If that were the case, then they couldn’t be responsible for revealing the location of the Dragon’s Eye. They had to find some way to keep hiding it from the atheran.

  But how?

  “The rest of the dragons are coming,” Fes said.

  “I can feel it,” Larshon said.

  “It’s my fault. I asked them to come when I detected the attack.”

  “It is what must happen.”

  “Why?”

  Larshon turned toward him. Heat radiated from him, and his golden eyes glowed. “I fear that either they survive or we do. It cannot be both.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Circling high overhead, Fes focused on the ground, looking for evidence of the other dragons. They would have to be there. He could feel them coming but had seen no sign of them.

  They remained overhead, flying through the clouds, using them to hide from the potential atheran attack. Fes wasn’t about to ask Larshon to descend and risk himself against a threat like that. He didn’t know if he, personally, was strong enough to withstand another attack, let alone whether the dragon was. After what they had faced, Fes feared that he might not be strong enough. Though Jayell had healed him, it felt as if he were still weakened and the remnants of the attack lingered.

  Fes continued to hold onto his connection to the other dragons, reaching for them, straining to see if there was any way that he could detect them. At the same time, he was worried about whether or not he could detect any of the atheran.

  “What is this place that you fear them finding?” Catherine asked.

  “It’s a place of power to the Deshazl,” Fes said. “It’s different than the Asharn city. It’s a place where the Deshazl and the Damhur had once lived together.”

  “I have heard rumors of such a place, but none have ever discovered it.”

  “Probably because you don’t really want to know how to find it. This place is powerful, and it ties our peoples together in a way that we have not been in some time.”

  “Why do you feel the atheran would search for it?”

  “If they are somehow connected to the power of what you call the Tears of Yilan, this place has an enormous collection of something that is similar.”

  “How enormous?”

  Fes twisted so that he could look over his shoulder at her, meeting her gaze. “It is significant.”

  Catherine sat in silence for a few moments. They continued to circle, the dragon winding through the clouds, heat radiating from his body and turning the clouds into steam. Despite that, there was still something comforting about where they were. Shrouded in the mists and the clouds, Fes didn’t feel afraid.

  “All these years, we have believed that the tears were limited. It’s why we valued them.”

  “You also believed that only the Damhur could be tested.”

  “We have tried testing others, but they have failed.”

  “What happens when they are tested?”

  “They are brought to the temple, as is their custom.”

  “Why is that their custom?”

  “We don’t ask when it comes to the tarshel. We have always allowed them a certain freedom to practice their faith, and we have not interfered with it.”

  It might be the only freedom they had allowed, and yet Fes was left with the question about why they would do so. “How often have you attempted to test the Deshazl?”

  “Why?”

  “How often?”

  “There has been testing over the years, though it has been unsuccessful.”

  “What sort of frequency are we talking about?”

  “There are many of the Academy who feel that testing the Deshazl is a mistake. They fear that wasting the opportunity to taste the tears sacrifices something, but others recognize that there is power to them, and we have tried to offer them an opportunity to delve for greater depths of that power.”

  “That’s not an answer,” he said.

  “Because there is no specific answer, Fezarn. We have offered testing a few times a year. We do so as part of—”

  “An experiment,” Fes said. He shook his head. They knew what would likely happen, and yet they still tested the Asharn—or the tears—on Deshazl who had little hope of surviving.

  Only… did they have little hope of surviving?

  If they tested it on the Damhur Deshazl, it would likely be those who were more powerful, wouldn’t it? Why else would they risk something like that?

  “How do you decide which Deshazl are tested?”

  “They are recommended by their owners.”

  Fes bristled at the comment but forced back his issues with the way they referred to the Deshazl. He would not change that rapidly. “Even though they may not survive?”

  “They recognize that they might not survive, but there would be great value to their owner if they do. The first of the tarshel to survive would be incredibly valuable. And now one has survived, only he was not tarshel. You would be very valuable to my people, Fezarn.”

  Fes frowned as he tried to work through what she was telling him. If it was a testing, he couldn’t have been the very first person to have tried the tears and survived. Regardless of the flattery of thinking that he might be the first, that couldn’t be the case. More than that, it meant that others had survived.

  And if they had been brought to the temple…

  “We need to head back to the city,” he said, tapping on Larshon.

  The dragon rumbled his agreement, and they turned, heading toward the city.

  “What is it?” Catherine asked.

  “It’s all of this. It’s your testing with these tears. Your willingness to experiment on the Deshazl. Your belief that they didn’t survive the testing. All of that leaves me troubled.”

  “I can assure you, Fezarn, those people did not survive. Once they reached the tremoring—”

  “Like Jayell?”

  Catherine met his gaze. “None have ever returned from the tremoring.”

  “Much like no Deshazl has ever survived the testing. What if you’re wrong?”

  “What are you getting at?”

