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

the open, out on the plains, regardless of how dangerous they could be with the frequent storms we had in my part of the world.

Manuel turned his gaze back to me and smiled slightly. “There are others who would make very different claims,” he said.

“They don’t find the forest peaceful?”

“They find the forest terrifying,” Manuel said. He shrugged. “Can’t say I understand that. I’ve always found it the same as you do. There’s just something about wandering through here, knowing you have this emptiness before you.”

I looked up to the trees. “I wouldn’t call it emptiness.”

“Not emptiness, but it is a void of others, and little more than a place where you can . . .” Manuel tilted his head to the side, as if he were sniffing the air the way his mesahn companion would. “Perhaps I’m sharing too much.”

I shook my head, chuckling. “You aren’t sharing enough. Has there been any word of another attack?” I almost said Vard, but cut myself off. I wasn’t going to be the one spreading that rumor, even if the king himself believed the Vard responsible.

Manuel glanced behind me, toward the city. “I’ve been looking, chasing a few leads, but haven’t found anything of substance like we faced before, and certainly nothing that would pose a danger,” he said. “Of course, not that the king wants to hear that.”

“What do you mean?”

Manuel glanced back to me, frowning and shaking his head. “It’s probably nothing.”

“Manuel—”

“You’re still a student at the Academy, Ashan. I can’t forget that. Even though you’ve been instrumental in stopping several attacks already. More than most.”

“I suppose that’s because I’m older than most, too.”

“Older than most who come to the Academy, but not older than most who serve the king. I think you’ve done a service here.”

I focused on the forest around me, feeling for the dragons. There was one deep in the forest that I could feel, but I hadn’t seen that dragon since saving it.

“I wonder how much longer I should stay,” I said.

“What was that?” Manuel positioned against a different tree, looking back to me. He traced his hand along the trunk, as if he had detected something. I joined him, studying the tree, though I didn’t see what he had seen.

“I was just saying that I wondered how long I should stay.”

“You can’t be that far from independence as a dragon mage with the level of control you’ve shown. Just keep learning.”

“I have been learning,” I said. “But I also need to see my sister. She’s back in Berestal, and—”

Manuel started laughing. “Your sister is fine, Ashan.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’ve kept tabs on her.”

I frowned. “You have?”

“I figured you’d want to know about her. And more than that, I figured that if anything were to happen to her, I should keep an eye on the situation, especially given what she went through before.”

I regarded Manuel for a moment. “It’s more than just that though.”

He studied me. “Why would you say that?”

“Because you wouldn’t have done it for that reason alone.”

He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and turned back to the tree, crouching down to it and tracing his finger along its base. “The Vard remain active in Berestal.”

I didn’t really worry about that. If it were a real issue there, I suspected Joran would have found a way to get word to me.

“The Vard have always been somewhat restless there,” I said.

Manuel glanced back at me, shaking his head. “This is little bit different than being restless. This is . . .”

“What is it?”

“I’m not entirely sure. All I know is that everything coming out of the Vard suggests a resurgence of attacks.”

“Why would they attack when they don’t have any way to counter the dragons?”

That was the reason these attackers had been defeated in the first place. They didn’t have any way of defeating the dragons, and without that, they couldn’t prevent the kingdom from expanding its reach and influence. The king and his dragon riders kept peace and stability. Even out in Berestal, the outskirts of the kingdom, out where there was no sign of anybody else, I’d been aware of the influence of the king and his riders, and had known the dragons offered a measure of stability from warfare.

I might not have lived it, but I’d heard stories when I was younger, stories that had come from my father and others who lived around us that suggested the war with the Vard had been deadly. So many people had been lost, and it wasn’t until the king had exerted his influence and provided a calming effect that we finally managed to have a bit of peace.

But what had sabotaged the kingdom recently had been something else.

The attackers had wanted it to look like the Vard.

I didn’t know why though.

“Understanding how they intend to neutralize the dragons is the real question, isn’t it? They tried using the Djarn, but those attackers failed. We will ensure they fail with further attempts.”

“That wasn’t the Vard,” I said.

Manuel watched me. “You’ve said that before, but everything Thomas has found proves otherwise.”

“What about when they captured you?”

“I’ve been looking into that,” Manuel said.

“That wasn’t Vard either.”

We knew it wasn’t. At least, I had believed that Manuel believed it wasn’t.

“As I said, I’ve been looking into it.”

I frowned, looking around the forest. Somewhere distantly, one of the dragons felt startled and took to the air. I found myself thinking about the connection to the dragon, the way that I could feel that power, and the awareness I suddenly had of it launching into the air. It was unusual I’d be so acutely aware of that.

What had startled the dragon?

“Those who attacked us have some way of dealing with the dragons,” I said.

Manuel stood, wiping his hands on his pants before shaking his head. “If that were all this was about, I wouldn’t be nearly as concerned.”

“What is it then?”

“I’m more concerned about whether the Vard have some way of dealing with the dragon mages.”

Not