The Lost Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 3) by Dan Michaelson (good summer reads .txt) 📗

he just did? No dragon mage can call upon that kind of power without having Vard magic.”

I just shook my head. It showed how little he knew.

I didn’t think it was Vard magic. For that matter, I had no idea what magic the Vard possessed. They had to have something to have posed a threat to the kingdom over the years, but I hadn’t seen anything so far. Thomas viewed the Vard as an ongoing challenge, but even he hadn’t shared with me why. As far as I could tell, the Vard had once been a danger to the kingdom, but now I no longer knew if they really were.

Heading back up the stairs, I paused in the main hall of the Academy. The dragon lanterns glowed with bright light, probably befitting the time of day. It had to be well past noon. My stomach rumbled.

I debated going into the Academy cafeteria to eat. There was plenty to eat there, and I was more than welcome to choose what was available to me, but I decided against it. Instead, I headed out. I didn’t want to stay within the Academy and deal with the other students, people whom I really had not connected with. It would be better if I left. Besides, the food was tasty here in the city, and maybe I’d run into Natalie and convince her to join me.

When I reached the door leading out of the Academy, I paused for a moment, thinking back to when I had come here earlier today; I planned to spend my day wandering the city, maybe focusing on the dragons and practicing, but instead, I found myself exhausted from working with the weave I’d attempted. It was a strange thing. I hadn’t been this tired from working with the dragon magic for quite some time.

It wasn’t so much fatigue from the connection to the dragon as it was from focusing, using my time to master the power, and getting a better sense of the energy I possessed. Walking for a while might help me feel better, and it would certainly clear my head.

I cruised past the dragon pens, pausing there for a moment and looking over to them. The green dragon was in the middle of the pen, and he looked up at me. There was something in the way he looked at me that suggested he knew me better than I would’ve expected him to. I headed toward the bars of the pen, resting my hands on them, and studied the dragon. I focused on the connection between us, the way the power cycled through me, and could feel some aspect of the dragon that continued to flow within me. It poured out from me, into the dragon, and then back to me. It passed through other dragons along the way. Each dragon it passed through left me feeling as if there were some other part of me that trembled.

But it was the power cycling through me that trembled.

That power seemed to be the key to understanding more about the dragon. I’d felt it before when working with the dragons, noticing how the energy seemed to fluctuate, trembling within me, as if the dragon used that as a way to communicate with me, but I hadn’t managed to understand what it was or what it meant.

It fluttered again, and once again, it seemed some deep part of me fluttered with it, as if the dragon itself were trying to control it.

Normally when I cycled power through me, I was in control of how that power flowed, which was necessary for me to master that energy. There were times when it was different though. There were times when I wasn’t in control of it, when the dragon seemed to control it. In this case, it seemed to be the dragon more than me.

“What are you trying to tell me?” I whispered.

I didn’t know if the dragon would have any way of communicating with me, but maybe by surging power, I could come to understand some message between us. It wouldn’t be the same as speaking to the dragon, or having the dragon speak to me, but perhaps there would be some way for us to share knowledge.

Once again, there came a trembling, and it felt as if the power surged up within me, flowing from the dragon, and I watched, trying to understand. As I did, I found nothing other than what I had already uncovered. The power fluctuated again, bursting briefly before coming back to me.

I smiled at the dragon, letting power flutter out, cycling out and away before drifting back into me again. There wasn’t going to be any meaningful way for me to communicate with the dragon. I pushed outward, once again connecting to him, letting that energy cycle, and could feel him pushing against me—his way of sharing something with me.

Finally, I moved on.

Other dragons looked toward me. Some of them were connected to the cycle I was a part of, though most were not. Many of the dragons were willing to enter into it though. I could feel that willingness from them, even though I couldn’t necessarily feel anything else from them.

I paused again, focusing on the dragons, staring at them as I strained to understand why they watched me, but there was something I was missing.

“What do you want?” I whispered.

Three of the dragons approached the bars of the pen.

It was a strange thing for them to do, something I hadn’t seen from the dragons before, and it left me questioning whether I had neglected them in some way.

I could feel the energy these dragons pushed off and toward me. This was different from the other dragons’ actions, and it suggested they wanted me to be aware of that energy, as if they were trying to guide me, trying to share something with me.

Not just that, but they were trying to connect to me and join the cycle.

I looked over to the green dragon,