“You’ll what?” She grabbed me, forcing my attention back to her. “All I need from you is your help in catching the dragon. It is your fault that it ran off, after all.”
“What makes you think I could do anything to help you, anyway?”
Heat began to radiate off her. It was a familiar heat, the sort of heat that I had felt when I had been near the dragon. It left my skin taut, almost as if I was baking. A soft burning built within my belly, steady at first, but it increased the longer that I stood there in front of her. She watched me, an unrecognizable look on her face.
“Do you feel that?”
“I don’t feel anything,” I said.
She grinned at me. “You are feeling it. I must admit I’m surprised. When we had the summons within the city, it surprised me that we would come across someone with any potential. Of course, Thomas arriving threw a wrench in my plans, though thankfully, he didn’t linger for very long.”
My mind raced. Thomas was the dragon mage who had left on the dragon. If only he had stayed behind. He would have interrupted what she had intended to do, though I still didn’t know what that was or why she was doing it.
“He was always convinced we would find potential on the outskirts of the kingdom. Others weren’t nearly as convinced as he was, though yet again, he has shown why he is the Chief Dragon Mage.” She let go of my chin finally. Her hand traced her way down my neck, leaving a burning all the way through my throat, into my stomach. “Then there’s you. Someone not influenced by the call, and yet you and the dragon connected.” She shook her head. “So few have such a natural connection. The call should have identified you, but perhaps you are too old.” She laughed. “Here I was worried about those from Berestal, but it’s a farmer from the plains outside of the city that I needed to be more concerned about. So you see, you will help me find my dragon. You will help me get him back under control. And once he is, then we will return to the Djarn city.”
That was what this was about? The dragon and the Djarn?
“Because you serve the Vard?”
She chuckled. “If that’s your concern, then so be it. I serve who I need to serve. You will find the same practicality, I suspect.” She waved her hand, and it seemed as if flames streaked away from her, twirling around my arms, forcing me to my feet.
Strangely, it didn’t burn the way I would’ve expected. I was aware of the heat, and my mind cried out as if to say that I should be afraid of it burning me, but there was no sensation along my skin that went with it. No pain to go with it.
“You will lead me to the dragon,” she said softly.
“If you’re a dragon mage, then you don’t need me,” I said.
She grunted. “Unfortunately, there are connections to power I’m not able to separate. The dragon was to serve me to find the Djarn, but you interfered. Now it seems as if it will serve you, though I will prevent that. I need to uncover what the Djarn have kept from us.”
What had the Djarn kept from her?
Something the Vard wanted badly enough to risk attacking a caravan of wagons from the Academy and revealing that they’d influenced one of the dragon mages.
There was a sound nearby, and I jerked my head around, looking into the forest. I could’ve sworn that I heard a soft rumbling. More than that, I felt something deep within me, as well.
Elaine must have noticed it. “He’s here,” she said.
“He wouldn’t come so close to us,” Barton said from behind me.
“I hear him.” She nodded to me. “What’s more, it seems he felt him. If his damn mesahn decides to attack, we won’t be able to do anything,” she said. “He must have somehow known we planned this.”
I struggled through everything, trying to make sense of what I knew, but the problem was it wasn’t nearly enough. I didn’t understand what was taking place, only that Elaine and Barton and the Vard were willing to hurt my sister. They were willing to take her from me, and I’m sure they were more than willing to harm others within my family.
More than that, though, I didn’t know what to make of what Elaine had said about me and the potential that I had. I didn’t know whether or not to believe her, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had when it came to the dragon. I could feel the burning energy when I was around the dragon, and more than that, I had felt compelled to return to it.
Strangely, it was the same sensation my father had described.
Had he known more than he let on?
The remaining Vard took off into the forest.
Elaine grabbed me, dragging me over to the wagon and to my sister.
Alison looked up at me, her eyes wide. Tears streaming along her face. I tried to reach for her, but with my hands bound behind me, I couldn’t.
“What’s going to happen to us, Ashan?” she whispered.
“Your brother is going to help me recover my dragon, and then we will remove this nuisance.”
“What nuisance?” Alison whispered.
“I think she means the mesahn—”
Something struck me, sending me staggering forward where I collided with my sister, collapsing to the ground. I rolled over, trying to get my feet, but I couldn’t. Pain seared through me. It felt as if thousands of needles had been jabbed into my skin, working all the way into the center of my body. Everything throbbed. I panted, trying to control my breathing, trying to get everything under control again, but I could not.
Elaine crouched down next to me. “You feel the dragon, don’t you?” she said softly. “Not many would be so finely attuned to it. You want to deny the truth of your potential, but there is no denying what you are.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I managed to get out.
She chuckled. “You are going to find me the dragon.”
Somewhere in the distance, there came a snarl, then a roar. A scream echoed in the forest before it was quickly swallowed.
Elaine jerked around, looking toward the trees.
“What are you afraid of?” I asked.
“Quiet,” she snapped.
