugged, Ty snorted. “You actually do care about her, don’t you?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Because I’ve never seen you care about anyone other than yourself. Well… and your business. Money. That sort of thing.”

  “I’m hurt, Tydornen. Honestly, I’m hurt. You know I care about you. That’s why I brought you along the way I did.”

  “You haven’t done anything honest in years, either. And you brought me along because you needed a thief.”

  Bingham sniffed. “I was worried about you,” he said, looking over toward the door. “When Esme sent word to me that you were staying with her—”

  “So that’s how you heard?”

  He shrugged. “You didn’t know?”

  “I didn’t know that she was reporting on my activity with you, if that’s your question.”

  “I figured you knew.”

  “How was I supposed to know? She’s my proprietor and nothing more. It’s not like I’ve been having ongoing conversations with Esme about you or anything.”

  “Maybe you should be,” he said, laughing softly.

  “Again, that’s not why I’m here.”

  Bingham clasped his hands together, tearing his gaze off the door and turning his attention back to Ty. There was concern etched in the corner of his eyes as he rubbed his thumbs together before scratching his jaw. “Tell me, Ty, why is it that you’re here? It has to do with more than your brother. If that were all it was, you would have returned to Zarinth by now. Especially given the stories of the Dragon Thief out in the open.”

  “I still haven’t had a chance to talk to Albion,” he said softly. “He has to come back at some point.”

  “Does he?” Bingham frowned, shaking his head. “Is there a reason that you think your brother needs to end up back here? He was held, and whether or not he was held with any purpose, he was still held. That has to matter in some way.”

  “With Albion’s connection to the king,” Ty started, still not certain that he could believe all that Albion had done to help the king, “he might have learned something about my parents. I don’t know how much I need to dig until I know what Albion knew.”

  It was more than just that. He didn’t want to start digging until he learned what Albion knew because Albion might push him on the right path.

  If he were willing to do so, that is.

  This was the same person who had disappeared from his life for as long as he had, practically abandoning Ty.

  “I could help,” Bingham suggested.

  Ty arched a brow. “Really? You would help me find information about my parents?”

  He had to be careful here. As far as he knew, Bingham wasn’t supposed to know about his connection to the smoke dragon. Ty wasn’t even sure how he would explain that to him.

  “You were one of my best students.”

  “I’m one of your best suppliers,” Ty said. He put a little bit of weight on his ankle, testing to see whether it would hold, and was pleased that it didn’t seem like it was going to give out on him. It still throbbed, and the pain flared briefly when he attempted to stand, but not for so long that it left him feeling like he couldn’t put some pressure on it. Hopefully it would recover fairly rapidly.

  Ever since connecting to the smoke dragon, Ty had healed faster than he ever had before. He had no idea if it was tied only to the smoke dragon or if there was something more to it, but he suspected they were peripheral effects.

  “This has nothing to do with your supply,” he said.

  “I will believe that if you return to Zarinth.”

  “You don’t want me here?”

  “It has nothing to do with what I want. It has everything to do with…” Ty shook his head, trailing off. Gayal didn’t want him to reveal anything about what he was doing here, or why, and she certainly didn’t need to reveal it to Bingham.

  He and Bingham had always had an interesting relationship. Not quite a friendship, at least, not to Ty, though he had no idea how Bingham would view him. Bingham knew Ty’s mother. Or had. They had a shared interest in dragon relics, something that Ty still didn’t fully understand, though he certainly wished that Bingham would help him know why his mother had chased dragon relics the way that she had, and for him to understand her interest in them. Bingham had not shared that.

  Which was why Ty wouldn’t share with Bingham what he was doing. Not when it came to the kind of things that he’d gotten himself into this time. Not when it came to serving the king.

  Not only the king, but to dragons as well.

  It was a strange thing to feel like he had a connection to the dragons, stranger still to realize that connection meant that he was somehow different, somehow essential to the kingdom. Especially after what he’d gone through with Roson James, having seen the way that he was willing to attack people within the kingdom, willing to harm and kill and do whatever he wanted in order to take the dragons.

  Ty hadn’t necessarily had any real connection to the dragons before, but the smoke dragon had done something, had bonded to him, and he wanted to better understand it.

  Though that wasn’t the only reason he had come so willingly to the capital.

  “How much of it has to do with that young Tecal?” Bingham asked.

