“If you want to come, you may. I would prefer if the Servant came, as I think he knows more about defeating the murtar, but if this is to be your journey . . .”
She glowered at me.
“He is a Servant of these lands,” she said.
“But that doesn’t mean he can’t serve his lands by protecting others,” I said.
She frowned, a look of confusion on her face, as if she wasn’t quite sure what to do or say about that, but at the same time, she still had the irritated expression she wore most of the time. “You need help.”
“I’m not disagreeing with you,” I said.
“Then I will help you.”
I looked out at Asanley. Her dark skin, deep-brown eyes, and hard features fit the Vard lands, and were so different from Natalie’s appearance. She had a certain practicality, something duty-bound that appealed to me.
“Why would you do that?” I asked.
“If you truly believe you serve Affellah”—she looked up at me, watching and trying to see whether I was actually serious about it—“then I should help you.”
“You don’t have to help me,” I said.
“Of course I do not have to help you,” she said, waving her hand. “But you cannot do this on your own. You are too inexperienced.” She approached the dragon carefully, and some of her confidence began to falter.
“You would actually help my people?”
She held my gaze. “I have seen what the murtar has done to my land. I would not put that upon another, even an enemy. This will be my journey.”
She looked over to the dragon, her irritation flickering into hesitation. I reached my hand out, waiting for her.
“The first step is the hardest,” I said.
“I’m not afraid,” she said.
“The dragon is fire, much like Affellah,” I said, nodding to the volcano in the distance.
As the glowing persisted in the distance, I could feel the energy from Affellah, and I suspected she could feel it as well.
“If you need a hand, I am more than happy to assist,” I said.
She glared at me. “I do not.”
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” I said.
She continued glowering at me.
“Just take a step,” I said.
She took my hand, and I felt heat surging, somewhat similar to how it felt when the cycle filled me. Power started to flow, moving between us and outward, giving me an awareness of something different, something greater.
It was more than the power of Affellah. It was a cycle forming between us. As it did, I held my hand to hers, feeling the warmth flowing.
I could also feel the dragon’s energy cycling through me from a different direction, though for the first time, it felt somehow lessened, or perhaps only different.
I felt a hesitation. When I had formed the cycle with the dragons, there had been a burst of power that had come between me and the dragons, something that had formed between us, granting me an understanding of that power, letting me know there was a greater power. When I had added Natalie to my cycle, it had given me an intimacy with her that I could not have in any other way. Now that cycle was severed, or simply muted.
But having a connection to Asanley . . .
Perhaps I would need that. She understood Affellah in a way I did not.
“Are you ready?”
“I am not afraid,” she said.
“I would never accuse you of being afraid,” I said.
“Then don’t imply it.”
I thought about the dragon, drawing power through me, and realized there was something different within that cycle now. Affellah.
I was still connected and bonded to the dragon, but now I felt a different power. A deeper power. If that was Affellah, then so be it.
Or perhaps it was only that I was connected to some true power I hadn’t been connected to before. The dragon launched, taking to the air and circling above the ground.
The Servant glanced up at us, watching. For a moment, I felt a surge of heat coming off him, cycling through my connection to Affellah and touching upon my connection to the dragon, but then it was gone.
He turned his attention back to Affellah, away from us.
As we circled ever higher, Asanley squeezed her arms around me, clutching tightly, yet I couldn’t help but feel as if she was enjoying this.
Chapter Nineteen
Hot air gusted around us as we soared. Asanley stayed close, and I found myself enjoying her proximity and warmth. The heat shifted as we neared the Southern Reach, the vast green emptiness I suspected remained corrupted by murtar. I looked back at Asanley, who was frowning, and the heat flaring within her suggested she was aware of something here.
She remained connected to the power of Affellah, and I could feel something cycling through her, the energy and magic of the volcano filling her—heat and power and something more I couldn’t quite place.
“I returned to your land because I saw the murtar attacking in mine. There were places where it had already begun corrupting the forest. It’s similar to the memory that was in your land, but not the same,” I said.
And now, I at least believed it could be defeated.
“Once you embrace Affellah, you can stop it,” she replied.
That was what the Servant believed, but I wasn’t exactly sure. I had stopped the memory of the murtar. Twice. But stopping that power in its full strength was something else.
Plus, I had another concern. If the power of the murtar continued to move and spread, it suggested there was something out there driving it.
“What if there’s somebody directing this power? I feel like there has to be.”
I had been considering that ever since I had first experienced its power and had seen the way it had influenced our land. Having discovered that, I thought whoever had made it seem like the Vard, then the Djarn, had attacked must be connected to the murtar. It was the only other explanation that made sense.
“You came to Affellah late. There is much you don’t understand.”
I laughed, but it felt hollow. For some reason, flying above the Southern Reach felt as if the air were empty, as if my connection to power were empty in some way.
