The Betrayed Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 2) by Dan Michaelson (best free ereader TXT) 📕

“Maybe it’s just my inexperience,” I said.

Thomas frowned. There was very little light around us, only a hint of the moonlight that still streamed down, casting a silver shadow across his face. The darkness and the shadows worked around him, making him seem even more irritated than he probably was. “Inexperience can lead to many things. Unfortunately, lack of control is one of the most dangerous, especially for those who are connected to power.”

“I would never have known that power before yesterday,” I said.

“Everybody has their own techniques,” he said. “In your case, I wonder if it is merely a matter of you finding some other way of connecting to the dragons. Perhaps that is all you need. Or perhaps it is a matter of time.”

“Why did you decide to work with me?”

“Because you recognized my connection to the dragons.” He motioned for me to follow, and we headed along the dragon pen to resume our position from the previous day. He took a seat on the ground and waited for me to follow him. When I did, he held my gaze. “What I want for you to do is to hold on to the power within. When you’re ready, let me know.”

I started to focus on the energy of the dragon, letting that power fill me. It flowed through me, striking the heat within my belly, cycling through my hands pressed together in front of me.

I could feel the energy roiling through me. There was nothing trickling about it.

Maybe it was simply a matter of my inexperience. Given my relatively advanced age coming to the Academy, it wouldn’t be altogether surprising that I would feel things were more complicated than they probably were.

“Do you have it?”

I nodded. “The power is there.”

Thomas leaned closer. Faint light gleamed across one of his cheeks. “Is it a torrent of power?”

I regretted using that term with him. “It is.”

“Try to tamp that torrent down,” he said.

“How?”

“You need to have control over it before you can use it. Most of the instructors within the Academy would like to tell people that they must simply unleash power without having any way of controlling it. They often overlook the key to limiting power at first. They are far too eager to explode that magic from them rather than understanding how it works before they do so.”

“How do I tamp it down?”

“What have they taught you about reaching for the connection to the dragons?”

I looked up, meeting his gaze. “I’m sure it’s the same as it always has been. Focus on breathing. Feel for the heat within me. Then relax.”

“It never changes,” Thomas said softly.

“If it works, then why change it?”

“Do you think it works?”

I shrugged. “I suppose I don’t know.”

“What I would suggest is trying to find someplace within you that you can push that power.”

I had tried that once before, and when I had, I had felt the way that power had bottled up within me, almost leaving me overwhelmed with it. Then again, I had also absorbed power from Brandel the night before. I suspected the green dragon had assisted with that, though I wasn’t entirely sure.

As that power rolled through me, cycling, I started to focus on the heat within me. That seemed to be some part of me I could regulate. I couldn’t control the power coming from the dragon, at least not without harming myself. When I had attempted to do that yesterday, all I had found was that I had ended up with the power losing control, blasting out of me. In this case, I thought I could stuff some of that energy down, deep into my core, and hold on to it.

As I began to focus on pushing the power down, I could feel it starting to flow deeper into me. It was still a torrent, but the more I pushed, sending the energy deeper and deeper into the heat within me, the more I could gain a sense of control over the power that flowed throughout me.

Gradually, control came to me. I felt it slowing.

The torrent eased.

It was still a heavy flow of power coming from the green dragon, almost some sort of a line I could feel, racing through me, but it wasn’t nearly what it had been. It seemed as if it dissipated as it flowed throughout me, drifting into some deep and buried part of me before flowing from one arm to the next.

“I can sense you gaining some measure of control,” Thomas said.

“It’s strange,” I said. “I feel like I need to force it into the heat within me.”

“Everybody has a different way of control,” Thomas said.

Even as he said it, I sensed that he was a bit discomforted by it, as if he were troubled by my way of controlling power. Was there something wrong with how I access that magic?

“What now?” I asked.

“Now you must continue to hold that focus. This is the next step in your understanding of the magic. Feel it flowing through you, control the power within you, and be ready to use it when we work the next time.”

He got to his feet and I frowned at him. “That’s it?”

“That is it for today. Were you expecting more?”

“I guess I expected I would try to learn a little bit more than that.”

“There are steps that must be completed.”

He started to move away, reaching a point along the backside of the dragon pen. I heard a scraping of metal, and then he was inside of the dragon pen.

I stared into the darkness, trying to make out what he was doing and where he was going, but I couldn’t see anything. I could feel his connection to the dragons, though. I recognized he was heading through the dragon pen, reaching for something, though I had no idea what it was or why he was doing it.

As he made his way across the yard, he suddenly stopped. There was still a connection within him, still some energy