The Lost Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 3) Read online

  The Lost Dragon

  Cycle of Dragons Book 3

  Dan Michaelson

  D.K. Holmberg

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Author’s Note

  Series by Dan Michaelson

  Similar Series by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  The power of dragons filled me. A dozen different dragons, all bound through the cycle I’d formed, and all sharing power. I was nothing more than a part of something greater.

  I focused on the heat that came with that power, letting it flow through me as it filled me. Energy cycled through me so differently than most of the students at the Academy, though that power felt a part of me. If I could borrow that power long enough, I might be able to use it to help guide me through this room—which was empty, thankfully.

  That didn’t slow the hammering of my heart, or keep me from glancing toward the closed door every so often. I wasn’t supposed to be here.

  No one was.

  This had been Jerith’s office before he had betrayed the Academy by working with Donathar to use dragons in an attack and making it appear like the Djarn were responsible. It was a large room, though the massive oak desk took up most of the space. The books that once filled the shelves had all been removed. The few sculptures he’d kept here had been claimed. Eventually, another master instructor would move into the space, but for now, it was a reminder of what had taken place.

  I knew that Thomas had secured the office, but I could use the energy from the cycle of dragons to bypass those protections—doing so gave me the opportunity to slip in here and try to detect something else.

  I didn’t see anything.

  It wasn’t the first time that I had come here though.

  I had a system: search until I detected somebody out in the hall, wait until they were gone, then leave.

  There was always the possibility that one of the other master instructors within the Academy would pop in here, and if they did, I would have something to explain.

  I had thought about how I could justify my presence, but it would involve claiming Jerith had been working with me more than he had. It might raise questions for anybody who was in the know about what Jerith had done and how he had betrayed the Academy—and the kingdom.

  I doubted there were too many people who were aware that he’d been my mentor, and I didn’t want to risk spreading that information.

  More than that, I didn’t want to risk Thomas learning that I had broken into Jerith’s office, and didn’t want to risk his anger in learning that I had tried to slip something past him.

  I had already checked the desk—searched through drawers, papers, everything that I could find—but had come across nothing other than some notes on preparing different patterns. Those had been useful to me. I hadn’t known just how much power Jerith had been able to hold, having never really managed to tap into the dragon magic when I was working with him, and I was surprised.

  I shouldn’t be. I knew that I shouldn’t be. I knew that it didn’t really make a difference whether I had an opportunity to study with Jerith or I stayed and worked with Thomas, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe I could learn something more.

  Thomas had his own technique, but now that I was connected to the cycle of dragons, I felt as if his technique might not be enough.

  I heard the distant sound of voices.

  I pushed the book I had been looking at back into the shelf, cursing to myself.

  I’d kept the door slightly cracked and had traced a little bit of a flaming pattern along the doorway, giving me the opportunity to listen out in the hallway.

  There were others there.

  I hurried over.

  As I poked my head out the door, I saw somebody I was not eager to see.

  Slightly shorter than me, dressed regally, he stood with an arrogant posture.

  Brandel.

  I didn’t look forward to my next interaction with him.

  Ever since I had attacked him, using my connection to the dragons to overpower him, I had avoided him. I wasn’t sure what role he had in all of this, but he had been training with Elaine. Most people believed Elaine had betrayed the kingdom by working for the Vard, but I didn’t believe that. There was something more to it, much like there was something more to Jerith.

  All I had to do was find it. Find the evidence, then I could prove that the Vard weren’t responsible for the previous attacks.

  I don’t know why using the Vard as scapegoats bothered me so much, but it did. Perhaps it was because of my friend and his family, and the connection I knew they possessed to the Vard. I wanted to prove to myself that they weren’t responsible for the attacks.

  But it wasn’t really about proving it to myself.

  I already knew the truth.

  It was about proving it to Thomas. Proving it to the king.

  Since the evidence of their betrayal had been destroyed—first Elaine’s, then Donathar’s and Jerith’s—there was nobody to ask.

  They all assumed it was the Vard—the historical enemy of the kingdom.

  “I should be testing for dragon mage soon,” I heard through the doorway. Brandel was talking to somebody, though he didn’t speak in the same way he spoke to other students. This was almost respectful.

  That surprised me. Brandel didn’t even act that way with most of the instructors. He tended to sneer behind their backs, make offhand comments, and generally act like an ass around them.

  “Are you prepared for the testing? It can be difficult, from what I hear. I have been using my contacts to see what they might ask during the testing, but I haven’t been able to uncover anything.”

  It was a deep voice, one that I didn’t recognize, but it shared some of the arrogance typically associated with Brandel.

