“I know you think it’s only a problem for the people, but it’s not. It’s more than that. It’s a problem for the kingdom. For anybody who lives here. For anybody who might be—”
Natalie glanced over, shaking her head before continuing to trace her fingers along the stone. “This. Whatever the structure was. This is of the people.”
I frowned, turning my attention toward the building.
“I thought the Djarn lived in the forest.”
“We do. We didn’t always.” She looked around the city. “Or perhaps the city was once a part of the forest. I told you the forest relented and let the city rise. Things change over time, and borders shift. Even the forest begins to change.”
“So your people used to live here?”
“I don’t know if they lived here, or if they simply built this.”
“Can you tell anything about it?”
She shook her head. “Not really. It’s a construct of my people, but that’s all I can ascertain.”
It left me wondering if the others were the same. When the city had been attacked, each building destroyed had been unique. At the time, I hadn’t really had a chance to process it, and I hadn’t gone back to examine them. All I had focused on was trying to save the dragons, getting them free, and doing anything I could in order to rescue them. I hadn’t thought about anything more than that, knowing that it really didn’t matter.
But if all the buildings were all tied to the Djarn . . .
It meant that those like Donathar and Elaine and whoever worked with them were aware of that connection.
I should’ve pieced it together before now. I had been focused on other things. The strange connection I now shared with the dragons and the cycle of power that flowed through me had occupied so much of my time. It had bonded me to the dragons, forcing me to pay attention to them, though perhaps I shouldn’t have.
Perhaps I should’ve taken a different approach, thought about some other aspect of the power.
“Have you let your father know?” I asked.
She nodded. “He knows. And he’s going to need to let the people know.”
“Why?”
“If these others have infiltrated our people, then more than the kingdom is at stake.”
4
The inside of the Academy was quiet early in the morning, and very few of the dragon-shaped lanterns were lit. Sometimes they seemed to glow with bright light and other times they were dim, as if the time of day mattered most to whoever illuminated the lanterns, not the lack of natural light that came into the building. The stone walls seemed to squeeze around me, a terrible sort of claustrophobia I’d started to feel these days, and I wanted nothing more than to be back outside, though I needed to at least show my face within the Academy. It had been a while since I had spent much time here, and I needed to be present.
I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and looked around the Academy halls. I was up early, as I often was. Too many mornings were spent the same way, getting up before anyone else, heading through the halls, and then back outside to where I could stand before the dragon pens, focusing on the energy of the dragons, and thinking about the power there while I practiced holding on to it and using it in different ways. Other times I wandered through the city, enjoying the quiet of the morning. It was a far cry from what I had done when I was younger, the way I had needed to get up and start the day by getting my chores in order before anybody else was up.
Now when I got up early, it was just me and my thoughts. That could be dangerous, especially these days.
I paused at the entrance to the Academy before I left the building, taking a deep breath of the crisp outside air after opening the door.
“You get up early every morning.”
I looked behind me to see Walter Overth watching me. He was a heavyset, balding man who wore a chain with the symbol of the dragon mages around his neck. I didn’t know him all that well, but had taken a few classes with him and knew he was gifted.
He had tried teaching me when I first came to the Academy, learning that I had a connection to the dragons, but unfortunately, his technique for connecting to the dragons didn’t work for me the way it worked for him. That wasn’t uncommon. Every dragon mage had their own connection to the dragons, which meant that every dragon mage had a unique technique for reaching for power. Everybody had their own strategy—including Thomas, though he had reached me in a way others had not.
“I’ve always gotten up early,” I said. “It’s habit more than anything else.”
Cool, crisp morning air continued to blow in through the open door, and I breathed it in again. It carried with it some of the smells of the forest, as well as a certain vibrancy and energy that filled the air, lingering with me.
“There are advantages to being up before others,” Walter said. He joined me, and I smelled the plain pine odor of his cologne, almost overwhelmingly so. It masked something else, a somewhat unpleasant sweetness. “Most think there are advantages to staying up late, but I find that getting up early allows me to get my day started sooner, so much more can be accomplished.”
“Unfortunately, I’ve been staying up late, too.”
Walter frowned, nodding. “I wanted to talk with you.”
I tensed. Thomas had warned me not to share too many details with any of the master instructors at the Academy about what happened, not until he had a chance to work through them. Now that he had assumed nominal control of the Academy, he wanted to ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of those here. I agreed with that assessment, knowing that if we didn’t, we might run into the
