Path of the Flame (The Dragon Thief Book 1) Read online

  “Then we call it off,” Ty said.

  “What if Olivia already got inside?”

  Ty wanted to say that it would serve her right. That she had not done her job, and because of it, they now had soldiers—and a Dragon Touched—coming toward them. That was what he wanted to say.

  But he didn’t. And he didn’t think he ever could.

  He couldn’t leave somebody behind. He might not have chosen this team, but they were working with him, all for the same goal. Bingham may have taught them separately, trained them to work independently, but it just wasn’t in Ty to leave somebody behind.

  Maybe it was because of how he had been left behind.

  “Then we have to find a way in,” Ty said.

  “You still want to go after her?” Eastley started grinning. “You surprise me, Ty. I figured she hurt you enough that you would leave her. Maybe even get her caught intentionally.”

  “I’m not leaving her behind,” he said.

  Ty looked behind him, the men making their way toward them. Then Ishantil trembled. The soldiers, along with the Dragon Touched, turned and looked at the volcano.

  He grabbed Eastley’s arm, raised a finger to his lips, and shoved him toward the wall. “Climb,” he whispered.

  Ty hurriedly scaled the wall.

  The volcano continued to tremble, and as he reached the peak of the wall, he noticed a brief surge of incredibly bright light.

  It surged even more rapidly than before.

  Then he tumbled over the wall.

  Once there, he pressed himself up against the back of the wall and swept his gaze around. He continued to watch, though he didn’t see anything. No sign of movement. No other soldiers. Nothing that would suggest there were any soldiers coming in his direction.

  He breathed out a short sigh of relief.

  Eastley dropped down next to him. “That was easy,” he muttered. “We just need to time it to the volcano.”

  “Do you see Olivia?”

  Ty had been looking for her, but didn’t see that she had made it over the wall.

  “No… wait. There’s someone there.”

  He looked to where Eastley was pointing and caught sight of a figure in a black cloak slipping along the inside of the wall, just a dozen feet from one of the small decorative pagodas on the palace grounds.

  She had made it.

  “There is our lookout,” Ty said. “Let’s get going.”

  Hurrying forward again, he looked toward the palace. They stayed near the massive trees lining a path, using them to conceal their presence, and when they reached the double doors arching in front of them, Ty veered off. They couldn’t take the main entrance to the palace. Bingham had instructed them to take a servant entrance, and hopefully it would be where his map showed it would. Eastley trailed after him, his breathing heavy, his footsteps too loud.

  The moonlight streamed around, making it difficult to make out much nearby, though Ty could see the faint outline of the wall and the trees near them. He found himself watching the darkness and the distance, looking for any sign of movement. So far, the soldiers hadn’t returned, but he worried that it wouldn’t be too much longer before they did. If Eastley pulled them away, and managed to get away, then he should have enough time. If not… well, he was fully prepared to escape and make a run for it.

  When Ty was convinced there was no movement, he reached for the door and found it locked. One of his earliest mastered skills had been learning how to pick a lock, and there weren’t too many locks in Zarinth he couldn’t get into. He worked through it, unlocking it quickly, and pulled the door open just a crack, enough to sneak inside.

  “It’s all going according to plan,” Eastley whispered.

  “And you aren’t doing anything yet.”

  Eastley gave him a shove. “This is all your part of the job, anyway. You get us there, then the two of us can carry what we need back out.”

  The palace was dimly lit in this section. Small orbs of dragon light glowed softly. Dragon light was incredibly rare and created by the Dragon Touched, giving the owner almost perpetual light. The thing about dragon light that made it even more impressive was how it could be adjusted over time.

  Even the temple didn’t have dragon light. That was because the king preferred to keep it for himself and those who served him more directly. He didn’t view the temple and the priests as serving him in the way the Darasheen did.

  The palace directions fit what Bingham had shown them, and they slipped along the halls, moving quietly—at least, Ty moved quietly. Eastley was mostly quiet. He hadn’t spoken again, which Ty felt was for the best.

  In one hallway, Ty swore he saw a little movement, and he froze, hesitating and waiting until the movement had passed. In another, they had to duck into a doorway, using it to shield their presence. When he was convinced there was no further movement, Ty stepped back out.

  He paused at the next dragon light. If he could dim the light, then he wouldn’t have to worry about keeping himself so exposed and risk getting caught. He didn’t know how to dim it, but he knew it could be done.

  They were shaped like how he imagined a dragon pearl would look. The orbs were about the size of his fist and they glowed softly, with a pale orange light. Ty traced his fingers along the light, pressing them up against it and feeling a surge as he did.

  “What are you doing?” Eastley hissed.

  Panic surged in Ty at the same time.

  He hurriedly touched the light again, thinking it would dim if he tapped it enough times, but the light seemed to get brighter each time he tapped it.

  Cursing his foolishness, Ty tried something else. He brought his hand downward from the top of the light. Everything went dark.

  “Sorry about that,” Ty whispered. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

  “What did you intend to happen?”

  “Not that,” he said softly.

  Finally, Ty breathed out, the panic easing but his heart still racing.

