The Betrayed Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 2) Read online

  I sat there, focusing on the dragon energy. That was what he wanted me to do. I needed to gain control over it. It was going to be difficult for me, but I had to think I could. He’d proven I could.

  I lost track of how long I was there, and how long I pulled on that power. The only thing I was aware of was the flow of power through me. Every so often, I caught voices near me, but those voices faded, disappearing again. I lost myself in the connection, in the way the power flowed through me, and continued to push it into that buried part of me, cycling the energy out. At some point I made the connection the power I cycled out through me also cycled through the dragon. It was as if the connection I formed to the dragon was a part of something more. Something greater.

  “You’ve been here a long time.”

  I opened my eyes, realizing only then that they had been closed, and looked up to see Natalie standing over me. Her black hair was pulled back and bound with a slip of silk. She had on a simple, light yellow dress, one that practically reflected the sunlight around her.

  “I’m trying to test for a connection to the dragons,” I admitted.

  She frowned, settling down on the ground next to me. “Really? What’s it like?”

  “I don’t even know how to describe it,” I said. “It’s profound. Powerful. I can feel the dragon energy as it flows through me, and my instructor asked me to try to learn to gain some control over it today.”

  She glanced behind us toward the Academy. “Which instructor are you working with?”

  I turned back to the dragon pens. It had gotten quite a bit lighter in the time that I had been here. From the position of the sun, I suspected it was midmorning, which meant I’d been sitting here for hours. All that time, and I had no idea if I were any closer to gaining an understanding of the connection to the magic. I could feel it flowing through me, but feeling it flowing and having some access to it were different things. At least now I recognize how that power cycled out of the dragon and through me. I could control it, pushing it down into me, but I had no idea what purpose there would be in doing so.

  “All of them are trying to teach me, but today it was Thomas,” I said, still staring at the green dragon at the far end of the pen. He was resting, curled up, but through the connection that I shared with him, I could feel that power throughout him, and recognize that he was there, along with recognizing his awareness of me.

  “Thomas? As in Thomas Elaron?”

  I glanced over, nodding. “You know of him.”

  She laughed. “I think everybody in the city knows of him. They may not know him the way those within the Academy know him, but everybody has seen Thomas standing alongside the king.”

  “I didn’t recognize him at first.”

  She laughed again. “That’s wonderful,” she said, clapping her hands together. “You didn’t know Thomas Elaron.”

  “As I said, I—”

  “Aren’t from the city. I know. It makes you so delightfully ignorant. Perhaps blissfully?” She frowned, shaking her head. “I don’t really know. Maybe both.”

  “I know who he is now,” I said.

  “I suppose that’s good. If you didn’t know him, he’d probably be disappointed.”

  A shadow drifted across the ground, and I looked up. There was no dragon. Just a cloud. “That’s not the sense I have of Thomas.”

  “No? What sense do you have from the king’s chief dragon mage?”

  “Only that he has a different connection to the dragons than what I’ve been learning at the Academy.”

  “I should say so. He’s worked within the Academy for longer than most. At least, he’s worked within the city for longer than most. As far as I know, he doesn’t instruct very often at the Academy.”

  “No. I haven’t seen him before he suddenly appeared.”

  “There are rumors he’s been out of the city. Hunting the Vard, as it were.”

  “Really?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know if that’s true or not. He and the king keep private counsel.”

  I found it strange that she would know anything about the king and his counsel, but movement at the far side of the dragon pen caught my attention. The green dragon started getting up.

  I leaned forward, looking at the dragon, trying to see if something had startled him, but I couldn’t detect anything. There was the energy coming off of him, but nothing more than that. The energy seemed to flow between us, shifting, though it wasn’t nearly as potent as it had been before. As I detected that power, I attempted to reach for it in a different way. There came a surge of power between the two of us, a connection from the dragon that bonded me to him, but it dissipated once more.

  Natalie watched me. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” I said.

  The dragon moved along the pen, coming toward me. As he did, I could feel the energy within him surging a little bit more. It was as if he wanted me to be aware of the power coming off of him, radiating away from him and moving toward me.

  I held on to that, focusing it within myself, letting it roll through me.

  Heat began to build, and I had to tamp it down. If I didn’t, I would lose control over it. I glanced over at Natalie, and realized that if I lost control of it now, there was a real danger I could harm her.

  Releasing power that led to my own injury was one thing. Hitting Brandel with it while challenged didn’t bother me as much, either. Injuring somebody like Natalie who had only come to take a seat next to me was something altogether different.

  I pushed the power of the dragon down, squeezing my awareness of him—and my connection to him—deeper and deeper into myself. As I did, I could feel power flowing within me, energy that started to constrict. I held on to it, trying to find a way to maintain that control. Unfortunately, it continued to build. The energy intensified as the dragon came closer. I stared at the dragon, trying to warn him away.