  “You think she’s young?”

  “She’s certainly younger than me,” Bingham said.

  He shifted his weight again, testing his ankle. It seemed like it was
less painful than it had been. Maybe he hadn’t landed quite as hard as he thought.

  He tried to focus for a moment, wondering if he might feel any hint of the smoke dragon buried within him. From what Gayal had told him, there would be a hint of heat working through his belly, something to suggest that the dragon remained there for him, but he didn’t feel it.

  “Pretty much everybody is younger than you.”

  “That just hurts, Ty.”

  “I’m sure. You and your sensitive heart. How is Esme, by the way?”

  “As I said, you have been—”

  “I know that I’ve been here, but I also know the two of you have some unfinished business. I keep waiting for you to move back to the capital to rekindle your flames.”

  “Well…”

  Ty frowned at him. “Well what?”

  “Well, I have given it some thought. Business in Zarinth has become a little bit more difficult these days.”

  “Because I’m gone?”

  Bingham snorted. “You aren’t my only supplier,” Bingham said.

  “Well, you do have Olivia,” Ty said. Though he wasn’t sure if Bingham still worked with Olivia. After she had betrayed him, attempting to steal the dauvern from him, he wasn’t sure if Bingham would still work with her—though knowing Bingham, and his desire to acquire wealth at any cost, he had a hard time thinking that Bingham would turn down the chance at gathering more money if it presented it to him. Always practical. That was Bingham.

  “Olivia,” Bingham said, shaking his head. “I still wish she wouldn’t have brought Eastley up there.”

  Ty had made a point of trying not to think about Eastley. They had been competitors at first and then had become closer. A friend. Somebody who understood him, and somebody who had been willing to help him.

  “I don’t want to talk about him,” he said.

  Bingham looked up at him. “Yes, I’m sure you don’t. It’s difficult to lose somebody that you are friendly with.”

  “Don’t say that as if you understand,” Ty said.

  “You don’t think that I cared about what happened to him?”

  “You care about losing your wealth, but that’s it.”

  “Careful, Ty,” Bingham said.

  “If you don’t want to tell me why you are here, then don’t, but I’m not going to have you sit around in my room, wasting my time, while I have to…” He trailed off, realizing that he had no way of telling Bingham what he had to do. He wasn’t about to share anything with him, anyway.

  “That’s fine,” Bingham said, getting to his feet. “I just wanted you to know that I was here. I might be staying for a while. Business has become difficult in Zarinth, mostly because you are gone. You should consider that a compliment, by the way. But partly because the king has sent more Dragon Touched to Zarinth, trying to make sure that Lothinal doesn’t push through near Ishantil.” He wiped his hands on his pants. “And so, I’m probably going to stay here.”

  “Not in my room.”

  Bingham scowled at him. “I wouldn’t be as forward as to assume I could stay in your room. Besides, I don’t want to get involved if you and that Tecal end up needing some quiet time to yourselves. Or not so quiet, as the case may be.”

  “Get out,” he said, waving his hand at Bingham.

  “You would dismiss an old friend so quickly?”

  Ty regarded him for a moment. Was he a friend?

  He wouldn’t have thought so. Then again, Bingham had made a point of helping him whatever he had needed it, especially lately. Maybe Bingham was more of a friend than he had realized.

  “It sounds like you aren’t going to be very far, so yes. I would dismiss an old friend so quickly.”

  “Fine. I’m just down the hall. Why don’t you get some rest, heal that ankle of yours, and then we can talk about what we need to do to figure out what happened your brother?”

  Ty took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and frowned at him. “You would help?”

  “Regardless of what you think of me, Tydornen, I am still here to offer whatever aid I can. Your mother would’ve wanted that.”

  His mother. Ty wasn’t exactly sure what his mother would’ve wanted out of him. Or out of Bingham.

  “So are you going to rekindle things with Esme?”

  Bingham shifted his feet, glancing to the door briefly.

  Ty started to laugh, and Bingham shot him a look. Ty shrugged. “It seems that she makes you uncomfortable.”

  “More than I care to admit,” he said softly. He stepped out of the room, pausing at the door. “I would like to talk about why you are in the city. When you’re ready.” He regarded him for a long moment. There was something almost knowing in his eyes.