  The dragon light wasn’t warm, which wasn’t surprising given the stories he’d heard about them and how they worked.

  What he wouldn’t give to have one of these.

  He smiled to himself. Why couldn’t he?

  He was in the palace, after all. Since he was already here to take something else, he might as well take something he wanted as well.

  Ty pulled on the light, but it was set into the wall, as if the light itself had melted the surrounding stone and sealed itself to it. Pulling out his dragon-bone dagger, he pressed it up against the wall, sliding it around the light. There came a soft cracking of stone and the dragon light popped out.

  It was still dim, but every time he touched it, it surged for a moment before dimming again. Ty stuffed it into his pocket. They slipped farther along the wall, and Ty paused at the next dragon light. This time, he tried something different, tracing his hand from the top to the bottom. The light dimmed.

  He could darken their passage.

  “You can use dragon light?” Eastley asked, leaning close. His breath was too hot, and smelled like the cheese he’d been eating before they came.

  Ty pushed him back. “There’s just a pattern to it.”

  “I thought only the Dragon Touched could use the dragon lights,” he said.

  Ty shrugged. “I haven’t heard that, but it’s just a pattern.”

  He hurried farther along, stopping at each of the half-dozen or so dragon lights in the hall and finding that they all worked the same way. At each one, he paused long enough to reduce the lighting in the hallway, so that if somebody did come out, they wouldn’t see them.

  He reached what he suspected was the main hall. It ran along the map Bingham had shown them, and led to a pair of double doors. A massive circular staircase swept out and around from there, providing an opening, but that wasn’t where they needed to go.

  They needed to go down, to descend three levels to where it was darker than the rest of the palace, and from there, they had
to navigate through a series of holes to get to the vault.

  So far, there had been no one else in the palace.

  Ty pressed up against the wall, looking over to Eastley. “Don’t you think it’s strange there’s no one else here?”

  Eastley shrugged. “I don’t really know,” he said. “With the volcano rumbling the way it is, I think all of this is a little strange. Maybe the servants have already started to abandon the palace. Bingham made it sound like the king was getting everyone out of the city.”

  Which made it likely the king would have already emptied the vault. If that was the case, then they were going to end up wasting their time here.

  All of this planning was predicated on the idea that they would head down, find something in the vault, then move on.

  “Get moving,” Ty whispered.

  Lingering here only risked them getting caught. They slipped down the servant staircase. It had been hidden behind the door, and he wasn’t sure if he would’ve found it without having Bingham’s map. It was one more reason that he thought he needed to trust Bingham. From there, they hurried down one level, pausing and listening for the sound of anybody who might be following, but were reassured there was nobody else around. Ty raised a hand, motioning for Eastley to keep following him.

  They descended two more levels. It still surprised him that the palace descended this far into the ground. It was a massive structure above ground, and seemed to be equally massive below ground. Once they stepped off the stairs, Ty hesitated a moment, looking along the hallway. There were no dragon lights here.

  He traced his hand over the dragon light he had pulled off the wall, creating just a dim glow.

  “We take a left,” Eastley said.

  They turned, following the directions on their map. Eastley stayed in front of Ty now. If they were to encounter somebody, Eastley would have to incapacitate them. He was the better fighter.

  Finally, they found the door Bingham had indicated.

  It looked like almost any other in the hallway.

  “You sure this is it? It doesn’t look like any vault I’ve seen,” Eastley said.

  “That’s what makes it safer,” Ty said. It was stout, solid, and had three locks.

  “But no one watching it? I figured I’d be fighting our way in.”

  There were no guards. There had been nobody here.

  Ty didn’t know whether he should be surprised or relieved. Either the guards didn’t think there was any danger here, or this was the wrong place.

  He started with the uppermost lock. Eastley paced behind him, but Ty ignored it. He had learned to pick locks despite distraction, so that wasn’t going to get in the way for him. The first lock might be the hardest one, mostly because it was above his head. He could ask Eastley for a boost, but he wasn’t going to do that while Eastley was keeping watch for them.

  “There’s something down there,” Eastley said.

  “Down where?” Ty kept his focus on the lock.

  “Finish this, and I’ll be right back.”

  “Eastley—”

  He was gone before Ty had a chance to challenge him.

  It wasn’t the first time Eastley had abandoned him in the middle of a job, thinking he had another way, but this might be the most irritating.

  Ty braced himself, pushing his feet on either side of the doorframe, and crept up it. He gritted his teeth, trying to keep from grunting and making noise. When he managed to get himself several feet off the ground, he pressed his chest up against the door as he strained overhead.

  He used his lock pick set and dug at the lock, twisting into it as he fumbled.

  Bingham had taught Ty early in his training about how to pick locks. He had put Ty through various tests. The first had been a simple walk-through, asking him to sit at a table with no other challenges other than the lock itself. It had taken him a long time to master that. When he could, it was a matter of working faster and faster, testing his speed. Finally, Bingham had moved on to adding distractions, though Ty still sat at a table. He had swatted at him, poking him in the side and the back, smacking him on the back of the head. Ty had to pick the lock quickly and learn to master that skill set. Once he improved, Bingham continued to add layers of complexity to the task—incorporating blindfolds, noise, a crowd, and even asking Ty to do it behind his back.

