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

by D. K. Holmberg

  “She had to leave the city for a while.”

  “And you’re disappointed.” Esme rested her elbows on the counter, looking across at Ty. “I know how that can be. I went through that my share of times with men over the years, which might be why I was so upset with Jarson when he decided to leave. I thought I finally found somebody who wasn’t going to disappear on me.”

  “He’s back.”

  Esme frowned. “He’s back, but I still don’t know for how long. I don’t know what he’s after, but knowing Jarson—Bingham—he is after something.”

  Esme did know Bingham well enough. And she wasn’t wrong. She had known Bingham as an antiquities dealer, but now she knew the truth of him. At least, the truth that Bingham had been willing to share. Ty’s understanding of Bingham was that he only revealed what he wanted to.

  “What was he like when he was here before?”

  “I doubt he was that different than he is now. Then again, I don’t know him as well now. He might have changed.” She breathed out. “He was always kind, though. Loyal. Even when he was here, there were times when he couldn’t stay because he was watching out for a friend of his.” She met Ty’s eyes. “I suppose that was not all that different than you.”

  “I suppose not,” Ty said.

  He wondered who it was that Bingham had loyalty to back then, though perhaps it didn’t even matter.

  He looked around the tavern. Everybody else who was here was seated in quiet conversation, enough so that it was easy for Ty to feel as if the tavern were empty other than he and Esme, even though it wasn’t.

  “Can you let him know I need to talk to him when he gets a chance?”

  “I can let him know. He’s been gone most of the day. I think he’s busy setting up his business here.”

  Ty chuckled. “You know what he means by that, don’t you?”

  “Oh, I know. And I know that the kind of work that he is going to find here in the capital is going to be quite a bit different than what he found outside of the capital. I also don’t know that it matters much to him. He claims that he is acting on behalf of an old obligation.” She shook her head. “Not that I could claim to know what that obligation was. Certainly not me. Then again, I wouldn’t want to be an obligation now, would I?”

  Ty snorted. “Thank you.”

  He headed up the stairs feeling tired but wondered if he would even be able to sleep. He wanted to visit with his brother but needed to do it when Albion had a chance to actually visit, and not have him hiding information from Ty. There might be something more to Bingham than he had known. If he had somebody in the city, could that person know about Ty’s mother?

  Thoughts of Bingham in the city led to other questions for him. Maybe Bingham could help him find information about Roson James. If nothing else, Ty needed to have a warning if Roson James were to come back. He had to be prepared for the possibility of an attack. Not just that, but he had to be prepared for the possibility that Roson James would steal the dauvern, take the dragon, and go after the Tecal.

  And if he did…

  Then he might have access to enough power to attack the kingdom.

  It didn’t bother Ty so much.

  What bothered him was the idea of losing the dragon before he had an opportunity to understand it.

  That and Roson James himself.

  He didn’t even care what Roson James wanted. Ty wanted to stop him regardless.

  That would be his vengeance for what happened to him and to Eastley.

  More than anything, he wanted to rest. He wanted to find some way to get better control over the smoke dragon and to put that energy to work. He wanted to master the power that existed within him before Dorian decided he could no longer work with him and stripped the dragon from him.

  He had no idea how long he had before that happened but doubted it was a very long time. Especially given how frequently Dorian mentioned his age. He had a feeling from him that it mattered. Which meant that he had to act quickly.

  How was he supposed to find some way to master the dragon? How could he get control over something that seemed as if it had a mind of its own?

  And it did.

  More than anything, he knew that the dragon had a mind of its own, and that whatever he thought to do wouldn’t help.

  When he reached the top of the stairs, he paused. He thought he heard voices down below in the tavern, but maybe he was wrong.

  He headed along the hallway and to his room, where he unlocked the door and relocked it behind him. Finally, he sat on the bed, resting, and quickly fell asleep. Dreams of smoke swirled around him during his rest, and for whatever reason he didn’t feel as if he had the rest that he needed. It was almost as if the smoke dragon in his sleep tried to keep him awake, tried to keep him from recovering, despite how the dragon had ignored every attempt that he made to connect to it when he was awake.

  In the dreams, such as there were, the dragon performed in a circle around him, as if it were some massive creature stretching its wings all around him, engulfing him. Perhaps it protected him, though Ty didn’t necessarily feel protected.

  Eventually, those dreams faded, and he drifted into different dreams, ones where his brother was there—his parents too—drifting back to a time when he had been with them. It was a happier time, a simpler time, and a time before a Dragon Thief, a time before a smoke dragon, and a time before his parents had disappeared.

  Chapter Six

  Sleep had not been fully restorative.

  Ty got up slowly, every part of him aching, and strangely there was a soft gnawing in the pit of his stomach, almost as if the dragon were there, trying to remind him of its power and showing him just how little he could do.

  Not that he needed that reminder.

  The power of the dragon was there, faint within his belly, a rumbling and grumbling sensation that left him unsettled. He got dressed, stuffing the dragon-bone dagger into the sheath at his side, and headed out of the room, locking the door behind him. He paused in the tavern and found the tables pushed back against the walls, chairs stacked on top of them, and no sign of Esme—or any other patrons.

