I had failed taking care of my brother and my father. My sister had wanted nothing more than to escape from our home. My family, the one thing that I had tried to keep together, crumbled around me.
I wasn’t going to fail my sister now.
As I opened my mouth, a scream erupted. The tension within me exploded. It came like a crack of thunder, and then it eased. The pain began to ease as well.
Getting to my feet, I staggered toward Elaine. She was close enough that I could tell that she tried to reach for me, but I wouldn’t let her. I had to keep moving.
I found Alison lying curled up on the ground, Joran cradling her. Was she hurt? After what I’d been through, I wasn’t about to lose my sister. Not when there was something I could do about it.
I didn’t know how, though.
“I don’t know what happened,” Joran said.
“Elaine did something to her,” I said. “Dragon mage magic.” My mouth felt dry and didn’t work quite right. I tried to say something more, but nothing else came out.
Together, we helped Alison get to her feet. I looked around, but didn’t see where Elaine ended up. The pain was gone. The glowing light was bright nearby, and it called to me.
“I don’t know where to go,” Joran said.
The others were still out there. Elaine was still out there.
Thankfully, I believed the Djarn were out there too.
I remembered what my father had said. He had believed the Djarn had helped him. At the time, I had thought it was nothing more than a story, that his sickened mind had created another tale for him to share, but now I didn’t know. What if he and Thenis had been saved by the Djarn? Or if not saved, rescued?
That didn’t explain what had happened to them. I didn’t know if I would ever have those answers. Another explosion rumbled nearby. It was close.
We had to get moving, but I didn’t know where we could disappear. The men with Elaine had proven they knew how to find us. Anywhere we might try to go would be discovered.
Though there might be one more place we could try.
“Follow me,” I said.
Joran and I carried Alison, guiding her through the forest. We headed toward the light. I could feel the pulling of that light, and it didn’t take long before it began to intensify. There was something familiar and not unpleasant about it.
I had to hope it would be enough to keep us safe.
Then we could figure out what we would do next.
All of this was about the dragon. We couldn’t run from it. Not anymore. If the dragon was the key, then we needed to use that and ensure we got away safely.
“It’s getting warmer,” Joran whispered.
“Because we’re getting close to the dragon.”
“We’re what?”
I ignored him, focusing on the light, on the way that it was calling me toward it, and on the dragon that was there. The energy continued to draw me in, though I didn’t know why I felt it as strongly as I did.
Then I saw it.
It seemed to be resting near the entrance of the cave set into a sloped hillside. The glowing eyes looked out at me, and its long nose sniffed the air. The heat wafted away from it and the light surrounded it. It was that light and heat that I had been following, the energy that had drawn me here.
It was smaller than any other dragon I’d seen before. The dragon had deep green scales, bright yellow eyes that looked at me as if it somehow knew me, and a long tail wrapped around its side. Leathery wings stretched off on either side , propping it up against the ground, and there was an energy coming from it. More than the heat, but a power I could feel.
Why could I feel that power?
I approached the dragon carefully.
“Is that…”
“A dragon,” I said.
“How did you find it?” Joran asked.
“I have no idea. Elaine seems to think that I’m connected to the dragon, and maybe I am. It seems as if the dragon called me to it.”
“The dragon called you?”
“I don’t really know,” I said. “It pulls me towards it.”
“You know what that means, don’t you? That’s how they find those who can study with the dragon mages. This is different than the testing they did in Berestal for the Academy,” he said. “That’s for riders and those who have minor magic. A dragon pulling on you means you might—”
Pain began to roll through me again, and I couldn’t listen to anything more.
I turned.
Elaine was here, though where?
I could feel the energy she used , but I couldn’t see where she was. It wasn’t nearly as bad as before. It was almost as if my proximity to the dragon eased some of the pain that had been there. Could the dragon somehow temper the effect that she was trying to use upon me?
I could feel the heat coming off the dragon, and that strange tension that had worked within me continued to build, washing over me. It felt as if I needed to release it.
“Did you think that you could get away from me that easily?” Elaine stepped out of the forest. She appeared at the edge of the small ravine. She looked up at me, her hips twisted slightly. I could feel the power she was holding on to, the way that she was angling it toward me. She glanced beyond me, looking to the dragon. Her bruised face contorted as she glared at me. “And look at you. You have brought me to the creature. If you’re this sensitive to them, perhaps you will be even more useful than I realized. Perhaps you can help us find others. They’re not very common. The king has his hunters searching for them. We have not managed to acquire any.
