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

the next, trying to push that power down into the opening, but it was deep and dark, and I couldn’t make out anything more than just the depths of the cave.

I glanced over to the dragon. We could try to descend into it, but I didn’t know if we would be able to get back out again. Without knowing how deep it was, and whether the dragon had enough control to fly out of it, I just wasn’t sure.

I made a circle around it. Everything nearby was flat grassland, though the grass had been trampled down around the crater. The air had a strange odor to it that reminded me of ash, though nothing here seemed burned. If we had still been in the Vard lands, I might have thought this was fire, but even in the Vard lands, I don’t remember seeing anything quite like this.

The ground around the opening was heaped, the earth piled up as if something had burrowed out and exploded the dirt around it.

There were symbols all around it, and something about them reminded me of the vases I’d found in the kingdom. I didn’t feel the same sense of pulling here, though.

Maybe they weren’t at all the same.

But it couldn’t be a coincidence that the lettering reminded me of the Djarn. I wasn’t sure what else it could be. If it were the Djarn, I didn’t need to be concerned. They wouldn’t have done anything to harm the kingdom. It was even possible that the Djarn were trying to create some sort of barricade between the kingdom and the Vard lands.

Strange.

Technically, I suspected this was a border of the kingdom, south of the actual border, and along the Southern Reach, which meant this place was more likely to be used for defense during the Vard skirmishes. Maybe our people—or the Djarn— had placed this here in order to defend against the Vard.

I’d have to ask Thomas about it.

For now, I climbed back onto the dragon. We took to the air, circling high overhead once again, and veered toward the capital.

As we did, I noticed something else.

I signaled for the dragon to descend again, and as we landed on the ground, once again still at the border of the kingdom and along the edge of the Southern Reach, I saw another of these strange pits.

This one was much like the last, perhaps a little larger. The ground around it was heaped up, though the earth was dry and cracked, which left me thinking this had been done long ago. There were more symbols around here that also reminded me of the Djarn. Finding two of them suggested that it really had been used in some sort of defense against the Vard. I couldn’t imagine how else the kingdom would’ve used something like this. What purpose would it serve?

Unless the Vard had used it against the kingdom.

It seemed odd that it would be so close to the border. Given how the Southern Reach had been relatively untouched, I wouldn’t have expected there to be any Vard presence there, or that we would have seen anything to suggest that the Vard had left their people.

Making a circuit around it, I found nothing to distinguish this one from the last one.

Perhaps there really was nothing to be concerned about here. It was strange, but probably only a remnant of a time before.

Climbing onto the dragon, curiosity struck me.

We flew, but this time I kept the dragon flying along the border of the kingdom, trailing along the Southern Reach, just at the edge of the forest. I counted several other circular pits. They must be some way of defending the kingdom. I didn’t remember seeing them before, though in the darkness, anything could’ve been hidden from me.

If only Thomas were here, he could have explained it, but now I’d have to wait for his return.

I veered the opposite way, heading west, and there were more of them, enough that I had to believe they had some purpose. They were spaced with a distinct regularity, though given that I was looking down from a dragon’s back, I couldn’t tell the exact distance between them.

As we started to turn back toward the city, something caught my attention.

It was in the outskirts of the forest. The Kings Road running alongside it. And an undulating plain stretching out from there.

It was my homeland. The plains.

I hadn’t intended to come so close to my home, but here I was.

I needed to return to the capital, and I wanted to be there before Thomas returned, but curiosity won. More than that, given what Manuel had said about the Vard, and what I had heard before, I wanted to ensure my homeland was protected and safe. How could I want anything different? Besides, there was no harm in heading toward Berestal. I might not be able to do it by dragon back without raising some questions, but I could certainly land near the farm.

My sister would be gone. I knew she wouldn’t still be at the farm. The last I heard, she had moved into the city. Why was it that I wanted to see it then?

The dragon seemed to recognize what I wanted, and we circled, following along the Kings Road. In the distance, I could make out the straight shot of road as it headed from the forest; the city of Berestal was off to the west, the massive tower rising above everything else.

Dragons had visited Berestal before, and I didn’t necessarily fear any danger were I to land atop the tower, but I certainly wasn’t sure I’d be welcomed in the same way the instructors from the Academy would’ve been. I was still a student—one who had proven themself troublesome, at that. Maybe when I was truly a dragon mage, I could visit without hesitation, but not quite yet.

We followed along the road, and eventually, I saw the farm site.

It looked so different from the air than it had from the ground. Smaller.