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

“What are you doing to me?” I asked.

The Sharath continued watching me, saying nothing.

That power squeezed, pressing in upon me, and I continued to struggle against it, wanting nothing more than to withstand what he was doing.

This wasn’t the power of a single dragon.

I wasn’t sure how many dragons he had connected to, but maybe I could figure out more about what he was doing and how he was doing it.

Rather than resisting, I let him squeeze. It was unpleasant, but it wasn’t painful.

There was something about the way he did it that suggested I could track the energy he used. I followed the flow of power. There was a pattern within the room that was invisible to me. He hadn’t even needed to create a band of power the way I did when using the dragon mage magic; despite that, he still had managed to squeeze me with it. That was a unique technique. Perhaps he wasn’t just a dragon mage.

Did the Djarn have more control over the dragons than the dragon mages?

I glanced over at Natalie, but she didn’t seem to be paying any attention to me. She made a point of looking at her father. The energy swirling around me had a distinct pattern to it. As I focused on how he pulled that energy, I could see the pattern, even if I couldn’t do anything to withstand it. It was an interlocking weave that reminded me of a combination of what Walter and Eleanor had shown me. It was delicate, and the speed with which he had used it surprised me. It suggested he was incredibly powerful.

I had no idea whether I could do anything to protect myself, but I needed to somehow. I also had no idea if the type of weave Walter had demonstrated would even be effective, but perhaps I could try it now.

I focused. If I could use it, and if I could make it similarly invisible, then perhaps I could resist what he attempted. The invisibility piece was the most difficult, but I saw how he used it and how he made it invisible, and I thought I could do something similar.

I pushed energy up through my shoulders, splitting the weave, hiding it within myself. I wrapped the barrier the way Walter had demonstrated, not needing speed, only needing strength. Thankfully, somehow I had succeeded in keeping the bands of power invisible, and as I wrapped them around me, creating the cage, they solidified. The pressure upon me suddenly faded.

“Who taught you that?” the Sharath asked.

“Who taught me what? How to withstand one of the Djarn dragon mages or how to create a protection against your use of magic?”

He studied me. Finally, he turned and looked over to Natalie. “Did you know he could do this?”

“I know he has shown potential,” she said. “Especially considering what he did with the vessels.”

“I see.”

Even though the pressure squeezing down upon me had faded, I didn’t release my hold on the cage around me. I didn’t want to do so until I was certain it wouldn’t be needed anymore. I didn’t want to have the Sharath continuing his assault upon me.

He watched me. “That will be unnecessary,” he told me, as if reading my thoughts.

“Are you going to use your magic on me again?”

“I don’t think there’s a need to do so any longer.”

“Why did you do it in the first place?”

“It was a test. Nothing more than that.”

I grunted. “It’s more than just a test,” I said.

He smiled. “Perhaps you think so, but it is a test, nonetheless.”

I released the cage around me, pulling it back inside, cycling it out to the other dragons. When I did, there was a faint fluttering of power out there, enough that I could still feel the influence of the Vard. Wherever they were, they still approached, making their way toward us—and they still intended to attack.

I glanced over to Natalie before releasing my hold over the power, and when I did, it dissipated quickly. I breathed out and looked to see what her father was doing, and found him regarding me.

“How is it you learned to connect to the dragons that way?”

“I don’t really know,” I said. “It happened by accident. When I was trying to help one of the dragons whose power was stolen, I found I could press it into another.”

“You discovered this by accident? No one demonstrated it for you?”

“No. Most of the instructors I worked with at the Academy tried to connect power in a different way.”

The only person I had seen cycling through the dragons had been Thomas. Even when he had, I hadn’t noticed him connecting directly in the same way. The way in which I had connected to the cycle was quite different from how Thomas had. I suspected that mattered in some way, and given the way Natalie’s father reacted, it seemed important, though I wasn’t sure how or why.

He looked over to Natalie before turning his attention back to me. “What you have done is similar to a technique of the Djarn. Those who can connect to the dragons join in a circle. That is what we call it. I suppose ‘cycle’ makes a certain sort of sense, as well. Given what you have described, I imagine that power cycles from one to another, working from one dragon to the next.”

I nodded. “It does.”

“Interesting. And you’re the only dragon mage who is a part of this cycle?”

“As far as I know. Why . . .”

I realized why he asked. The Djarn linked people within the cycle almost as much as they linked dragons. That had to be his reason for asking.

“How many of the Djarn are in your circle?”

“It depends upon a number of dragons,” he said. “Unfortunately, there aren’t nearly as many dragons within our lands as there once were.” His gaze went over to the door, and I imagined his frustration was tied to the fact that the kingdom had taken many of the