  When he left, Ty sat back, crossing his arms over his chest and trying to focus on the heat within him, trying to find a way to reach the dragon, but failing. He grabbed the dragon-bone dagger and flipped it, feeling for something within it that might provide him with a connection to it, to the dragons, but there was nothing there.

  Regardless of what he might try, the connection to the dragons remained absent. It was a promise, nothing more than that, and it was a promise that he had continued to fail to reach.

  And now he had Bingham here.

  Bingham had come here for more than what he had admitted. Ty knew that about him. There was always something more when it came to Bingham. Maybe it was simply about a desire to reconnect with Esme, or maybe that was just a part of something more, but there was a reason behind it.

  Ty didn’t think the reason was him. At least, he didn’t believe it was entirely him, but what was it?

  Ty sat back, staring at the wall, his mind drifting and coming up with no better answer than what he had before.

  Chapter Three

  The Dragon’s Jaw towered in the distance. It was far easier to make out the details from where he stood, so far removed from the outskirts of the city. The city itself sat inside the Jaw, contained by the strange mountain’s structure. Everything inside the Jaw was perpetually cast in shadows, the sun always stretching through those massive fingers of rock, always leaving slithering shadows across the city itself. The shade was enough that he should’ve been able to hide anywhere within the city, at any time of day, though Ty had found that it was more difficult than he would’ve expected.

  “You’re distracted.”

  He looked over at Gayal. She crouched next to a small stream, her dark shadow dragon cloak hanging around her, still and motionless the way that it often was. She glanced up at him, a bit of a smile on her deeply tanned face, her dark hair hanging to her shoulders.

  “I’m distracted. Bingham showed up.”

  He’d been trying to figure out how to tell her ever since they had headed out of the city for their training session, but he hadn’t been able to come up with the right way to phrase it. Gayal didn’t want him to have secrets from her, and for the most part he understood her reasoning and thought that it made sense, but partly he suspected it was because she wanted to have control over what he did and who he interacted with—as if she could control him.

  “I suspected he would eventually make his way here,” she said.

  He frowned at her. “You suspected he would? Bingham had a stable operation in Zarinth.” There was no point in denying the kind of work that Bingham did, especially not to Gayal, who had observed it firsthand. And at this point, he no longer thought that Gayal would be the one to report him to the king. At least not for that.

  “I think that one has something more to him than just the operation he claimed.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  As one of the Tecal, she might know things about Bingham. Perhaps she knew more than he had realized.

  “I haven’t been able to uncover anything quite yet, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t. He is here for some other reason.”

  Ty frowned. “Me?” That didn’t seem like Bingham, but perhaps she knew something more that he did.

  Gaya
l stood, wiping her hands on her pants. The bottom of the cloak began to shift and slide around, as if it were alive. “I’m not so sure if it’s with you, or if he is after something else.”

  “Well, he does have an old flame here.”

  “Really?” Gayal tipped her head, turning to look back at the city and frowning. “I wouldn’t have expected him to be the kind to take up with anyone.”

  “I’m not so sure that he truly took up with her so much as he had a brief fling with her.” Ty shrugged. “It’s hard to know when it comes to Bingham, though. The more you get to know him, the more you will see that.”

  “I don’t know if I will get to know him.”

  He opened his mouth to say something before realizing that he had assumed that because he was working with her, she would have any interest in getting to know the people he spent time with. That wasn’t the way it worked.

  He was training to become a Tecal, trying to learn how to use the connection to the dragons and training to try to better understand what that meant for him, but that didn’t mean that he was somehow going to be friends with her.

  They were friendly. It was better than they had been when he had first met her. Then there had been a sense of fear—mostly from him—about what she wanted from him.

  But friendliness only went so far. She still wanted something from him. If he couldn’t understand the smoke dragon and his connection to it, he wondered just how well she would treat him.

  Gayal looked at him. “Have you been trying to reach for the power?”

  “I’ve been trying, but I haven’t been able to do anything with it,” Ty said.

  He focused on the energy within him the way that Gayal had tried to instruct him, but it didn’t respond the way he needed it to. If only he could figure out some aspect of the power, some way to tap into it.

  “There have been rumors of clouds of smoke throughout the city,” Gayal said to him.

  “I’m not doing anything with it,” he said.

  “I know, and that’s the problem,” she said to him. “If you were doing something, and if you somehow had a way to control it, we would be in a better situation. I want you to have that control.”