CHAPTER SIX

  Ty paused near a velum snare. Snares meant hunters, and that surprised him, as they were quite close to the peak of the volcano, far closer than he would’ve expected them to have traveled, especially with the recent activity going on through the jungle. With so many Tecal, priests, and even Dragon Touched moving through here, it made little sense. These days, the Path of the Flame was far busier than it had been in quite some time, as if the priests felt like they had an obligation to keep traveling up Ishantil and trying to calm things.

  He cut through the snare, just as his mother had shown him, and even made a slash along the base of the trunk. When another velum cried out, Ty paused. It wasn’t a trapped velum. That wasn’t the sound.

  Whatever this was, he didn’t recognize the source of it.

  He reached for the smoke dragon. It should react to him. He knew that he should have some control over the smoke dragon so that he could force that energy outward, and command the smoke dragon to protect him, but the dragon did not react the way that he needed.

  “There are other creatures that need your help,” he whispered.

  There came a faint stirring.

  A stirring was not enough, and certainly not fast enough, for him to utilize.

  He had to move carefully, and he picked his way between the trees. When the ground trembled again, he paused.

  There was another surge around him, a hint of darkness, and though he didn’t know if this was the shadow dragon of Gayal or Dorian, he doubted that to be the case. With the velum angered as they had been, it was all too easy to believe there was another cause behind it. Especially given what he knew about Roson James and his experience with the velum. They did not care for him. They had chased him, which brought a smile to Ty’s face.

  A shadow moved closer to him.

  It wasn’t a velum, though.

  He reached for his dragon-bone dagger.

  He unsheathed it, wishing that he had his dragon-bone crossbow as well. He had taken to leaving that behind. It was a weapon of the Order, and Ty wanted to be Tecal. He spent his time training to be a Tecal and believed that he shouldn’t carry a weapon of the enemy, even if it was easy to use and offered a measure of protection. A measure that his smoke dragon certainly had not been providing recently.

  “I’m going to need your help,” he whispered. “I know that you don’t like to offer me anything, but I’m going to need it. I don’t want you arguing with me.”

  The smoke dragon didn’t respond.

  And as the shadows moved near him, Ty found himself turning carefully, making his way around the trunk of the tree, trying to avoid the danger that was here, somewhere.

  It had to be Lothinal.

  “You saw what they did,” Ty mouthed. He wasn’t willing to speak now. If Lothinal was here, and if they were somehow targeting this part of Ishantil, then he needed to be careful. “You felt what they wanted to do to the volcano. What they wanted to do to me. Can you at least help?”

  Finally, there came a faint fluttering, and some of the heat came out.

  The smoke dragon was there. He had to try to find a way to control it, though.

  He had no way to do that. He knew that he couldn’t, but it was what Gayal and Dorian expected of him. He was a Tecal, or at least, he would be once he mastered his connection to the dragon, that is, if he ever could master the connection. It would help him, and he could use that connection, and that energy, and he could defend himself. If it would help him…

  There was a trembling energy buried within him.

  That was something new.

  It reminded him of the strange trembling within Ishantil.

  Perhaps his proximity to the volcano and to the lava dragon, were the cause.

  He moved.

  A shadow started toward him.

  The smoke dragon reacted.

  Smoke surged outward, enveloping him in a protective cloud.

  Clutching the dragon-bone dagger, he turned in place, holding it out from him. He wasn’t much of a fighter, but he had lived on the streets long enough to know how to handle himself in a fight. You couldn’t be a thief in Zarinth without getting into a few scraps, and Ty had some skill, though not as much as he wished that he would have. It was times like these when he missed Eastley most. He had been a much larger man than Ty, much stronger, and much better in a fight. Eastley might not have been the planner that Ty was, but he had many traits that were missed.

