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

by D. K. Holmberg

  Ty fired the crossbow, but he wasn’t quick enough.

  Roson reacted, sweeping his hand in a tight spiral, and flames erupted. It happened much like it had with the Order of the Flame and how the priest had plucked the crossbow bolt out of the air. Roson captured it. “You could have been helpful. Hand me the dauvern and then you will show me what you did with the dragon.”

  Ty had been staring at Eastley, finding himself praying that he might move, that he would awaken, come around and get up, but he still hadn’t even taken a breath. He really was gone.

  “Dragon?” Ty blinked, looking over at him.

  Roson laughed. “Your brother did better than I think they intended. He learned a truth long hidden. And then you provided the dragon pearls necessary to activate it. Did you even know?” He flicked his gaze to the house, before turning back to Ty. “Why did you think your brother had them surrounding the egg for protection? Did you even know the truth?”

  What truth?

  Ty had to focus. He pulled his gaze away from Eastley. When this was over, then he could mourn him, but not until then.

  For now, he had to deal with Roson James.

  “What dragon?”

  “Hand me the dauvern, and I will show you. You and your people know so little. It’s why you shouldn’t be allowed to have the dragons. Even the ones you have need to be trained, and they need to be taught. I will ensure they are.”

  He sent a swirl of fire toward him, and Ty dropped, ducking, but he could barely get beneath the shooting flame.

  He managed to avoid one blast of fire, but another was already on the way.

  It connected, and he waited for the heat and the pain to fill him, but…

  It didn’t.

  Roson sent another streak of power toward him, as if to harm him with that one, but as before nothing changed.

  “Could it be that you have learned to control it?”

  Ty shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Obviously,” he said. “None in your land understand the truth.”

  There came a rustling in the forest, and Ty looked over.

  He didn’t think that was a velum. They would’ve shrieked, alerting him of their presence.

  Which meant…

  He noticed the pale white of a dragon-bone crossbow before he saw the figure coming through the trees.

  The Order.

  Roson smiled at him. They were together. Of course they were.

  I need to go.

  Where, though? What could he do?

  Another figure appeared in the clearing.

  Ty didn’t have much of a choice. Upslope.

  He turned and ran, heading into the jungle, toward Ishantil, away from Eastley’s motionless body, and had no idea what he could do.

  Chapter Thirty

  Ty weaved through the jungle, staying in the denser part of it. He heard one of the Order behind him, and at one point felt the whizzing of a crossbow bolt shooting past him. He ducked behind a tree and noticed the marking for a velum snare on the tree near him. He waited until the Order was close enough, and then Ty quickly and carefully picked his way around it before darting around another tree.

  “We just need the dauvern,” the Order said.

  “You’ll have to take it from me.”

  The Order took a step toward him, and he heard the air whistle, another crossbow bolt sink into the tree he hid behind, and Ty stepped off to the side.

  The Order member followed him and then stepped into the velum snare.

  It caught him, leaving him suspended above the ground, dangling. The crossbow still hung in his hand, but it was useless.

  Ty raised his own crossbow, but the sound of a shout behind them caught his attention, and he knew that he couldn’t wait here any longer. It would be too dangerous.

  He tore himself away.

  He continued making his way through the jungle until he caught sight of a marking on a tree. Ty slowed enough to let the other Order member approach. It wasn’t Roson James. Ty could tell that from the size. This man was smaller, squat, and had almost milky white skin and gray hair. He was dressed like a priest, but now that Ty knew the truth of the Order he felt like that was a betrayal.

  As the man approached him, Ty forced him to position closer and closer to the velum trap. Then he backed away.

  The man turned.

  Ty hurriedly circled around and then shoved him.

  The man stumbled, one foot catching the snare, and he was pulled, jerked up into the trees.

  He stared, tempted to remain and fire on the man, but he heard the sound of movement in the jungle.

  Ty’s heart hammered.

  He raced through the jungle, moving away from Roson James.

  He reached the path heading toward Ishantil and ran.

  His breath was hot and heavy in his lungs, and he still hadn’t worked out why he had survived breathing in the smoke, nor what it meant, but as he tore him way up the path, he couldn’t help but feel as if there was something more to what he had said that he needed to better understand.

  Roson had claimed there was a dragon.

  How?

  He had no idea what Roson meant, but somehow his brother had been involved in it. Somehow Albion had done something with a dragon.

  The egg that he had brought here. The egg that he had dropped into the lava. The egg that Albion had wanted to hatch.

  The idea that there would be a dragon in the volcano… how was it any harder to believe than what he had seen? It wasn’t.

  Distantly, he was aware of the velum calling in the forest. They were up there in the trees, and though he could hear them crying out, he didn’t know if they were going to pursue him.

  He had to stay ahead of Roson James.

  He staggered, realizing that Ishantil trembled, rumbling, causing the ground to shift beneath him. If the dauvern could summon the dragons the way Roson claimed, and if he wanted it for Lothinal, then there was only one thing for Ty to do.

  Which meant that he had to get to Ishantil. Once he got there, he could use the dauvern, maybe summon the dragon, find Gayal, and get the dragon to the king. He would keep it from Roson James.

