“You didn’t know they had dragons?”

  “We never considered the dragons would be smoke or wind or fire.”

  They veered off the path again, taking another direction, and continued making their way. Ty was forced to follow his brother, or Zara, unable to navigate on his own. It bothered him that he couldn’t.

  “You mentioned a curse.”

  “The curse is that we must find places of potential. Otherwise, we are…”

  “Unstable,” Albion finished for her.

  “Why unstable?”

  “Because they search for the Flame,” he said. “And they search for the Manifestation of the Flame to help provide stability that they need. Until they find that, they cannot maintain their connection as well as they should.”

  Ty found this all strangely fascinating, though he knew that it should not fascinate him. This was Zara’s life, not some curiosity. But there was something quite intriguing about it all to him. “What happens if you never have the potential that you need?”

  “Without that potential, we fade,” she said. We cannot take on our form, and we cannot do what must be done.”

  “What must be done?”

  “We continue our search for a way to help my people. Unfortunately, time grows short.”

  “Why?”

  Zara turned away from him suddenly, and there came a vibrant burst from her, her fiery wings stretching away from her once again. As they did, they didn’t seem quite as bright as they had the last time. Ty stared, but looked off into the distance as well, curious about what she might have detected. She had picked up on something.

  They were quiet, motionless, waiting.

  “Is there anything out there?” Albion whispered.

  “I can feel something,” Zara said, though her voice remained quiet. “I’m not sure what it is. Perhaps it’s nothing, but I cannot tell.”

  Ty looked past the two of them. He was increasingly aware of Albion. He was like a shadowy form in front of him. At least it seemed as if he was regaining some of his vision. He needed time. Whether it was time for him to recover or it was time for the smoke dragons to restore him, Ty didn’t know. But that time seemed to help. He believed that with enough time, he would be able to see again.

  As he stared into the distance, he could make out the faint tracing of a darkened shape. It struck him as uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure why, but the more that he stared, the more certain he was that there was something out there that pressed inward, pushing against them.

  That had to be Lothinal and their connection to their power.

  “They’re coming for us,” Ty said. “Me. You.” He looked over to Zara. “Maybe even you, Albion. You were the Dragon Thief.”

  They would draw Lothinal’s attention. That was not what he wanted, but if he could stop Roson James…

  “She won’t have the strength to deal with them for long,” Albion said. “It’s why we returned to the capital. It’s too dangerous for her anywhere else.”

  “Why is it too dangerous?”

  “Because she’s not as strong as she once was. I’m sorry, but you’re not,” Albion said, turning, probably to Zara. “Unfortunately, over time, her kind begins to grow weaker. It’s an inherent challenge for one of her kind. Part of the curse, as it were.”

  “You still think this is some sort of a curse?” Ty asked.

  “It is,” Zara said, her voice soft, little more than a whisper. “It very much is.”

  “So this curse, it somehow weakens you?”

  “Gradually, and over time. Eventually, we begin to fade. Coming to places that are powerful with the Flame, potential, as it were, can help, but it often is not enough.”

  Ty looked back. For some reason, he was vaguely aware of the location of the steam fields, the power that was there, the potential within that reservoir. “Then we can go back.”

  “It’s not safe there,” Albion said. “They’ve been chasing her kind away from places like that for many years.”

  “So they’ve known about them?”

  “They’ve known about dragons and how there are places of potential that can call to the dragons. They didn’t necessarily know that they could take on a different form.”

  “And you are getting weaker,” Ty said, looking over to her. He could see the blurred shape of her, though the brightness of her dragon form remained. It was somewhat evident in her wings, the way that they started to fade, but there was something else. “I can see your wings fading. Shrinking.”

  “You shouldn’t be able to see that.”

  “But he can,” Albion said. There was a bit of heat in his voice, the same heat that he had when he had been trying to claim that Ty was something that he was not.

  “It’s the dragons,” Ty said.

  “Are you sure about that?” Albion asked.

  Ty wanted to say that he was sure. That it could be nothing else. He could vaguely feel the power of the dragons within him. How could he not? They were a steady burning that built within him, but as he thought about it, he was not sure if that was the case. The wrapping of heat coming off of her had been evident even before he could feel the dragons.

  “Let’s keep going,” he said.

  “Can you find her?” Albion asked.

  “I keep hoping that she will find us. If she knows that Lothinal is coming for us, I have to believe that she would make a move as well.”

  Gayal wouldn’t leave them to be attacked. She wouldn’t leave him to be attacked. Especially if it meant that dragons would be in danger. Lothinal had already proven that they knew how to harm the dragons attached to the Tecal, even being able to slaughter them. If they were to capture him, the same fate would befall more dragons. Not just him, not just the dragons he had bonded to, but perhaps others that remained free in the world. Perhaps those like Zara.

