The Dragon King: An Epic Fantasy Progression Series (The Dragon Thief Book 5)

  THE DRAGON KING

  THE DRAGON THIEF BOOK 5

  D.K. HOLMBERG

  Copyright © 2022 by D.K. Holmberg

  Cover art by Damonza.com

  All rights reserved.

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  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Author’s Note

  Series by D.K. Holmberg

  CHAPTER ONE

  Tydornen approached the Hatchery with a determined step, smoke swirling around him. He paused briefly as he made his way along the street in the center of the capital, testing to ensure that he still had the connection to the smoke dragon, feeling the power as it flowed out around him. Now that he was aware of the smoke dragon, he could use that connection. He let it swirl around him to control it better. It was a matter of trying to understand what the dragon wanted from him at all times. Now that he had a better understanding of it, he could use that to create a layer of power around him. Protective power.

  “You have to stop swirling like that,” Ty said, speaking to the dragon, though not knowing whether the dragon could even respond.

  The streets were empty. There weren’t nearly as many Dragon Touched as before, though they still had a presence in the city. Ty knew the dangers of the Dragon Touched, though. They had been corrupted. Roson James had turned many of them against the king, and though the Tecal searched for them, they proved elusive. The Tecal were testing them, though, trying to find those who would be loyal to the king.

  This part of the city was quiet in general, though. The buildings were old, built when the Dragon’s Jaw first drew settlers. The stone was all black, charred, and looked like it might have come from Ishantil itself. The air smelled different than it did in his home and now had become familiar to him.

  He felt the dragon’s power surrounding him. There were times when it seemed like the dragon responded, such as when the energy shifted when he asked it to. In this case, he asked for its power to become less noticeable. The smoke swirled around him differently, trailing up and into him.

  He laughed softly as the dragon flowed down inside of him, taking up a presence internally. “I’m not so sure that’s better,” he muttered.

  The two Dragon Touched standing guard at the Hatchery watched him, and Ty imagined that he looked ridiculous standing in the middle of the street, with buildings lining either side of him space out on the wide cobblestone road. As he always did, he questioned whether he could trust any of these Dragon Touched. How many of them had been with Roson James? Probably more than they knew. He wanted to think that they were not and could be trusted, but it hadn’t proven easy. These guards were dressed in the deep blue of the Dragon Touched, and several of them had dragon remnants, carved artifacts that held power for them. How many would be crossbows like the one he used to wield?

  It was early evening, and a pale blue light glowed along the street leading toward the Hatchery, powered by something the king held trapped within the city. Power of some sort, though Ty didn’t know how it was created.

  He had avoided returning to the Hatchery, which he knew was a mistake. In the time since Roson James had been defeated, he had not returned to the Hatchery. He should have, though. This was where he had proven himself, even if he was no longer sure what he had demonstrated. The only thing that he knew with any certainty was that he had learned something almost unbelievable about the king that night. That the king was a dragon, like Zara. Perhaps that was why he had avoided returning.

  Ty focused on the smoke around him again, pulling it in and letting it wrap around him until he was convinced the smoke dragon wouldn’t reveal himself before he was ready for it. Others like Gayal and Dorian could keep their dragons around, but he had struggled with it. Partly because he didn’t want to reveal himself too soon, but also because he had never been able to use the smoke dragon quite the same way the others could use their dragons—certainly as well as Gayal used her shadow dragon. The dragon itself was different than the others, though. His dragon seemed to be more greatly connected to him if something like that could even be said. Gayal had a strong connection to her dragon, but Ty suspected that his dragon wanted him to have a different direction as if the dragon wanted him to know him in ways that the other Tecal did not know theirs. He suspected that was only his imagination, but it wasn’t the first time he felt that way. He had a unique connection to dragons.

  Ty straightened, and he headed toward the Dragon Touched standing guard.

  As he approached, he considered them carefully. He didn’t recognize either of them, though he hadn’t been in the city long enough to know all the Dragon Touched, despite his desire to try to peel away any who might betray them. There weren’t many people in the city that he knew at all. Other than the Tecal, the only other person he truly knew was Esme. He was still waiting for Albion and Zara to return to the city from the fire fields, but they had not shown up yet.

  Then there was Gayal and Dorian. The other Tecal were helpful, and they wanted him to understand his connection to the dragons better, but Ty had struggled with feeling as if he were a part of them. He felt different, and as far as he knew, he was different.

  “Stop,” one of the Dragon Touched said, holding out a hand. There was no other dragon remnant on him, thankfully. At least, none that were visible. The guard had on deeply dyed blue leathers emblazoned with the symbol of the king, a dragon, printed on his chest. A matching leather helm sat atop his head, a dragon pressed into the leather on either side. Black hair protruded outward, and his broad, muscular build was meant to be imposing.