  Mostly, it was his friendship. Ty had few friends. None, really. Bingham couldn’t be counted on as a friend. Oh, Bingham had worked with him, and had helped him, but he wasn’t a friend so much as he was a resource. There was a time when Ty wished that Olivia would have been a friend, but she had burned that bridge when she’d led to Eastley’s death. Everybody else that he knew were older, and while they might be friendly, like Maeve or Maggie, they weren’t friends, either.

  He pushed those thoughts aside.

  The darkness swept toward him.

  It flowed, and Ty felt a heavy pressure surround him as the energy surged toward him. It was Lothinal. They had their own unique connection to magic, and it was one that Ty had come to recognize. It was dangerous.

  Now was not the time to wait.

  Now was the time to take action. He didn’t have many options, but he knew that he could overpower the first attacker. He darted out, bringing his dagger forward, slamming it into the first of the Order to attack. The smoke dragon swirled violently around him. Ty was shocked, but that was what he had wanted, wasn’t it? He had needed the smoke dragon to react and defend him.

  With one of the Order bleeding at his feet, he readied for the next attack when the dragon bone of his dagger began to glow. This is new. As he ducked and wove, the dagger’s glow pushed back the strange darkness around him revealing a man with a shadow orb in one hand and a dark, curved scimitar in the other.

  The man surged forward, sword raised, but Ty was ready. The smoke dragon guided him forward, leading his dagger into the man’s belly. Smoke swirled around the man, enveloping him as he screamed, muting it.

  Then the smoke enclosed itself around him and pushed him aside.

  There was another trembling, and a hint of heat.

  It was the other dragon.

  They were working together.

  Smoke guided him; heat flowed along his dagger.

  He had used both of them.

  They were reacting, working together, and helping him. He wasn’t sure if they were here because he called to them, or if they were here because they sensed his need. But at this point, he didn’t care. The only thing that he cared about was that they had reacted.

  The dagger pulsed brighter with each swing and carved through the darkness, revealing a black-haired woman, eyes wide at Ty’s sudden appearance in front of her. He slashed, cutting at her sword arm. The blade clattered against rocks at their feet. He lashed out at her again, but she reacted quickly, dropping low and diving toward him.

  He had to be definitive.

  Ty had to use the smoke. He had seen the way that smoke dragon could attack.

  He just had to control it. Or he had to allow the smoke dragon to control him. Was that what was needed?

  She tackled Ty, knocking the dagger from his grasp as the strange Lothinal magic continued swirling around them, tighter and tighter. He fell back, stars bursting behind his eyes as his head slammed into the ground.

  The woman gripped the orb in both her hands and raised it over her head. Head swimming, Ty felt his hand moving forward, and familiar wood and warmth filled his hand. He slashed wildly across the woman as she tried to bring the orb crashing into his face. The dagger glowed, cleaving through the wispy darkness around her then through her. She cried out, but it was muted, nearly silent. Smoke enveloped them both, and the shadow orb rolled down the mountainside as the woman crumpled into lifelessness.

  Ty rolled himself up with tears streaming down his face, obscuring his vision. Two were down, but he knew there had to be more. What if Roson James is here? His stomach clenched as he tried to clear his head and find the other Order members. Maybe this was a mistake.

  Smoke swirled around him, and the heat in his belly grew.

  And there was a trembling. That trembling had persisted.

  It was a surprising energy, and that trembling that lingered, flowing all around him, seemed more potent than what he could have expected.

  But it also seemed to push him, guiding him forward. It was similar to how the smoke had guided him. He wasn’t alone.

  I can do this.

  Darkness might push against him, the Lothinal magic, but as he held up his dragon-bone dagger, light surged forth, pushing away the darkness. The orbs held by the Order could not overpower the light and heat. Ishantil had more than enough strength to overwhelm their magic. He had seen it before at the lava lake, where they had repelled James last. They had thought they could destroy the Flame, but Ishantil was strong enough to prevent that.

  He slashed again and again, his dragon-bone dagger carving streaks of light through the darkness around him. With each slash, there was a faint resistance as the magical darkness surrounding him cleared.

