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

“What it means is that I have been getting something similar from Thomas and Manuel. None of them want me involved in what’s taking place in the city. They both think this is all about the Vard, but I can’t shake my experience. It hasn’t been the Vard so far. There has been something else, and I feel like they are so focused on the Vard as the only possible answer that they have been overlooking the real answer.”

“They are nothing like you could imagine,” she said softly.

The way she said it suggested she had a more intimate knowledge of the Vard than I had expected.

“You know them,” I said.

She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I know them. I’ve encountered them before.” She flicked her gaze over to the forest before turning her attention back to me. In the time we’d been standing and talking, there had been no other sense from the forest, nothing to suggest there was another attack. No other thunderous explosions, no pulling upon fire and power—nothing.

I didn’t know whether I should be concerned about that.

“I told you that my father traveled.”

“As he was moving around in his position,” I said. As the Sharath, it shouldn’t surprise me that he would have moved. Even as the man who was preparing to become the Sharath, he would have been moved around.

“We were in the south, along the border. I thought it nothing more than an exciting time for us, but it was the one place we didn’t spend very long.”

“Why not?”

“My father didn’t want us to be there. Well, I think it’s more that he didn’t want me to be there.”

“He feared for you?”

“He understood that the borders could be dangerous—even then, with as many riders as were stationed along the borders.”

“How many riders are stationed there now?” I knew so little about what I would be asked to do once I became a full dragon mage. Maybe I’d be stationed along borders as well.

“More than you can imagine.” She flicked her gaze to the sky. “Had I stayed within the Djarn lands, I would’ve been around the dragons more, but unfortunately, we rarely got to see them.”

“When I was growing up, we knew the dragons served the king, but we never got to see them either. It was rare.”

“Even on the edge of the kingdom?”

I nodded. “Rare enough,” I said. “Maybe it was just that he didn’t need to send his dragons out to Berestal and my people, but I don’t really know.”

“I suppose both of us wanted to see the dragons, though for different reasons,” she said.

“There was a time when I was growing up that I thought I could learn how to ride a dragon.”

“And now you have.”

Another burst of power came. It occurred to me that it was more about power than explosions.

“Did you feel that?” I asked her. When she nodded, I asked, “There was something outside in the forest that I think is different from the Vard. I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I need to try to figure it out.”

“It is the Vard,” she said, unconvinced.

“Thomas captured one of their Servants,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I should admit that to her, or to anyone, but it felt right sharing it with her.

“He caught one?”

I nodded. “He’s questioning the Vard to find out where they might attack next. I don’t know how long he’s held him.” It had to have been a recent development, especially given what I had seen and how Thomas kept sneaking off, disappearing for long stretches of time.

“Oh, Ashan. That’s why they’ve attacked. The Vard were quiet for a long time.”

“They were in Berestal, even though they didn’t cause any violence. They made their presence known, though.”

“That’s not the same as attacking.” She shook her head. “They might not have caused violence in Berestal, but everywhere else. The Vard have not been active until recently. Something changed, and my father has been looking into it, trying to understand what changed and why, but he hasn’t discovered anything. It is different for them.”

“You sound like you disagree with attacking them.”

Natalie shook her head. “It’s not that I disagree. It’s nothing like that. It’s just that my people want nothing more than peace.”

“I understand. I think the king wants peace, too.”

“He does, but . . .”

She looked toward the forest.

“What are you getting at?”

“I don’t know. I’m afraid though. If the Vard move, I don’t know if we will be strong enough to stop them.”

“The king has stopped them before.”

Natalie shook her head. “That’s what they want you to believe. My father has told me The Vard have only attacked in full a few times—and they were not stopped. They have some way of pulling the heat off of the dragons.”

“I thought that was the Djarn.”

“Where do you think we learned it?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

I stared. The power pulling on me made a different sort of sense. I could still feel that energy pulling, that drawing sensation that dragged from someplace distant and away from me. I focused on it, thinking about that power, about the way it was cycling, and the influence it had on me. I thought about how it was trying to draw upon me. I couldn’t do anything with it, only feel for that power.

Now that I was aware of it, I needed to resist it. It was different from what we had faced when the city had been attacked before, but not so different that I didn’t think I could withstand it. At least this time I had more of a connection to the dragons, and I could use that connection or for me to resist what was happening to me. By doing so, I thought I could pull back power and prevent the Vard from drawing it off of me, cycling it away, stealing that energy and diminishing my strength. I could protect the dragons in the same way.

I looked over