“Who is the man with the mesahn?” I asked.
“Someone like yourself who gets involved where he should not,” she said.
The roar echoing out of the forest radiated a loud cry. It seemed to make the ground itself rumble. The effect of it terrified me. I didn’t know if the man and the mesahn were to be trusted, and doubted that they could be, but if they could help free us from Elaine then we might be able to get away, and then…
Then I had to run and hope that Elaine didn’t come after us and return to Berestal with more of the Vard. Knowing what I did of Vard sympathizers within Berestal, that wasn’t a guarantee. It was possible we were going to be in danger regardless. The roar of the creature out in the darkness persisted, and it was close enough that I began to think that it might actually reach us.
Elaine obviously thought the same. She grabbed my wrists, jerking me to my feet. She looked down at Alison. “Get up,” she snapped.
“I can’t. You have me—”
Alison suddenly gasped. Flames stretched away from Elaine and rolled around my sister, lifting her from the ground.
Alison cried out, panting. “It burns,” she said.
“And it will burn more if you do not follow my instructions,” she said.
I looked over at Elaine. I needed to find an opportunity to get past her, but I didn’t know what that was going to take. Maybe I had to wait for her to look away. I could barrel into her, knock her down, and then find some way to cut free of our bindings. All I needed was the opportunity.
She turned, watching me, almost as if she knew what I was thinking.
“Go,” she said, motioning to the forest. “You’re going into the forest. With me. We are going to find that creature.” She glared at me, heat in her eyes. “If you don’t want me to do anything to your sister, then you will do as I say. All you need to do is follow the sense of the dragon. Considering that I have seen the way it pulls on you,
I know you will be drawn to it. You will use that.”
I shook my head, but even as I did, I had a feeling I understood what she wanted of me. She wanted me to feel for the dragon, and though I might want to deny that I could, I understood what she asked of me.
I’d seen it.
It was the same glowing light that had been out in the trees, the same light that had guided me before, the one that I had followed into the forest. And it was the power that had come from that glowing that had drawn me in.
I tried to shift my hands, wanting to get free, but I couldn’t break my bindings.
When I had the chance, I was going to need to knock Elaine down, but if she had me walking in front of her, I wasn’t going to have that opportunity.
“Which way do you want me to start?” I asked.
The sound of the mesahn roaring had fallen silent. There was no further cry, or rumbling, nothing other than the same strange emptiness that had been within the forest before. The presence of the Vard, and the presence of us, seemed to disrupt the natural sounds here.
“You will know which way you need to go,” she said.
I looked around, but even as I did, I could tell.
It was a faint light glowing in the distance. At first, I tried to tell myself I wasn’t seeing it, but as I looked around the forest, trying to make out the darkness, there was one area that seemed a little lighter than the others.
Elaine pushed me. “I see it in your eyes. You recognize it. Now go, unless you want something to happen to her again.”
I looked over, and Alison stiffened, as if suddenly wracked with pain.
“If I do this, you aren’t going to hurt her,” I said.
Elaine laughed, a dark sound. “You don’t get to dictate the terms here.”
“I’m not going to help you if you hurt her.”
Elaine watched me. Alison let out a shaky breath.
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
I turned, heading into the forest. I didn’t need any guidance. The glowing light in the distance called to me, leading me deeper into the trees. I could practically feel the energy of the forest guiding me to where I needed to go. There was no sign of the creature, and no sign of the man with him.
That didn’t change Elaine’s nervousness. She marched a few paces behind us, just far enough that it would be difficult for me to spin and try to throw myself at her. I had to bide my time a little bit more.
Following the glowing light, I continued to track the energy as it stretched away from us. It called us deeper into the forest, away from the Djarn path.
“What were you even doing in the forest?” I asked.
“Lead me to the dragon, and say nothing else,” Elaine whispered.
She was nervous and had proven she needed me enough to not harm Alison.
And I needed answers.
“It’s a simple question,” I said. “What are you doing in the forest? I don’t think you’ve been working with the Djarn.” She wanted to find the dragon to use it to find the Djarn. Then there had been the captive girl I’d freed, the one she’d claimed had been from the Wilds, but I suspected was actually Djarn.”
She snorted softly. “The Djarn work with no one.”
Not true. Joran’s father had some interaction with them, so I knew they must be willing to work with some. “How did you know how to find the Djarn path?”
She didn’t say anything. I followed the glowing light in the distance, knowing that I had no choice but to keep going, but I could ask questions. I could find out more information the further we went. I had to believe that by keeping her distracted, I might be able to get some answers.
They hadn’t been working with the Djarn, but they were leading the dragon into the forest. Still, it was more than that.
I chuckled. “You didn’t know the mesahn was here.”
She shoved me from behind. “Get moving.”
I had no idea whether or not the mesahn would pose a danger to me or if it would attack us simply because we were with Elaine. Obviously, Elaine feared the mesahn, and the man who led it, but I didn’t quite know why.
