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

“It’s like a festival, but it’s a festival every day.”

I hadn’t really considered it that way, but he was right.

“You could stay,” I said to him.

There was a twitch at the corners of his eyes, and for a moment, I thought maybe he’d agree to it, but then that moment passed.

“I can’t. I still need to get back to my home, and my father’s going to need my help getting back.”

“Your father can get back without you,” I said. “Besides, given his connections,” I started, deciding not to mention the Djarn out loud here in the city, never knowing who might be listening, “you don’t have to worry about him.”

He shrugged. “That’s the thing, though,” he said. “I like having the festival when there’s the festival, and having a bit of normalcy otherwise. Besides, who’s going to keep an eye on your sister?”

“Careful,” I said to him.

“I’m just saying that Alison might need someone to keep an eye out for her. You certainly wouldn’t want anything to happen to her.”

I chuckled, shaking my head at him. “You know, you can be a complete pain in the ass.”

“That’s my plan,” he said.

“You’re doing it well.”

“I have to.” He paused at one booth, looking at the different books that were stacked up. “Who would buy these?” Joran asked, turning and looking back at me. “I mean, who needs books like these?”

I nodded, and several older men crowded toward the booth. “They do, apparently.”

“Them,” he muttered. “Scholars.” He shook his head. “I suppose they do, don’t they?” We both laughed and moved on. “You don’t want to come back, do you?” Joran asked.

“I’m going to be a dragon mage,” I said.

“I know.” He smiled tightly. “From the moment you left, I knew the idea of you returning was impossible. I can’t say I’m not saddened by it though.”

“I’m going to be able to come back,” I told him.

“Are you? Because I don’t know how many times we’ve had dragon mages visit the city. Wait. I do. I can think of exactly one time.” He started to smile. “Maybe if you return regularly, we could count that more easily, but I have a hard time thinking anything is going to change. If you become a dragon mage, or even a dragon rider—and I can’t believe I’m saying that as if that’s your worst-case scenario—you wouldn’t stay. You might come to visit, but I think we both know that won’t be long-lived.”

“I don’t know what the king might ask of me. Between what’s happening with the Vard and the Djarn . . .” I cut myself off and looked over to him, shaking my head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be saying any of that to you.”

“Did you say it just because my family happens to be involved with both?” he asked.

“It was a mistake,” I told him. “I know your mother and sister aren’t fully part of the Vard. Gods, we don’t even know if they had been the ones to attack.”

“My mother hadn’t heard anything of Elaine, and I told you how the Vard view dragons.” He wrinkled his brow, frowning. “That’s the other thing I wanted to tell you before I left. My mother and sister wanted me to warn you.”

“They did?”

“Not about of the Vard.” He added that quickly, and then cut himself off, lowering his voice and looking around. “But more about what brought you to the city. Tara doesn’t really believe you’re a dragon mage, so I suppose there’s that.”

“I’m sure it’s hard for her to believe it, given how long she’s known me.”

“I have a hard time believing it,” he said. “It means that somebody in your family has to have some connection to the dragons. It has to come from somewhere, doesn’t it? Your mother didn’t, or doesn’t, but do you think your father did?”

I had thought about it a little bit. I had wondered, especially the way my father acted in the months before his death. “I never would’ve thought so before, but comments he said made me wonder. There were times when I started to question just how much my father actually knew.”

We had reached the end of the market and the city opened up in front of us; there was not nearly as much of a crowd as there had been before. Now there were rows of homes all crammed in the street. It was crowded, but a different kind of crowding.

“There were things he said. I think that after his accident, he had started to lose some part of himself, but occasionally he would know things.” I looked over to Joran. “And since coming here, I’ve discovered more truths to what he’d known.”

Joran started to smile. “Maybe your father was a dragon rider. Or what if he was a dragon mage who had gone into hiding?”

I snorted. “I have a hard time thinking that he was either of those, but I do think that he knew more than what he shared. He mentioned something about being there when the King’s Road was built. And he mentioned the dragons. He mentioned feeling the heat in his belly.” I shook my head. Even now, I could feel the heat of the dragons, and it still struck me the way that my father had described it. “There was something similar between the way he described it and the way the dragon mages within the Academy describe it.”

“Then maybe he really was a dragon mage in hiding,” he said.

“As much as I like the idea that my father was some sort of dragon mage, and that he had hidden that from me, I have a hard time thinking that’s true. The only thing that I can come up with is that he had potential that was never reached.”

He pulled something out of his pocket and twisted it between his fingers. It was long, slender, and had strange writing along the sides.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“This?” He held it up. “Just something from