“That doesn’t mean I can’t feel things,” I said.
She looked down and didn’t respond. I needed to get into the kingdom, to get to Natalie, and I needed to get to the others. Once I did . . .
“How far do we have to go?” she asked.
“Not far,” I said.
“Are you sure?”
I looked over my shoulder at her. “I thought you weren’t scared.”
She glowered at me, heat flowing up from her—cycling, if I had to put a word to it. I could feel it within her, but then it flowed through me. Maybe it was just the contact we shared, the way she had her arms around my waist, or perhaps it was something else.
The dragon turned, angling across the Southern Reach, until it reached the outskirts of the forest, deeper into the kingdom. While the air no longer had the heat and dryness of the Vard lands, there was now an almost foreign energy within it.
She tightened her grip around me.
“You don’t need to be afraid of anything here,” I said.
“I told you I wasn’t afraid,” she said, though her voice was a little softer, much less of an edge to it now.
“I understand your concern,” I said.
“And I told you I’m—”
“Not afraid. I know.”
We continued straight toward the kingdom, toward the Academy and the capital. As we traveled, the forest flowed beneath us, and I focused on the cycle of dragons. It required a shifting of my focus, tearing me away from the connection I had with Affellah, and turning it instead upon the dragon. The energy of the green dragon flowed through me, filling me, and it was easy enough for me to pour out from that, to push beyond it, as I attempted to tap into something else.
But my connection to him was different from when I was her
e even the last time. Perhaps because of the disconnection to my cycle, something that bothered me more the farther we traveled, but perhaps it was because of the murtar, a threat that had persisted and perhaps even spread while I was away. I stared out over the distance, breathing deeply, focusing on the heat within me.
She squeezed her arms around me. “I can tell something is bothering you. I feel it through Affellah.”
“Affellah should not have shared anything like that with you,” I said.
“And why not? Do you feel that Affellah is not as potent as you? Do you feel that Affellah cannot do what you can do?”
“I don’t know what Affellah can do,” I said.
“Then do not question.”
I twisted so I could look at her, though I wasn’t sure if she would be watching me or if her attention would be fixed on the changing landscape around us.
“What do you feel with Affellah?”
As we traveled deeper into the kingdom, the need for me to better understand the truth of Affellah came to me. More than anything, I needed to understand it so that if I were to try to use it, I would have what I needed to protect the kingdom.
Asanley’s mouth pinched into a tight frown, and she squeezed more tightly than she had before. “I feel what Affellah wants for me to feel.” She began softly, though her words had heat and fire to them. “When I first learned of Affellah, and my connection to it, I felt it as the warmth of a summer day. I felt Affellah in the heat of my mother’s embrace. I felt it in the tears that spilled down my cheeks when my father disappeared.”
I looked at her. “When did your father disappear?”
For a moment, I didn’t think she was going to answer.
“My people have suffered under the threat of your people.”
“What happened to him?”
Beneath me, the dragon continued to flex his wings, a steady, almost rhythmic nature to his movements. He was powerful, and he propelled us forward with that power.
“Affellah asked him to do what was necessary.”
She fell silent, and as much as I wanted to prod and try to understand, I didn’t dare. I began to suspect the reason for her anger with me, and why she had reacted to my presence the way she had.
We flew in silence for a little while, and I continued searching for signs of other dragons, anything else, but could not find them. I pushed through my connection to the green dragon, thinking there had to be something more within the cycle that I knew had formed, but it was gone. I suspected some of the heat within me came from the power of Affellah, but not all of it.
“What are you searching for?” Asanley asked, her words clipped and tight.
“Dragons. There should be more.”
“Do they normally fill the sky?”
I shook my head as I looked around. “No, but I had a better connection to them before I left. Now I can’t detect them.”
“You have Affellah. That is enough.”
I wanted to argue with her, especially as I didn’t believe that, not if I had to face the murtar, but I doubted she would understand. Instead, as the forest rolled in front of us, the depth of green stretching as far as I could see, I focused on the cycle.
“What do you think happened to your dragons?”
I found her watching me, and I couldn’t tell if she really wanted to hear my answer or if her nerves had prompted her to speak.
“When I came back here after first visiting your lands, I discovered evidence of murtar.”
“Affellah has removed the threat.”
“No,” I said. I looked off to the side of the dragon, feeling as if there needed to be some answer there, though I couldn’t detect anything. “Affellah didn’t even remove the threat in your land. You’ve seen it. The scar remained, despite your Servants.” It had taken dragon power to try to remove it as well, somehow. At least, that was what I believed. What if the Servant had wanted me to believe that? Regardless, there was something else in their lands that they tried to ignore. “There’s a memory of murtar that remains, and I worry there are some in my land who are clinging to that memory, wanting to maintain that power.”
