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

“Listen,” I said, leaning forward. The dragons connected to me gave me a bit more agitation, and I recognized they were troubled by all of this as well. I needed to be done talking. It was time to act. “I felt the connection. I felt what they were trying to do. The Vard were attempting to connect to the cycle. If they managed to do that . . .”

“The Vard wouldn’t connect to a cycle,” he said. “They would have no ability to do so.”

“From what Natalie told me—”

“And what has Natalie told you?” the Sharath asked. “She has seen very little of the world.”

I hesitated. Did I have time for conversation? “She moved around with you,” I said.

“She has, but that doesn’t mean she understands.”

I looked over to her, and saw Natalie frowning. She was irritated at her father.

“Let me tell you what happened to me,” I said. “When I went to investigate, I could feel the Vard pulling upon me. I could feel their energy as it cycled. I could feel the way they tried to connect to my cycle. Had I not drawn as much energy as I had from the dragons, I might not have been able to withstand it. As it was, I barely managed to.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could feel the energy they were trying to pull off of me. When I went with Thomas into the Vard lands, I felt something there, as well.”

“You felt something in the Vard lands?” He watched me. “When was this?”

“A few days ago. Thomas thought I needed to know about the Vard lands so I could better understand what we’re dealing with. I think he wanted to ensure I understood it mostly because I kept pushing him, trying to get him to protect my homeland.”

“What exactly did you detect?”

“I detected the pull of the Vard—their attempt to latch on to the dragons and to link to the cycle. I detected . . .”

It was powerful, and even as I focused on it now, I could still feel that energy. It flowed, coming off of the dragons, coming to me. It came slowly, but still it came.

I had to continue cycling power through me and giving it to the dragons. I didn’t know if there were anything more taking place, but I felt there had to be.

Maybe I could use my existing cycle to add other dragons to it. If I could deflect their attack . . .

“The Vard should not have been able to pull upon the cycle. It would be too powerful for them.”

“I understand that, but I’m telling you what I detected from them. It was more than what I expected,” I said.

He frowned at me. “I see.”

“Do you? Because what I’m telling you is that—”

“What you’re telling me is that you fear the Vard, but let me tell you that there are no Vard that would need to be feared for something like that.”

“Even if they were Servants of Affellah?” I asked.

He frowned at me. “The servants have not been seen outside of Vard lands in a long time.”

“They would be if they were missing one of their own,” Natalie said. “Thomas captured one of the Servants.”

His eyes widened. “He has not reported that.”

“Should he have?” I asked.

“The king would’ve wanted to know.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Natalie said. “But there might be a reason Thomas would have withheld that information.”

Her father frowned, pressing his hands together, and he regarded me, then Natalie, before finally getting to his feet. “Come along. This might be something more than what we have anticipated.”

“What do you think it is, exactly?”

“This might be something dangerous. And the dragon mages and dragon riders whom we have sent away from here might be in far more danger than we expected.”

Which meant the king might use the dragon mages to truly destroy Berestal.

16

I waited outside of the throne room, sitting on a bench with Natalie sitting alongside me. Her father had gone ahead of us, and he was inside the room with the dragon mages assigned to the palace. No one had come out for us, though he had made it seem as if they would.

“The king is going to destroy my home,” I said.

She shook her head. “My father won’t let him.”

“Can he stop the king?”

She didn’t say anything.

“What do you think they’re talking about in there?” I asked her.

“Probably deciding whether or not they should rely upon what we have seen and done.”

“The king knows I’ve helped him in the past.”

“Hopefully that’s enough for him to trust what you have to say,” she said.

I frowned, but she was right. I didn’t know if that was going to be enough to get the king to trust me, to believe what I had to say, but it felt like it needed to be, somehow. Maybe having the Sharath here would make a difference—having him know what we were dealing with and the threat we’d reported to him—though I wasn’t sure if it would matter. It was possible that the king wouldn’t know how to react, even if the Sharath expressed his concern.

There was another possibility, though—one that left me a little more troubled than the others. I hadn’t given much thought to it, and I hadn’t shared it with Natalie, but it was the one that would be the most troublesome if it were true. There was the possibility the king knew about Thomas having captured one of the Servants. If he knew, then the king either didn’t care, or he supported what had happened.

I tried not to think that the king would do that, but at the same time, why should he not? The Vard had been our enemies for a long time, certainly long enough that we had no reason to treat them with any sort of kindness. The Vard had proven they were willing to harm our people, and because of that, we had no reason to treat them with anything but the