  “I just need to go inside the Hatchery,” Ty said.

  “No one is permitted inside of the Hatchery,” he said.

  The other guard turned and slid his hand forward, mimicking the first man’s motions. They hadn’t posed any real threat, which Ty was appreciative of. Still, they created an imposing presence that attempted to push him away. The Hatchery was guarded so that it had not been when he first came to the capital.

  Ty reached into his pocket, and both men tensed, one of them holding out his other hand, shoving a pale white item toward Ty. He immediately wrapped the dragon around him, using the smoke to create a buffer of a barrier. Thankfully, the smoke dragon was protective by nature, and the barrier formed would work quickly. He didn’t think their weapons could even penetrate it, though he had never tested it.

  The men watched him, and Ty fished a small leather band with a silver medallion out of his pocket. He held it up.

  The two men frowned at him. “Where did you get that?”

  Ty flicked his gaze to the medallion. “You don’t recognize it?”

  “I recognize the king’s mark, but where did you get it?”

  “From the king,” Ty said.

  The two men shared a look for a moment and then turned toward him, though they didn’t move their staffs out of the way.

  “Why would somebody like you have that?”

  Ty wasn’t dressed like one of the Tecal, preferring a black jacket and pants that blended in the city better, along with the fact that it fit his thief background better, but given everything that he had done for the king, he figured he would have been treated differently.

  He rolled his eyes, approaching them when he learned he didn’t need to prove himself.

  “Because he is a Tecal,” a voice said behind him.

  Ty turned to see Gayal striding down the street toward him. Her dark cloak hung around her shoulders, unmoving. Now that he knew that it was a shadow dragon, it wasn’t quite as impressive as he had once believed. Ty didn’t have any idea what the shadow dragon was capable of, other than obscuring things in darkness. The shadow dragon seemed more about stealth, concealment, and hiding, whereas his smoke dragon was about protection.

  It would’ve been nice for him to be able to get into the Hatchery without Gayal coming, though. As much as he enjoyed seeing her—not that he’d seen her much since saving the king—he wanted to do something on his own. He didn’t need Gayal to feel like she had to protect him. He was certainly capable enough of that. Still, there was something about having Gayal help him that he appreciated. She had challenged him when they first met, and now she was a friend. That was it. With everythin
g that had happened, Ty felt as if he had precious few friends and needed to take care of everything he did.

  “I didn’t realize.” The Dragon Touched stepped off to the side, drawing back the dragon bone remnant, slipping it into some unseen sheath. Ty had to give the man credit for how quickly he reacted, drawing the weapon out and replacing it. The speed had been impressive.

  Gayal strode past him and slapped her hand along the door, twisting, and the door came open. As far as the soldiers knew, Gayal had a key, which in some respects she might. Ty suspected that he could do the same thing if he could fully master his connection to the smoke dragon but had never truly tested it. There were other ways he could reach the Hatchery.

  He followed Gayal inside, and darkness swallowed them. He closed the door and paused for a moment, the darkness persisting.

  “Are you going to stop that now?”

  “I’m sorry about that,” Gayal said. “It is a matter of habit.”

  Ty glanced over to the door. The shadows swirled, rejoining Gayal, forming her cloak once again and draping over her shoulders. He could see a glow faintly around the shadow dragon, but only when he paid heavy attention to it, tapping into some deeper power and part of himself. Ty couldn’t exactly tell how well connected she was to her dragon but could see a faint tracing of its connection to the Flame.

  That wasn’t the only thing that he noticed about her, though. The other part was something different—newer. There was another dragon. It was faint, subtle, and he had not been sure when he had first seen evidence of it, but increasingly, he came to believe that what he saw was real.

  “Why did you come here now?”

  Ty looked over at her. The inside of the Hatchery was unique. It was domed, and alcoves lined the walls, many of them filled with items that he had once believed were eggs, but now he didn’t know if that was the case or not. Maybe they were dragon pearls, or perhaps something else entirely. A pale white glowing light emanated from behind the shelves.

  A series of small sculptures were scattered around the inside of the Hatchery, lining the walls. Most of them took on the shape of dragons, though not all. Ty had no idea whether those dragons were like his mother, Zara, or even the king, dragons that had moved on and placed their essence into a vessel.

  “Can’t I come to the Hatchery?”

  “You know you’re permitted to come here.”

  He looked over, arching a brow. “Permitted.”

