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

  “He’s not coming out here. There’s no way the Dragon Thief would risk the king finding him here.”

  The Dragon Thief?

  Ty smiled to himself. They might be situated at the edge of the kingdom, but the stories about the Dragon Thief had reached them even here. They were impressive stories. Tales of a man or woman willing to go against the ghost king, sneaking into places housing his prized possessions, and taking valuable items underneath his nose, which were often protected by his most revered soldiers—either Dragon Touched, those who could use the magic stored within the dragon relics, or even the Tecal.

  “He’d come,” the man with the sword said. “Especially considering what we’ve found. It’s exactly what he would be after.”

  “Which is why the king has sent so many Dragon Touched and a Tecal to guard over it,” somebody said. The voice was softer, growing more muted in the trees.

  Ty froze.

  Dragon Touched were common enough. They served the king, supplementing his soldiers and defending the borders. It was the Tecal that was unusual. The secret keepers. Spies. They were rumored to have some abilities, but no one knew what let them slip through the kingdom without being seen.

  Ty shook himself and followed the men down the mountainside. He was trying to stay as quiet as he could, using the jungle to shield him, which he should have done anyway, all while keeping the path in sight. It was easy enough for him to do. He knew where it was, at least near enough, but even if he didn’t, they were close enough to Zarinth that he could navigate through the jungle back down the mountain. It was getting to the summit without having a path to follow that would be difficult from here.

  “You could help,” one of the men said.

  “I helped enough,” the harsh-voiced man said. “We just need to get it down with the rest, then…”

  Ty couldn’t hear what else they said.

  Ishantil trembled again, though it was faint, not with the same intensity as he had felt before.

  The air felt hotter now, though that was probably only his imagination. A strange cry echoed from deeper in the trees and he decided it was no longer time to linger. He needed to get back to Zarinth, and he needed to do so before the men did. There might be another way to get what he wanted out of this job.

  As he made his way through the jungle, keeping the trail just off to his left, his thoughts were troubled. Some of it had to do with the steady trembling he had felt. Ishantil could be angry at times. Still, he would’ve expected that the priests would have warned the people in the city if there was something to be concerned about. There was no love lost between the priests and the king, mostly because they both prized the dragon relics found in this part of the world, though for very different reasons. The king wanted the relics to power his Dragon Touched, while the priests used them to celebrate the Flame.

  Ty didn’t care about any of that. The only thing he cared about was how much he could sell it for.

  He hadn’t managed to get the score he wanted. Ty hated failing, especially when it should have been an easy job. This could have been his opportunity to grab something he could trade with Maggie before she led her wagons back into the main part of the kingdom, but also something he could sell to Bingham for a profit.

  Now all he had was the claw.

  But there were additional items found on the expedition. He didn’t have to be empty-handed. He just needed to somehow find a way to get to them, if he was daring enough.

  The ground trembled again. He paused, looking up through the jungle, but he couldn’t see the peak of Ishantil from here. He could imagine it though. And he wondered if the volcano was angry with his plan or if it approved.

  The volcano trembled yet again, and he hurried down the mountainside, racing toward the king’s men, an idea starting to form in his mind.

  Chapter Two

  He reached the edge of the jungle, where the city of Zarinth was set within a clearing at the end of a narrow valley that led into the greater part of the kingdom. It was a place that had existed for centuries, according to the historians within the city, though it had been rebuilt over time. Now the architecture was more reflective of the kingdom: tall buildings made out of the volcanic rock found in this part of the world, some with stained glass windows and peaked roofs, and many of them bearing the king’s black dragon standard on a flag.

  Those were the least interesting parts of the city though. It was the older structures, those that had been destroyed during Ishantil’s previous eruption, that Ty always found intriguing. They seemed as if they had been built out of lava flows, curved structures that arced up before dipping back down. Openings cut into them, as if they worked with the existing landscape, rather than trying to add to it. In some places, the jungle tried to reclaim those buildings—vines snaked across the roofs and flowers protruded upward, giving the impression of wildness. Most of those buildings were actually on the Ishantil side of the city.

  Beyond Zarinth, the jungle closed up again, swallowing everything as the road led through a narrow valley. Ty and the men were practically barricaded into a difficult-to-reach location, one that the king had long ago claimed, likely because of the value of the dragon relics frequently found around Ishantil, and also because of the potential for an attack from the Lothinal to the north. Ishantil, and her sister peaks, protected them, though there was the occasional skirmish. It was why the king often had squadrons of soldiers, including Dragon Touched, stationed in the city.

  Ty remained at the edge of the jungle, watching the three men step away from the path and head out into the city.

  They bypassed the older section of the city. Ty knew they would. There was nothing for them there. The king preferred to keep his men situated on the opposite side of the city, though it wasn’t just because of Ishantil. It was also because his people tended to prefer the more modern architecture.

  Ty waited until he was sure they had moved clear and weren’t looking back, then hurried out of the jungle and onto a narrow street. There were houses in this part of the city, though most of the people who lived here were poor. Some of them actually ventured through the paths in the jungle, either traders who dared to try reaching the Lothinal lands, or the occasional smuggler who would try to move beyond even there.

