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

“What aren’t you sharing with me?”

“Something you don’t need to know about. Trust me. The world is different than we knew,” I said, turning away.

“You’re going to leave before giving Sophie a chance to see the dragon?”

I looked over to the house. “Keep Sophie from your mother, too.”

I continued on, heading over the rise, and as soon as I did, I found the green dragon curled up on the ground. Sophie was there, walking around the dragon. She looked over to me when I approached.

“You really did have a dragon,” she said.

I nodded. “I really do.”

“You’re leaving.”

I nodded again. “I think it’s time.”

“You weren’t here for very long.”

I looked behind me and noticed Joran standing on the hillside. Could I really have changed so much in such a short period of time? Maybe it wasn’t me that had changed. Maybe it was the world.

“I wasn’t. When I come the next time, I promise I will be here longer.”

“You better be.”

“And maybe you could ride the dragon then.”

Her eyes widened. “Do you really think I could?”

“I think you could. Besides, if you have talent, you might even be able to come to the capital and learn to ride dragons like me.”

Sophie started to laugh before turning to me. “You can’t mean that.”

“Why not? The dragon certainly doesn’t seem to mind your presence. Maybe you do have the potential to ride them.”

“I would love that,” she whispered.

I climbed onto the dragon, and he started to shift, spreading his enormous leathery wings. Sophie backed away, watching with awe in her eyes.

“Stay safe,” I said.

We took to the air, circling briefly, and then headed toward the forest. We veered south, moving along the border, giving me a chance to see the Southern Reach. As we traveled, a strange pulling sensation came to me, and it left me worried. It wasn’t from the dragons. It reminded me of what I had detected when I had been deeper into the Vard lands.

Could that be what this was?

If the king decided to move on Berestal, I would have to get there in time to keep my family safe. But only if he did.

We traveled slowly, zigzagging, and I searched out over the Southern Reach, wanting to see if there were any sign of the Vard out there. When I finally caught sight of their camp, we turned back. By then, much of the day had passed, which I supposed was a good thing. As we neared the forest, and I started to feel what I assumed was the strange pull of the Vard again, we moved more quickly. It was time to return.

It was time to find Thomas. It was time to share with him what I had learned.

I had to make sure Berestal was safe—but given what I had seen, and what the king believed of the Vard, I didn’t know if any place could be safe. Not anymore.

We neared the capital, but far more slowly than I wanted, and the capital seemed far dimmer than it had been when we were here before. I breathed out a sigh of relief as we descended into the capital itself, focusing on the building, on the structures, and on the dragon pen as we came in to land.

The green dragon settled in between the other dragons, and I climbed off his back, hurrying over to the others before finally letting out a relieved sigh.

I had to wait. Even as I focused out into the distance, using the cycle of the dragons, I couldn’t come up with any way for me to detect Thomas. He had to be out there, didn’t he? He would’ve been behind me, not waiting too long, certainly not lingering.

Only nothing came.

I stared at the sky, looking for signs of movement, of the dark shadow coming that would tell me he and the dragon were out there, but even as I stared, there was no sign of anything. There was certainly no sign of the dragon, and nothing to tell me where Thomas was or when he was coming back. But I continued staring, waiting.

I felt increasingly troubled by it, increasingly bothered by the fact I couldn’t tell what had happened to him, only that something had.

Maybe he waited behind, wanting to ensure nothing more happened with the captured Vard, but why would he have taken so long?

There were no answers.

Only more questions.

I made my way out of the dragon pen, then closed it and took a seat on a bench, looking up at the sky. I stared until I could no longer fight sleep, then drifted off.

11

Dreams swirled through my head. They were the kind of dreams that left me trembling, that troubled me. They were filled with flashes of flame and fire, scarred men, people who came at me in the darkness, terrifying magic that called to me, practically demanding I respond. Even as those dreams flashed in my mind, I was fully aware that I was dreaming, but there was nothing I could do about it. I struggled to wake myself, but each time I did, I fell back asleep to see another scarred visage, this one worse than before, lava flowing along the person’s face, crackling with heat and energy, leaving them darkened and blackened—leaving me terrified.

When I finally awoke, dawn had begun to break, and the light rose above the treetops. Everything within me seemed off and unsettled. There was a strange gnawing in the pit of my stomach, and at first, I thought it was just because I was hungry, but the more I felt it, the more I began to wonder if it was something more—something worse.

I feared something had happened while I was out with the Vard, if they had somehow latched on to me, taking a hold of me with their strange power. I didn’t know if such a thing were even possible, but it felt like there was something inside of me, flowing through me.

I looked over to the green dragon. He rested within