The Caged Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 1)

by Dan Michaelson

  There wasn’t anything I could do.

  Where was Elaine?

  I needed her help to get out of here. I heard a steady rumbling in the forest, though it seemed too far away. The burning within me continued to build.

  I backed toward the trees.

  They were close enough that all I had to do was run into the forest.. I might get lost, but I would at least have a chance. Staying here meant that I would end up captured. I didn’t know if my sister was even with this caravan.

  “We can make it easy on you,” the man said.

  I took a step toward the trees.

  “Go after him,” the man said to someone else.

  I spun, running into the forest.

  “We found this one,” another voice said.

  I hadn’t gone very far when I turned, spinning around the trunk of a tree, holding on to my knife. I peered into the glowing light, looking to see just who they’d found. If it was Elaine, then I wouldn’t have to worry. She could use her dragon mage magic. She might not be able to easily escape, and the Vard might have some way of controlling her, but I had to believe that she had a better chance of escaping than even I did. I didn’t feel any of the energy that I had detected before, nothing to suggest that she was using her dragon mage magic.

  I wasn’t prepared for Joran to be caught.

  One of the Vard had a sword held up against his back, forcing Joran to march forward.

  “There you are,” another voice growled.

  I spun, holding out the knife.

  The Vard standing across from me glanced to the knife before looking up at me and chuckling. He had a lean face and a scar along one cheek. There was another marking on his other cheek, and I couldn’t tell if it was a tattoo or a birthmark. In the faint light coming from the dragon, it was difficult for me to see much of anything.

  I didn’t have any difficulty seeing his sword, though. The blade glittered in the light. The slight curve at the tip was pointing at me, threatening me.

  I took a deep breath, staring at the sword. “All I want is my sister.”

  “You came all the way out here for your sister? How sweet.” He jabbed at me with the sword, and I jerked back. “Get moving.” He tipped his head, nodding toward the wagons. “You’re going to be our guest. Don’t think you can—”

  I didn’t give him the chance to finish.

  I raced around the trunk of the tree. I prepared to slam into the man’s back, but when I reached the other side , he wasn’t there.

  I squeezed the hilt of the knife. It wasn’t going to be enough against one of the Vard, but at least it would give me a chance.

  I spun, looking for the Vard, but he wasn’t there. There was nothing.

  Twisting in place again, I searched for him. I stayed close to the tree, keeping my back up against it, at least not wanting to have that part of me exposed, were he to get too close to me. As I slipped forward, moving around the tree, I could feel the heat radiating off the dragon.

  I needed to get back to the clearing, to Joran, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to do that without help. Elaine was out there, but so was the mesahn. I knew the Vard feared the mesahn. Maybe I could use that.

  The glowing seemed to intensify. Heat built along with it, the pressure building in the air around me.

  It was a strange sensation I had no way of resisting. It was almost as if something had wrapped around my legs and waist, an invisible band that pulled me forward. I was aware of what was happening, but I wasn’t able to fight it. I tried, but my body seemed to not respond. The heat made it difficult for me to do anything else. It was almost too much to even breathe. The light continued to build, rising around me, pushing back the darkness all around as I was called forward. I raised my hand to shield my eyes, but even that wasn’t going to work. Distantly, I was aware of someone near me. It had to be one of the Vard, but I couldn’t turn toward him. I could do nothing.

  The rumbling of the mesahn came again, the deep growl of the creature echoing throughout the forest. I could hear the mesahn, and I knew it had to be somewhere near us. If Elaine saw what was happening, maybe she’d come help. She did serve the king. The mesahn rumbled again, and this time it was more distant.

  Everything around me seemed to blur. There was only that blinding brightness, as it continued to glow with an increasing intensity. I tried to ignore it, to push it out of mind, and to focus only on turning and running, but I couldn’t.

  Then I was near the wagon.

  I was aware of it, and that somebody grabbed my arms, but nothing else. I couldn’t even jerk free. Somebody grabbed the belt knife, removing it from my hands but there was no fight within me.

  I stared at the wagon, feeling the energy of the dragon, the burning within my belly, and the heat along my skin. All around me was that almost impossibly bright light.

  “I found him running,” a voice said, distantly and somewhat muted.

  “Seems like he wasn’t running anywhere,” another said.

  “Think he has potential, Barton?”

  Somebody stepped up toward me, and suddenly the brightness began to fade. A face loomed into view, one that I had seen before. It was one of the Vard, the dark-haired man with the deep-set eyes. He watched me, standing no more than a pace away from me, energy spreading from him.

  For a moment, the burning in my stomach flared before it retreated.

  The Vard began to grin. “Oh, yes. I think he has potential. Put him with the others.”

  I couldn’t fight, as I was guided away from the wagon. Away from the heat, from the burning within my stomach, and from the glowing light in front of me.

  As he guided me away, my vision began to dim. I was aware of it slowly, though the further they guided me, the more I thought I understood. It was as if the bright glowing that had been pressing around me had faded, leaving everything with a strange, almost muted darkness. It made it difficult for me to see anything.

