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

  “Why?”

  “If these others have infiltrated our people, then more than the kingdom is at stake.”

  4

  The inside of the Academy was quiet early in the morning, and very few of the dragon-shaped lanterns were lit. Sometimes they seemed to glow with bright light and other times they were dim, as if the time of day mattered most to whoever illuminated the lanterns, not the lack of natural light that came into the building. The stone walls seemed to squeeze around me, a terrible sort of claustrophobia I’d started to feel these days, and I wanted nothing more than to be back outside, though I needed to at least show my face within the Academy. It had been a while since I had spent much time here, and I needed to be present.

  I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and looked around the Academy halls. I was up early, as I often was. Too many mornings were spent the same way, getting up before anyone else, heading through the halls, and then back outside to where I could stand before the dragon pens, focusing on the energy of the dragons, and thinking about the power there while I practiced holding on to it and using it in different ways. Other times I wandered through the city, enjoying the quiet of the morning. It was a far cry from what I had done when I was younger, the way I had needed to get up and start the day by getting my chores in order before anybody else was up.

  Now when I got up early, it was just me and my thoughts. That could be dangerous, especially these days.

  I paused at the entrance to the Academy before I left the building, taking a deep breath of the crisp outside air after opening the door.

  “You get up early every morning.”

  I looked behind me to see Walter Overth watching me. He was a heavyset, balding man who wore a chain with the symbol of the dragon mages around his neck. I didn’t know him all that well, but had taken a few classes with him and knew he was gifted.

  He had tried teaching me when I first came to the Academy, learning that I had a connection to the dragons, but unfortunately, his technique for connecting to the dragons didn’t work for me the way it worked for him. That wasn’t uncommon. Every dragon mage had their own connection to the dragons, which meant that every dragon mage had a unique technique for reaching for power. Everybody had their own strategy—including Thomas, though he had reached me in a way others had not.

  “I’ve always gotten up early,” I said. “It’s habit more than anything else.”

  Cool, crisp morning air continued to blow in through the open door, and I breathed it in again. It carried with it some of the smells of the forest, as well as a certain vibrancy and energy that filled the air, lingering with me.

  “There are advantages to being up before others,” Walter said. He joined me, and I smelled the plain pine odor of his cologne, almost overwhelmingly so. It masked something else, a somewhat unpleasant sweetness. “Most think there are advantages to staying up late, but I find that getting up early allows me to get my day started sooner, so much more can be accomplished.”

  “Unfortunately, I’ve been staying up late, too.”

  Walter frowned, nodding. “I wanted to talk with you.”

  I tensed. Thomas had warned me not to share too many details with any of the master instructors at the Academy about what happened, not until he had a chance to work through them. Now that he had assumed nominal control of the Academy, he wanted to ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of those here. I agreed with that assessment, knowing that if we didn’t, we might run into the danger of others possibly working on behalf of whoever had infiltrated the Academy.

  “About what?”

  “About your connection to them,” he said, nodding to the dragons. “It has shifted. I don’t know if you have shared that with others, but I can see it.”

  I looked out through the door, noting the dragon pen. In the early morning, most of the dragons were resting, at least those who were there. They rotated. Some dragons preferred to hunt at night, leaving the dragon pen and flying out over the forest, then returning after their hunt. Others preferred to go during the daytime. I had not had much experience traveling with the dragons, though I had flown atop one once. That one time had been enough for me to want nothing more than to have an opportunity to do it again.

  “I have begun to better understand my connection to the dragons,” I said.

  “I would encourage you to pick one of the master instructors to work with.” He nodded. “I understand you’ve been working with Thomas Elaron, and while he does have considerable knowledge, there are others who could work with you.”

  “I’m sure there are,” I said carefully.

  I wondered where this was going, but I had my suspicions. If he was saying it because he wanted to be the one to teach me, I had to wonder if it was tied to a desire to teach or a desire to ingratiate himself to the king. At this point, I didn’t know, and not knowing made me uncomfortable.

  Walter usually struck me as harmless. Studious, if nothing else. He preferred to stay within the Academy, his head buried in books, working through ancient techniques to reach dragons. Even though he had never managed to teach me anything about connecting to the dragons, I didn’t deny the fact that he had knowledge, and he probably had a way of understanding the connection to the dragon that I had yet to fully grasp.

  Now that I had a connection to them, I didn’t know if it were necessary for me to work with the master instructors on that. For so long, I had spent time simply trying to work with the basics, connecting to the dragon, feeling the heat with myself, and relaxing to embrace that energy. Once I had begun to understand the cycle of power through the dragons and myself, it had changed everything for me. Now that I had connected not only to the dragon, but multiple dragons, I had a better understanding of the power.

  “Tell me, Ashan, what have you been working on with Thomas?”

  “He’s forced me to try to master pulling on multiple threads at a single time,” I said. There was no harm in sharing that much with Walter, though I didn’t know I even needed to.

  “Multiple threads? Hmm. I’m impressed you have progressed to that point.”

