The Lost Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 3)

by Dan Michaelson

  I didn’t know whether I should be concerned about that.

  “I told you that my father traveled.”

  “As he was moving around in his position,” I said. As the Sharath, it shouldn’t surprise me that he would have moved. Even as the man who was preparing to become the Sharath, he would have been moved around.

  “We were in the south, along the border. I thought it nothing more than an exciting time for us, but it was the one place we didn’t spend very long.”

  “Why not?”

  “My father didn’t want us to be there. Well, I think it’s more that he didn’t want me to be there.”

  “He feared for you?”

  “He understood that the borders could be dangerous—even then, with as many riders as were stationed along the borders.”

  “How many riders are stationed there now?” I knew so little about what I would be asked to do once I became a full dragon mage. Maybe I’d be stationed along borders as well.

  “More than you can imagine.” She flicked her gaze to the sky. “Had I stayed within the Djarn lands, I would’ve been around the dragons more, but unfortunately, we rarely got to see them.”

  “When I was growing up, we knew the dragons served the king, but we never got to see them either. It was rare.”

  “Even on the edge of the kingdom?”

  I nodded. “Rare enough,” I said. “Maybe it was just that he didn’t need to send his dragons out to Berestal and my people, but I don’t really know.”

  “I suppose both of us wanted to see the dragons, though for different reasons,” she said.

  “There was a time when I was growing up that I thought I could learn how to ride a dragon.”

  “And now you have.”

  Another burst of power came. It occurred to me that it was more about power than explosions.

  “Did you feel that?” I asked her. When she nodded, I asked, “There was something outside in the forest that I think is different from the Vard. I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I need to try to figure it out.”

  “It is the Vard,” she said, unconvinced.

  “Thomas captured one of their Servants,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I should admit that to her, or to anyone, but it felt right sharing it with her.

  “He caught one?”

  I nodded. “He’s questioning the Vard to find out where they might attack next. I don’t know how long he’s held him.” It had to have been a recent development, especially given what I had seen and how Thomas kept sneaking off, disappearing for long stretches of time.

  “Oh, Ashan. That’s why they’ve attacked. The Vard were quiet for a long time.”

  “They were in Berestal, even though they didn’t cause any violence. They made their presence known, though.”

  “That’s not the same as attacking.” She shook her head. “They might not have caused violence in Berestal, but everywhere else. The Vard have not been active until recently. Something changed, and my father has been looking into it, trying to understand what changed and why, but he hasn’t discovered anything. It is different for them.”

  “You sound like you disagree with attacking them.”

  Natalie shook her head. “It’s not that I disagree. It’s nothing like that. It’s just that my people want nothing more than peace.”

  “I understand. I think the king wants peace, too.”

  “He does, but . . .”

  She looked toward the forest.

  “What are you getting at?”

  “I don’t know. I’m afraid though. If the Vard move, I don’t know if we will be strong enough to stop them.”

  “The king has stopped them before.”

  Natalie shook her head. “That’s what they want you to believe. My father has told me The Vard have only attacked in full a few times—and they were not stopped. They have some way of pulling the heat off of the dragons.”

  “I thought that was the Djarn.”

  “Where do you think we learned it?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

  I stared. The power pulling on me made a different sort of sense. I could still feel that energy pulling, that drawing sensation that dragged from someplace distant and away from me. I focused on it, thinking about that power, about the way it was cycling, and the influence it had on me. I thought about how it was trying to draw upon me. I couldn’t do anything with it, only feel for that power.

  Now that I was aware of it, I needed to resist it. It was different from what we had faced when the city had been attacked before, but not so different that I didn’t think I could withstand it. At least this time I had more of a connection to the dragons, and I could use that connection or for me to resist what was happening to me. By doing so, I thought I could pull back power and prevent the Vard from drawing it off of me, cycling it away, stealing that energy and diminishing my strength. I could protect the dragons in the same way.

  I looked over to the dragon. “We should investigate,” I whispered to him. He locked eyes with me, and in that moment, he seemed to understand. More than that, he seemed to approve. Turning to Natalie, I forced a smile. “Would you come with me? I need to see if the Vard are attacking or if this is something else.”

  “You can feel it, Ashan. I can feel it.”

  I decided not to push her to explain what that meant for me or for her, but instead tried something different. “I know what I can feel, but I know what’s happened too. We have to go to the king and convince him of what’s taking place. He might not let us in, but if we get word to your father . . .”

  Natalie watched me, and I could see the debate raging in her eyes. Finally, she nodded. “Let’s go,” she said.

  I climbed onto the dragon’s back and waited, thinking Natalie might do the same, but instead she headed to a small blue dragon curled up near the edge of the dragon pen. She scrabbled onto his back, then whispered something to him. With a surge of heat, the dragon got up and launched into the air.

  That was not what I expected.

  I patted the green dragon on the side and we, too, launched into the air. We headed out over the forest, toward what I assumed was the Vard.

