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

breath and looked all around before turning my attention back to the Sharath.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

The Sharath held my gaze for a long moment. “There is nothing that can be done. He intends to remove the threat.”

“We can’t let him.”

The Sharath studied me. “Anything we do would go against the wishes of the king. I’m sorry. We have to trust that the riders and the dragon mages were successful.”

“Trust?” I shook my head, looking from Natalie over to her father. “I know what I detected when I was there. There was enough power that the Vard would be able to draw off the energy of the dragon mages, draining them. The dragon mages wouldn’t be able to withstand that.”

It was enough power that the king could raze Berestal, like he had other places

“Father,” Natalie said, looking from her father to me, “you have to help us with this.”

He sighed. “We should not get involved,” he said, lowering his voice to little more than a whisper. “I’m the Sharath, and I serve the people, but I don’t serve the kingdom.”

“Father,” she said again, “serving the kingdom serves the people. We can’t let another place be destroyed out of fear.”

He glanced behind him, then again sighed deeply before motioning for us to follow. “Meet me at the edge of the city,” he said softly.

She nodded, and he strode off, heading back toward his office.

Natalie motioned for me to come with her. “Come on. You heard him.”

Outside of the palace, the dragon mages waited for us, but did nothing to stop us. I hesitated there for a moment before moving on and heading toward the dragons.

Natalie climbed onto her dragon quickly and waited for me to get on the other. Once we were both on, we took to the air, flying over the city and coming to land at the edge of it. I started to climb off of the dragon when Natalie waved her hand, motioning for me to stop.

“He won’t be long,” she said softly.

“Even if he comes, not exactly sure what that’s going to do for us,” I said. “I know he doesn’t want to get too involved in what’s taking place.”

“He will do what’s necessary,” she said.

She had more faith in her father than I did.

Still, I sat there, at the edge of the forest, focusing on the cycle of the dragons. Every so often, I felt a bit of a resistance, something that surged against me. It was from the Vard, I was certain, though I could feel nothing else coming off of it.

A flutter of movement in the trees caught my attention, and before Natalie could stop me, I scrambled off the dragon and headed toward it. There shouldn’t be any movement out here, unless it was students from the Academy, but given that it was still fairly early in the day, that would be unusual. There weren’t many in the Academy who got up as early as I did. I moved into the forest, thinking maybe it was a dragon that had come, but I didn’t feel any evidence of that within the cycle.

There had been activity out in the forest, and now that I thought about it, I started to question whether that had been tied to what was taking place now. It certainly hadn’t been the Vard. I had detected it long before Thomas had managed to capture one of the Servants. It suggested that whatever was taking place here, whatever attack we now faced and if so, then I couldn’t help but question if perhaps there was something else going on.

What if this were another attempt to make it look like the Vard had attacked when it really was someone else?

I looked around.

I had dealt with that already once before, and had seen just how far these attackers were willing to go to make it look as if the Vard were responsible. If the same thing was happening again, we couldn’t be drawn into it, regardless of how it appeared.

“Ashan?”

Natalie called after me, and I glanced back, waving my hand.

I headed into the trees again, breathing in, trying to get a feel for the smells within the air and the energy here. Then I focused on what else might be here.

As I did, I recognized a familiar, musky kind of odor.

Mesahn.

There weren’t that many mesahn that prowled at the edge of the forest, though there were some. I was usually careful with them, not knowing who they were tied to. Each mesahn had a singular bond, much like I had believed the dragons did.

I followed a small path through the trees, winding along as I searched for the mesahn, but found nothing. As I started to turn back, a dark shadow emerged from the forest.

“Manuel,” I said.

He chuckled as he stepped toward me. He was dressed in a dappled gray and green jacket and pants that allowed him to blend into the shadows of the forest. “You’re getting better at picking up on me,” he said.

“Maybe you need to do a better job of hiding, then,” I said.

He chuckled again. “You’re up early.” He glanced past me, toward the edge of the forest. “And with the dragon.”

“There’s been an attack on the kingdom. The Vard,” I said. “I came across them last night at the southern edge of the forest—”

“They shouldn’t have been able to penetrate so far,” he said.

“I know. And I think the king sent riders and dragon mages. To Berestal.”

“He would not.”

I regarded Manuel. “You’re the one who told me what he’s done before. How can you say he wouldn’t?” When he didn’t answer, I shook my head. “The king wants to protect the Servant of Affellah that Thomas captured—”

“Where did you hear that term?” he asked, stepping forward.

A shaft of sunlight streamed down through the trees, illuminating his face, making him look scarred. For a moment, he reminded me of the Servants of Affellah and the way that lava seemed to flow along their features.

“From