Within the Dragon's Jaw (The Dragon Thief Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

“It surprised her.”

  Ty grunted. “I’m sure it did. She can’t think of doing anything for somebody else.”

  “That’s not what she says.”

  “No,” Ty said, and he shook his head. “What was it like?”

  “The bastard tormented me constantly,” he began. “He thought I had answers, or at least, that was the impression I had. The more he tormented me, the more I started to question if that was really what he believed, or if he simply got a kick out of torturing me. It was simple to begin with. Starvation. Then it was different. They kept me awake.” Eastley looked over to him. “You ever stay awake for longer than you want? I’m talking days here, Ty. Not just overnight, but so long that you start to feel drunk. Then you start to feel like you are losing your mind. Eventually you start to have visions.” He shook his head again. “I got to that point. All I wanted was to fall asleep. Each time I started drifting, they would do something to keep me awake. Sometimes it was water, sometimes it was noise, sometimes it was sharp.” He rubbed his hand over his arms. “After a while, all I wanted was to sleep or to tell them what they wanted.”

  Ty hadn’t known any of that. He hadn’t asked, which was even worse.

  Here he had thought that he had gone out of his way to try to help Eastley, and he had, but there had been a selfishness to it. It was always a little selfishness.

  “I wish we could’ve gotten you a lot sooner.”

  “Well, I don’t know that I would’ve gotten out at all had you not agreed to whatever it is that you agreed to.” Eastley forced a smile. “What did you have to sacrifice for that Tecal?”

  “I didn’t sacrifice anything.”

  “You had to have done something. I mean, she wouldn’t have let me go in unless you had agreed to her terms.”

  “They only wanted the Dragon Thief,” Ty said.

  His hand went to his pocket, almost instinctively as if going for that letter, though there wasn’t anything on the letter that would help him now. His brother had left it for him, but he hadn’t left him any way of understanding what was there. He hadn’t left him anything other than more questions.

  And there was still part of Ty that wondered if Albion had left it for him at all. Maybe there was somebody else in the city that Albion had worked with.

  But if that were the case, then why not leave it where they might find it, rather than where Ty would find it?

  If it had been in the temple, Ty could easily have imagined Albion having left it for someone else. But in their old home, who else would have found it?

  No one.

  It had to be for him.

  “I still want to know how he did it,” Eastley said. Some of the usual Eastley bluster had gone back into his voice. “Don’t you think that we could do it just as well as your brother? I mean, he was a priest.”

  Eastley seemed most perturbed by that, the idea that a priest could be the Dragon Thief.

  “What better way to hide?”

  “I know, but can you imagine what he’s done?” Eastley shook his head, and he whistled softly. “All of those stories. I can’t even imagine half of them being real. When you break him out, we're going to have to ask how many of those stories are real, and how many of those are fabricated. Because if even half of them are real, I need to know how he did it.”

  Ty started to laugh. “You aren’t half the thief that I am, so what makes you think that you could do what the Dragon Thief does?”

  Or did, Ty corrected himself.

  Eastley shoved him on the shoulder. Not his injured one, at least. “I’m not saying that I could be like the Dragon Thief, but we both know that if it came down to pulling a job, any job, I’m going to be the one who’s most successful.”

  “Is that a challenge? I seem to remember what happened the last time the two of us had a challenge.”

  “You had the advantage in that you had the right cloak. I’m talking about a straight-up find.”

  Ty started to laugh.

  Leave it to Eastley to take some of the tension away.

  He tried to consider himself something of a loner within Zarinth, but he hadn’t been. Not really. Bingham wasn’t a friend, but he was somebody that Ty knew. And when it came down to it, Bingham had been there for him. Olivia… now that he knew what motivated her, he thought that he could use it. And wasn’t that the nature of the kind of work he did? He used people, much like she had.

  Her words drifted into his mind again. Business transaction.

  They were painful words, hurtful ones, but at the same time they were words that meant something.

  And then Eastley.

  Of all of the people that he interacted with, Eastley had been the most like a friend and like a competitor. Maybe helping him, saving him from his captivity, had turned Eastley from a competitor into more of a friend.

  It had been too long since Ty had a real friend.

  “I think if we have to compete on a job, you aren’t going to like it much.”

  “I’m not going to? By the Flame, Ty, it sounds like you’re trying to hide from a little challenge. Not that I mind or that I’m surprised. Someone like you is afraid of me.” He sat upright, and a hint of a grin crossed his face. He snorted. “You name the job.”

  “When I figure out what the job is, I will,” Ty said.

  They fell into a quiet silence.

  The sound of the city swirled around them. There were people talking, shouts from deeper in the city, some merchants, but it was relatively calm compared to what it normally would be. Zarinth should’ve been bustling with activity. When half of the city had evacuated during Ishantil’s threat to erupt, not all of them had returned. Many were starting to, but it was slow progress to make their way back to the city, and Ty wondered if they would ever fully return.

  If they didn’t, how different would the city be?

  Already there were parts of the city that were different than they once had been. Parts that were now occupied by soldiers and others that had Dragon Touched roaming openly.