  Ty poked his head into the kitchen, and though he smelled the aromas of old bread and meats, there was no sign of anyone here. No sign that the kitchen had been active that morning. He wondered what Esme was doing. Then again, she might simply have closed up so that she could gather supplies.

  He headed out into the street and paused for a moment. Dorian expected him, and he didn’t want to keep him waiting, not with his desire to meet his brother this evening. He made sure to keep the slip of paper from his brother in his pocket and had grabbed the dauvern on his way out.

  He reached the outskirts of the city, following the road leading away, and paused when he had put some distance between him and the city. He looked back, as he often did, taking in the massive points of the Dragon’s Jaw, admiring the way it curved up and around, framing the city itself. It was massive, especially from this angle, and seemed as if some part of it attempted to actually swallow the city. Ty wondered what a dragon that size might look like. Large enough that it would blot out the sky. Probably powerful enough to destroy everything in its wake.

  According to Gayal, who had an interest in history, the city had been founded here with a purpose, though she hadn’t said what that purpose was. Maybe it had nothing more than to do with the placement, as if to sit inside the Dragon’s Jaw would offer a certain protection to the city, though maybe there was something more to it.

  At this time of morning, there weren’t many people out. This section of the city was generally quiet normally, but this was extreme, even here. The road itself was narrow, lined with shops of all sorts, though the shops had faded signs, dusty windows, and were generally in poor repair. It was the kind of place that Bingham once would have chosen to set up his own shop to avoid drawing attention.

  From here, the road led to Zarinth and then to the edge of the kingdom. The mountains formed a nat
ural barricade at the edge of the kingdom, and there weren’t all that many people who ventured that way. Only people like him and Bingham, people who wanted to get to the edge of the kingdom, people who wanted to visit Zarinth, or who wanted to go to Ishantil and celebrate the Flame. Beyond that was the kingdom of Lothinal, a place that Ty knew about only in rumors, nothing more than that. Even that was hard to know what to make of. Traders would come through Lothinal, smugglers as well, but other than sharing the trade, Ty had not spent much time learning of the politics. He had never really cared to.

  He checked as Dorian had instructed him, making sure that no one watched, then veered off the path, heading across the grassy plain until he reached the stream, where he crouched down. After taking a long drink, he got to his feet and continued onward.

  Dorian chose a new place each day, and it was on him to find it each day. Part of that was a deliberate challenge, as if to say that if Ty could find Dorian, he could eventually find his control over the dragon, though that hadn’t been his experience at all. Even if he could eventually find the source of power from the dragon, he didn’t know if that would even matter when finding Dorian. He thought that it had more to do with wanting to test him, to challenge whether or not he could find him by moving along the plain.

  He caught sight of the stones.

  They looked different each day, as well. The first day he’d encountered them, the circle of stones had looked something like a ring that had been established. But the longer he came here, the more he felt it gave off a different appearance. No longer a ring, but now something else. They looked like tall fingers of rock, as if to mimic the same appearance as the Dragon’s Jaw.

  He headed straight toward them.

  When he stepped through, the light faded just a little bit, darkening the clearing. He looked over at Dorian and found him sitting alone in the center of the clearing, his eyes closed, darkness around him. There was a hint of light radiating from him, though it flickered every so often, as if he weren’t sure whether or not there should be light. It stretched like fingers out around him, tendrils of light and darkness that flickered, swirling, and then retreated. Much like the very first time, the air was still and calm, almost muted in quality. There were no smells of the surrounding plain, as if they had simply stepped out of the plain and disappeared.

  “How do the soldiers not see your collection of rocks?”

  “How do you not see it until I decide you should?” Dorian asked without looking up.

  “You decide?”

  “You aren’t too terribly difficult to detect when you come.” He opened his eyes, looking over at Ty. A hint of darkness stretched away from him before drawing back and retreating. “Did you think you passed silently?”

  “I didn’t give too much thought about it.”

  “You are a thief, are you not?”

  “Was,” he said.

  Dorian snorted. “I have not known any thief to give up the trade so quickly.”

  “Have you known many thieves?”

  “More than you would imagine,” he said and got to his feet. Dorian clasped his hands together. “I understand your dragon was active last evening.”

  Ty shook his head. “No, not that I know of.”

  “Not that you know of?” He cocked his head to the side, studying him. One eye drooped slightly compared to the other, as if he had been struck in the eye and it had never healed fully.

  For a moment, Ty felt a stirring deep within him, and then it faded. It was almost as if the dragon fought any attempt to be drawn away from him. If the dragon would fight him, then maybe he didn’t have to worry about him getting pulled away.

  Dorian chuckled. “You don’t need to fear me, little one,” he said.

  “Does he fear you?”

  “He does. Can you not feel it?”

  “I don’t know what I feel,” Ty said. “All I can feel is when you try to call him off.”

  Dorian smiled. “The connection is not the issue.”