  He squeezed the item in his pocket. He focused on it, feeling some strangeness within it, and yet even as he did he could tell that there was something more.

  Ty continued running. He hated leaving Eastley behind, but he had no choice. He would go back and mourn him if he could get through this.

  In the distance, the glowing of the lava lake illuminated the forest.

  It was almost beautiful. He had never come to the lava lake in the middle of the night, and doing so now was amazing. Heat radiated off of the lake, and it caused a streamer of smoke that swirled around it. It reminded him of the smoke that he had seen from the clearing, but he had to be careful and had to stay away from the lava.

  Ty glanced behind. Roson James was back there. Ty knew that he would be right behind him. Maybe he was trying to rescue the Order from the velum snares, but for now Ty had time.

  He had no idea if he would even be able to do what he intended. But if he could summon the dragon—assuming the dragon was even real—maybe he could use it against Roson James. That might be his only hope. Then he could get the dragon to the capital, to the king, and get his brother back.

  Ty reached the first of the platforms and jumped.

  He didn’t bother waiting, jumping to the next and then the next. Heat drifted around him and the steam and smoke swirled, making everything lit with a soft, hazy kind of light. By the time he reached the main central platform out in the lava lake, he was exhausted. He sucked in breath after breath, trying to control it. Finally, he let it out slowly, looking toward the jungle as held the dauvern.

  Ty had no idea what to do with the dauvern.

  How could it summon dragons?

  But if his brother had truly come here, had truly released an egg into Ishantil, maybe there was something here.


  He squeezed the dauvern.

  Nothing changed, though Ty didn’t expect anything to change.

  Maybe he couldn’t activate it.

  He wasn’t equipped to handle it. It might need somebody who could connect to dragon magic. Ty didn’t have that ability.

  But there was what Gayal claimed, that he was somehow attuned it to dragons.

  Ty held out the dauvern.

  Heat continued to flow around him, and he could feel it. The lava lake had considerable energy.

  He held the dauvern out in front of him. Smoke continued to swirl. A rustling sound arose behind him, and Ty spun, worried about the velum but fearing Roson James.

  He emerged from the jungle. “You can’t control it,” Roson said.

  Ty squeezed the dauvern. He made a mistake. Why had he jumped all the way out here? There was no escape for him. He was trapped.

  “Hand the dauvern to me. You can’t control it. You won’t be able to call it.”

  This was a mistake.

  Somehow he had thought that he could come to the lava lake, that he could call upon the dauvern, that he might be able to have some answer, but what answer was there?

  None. That was what there was. Nothing other than his death. He would end up no different than Eastley had.

  “Stay back,” Ty said.

  Roson jumped to the next platform. “I seem to believe you have already fired your crossbow bolts. What do you intend to attack me with?”

  Ty could wait for Roson to reach the platform and could attempt to push him, but if he intended that would he even have an opportunity to do so? He had felt Roson use his Dragon Touched magic on him and knew that he wouldn’t be able to withstand that kind of power. Not easily.

  “I’ll drop the dauvern into the lava.”

  “You won’t,” he said.

  Ty held it out, holding his hand above the lava. Smoke continued to swirl, seeming to spread outward, sweeping off of Ishantil, writhing. “You obviously need it more than I do. If you get any closer, I will drop it.”

  Roson hesitated. Ty needed that hesitation and had to hope that he would have enough time to figure out something else.

  But what?

  “You feel it, don’t you? I recognized that sensation when you were here before. You are connected. You have the potential. Hand over the dauvern, and I will help you understand.”

  “I don’t have any potential.”

  Roson jumped to the next platform.

  Ty shifted, holding out the dauvern.

  Flames began to swirl away from Roson. They spiraled around the platform, spinning toward the edge.

  The burning in Ty’s belly began to build again. He had been feeling it too often. There was pain blooming within him, and there was smoke building, seeming to throb through him, almost as if in time with what Roson was doing.

  Ty couldn’t move. He couldn’t do anything. His arm was slowly and steadily drifting down, as if Roson were using some of his dragon magic to force him away. He could do nothing.

  And because of that, because of that strangeness, the power that Roson held onto, he would take hold of him. And then he would force him to hand over the dauvern.

  After that…

  He suspected he would end up no differently than Eastley.

  No, he told himself. He would end up much worse than Eastley. Roson would toss him into the lava lake where he would burn.

  Roson jumped closer. Flames continued to swirl toward Ty, and the strange power that he used twisted, rolling around Ty, constricting in a way that held him.

  Ty could do nothing.

  The burning persisted.

  Smoke swirled.

  And then pain exploded within him. As soon as it did, the smoke seemed to fill Ty, burying deep within him.

  “Interesting. Perhaps I can—”

  “Release him.”

  Ty looked past Roson, and for a moment he had hoped that Bingham had come. He would have known where to find Ty. But it wasn’t Bingham.

  A black cloak fluttered in an unseen breeze covering a diminutive figure.

  Gayal Holt jumped from platform to platform and stood just one away from Roson. “Release him.”

  “I’m afraid you and I don’t have to work together any longer,” Roson said.

