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

had. Power coursed up from deep within the dragon, and I strained to maintain my seat.

“What do you think?” Thomas asked, glancing back. He sat casually and almost comfortably. As the dragon took to the sky, Thomas leaned slightly forward, though there was a hint of tension within him. Maybe he wasn’t nearly as comfortable as he appeared.

“It isn’t what I expected,” I yelled, trying to keep my voice above the roar of the wind that swirled off of the dragon with every pump of his massive wings. The heat radiating upward kept me comfortable at least, though I didn’t know if that would shift over time.

“Just wait,” Thomas said.

The dragon suddenly banked, and I squeezed the scales to hold on to his back as we tilted. We streaked above the forest.

We weren’t even that high—just high enough so that I could look down off of the dragon’s back and into the forest. I was reminded of when I’d chased the black dragon after Jerith had brought me there, finding the Djarn instead.

I scanned the forest, looking for any sign of the Djarn. Considering how difficult it was to see them from the ground, I didn’t expect to have it any easier looking at them from above. There was nothing but an undulating forest. In the darkness, it was difficult to make anything out. Perhaps it would have been different if we had gone in the daylight.

The dragon moved quickly, sweeping above the forest top, heading west.

“We’re going toward Berestal,” I said softly.

Thomas glanced back at me. “Are we?”

I frowned, looking off and trying to squint into the distance, but I couldn’t make anything out. “At least, it would be in this direction,” I said. “Whether we’re actually going that far is a different matter.”

“If we were to travel for much of the morning, we would probably reach Berestal eventually. Even by dragon, it is a considerable distance.”

I shifted.

“What are you looking for, then?”

“You have proven that you have a way of feeling for the connection to the dragons.” Thomas looked back at me, practically twisting off to the side so that he could stare at me. “I would like you to use that technique now.”

“For what?”

“For the reason you have mentioned. We’ve lost several of our dragons. It is unusual for the king to have them go missing from within the city. I thought we would look.”

That surprised me. What he left unsaid was that it wouldn’t be nearly as unusual for them to go missing outside of the city. “Do you think it’s the Vard or . . .”

“It wouldn’t be the first time that the Vard have tried to acquire a dragon, would it? You’ve seen that yourself. But there are others interested in the king’s dragons.”

I nodded. “I didn’t think the Vard had anybody capable of using dragon magic.”

“That’s the belief. Those of us who’ve dealt with them have tried to convince the king otherwise. There are several of us who believe that some of the Vard are equipped to use that power. It’s just a matter of revealing them. So far, the Vard have not done so.”

He turned back, sitting upright, and though I could feel his connection to the dragon, I could feel something more. He was testing for something else that was out there.

It came to me as a faint fluttering of power, then became a surge of energy that stretched away from him, pressing out before circling back around. He was testing for a dragon connection. He was testing for anything that would suggest that there were dragons out there.

“You think they would be in the forest?”

“I’m hopeful they would be. If they aren’t, it means something more.”

“What exactly does it mean?”

“It means there would be others drawing them.”

He said nothing else, and I leaned off the side of the dragon, focusing on the energy. I could feel the power of the dragon, though I didn’t attempt to connect to it. I wasn’t sure if I even could. I wondered if the dragon could tolerate more than one dragon mage connecting to him at once, considering Thomas had already done so. I didn’t know if there were limits.

I focused on what I might be able to detect below me. Distantly, I could feel the dragons back in the city, the same way I had when I’d wandered through the forest. Could I connect to the green dragon from here?

When I was within the Academy, near the dragon pen, I could feel it easily, but it didn’t seem possible to stretch across such a distance. I did what Thomas asked, trying to see if there were anything down in the forest floor that I might detect. After a while, I noticed something. A hint of power down below.

“I feel something,” I said.

Thomas glanced back at me. “Where?”

I pointed. It was off to our right, and the dragon suddenly turned, leaving me wondering how Thomas communicated with the dragon to indicate where to go. The treetops were nothing more than a dark blur.

“Do you feel anything?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Thomas said.

I focused, straining to feel whether there was anything out there that would change for me. There might be a hint of power down there, but it had disappeared.

“I lost it,” I said.

We began to circle. I closed my eyes, thinking about the dragon energy, but once again, didn’t feel anything.

We veered off.

I looked down at the darkened ground, continuing to search for a connection to the dragons. After a while, I felt another surge of pressure. It was behind us.

“There,” I said, pointing back the way that we had just flown.

The dragon turned, switching directions quickly, and this time he streaked rapidly back in the way that we had come. Then I felt it.

“It’s still there,” I said.

“Where?”

I pointed directly down.

We circled, then the dragon suddenly dived toward the ground.

I tried to hold tightly to the dragon’s scales, clutching them, worried that if I were to let go, I would fall. The wind