  I got to my feet and started to move along the dragon pen, trying to get away from Natalie. When I reached the corner, heading toward the distant forest, I found her trailing after me.

  I shook my head. “Don’t,” I warned.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s . . .” I said.

  At this point, all I could tell her was that she needed to stay back.

  The power continued to course through me. I made a point of keeping my hands pressed together, holding that power as it cycled within me. I didn’t want to release it, and certainly didn’t want to cause it to explode out from me. I tried to hold that power inside, tried to keep it trapped so it didn’t flow in an uncontrollable way.

  It was building.

  Natalie trailed after me.

  The dragon followed me inside of the pen, working his way around as if to taunt me, or perhaps to protect me. I didn’t know for sure. I couldn’t yet know how to know the dragon—how to understand him.

  Power continued to build within me. Somehow I was going to have to unleash it. I needed to release that power, needed to cut off my connection to the dragon.

  Natalie came up behind me. “Something’s wrong,” she said.

  I shook my head. “It’s . . . it’s just I’m losing control over it,” I said.

  “Does that happen to you often?”

  I shook my head again. “I haven’t really had any control over it before.”

  “What have you tried doing so that you could get control?”

  “I’m trying to do as Thomas suggested, but it’s not working.”

  At least, it wasn’t working well enough for me, though I could feel that power surging and coursing around through me, and I could tell that if it spilled outward, I would lose complete control. The energy of the dragon would explode, and anybody near me would be in danger. This was more power than I had released upon Brandel.

  “Let it out,” Natalie said.

  I shook my head. “I can’t let it out. I don’t know how to do it.”

  “Haven’t you ever released that power
before?” She was watching me with an intensity in her eyes, though there was something else there.

  “I haven’t. At least, not intentionally.”

  “How have you done it unintentionally?”

  “I almost blew somebody up,” I admitted.

  She laughed. “Now I know why you moved away from me. Just try doing what you did before and see if it’ll make a difference.”

  It was worth a shot. When I had accidentally targeted Brandel, I had separated my hands, releasing the power. This time, maybe I could control it. As I kept my fingers pressed together, feeling the energy of the dragon building within me, I wondered if I could let a trickle of that power out. If I could, then maybe I could learn to control it in a way that I had not so far.

  “You should stay back,” I said.

  “What are you afraid will happen? You think I’ll explode in flames?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” I said.

  She backed away, moving down the dragon pen, though she didn’t move nearly as far away as I thought she should. I turned toward the forest. That might be a mistake, but if I continued focusing on the dragon pen, then I would run the risk of blowing power into the dragons. I didn’t want to do that, either.

  I separated my index fingers. Only those.

  I could feel the pressure beginning to ease as it cycled through, and suddenly a burst of heat erupted along my arms, coming down my fingers and spiraling, bouncing from one to the next. The flames crackled between my fingers.

  Natalie came closer.

  “Don’t,” I said.

  “Look. Fire. And you’re concerned you might incinerate me.”

  “I still might,” I said. The power flowing through me was still incredible. The pressure had eased, but not entirely. At least I had some way of diminishing it.

  “What if you try releasing a bit more?” Natalie asked.

  I pulled apart my middle fingers. Now the flames that arced out went from my two fingers, and then connected, before the power cycled through me again. As it did, I could feel the energy starting to fade, easing back. The effect was enough that I could finally start to breathe out, relaxing just a little bit.

  I separated my ring fingers. The flames twisted.

  “Can you control it?” Natalie asked. “Can you use it?”

  “I’m not entirely sure. I don’t know what I’m doing here to begin with.”

  “What if you hold on to that flame and separate your hands completely?”

  I shook my head. “If I do that, I think I’ll unleash all of the power within me.”

  I wasn’t even sure if that were going to be the case, but I could feel the energy, and I could tell the way that power coursed from one hand to the next, and the way it stretched out from me. I wondered if I might be able to control it a little bit better if I were to release another finger.

  I pulled apart my pinkies.

  The only thing connecting my hands now were my thumbs. That allowed the energy to continue to flow through me, but flames stretched between the other fingers, arcing from one hand to the next. Surprisingly, there was no pain or heat coming from them. There was only the awareness of the fire.

  Natalie leaned close, watching, as if she were studying some aspect of the flames, trying to understand what it was that I did.

  I could feel the power coursing through my thumbs. The flames were stretching from one hand to the next, but not with nearly as much power as before.

  I started trying to suppress the rest of the power, pushing it down deep inside of me. When I did, I noticed that the flames shifting between my fingers began to twist, changing a little bit.

  “What did you do different?” Natalie asked.

  “I’m not exactly sure,” I said. “I tried to gain a better control over the power within me, holding on to it.” As I did, I could feel the way that it was rolling through me, held there for a moment, before it began to ease out.

  I decided to try one more thing. I separated my thumbs.

  Flames exploded, coursing through my hands, arcing from one to the next.