  Normally, Ty would take his time moving through here, but he was curious about where the king had his encampment. He hadn’t visited before, and wasn’t sure about the security. That was a mistake, he realized—one it was time for him to rectify.

  He reached the main road just as the men did. Two of them had taken a position on either side of the pushcart; they weren’t holding it, but they had their swords unsheathed, which was probably unnecessary. They bore the king’s sigil on their jackets, which helped them far more in the city than it ever did in the jungle, keeping people from pushing too close to them.

  He trailed behind them. He wasn’t surprised when they crossed Servil’s Stream and made their way slowly to the east. In this part of the city, the buildings were squat, rectangular, stone structures, with no decoration—and no life either. There was no threat of an overgrown jungle trying to overwhelm them, which he suspected the king preferred. Most of these buildings were new, having been built within the last century as the king expanded his presence here, and included shops that catered to the king and his people. Many of them were far more expensive than anywhere else, but people who came here didn’t necessarily care.

  “You need to sneak a little more carefully,” a nearby voice said.

  Ty practically jumped out of his boots, spinning to see his friend Eastley standing in the mouth of an alley. He was a few inches taller than Ty and muscular, with the traditional good looks that most women preferred—not like Ty, with his more delicate features.

  “Damn you, Eastley,” he muttered.

  He hurried forward, and Eastley stepped onto the street and joined him.

  “You don’t even want to take a moment to talk to your friend?”

 
; Ty nodded to the three men who had nearly been swallowed by the crowd growing around them. “Can’t. Watching something.”

  “A job?” Eastley’s demeanor changed. He was a thief like Ty, though Ty liked to think that Eastley wasn’t nearly as skilled as him. He’d known Eastley for as long as he had been pulling jobs, and though they often competed for the same work, they had become friendly, then became actual friends—at least, as much as thieves in this part of the world could ever become friends. “What kind of a job?”

  “One that I made a mess of,” he said. He pulled out the dragon claw that he had managed to snag in the mountains, and flashed it to Eastley briefly before stuffing it back into his pocket. “I was trying to follow the expedition, but I didn’t do a great job with it.”

  Eastley started to chuckle. “You tried to get them in the jungle? By the Flame, Ty, I wouldn’t even dare go up there. You know what’s up there, don’t you? Dragon Touched. I’ve seen them. And I wouldn’t go up there.”

  Ty resisted the urge to say anything to him. He knew what was up there. More than most.

  “Well?” Eastley asked.

  “It’s everything we’ve heard,” Ty said.

  They had reached an intersection, and the men kept moving east, veering along the street. The crowd started to thin, so Ty was careful not to move too quickly. He didn’t want to look like he was following them, even though he was.

  “What did they find? Relics or remnants?”

  “Both, I think. But I don’t know. They have them boxed up,” Ty replied.

  “I heard one soldier talking about dragon pearls.”

  He looked over to Eastley. Dragon pearls were a storehouse of power, and the Dragon Touched paid dearly for them. “If there are dragon pearls, then we definitely need to find out,” Ty said.

  “It’s not safe. I heard there are three of the king’s chief Dragon Touched in the city,” Eastley stated.

  “And maybe a Tecal,” Ty added.

  Eastley whistled softly, and a woman with a scarf wrapped around her head looked toward them. Ty could only see her eyes, but she glowered at them. Eastley flashed a broad smile, then continued onward as if unconcerned.

  “If we have one of the Tecal here, then whatever those men found on the expedition is incredibly valuable,” Eastley said.

  “Or it’s just the size of the find.”

  “Could be that,” Eastley agreed. “What are you thinking?”

  Ty shrugged. “I’m thinking I’ll follow these three men to see where they’re bringing the items, then make a decision.”

  “Oh. I could’ve told you that. They have an encampment just outside of the city. It’s not going to be easy to get in there though. I noticed a pair of Dragon Touched guarding the entrance to it, and they’ve fenced it off.”

  He looked over to Eastley. “They fenced it off?”

  He’d been more focused on watching the comings and goings of the climbers with the expeditions, thinking he could time his movement so he didn’t have to deal with a Dragon Touched, that he hadn’t watched where they were bringing the items back. He had assumed they were going to the palace.

  “Well, not terribly well. They’ve only placed a stone wall around it, but anyone who tries to sneak in there will be plenty noticeable.”

  “Anybody but me,” Ty said, flashing a grin to Eastley.

  “Is that right? Care to make it interesting?”

  “What do you have in mind?” Ty asked.

  “I will wager you that claw,” Eastley said, nodding to Ty’s pocket, “that I can get in before you.”

  “It’s not just about getting in,” Ty said. “It’s about figuring out what they have.”

  “Fine. Get in, see what they have, then grab something worth more than that dragon claw.”

  “You want me to wager the dragon claw, but what about you?” Ty asked.

  “I still have that relic I snagged on my last job.”

  Ty glanced over, rubbing his hands together. The obsidian sculpture was small, barely only a hand in size, but a sculpture like that would actually fetch a fairly significant prize. He could either sell it to Bingham, which was probably the smart move, or he could trade it for information—which is probably what he would end up doing.

