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

  “We didn’t know.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I . . . I don’t think it was the Vard.”

  She took a deep breath, frowning at me. “Does that mean you aren’t here to bring us in?”

  I frowned before shaking my head. “Is that what you thought?”

  “I came to the open door to see you standing there, dressed like that, and I’ll admit it was the first thought that came to mind.”

  “I don’t have any interest in bringing you in.” I didn’t, though if others knew about her and her mother and their connection to the Vard, I wondered what they might do.

  Sadly, the more I learned about the Vard, the more I questioned what I might do.

  If they were as dangerous as what I’d seen, I didn’t know if we could leave them. It felt to me that we needed to do something to intervene, though I had no idea what that might be; however, given what I’d seen the night before, I had gained an increased understanding as to the nature of the Vard’s threat.

  “Then what—”

  “Here you go,” Sophie said, racing toward us. She shoved something toward me, and I took it without thinking much of it—a loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese. She grinned at me. “I’m sure I can get you some sausage, though that’ll take a little while for me to heat up. I don’t want to let that dragon get too angry.”

  I smiled at her. I was hungry, and the bread smelled delicious. I knew what kind of cheese they made and enjoyed the flavor. As I chewed, my stomach continued to rumble, though not nearly as much as it had before.

  “I should go and visit with your brother,” I said.

  “You could wait here,” Sophie said.

  “I think he needs to go,” Tara said.

  “Are you trying to send him away?” asked Sophie.

  “I’m not trying to do anything, Sophie, but he came to visit with Joran. We should let him be.”

  “He came to see all of us, Tara. Maybe even you.”

  Tara looked over at me, and I smiled at her. It had been a while since I’d seen her, and she had matured in that time. When I was growing up, I had always teased Joran about the way he looked at my sister, and even before I left, I had teased him a little bit. There was an age difference, though it wasn’t quite as pronounced the older we got. My sister deserved somebody who understood that she had more to offer than just her ability to cook and clean and maintain a house. It was why I had encouraged her to go to Berestal, where she could apprentice with the weavers. It would give her an opportunity to do and be more than what she could have done had she remained.

  As I looked at Tara now, I saw her in a different light. She was a hand or so shorter than me with a curvy figure and a lovely face. She watched me, a question burning in her eyes I couldn’t quite answer.

  But she was also a reminder of whom I had been and where I had been. Though I still missed some aspect of my home, I felt as if I still needed to keep doing what I was doing within the capital. I needed to keep training to better understand the dragon magic that flowed within me. I needed to understand that power, if only to learn how to help the kingdom even more.

  It was only through that connection that I’d be able to find a way to help Berestal, and a way to help my family. That was what I wanted.

  “Of course I came to see all of you,” I said. “Though I’d be even more thrilled seeing you, Sophie, if you ran and got me that sausage you promised.”

  She laughed. “Joran didn’t leave that many, so you’re going to have to take what you can. I can heat them quickly.”

  I smiled at her, and she hurried off, leaving Tara standing with me again.

  “It’s been different with you gone,” she said softly.

  “How so?”

  “Joran has been different. He was better after he came back from his trip with Father, but only for a little while.” She looked past me, staring out toward the field. “He lost some of his playfulness.” She shrugged. “He says he’s growing up, but I don’t know. I think it has more to do with you leaving.”

  “That’s not fair,” I said.

  “I’m not saying it’s your fault. I’m saying I think he realized he had to change. He won’t admit it, but when you left, I think Joran decided he needed to grow up a little bit.”

  “I can’t say that’s a terrible thing for him.”

  Tara smiled slightly. “He’s still living here though. I have tried to encourage him to go to the city. He does want to chase your sister, after all, but I think he’s afraid.”

  “Afraid of my sister?”

  “Afraid of you.”

  I frowned. “Why would he be afraid of me?”

  “The two of you have been friends your entire lives. I think he worries about what might happen if he were to chase after her.”

  “I doubt that troubles him all that much,” I said.

  “More than you know.” She looked past me again and nodded. “Now that he’s coming back, you can talk with him.”

  I turned and saw Joran and his father, Bernt, heading toward us. They were moving quickly, and it seemed Joran was agitated—even more so when he saw me.

  “I don’t think he recognizes you,” Tara said. She chuckled. “Of course, were it not for Sophie, I might not have recognized you either.”

  “I haven’t changed that much.”

  “More than you realize.”

  She turned to her brother as he approached. I looked behind and watched him until he regarded me for a long moment.

  “Ashan?” Joran glanced to his sister before turning his attention back to me. “You came back!”

  “I did. Not to stay, but to visit.”

  “I don’t suppose you have anything to do with that dragon we saw,” Joran said.

  “See?” Sophie’s voice called out from the kitchen. “He did come on a dragon.”

  “Great,” Joran said sarcastically. “Now you’re going to have to take her with you.”

  “Well, she did ask for a ride.”