  “Then what is the issue?”

  “The issue is how you use the connection.”

  “I’m not trying to use it.”

  “But you should,” Dorian said. Shadows swirled around him, curling up and forming more of a cloak around him. “You should be attempting to use the connection constantly. There should never be a time when you release that hold, never a time when you give up on that. There should never be a time when you abandon that attempt.”

  “I didn’t realize I was.”

  “I can see it, and I can see how you are holding onto that power,” he said. The shadows stretched away from him again before coming back toward him. The light did the same thing around him, a swirl of color, a faint shimmering that then faded, drawing back into him. “What do you see when you look upon me?”

  “I see the way you’re calling the shadows,” Ty said.

  “Just the shadows?”

  “It’s more than the shadows,” he said. “But the shadows are the most prominent.”

  “Because I choose it to be so.”

  “Is it just that, or is it because it’s daytime?”

  “You think it’s just daylight that matters to me?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know enough about the dragon.”

  At that, Dorian let out a frustrated sigh. His injured eye twitched, widening slightly before drooping once again.

  “I grow weary of trying to force a connection out of you. I grow weary of hearing stories of this smoke dragon slipping away, your control over him incomplete. I grow weary of trying to coax you to train him. And I’ve told you what will happen,” he said to Ty.

  “What if you can’t train him?”

  “That is not a possibility,” Dorian said.

  “What if he’s not trainable?”

  He didn’t know why he was pushing Dorian like this, but maybe it was the idea that he would have to train the dragon, or that somebody would have to train it, or maybe it was just his arrogance with the control he had over the other dragons. Whatever it was, he pushed, and he wondered if perhaps he should not.

  “That is not possible,” Dorian said.

  Ty tried to focus on the heat within him, trying to feel for the power buried within his belly, but there was no sense of energy there within him. He believed there had to be something, some aspect of control in connection to the dragon, but he didn’t feel it.

  “All dragons can eventually form a connection to those they bonded to. You must find yours. If you can’t, I’m sure Gayal has warned you that someone else would.”

  The idea bothered him, and as he looked over to Dorian there was a part of Ty that wondered if he longed for that idea.

  Would it be all that different than what Roson James would do to him?

  Did Ty even really care?

  The dragon had chosen him, at least that was what Gayal claimed, which meant that he was supposed to learn to use it. But if he couldn’t, then perhaps it would be better for the dragon, and for him, to let it go.

  But if he did, then he wouldn’t have the chance to get revenge on Roson James for what he had done to Eastley.

  It certainly wasn’t him. He didn’t have enough control over the dragon to keep Dorian from drawing the dragon off if he were to choose. But he did have a connection to it. Ty couldn’t deny that anymore. He could feel the dragon from time to time, and when he was around Dorian, he could feel the way that the dragon reacted to his attempt at trying to call some of that power out, as if the dragon were upset at the mere idea that Dorian might summon some of his power away from him. Still, even if it angered the dragon, there wasn’t much that Ty could do to withstand an attack like that. He doubted the dragon would even be able to withstand it. Those were the parts that frustrated Ty. Those parts left him angry.

  “If you take it, then I can’t defend myself when Roson James comes for me,” Ty said.

  “Is that what you fear?”

  “I know that he’s not done with me.”

&nbs
p; “You know nothing about him, Tydornen.”

  He wasn’t about to ask Dorian how he knew his full name. Either Gayal had told him, or he had done some investigating on his own. It wasn’t that difficult to find somebody who knew enough about him, but at the same time he didn’t like the idea of Dorian digging into his past. More than that, he didn’t want him finding out anything about others he worked with, especially Bingham, and everything else that he’d done, though he had a feeling that he already had.

  “What if the dragon doesn’t want to be controlled?”

  The idea of controlling the dragon had always bothered him when Gayal described it to him. Control meant subjugating it.

  The dragon was powerful, and the one time that he had truly seen it had left him thinking that it wasn’t wanting that.

  Dorian took a step toward him. Power flowed from him, and it was different than the power that had flowed from him before. This time, he had a sense of the wind mixed with the light, a strange combination, and it was certainly strange in the way their energy mingled together, mixing as it created a ring around Ty. “Why wouldn’t the dragon want that?”

  “The dragon doesn’t want to be controlled,” Ty said.

  “Do you want the dragon to choose? Or would you rather be the one choosing who is in control?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t given it much thought.”

  “I can tell you the dragon has. The dragon chose you for a reason. The dragon likely believes you were someone he could bond to, but the dragon also likely believes you were somebody he could manipulate.” Dorian took a deep breath and the darkness flickered around him, swirling for a moment before coming back to him. The light surged, then the wind fluttered, and even the ground rumbled around him. “Everything you’ve experienced is under my command, not the dragon’s.”

  Thoughts about controlling the dragon came back to him, and he wanted to say that to Dorian, but he wasn’t sure how.

  “Why do you feel that control is necessary?”

  “You are from Zarinth, are you not?”

  “I am,” Ty said, not sure where this was going.