  Assuming, of course, that Eastley had not grabbed a fake. He didn’t have the most discerning eye when it came to those things. Not the way Ty did.

  “You know, I’m not even sure that’s not a forgery.”

  “You can ask Bingham,” Eastley said.

  “You had him appraise it?”

  Eastley shrugged. “Figured it was worthwhile. Not that I was going to sell it to him. But…”

  “Bingham is one of the few people in the city who can move something like that,” Ty said.

  “Maybe I don’t want to move it. Maybe I just wanted it for decoration.”

  “Or maybe you were thinking to use it for some other reason,” Ty said.

  He didn’t tell him how stupid it was to hold on to something like that with so many Dragon Touched in the city, but hopefully Eastley already knew. Ty would move it quickly.

  Eastley glanced over, then shrugged. “Plenty of reasons to have it. If things get tight, a sculpture like this might be my ticket out of the city.”

  “Or you just go through the jungle,” he said.

  “Or that,” Eastley said. “If I want to be attacked by velum—or worse. Which I don’t.”

  Ty shook his head. “It’s not that bad.”

  “Are you going to take the wager or not? I understand if you’re scared or not convinced you have the necessary skill. I might even have to let Bingham know that he needs to come to me first with jobs, rather than to you—which he should probably be doing anyway.”

  Ty glanced over, arching a brow. “Somebody has gotten confident.”

  “What can I say? The cream rises to the top.”

  Ty snorted. They had reached the edge of the city, and he could see the encampment that Eastley had described. It really was much like what he had said. It wasn’t terribly large, maybe a hundred feet by a hundred feet, with a waist-high stone wall made out of lava rock surrounding it, but anybody coming over that wall would probably draw attention. That was assuming there weren’t any sort of protections placed on the wall by the Dragon Touched, something that Ty couldn’t be certain of.

  He had been wrong, though, about the Dragon Touched. There were four of them, not two.

  The three men pushed the cart up to the entrance to the yard, where two of the Dragon Touched stopped them and questioned them briefly before waving them through.

  “I guess we can come at night,” Ty muttered. But while it would be easier for them to sneak in the darkness, it might be harder for them to find anything, and depending on what they used to illuminate the space, they might not even be able to get through anyway.

  “Ah, why wait? First one through,” Eastley said.

  “I said it was about more than just getting through,” Ty replied.

  “Fine. First one to make a score. Good luck.”

  With that, Eastley darted off.

  Ty frowned. He had no idea how they were going to make a score, but when it came to Eastley, he had found that it probably wouldn’t even matter. Eastley would find a way to figure it out. Eastley headed over toward the Dragon Touched, making a show as if he were going to try to talk to them in order to get inside the gate, but then backed away.

  Ty headed to the wall instead. He followed it, making it seem as if he was only walking, though he knew it would draw some attention to him. He instead took the opportunity to peer over the wall.

  He caught sight of the activity, which was fairly disorganized and included several different gatherings of men and women, with tables and wagons situated around.

  They were loading items into the wagons to return to the capital. That was why they had them out here rather than in the palace. They were sorting and organizing them to load for transport. He wouldn’t have much tim
e.

  Ishantil trembled again.

  Ty glanced behind him. From his vantage here, the volcano seemed to loom over the city, a hint of haze around its peak, the smoke rising from the summit and creating clouds. He couldn’t see any of the glowing that he knew would be there at night—the lava burning brightly, that which the priests celebrated as the Flame.

  An eruption.

  That thought kept coming back to him, but could it really happen? The men he’d followed might have believed the priests and scholars who agreed that Ishantil was unstable, but the volcano wasn’t going to burst into flame, spewing lava down the mountainside. At worst, they would have ash and smoke, which could be terrible, but Zarinth had dealt with that many times over the years. Maybe that was what the priests and scholars agreed on.

  Ty caught sight of the maroon robes of the priests.

  He nearly stumbled to a stop.

  The king allowed priests inside his encampment?

  That was unusual. The priests and the king had such an uneasy relationship that he was surprised to see them here. As he continued making his way along the low wall, he saw archaeologists from the university working alongside the priests—another unusual combination.

  The archaeologists had a distinct appearance. Most of them preferred a dark brown jacket and pants, and they all had leather belts with the equipment they used to dig for relics hanging from them—picks, short shovels, and pouches that were filled with brushes and smaller items. They preferred to dig for relics without destroying them, which was slow, tedious work—something Ty couldn’t imagine having the patience for.

  But it gave him an idea.

  He hurried to the far side of the encampment, glancing along the wall, and saw no one patrolling. He pulled his cloak off, revealing his dark brown jacket and pants beneath. He had been dressed as one of the archaeologists for this job just in case he needed to sneak into the encampment up the slope of Ishantil, but he hadn’t gone that far.

  He fished into his pocket, pulling out a pair of plain glass spectacles and slipping them on to add to the look. He had a leather belt and satchel too, though he wasn’t entirely sure that it would convince anybody who was an actual archaeologist from the university.