  I poked my head a little bit farther out, and saw a tall, slender figure in the hallway. He had on an expensive-looking cloak and had a stately figure, gray hair brushed back in the same style that Brandel wore.

  His father.

  I had known Brandel’s father was a noble of some sort, but had never seen him. I still didn’t recognize him.

  “I’m as prepared as I can be. I have my ways, you know.”

  His father chuckled. “I know you do. Do you know how expensive it was for me to obtain that vial? Don’t waste the opportunity.”

  Could he be involved?

  The vial was one I had seen before, and I understood it was Djarn magic that helped store power within it, but I hadn’t known where he had gotten it. I thought maybe it was from Elaine, but what if there were some other source?

  “I won’t waste it,” Brandel said. “I will keep asking about my testing, too. With all of the activity that’s been going on around the Academy these days, I am not sure whether I will be tested any time soon.”

  Could he be looking in my direction?

  I stepped back, pushing the door slightly closed, then realizing that my flaming seal around the door was still there. If he saw it, he might know that somebody was here.

  I doubted Brandel had enough strength to push past my seal. I had pulled through several cycles, using as much power as I
could to strengthen it, but there was the possibility that he had some way of tapping into his own power to break the seal.

  “I will push on your behalf. I do have some influence with the king, you know. Not as much as I once did, and I blame that damn advisor of his,” he muttered. “But still enough.”

  “Thank you, Father. I won’t disappoint you.”

  “I would hope not. We need you and your talents to represent the family.”

  I wasn’t entirely sure what talents Brandel had that would allow him to represent the family, but I wasn’t about to say anything out loud.

  This time, I could swear that Brandel looked in my direction. He had to have noticed that the door was cracked open.

  I stepped back, and their voices became muted.

  I heard footsteps, and they were moving along the hallway.

  I held my seal over the door, but I didn’t close it entirely. The movement would have drawn attention.

  There wasn’t any other way out of the office. As much as I would’ve liked to climb out a window or escape some other way, I was stuck here until they were gone.

  Thankfully, given that Brandel was with his father, he wasn’t going anywhere.

  I looked back to the bookshelves. I had searched through most of these shelves—looking for some hidden compartment, anything that might show me what else Jerith had been up to or a list of people he had been working with—but hadn’t found anything.

  It was a waste of time.

  Now if Donathar had left any belongings, I might’ve found something there, but his quarters had been raided by Thomas who brought his findings to the king. Given that Donathar was the one at the palace, and had been targeting the king directly, he had been of far more interest to the king than Jerith.

  That didn’t mean that he was of any less interest to me.

  He had been with the Djarn, and he had learned some of their techniques, but even those had remained elusive to me.

  As much as I wanted to ask Natalie about them, I simply did not know anything more about them.

  I waited until I could no longer hear the voices, then headed to the door, poking my head up.

  I should’ve chosen my time better. I tried to come in the middle of the day, when it wouldn’t look so strange for me to be in the hallway, but maybe I should have come first thing in the morning. I typically wake up before anybody else in the Academy, so no one would have even known I was here.

  After waiting another moment, I pulled the door open, slipped out, and closed it again, replacing Thomas’s pattern over the door.

  It was a complicated pattern, but the very first time that I had discovered it sealing off the door, I had studied it until I could master it. I had been working with Thomas often enough that I knew his techniques, at least those he had shown me. There had to be more that I didn’t quite know yet.

  I hurried down the hallway, reaching the main stairs leading down through the Academy, when I paused.

  I could still hear Brandel and his father speaking.

  I couldn’t understand what they were saying, their voices were too muted for me to make out, but they were still down there.

  “Ashan?”

  I spun and saw Ames approaching.

  He was a thin student about the same age as me, and he was dressed in gray robes. Many within the Academy preferred to wear robes, but I didn’t. It was probably from my time outside of the Academy, and the fact that I had come to the Academy itself as late as I did.

  “Ames. How are you?”

  “I was visiting with Master Eleanor, but I wasn’t expecting to see you. Were you working with one of the instructors?”

  I debated what to say. I didn’t like the idea of lying to Ames. He was one of the few students who had been kind to me, and one of the few who I felt any sort of affinity to, even though I wasn’t sure that we could ever truly be friends. It was hard to feel like I could really be friends with anyone within the Academy.

  “I was just looking for Thomas.”

  Ames chuckled. “I don’t think that he’s been at the Academy more than a few hours ever since taking over leadership of it.”

  I started to smile, but I could see Ames was more annoyed than amused.

  “I think he’s preoccupied,” I said.

  “He’s always been preoccupied.”

  “Has he?”