“Who is he? He’s someone you fear,” I said. “And if he’s not with the Vard, is he from the Wilds?”
She grunted again. “He’s a man who has gotten far too full of himself.”
She knew him. Which meant he was from the kingdom.
“If you keep talking, I am going to—”
“Going to what?” I said, spinning and facing her. “You need my help. You might as well answer my questions as we go, otherwise you’re not going to get my help.”
“Is that right?” Elaine held her hands outward, her thumbs pointed up, two fingers pointed out away from her, and her fourth and fifth fingers curled up toward her palm and began to twist in a pattern that reminded me of my father working with the string in front of the hearth. “I think I have ways to ensure that you will speak.”
An agonizing torture suddenly flared throughout my body, dropping me to my knees. Thousands of needles pressed into my skin, like dozens upon dozens of lightning bolts streaking through my skin and into my belly , almost incapacitating me. I could barely breathe, let alone speak.
I heard shouting nearby but I couldn’t focus on it. All I could focus on was the overwhelming pain that rolled through me.
Then it was gone. A face loomed above me. Elaine.
“If you think I have no power over you, then you are mistaken. Get up. Lead me toward the creature. If you do that, you might find that I will be far kinder to you. ”
I slowly got to my feet and looked over to Alison. Tears still streamed down her face.
I tried to mouth a reassuring sentence to her, but there was nothing that I could say that would reassure her.
Finally, I started off again. The pain seemed to linger with me this time, a memory of it that stayed deep within my mind, as if she wanted to ensure that I was fully aware of what she could do to me. As if I could forget.
I could no longer travel nearly as well as I had before. It was almost as if my feet were numb, causing me to stumble when I struck some of the underbrush that snagged at my feet. With the light glowing in the distance I could see easily, though that didn’t help when the branches seemed to grab at me, or when the vines attempted to snare my feet. It didn’t help when I would duck, and suddenly a branch would seem to appear out of nowhere, practically slamming into me. I weaved around, feeling as if I were intoxicated.
Through it all, that glowing light began to intensify. It was out there, close enough that I could swear that all I had to do was take one more step, but each time I took that step, we still didn’t reach it.
Gradually, I became aware of something else. The heat around me intensified. It was the same heat that I had felt when Elaine demonstrated her power, but also the same as when I was near the dragon.
The burning I noticed began to start anew.
It started deep in my belly, a gnawing sort of pain that rolled outward, working up my chest, down my arms, and then down into my legs and my feet. The numbness faded. All I was aware of was that burning.
Pressure built within me. It was like the anticipation of waiting for something to happen, knowing that it would, only not knowing when.
Every so often, I would pause and look back to Elaine, but she seemed oblivious to it. How could she not see this glowing light?
I pulled on the bindings holding my wrists trying to fight through them, but I couldn’t. My hands were trapped behind me, preventing me from doing anything other than stagger forward. I couldn’t even use my hands to block the branches from my face.
I stumbled again, sprawling forward. As I did, I noticed a clearing in the distance.
Beyond that clearing was something. I had no idea what it was, only that I could feel that energy out there, as if there was something more beyond. I crawled forward, keeping my head down.
Elaine grabbed me, jerking me to my feet again. The needles stabbed in to my skin, as she f
orced me to look over to her. “If you think that you will escape now…”
I could shake my head, but that was the only movement that seemed to work. “I’m not trying to escape,” I muttered.
She shoved me forward. I looked over to Alison. She was so far unharmed, but before this was over, I had little doubt that we would have to find a way to escape, o nce Elaine had what she wanted. Once the dragon was back in her possession, I doubted Elaine would have any reason to keep both of us alive.
Which meant I had to think fast. I had to be ready to act. I had no idea what that would entail, but I had to start coming up with an idea.
I pressed forward. This section of the forest was denser than the last, and as I shoved my way through it, fighting through the undergrowth, I stepped out into an opening.
The light glowed brightly around me. I couldn’t see anything else. It took me a moment for my eyes to begin to adjust to that brightness.
This was my chance.
Behind me, I could hear Elaine and Alison stepping through that brush.
I spun, and as soon as Elaine stepped into the clearing, I jumped.
“Ashan!”
I ignored Alison’s cry, focusing on slamming into Elaine. Pain started to shoot through me, the needles combined with that electrical jolt, but as soon as I collided with her, it was disrupted. I slammed down onto her, using my shoulder to strike at her face. I kept her on the ground, using my shoulders as fists, driving them into her face until she stopped moving.
Only then did I lean back, sitting on her.
That tension within me persisted, as did the burning. I turned to Alison. “You need to get my hands free,” I said to her.
“What happens when she comes around?” Alison asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. We aren’t going to be here.”
Elaine had been responsible for all of this. She had been the reason Alison had been captured.
Was it worth sparing her life, knowing she might come after us?
She wouldn’t have done the same for us. I was certain of that. Once she found the dragon, she’d have no use for us.
The Caged Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 1) Page 20