The Betrayed Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 2), Dan Michaelson [best books to read all time .txt] 📗

to do, pushing their energy through me and to this dragon. He surged with power and began to glow with a pale yellow light.

“What happened?” one of the men said.

“I don’t know. He keeps doing that,” the other said. “It seems to be his way of trying to get help.”

“Will the other dragons reach him?”

“Doubtful. They might know the dragon is here, but the creatures don’t have any way of speaking from a distance.”

I frowned. I had felt something that called me down here.

And the aching irritation.

Could they be connected?

What if the dragons did have some way of speaking to each other from a distance?

There was a time when I would’ve said the idea was laughable, but the more I’d been around the dragons, the more I began to question just what was possible with them. I had no idea what they were capable of, only that the dragons I’d been around suggested a connection and power far more than anything I would’ve believed possible. Especially after recognizing the way the golden-scaled dragon had connected to the green dragon. There was something about that connection, some aspect of that power, that told me that there was more to it.

“This is just about completed. That’s why I brought you here.”

“You brought me here because I warned you we were running out of time. With Thomas out of the city, now is our chance. We don’t know how much longer we will have.”

I frowned, leaning close to the dragon, wondering just what it was that he meant.

“We don’t have much time. We managed to hold only five of them. The others have escaped.”

“Because they helped.”

They?

Who else was involved?

Could this be the Djarn or was this the Vard?

Or better yet, was it somebody else working with Elaine?

They started toward me, and I focused on the dragon, feeling for the energy within him, wondering if there was something to what they intended that I needed to be prepared for, but I couldn’t tell. The only thing I could be certain of was that they were doing something to the dragon. The more I thought about it—the more I could feel energy and power—the more I was aware of just what it was that they were doing. It involved some connection to the dragon’s power.

That was the strange surge I had detected before. I could feel the way it flowed through the dragon, bursting from the creature, and though it held on to some aspect of the green dragon and the other dragon that I had found in the forest, there was something else about it.

It had a hiccup.

It was the same feeling I’d felt before. That couldn’t be a coincidence—and the fact that I felt something similar a second time left me troubled.

I had no idea what it meant or whether there was something that happened to the dragon, only that I could feel the energy. There was some aspect to it that I recognized, some burst of power that left me feeling like there was a danger to the dragon.

That power built, and once again, there came another surge of energy blasting outward, as if the dragon were trying to either fight what happened or possibly to communicate with others. I couldn’t tell which.

Surprisingly, it seemed like the green dragon was trying to coordinate with this dragon, using some connection to it to overpower the strange pause in the flow of energy. The green dragon poured power out, and as it did, some of it came through me. A communication.

“It has very nearly finished storing everything we need. Once this is done, we will have enough to capture the others.”

“I don’t need ‘very nearly.’ We need this done. We need the weapons.”

“We will have the weapons. You have to have patience.”

“We don’t have time for patience.”

Whatever was happening would take place soon.

The dragon thrashed. I was close enough that I felt the kicking of the dragon, the source of energy coming off of him—I needed to try to move out of the way, but I couldn’t. The dragon’s body slammed into me, sending me crashing backward. I stumbled, biting back a shout, wanting to keep from saying anything that might reveal my presence. The dragon backed into me then turned toward the other two, heat radiating from him as he attempted to breathe out heat and fire.

Nothing happened.

I’d been around the dragons enough over the last few months that I recognized when they were agitated. Some of that came from my ability to open myself to them, recognizing the heat coming from them, but some of it came simply from a familiarity with dragons in general, along with a familiarity with livestock, having grown up on a farm. What happened now was dangerous to this dragon. I could feel his agitation, his rage, and the way he struggled, and I wanted nothing more than to react. Power flowed from the dragon and he attempted to cry out, wanting to roar, but something seemed to constrict him.

I touched the dragon’s side, holding on to the connection that flowed between us, and tried to use that connection to soothe the dragon. I wasn’t sure if it worked, only that I could feel something coming from him, something that told me the dragon seemed to understand. I pulled upon the power within the dragon, sending it flowing through in a large cycle of energy that circled between me and the other two dragons, and I noticed that the strange pause of power seemed to ease. It was faint, but when it held, power began to surge with even more strength.

I had no idea what I was doing, only that it was now the second time I had connected to another dragon, cycling that power. I also had no idea whether it made a difference or not, only that I could feel something change. The dragon in front of me seemed to swell, as if power began to fill it.

“The others are in similar places, all difficult