  But that wasn’t even the worst of it.

  “I never said thanks,” Eastley said.

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I do. I don’t know if I would’ve gone after you.”

  “You would have,” Ty said. They both knew that wasn’t necessarily true. Maybe he would’ve gone after Ty, but there was still the possibility that Eastley would have evacuated, much like he had known that he probably should have evacuated himself. It would’ve been the smart move. But Ty wouldn’t have been able to live with himself had he made the smart move.

  “Have you decided what’s next?”

  Ty reached for the note, and then he shook his head. “I just don’t know. I don’t even know what I’m doing here in the city any longer.” He looked over at Eastley. “I know that I need to go after him, but I don’t even know how to start. Well, that’s not true. I know how I thought I needed to start, but gathering relics that I might be able to trade to the king doesn’t seem quite as brilliant as it did before.” The pain in his shoulder reminded him of that folly.

  “You know, it’s best to try to get down to the basics. What basics have you done with this one?”

  Ty looked down at his hands. What had he done?

  It wasn’t supposed to be a dangerous job. He had gone after dragon relics, thinking that was how he was going to get after his brother, using those to trade to the king, either through the Tecal, or through some other intermediary. All he wanted was information. If he could get to his brother somehow, he thought that he might be able to barter for his safety in some way. It was probably a foolish mistake.

  But now there was another element, a wrinkle to the job that Ty hadn’t anticipated, something Albion had known about. And if Albion had, then maybe that was what he truly needed to do. Get to the basics. Get back to the beginning.

  It reminded him of something that Albion had said to him years ago.

  It wasn’t all that far from here. It was after Al
bion had come to the city, serving as a Priest of the Flame. Ty had come out of the jungle, looking for his brother. Their parents had disappeared, though they had only been gone for the better part of a few days, not long enough for Ty to think that they were truly gone. But he had gone to Albion, wondering if he had any word from them.

  Back then, they had stopped in a small courtyard. It was late, Ishantil glowing on the mountainside, a heavy humidity in the air, and for the first time, at least that Ty remembered, he had looked at his brother like a priest, and not so much like his brother.

  “They should be back by now,” Ty had said.

  Albion gripped the chain around his neck, the marker of the Flame, and his gaze had flicked toward Ishantil, the way that so many of the priests did.

  It was a strange expression to see from Albion, especially as Ty wasn’t accustomed to his brother acting so devout. He had always celebrated the Flame, much like Ty’s father, but this made Ty far more aware of his devotion.

  “The Flame provides,” Albion said.

  “I need my brother,” Ty said. “I need you to help me figure out where they went.”

  Albion looked over to him. A debate seemed to war within his eyes, but then it faded, and the serene expression returned, the Albion that he remembered now, the Albion that had become the Dragon Thief. Looking back, Ty wondered if he was starting to become that person even then. How long had Albion been working within the priesthood in order for him to elevate to the point where he could slip off as the Dragon Thief? How long had the priests positioned his brother in such a way that he could become something else?

  If only Ty had those answers.

  “Mother went off on one of her searches,” Ty said. “I don’t know where she went this time, but it couldn’t have been too far. She didn’t pack enough. But then she was gone for the better part of a week, and father took off after her. They left me this,” Ty said, holding out a letter. It was a note to him, but not really to him. It was telling him to head to Zarinth. Find Albion.

  Had they known, even then, that they weren’t going to return?

  Ty had struggled with that. Even now, he still struggled with it. The letter had long ago faded and crackled, leaving nothing remaining, but he had searched.

  As he watched Albion, hoping that his brother would have some answer, and that he wouldn’t continue to stare at him with that blank mask, he found no reaction.

  “You don’t even care, do you? When you came down here, to the Flame, you abandoned our family. All you care about is your god.”

  The air was humid, and Ishantil seemed to glow in the distance, as if wanting him. There was a strange, almost sulfuric odor, and a burning that nodded in Ty’s belly, one that he had felt several times over the years, and knew it to be worry for himself, his family, and now for his brother.

  This time, Albion’s mask seemed to slip for even less time.

  Their mother had often gone off for a day or two, sometimes longer, and when he was young, Ty had never really understood why she had gone off. As he had gotten older, and as he had learned about her connection to Bingham, he had come to know that she searched for dragon relics. She wasn’t alone in that. There were many people who scoured the mountainside of Ishantil looking for dragon relics. Many of them worked for the king, Dragon Touched, or archaeologists who were seeking out dragon ruins or the remnants of dragons themselves in order to strengthen the king’s claim. But there were others, like their mother, who had gone off thinking that she could find her own way to riches and wealth. She had an eye for it, a knack, and yet even though she had often found relics, Ty had never seen her with considerable wealth. If they had it, then why would they have stayed in the jungle?

  “The Flame provides,” he said again.

  Ty breathed out. He had thought coming to his brother would provide them with answers, and that he would maybe learn where his mother had gone off to, and why his father had thought he needed to pursue her this time when he hadn’t so many other times.

  Ty pushed those thoughts away, coming back around and looking over to Eastley.

  Get back to the beginning.