  “This is the king’s. He decides who is allowed here. For now, he allows you, especially after what you did to save him.”

  Ty didn’t think that Gayal knew the truth about the king. He didn’t think that anybody within the kingdom knew it other than him. That was only because he could see the dragon quality to him. Had he not connected to the Flame the way he had, Ty wouldn’t have known.

  In the days since the attack, Ty hadn’t the opportunity to speak to the ghost king, though he’d wanted to. He had questions about what it meant for the kingdom to be ruled by a dragon. Then again, since learning that the ghost king was a dragon, the fact that he did not come out of the palace very often made much more sense.

  What would happen if he lost the ability to take on human form? What would happen if he needed to pour himself into a vessel—the same way Ty’s mother had needed to do so—to stabilize himself?

  Then who would rule?

  Ty paused in front of one of the alcoves, looking at it. The eggs inside the alcoves were irregular here, shaped strangely or streaked with colors. He reached out, holding his hand just above the surface of the egg, and could feel the warmth radiating from the egg. It was pleasant and not hot, though he wondered if others would feel unbearable heat to it. He didn’t know if his connection to the Flame permitted him to tolerate it better than others would have been able to do.

  “You wanted to see the eggs,” Gayal said, joining him. He could feel the heat radiating off her, something that was more than the dragon—or dragons—that she connected to. It was the heat coming off Gayal himself. There was an energy to her as well, something pleasant and powerful and overwhelming.

  “Should I not have wanted to see the eggs?”

  “There isn’t anything that can be done for them,” she said, her voice low and soft.

  “What if there could be?”

  Gayal looked over, smiling tightly and shaking her head. “The king has searched for answers for decades, and we have not come up with an answer.”

  “We?”

  “There’s a reason that the Tecal have searched. At least, a reason that we have searched for specific items.”

  Dragon relics, Ty knew. He didn’t know whether she had known the truth about the king for long.

  He looked around the yard that was just visible through the back door of the Hatchery. That was where he’d fought Roson James to save the king.

  Before that, there had been a time when the yard was filled with small, stunted dragons, their power still unique to their creatures and their kind, but the size nothing like dragons of old, today only stories. But stories fit with what he knew of the lava dragon up inside Ishantil.

  “He’s gotten eggs to hatch, though.”

  “It’s been a long time since any of the eggs have hatched for him. You’ve seen that. It seems like there should be an easier time of it, but the king, and those he has studying such things, have not managed to succeed.”

  Ty looked at the eggs. There was almost something that he could feel. Perhaps it was just the energy that was here, or maybe there was something that he should be able to detect.

  Gayal watched him, staying quiet until she reached for one of the eggs out of the alcoves, holding it carefully. “Even a single egg is difficult to find these days. Others like the Lothinal have scavenged most. We have managed to keep them out for a long time. The Tecal and the Dragon Touched have done all that we can to ensure our lands remain free of their influence, but you have seen how powerful they can be.”

  Powerful because of their strange and dark magic different from the Flame.

  “I’m sure that the power of the Flame could hatch the eggs. I don’t know how, but….” He had experience with the Flame, didn’t he? For a while after the attack and saving the king, Ty had thought himself the Manifestation of the Flame, but hadn’t managed to connect to that power again—or anyplace other than the Hatchery.

  Not the Manifestation but simply connected to dragons.

  It had been a difficult realization, but not because he’d necessarily wanted power. The realization had pained him because he had wanted to help his brother and Zara. His mother, if he could ever find her vessel. All dragons—including the king.

  Only everything that he’d felt since that time suggested he was not that person.

  A Tecal.

  The dragons had reacted to save the king—another dragon. And that was enough.

  That didn’t mean that he couldn’t use some of what he understood to help the dragons. He couldn’t deny that he had a connection to dragons that was discretely different than even that of the Tecal.

  And now that Roson James was gone, he had to believe that they had time. That was what they needed more than anything else.

  “I wish we understood how to hatch the eggs,” he said, taking one from the alcoves the way that Gayal did, holding it in hand and turning in place. It was warm, much like he had felt when he had kept his hand against it, but the surface was smooth, slightly ridged, and a little bit slick to the touch.

  “Many Tecal have tried,” Gayal said. “We have attempted to use the energy of our dragons to hatch them, but that isn’t enough.”

  Ty smiled. He had a rising suspicion that the connection to the dragons that he shared with the Tecal was tied to dragons that had sent their essence into a vessel, giving them time to reconnect to the Flame, but he couldn’t prove it. If that were the case, then those dragons may not be powerful enough for them to hatch a dragon egg. If he were wrong, it wouldn’t even matter.