  He sent a spiral of flame toward Gayal. Surprisingly, her cloak fluttered again, and it swirled around the flame, squeezing almost as if it were something alive, until the flame was gone. Gayal jumped forward again. She landed on the platform. When she did, her gaze flickered to Ty before she whispered something softly.

  Her cloak came alive.

  Ty had never seen anything quite like it.

  It swirled away from her, as if the shadows dissipated and then wrapped around Roson. While it did, there came a shriek from the cloak. A face formed within it: a dragon face.

  It was almost as if the dragon face was formed out of shadows, and it whipped outward, darting toward Roson.

  He sent a flicker of flame, but Gayal twisted, and the shadows seemed to bend, wrapping around the flames.

  Roson made another movement with his fingers, and the flames darted out again, but as before the shadows surged.

  This time, the shadows exploded away, bursting toward Roson.

  Roson slipped, getting near the edge of the platform.

  Heat exploded from him, swirling away. It slammed into Gayal, and then she staggered, slipping, and for a moment Ty thought that she might fall into the lava. That strange cloak swirled around her, holding her upright.

  Roson crossed his hands, and more flame streaked from him. The cloak swirled, looping up and around, and it grabbed for the flame, absorbing it. It called that flame in, tying it within the cloak, and it disappeared altogether.

  Ty could scarcely believe what he was seeing, and he had no idea what was going on here. A battle between the Tecal and the Dragon Touched.

  Power that was blasting from one to the next.

  When he thought that Gayal was about to fall into the lava, her cloak sheltered her again. When he thought that Roson James was going to fall, he managed to use another blast of power, and he stepped forward. Back and forth they went, flames and shadows smacking at each other, a continuous, rhythmic dance from one to the other.

  Ty wanted to try to get away. He tried to move, he tried to escape, but he couldn’t get around either of them.

  And then Gayal stood forward. Her cloak seemed to bend around her, forming something like wings. The shadows within it streaked toward Roson James, flowing powerfully, and the shadows continued to build, becoming something enormous, something impossible. Something that looked almost like a dragon.

  Heat built from Roson and he crossed his arms in front of himself, bringing them down sharply. There was an explosion and a stream of fire, but then he was gone.

  Gayal stood in place for a moment, and the cloak swirled before latching itself back around her neck and falling still once again. “Are you hurt?”

  Ty blinked. “Am I what?”

  “Hurt. Are you?”

  He sucked in a deep breath and realized that he breathed in another lungful of smoke. As he breathed out, the smoke spiraled around, reaching toward Gayal and then disappearing, coming back toward Ty. “I don’t know what just happened.”

  “I warned you that the Order was dangerous. We’ve known there was a Lothinal infiltration within the kingdom for some time. We’ve seen evidence of it for quite a while, but we didn’t know how deep it went.”

  “Within the priesthood?”

  She frowned, looking around to the flames that bubbled from Ishantil. “Probably not the priesthood, but I don’t know how many of the Dragon Touched might be influenced by the Order.”

  “Where did he go?”

  “He’s gone for now. We know the truth about him.”

  Ty still had the dauvern, and he was tempted to drop it into the lava, but instead he stuffed it into his pocket, watching her. “What really happened here?”
/>   “Which part?”

  “All of it, I suppose. My brother. The egg. Roson James. And now this.”

  He needed to understand. Eastley had died because of all of it.

  “You’ve seen the king’s dragons,” she said.

  Ty shook his head. “This isn’t about the king’s dragons.” He didn’t know what it was about. He couldn’t tell. He could feel the heat, the energy around him, but that was all. He had seen the king’s dragons, but if that was what Roson James was after, he could have done so within the capital.

  “This is about finding a different kind of dragon.”

  “Like the one you have?”

  She smiled tightly. Her cloak fluttered slightly, taking on a vaguely dragon shape before falling still once again. “I suppose you have earned the right to know the truth about the shadow dragon.”

  “What is the shadow dragon?”

  “The dragons the king has managed to hatch are traditional dragons.” Ty arched a brow, and she shrugged slightly. “At least, they are hatched traditionally. As traditionally as they can be. We have not learned why they do not develop the way the dragons once did. Many have tried, but none have found the answers.”

  “And your shadow dragon?”

  “Is different. Much like the smoke dragon you have connected to.”

  He frowned, shaking his head. “I haven’t connected to any smoke dragon.”

  “What protected you when Roson attacked?”

  “You did.”

  “No. I came, but I did not protect you. I saw it, Tydornen. I saw the smoke, I saw it emerge, and I have seen your affinity for the dragons.”

  He licked his lips, swallowing. “How is there a smoke dragon?” He looked around himself, and noticed a faint haze layering over the lava lake. “Albion?”

  She shrugged. “It’s possible. I wasn’t sure what he intended. He acted on his own, outside of the plan. As you’ve seen, eggs are common enough. Still not common, but not so rare that the king would mind sacrificing one if it meant learning some truth. It seems that it worked. Perhaps that means the king now must come to Ishantil and use the power here to help hatch the eggs.”

  “But if it’s a smoke dragon, then it’s not like his.”

  “No,” she said. “And now you have connected to it. Which means—”