  “It’s not easy,” I said.

  “Pulling upon that kind of power is never easy. It is difficult, but when you succeed, there’s value in it. You’re able to do far more than you would’ve been able to do otherwise. I suppose that’s why he has asked you to do that.”

  It was more than just growing in skill. I suspected Thomas wanted me to master it simply so I could gain a better understanding of the kind of power I would have to control over time—this power would permit me to react if I were under the threat of an attack, like the one we’d faced recently. He wanted me to be ready, and I appreciated Thomas’s recognition of the danger I faced, despite his insistence that we had to fear the Vard more than anything else.

  “There are other things you might benefit from learning though,” he said.

  “Such as?”

  “Has he taught you how to weave the strands you’re pulling off?”

  “I think he’s trying to get me to just pull the strands together to begin with,” I said.

  Walter motioned for me to follow.

  I looked outside, thinking I was going to spend my morning walking out in the cool air, isolated as I often preferred to be, but Walter didn’t seem like he would allow that.

  Sighing, I closed the door and followed him through the Academy. When he reached a set of stairs heading down, I hesitated. I had gone down through the Academy before, and realized that there was much more here than most others knew about. I had found a dragon captured here and had freed him. Did Walter know that?

  We stopped on the next landing, and he guided me along a narrow hallway until we reached a pair of wide-open doors. I’d been on this level before, though it had been a while. The last time I’d come down here was very early on in my time at the Academy. At that point, I had still struggled to reach for my connection to the dragons. He stepped inside a massive room with a domed roof. Walls of stone
surrounded us, but it was otherwise empty.

  “Close the door,” he said.

  I pushed the doors closed, and there came a soft whoosh of air as they sealed shut. Something glittered along the doors for a moment. Dragon mage magic, though different from the kind I had learned so far.

  Perhaps that was Walter’s point. I knew how to control the strands of power, but I couldn’t do anything all that useful with them yet. He wanted me to recognize that there were many things I needed to learn and control in order for me to be an effective dragon mage.

  He made his way to the center of the room. Within this chamber, he seemed so small. He stood with his hands down at his sides, and they started to glow, heat starting to work up his arms, then above him. Strands began to form from above his shoulders, splitting off from each of these wide bands.

  I could feel the connection he had formed to the dragon and the way he was pulling upon that power, though he controlled far more energy than I could.

  Perhaps I’d been mistaken about Walter. I could learn quite a bit from him.

  Then again, I’d thought I could learn from Jerith and he’d betrayed the kingdom.

  Would Walter do the same?

  I had to push those thoughts aside as I focused.

  He controlled the narrow bands over him, and they began to twist, weaving together, forming a mesh above him. “This is a bit of an advanced technique, but if he has you pulling on multiple strands, I think it’s time for you to learn it.”

  “You don’t think Thomas could teach me this?”

  Walter glanced briefly to me before turning his attention back to the weave of flame above him. “I’m quite certain he could. The matter is whether or not he would. Thomas is an incredibly gifted dragon mage. There is no doubt about that. He has succeeded because of that. My concern is that Thomas sees more value in the offense, and less value in the defense.”

  “This is a defensive use of power?”

  I found myself drawn toward Walter and started calling power through me, letting it flow up my arms and trying to push it up my shoulders. It was a strange use of energy, and one I had never attempted before. As I called power up along my body, pushing up my shoulders and beyond, I felt a resistance. It was as if it didn’t want to cooperate with me. I pushed even more, and as I did, I recognized something. Pushing power from my shoulders naturally caused those strands of power to divide. It reached a resistance within my body, and from there I could force it upward and form those strands.

  “Very good,” Walter said. “I wasn’t quite sure if Thomas had demonstrated this to you. It’s not his preferred technique.”

  “It’s not what he’s taught me,” I admitted.

  He glanced over. “Then what has he taught you?”

  I pulled the power back into me. It was a matter of forcing it down into some deep part of myself, and from there it cycled back to the dragons, circling around so that it maintained a connection to them. I didn’t give up the power, merely shifted it.

  There were other ways of using that power, and I’d learned I could deplete the dragons, to a certain extent. Over time, they would regain that magic again, but it took time for them to restore it. Connected as I now was to multiple dragons, nearly a dozen, the depletion wasn’t nearly as dramatic. I could call on power and it seemed almost limitless. The only barrier was me. There were limits to how much power I could hold, and how long I could hold it.

  “He taught me how to create separate draws of power this way,” I said, pulling the power through my fingers and sending it streaking out from each individual finger into narrow bands that I wove together into tighter and tighter ropes. As I did, I could feel the energy building. It was as Walter had claimed—more of an offensive use of power. Strangely, I felt drawn to that use of power, which might be the reason Thomas had helped me. Maybe he recognized I was drawn to more offensive uses of magic rather than defensive ones. Unless he hadn’t known.

  Walter watched me, something unreadable in his expression. “That is impressive,” he finally said. “There are very few dragon mages who can weave power from their hands in that manner,” he said.