  I was aware of the wagons nearby and the force on the other side of me, but nothing else. Something jabbed my back. My mind processed it, telling me that it was a sword and that I needed to keep moving to avoid being stabbed, but another part of me rebelled, wanting nothing more than to fight back, to ignore what they were doing to me, to keep them from capturing me… What did they mean, I had potential?

  That thought burned through everything else.

  Potential for what?

  Did they think they were going to take me and force me to serve the Vard?

  I didn’t have any real allegiance to the king , but I also had no real interest in serving the Vard.

  Were it up to me, I’d stay on the plains, doing nothing other than live my life.

  I wasn’t going to be given the chance. I wasn’t going to be given any chance. My mother would have to take care of Thenis by herself. Alison and I were gone, captured by the Vard. Dad was dead. It was going to be up to her.

  The jabbing in my back stopped. I looked in front of me. Everything was a bit dark, though there was a hint of that glow still persisting behind me. It radiated forward, giving me just enough light for me to make out people clustered on the road. There were three of them. All of them were bound, hands tied behind their backs, their legs wrapped in rope. All three of them were seated.

  “Ashan?”

  I recognized Joran’s voice.

  “You shouldn’t have come back,” I said to Joran.

  “When you were up there—”

  “Quiet.”

  I was forced down. Somebody wrapped something around my wrists, and I didn’t even fight. They began to bind my feet as well.

  I couldn’t move.

  Then they disappeared, leaving us seated.

  I tried to move, but my legs were bound in such a way that I wouldn’t even be able to do anything other than hop in place. I suspected there was one of the Vard nearby, probably watching, though I had no real idea if that was the case or not. I needed to survey everything around us, to see if there was anyb
ody here, but even as I looked, I couldn’t make out anything in the darkness.

  “Is Alison here?” I whispered.

  “I’m here,” a voice said.

  I turned toward it, trying to focus through the darkness, to will that light into existence again, but I could not. The darkness made everything too difficult for me to make out.

  “Alison?”

  “I’m here.”

  Knowing she lived… Relief swept through me, almost enough to make me giddy.

  Now I had to get her free.

  And myself.

  “What happened to the others?”

  “Others?” she said.

  “The others who were with you during the Academy selection. They would have been in the caravan.”

  “They were lost,” she whispered.

  “Lost?” Joran asked.

  Alison nodded. I could see it as a shadowed shape. “When the Academy caravan was attacked, the others were killed. There weren’t many of us who survived. There was an explosion and a fire and heat… so much heat.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “I thought I was going to die .” She fell silent for a moment. “There was an instructor here. I don’t know what happened.”

  “We found her. She’s a dragon mage,” I said. “She’ll help.”

  I had to hope she would as I looked around the clearing, trying to get my vision to adjust again. The air around me was still, humid, and there was still some heat behind us, though it was starting to fade. Strangely, it seemed as if the sounds of the forest began to increase, as if it was an attempt from the forest to speak to us. That had to be my imagination, but I could almost feel the wind swirling around the ground, the strange moisture of the forest coming with it.

  “What are you doing here, Ashan?” Alison asked.

  “Joran told me about the caravan attack. I came looking for you.”

  I looked around, searching for the Vard captor. He would have to be nearby, and once I found him, then I would know whether I could speak more freely. I couldn’t find him. I shuffled, scooting as much as I could toward Alison. I could feel the warmth of her, and I recognized the familiar smell of her soap. “There’s something you need to know.”

  “What?”

  “Before I learned what happened to you, Dad wandered off again.”

  “I hope you found him,” she said. “I know he can be frustrating sometimes, but he’s still our father.”

  “I did,” I said.

  There was silence between us for a long moment. “What happened to him?” Alison asked. “I can hear it in your voice that something did. ”

  I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and resisted the temptation to look away. She needed to know the truth. Alison was a strong young woman. Growing up on the farm the way that we had, living the life that we did, she had no choice but to be..

  “He didn’t make it.”

  She said nothing, though her muffled sobs came through the quiet of the night. I wanted to comfort her, but I couldn’t reach her.

  She’d been the one to take care of our father, far more than I had.

  Despite his delusions, he was still our father.

  Her quiet sobs faded after a while. “What happened?” she said softly.

  “I don’t really know,” I said. “He fell off Adela, and by the time I got to him, his pulse was weak.”

  “Cold?” Alison whispered.

  I nodded.

  “But it’s been so hot out.”

  “I know,” I said. “It was even before the storm came.”

  She fell silent again, and I didn’t say anything, knowing that there wasn’t anything really for me to say.

  “There’s something else,” I said.

  “More than Dad dying?” Alison whispered.

  I nodded. “It’s Thenis.”

  “Quiet!”

  I focused on the direction of the Vard’s voice, turning so that I could try to see where he was shouting at us from. It came from off to my left, toward the trees. I doubted they wanted to be in the forest. Nobody really wanted to be in the forest.

