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

by D. K. Holmberg

  Regardless of what he believed about his brother, he was a priest. Perhaps the Dragon Thief, but still a priest.

  And Ty was the opposite. He was a thief first.

  Ty took a deep breath and then knocked.

  He crossed his arms over his chest, watching the door, waiting for his brother to pull it open. He had a dozen things ready to say to him, a dozen different things that he wanted to yell at him, to shout and tell him off, to scream at him about everything that he had gone through, but the door didn’t open. Everything that had filled his mind was useless.

  He knocked again.

  This may not even be his house, though Ty knew that. His home would be with Zara, his wife.

  His wife.

  Ty still couldn’t even believe that his brother was married.

  Why had he not shared that with him when he had found his brother in Zarinth?

  Secrets.

  His brother continued to trade in secrets, keeping him from knowing truths about him.

  But this warehouse where he had stored something, perhaps everything that he had stolen, might provide him some answers. He remembered the items inside. There were certainly relics that were here, items that had significance and that would be powerful. But not only powerful, they would also be valuable. They were things that he could envision stealing, selling, and using the wealth for other purposes.

  Not his brother, though. His brother was the Dragon Thief, but he was one who served the Flame. He didn’t acquire items to sell.

  He hadn’t given much thought to that before, but it made a certain sort of sense. He wouldn’t have tried to take anything that he could sell. If he had wanted to sell the items that he’d taken, he certainly could have done it. There would have been a market for it, and yet he didn’t remember Bingham ever mentioning that there was anything out in the city that had been stolen by the Dragon Thief.

  That should’ve been a clue. His brother had acquired relics, power, but he had done nothing with them.

  Ty shook his head. Of course he hadn’t.

  He was the Dragon Thief, but he also was a priest.

  He tapped on the door again, but this time he didn’t expect it to open.

  He started prowling along the street, surveying the building.

  There had to be another way in. His brother was more than just a priest. He was a thief. And Ty understood thieves.

  He pulled out his lock pick set, and began to work at the door, but could not get it to open.

  As he straightened, he realized that a young woman and what was likely her daughter glance in his direction.

  Ty stuffed the lock pick set back into his pocket and moved along the street. He had to be careful not to draw attention. There were too many soldiers and Dragon Touched patrolling the streets. He had to be careful to avoid that kind of detection. He looked around the outside the building, and he found an alley. He counted out the buildings, the different entrances, until he came to the one that he thought was his brother’s.

  He found another door.

  It was narrow, small, and protected with a heavy lock that he suspected was stout. As he tried to pick it, movement down the street caught his attention.

  He would have to work quickly. He tried to get through the lock, but he couldn’t pick it. He started onward. He couldn’t get into the doors. There were no windows. And no other way.

  That didn’t fit with a Dragon Thief.

  He had to think like his brother.

  No. He had to think like the Dragon Thief.

  What other way might there be?

  The only other thing that he could come up with would be going up. Ty flicked his gaze to the overhang and jumped, grabbing it, pulling himself up, and scrambling along the slightly sloped roof.

  As soon as he was up, there was movement along the street. A Dragon Touched marched down the alley. The woman and her daughter must’ve called for help.

  He smiled to himself.

  If he were caught, Dorian certainly wouldn’t be able to protect him now.

  Not that Dorian would ever have protected Ty while sneaking around the city. Still, had he simply been testing the locks, there would’ve been a way to ignore what had happened, and he wouldn’t have to try to explain what he was doing, but climbing onto the rooftop was a very different matter. He might have to answer for what he was doing up here, but there would be no real explanation for it.

  He crept up the rooftop, looking down below, peering toward the buildings, but he didn’t see anything moving anymore. The soldier had made a single patrol before moving onward.

  Ty climbed up the rooftop and kept moving.

  By the time he got to the peak, he found a small trapdoor.

  It looked to be new. If he were right, this trapdoor would lead into Albion’s warehouse and would provide him another way in and out.

  Why wouldn’t he have something like this? What better way to offer a level of protection than to have some way in and out of the building that somebody else wouldn’t know about?

  He tested the trapdoor.

  Unsurprisingly, it was locked, but it wasn’t nearly as stout as the locks on the street or in the alley. Ty picked it and finally threw the wooden trapdoor open, peering down into the darkness.

  He could see that Albion wasn’t there, but maybe he would find some clue about how to find Zara. How to find his brother. He smiled to himself and tried to lower himself down through the door.

  It was dark, and the pitch of the roof was high enough that he had no idea whether he would be able to drop down safely, but he thought that it couldn’t be terribly dangerous. Albion wouldn’t be able to use it effectively otherwise.

  He dangled for a moment, looking between his arms, and saw a narrow beam.