  Fes breathed out heavily. “I don’t really know what I’m getting at, only that there is something that doesn’t feel quite right.” He couldn’t shake the sense that all of this was somehow tied together, but he had a hard time connecting it to the Deshazl. They were Called, and even if there were those who had managed to escape, the fact that there were some who had survived, who had gotten free from the Calling in the first place, was a question that he should have asked before.

  Now he wondered whether there was something more that Arudis hadn’t shared with him. Could she have been one who had been tested?

  More than that, had his parents?

  Larshon led them below the clouds, and the city came into focus. There was activity within the city, quite a bit of it focused on the temple, but Fes ignored that, heading instead toward the palace grounds, guiding Larshon there. When they landed, he climbed off, the hint of fragrance from the flowers drifting to his nostrils, mixing with something else, an undercurrent of an unpleasant aroma, and he looked around.

  Jayell joined him. “What is it that you fear?”

  “Somehow this is tied to the Asharn. I’m not really sure what or how, but somehow it is tied together.”

  “But why here?”

  “Because I have questions.”

  “What about the dragons?”

  “We might need the dragons to come here,” Fes said, turning to look at her. “This is tied to the Asharn, and there’s something more to it than what we know and understand. They have been testing themselves—and the Deshazl. If they’ve been testing the Deshazl, I can’t believe that they wouldn’t survive, and if they have survived, it suggests that there is something more taking place than what we have known.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “There has to be a reason that Javoor has been attacked by the atheran over the years but not the empire. What difference is there between the two lands?”

  She shook her head. “Other than the fact that the Deshazl within the empire are free?”

  “Other than that, but even there, the Deshazl within the empire didn’t know what they were, or whether they were in any danger. None even knew anything about their abilities. Think about the Deshazl that we’ve come across. They have skill, but none are particularly potent with their Deshazl connection, nothing like those in this land.”

  “You think the fact that there are no strong Deshazl protects them? Fes, I don’t really understand.”

  “It protected them from the Damhur, but what if it did something else?”

  “What would it have done?”

  Sudden activity near the palace wall caught his attention, and Fes didn’t have the opportunity to answer. A dozen Damhur appeared, most wearing deep navy blue and all carrying dragonglass swords. There were several Deshazl with them; Fes picked them up by their black jackets and pants. He detected no sense of a Calling, nothing that would indicate that they were still controlled, but that could be because they had been trained and no longer fought against their training.

  Catherine strode forward, her hands clasped in front of her. Power emanated from her. Fes hadn’t alerted her to what he was after and realized now that he probably should have.

  “Where is Valenahr?” she asked.

  “What is this?” one of the Damhur asked, his gaze looking beyond Catherine to stare at Larshon. The dragon sat back on his hind legs, his wings angled forward, as if prepared for flight.

  Heat and power radiated from him, and Fes was thankful for that. The dragon was ready for the possibility that he might need to attack. While he didn’t necessarily want to have to attack the Damhur, not until he had a good sense of what was taking place, he was prepared for that possibility.

  “You would dare question me?” Catherine demanded, power radiating from her as she made her way toward the other Damhur. “Send Valenahr out.”

  “The Trivent has only returned. He said that he had some troubling news about the Academy. He summoned a council.”

  Catherine glared at him for a moment. “He summoned the council without including the Academy?”

  “I can’t speak for the Trivent, but—”

  “Then don’t try.” Catherine pushed past him, and the door opened in front of her. Even before the figure appeared, Fes knew that it would be Valenahr. He could feel the power radiating from him, and he recognized the nature of his magic, magic that flooded outward. A Calling slammed into Fes, but he ignored it.

  “You returned so soon, Catherine?” Valenahr asked.

  “I’m not so certain that this is the right location for us to have the conversation that we need to have,” Catherine said.

  “And where would you prefer to have it?” Valenahr asked, sweeping his gaze across the courtyard. “We can’t very well allow the dragon to join us indoors.”

  Fes turned to Larshon. “Can you keep an eye on us from the sky?”

  The dragon huffed and leaped into the air, quickly gaining altitude and disappearing to little more than a streak in the sky.

  “There. The dragon doesn’t have to come inside.”

  “Where did he go?” Valenahr asked.

  “I asked him to keep an eye on us from above.”

  “And here you tell us that we attempt to control the dragons.”

  “It’s different, and you know it. I’m not forcing the dragon to do anything. I’m asking him to do it, and we are working together.”

  “Perhaps you see it that way, but I see it differently. I see you telling the dragon what you would want from it. That is not so different than what we would do with the dragons.”

  Fes shook his head. “It’s quite a bit different than what you would do with them.”

  Catherine stepped forward, putting herself between Fes and Valenahr. “We were just attacked by five atheran, Valenahr. Five.”

  Valenahr made a motion with his hand, and the other Damhur disappeared, bringing the Deshazl with them. Valenahr motioned for them to follow, and Fes and Jayell did so, trailing behind him as they entered the palace. Fes couldn’t help but feel as if he were entering some dangerous land, and even though he had survived so far, he feared that it wouldn’t be possible to remain safe indefinitely.