  14

  The air crackled with a certain sort of energy, and I focused on what I could feel. Every so often, there came a shifting and pulling of power, a slight strain, suggesting there was enough energy around me to have that effect. It was that shifting I knew we had to be careful with.

  That was the effect of the Vard. Even though I couldn’t see them, I could feel their energy. I knew they were out there, but I didn’t know what to make of that knowledge.

  Natalie flew quickly. Her dragon soared high over the forest, high enough that I had to shift the angle of our flight so I could keep up. I thought we could keep pace with the dragon, but at the same time, I needed to be careful.

  As we flew, I recognized something about the dragon Natalie flew upon. There was a cycle to that dragon.

  It was different from the one I flew, and different from the cycle we shared. I thought I could feel some power coming from within the other dragon’s cycle, circling out and away, but I couldn’t feel anything else beyond that. Whatever else Natalie did, whatever other connection she had to her dragon, to the cycle she summoned, I couldn’t tell. I was only aware of the way that power cycled out from her, flowing away and then back to her.

  I tried to focus, holding on to my own connection to power, feeling the energy of the dragons cycling through the green dragon. That energy fed the dragon, fueling him.

  I could feel something more from the dragons within that cycle.

  It left me wondering how long it would be before Eleanor realized I had somehow done something to the dragon she had used. I didn’t think anybody else could use the power of that dragon now that I had added it to the cycle—doing so limited others’ access to their power. To me, that seemed like both a blessing and a curse. By linking the dragons together, I had protected them, but I also had diminished the possibility that other
dragon mages might be able to use that power.

  “Do you see anything?” I asked, hollering over to Natalie.

  She banked the dragon, and it angled toward me. Natalie was far more comfortable atop the dragon than I was. She looked down. “I don’t see anything. There has to be some sense from below, but . . .”

  I focused. I thought I might be able to use what I could feel of the pull upon me to find where that energy came from. It was somewhere down below, somewhere in the forest, but as I focused on it, I didn’t feel any sort of distinct target. It was just a presence there.

  “I don’t feel anything,” I told her.

  “I don’t either. It might be down there, but . . .”

  She cut off, the dragon taking her higher.

  We circled up into the sky, moving ever more quickly into the air. It became cooler, and I sucked in a sharp breath, trying to fill my lungs with the cold air, reminded of how difficult it was to breathe as Thomas had brought me south toward the Vard controlled lands. Was that going to be my experience here?

  I let out a breath. She didn’t continue to gain altitude, which I figured was probably for the best. I wasn’t sure I could withstand climbing any higher than we already had.

  We circled, flying in a tight pattern that brought us high above the ground, leaving the forest looking like little more than a darkened smear beneath us. As I focused on the forest, on the darkness below, I probed, trying to see if I could feel anything else. If there were some sort of power out there, some sort of energy drawing upon us. So far, I didn’t find anything else. It seemed as if once we were in the air, the occasional pressure upon me had faded, and there was nothing more.

  That troubled me.

  Why would that suddenly shift?

  I attempted to pull upon the energy of the dragons, cycling it, using that cycle to check whether there was anything pulling on me, and for a moment, I thought there was nothing.

  Then I detected it. It was faint. Little more than a tight shimmering of power.

  I could feel the power I had detected while in the tunnel.

  How is it so far away?

  “It’s down there,” I said.

  “Where?” she asked, leaning close.

  We had to yell against the wind and the thin air, but I could still hear her.

  “To the south.”

  She nodded and veered south.

  I followed, holding on to the cycle of dragons, feeling the power flowing from them.

  I had to use something within that to find even more power. Could I gain knowledge from the cycle? It seemed I should be able to do so. It seemed the cycle itself should reveal some power to me. When I tried, the cycle wasn’t closed off, but the dragons didn’t seem to know anything more than what they had already shared with me.

  I continued focusing on the other dragons. I was most aware of the green dragon—the one I was riding—but there were others scattered throughout the forest.

  They were all part of the cycle. Some of them had been healed by my joining them to the cycle, and some of them were added later. In this case, I wondered if I might be able to use the cycle to feel whether the Vard were pulling on some of the dragons. It would force me to detect individual variations within the dragons. I suspected I could do that, but it was going to take some additional focus.

  I had to release the pull upon me, that energy I detected coming from somewhere else, the drawing of the Vard. It was somewhere near me, near enough that I thought I could call upon that power.

  I shifted focus to the various dragons in the cycle. I knew I didn’t need to determine whether the Vard pulled on those in the pen. There was no point in it, especially as those dragons wouldn’t have any additional connection.

  Flipping along the cycle, I moved from dragon to dragon, using what I could to feel for whether there was an influence. One dragon seemed to be curled up on the edge of the forest near the city. As I focused on that dragon, I could feel it grow more alert before I moved on, heading to the next dragon. I could feel the energy of each dragon I shifted to, and I used that energy to slide from one to the next, trying to gain insight.