  And then an explosion of power struck him.

  He didn’t know if it was from Lothinal or if it came from the power that he was channeling through the dragons. Whatever it was, it was powerful.

  He was in the air. Ty tried to control his fall. He twisted, wanting to protect his head from another blow. Air rushed from his lungs as he landed with a dull thud. Ty gasped desperately for air, and as his vision cleared, he saw smoke swirling violently around him. Could that be the smoke dragon?

  He didn’t know. And at this point, he didn’t know that it mattered. The smoke dragon had helped, but he needed more than just a little help. He had thought that he might be able to use the smoke dragon to fight off Lothinal, or perhaps even the lava dragon, but the two of them weren’t enough. He had made a mistake. For all that Ty thought that he might be able to do, he didn’t have enough of a connection to overwhelm this power.

  Ty groaned and pushed himself to his feet, barely able to grip his dagger. Nearby, one of the velum cried out, and he heard scrabbling in the darkness. He stabbed blindly.

  He didn’t see anything, but he felt it. A man’s body collapsed at his feet, and the velum fell silent.

  Another shriek.

  This one was closer, and he spun, slashing wildly. Another dull resistance and the velum fell silent. He had to do something. His dragons were doing their best to guide and protect him, but it wasn’t enough. He needed more help. The velum.

  Ty whistled.

  It was the only thing that he could think of doing. He had managed to fight this far with his dagger and dragons, but it hadn’t been enough. Not against the power of Lothinal.

  The velum shrieked and stomped in the trees. They were there in the jungle around him, crying out against the intruders. Their calls were a warning, as if they were trying to guide him to safety. He had only to follow that warning.

  So he did. Ty focused on the velum, focused on the cries they made, and he focused on their steady shrieks. He listened and responded.

  One by one, the velum cried out again. One by one the forest began to ring with their sound of their voices. Velum were shrieking all around him.

  There was a trembling in the ground.

  It was almost as if Ishantil were answering his summons. Not Ishantil the dragon, but Ishantil the volcano, coming to his aid.

  He focused on the energy around him. He had to use that.

  He got to his feet.

  The smoke still swirled around him, evidence of the smoke dragon protecting him. Though he could feel it, he wasn’t in any control over it. If he could be, he wouldn’t have to fear the attack. But his dagger still glowed as well.

  There was no other pressure against him. It seemed to have faded away, giving him a moment to regroup and breathe. He was going to need more than just to regroup, though. If Lothinal had returned, and if they were attacking, regrouping wasn’t going to be enough. He would have to attack, drive them out, be the Tecal that he trained to be.

  Only he was not that person. His dragons did not react that way.

  And the only thing that he could do was to use the tricks of the jungle around him. Maybe that would be enough.

  Ty whistled again.

  The velum called out.

  He could hear them coming. The trees swayed, rustling, and that trembling that he’d been hearing seem to take on a different meaning. He didn’t know if it was the velum coming toward him or Ishantil rumbling on his behalf. He no longer cared.

  He whistled again.

  This time, though, there was a different reaction. There was a pressure. There was a darkness.

  And he felt the energy.

  He didn’t move. The dagger glowed, and the smoke swirled, but that wasn’t what worried him nearly as much.

  Ty cried out.

  All around him, the velum shrieked.

  Ty held up the dragon-bone dagger, pushing through the pain, using the trembling he could feel deep within him, and the dagger incandesced. Its light intensified, more and more, burning out into the night, the glowing threatening to blind him.

  The velum shrieked.

  Trees around him swayed, and the velum were moving, some racing away, others coming toward him. Another shriek.

  As soon as the velum shrieked, something echoed deep within Ty. It was the smoke dragon. Power bloomed within him, stretching outward into a pale haze of energy. He could see the energy looping out and around him. The smoke dragon had reacted. A hint of light began to radiate, coming from some place deep within him.

  Ty brandished the dragon-bone dagger.