  They made their way along the path, and gradually, Ty’s eyesight began to return. It happened slowly as the day went on. He noticed it in shifting shadows at first, but then it became more than just those shifting shadows. It began to become a hint of light, something that was more than Zara’s wings. He noticed it in the stretch of fire around him, and then he began to see it in the sunlight.

  As dusk began to fall, Ty could see much better once more.

  There was still a sense of haze around him, but out here in this place, he didn’t know how much of that haze came from what had happened to him and how much of it was from the steam fields.

  “This entire area is massive,” he muttered at one point.

  Albion looked over to him. Sweat streamed down his brow, and he had his cloak slung over his arm, as if no longer willing to wear it and suffer under the heat from it.

  “The Flame is many places,” he said.

  Ty snorted, and he turned to Zara. “How did you deal with him like this?”

  She shrugged slightly. “It’s not that bad. You get used to him and his comments.”

  Ty snorted. “I’m not so sure that I could ever get used to it.”

  Albion shot him a look, and Ty shrugged. “We’re going to have to find a place to camp for the night,” he said. “And if Lothinal is still out there”—and so far, they hadn’t seen any sign of Lothinal since earlier in the day, though Ty believed they were still pursued—“we’re going to have to find some way of protecting ourselves. How much can you do, Albion?”

  Ty had not asked his brother the direct question, but it seemed like it was a fitting time. His brother wanted to claim that he was a priest, and nothing more, but he was, and so it didn’t matter what he wanted to claim for himself. Not at this point. He needed to acknowledge the truth of himself, and he needed to be willing to reveal whether he was more than just a priest, and whether he was a Dragon Touched.

  “I have several different remnants that could be useful,” he said softly. “I try not to use them if it’s not necessary, but if it comes down to it, I will do whatever I need to in order to protect us.”

  Albion looked over to Zara as he said it, and Ty smiled. At least his brother would do what was necessary to protect his wife, but what would he do to protect his brother?

  In Ty’s experience, his brother hadn’t been willing to do anything to protect him. In Ty’s experience, his brother had been more than content to leave him behind, to suffer, and to try to find his own way.

  “And you?” Ty asked Zara.

  “I don’t know how much strength I have. When I protected you in the temple, it took quite a bit out of me. It will take time for me to restore myself. I came to the steam fields in order to borrow from the potential here, but it’s slow. It might be easier in Zarinth, but this is what we have.”

  “There’s no way for you to connect to the potential more directly?” Even when he had been calling upon the smoke dragon, it had seemed to Ty that he could feel that potential more potently. It was almost as if by doing that, he could actually connect it to himself, even though he had not.

  “Not exactly.”

  He bit back any further comment. He ignored the way that Albion looked at him as well.

  “I’m hopeful that the smoke dragon, and perhaps even Ishantil, will react if we need them. Then again, they aren’t always the most reliable. I’ve been told that I need to gain a better control over my dragons, and if I can’t, then I’m not going to be much of a Tecal.” Ty snorted, and he shook his head. “I’ve never intended to be much of a Tecal, but once I forge this connection to the dragon, I wanted to better understand it. I didn’t want to lose it.” He felt like he was rambling now, but the others weren’t talking, and he was bothered by it.

  “It’s something that I think our mother would’ve appreciated,” Ty said, glancing over to Albion. “Not that I think that our mother would’ve understood what it was like to have a connection to this, but I do think that she would have appreciated it.”

  “What do you mean that you don’t think our mother would have understood?” Albion asked.

  “I don’t know. Mother never seemed like she had any connection. Was she Dragon Touched?” He didn’t think that she was Tecal. But perhaps she was and kept her dragon hidden from her.

  He thought about the lacquered box that Maeve had given him, a box that had once been his mother’s, and was now his. He thought about what he might find within that and whether those sculptures meant something to her. Perhaps that was some Tecal remnant of hers.

  “Of course Mother had a connection to the dragons. Because she was—”

  Albion didn’t have the chance to finish.

  A burst of power thundered near them.

  Dark power.

  Lothinal attacked.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Ty spun, and he immediately began to focus on the smoke dragon, trying to call to that dragon, thinking that if he could summon that energy buried within him they might have the help that they needed. He could see the haze around them, and knew they were still on the edge of the steam fields, though not nearly to the heart of it where the massive geyser that he had helped erupt remained.

  If he could somehow connect to that power, maybe he could coax something out and convince the smoke dragon to be a part of any sort of fighting.

  “You can come out now any time,” he muttered.

  Albion had a pair of dragon remnants in his hands. He couldn’t tell what they were, but they both looked shaped like long, slender rods. They had been enormous bones at one point.

  Zara was quiet. He could see the faint glowing around her, and though the time traveling had allowed her to recuperate somewhat, even Ty was aware that her wings were not as pronounced as they had been before. Her attempt at protecting him, all of them, had taken something out of her that she had not had to spare.

  He couldn’t ask that of her again. It took everything out of Zara to simply be. He didn’t want to drain her and leave her with nothing left.