  Wasn’t that the key here?

  And what was the beginning?

  His brother. Understanding his brother’s purpose. Understanding that he had come to the priesthood with a different goal, and that he had continued to search for their parents, even though Ty had believed otherwise. If he could find something within that, some truth, then perhaps he might understand just what it was that Albion had done.

  As he looked over to Eastley, he started to smile to himself. “Why are you looking like that?” Eastley asked.

  “Well, you did give me an idea. As surprising as that is coming from you.”

  “Why do I get the sense this is dangerous?”

  Ty turned, looking up the mountainside. He hadn’t ventured up Ishantil ever since the near eruption. There had been no reason for him to do so. He had been so focused on trying to learn where Roson James had brought his brother and trying to come up with some way to free him that he had not bothered with doing so. There was nothing. Just the lava lake, the memory of what his brother had done, and that imagined flame of dragons that flowed within the lava.

  But perhaps there was something more.

  Ty got to his feet. “I think it’s time for me to do as you say. It’s time for me to get back to basics.”

  “You want to go back up?”

  “I need to understand what my brother was after. It’s up there. I might not understand it, and perhaps I won’t find that answer, but…” He pulled the note out, fingering the edge of it. “Albion was here for a reason. It was not just Ishantil. I need to learn what else he came to Zarinth to accomplish.” As he looked over to Eastley, he couldn’t help but wonder.

  What had brought the Dragon Thief to Zarinth?

  More than anything, Ty believed that his brother had a purpose. Whether it had to do with his parents, the Flame, or perhaps something that he couldn’t even fathom at this point, there was some greater purpose behind what Albion had done.

  All under the guise of the Dragon Thief.

  In other places, the Dragon Thief had taken relics. Items of power, items of value, and items that would anger the king.

  Here in Zarinth?

  Ty didn’t know what he would’ve gone after. What would taunt the king here? What did he intend to steal? And what remained for Ty to find?

  That was the answer Ty needed.

  Which meant that he had to start from what he knew.

  He had to climb Ishantil.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ty moved slowly up the side of the mountain. He had to be careful. He was worried about making too much noise as he followed the narrow path leading up the mountainside, though he’d come across nothing dangerous. The velum hadn’t cried out so far. Ty was less concerned about the velum than he had been even a few weeks ago. Memory of the whistle his mother had taught him all those years ago still lingered, a whistle that permitted him to call to the velum, either to summon them, or to scare them away.

  “Are you sure about this? I don’t like coming up here just the two of us,” Eastley said.

  Ty looked over at him. “I just need to know.”

  “Know what?” he asked.

  He debated how much to tell him, just as he had debated all along.

  “I need to understand why my brother had come up here.” It was easier to acknowledge that than to share that Albion had sent word, though even if he had shared that, it wasn’t as if Eastley would suddenly refuse to come along.

  “You told me why he came up here. Those priests believed they could do something here.”

  Ty nodded. They had come up here to do something, and he wasn’t completely convinced that they had failed. But there was something else. Maybe it had to do with that strange fiery face that he had seen in the lava.

  “I don’t like coming into the jungle.” Eastley looked around. “I’ve always found it
unnerving.”

  Ty glanced over and found himself grinning. “You’re willing to break into someone’s home, the palace even, and you find it unnerving to climb through the unpopulated jungle?”

  “At least I know those places are safe,” Eastley said.

  “Safe until somebody buries a crossbow bolt in your shoulder,” Ty muttered, turning away.

  Ty motioned for him to quiet. They didn’t need to draw any attention to their presence along the path. Not that it would be that much of an issue, but he’d had enough run-ins with the priests recently that he had no interest in drawing anyone to him unnecessarily.

  When the path narrowed again, Ty slowed a little bit more. The trees in this part of the jungle were dense, growing so closely together that it was difficult to see much of anything. Even the sunlight didn’t penetrate to the ground. Darkness filled all the space around the path, making it so that all Ty saw was the trees.

  As far as he knew, they had not been followed, though with what he had dealt with recently, he didn’t want to chance the priests chasing him into the forest. He followed the path as it weaved through the trees. At one point, the branches swung low, seeming to grab at his hair, and he had to duck beneath them. That was new. The trees had grown rapidly over the last few weeks. Either that or those who typically cut through them had not been as diligent with it as they had once been.

  Ishantil had not rumbled ever since the egg had been dropped into the lava. With the strange fiery dragon face that he’d seen, he couldn’t help but wonder if the egg had actually hatched. It seemed impossible to believe, especially given the stunted dragons that Ty had observed, but what if there was something to it?

  A soft shuffling caught his attention, and Ty ducked in between the trees, standing off to the side of the path. Eastley followed him more slowly.

  “What was it?”

  He shook him head, leaning forward. “I’m not sure. I heard something.”

  “Something, or someone?”

  It was an important distinction, and they both knew it.

  “Something. Could be someone.”

  They had been moving quickly, and Ty didn’t think that anybody else had come out of the city to follow him, but he was certain he had heard something downslope. As he waited, listening, he didn’t notice the sound again.