  A dark swirl of energy pressed upon him. It muted the velum shrieking, and Ty stared. The smoke dragon had continued to push on that darkness, as if there was something there the smoke dragon had uncovered and was trying to overwhelm. He could see it, but more than that, he could feel it.

  As he did, he realized what it was. Shadows, but not shadows like those from Gayal or Dorian’s shadow dragons. This came from something different. It came from something more dangerous.

  The smoke dragon continued to push, sweeping outward, and radiating away from him. He was not in control of it. Regardless of what Dorian or Gayal said to him about what he needed to do with the dragon, he never felt as if she had any control over it. He could feel the waves of energy sweeping through him, and he attempted to use it, but it worked on its own. The dragon worked on his own.

  It pressed against that dark power and began to burn. The burning seared throughout his body. The dragon was consuming some part of his own strength to draw enough power to break free. They were working together, he knew, one granting power to another, but Ty didn’t necessarily have any real strength.

  Light exploded around him.

  Then the darkness collapsed.

  Roson James stood before him, his black hair was slicked back, a sneer crossing his face. He was dressed in black leathers.

  Not black. A deep brown that had been dyed black.

  His clothing was made of velum.

  Their shrieking made more sense.

  He held two items, one in each hand, and the same strange energy radiated outward, a swirling of darkness that reminded Ty of shadows. Perhaps that was what was.

  The smoke dragon radiated from Ty, working around James, but it was pushed back. As the dragon attempted to get closer, Ty could feel something powerful coming from those strange orbs. He had never known what it was, but something clicked, and it made sense.

  It was familiar to him.

  He never would’ve noticed it before because he wasn’t familiar enough with the dragons, but now that he had felt their power surging through him, he recognized it. The two orbs contained dragons.

  The smoke dragon seemed to recognize that, as well.

  Ty had no control. The smoke dragon slammed into Roson James. Ty did his best to follow up on the sudden attack. He slammed his shoulder into Roson, knocking him to the ground. They scrabbled on the ground as the dropped orbs rolled away, one skittering across the clearing under a tree.

  Roson grabbed for his other orb, but Ty brought his dragon-bone dagger down, slamming it into the orb.

  He had no idea whether it would even work. Dragon bones were sharp and strong, but this was another dragon-bone artifact.

  The orb shattered. Darkness radiated outward. And then the darkness swirled. As it did, he waited for that darkness to attack, but it drifted off, heading into the jungle, and disappeared.

  Roson tried to get up, but Ty kicked him. He wheezed as the air left his lungs. Then the smoke swirled, forcing its way down Roson’s throat. He tried to take in a breath, his eyes bulging, going wide, and then he faded into unconsciousness.

  Ty got up, made his way over toward the other orb, and drove his blade into that one as well. It shattered, releasing another streamer of darkness. Perhaps another shadow dragon, or maybe something else. Whatever else it was, it disappeared, heading off into the jungle.

  A rustling in the trees caught his attention. He spun, smoke swirling away from him that he could not control, but then it faltered. “Gayal. I got him. I stopped Roson James.”

  He was tired. Far more tired than he had expected.

  Everything hurt.

  He started to fade, and then Gayal was there, grabbing him, and he finally relaxed.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The lava lake glowed in the morning light. Ty sat next to it, knees pulled up to his chest, looking over to where three of the Tecal surrounded Roson James. Dragons circled around him, though not clearly visible. It was more something Ty could feel than what he could see. As those dragons pressed upon Roson James, there was a distinct energy coming from them, and something that Ty thought that he could recognize. He wasn’t sure what it was, though.

  Ty looked up to Gayal. “Has he spoken?”

  He had been concerned that Roson might’ve been killed by the smoke dragon, but it had retreated back into Ty as soon as he had gone unconscious. Even now, Ty could feel the steady burning deep within him. It radiated outward, leaving him feeling that hint of the dragon, but nothing more than that.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25