  He needed his dragons to help.

  Another burst of power came, and it seemed like it was closer.

  But this one seemed like it came from the opposite direction.

  He swore under his breath. “Great,” he muttered. “We are going to get pinched in between two attacks from Lothinal.”

  “What should we do?” Zara asked.

  Ty looked over to the two of them.

  This was the Dragon Thief and his wife, the person who had probably been more of the Dragon Thief. Between the two of them, Ty would’ve expected that they would have come up with some answer, but they seemed to be looking to him. He didn’t know that he had much of an answer, either. He stood there, feeling the burning within him, and he was aware of something else. He was aware of the faint trembling of energy that fluttered from him, heading downward.

  The smoke dragon hadn’t abandoned him. The smoke dragon lingered there, and was still pressing down, holding power, and pushing it out and away from them. It was remaining connected to the reservoir of power beneath them. To the potential.

  An idea began to form in Ty’s mind.

  He took a deep breath, and he scanned the steam fields.

  It was getting dark, which put them at a disadvantage. Lothinal, and their own strange magic, would cast everything in even greater shadows. Ty could see Zara and her wings, but he wasn’t able to make out anything beyond that.

  Eventually, they would either have to make a run, or they would have to fight.

  He would much rather fight one at a time rather than getting pinched in between the two attackers. And he didn’t want to separate. If they were to split off, there was a real possibility that the Lothinal attackers would have an easier time getting to them.

  No. They couldn’t separate.

  Which meant that they had to take a different tactic.

  “I think one of these is closer to us,” Ty said, looking over to Zara and Albion. “It means backtracking a little bit, but there might be some advantage in that.” He glanced to Zara and saw her nodding slowly. The glowing of her wings persisted, and it might be his imagination, but it seemed almost as if it were glowing a little bit more brightly than it had been before. “If we backtrack carefully enough, I suspect that we can get to the nearest of the Lothinal attackers, stop them, and then we can move on.” He looked over to the two of them. “It might mean that you have to fight. I don’t know how you feel about that.”

  “I feel better about fighting than I do about dying,” Albion said. “And if it will protect her, I’m going to do whatever it takes.”

  Ty smiled tightly. “Did you do much fighting as the Dragon Thief?”

  “Really, Ty? Is now the time?”

  “I would love to hear some of those stories,” Ty muttered.

  He had heard rumors of the Dragon Thief exploits, but he had never really expected that he would have the opportunity to hear the true tales himself. If Albion were willing to share, why shouldn’t Ty ask?

  “You don’t want to tell me?”

  “I don’t think that you need to know,” Albion said. “I don’t want to inspire you like that.”

  “Too late,” Ty said. He turned back and followed the path. As before, he couldn’t help but marvel at the timbers set out in the pathway. Whoever had placed them had taken considerable care to work it along here. They were massive, thick, and must’ve been incredibly difficult to bring here. “Did the priests build this?”

  “This was here before the temple,” Albion said.

  “So not your priests?” Ty asked, glancing over to Albion.

  “Not that I know of. These are incredibly old. And they are not any kind of tree that we have around here.” Albion swept his gaze around, before looking down at the ground again. “There are some who speculate that these once grew here.”

  The idea that anything could grow in the steam fields left Ty surprised. This place was hot, arid, and the only life were these strange scraggly plants that seemed to thrive in the steam and the heat, but he couldn’t imagine anything else growing here.

  The pressure from Lothinal continued to build.

  As he headed toward it, Ty began to focus on the smoke dragon. It was time that he gained some mastery over it. He had gone far too long without controlling it. Maybe it had always been about control. He had tried to deny that for far too long, allowing himself to think that it was not a matter of control, but of him gaining an understanding with the dragon. But now that it came down to a choice between his survival or upsetting the dragon, Ty knew what he would choose. How could he choose any other way?

  Then he saw the dark shadow. It began to build, a soft sweeping energy that was working its way toward them. The smoke began to build within him, building up even more than it had before, and it pressed downward. He could feel it flooding outward, beneath the ground, not staying within him.

  “What are you doing?” Ty muttered.

  “What is it?” Albion asked. “Can you tell something about them?”

  “Oh, it’s not Lothinal,” Ty said. “They’re making their way here with their strange magic, but it’s the stupid dragon,” he went on. “By the Flame, I wish this dragon would just help.”

  He felt the dragon pushing upward against the ground.

  “You know, you can follow the same way you went in,” he muttered.

  There was a strange sensation as the dragon continued to press. It felt like he was trying to draw on some kind of nearby energy. Ty was all too aware of that dragon energy, and all too aware of how it flowed, and could make out that power as it coursed through him, as well as how the dragon was attempting to call upon more.

  Potential. That was what the dragon was trying to reach.

  The darkness surged toward them.

  Zara wrapped her wings around them, protecting them from that energy of Lothinal, and Ty glanced over to her. “You don’t need to do this,” he said.

 

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