  I fought to keep my hands from spreading out wide and spraying the flames all over. It required I tamp more and more power down into that deep center of myself where the heat was located. When I did, I could slow the flames.

  Gradually, heat became a trickle, jumping from one hand to the next, arcing.

  “You did it,” Natalie said.

  “I did,” I said. I couldn't believe that I had done it, considering the way that the flames jumped, but I had done it. Success. Something that I could never have believed was possible for myself, something that I had never believed that I would have been able to do, but here it was. My own power. “Although I know others who control the power differently than me.”

  “I’ve seen some almost creating whips made of flames,” she said.

  “Whips?”

  She shrugged. “To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. The nature of how other dragon mages use their power is not widely known. I’ve just seen how that power explodes outward, and I’ve seen the way they use it.”

  I glanced over to her, still trying to hold on to the power. There was something in the way she said it that told me a little bit more about Natalie.

  “You’ve seen dragon mages attacking before, haven’t you?”

  She looked over at me, frowning. “Most who have spent any time within the kingdom have seen dragon mages.”

  The only dragon mage I’d ever really seen had been Elaine.

  And she’d betrayed the kingdom.

  Power continued to drift through me. I needed to separate it. I couldn’t continue to hold on to the dragon power, and I worried that if I did, I would eventually drain the dragon of energy. I looked over to the green dragon, finding him in the middle of the pen yard, and nodded to him. That was all that I needed. Nothing more.

  Gradually, the power and the connection between us began to fade, easing.

  Eventually, I wanted to know how Thomas had shifted his connection from dragon to dragon, and I wondered if in doing so he managed to call upon even more power. Dragon magic couldn’t be unlimited, so it would make sense for him to need to shift between dragons in order to maintain that power and control.

  “I should get going,” Natalie said. “And you look like you need to keep working.”

  I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I should,” I said.

  She flashed a smile at me, then started to walk away.

  I watched her go before finally turning my attention back to the dragon. He remained curled up, and yet I smiled. I needed to practice, to improve, to be ready for whatever else I might be able to do. How could I not be?

  I needed to master what had just happened.

  I focused on the dragon heat. It was a strange thing for me to be aware of, but that heat and energy remained around me, near enough that I could feel it, something that bubbled up from some place deep within me. What I needed more than anything was to find a way to tap into that heat and energy, and to draw upon it in a way that would grant me something more.

  I could feel the heat around me. I could feel something that was there, and I could feel that I needed to keep working. Shadows moved, and I spun, looking toward the forest.

  "Manuel?"

  He strode forward, the dappled mesahn trailing him, looking as if it were ready to attack at any moment. I could feel something from the mesahn, though I wasn’t sure what I detected. Whatever it was left me uncomfortable.

  He stopped for a moment. "What are you doing?"

  I looked over at the dragon pen, hesitating for a moment. "I have been practicing.”

  "Interesting."

  I looked over to the forest. "What are you doing out there so close to the edge of the forest?"

  "There have been . . ." He trailed off and shook his head. "I'm afraid I'm not supposed to say anything."

  "You can say something," I said.

  He breathed out. "Dragons have gone missing.
"

  Ames had mentioned the red dragon that hadn’t returned. Could it be related? Donathar didn’t seem to think there was anything to be concerned about, but he had been willing to investigate. Maybe there was more to it than I realized.

  “How do dragons go missing?"

  Manuel shrugged. "Unfortunately, I don't know. But the king tasked his Hunters with searching for the dragons and asked us to use every bit of our talents to track them down."

  I looked to the trees. "In the forest?" I frowned. "The dragons wouldn't wander there, would they?

  "Not unless guided," he said.

  "Who would guide them?" He held my gaze for a moment, and I shook my head. "Not the Djarn."

  "They might," he said.

  "But the Djarn . . ." I held off, waiting for a moment. The Djarn had been in the trees, and I had felt them, so I knew that there was a danger to them—to what they might be able to do. They certainly had power, though I didn't know what it was or what it meant. And then there was what Joran and his father had believed about them.

  "If you see something, let me know," Manuel said.

  "Are you going to be staying in the city?"

  "Possibly," he said. "I don't know what else the king might ask of me, though if he fears the dragons have been missing, then he might ask other Hunters to continue their search."

  "How many other Hunters are there?"

  Manuel smiled. "Sometimes I forget just how little you know." It wasn't the first time I had heard that in the last few weeks. "Don't take that as a slight," he said.

  It reminded me of what Thomas had said. "I'm having a hard time not taking comments like that as an insult.”

  "Is it because you don't like being the oldest?"

  "I didn't think I would," I said. "But lately . . ."

  "You’re finding it more difficult?"

  "I am."

  "Do you think the . . .”—I almost said Vard, but didn’t think that was what had attacked before—“the kingdom will be attacked again?"

  "Like Elaine?” He shook his head. “I doubt the Vard risks the city. They have made their attempt already, and it is unlikely that they will think to make another."