Walter approached. “Not quite like that.”
I looked up to him. “What am I doing wrong?”
“It’s not so much a matter of what you’re doing wrong as a matter of there being different ways of pulling on this. Don’t force it together. You have to let it come together.”
“It doesn’t feel like it wants to come together. There’s a resistance to it.”
“You have to find the pattern. It’s there, if only you can permit yourself to flow with it.”
“Flow with it?”
He nodded. “I have worked with other students over the years, and that is the hardest aspect for them to understand. You must find a way to let it come to you. To flow within it.”
“How many others have succeeded?”
“All students can learn to form this weave,” he said.
“How many have learned to do it quickly?”
Walter smiled slightly. “Why, that is another matter altogether. Doing it quickly is not easy. For the most part, students learn how to hold on to the weave for a short time, but they rarely learn how to master it long enough to use it. They don’t find it nearly as effective as some of the alternatives.”
“What other alternatives would do the same thing?”
“There are other patterns that would work, but it is more about using a pattern that works as effectively.”
“What do you mean? If there’re others that work, and if they’re easier—”
“Easier doesn’t mean better,” Walter said.
He frowned at me, and I had the sense I had disappointed him by my comment.
“I didn’t mean to offend you,” I said.
He shook his head. “You didn’t offend, Ashan. Far from it. You seek to understand. That is all I can ask.”
“I just want to know what will be the most effective technique.”
“It depends upon the circumstances. It also depends upon the dragon mage, to a great extent. If you find yourself under duress, and aren’t able to form the weave like this, then it is of no use to you. If you find yourself under duress and you can form something more basic that protects you for the most part, then that is what is of most use to you.” He smiled. “But, if you practice, and you master the weave, and you can call upon it when needed, this is a powerful technique.”
“Are there others?”
He frowned at me. “Others?”
“Other weaves you know that would do something like this.”
He shook his head. “There are many other weaves, Ashan. It is a matter of what you need at the right time.”
“You showed me a defensive weave. Do you know anything like this that would do other things?”
This time, there was no mistaking the disappointment in his face. “I know other weaves,” he said. “And I can show them to you, but perhaps you should master this one. It is complicated, but if you master this weave, then you can prove to me you’re capable of mastering others.”
He nodded to me and left me in the room, closing the door and sealing me inside.
I looked around, focusing on the energy within me. This chamber was designed for dragon mages to practice: The walls were protected, the stone impervious to the power we held. Even knowing that, it was large enough that it would be unlikely for me to strike the walls around me or the ceiling overhead—at least, not without drawing upon the power of multiple dragons.
This wasn’t how I intended to start my morning, but perhaps Walter was right: I needed to use this as an opportunity to get a better sense of the power that I could hold. I began to focus. I’d master this. If nothing else, I was stubborn, and I’d find a way to control this weave so I could protect myself.
5
The inside of the chamber was growing warm—partly from the energy of the dragons I let flow through me, partly from the heat within my body. I was tired, sweating, and had been here for the better part of the last few hours, repeating the same pattern over and over again. It came slowly, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it would be ineffective if I needed to use it in the event of an attack, but I was determined to continue practicing.
I had figured out how to combine the weaves overhead—doing so had helped me find the connection within me, but it was still slow. It was a methodical approach to weaving the connection together, binding the strands up and over each other. The first time I’d done it, formed the shell over my head, I had been too exhausted to try to create the cage around me and it had collapsed before I even had the opportunity to attempt it. The second time, I had forced even more power into it, drawing upon multiple dragons, and found that though I could create the weave, I didn’t have the same control Walter had in order to create the cage around me.
I began to think it was some sort of test.
Many of the instructors at the Academy had their own sort of test to determine whether they would work with and teach other students, and it didn’t surprise me that Walter, as quiet and bookish as he was, would have his own test, as well. It did surprise me that he had such a complex, powerful connection. He seemed so unassuming, but with this kind of ability, he could be quite dangerous. Others would easily overlook him and underestimate him. Perhaps that made him even more dangerous. I’d have to ask Thomas about Walter when I had the chance.
Taking a deep breath, I gathered myself again, pulling on the power and preparing to attempt another trial. That was the key for me now. I needed to see if I could weave enough energy together to form the cage around me. I was determined to do it.
The weave began to come more quickly. Each time I formed it, I could feel energy flowing, could feel the way I slipped power up and over itself, and it finally came together. It wasn’t as fast as it would need to be if I were under attack, but it did hold. Perhaps that was the key, at least for now. Now I needed to create the cage and spread it outward.
Twisting that power came slowly.
I did so gradually and formed the cage of power around me. It was narrow, not nearly as wide as the one Walter had formed, and I had come to learn that was the result of the nature of the initial pressure upon the weave. The more I pushed outward, the more strain there was, yet I had to wonder if that act was part of the spell Walter used. Could the tension be part of the resistance?
