The Lost Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 3), Dan Michaelson [books to read now TXT] 📗

up out of the ground, a towering spire of fire and rock. I never seen anything quite as impressive: the rock stretched up from the ground in front of an enormous, bleak-looking stone, and a glowing red peak rose above it all. Smoke and steam filled the air around it, and it felt as if power emanated from it. It was a strange thing for me to be aware of, though I could feel it distinctly.

We slowed as we neared it. Thomas signaled for me to join him, and I looked up into the distance. “That is Affellah,” he said. “Beyond that is all Vard-controlled lands.”

“I never knew fire separated our land from theirs.”

“Only across the Southern Reach. There are other places where it’s easier for them to cross.”

“Such as the eastern edge of the kingdom?”

Thomas locked eyes with me for a long moment before nodding slowly. “Such as there. And south of Berestal, as well.”

“I see.”

“I don’t think you fully do. Not yet.”

“Why?”

“Because there is much here that is far more dangerous than you can even understand. I will try to show you.”

We veered off, moving west.

The dragon seemed to take its cues from Thomas and his dragon. We flew quickly, soaring above the ground, the heat and fire beneath us radiating upward, casting off enormous flames. Every so often, there came a shooting of fire that seemed to streak into the sky, causing Thomas to veer off so as to avoid it.

We moved around Affellah, then beyond it. As we did, we flew higher and higher into the sky. At first, it was a subtle shift, one that I barely recognized, but over time, I could feel the air grow thinner and colder. Though the dragon didn’t seem to struggle, the cycle through him increased, more power flowing outward, called forth from the other dragons and joining within him. I looked down, and Affellah, along with the flames behind us, seemed even more distant than they had been before.

“Why did you bring us higher?” I called. It was harder to talk up here, and I struggled to get the words out.

“You will see,” he said.

I continued staring down at the ground, struggling to track what was out there, but couldn’t make out anything beyond the darkness and the flames behind us.

There was a part of me that was thankful the flames were so far behind us, that I didn’t have to deal with them, and that the Vard didn’t target us, but a strange sense came from them, from their energy, leaving me distinctly aware of the heat.

It reminded me of the energy coming from the dragons, though in a different way.

If only the dragons could talk to me. I had questions and I wanted answers. Did the dragons understand Affellah? Was there some aspect of its power that they knew? Unfortunately, without having any clear way to communicate with the dragons, I didn’t know if I’d ever have answers. Perhaps it was for the best. Perhaps the dragons didn’t want to share anything about it anyway.

I sent a hint of pulsing power through the green dragon so he knew I was still awake and aware, and I felt a resounding pulse in return. It hit me quickly, steadily, and then it faded. The energy drifted away, heading toward the ground, toward the flames and fire, behind us.

Strange.

As we continued traveling south, flying ever higher, the air continuing to thin beneath me, I could feel the energy of something down below, then I noticed a flicker of light in the distance.

It was far below us, far enough that I wasn’t exactly sure what I saw, though the brightness continued to shimmer out there in the dark night, almost as if it were calling to me, trying to alert me to something out there. As I stared into the distance, trying to ascertain what it was, there were other flickers of color and white light.

Cities. The lights came from them, though I still wasn’t entirely sure what it was that I saw. They seemed to flicker with far brighter light than I would’ve expected.

“Is that—”

“This is the Vard-controlled lands,” he said.

“It’s so bright out at night.”

“The Vard celebrate fire.”

“They celebrate it?”

“Affellah,” he said.

I had the sense that he couldn’t speak any better than I could, the thinness of the air making it difficult.

“Can they see us up here?”

He shook his head. “They can’t see us. That’s why we fly up here. They can feel us though.”

“Feel?”

He nodded. “They have a way of connecting to fire.”

“If they have that, then how do they have any trouble defeating the dragons?”

Thomas slowed his dragon just enough so he could get alongside me. “They don’t want to harm the dragons. They worship the power they possess.”

“They worship the dragons?”

I wondered what the dragons might think about that. Maybe they would appreciate it. They might actually approve of it.

“Not the dragons themselves, but the flames within them. They view the dragons as a source of fire, and would like to claim that source for themselves.”

Which made the attack on the city even less likely to be Vard.

Why wouldn’t Thomas see that?

They had used the dragons in their attack.

Unless they had only wanted to take their power.

Maybe I still had it wrong.

“Why?”

“The Vard want to be like the dragons.”

“I don’t understand. The Vard I’ve seen in Berestal weren’t like that.”

“You have met people who side with the Vard. Not the Vard themselves. Those who sympathize with them are different.”

“How so?”

“They seek something else. Perhaps freedom from the kingdom, from somebody they feel oppresses them, or perhaps they simply like anarchy. It’s difficult for me to know. But what I can tell you is that the Vard—the real Vard—are something else.”

“Are you going to tell me what it is?”

“I can’t tell you. I have to show you.”

“That’s why we’re traveling through the Vard-controlled lands?”

“Because there is only one place I can take you to show you.”

“Where?” I asked, getting increasingly concerned.

He didn’t answer. We continued sailing