  Ames regarded me for a moment. “Sometimes I forget that you don’t have much experience in the city. It’s easy to forget that, especially with as much skill as you’ve demonstrated. But yes. He’s always been preoccupied. When he has been around, he has always demonstrated his strength. That’s what makes him such a useful chief dragon mage. I remember he was there when I went to my testing, and he demonstrated patterns that I couldn’t even consider replicating, even now.”

  I smiled to myself. I had heard other instructors say the same thing, but had never really found them to be as complicated as most others did. Connecting to the dragons the way I had made patterns easier. There was something tied to my cycle and the connection I had to the dragons—something that was different from what most of the other students had within the Academy.

  It was something that I appreciated.

  “He always pursued the threat of the Vard. Almost single-mindedly, if you ask me.”

  “I didn’t realize that.”

  “He claims the Vard destroyed his home,” he said.

  “Did they?”

  “Who’s to say? The king doesn’t talk about Vard attacks, and we won’t learn about them until we are dragon mages. By that time, it won’t matter. We’ll be called into action and asked to serve . . .” He looked up. “I suppose that you’ll be nearing your testing.”

  “I don’t really know what’s involved in my testing.”

  “Well, they ask you to demonstrate certain control over the power. Each instructor offers an opportunity for you to show what you’ve learned, and if you pass each instructor, you’re given autonomy as a dragon mage.”

  “And what does that mean?”

  Ames laughed. “You got to be kidding me, right?”

  “Let’s just say I’m not,” I said.

  “Well, then you’re asked to serve the king however he sees fit. You’ll be given your assignment, and you’ll do what he needs. If the Vard are attacking, then you would probably move to the south, patrolling there, or perhaps there’s action along the eastern border, or maybe you’ll even be sent to the north.” Ames regarded me for a long moment. “But then again, considering that it’s you, you might be asked to go and venture across the Wilds.”

  “I didn’t realize he sent dragons out to the Wilds.”

  Though I knew Manuel and the Hunters went into the Wilds, I didn’t know the dragons spent much time traveling there.

  But if I were given that opportunity, it would give me a chance to go past Berestal, and maybe to visit my home.

  I hadn’t been away so long that I was truly homesick, but it would be nice to see my sister and my family, and it would be nice to see Joran and his family.

  “More often than you realize. I think he sends dragons everywhere, so long as it’s with a dragon mage. I doubt he’d send any riders. Those are mostly used to keep the peace, show strength—that sort of thing.” Ames leaned closer to me, and he chuckled. “It’s why I’m glad I was always more talented than a rider.”

  The voices down the bottom of the stairs had trailed off.

  If I wanted to know anything more about Brandel’s father, now was the chance.

  Which meant that I would have to go after him and chase him to figure out where he was going.

  If I knew where Brandel’s father lived, then I could keep tabs on him more easily.

  “I need to get moving,” I said, flashing a smile at Ames. “Can we talk again later?”

  “I would love to study with you. Given how much time you’ve been working with Thomas, I imagine you have techniques that I haven’t even considered. Those would be marvelous to
learn.”

  I nodded absently and waved, hurrying down the stairs.

  Once I reached the main part of the Academy, dragon lanterns glowing brightly on either side of the room, I saw Brandel heading down one of the halls, but he was alone.

  It wasn’t Brandel I cared about at this point.

  I stepped outside and saw his father walking along the road away from the Academy.

  I glanced behind me, not wanting Brandel to know that I was following his father, and tried to find a way to trail after him while staying hidden.

  When he passed the dragon pen, he gave me an opportunity.

  I darted forward, moving toward the dragon pen, then jogged toward the main road leading into the city itself.

  Then I waited.

  I didn’t have to wait too long.

  He was making his way carefully but he wasn’t looking around, as if he were completely unconcerned about anybody coming to him.

  Maybe he wasn’t concerned.

  I didn’t really know. It was possible that he wasn’t involved in anything.

  As I hurried after him, I stared and considered that maybe I was reading far more into this than I needed to, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel as if perhaps there were something going on.

  I raced ahead.

  I wanted to be able to keep tabs on him, and I wanted to see what he was doing, where he was going, and maybe even see who he was meeting.

  But as I hurried along the road, I didn’t see anything.

  He had gone.

  I paused, frowning.

  How had he disappeared?

  I looked to the trees off to the side of the road.

  Could he have gone there?

  I approached the forest, moving carefully and slowly, focusing on the cycle of the dragons.

  I could feel the energy coursing through me, a heat that glowed, and could practically count the different dragons that were a part of my cycle, even if I couldn’t see them. They were in that cycle, a part of me now, and healed, especially when compared to where they had been before.