  At this level, the palace was plain. Stone walls were unadorned, other than a few decorative lanterns. They turned a few corners and reached an arched double doorway. Valenahr paused, pushing a hint of power from himself into the door itself, and then sent it open.

  Inside was warm, comfortable, and reminded Fes of rooms within the palace in the empire. The walls were paneled wood. A hearth at one end crackled with a warm flame. Plush sofas were situated in front of each other. A table rested between them. Valenahr motioned for them to take a seat, and while Jayell did so, Fes elected to stand behind the sofa, leaning on the back as he looked around the room.

  A table held flowers. There were portraits here that were similar to what he had seen in the Academy, but these were less violent in nature and seemed to celebrate the city itself and even all of Javoor.

  “What is this about, Catherine? You were going to go someplace with this tarshel. Why have you returned so soon?”

  “Fezarn suspects that the tests we have done on the tarshel have not all failed.”

  Valenahr looked over at Fes, frowning. “We have seen the effects.”

  “And yet, look at him. He tasted the Tears of Yilan. Does he look as if he is dying?”

  “We have seen that Fezarn is different.”

  “How am I different?” Fes asked.

  “Your time in the empire has changed you.”

  Fes laughed. “My time in the empire didn’t change me in such a way that I should be so much more powerful than the Deshazl within Javoor.”

  “And yet, your time in the empire has allowed you to uncover the technique of raising a dragon.”

  “More than one dragon,” Catherine said.

  “Yes. More than one. And here we have tried over the years and failed. Every time we thought we were close, something would happen, and we would find ourselves having failed yet again.”

  Fes turned his attention to Valenahr. “How did you fail?”

  “It matters not, Fezarn.”

  “It does matter.” Fes had thought that the attempt to raise the dragons had been the only attempt, but if there had been others, why would they have failed? The Damhur seemed to know that the dragon heart was necessary to summon the dragon, and they had fire magic enough that they would be able to use it and raise a dragon, but why would they have waited until now?

  “The creatures that we raised did not last for long.”

  “How so?”

  “We suspect the resurrection went awry. I can’t tell you exactly how it did so, only that there was something about the resurrection that did not go as we had anticipated. The creatures would return, but they did not linger for long.”

  “What happened to them?” Jayell asked.

  Valenahr turned to her, some of the heat that was in his gaze when he looked at Fes fading when he looked at Jayell. Fes thought that perhaps he would answer, but he didn’t. Instead, he turned to the hearth, clasping his hands behind his back, staring at the flames. A Calling emanated from him, but it wasn’t directed at Fes.

  It took a moment for Fes to realize that the Calling was still directed at the distant dragons. A summons, and surprisingly, it seemed as if Valenahr had not yet abandoned his hope that he could call the dragons here.

  “We don’t fully know,” Catherine said. “We have records of each attempt. Some are more successful than others, but in each attempt, the creature does not live very long. We have tried raising multiple dragons at one time, thinking that perhaps we could uncover something about them, but…”

  “Is there any connection to when you’ve attempted to raise dragons and the appearance of the atheran?” Jayell asked.

  Fes glanced at her. “Why would you ask that?”

  “Think about it, Fes. They have experienced the atheran over the years, but the empire has not. The empire hasn’t attempted to raise any dragons, and it’s not until the dragons have returned that the atheran have come back. And now they have done so with great force, in numbers that the Damhur have never seen before, just like the dragons’ return. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that should happen at the same time.”

  Catherine frowned. “I would not have thought so before,” she said, “but the timing could be similar.”

  “You didn’t recognize that it was similar before now?” Jayell asked.

  “There are different arms of study. Those of us who focus on understanding the dragons are different than those of us who study the atheran.”

  “Is it possible?” Fes asked.

  She glanced over at Valenahr before nodding. “It is possible.”

  Fes started pacing, making his way around the room, his mind racing. If the atheran appearance was tied to the dragons, then it meant that either they were somehow linked or someone raised them the same way that the dragons were raised.

  Considering how the dragons survived for years without getting attacked by atheran, Fes had to wonder if perhaps there was some other explanation.

  “Tell me about my parents,” he said, turning to Valenahr.

  “Is now really the time?” Valenahr asked, glaring at him.

  “Humor me.”

  “Your parents were capable tarshel. That is about all I can say about that.”

  “Capable?”

  “You take as an insult what was meant to be a compliment,” Valenahr said.

  “What do you mean by them being capable?”

  “I mean just what I have said. They were capable. I found them useful in most tasks and allowed them certain liberties that I have allowed very few like them. When you were born, I even suggested your name.”

  Fes glared at him. Valenahr had mentioned that before, which meant that it was significant to him for some reason, but why? “Why would you suggest the name of an elder dragon?”

  “An elder dragon? Where would you have heard that?”

 

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