  If not for all of that, Ty would not have been able to open the uppermost lock.

  He continued to strain, holding his breath. He could barely move his arms. Bingham would’ve appreciated the difficulty of this test. Finally, he heard a soft click as the lock popped open.

  He slipped down the door, landing on the ground, and glanced along the hall. There was still no sign of Eastley. What is he doing? Slipping off like that was going to get one of them caught. Then the rest of the job would fail.

  If Ty hadn’t already drawn attention to himself with the noise he made when he landed.

  The next lock went quickly, and he didn’t have to go too high on his toes to get to it. The final lock was actually the most challenging—not because of his position, but because the lock itself was difficult. He finished working through it, hearing the satisfactory click as it came open, then he stuffed the lock pick set back into his pocket.

  Where was Eastley?

  There must’ve been a patrol, though they hadn’t seen any sign of them, which still surprised him. But now that the door was unlocked, it was time to move quickly.

  As Ty pushed the door open, he saw movement inside.

  Chapter Ten

  Ty hurriedly tried to move back, looking to see if there were any people inside the room, but he couldn’t tell. He just knew that he wasn’t alone.

  He darted off to the side. The room wasn’t terribly large, and it smelled stale, but there was a hint of a scent in the air that reminded him of incense. He rushed in between a pair of shelves, keeping his back to the wall as much as he could.

  Could it be a Dragon Touched?

  A Dragon Touched guard inside the vault made a certain sort of sense, but how would they have been behind locked doors? This was the vault.

  Or it could be nothing more than a soldier. Ty could deal with a soldier.

  Something whizzed over his head, and he ducked, dropping low, barely avoiding whatever had struck where his head had been.

  He tried to roll off to the side, but crashed into a box.

  Too loud.

  He reached for the box, finding something hard and metallic nearby. He waited until the shadowy form came near, then he hurled the cylindrical metal object at them. His aim was true. He heard a soft thunk, a grunt, then looked up.

  They were down.

  It had lasted barely more than a few moments. Still, it had been too loud. Ty was sure he was going to draw attention now.

  Where was Eastley?

  He still had no idea where he had gone, only that he had gone looking for something.

  Ty couldn’t see anything here.

  The room was dark, but he still had his dragon light. He ran his hand along its surface, causing it to illuminate a bit.

  He was careful not to create too much light. While he would have preferred more, he only needed enough to make out the details of the room.

  There were rows of shelves and several open bins. Sculptures filled the shelves, many of them reminding him of the obsidian dragon relics he had seen—and stolen—from places throughout the kingdom. They were the kind of sculptures Bingham—and his mother—favored, and were similar to the one Eastley owed him. As Ty looked at them, he realized they were all replicas. Not a single one was real.

  Could the king really not know?

  It wasn’t the king who placed them here, though. It was his people.

  None of this was what Ty was here for. Not if he could get away with something easier to carry. Gold. Jewels. Anything but dragon remnants and relics.

  He scanned the shelves, but still didn’t find anything they needed; there wasn’t any of the gold or the jew
els that could be easily traded for transportation—and used once they got out of Zarinth. There were a few large dragon bones, remnants that would be valuable but too cumbersome to carry out of there, and a small trunk pressed into the corner. He tested a few of the boxes, looking inside. In each one, he found more dragon bones, similar to the ones he had seen while retracing the expedition’s steps. But there was another shelf, and this one had drawers on it.

  That.

  He hurried over to it and heard a soft shuffling.

  Ty glanced over, but the other person in the room was still motionless. He really should see who else was here. If it was one of the king’s men, then Ty needed to be careful. He had already knocked out one of them, or so he thought the other man was one of them. He couldn’t linger here too much longer.

  He had to find the gold. Ty wasn’t going to leave that to Eastley. He was always going to be the one to pull off the job.

  He pulled out the drawer and found rows of dragon teeth.

  They were jagged, irregular, and seemed to be sorted in a way that kept them together. Could they be a set? Maybe the expedition had found an entire set of dragon teeth, but were they really more valuable than bones?

  He pushed the doors to the vault closed.

  He looked over to the man lying on the floor. He was dressed all in black.

  Why hadn’t I paid any attention to that before?

  None of the king’s men would be dressed in black.

  This man had attempted to break in before Ty and Eastley. Another thief—and working alone. He looked at the man, who was larger than Ty, but didn’t have quite as muscular a build as Eastley. Not only had he been working alone, but he was here behind what Ty had known were locked doors. Maybe they hadn’t been locked, though he had heard the locks click when he picked them.

  The Dragon Thief.

  That was who this had to be.

  If the Dragon Thief was here, there had to be something around that was of great value. Something that would be enough for them to get out of the city. Enough to set him up for life so that he could focus on finding his parents.

  He was resting near a trunk, and Ty quickly made his way over to it, carefully lifting the lid.