  I waited, leaning into Alison. “Thenis got sick about the same time Dad ran off.”

  “What did you do for him?”

  “Mom took him to Berestal.”

  Alison took in a shaky breath. “Good.” She looked over to me, as she tried to twist, and I felt her fingers grabbing me. “He’s been getting sick quite a bit lately. Fevers. I’ve been telling Mom that we need to get a healer out to him, but she hasn’t wanted to.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

  “We’ve been giving him medicine, Ashan. There isn’t anything we could do other than that, and considering how expensive it is to get a healer out to the house, I…” She leaned against me. “I should’ve pushed harder. It’s just that Mom kept telling me there wasn’t anything more we could do for him.”

  "Hopefully she’ll get him real help,” I whispered.

  We fell into silence, and I remained pressed up against Alison, thankful I had gotten to her. After a while, I started laughing softly.

  She leaned away from me. “What is it?”

  “I intended to come after you to rescue you, but it doesn’t seem as if I’ve done all that good of a job,” I said.

  “Thank you ,” she said.

  “You’re my sister. Of course I’m going to save you.”

  Alison let out a shaky laugh. I jerked my head around, looking to see if the Vard might be there, but I found no evidence of them.

  “I thought I wanted to go and see the Academy,” Alison said. “ I thought I wanted to get away from the farm, but ever since the Vard attacked, all I can think about is going back home. Isn’t that strange?”

  I sighed. “It’s not so strange. We’ll get out of this.”

  “How?” She pressed up against me again. “ I don’t know if there’s anything that we’re going to be able to do to escape from them.”

  “We will. Somehow, we will.”

  She looked over to me, and I could see in her eyes that she didn’t believe me. More than that, I didn’t know whether I could believe me either. We’d have to find a way. Maybe Elaine would come for us, maybe the mesahn would attack and lead the Vard away—if it didn’t attack us too—or maybe we would be stuck finding our own way free. Either way, we would have to do something. I refused to allow the Vard to hold us.

  “There’s something else,” Alison whispered. “They have something here. I think that’s the reason that they came after the Academy caravan.”

  “The dragon,” I said.

  “How did you know?”

  “I found it,” I said. “In one of the wagons. It’s little, I only saw it once.”

  “That’s what they’re after,” Joran said. “But my mother said the Vard don’t care about the dragons. They would never use that power.”

  “Anyone would want that power,” I said.

  “Not the Vard. They don’t have anyone who can use it, but it’s more than that. I don’t really understand it, but I’ve heard my mother talking about dragons. It’s almost as if she doesn’t care for them. Like she thinks they’re some sort of abomination.”

  “Well, they have one. ”

  Elaine hadn’t shared with us that there had been a dragon, and I didn’t know what was going on with her search for the Djarn, only that they were connected. Maybe there was something that tied the Djarn and the dragons together. There had certainly been rumors about that over the years. And given what I now knew of the Djarn, I could easily believe there was something to it.

  I had to believe Elaine would come for us—or at least come for the dragon. She was with the Academy, and she knew that my sister had been captured. She would have to recognize that she owed us and needed to rescue us. It was because of the Academy that Alison was even here in the first place. Unless she hadn’t survived. That was a possibility. Despite her power, the Vard obviously had some way of neutralizing it, otherwise they wouldn’t have managed to
capture her in the first place. If she was dead…

  “I don’t know,” Alison said. “All I know is the Academy fought to protect it. That’s why the others that were with me during the selection were captured. The Academy was more concerned about the dragon than about us. They did all they could to protect the wagon that the dragon was in. We were left to fend for ourselves.”

  “What did you do during the attack?”

  “I was in another wagon when the attack came, but there wasn’t anything I could do other than stay hidden. They made it clear we had to keep down. They warned us that if we didn’t, the Vard would take all of us.”

  It bothered me that the Academy wouldn’t have done more to protect those that they’d selected, but maybe there wasn’t anything they could have done. With the Vard, the Academy might’ve been helpless, but there had been a dragon mage there.

  “We just have to keep our focus,” I said. “We will find a way out of here.”

  I could feel Joran watching me and the way that he was looking at me, as if he wanted to question just what I thought I might be able to do to get us out of here. I didn’t have the answer. But I was determined not to allow the Vard to keep us.

  “Be ready. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but we’ll get away from the Vard.”

  “Quiet,” one of the Vard hissed again.

  I turned, staring into the darkness, trying to find where he was hidden, but I didn’t see him. I was going to need to figure out how many of the Vard there were. Once I did, then I would know just what I needed to do in order to take them down.

  I had to treat them like they were unruly livestock.

  17

  The wagons rolled along the path. I could feel the steady swaying, but nothing else. I was confined in a small wagon, nothing more than the four walls around me. At least I was trapped with Joran, though that was no real consolation at this point. I banged my head again as the wagons tipped, and cursed under my breath, pushing myself up so that I could stabilize myself in the center. I glanced up at the hatch. That was going to be our way out, but first we had to get a plan together.

  “I’m sorry,” Joran said.