It might be. If so, then I had to find a way to push outward and create even more tension so I could accomplish what Walter had.
As I pushed out, the door to the chamber came open.
I froze. I felt as if I couldn’t even move, but I wanted to hold on to the power within me, wanting to maintain that connection so I could continue to test what I was doing. That was needed. It was the reason I’d started holding on to this power in the first place. If I could control it, then I could continue to use it.
Brandel and Jameth approached. I had far too much experience with Brandel, though much less with Jameth. Brandel was a tall young man, with more than a hint of arrogance, and he strode forward as if leading the others with him. He cared little for me, and the feeling was mutual. I still hadn’t learned who his father was within the city, though knew him to be some sort of nobility. He had rank, which Brandel figured kept him safe, despite my knowledge of Brandel’s involvement with Elaine. Likely he had been working with her. Two more followed them in, both of them students at the Academy whom I didn’t know well.
Brandel took one look at me and sneered. “What are you doing here, Ashan?”
“Can’t you see what I’m doing?”
He approached, though he did so slowly. I’d already confronted Brandel once after he attempted to use power he wasn’t supposed to have. I figured he knew who was responsible for revealing what the attackers were doing, but so far, he had not taken it out on me.
“It is a pretty bit of power, but useless,” Brandel said.
“Useless?”
He shrugged. “What do you think this will do for you?”
Before I had a chance to react, he looped a band of power and slammed it into the cage I held.
I braced myself, unable to help it, and could feel the effect of his action. When I’d attacked Walter, nothing happened. I’d summoned considerable power, drawing upon not just one strand, but multiple strands woven together, and had even called upon more than one dragon in order to test whether or not it made a difference. Walter had withstood that attack.
Brandel’s single-stranded attack crashed into my cage and exploded it. I was thrown back.
Brandel lunged toward me. “Did you think I’d forget?”
“You’ll regret it,” I said.
“Who’s going to see you down here anyway?” He started to chuckle, a dangerous sound. “Training accidents happen in the Academy all the time. Or don’t you know that? I suppose you wouldn’t, seeing as how you aren’t one of us.”
“I’m as much a part of the Academy as you are.”
“No. You want to be as much a part of the Academy as I am, but you aren’t.”
He looped power again, and this time it swirled out from him and toward me.
I reacted.
I knew better than to attack him with my connection to the dragons. It was too potent, but I wasn’t even sure if it would work. It would only incite Brandel and the others to come at me. It would be better to try something else.
I lunged forward, slamming my shoulder into him.
Brandel wasn’t terribly large, though he was incredibly arrogant. He was well connected within the city, though I wasn’t entirely sure why, not that it mattered. He grunted when I connected to his belly, and I drove myself toward him, landing on him and sitting. He lost control over his connection to the dragons.
I held one hand down on his chest, glancing over my shoulder to see Jameth and the other two approaching.
I shook my head. “Stay back.”
“Get off me,” Brandel said dangerously.
“Or what?”
“Get off me,” he said again.
“We can work together, or we can work against each other,” I said. “We’re on the same side.”
He shook his head. “We aren’t.”
I’d suspected his involvement in the attacks on the city given his connection to Elaine, but I wouldn’t actually believe it. It was possible, though unlikely for him as a student.
Maybe I should dig into what role he had though.
“What do you think we are, then?” I asked.
He struggled, but I had plenty of experience dealing with wild livestock and trying to get them controlled when I was growing up on the farm, and simply sat on him, holding him down.
“I can stay here all day,” I said. “I’ll treat you like I treat any other misbehaving pig.”
That got the desired reaction, and he started to buck, trying to throw me off. I chuckled, and pushed my hand down onto his chest before I got to my feet. The delay had given me the chance to gather myself again, to take the time I needed to call upon the power of the dragons again and let it flow out through me.
I held my hands apart, power sizzling within them. “Back away,” I said to Brandel.
“We aren’t done with this,” he said to me.
I cocked my head to the left, frowning at him. “I thought we were on the same side, but maybe we aren’t. Do you still serve Elaine?”
He glowered at me. “You need to be careful with what you say.”
“Me? I’m not the one who was caught with the artifact.”
“No one cares if I have a Djarn artifact.”
I hadn’t been sure he knew. His knowledge actually made it both better and worse. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be criticized for having it. The Djarn and the kingdom were allies, so having an artifact of the Djarn, regardless of what it did and how it stored power, did not immediately put him at odds with the kingdom, regardless of what he might use that power for.
He watched me, saying nothing.
He didn’t need to say anything, either. He knew I couldn’t do anything.
