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

dragons, trying to open myself to it. I didn’t have any control, and if that power had flown through me, then it had knocked me back.

I found a fallen branch that was a reasonable length. Then I started forward, using what I could feel of the distant dragons in the city to guide me.

I hadn’t gone very far when I caught a flash of brown fur through the trees.

I froze.

It might be nothing more than a deer, but the movement felt off.

I started forward again. I tried to make as much noise as I could. Most creatures would be scared off, unless it was a pack of wolves hunting me. I had to believe I was getting close to the city, which would make anything living on the edge of the forest unlikely—at least, anything dangerous.

Another flicker of fur caught my attention.

It was large. Larger than a wolf.

There were very few things of that size that I knew of.

I had some ideas of what it could be. If it were a mesahn, then one of the Hunters would have to be there with it.

I was not under attack. They worked with the kingdom, and would not attack.

I moved forward and continued to bang on trees with the branch I had grabbed. With each tree that I passed, I smacked the branch across it, the crack ringing out. When I neared the edge of the forest—the city now outlined in view, moonlight glinting off of some of the pale stone and the wall surrounding the outskirts of the city—a soft laugh drifted through the forest behind me.

I spun, holding up the branch.

“You were certainly making plenty of noise,” a familiar voice said.

I frowned, squinting into the darkness. “Manuel?”

He strode forward out of the forest, and his mesahn prowled alongside him, with Manuel resting one hand on the mesahn’s neck. He was dressed in a forest green jacket and pants, and he looked more robust than the last time that I had seen him. He was clean-shaven, at least mostly so, though a faint outline of a beard lined his chin. His hair was cut short, and he had a short sword sheathed at his side. “I kept thinking that you would see me.”

“I saw the mesahn,” I said.

Another man stood behind Manuel, tall with black hair and a green cloak so that he blended into the forest, which reminded me of the Djarn.

“Did you?”

I turned my attention back to Manuel. The other man was probably another Hunter. “I saw some of the fur, but I didn’t see you, so . . .”

He grinned at me. “You decided to make as much noise as possible.”

“I was just trying to get out of the forest,” I said.

“Why? Are you afraid of the forest? I suppose after what happened to you before that wouldn’t be altogether surprising, but you never struck me as one to be fearful of such things.”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t be normally, but I got stuck. I was supposed to follow a dragon and ended up a little bit lost.”

“Ah. A testing, then.” He glanced back at the other man, who had slipped away through the forest.

I followed him with my eyes until he disappeared from my view.

Turning back to Manuel, I shrugged. “I suppose.”

“What happened?” Manuel asked.

“I got pulled into the forest and ended up more lost than I expected,” I said. “Then several of the Djarn surrounded me.”

Manuel stiffened suddenly. “More than one? They’ve been moving, but that is surprising.” He turned to the forest, frowning. The mesahn seemed to tense, the muscles beneath his fur rippling. “Where were you?”

“Several hours into the forest,” I said. “Why?”

Manuel turned back to me, locking eyes with me for a moment. “It’s just that it’s unusual for us to see the Djarn so close to the city. Unfortunately, we’ve encountered them a bit more often lately than we usually do.”

“We?”

Manuel nodded toward where the other man had disappeared. “Donathar was with me the last stretch.”

“Another Hunter?”

Manuel shook his head. “Mage. He’s been out of the city for a while. I hadn’t expected to find him in the forest while I was tracking down . . . ah, I guess what I was doing doesn’t matter. Don’t think Donathar expected to find me either.”

There was something in the way he said it that suggested Manuel was troubled.

I doubted he’d share more with me.

“Is there a problem with the Djarn? I thought the kingdom and the Djarn had peace.”

Manuel nodded. “There is peace, but that doesn’t mean the Djarn won’t cause trouble.”

He stared off into the forest, and I had a feeling he might decide to go after the Djarn, though given my experience with them, I doubted he would find anything out there. I had seen them myself and hadn’t even been able to go after them.

“You should get back,” Manuel said. “It’s getting late, and I’m sure that your instructors will be interested in knowing that you made it back and passed the test.”

I grunted. “I’m not even sure if I did pass. I got drawn out of the forest and followed the dragon they’d sent out, but couldn’t use him to follow them back. He disappeared from me.”

“How did you find your way back?”

“I used the dragons in the city,” I said, shrugging. “I was lucky I could still feel them.”

He studied me for a moment. “I’m not so sure that was luck. Seems to me that is a bit of skill. Perhaps you’ve been growing far more than you realize.” Manuel whistled softly, and the mesahn went bounding off into the forest.

“You’re leaving again?” I asked.

“For now,” Manuel said. Manuel glanced over to the city. “I don’t go into the city very often these days. I find I’m far more comfortable wandering beyond her borders. Sometimes, though, I end up drawn into the city and its politics and all of that, usually against my will.”

I started to laugh, and realized he wasn’t joking.

“What sort of politics would you