  Joran chuckled, continuing to look at me. “Are we just going to stand outside, or do you want to come inside and visit?”

  “Visit. Definitely visit,” I said.

  I figured I might as well spend the better part of the day. Seeing as I had left the city in the dark with the dragon, it would probably be better for me to return to the city in the dark. Which gave me most of the day to spend here. At least that way when I did return to the capital, I could check and see if Thomas had returned, and if there were any way for me to figure out what had happened to him. That way I could ask him about the Servants.

  “Good. We have a lot to catch up on.”

  I followed Joran into the house, and I couldn’t help but feel Tara’s gaze lingering on me, almost as if she were upset—or at least disappointed. Given her connection to the Vard, I figured she needed to provide me with some answers. If she couldn’t . . .

  Once inside the home, Sophie appeared with a plate filled with sausages. Joran frowned at her. “What are those for?”

  “Ashan! And the dragon in his belly.”

  “Dragon in his belly?”

  “I heard him when he came. He sounded like he was roaring at me. I might as well get him something to eat.”

  “What about me?” Joran asked.

  “You can get your own. You know where to find the sausages.”

  Joran turned to me and chuckled. “See? You haven’t even been gone that long, and as soon as you come back, my sister is more than happy to serve you.”

  “I think she likes me better.”

  “There’s no doubt about that.”

  “We’re going to stay in here?” Sophie asked.

  “Ashan wanted to visit,” Joran said.

  “But I want to see the dragon.”

  Joran ruffled her hair. “Give it time. I’m sure Ashan will show you the dragon. I did tell you that there are lots more dragons than what we see out here. Maybe when you’re older, you’ll want to go to the city like Ashan.”

&n
bsp; She giggled and hurried over to take a seat by the fire. Joran motioned for me to sit. I looked around before doing so. There was something quite comforting about this place, a reminder of who I had been. As I took a seat in a chair at the table situated along the side of the wall, I found Tara watching me, and I realized she knew more than she was letting on. She was worried about my presence here, but why?

  Maybe this would be more than just a simple visit.

  10

  I took a bite of the sausage, savoring the meat. It was so different from what I got in the capital. This was the taste of home, the taste that reminded me of growing up. I chewed slowly and looked over to see Joran watching me eat, amusement glittering in his eyes.

  “You look as if you haven’t eaten anything in days,” he said. “I thought they fed you, gave you money, and treated you almost as well as the king.”

  I finished chewing. “It’s not that I haven’t eaten anything in days, it’s more that this tastes incredible.”

  “The sausage?” Joran asked, shrugging. “Nothing all that impressive. The stuff we had when I visited the capital was much higher quality.”

  “It was not,” I said, glancing toward the kitchen. “Besides, it’s not so much the quality of the meat as it is the familiarity of it and its overall taste.”

  “It tastes the same as it always did.”

  “Exactly,” I said. I took another bite, chewing more quickly this time. My stomach had finally settled, the rumbling eased, leaving me feeling much more at peace. I looked around the inside of Joran’s home and breathed out slowly before turning my attention back to him. “You left the capital too soon.”

  Joran watched me, a hint of a smile coming to his lips. “Did some festival come through that I didn’t get a chance to be a part of?”

  I shook my head and proceeded to fill him in on the details of the attack, how it had been made to look like the Djarn were responsible. When I was done, he glanced toward the door leading to the kitchen. “It wasn’t the Vard?” He kept his voice low, soft, but there was an uneasy quality to it.

  “Not the Vard. At least, not that time.”

  He breathed out. “Good. I don’t want them to get mixed up in anything they shouldn’t.”

  “I don’t think you should . . .” He started to watch me, and I realized it didn’t matter. Nothing I said would make a difference, short of showing him the Servant captured in the Vard lands. Instead, I asked a different question.

  “How’s my sister?”

  “You came here to ask about her?”

  “I could go into Berestal, but . . .”

  I looked around again, wondering how much I should share with Joran and his family about the restrictions I had on traveling. It wasn’t that I didn’t have permission to leave the Academy, or even the capital, it was more that I raised some concerns if doing so with the dragon.

  “She’s fine,” he said. “We haven’t seen much of her for a while.”

  “You haven’t? I thought you were going to keep tabs on her.”

  “I intended to keep checking on her, but it’s difficult when we go to the city,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “She’s moved quickly,” he said. He shook his head. “I think you’d be proud of her. She has progressed rapidly, and from what I can tell, she’s working with one of the most prominent weavers in the city.”

  I breathed out slowly, thinking about everything my sister had been through, everything she had wanted during that time—an opportunity to learn, to do something more, to be something more. All of it had been a challenge though.

  “And my mother?” I asked softly. “My brother?”

  “You can go visit them yourself,” Joran said.

  “I don’t know if I can,” I admitted. “It’s easier to have some separation.”

