I couldn’t fail.
I focused on the heat, trailing after the awareness of the energy I felt deep within the forest. I followed it, weaving between the trees. The forest, at least the outskirts of it, wasn’t all that dense. A trail made its way through the trees. Even if there weren’t the trail, I wouldn’t need it for me to know where I was going. I could follow the energy within the forest, use that to guide me to the dragon. Strangely, it felt as if the dragon were moving.
If the dragon were to run, I wouldn’t be able to slow him, or even catch him.
Instead, I focused on the power I felt, the energy that radiated from inside of the forest, tracking that as I trailed after the dragon. I breathed in slowly and steadily, letting that energy come to me as I focused upon it.
It was there.
The heat was close—not only the pressure of the heat, the warmth I detected, but also the smell of it. I could breathe it in, and was aware of that energy as it existed around me. I waited, letting that sense continue to flow outward.
Gradually, it did.
It was different than what I had detected when I was within the Academy, where I was surrounded by different dragons, along with different people who were connected to the dragons. I had learned that there were dozens of different dragons within the city, all of them with their own unique power. Here, out in the forest, surrounded by trees and emptiness, I felt some aspect of magic different from what I had detected before.
The next step beyond opening myself up to the power was filling myself with it.
I haven’t spent enough time to work with the power to know whether I could fill myself with the energy, but there was something about it I thought I could feel. I breathed in slowly, drawing in the heat and the energy around me.
Power built.
I could see the dragon.
Had he come toward me?
Maybe I wouldn’t fail this test.
He was only a few dozen paces away, hiding within the trees, though not so hidden I couldn’t make out the details. The black dragon I’d seen flying off—I should have known that was the one Jerith would use. He had an affinity for it.
I reached a hand out the way I would with a wild horse.
I watched the dragon. His orange eyes glowed brightly, and a strange surge formed between us. For a moment, that surged intensified, but then it blasted me, throwing me back.
When I got to my feet, the dragon was missing.
“Where are you?” I muttered.
This had to be another part of the test.
Find the dragon. Follow it.
I looked around, feeling for that power and energy, focusing on what I could detect.
That had been real. The dragon had filled me with power, and I had drawn it to me.
I hadn’t controlled it yet, but the fact that I’d been able to use it at all was enough.
Distantly, I could feel the energy coming off of the dragon, heat radiating somewhere deeper in the forest. I followed it, making my way through the trees, heading after that energy.
The air around me began to feel more humid, much more like my home. It reminded me of the forest just outside of the plains, and the time that I had spent wandering through the trees. This one wasn’t nearly as dense, and I thought I could follow the trail . . .
I looked behind me. Where was the trail?
I’d been following the sense of the dragon, and using that to guide me deeper into the forest, focusing on the heat and the energy that I felt, but hadn’t paid nearly as much attention to my surroundings as I should have.
Now that I was here, deeper into the forest and the trees, I realized I had no idea where I was, and no idea what I would need to do to get back out. If I didn’t have the dragon to follow, how was I going to get out?
I stopped. I could still feel the dragon as it drew me deeper into the forest. It was almost as if it were trying to call to me, wanting me to be aware of the heat and energy coming off of it. I could turn around now and follow what I thought was the path that I’d taken in here, but what if I were wrong? It might mean I would end up trapped here.
Jerith knew I was out here, but how many others would?
I’d be lost.
There wouldn’t be anyone in the Academy to come for me.
Distantly, a dragon roared.
That had to be the black dragon, but why would he be so deep into the forest?
The strange sensation drawing upon me continued to pull, and I decided to follow it. If Jerith wanted me to understand my connection to the dragons, it involved me following what I could feel of them. Even if it meant going deeper into the forest and risking myself, I would do that. I needed to succeed. I had wandered through forests enough times to know that I would eventually find my way out.
If I couldn’t, then I had to hope that the Dragon Academy would send riders out after me. If they didn’t . . .
I didn’t want to think about what would happen if they didn’t send anybody after me. I’d known people who’d gotten trapped in the forest before, ending up wandering. At least here the rains wouldn’t come in a deluge like they did on the plains.
I turned, focusing on the energy of the dragon, and resigned myself to following it. I would not fail this test—even if it meant getting lost in the forest.
2
I ‘d been wandering for the better part of several hours, and had felt the ongoing sense of the dragon pulling me deeper into the forest. All of this was a mistake. I knew it probably was,