  When I touched upon another, there was a bit of a pull, though it was faint.

  I shifted, gliding to the next. There was no sense of the Vard. I shifted to the next, and . . .

  “There,” I breathed out.

  I closed my eyes, trying to use what I could of the connection to the dragons in order to determine where that pull came from. It was nearby—near enough that I thought I could draw upon it.

  Near enough that I thought I could use it.

  I gathered that power to me, and continued to drag it through, calling it toward me.

  The dragon was south, much like I had thought.

  By holding on to that power, by using the energy of that dragon, I could feel the way it was connected to me, and I could feel the way it was lured by whatever the Vard attempted.

  More than that, I realized the dragon needed additional help.

  I forced power through the cycle toward that dragon.

  Having an awareness of individual dragons allowed me to control the cycle. I could use that control to help specific dragons. Which I did now.

  The dragon roared.

  I could hear it, but I could feel it, as well.

  “What was that?” Natalie asked.

  “That’s one of the dragons in my cycle,” I answered, without thinking.

  She looked over, frowning. “One of the what?”

  “A dragon I’ve connected to,” I answered hurriedly. I wasn’t sure how to explain the cycle, and really wasn’t sure I needed to. From what I could feel from her, it seemed as if Natalie had her own cycle, and if that were the case, then she was connected and would already know that the cycle was a series of dragons all linked together. “I can feel a pull on the dragon. Maybe Vard.” Though I didn’t know. Not really.

  “If you can feel it, you need to protect it.”

  “I did.”

  She held my gaze for a moment before nodding.

  We streaked south, heading toward what I felt of that dragon. It was moving, though not nearly quickly enough. It seemed to remain under the influence of the Vard, as if they were trying to pull on that power.

  “When I saw one of the Servants of Affellah, he was connected to fire. Sort of how I’m connected to the dragons.”

  “How close were you?”

  “I stood right across from him,” I said. “There is Vard influence in Berestal, but it’s nothing like that.”

  “Most of the Vard are like you and me. It’s only those who serve Affellah that change,” she said. “I don’t understand it. I asked my father about it at one point, but he doesn’t understand it either. It has something to do with how they can pull the heat and fire.”

  “From the volcano?”

  “From the volcano. From the dragons. From anything that contains fire.”

  “He was terrifying,” I admitted. “Part of his face looked like dried lava, and the other parts looked as if lava were running along his cheeks.”

  Her eyes widened. “I can only imagine. I’ve never been close enough to see one. I’ve only seen them from above.”

  “From atop a dragon,” I said.

  Natalie’s eyes took on a drawn, almost haunted appearance. I could imagine what she had seen, having seen one of the Servants myself. I understood just how terrifying they could be.

  “Why do you hide your connection to the dragons?”

  “I don’t hide it.”

  I shook my head, keeping pace with her. We were almost upon where the dragon had been, and I could still feel the pressure pulling on me. I felt an urgency to reach it, but I also wanted to know what Natalie had experienced. “You do hide it. If you didn’t, you would have worked with the Academy.”

  “I’m not of the kingdom, so I couldn’t have worked with the Academy,” she said.

  “Does that bother you?”

  She shook her head,
leaning forward and wrapping her arms around the dragon. “The people have taught me all I need to know.”

  There was something about her tone that made me wonder if she disapproved of the Academy. But why?

  “Do you disapprove of the Academy?”

  “I have no reason to disapprove of the Academy. Your Academy has trained dragon mages for a long time.”

  “They have.”

  “And your Academy has permitted the kingdom to thrive.”

  “I see.”

  She looked over to me. “Not like that,” she said.

  “I wasn’t saying it was.”

  She just shook her head again. “I can tell from your response that you don’t believe me.”

  “It’s not that I don’t believe you,” I said. “I was agreeing with you.”

  She didn’t get the chance to say anything more. We neared the border of what I detected, the power I had felt down below, and the dragons started to circle, seeming to know right where to go. I focused on the pull on the dragon through the cycle, but it had diminished. Whatever I had done to shunt power from the cycle to that dragon—and I wasn’t even sure which dragon it was—had released him from the hold the Vard had on him.

  “What would they do to the dragon?”

  “They view fire as theirs, and feel as if the dragons have stolen it from Affellah.”

  When I frowned at her, she shrugged.

  “That’s the same thing Thomas said, but why do they feel that way?”

  She watched me, a hint of a question in her eyes, though I wasn’t entirely sure what she intended to ask. “What exactly did you see when you came across this Servant?”

  “I told you what I saw. I saw him glowing with power,” I answered.

  That said nothing about the other Vard chasing me out of their lands. I still wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, or how powerful they were, or whether they knew we were responsible for having captured one of their Servants.

  But if they learned . . .

  “But they haven’t attacked in a while, you said,” she said.