“Wait. What do you mean that Albion acted outside of his plan?”
“He didn’t tell you?”
Ty shook his head. “Tell me what?”
She sighed, looking around the lava lake. The cloak fluttered again. “Your brother was bait, Tydornen. We’ve known there was Lothinal activity within the kingdom for some time but have not been able to uncover it. He needed to draw it out. The idea of the Dragon Thief was born to do so.
“He trained. He became the Dragon Thief. It was the only way to draw out what we knew embedded within the kingdom. He had to take the jobs, complete them, and if he was captured, we could not reveal that we worked together.”
That was why she had let Roson James take his brother.
“The king knew about it?”
She shrugged, but her cloak didn’t move. “Perhaps not entirely. It gave him deniability—at least with the priests. By joining the priesthood, he could move in ways the kingdom could not. He could uncover things the kingdom could not.”
Which meant that Albion had been working on behalf of the kingdom.
“But he was in prison.”
“In prison, still serving the purpose. And you accomplished what he could not.” She flashed a tight smile. “May I see it?”
He reached into his pocket, pulling out the dauvern. “This? How does it control the dragons?”
“Does it?”
Could it be more bait? Had Albion used me?
“I understand your frustration in learning about this. But something good came out of it. You are connected to this smoke dragon. And now you must learn about it. I can’t promise you that it will be easy, but I can promise that you can learn.”
The shadow dragon fluttered around her, and then there came another surge of heat in his belly. Smoke swirled around his feet then swept outward toward the lava lake. The dragon’s face appeared, but then it disappeared once again.
“What if I say no?”
“Then we will separate the dragon from you. Dragons like this are rare, which makes them important to the king. I’m sure you can understand. The longer you maintain a connection to the dragon, the more likely it will be painful for you to separate from it. If you choose not to hold that connection, then we must do so now. Otherwise you will learn to understand your connection.”
Ty looked around. “How did this happen?”
She smiled tightly. “You were the one to drop the egg into the lava?” Ty nodded. “Your brother likely intended to be the one to connect to the dragon, but circumstances prevented him. I wonder if the Dragon Thief truly intended to steal a dragon, but you took it from him. Perhaps that was for the best, anyway.”
She started to turn and jumped to the next platform.
“Are all of the Tecal bonded to dragons?”
“It is what makes us unique,” she said without looking back.
She reached the shoreline, and Ty jumped to the next platform, following her.
“But the Dragon Touched don’t know you have them.”
She shook her head. “They do not. And they will not. We have kept that secret to ourselves, and it’s a secret we will continue to keep.”
“If I don’t go with you…”
“You will be expected to keep that secret regardless, but I have a feeling you’re curious.”
Ty couldn’t deny the curiosity. He couldn’t deny that he wanted to know more. He couldn’t deny that he felt as if he needed to know more. He had been afraid of the idea of leaving Zarinth, but now he wondered if perhaps he might need to.
“I need to talk to my friends first.”
What friends, though?
Eastley was gone. He would need to go back, make sure, and perhaps even Gayal could see if there was anything she might be able to do for him, though in his heart Ty knew that wasn’t going to be possible. Bingham wasn’t really a friend. He didn’t know what to make of him, other than somebody who had used Ty’s talents. Nothing more than that.
And Olivia…
He was nothing to her. She had betrayed him. She had been willing to do whatever it took for her to get her score. It was about her.
He didn’t even know whether she had a family.
“What about Albion?” he asked, following her as she made her way through the jungle.
She looked over, and her cloak fluttered. Once again, the burning in his belly flared, and she tilted her head strangely, sniffing.
Smoke swirled near him. The smoke dragon.
The idea behind it seemed impossible.
“He was never in any danger,” she said.
“Can I see him?”
“If he chooses. He is the Dragon Thief.” She tipped her head against the side. “Or perhaps he was. I imagine that he will choose another line of work now. It might be for the best, anyway.”
“Does he know about your dragon?” Not just hers, he realized. Other Tecal.
“I doubt it, but he was the Dragon Thief. He became something more than the king anticipated. More than any of us anticipated. It’s possible that he already knows.” She turned to face him. “Now that Roson James has revealed himself and the Lothinal threats within the kingdom, we will need to make preparations. As will you. You have made an enemy. But if you learn to control the dragon, you won’t have to fear him.”
She started down the slope.
If he did this, it meant serving the king.
More than that, it meant leaving Zarinth. It might be a good opportunity.
Am I ready for that?
Questions raged through Ty’s mind. Countless questions.
He still didn’t have the answers that he needed about his parents, but now there were new questions that had emerged. Not only about Albion, but about his mother, Bingham, and their search for dragon relics.
He wouldn’t have those answers without help.
More than ever, Ty wanted the answers to those questions. He thought that he needed them. He thought that he deserved them.
If he followed Gayal, learned what it meant to be a Tecal, there would be a secondary benefit for him. The Tecal were spies. Secret keepers.
And he wanted to know what happened to his parents. If he went with her, maybe he could finally find the answers he’d been looking for. What did it matter if he served the king as he did it?
He chased her down the path. “I will do it,” he said.
A flare of heat burned his belly. The smoke swirled around him before disappearing again.
Gayal nodded. “I think the dragon approves.”
Grab the next book in The Dragon Thief: Smoke and Shadow
The bonded smoke dragon may be key to saving the kingdom.
Ty has bonded to a strange smoke dragon and trains as a Tecal. If he can’t control the connection, the dragon will be stripped from him so that another can use the power of the dragon in service of the kingdom, as the threat from Lothinal is not gone.
When Roson James makes his move, Ty feels an increased urgency to understand how to connect to the dragon. Help comes from an unlikely source, but it might not be in time.
This time, the kingdom is not the only target. And those able to intervene may have the power Roson James needs to bring about their downfall.
Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading Within the Dragon’s Jaw. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would be so kind as to take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere, I would be very grateful.
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All my best,
D.K. Holmberg
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Series by D.K. Holmberg<
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The Chain Breaker Series
The Chain Breaker
The Dark Sorcerer
The Dragonwalkers Series
The Dragonwalker
The Dragon Misfits
The Dragon Thief
Elemental Warrior Series:
The Endless War
The Cloud Warrior Saga
Elemental Academy
The Elemental Warrior
The Dark Ability Series
The Shadow Accords
The Collector Chronicles
The Dark Ability
The Sighted Assassin
The Elder Stones Saga
The Lost Prophecy Series
The Teralin Sword
The Lost Prophecy
The Volatar Saga Series
The Volatar Saga
The Book of Maladies Series
The Book of Maladies
The Lost Garden Series
The Lost Garden
Within the Dragon's Jaw (The Dragon Thief Book 2) Page 28