  That was going to be tricky. He could land on the beam, but he could just as easily slip, and it looked to him like the ground dropped far below him.

  If only he had a rope, but he hadn’t prepared to be sneaking around.

  Ty focused his breathing, staring at the beam, and then released his grip. He landed on it and balanced for a moment before he started to slip. He dropped down, wrapping his arms around the beam, his heart hammering in his chest.

  He didn’t fall.

  When he felt confident he wasn’t going anywhere, he crawled along the beam, reaching the end of it and a narrow pathway leading around the perimeter. He dropped down onto that, and then down a wooden staircase and into the main part of the warehouse.

  The air had a strange, stale, almost medicinal quality to it, and he could easily remember that smell, the way the room had felt, and the energy that was here. None of that had even been necessary to help him, surprisingly. At least, Ty didn’t think that it had been. He suspected most of it had been tied to the smoke dragon.

  That had caused the smoke dragon to react more than anything else. It had been similar to how Dorian’s touch had triggered something with the smoke dragon. If the smoke dragon were responsible for healing him, then it was possible he would have recovered regardless.

  It didn’t seem like it was only the smoke dragon, though. His brother had done something to him, placing that strange dragon relic up against his skin. Ty gripped his side, holding it, feeling the wound. There was no scar. Nothing that would indicate what he had gone through and how much he had suffered. He took a seat on the small table where his brother had rested him, letting him recover.

  It gave him a chance to look around the room.

  It was empty.

  Everything about the warehouse seemed like it was a place that the Dragon Thief had occupied, and he remembered the different dragon relics that were here, but now there was nothing. It had been cleaned out.

  What did it mean that his brother had emptied this space out?

  Where had Albion gone?

  Without having any clue here, he had no idea how to find him—or Zara.

  Which meant Ty doubted he would find Albion. He had wanted to see what his brother might be up
to, to see what he might be able to offer about tracking down the missing dragons, to use the knowledge and skill of the Dragon Thief, but he wasn’t there.

  There might be something that he could do, though.

  He had a name, and he knew that she was a healer. Somebody like that would be known in the city. How hard would it be to find a healer name Zara?

  He looked up at the opening where he had climbed in. Ty wasn’t about to come back out the way he had come in, and given that the warehouse was empty and there was no sign of his brother, it didn’t seem to matter if he went out through the front door.

  He got to his feet and swept his gaze around the warehouse one more time before unlocking the door and pulling it open.

  Three soldiers stood on the other side of the door. They wore the leather armor of the king and carried short swords along with matching helms emblazoned with the crest of the dragon the king claimed as his own.

  Panic filled Ty. As soon as it did, the smoke dragon fluttered.

  Energy built, and it suddenly exploded outward.

  The soldiers were tossed to the far side of the street.

  Ty glanced back into the warehouse. He could go through it and into the alleyway, but if they had come to the front door, they were probably at the back door as well.

  So much for getting in and out of here without notice.

  He jumped out into the street, pulling the door closed, and raced along cobblestones. Smoke swirled around him, as if the smoke dragon suddenly was awakened and had decided to help.

  Why now?

  That was a question for later. First he had to get out of here, find Albion, and see if he could help him track down the Order.

  Ty needed the Dragon Thief. Unfortunately, that could not be him.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ty didn’t slow until he neared the end of the street, and when he did, he looked back, searching for any sign of soldiers, but there were none giving chase. Had they abandoned their chase, or did they find the building empty?

  As he slowed, he lowered the hood of his cloak. He had pulled it up when he was running, not wanting somebody to recognize him, but now that he was slowing and there was nobody around him to be watching, he didn’t fear apprehension quite the same way.

  Somebody had been watching the warehouse.

  It had to do with his brother. It had to do with the Dragon Thief.

  And they were regular soldiers, not the false Order of the Flame. As far as he could tell, they didn’t seem to be Dragon Touched, either. These days, that was almost as dangerous. He rounded a corner, and when he did he saw no sign of movement.

  He’d gotten away. Now it was time to find anything that he could about his brother. He had to find Zara. That was a simple matter of questioning. He didn’t think that Zara’s home could have been that far from the warehouse. His brother hadn’t been gone long when he had run for help for him that night. Which meant that he had a fairly tight radius to search.

  He needed to start closer to the warehouse.

  The question really was which street to start on?

  If he chose the wrong one, he could be several streets off before he realized that he was looking in the wrong direction. But knowing that he had to look in a specific area for the healer didn’t necessarily mean that he would find her storefront.

  That was, if she had a storefront.

  Still, Ty had to think that a healer would be well known.

  At least within Zarinth, healers were relatively well known. When he had been working with Maeve, most people in her part of the city had known about her. It had been easy enough to find her by simply asking around.

  He had to think that the same would be said for Zara.