She watched me for a long moment.
“You look like you’re deciding how to judge me,” I said.
“It is only Affellah who judges.”
The dragon turned, and she squeezed more tightly, gripping me.
I inhaled deeply. At this point, I didn’t know if I had any choice but to keep going. I needed answers, and I had no idea where to find them, but I felt we needed to keep moving, and quickly.
Gradually, I began to feel something shifting.
At first, I had no idea what it was, but the farther we traveled, the more I began to have a sense of what was out there, and the more I started to recognize that the energy I detected came from something discrete, some distinct source of power—something real.
The dragon started to slow. He detected the same thing. I fell silent, if only for a little while, and I looked at Asanley, frowning as I considered what we needed to do.
“Maybe it was a mistake for you to come here,” I said.
“I thought you wanted my help.”
I started to question whether it made sense for me to have one of the Vard here when I had no idea what was taking place within the kingdom. There was a danger in her being here, I knew. Having spent only a little time with Asanley, I knew she didn’t care about that danger, so long as she believed that Affellah had been the reason she was here. If she continued to believe she had been guided here by some supernatural hand, she would not question.
“I’m not sure if it makes sense for you to be here. It’s dangerous.” I focused on the dragon, on the cycle between us, and felt for the additional presence, that heat which flowed out and around me that suggested there was something greater—not the cycle though.
“Because you fear me.”
“That’s not it. I fear for you.”
“Affellah will provide.”
“I have seen what happens to those who believe that Affellah will protect them,” I said.
“You have seen nothing,” she said.
“I saw your Servant, the way he thought he would be protected, and I saw that he believed he didn’t have to fear the murtar. I recognized the power he thought to utilize and what happened to him.” I shook my head. “I would rather that not happen to you.”
“I am not him.”
“I know you’re not,” I said. “But he has more experience than you.”
I didn’t know her well, but I recognized her desire to prove herself. Maybe there was even a desire to prove that the kingdom was what she believed, a dangerous place of violence.
“Our people need to find—”
I didn’t have an opportunity to finish.
Dragon energy began to swirl, near enough I could see it and feel it as it created a distinct pressure in the air.
“Be ready,” I said.
“Affellah will protect,” she said.
The energy of the dragons continued coming toward us.
I didn’t see them yet, so I couldn’t tell what kind of dragons they were. I focused on my dragon, pressing through him and searching for an understanding, some connection that might be there, but I could not find the answer I sought. Heat flowed between us, and the connection remained strong and solid as ever, but there was still no additional power, no greater connection to the cycle.
“I feel something out there,” Asanley said, her voice a whisper.
“I think it’s the presence of dragons, but not the dragons I had been connected to before. I don’t know why it feels so . . .” Different, I thought, but I didn’t want to say that to her.
Could it be that connecting to Affellah somehow shifted my ability to connect to dragons? Maybe I wouldn’t be able to detect them the way I once had. Still, if that were the case, it didn’t explain much. I couldn’t even feel Affellah that well here.
I could feel pressure and resistance though.
>
Murtar.
The dragon seemed to know what I wanted and turned, banking to the side. I could feel fear within the dragon, though he would never admit it, much like Asanley wouldn’t. They were proud.
We headed across the forest. It was thick enough that I could see nothing down below, though I knew we had to pass over Djarn lands. We kept flying, making our way straight into the kingdom.
“We are going so far from Affellah.”
I could feel the growing sense of Affellah fading, and suspected Asanley felt the same. How could she not? She was more connected to it than I was.
When I turned to her, I saw her sitting rigidly atop the dragon, making me wonder how she managed not to fall.
The energy of the murtar filled the air, a reminder of what we had faced before, though this did not strike me as a memory. This was real. This was here.
“Be ready,” I said.
“For what?” she asked.
“Murtar.”
She frowned, but I turned the dragon, and we banked, heading toward danger, toward something both Asanley and the dragon feared despite their protestations.
Chapter Twenty
We reached a section of the forest that had been corrupted by murtar. The dragon and I had done what we could to try to burn it away, but we knew it wouldn’t be a permanent solution. It was a section of the forest just past the Southern Reach, a section where we had already burned through the trees, where I had tried to layer over a protective section, thinking I would be able to help.
As we neared, the dragon roared softly, flames shooting from his mouth. Asanley sat up and wrapped her arms around me more tightly.
The dragon twisted slightly so I had a better sight line, and I formed a weave, stretching it out from me, calling upon the power within the dragon and feeling a faint fluttering of additional power. I was unsure if it was Affellah or something within me, but either way, as I formed the weave, I felt a greater surge of energy than I had felt before. It started to flow out from me, sweeping across the ground, and I anchored it to some of the nearby healthy trees.
The Summoned Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 4) Page 18