The Betrayed Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 2) by Dan Michaelson (list of e readers .TXT) 📗

were their primary weapons. I tensed, prepared for anything, but not at all certain what might happen as their power struck me. Surprisingly, I felt nothing more than a faint stirring of heat deep within me, as if they were trying to trigger the connection to the dragons I had. I watched, waiting for any sign of understanding coming from them, but there was nothing.

The nearest of the dragon mages nodded. He was slightly shorter and stockier than the other. He had three stars circling the king’s symbol on his left chest. “Thomas Elaron. I was not expecting your visit today.”

Thomas frowned. “You were not? The king did summon me,” he said.

The dragon mage snorted and glanced over to the other. “Are you sure?”

“If you need to scurry ahead and see if I really have been summoned, be my guest,” Thomas said. “Otherwise . . .”

He started to push past the dragon mages.

Power built from the other dragon mage, flames starting to course along the man’s hands, building out and forming a tight spiral.

Surprisingly, it was a spiral I recognized, having seen it from myself the night before. It was tightly bound, and the speed with which he had created it suggested a comfort and familiarity with it, but it was also one of the weaker forms of power I’d attempted.

Thomas glanced at the man. “Do you really think that will do anything to me?”

“You will wait,” the first dragon mage said.

Thomas glared at him.

The smaller of the dragon mages turned and strode off, in no hurry. The one who remained behind held on to the power, flames stretching from him, looping outward, as if to create some sort of barricade around us. Thomas didn’t appear at all concerned by it, and instead just watched, saying nothing.

I remained curious though.

I focused on the way the dragon mage held on to the power, how it circled out from him, and watched it streaming from him, wondering if I might use it in a similar way. He didn’t seem to have it coming out of his fingers. It was a single thick band he rotated as it spun out from him.

I could almost feel the dragon he connected to. It wasn’t in the dragon pens, not like the one that Thomas had been connecting to. This was nearby. It had to be within the palace.

I frowned, focusing on dragons in general. How many dragons would the king have within the palace? There had to be at least one for this dragon mage, probably more than that.

I leaned over to Thomas. “How many dragons does the king keep here?”

Thomas frowned at me. “What was that?”

The dragon mage frowned at me too.

“Within the palace. How many dragons are here?”

“There would be none,” Thomas said.

I shook my head. “There is—”

I didn’t get the chance to finish. The other dragon mage came jogging back toward us and nodded to the other. “He has been summoned,” he said.

The flames faded before disappearing altogether with a faint pop. The two dragon mages stood off to either side, letting us move through.

Once we did, Thomas turned, glancing behind him and frowning deeply. “How many dragons do you detect?”

“There’s at least the one,” I said. “I can feel this dragon mage’s connection to it. There might be more, but . . .”

Thomas continued to frown, biting his lip as he did.

“What is it?”

“Probably nothing,” Thomas said.

I looked back at the two dragon mages, but neither of them were paying any attention to us; they had turned their attention back to the main part of the garden, looking toward the entrance to the palace.

“Why shouldn’t there be any dragons here?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Thomas said.

“I think I need to. If there aren’t supposed to be dragons here, and there are, then—”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said again.

He had a strange expression on his face. I didn’t know Thomas well enough to recognize it, but I knew that something troubled him.

It had more to do with these dragons than he was letting on.

I might not know everything taking place within the city, or even everything taking place with Thomas, but I could feel the dragon. If nothing else, I could help in that way.

With every step, I opened myself to the dragon, feeling for power. It was a matter of trying to steady my breathing, feeling for the heat within me, and relaxing. By doing that, I felt some other aspect of it floating through, power that surged through me. I could use that power, but I held off.

By the time we reached the massive doors leading into the palace, I hadn’t counted any other dragons. I looked over to Thomas, wanting to say something to him, but could see he wanted silence. Instead, I started to ready myself for what we might face. I had no idea what I might encounter inside of the palace, but I knew that I wasn’t fully prepared to meet with the king.

15

As the door swung open, I stood and stared. There was some part of me that recognized how unusual this was. Here I was, little more than a farmer from the outskirts of the kingdom, now on the precipice of entering the king’s palace and having a conversation with him. Who was I to think that I had any place here?

Another part of me wished Joran had remained in the city. He would love to hear about this visit. I’m sure he would have something to say about it.

“You should remain silent,” Thomas said.

“I don’t intend to say anything,” I said.

“As I said. Silent.”

He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and then nodded, though I had the feeling that it was mostly for himself and not quite for me. He squeezed his hands, clenching and unclenching them, before walking into the palace.

I followed. There wasn’t anything else to do.

The inside was nicer than any place I’d ever been before. Massive columns of marble stretched from the marble-tiled floor to the enormous,