  “I thought it was something that most could do,” I said.

  He shook his head. “There are other natural split points for power. As you’ve seen, the shoulders will divide the power for you. What you’re doing is going through your hands.” He forced power out from his hands, and it weaved from one to the other, a thick band of power. He split it, and it went from three fingers on one side to three fingers on the other side, and the remaining two fingers on either hand connected another band of power. “The hands aren’t a natural divider of power. It requires the dragon mage himself—or herself, I should say, as there are many powerful female dragon mages—to divide that power as they hold it. It is an incredibly difficult technique.”

  “How many ways can you split it?”

  I had a suspicion I already knew the answer.

  Walter shrugged. “Unfortunately, I have not tested that. I can see why Thomas would have been drawn to you though. Using multiple strands, such as you are now, allows you to be much more offensive with your connection to the dragons.”

  I had known that splitting the power allowed me to use it in a way I couldn’t otherwise. I could force even more power from my fingers, twisting the strands together, and somehow that augmented it.

  “This isn’t what you wanted to show me though,” I said.

  Walter smiled. “It is not.” The flames disappeared from his hands and shot back out through his shoulders, stretching high above his head, where they split, and then immediately coalesced overhead into a tight weave. The precision with which he managed to do it was incredible. I had seen other dragon mages use their power, and had recognized that there were varying levels of ability, but seeing this left me marveling at him. “What I wanted to show you was a different way to use the power of the dragons. As you can see, the shoulders are one of your natural split points. As you stream the flames up from you, you can curve them overhead, and when you do, you can bring them together in a way that allows you to create something much more impressive.”

  “What does it do?” I asked.

  “This?” He swirled around, spreading the weave outward, creating a cage around him. “Use one of Thomas’s techniques.”

  “Walter?”

  He smiled. “Do not fear, Ashan.”

  I shifted the power I was holding, no longer trying to force it up to my shoulders to mimic what he was doing, and created a band of power from one hand to the next. I didn’t weave it together, not wanting to augment the power if I were to use it against him, having no idea how protected he would be with something like this. I lashed out at him.

  When it struck the cage around him, it deflected. I frowned, but Walter simply stood in the center of the woven cage of flames, watching me.

  I tried something different. I looped another band of power, spreading it from one finger to the next, and twisted it. It added an element of energy to what I was doing, and when I flicked it at the cage around Walter, it again bounced off.

  The effect didn’t harm him. Something like that would be useful.

  I tried another technique.

  I split the strands into four different bands of power, and quickly wove them together. I had practice with that, and could do so quickly. As I did, I flicked the entirety of it toward Walter, sending power streaking at him, but when it struck, it merely bounced off. That was about as much power as I could draw from one dragon.

  How many dragons would it be strong enough to defend against?

  I had to know.

  I tried another technique, and called upon the energy of more than one of the dragons. I drew as much as I could out of the dragons and sent it streaking toward Walter. When it struck, there was a sizzling. Walter’s eyes widened slightly, and he staggered back a step.

  I tamped down that power again. “I’m sorry about that,” I said.

  He took a deep b
reath, solidifying the cage around him again. “I suppose that is my fault. I hadn’t expected you to have access to quite so much energy yet.”

  “Yet?”

  “Well, you’re working with Thomas, so I can’t help but think you would have considerable power. It’s just that you have only been at the Academy for a short while. I anticipated it would take quite a bit longer for you to gain access to that sort of power.”

  “What do I need to do to create the weave you formed?”

  “It is a tricky bit, but seeing what you have already demonstrated . . .” He smiled at me. “I have little doubt you will be able to do something similar.”

  I wasn’t sure if that were the case or not. It seemed the weave he used was far more advanced than my simple connection of power could create. I might be able to twist energy together and form a powerful band of magic, but I couldn’t do quite what I saw from him.

  I had to try though.

  I forced power up to my shoulders and could feel it split. Once it did, I thought of how he had arced it over his head, forcing it together, and I attempted to weave it, though even when I did, I could feel something wasn’t quite right.

  “The weave is the key,” Walter said. “That is what very few understand. They believe that it’s simply a matter of forcing power.”

  “I’ve seen that with other things,” I said. “It’s how you weave it together that seems to matter.”

  He watched me for a moment. “Perhaps you have. In this case, you must bring each strand under the other, and then over the top of it. It is one pattern you will come to understand over time. The more you practice, the more it becomes second nature.”

  “Is that how you can form it so quickly?”

  Walter quickly formed the weave, then wrapped it around himself again. “I have been practicing a long time, Ashan. This technique has served me well over the years.”

  As I attempted it, I could feel how difficult it was, yet I recognized the benefit of what he was doing. I attempted to form the weave, but there was an ongoing resistance. Partly that came from me, though there was something else about it that felt off. It didn’t hold. I continued to focus on it, holding on to it, and tried to force it up and over with no success. I backed off, trying again. As I did, I felt the same resistance.