“I know what you did,” I said. More than that, I had to wonder if the reason he managed to shatter the cage I’d been holding was because he had drawn upon one of those artifacts again. I wouldn’t put it past him. If he thought it was going to benefit him in some way, he would do it.
I took a deep breath, calling upon power from more than just one dragon, from as many as I could, letting that power fill me. I wove the strands of power between my hands, letting it sizzle. I stretched it out, then created a loop of power around me, pushing it toward Brandel.
He jumped up, avoiding the connection and glaring at me.
“I serve the kingdom.” I said.
He grunted. “You’re from the Wilds. You can’t serve anything.”
I looked over to the others, and they’d moved closer to Brandel. There was no point in continuing to argue with him. There was no point in me doing anything other than walking away. This wasn’t a fight I wanted, even though I suspected I could win. I needed to take the high road, to be better.
I started toward the door, moving past Jameth and the other two students. “You can have the room. I’m finished with it anyway.”
When I reached the doorway, Brandel spoke loudly enough for me to hear: “And he claims we serve the Vard. Did you see what he just did? No dragon mage can call upon that kind of power without having Vard magic.”
I just shook my head. It showed how little he knew.
I didn’t think it was Vard magic. For that matter, I had no idea what magic the Vard possessed. They had to have something to have posed a threat to the kingdom over the years, but I hadn’t seen anything so far. Thomas viewed the Vard as an ongoing challenge, but even he hadn’t shared with me why. As far as I could tell, the Vard had once been a danger to the kingdom, but now I no longer knew if they really were.
Heading back up the stairs, I paused in the main hall of the Academy. The dragon lanterns glowed with bright light, probably befitting the time of day. It had to be well past noon. My stomach rumbled.
I debated going into the Academy cafeteria to eat. There was plenty to eat there, and I was more than welcome to choose what was available to me, but I decided against it. Instead, I headed out. I didn’t want to stay within the Academy and deal with the other students, people whom I really had not connected with. It would be better if I left. Besides, the food was tasty here in the city, and maybe I’d run into Natalie and convince her to join me.
When I reached the door leading out of the Academy, I paused for a moment, thinking back to when I had come here earlier today; I planned to spend my day wandering the city, maybe focusing on the dragons and practicing, but instead, I found myself exhausted from working with the weave I’d attempted. It was a strange thing. I hadn’t been this tired from working with the dragon magic for quite some time.
It wasn’t so much fatigue from the connection to the dragon as it was from focusing, using my time to master the power, and getting a better sense of the energy I possessed. Walking for a while might help me feel better, and it would certainly clear my head.
I cruised past the dragon pens, pausing there for a moment and looking over to them. The green dragon was in the middle of the pen, and he looked up at me. There was something in the way he looked at me that suggested he knew me better than I would’ve expected him to. I headed toward the bars of the pen, resting my hands on them, and studied the dragon. I focused on the connection between us, the way the power cycled through me, and could feel some aspect of the dragon that continued to flow within me. It poured out from me, into the dragon, and then back to me. It passed through other dragons along the way. Each dragon it passed through left me feeling as if there were some other part of me that trembled.
But it was the power cycling through me that trembled.
That power seemed to be the key to understanding more about the dragon. I’d felt it before when working with the dragons, noticing how the energy seemed to fluctuate, trembling within me, as if the dragon used that as a way to communicate with me, but I hadn’t managed to under
stand what it was or what it meant.
It fluttered again, and once again, it seemed some deep part of me fluttered with it, as if the dragon itself were trying to control it.
Normally when I cycled power through me, I was in control of how that power flowed, which was necessary for me to master that energy. There were times when it was different though. There were times when I wasn’t in control of it, when the dragon seemed to control it. In this case, it seemed to be the dragon more than me.
“What are you trying to tell me?” I whispered.
I didn’t know if the dragon would have any way of communicating with me, but maybe by surging power, I could come to understand some message between us. It wouldn’t be the same as speaking to the dragon, or having the dragon speak to me, but perhaps there would be some way for us to share knowledge.
Once again, there came a trembling, and it felt as if the power surged up within me, flowing from the dragon, and I watched, trying to understand. As I did, I found nothing other than what I had already uncovered. The power fluctuated again, bursting briefly before coming back to me.
I smiled at the dragon, letting power flutter out, cycling out and away before drifting back into me again. There wasn’t going to be any meaningful way for me to communicate with the dragon. I pushed outward, once again connecting to him, letting that energy cycle, and could feel him pushing against me—his way of sharing something with me.
Finally, I moved on.
Other dragons looked toward me. Some of them were connected to the cycle I was a part of, though most were not. Many of the dragons were willing to enter into it though. I could feel that willingness from them, even though I couldn’t necessarily feel anything else from them.
I paused again, focusing on the dragons, staring at them as I strained to understand why they watched me, but there was something I was missing.
The Lost Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 3) Page 6