  “It might be,” he said. “But it also might be important for them to have a chance to see you again. I know how much better I felt when I saw you during our visit. We might be practically brothers, but they are your family.”

  I wasn’t entirely sure if that were true. My sister knew what happened, and knew where I had gone, but my mother would not have unless Alison shared with her. Even if she were to learn, I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to return to her. What happened before I left had troubled me. I didn’t know if I could return, or if I could be that same person. I didn’t know if I even wanted to.

  My sister might understand what I had gone through and what had changed for me, but if I came across my mother and brother, I didn’t know if they would. I didn’t know if they would try to coax me into staying, and worse, if I’d have the fortitude to refuse them.

  “What are you afraid of?” Joran asked.

  “I’m not afraid of anything,” I said.

  He chuckled. “There’s something bothering you. I can see it in your face. You forget I’ve known you a long time.”

  “I suppose I’m a bit bothered,” I said. The rest of Joran’s family had left us alone, so it was just the two of us sitting and talking, almost as if we were thrust back into our younger days, living freely within the plains. Both of us had taken on increasing responsibility within our families, though mine had been far more abrupt than Joran’s. “When I left here before, my mother had been emotionally unstable,” I said. “I don’t really know how else to describe it. She wanted a break from my brother.”

  “She got it,” he said.

  I looked up, taking a bite of the bread and chewing. “What do you mean ‘she got it’?”

  “Keira made a point of getting him locked in with a healer. He’s been staying with them. Your mother doesn’t have to do any of it.”

  “What is she doing then?”

  He shrugged. “Can’t say that I know. If you went into the city, I’m sure your sister would be more than happy to fill you in.”

  I smiled tightly. “I’m sure she would.”

  “But you don’t plan on going into the city.”

  “I don’t think I should. Not yet.”

  “Even though you came by dragon?”

  “Well, about that . . .”

  “Wait. Don’t tell me you didn’t come by dragon.” He glanced toward the kitchen and shook his head. “I saw them when I was there, so I know you have access to them. Plus, Sophie would be pretty disappointed to hear that you weren’t really here on dragon back.”

  “I came by dragon,” I said. “So she has no reason to be disappointed.”

  “That’s good,” Joran said. “If not, I hate to think what she might say to you.”

  I chuckled. “You’re going to have to be careful with her.”

  “You have no idea. My father has given up trying to corral her. She basically keeps him under control. I suspect you can understand that.”

  “What about Tara?”

  Joran looked toward the closed kitchen. “That’s a different matter, isn’t it? She has been a bit more somber since you left.”

  “Don’t make this about me,” I said.

  He shook his head. “I don’t think it has anything to do with you—at least, I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with you—but she’s been struggling.” He looked up. “She’s not going to be very happy if I say anything to you.”

  “You can tell her one of the king’s dragon mages demanded you share.”

  Joran watched me for a long moment. “Dragon mages?”

  I smiled at him. When he had last seen me, I had not been able to reach for the dragon magic. I probably should have started with that. “I’m still learning, but . . .”

  I looked around the inside of the home. Here wasn’t the place to demonstrate, but there was something I could show him.

  I placed my hands together, focused for a moment, called on the power as it flowed through me, and sent a band of flame from one hand to the other as I pulled out of the cycle. I held on to it for a moment before pushing it back down, suppressing it again.

  Joran’s breath caught, and he stared at me.


  “I can’t believe it,” he said. “Here you were worried that you’d only be a dragon rider.” He laughed, slapping his thigh. “I can’t believe Ashan Feranth is a dragon mage.”

  “I’m still learning,” I said again.

  The door to the kitchen was open, and I realized Tara had been there, watching. She stepped out slowly, looking from me to Joran, and hesitantly took a seat.

  “I suppose you saw that,” Joran said.

  Tara nodded, glancing to Joran. “I thought you said he was a dragon rider.”

  “I’m that, too,” I said.

  She just shook her head. “That’s more than a dragon rider,” she said. “That . . .”

  “That’s a dragon mage,” Joran said, grinning. “All this time, and he’s been hiding it from us. Thankfully, he got dragged to the capital by some strange servant of the king; otherwise, he never would have learned.”

  The comment about the servant sent my mind back to thinking about the Vard.

  “I haven’t been hiding anything,” I said. “To be honest, I didn’t know I could even do it until I got to the Academy. They were trying to teach me how to reach for that power, to see if I had potential, or whether I was only destined to connect well enough to the dragons to ride them, and . . .”

  “And you proved you can,” he said, laughing again.

  Tara just watched me, and I tried to see what it was that troubled her, but I couldn’t figure it out from the expression on her face. Something bothered her, even if she didn’t want to say it.

  “Why aren’t you talking?” Joran asked.

  “I was letting the two of you talk,” she said.

  “When have you ever let me talk?” he asked, grinning at her. “Besides, the last time Ashan was here, you couldn’t stop yourself from butting in and saying your piece.”

  “Joran . . .” I said to him.