  He rounded another corner and a marketplace stretched in front of him.

  This was where he would find his information.

  Ty had another benefit of going into the marketplace. Not only to ask about Zara and get information, but he would be able to disappear and could avoid anyone who might be searching for him.

  He made his way through the stalls. There were vendors selling meat, most of it smoked, though some of it raw. There were others selling fruits and vegetables, and still others that sold crafts and textiles and clothing. He passed one stall where the ceramics were incredible. It was a marketplace unlike any that he’d seen in Zarinth, and in Zarinth there had always been skilled merchants. He meandered through the crowd, finding himself staring as much as listening. The quality of the work was incredible, and though he knew he had a reason for being here, he also couldn’t help but feel intrigued by what was here. If he were to stay in the capital, this was the place where he could buy supplies.

  He had to push that thought away. There was no point in getting caught up in thinking like that, no point in considering the possibility that he could stay here. He couldn’t. Even though he was in Carn, now that he had been training with Dorian and Gayal and had a connection to the dragon, he doubted that he would be able to stay in any one place for very long. How could he when even if he succeeded, he would become a Tecal.

  If he failed…

  Ty no longer knew what would happen if he failed. He didn’t know if the dragons could be torn free from him, but he did suspect that if Roson James found him, and had the dauvern, that he would lose the dragon.

  And without understanding the dragon, he would not have the vengeance that he wanted. He paused at one stand. This one sold liniments and ointments and was the kind of place that he suspected he could find information about other healers. The woman standing behind the stand was heavyset, shorter than Ty, and had dark gray hair that hung down past her shoulders. She looked up with a beady-eyed expression, and the thin smile that crossed her face was twisted, almost dark.

  “Are you looking to buy? You look too healthy for my services.”

  Ty forced a smile. This was all a game. An act. And he knew what he needed. More than that, he knew a little bit about Zara and the kind of things that he sold. That was information that Ty had to take advantage of. By knowing a little bit about Zara, he thought that he could at least direct the questions in such a way that he could find out where to find him.

  “I’m looking for a particular kind of healing,” he said.

  The woman cackled softly and leaned forward, pushing a jar toward Ty. “Healing? Like I said, I don’t see anything wrong with you. Unless… oh. Maybe it’s something I can’t see.” She reached out, pressing her hand up against Ty’s chest, and she patted it softly. “Your heart. That must be what it is. You lost someone you love.”

  Ty frowned. “Do I look like I have lost someone I loved?”

  “Every young person eventually loses someone. Most think the one they are with is the one the one they will be with forever. You understand it’s not so much the first love as it is the last love.” She cackled, looking toward Ty for a moment before pushing the jar forward again. “I might have something that could help you, regardless of what you’re looking for.”

  Ty looked down at the table, trying to decide how to proceed. Different bottles had been stacked on the table, most of them with liquids or oils, though there were a few that looked to have thick lotions in them. Several had powders, and he could imagine Maeve knowing exactly what to use each of them for, but Ty wasn’t exactly sure what to do. What he needed was for this woman to offer him dragon magic. It was something that would require a specific and particular type of understanding, but it was something this woman might not even have.

  “I need something with a bit of heat,” he said.

  “Heat?” The woman cackled again. “I see. It’s not so much love that you’re looking for. It’s the lust.”

  “It’s not…” Ty shook his head. “I just need something with a bit of heat.”

  “You said that, young man, and I’m telling you I might be able to offer you something, but I need you to be little bit more specific than that.”

  “What more do you need?”

  “Well, if
you could tell me what it is that you think you need, then perhaps I can help you.”

  “I need something that can help me with a bit of forbidden heat.” Ty had to pick his words carefully now. He glanced around the inside of the market before turning his attention back to the woman.

  The healer stared at Ty, and there was a deep frown on her face and a dark energy in her eyes. “I can’t do anything with that. You know the king forbids that.”

  “He doesn’t forbid it for everybody. I was talking with somebody who told me about a healer in the city who deals in it.”

  The woman glared at him. “She likes to risk too much.” She looked around the market before lowering her voice and leaning forward. “You would do well to stay away from her. The kind of healing that one offers is not the kind of healing anyone would need. You’re likely to end up more injured than you were before if you go to her.” The woman leaned back and the frown returned, but the edge in her voice did not. “Now if it’s something that I could offer you here, then you might find that you don’t need any sort of forbidden heat. There are plenty of us who don’t peddle in such things.”

  Ty just nodded. “I’m sure you’re right. Maybe I was mistaken to even ask about it. It’s just that…”

  He looked over and saw a pair of soldiers heading into the market, making their way toward him.

  Why would they be after him?

  Unless they weren’t soldiers. Maybe they were Dragon Touched.

  Worse, maybe they were with the Order.