Within the Dragon's Jaw (The Dragon Thief Book 2) Read online

  Maybe he had come to rely upon Bingham far more than he should. That was a mistake.

  “I have a place I can take it,” Ty said.

  “I can keep it safe,” Bingham said. “I just think we need to be careful.”

  “You don’t think I know that?”

  “I know you do,” Bingham said.

  Ty looked from Bingham to Olivia. “I need to get out of here. If you want me to move that to a place I know, just tell me. Otherwise, it’s time to start making a plan to connect with the Tecal and try to make an offer.”

  Bingham nodded. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  He looked over to Olivia. “Thanks for your help.”

  “Really?”

  “I mean it. You were a big help.”

  She tipped her head slightly. Just the barest nod, but that might’ve been all he deserved.

  He headed back out and wandered through the streets, taking a circuitous route. He was careful as he looked around, making sure there weren’t any followers. He didn’t think anybody would catch up to him, but he didn’t know for sure and certainly wanted to make sure there were no Dragon Touched keeping an eye on them, using the sculpture to track them.

  There was nothing.

  Ty should have been relieved, and there was a part of him that was, but there was another part that knew well enough to be concerned about the quiet. Taking something from the merchant meant he would now have the hired guards after him, but hopefully he would be able to keep some distance from them.

  He slowed as he neared his home. As he often did, he surveyed the street outside his home, double-checking that the single light was in the window the way that he had left it. He checked him neighbors’ houses as well but didn’t see any movement there. Nothing to be alarmed by. He slipped forward, unlocking his door and then hurrying inside, sealing the door closed once again.

  Only once he was inside did he relax.

  Ever since learning about his brother, everything had changed for him. Everything Ty had thought he had known about his brother had been a lie. Here he had thought that he was a skilled thief, but he had barely any skill compared to the Dragon Thief. It left him questioning how his brother had grown so proficient. It left him questioning if he would ever be able to reach that level.

  He grabbed a bottle of wine out of the cupboard, uncorked it, and poured himself a glass. There was always time to celebrate after completing a job, and this was a successful mission. Maybe not the most complicated mission he’d ever taken, but getting in and getting back out without getting caught was always a victory.

  He looked around the inside of the house, thinking about the time Olivia had joined him here after the last job. She had celebrated with him, used him, but had he been a willing participant? It might have been a business transaction for her, but he hadn’t minded at the time.

  He had to stop moping. And perhaps he had to start trying to understand her perspective. She had done what she had thought necessary for her to help her family. It was no different than what he had done to help his family.

  Maybe he should have asked her back. She could have celebrated with him. It would be a way of bridging the chasm between the two of them.

  Next time.

  He took a seat at the table, resting his elbows as he sipped at the wine. Only then did he realize there was something out of place.

  Not the lantern. He always left a single lantern lit near the window in such a way so that he would know if somebody had moved it. It was positioned specifically so he could catch the shadow flickering off the lantern. In order for someone to sneak in the window, the lantern would have to be moved and put back in the exact right position. Breaking in through the front door had its own checks, ways that Ty would know whether somebody had slipped beyond his barriers.

  Nothing had been out of place, but that didn’t change the fact that there was a folded note resting in front of the lantern.

  Ty approached it carefully, worried that it might be some sort of trick. He unfolded it, scanning it before taking a deep breath. There was an address, a time, and a date. Nothing more than instructions for a meeting, though he had no idea who he was supposed to be meeting.

  He was clueless how it had gotten in here, or when, only that it wasn’t there when he’d left. Whoever had done it had enough skill that they hadn’t been concerned about the protections Ty had placed and hadn’t bothered masking their presence. Not only that, but they wanted to demonstrate that they could get in and get out without him even knowing.

  Whoever that was would be a person to worry about.

  Somebody like his brother.

  Only, his brother was captured, held by the king and under guard.

  Wasn’t he?

  Chapter Three

  Ty slipped along the street, moving as quietly as he could. He was careful here, a little uncertain, but curiosity was driving him forward. If this was about his brother—and he really wasn’t certain that it was, especially as he had seen his capture—he needed to know. He was willing to risk whatever meeting this was in order to learn whether this was about his brother or what had happened to him since his arrest.

  He fingered the note, tracing his thumb along the edge of it, much like he had since receiving it a day ago. There was a part of him that wasn’t sure whether or not he should even take the meeting, but there was another part that remained incredibly curious as to who might have sent this to him.

  Not only sent it to him, but snuck it into his home.

  That was what motivated Ty more than anything else. Whoever had done this had enough skill that they’d managed to break into his home and place the note without otherwise leaving a trace.

  He reached the address on the note and looked into the distance. This section of the city was quiet, nestled near the edge and closer to the jungle. The houses here were carved out of ancient lava flows, all curvy walls, low roofs, and giving the city a strange, undulating appearance. He had always found this part of the city intriguing. Grasses and vines overgrew sections of it, but they tended to steer clear of the top of the houses where lava had once flowed.

  The people in this part of the city had lived here a long time, many of them their entire lives, generations of lives, all in the same places. Was that to be his fate if he ever managed to save his brother?

  He studied the address, sweeping his gaze along the street before an understanding of where he was supposed to go began to dawn on him. The building in the distance called to him, drawing him forward. It was a simple building, made all of dark lava rock, and it carried with it some of the reminders of what this section of the city had gone through. More than that, though, he recognized it as an old temple of the Priests of the Flame.

  There were several of them scattered all around the city. Most of the old temples had been abandoned over time, turned into something else and used by people throughout the city for other purposes. Now with the primary temple in the heart of the city, there was no reason for this temple to be quite as prominent.

  He hadn’t expected to be drawn out here, though he wasn’t at all surprised that this would be where he’d been summoned. It made him question even more whether or not this was about his brother.

  He was gone. He knew that he was gone, but despite knowing that, he couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps there had been something more involved. The High Priest had known what had happened here, but he had not seemed to do anything to try to intervene to save Albion. Maybe there was nothing that he could have done. Albion had served his purpose. As far as the priests might’ve been concerned, it was possible they believed that he had done all that was needed.

  He moved along the street carefully. It was late, darkness had fallen, and a soft and gentle breeze gusted out of the jungle, carrying with it some of the heat and humidity in this part of the world. Rain had fallen earlier in the day, leaving everything damp, and some of the smell still lingered in the air. Ty wrapped his scarf around his head to keep that dampnes
s from saturating him, but even that was probably unnecessary.

  Maybe he should have asked for somebody else to accompany him. Had he not been so antagonistic to Olivia, she might have been willing to accompany him. Bingham most certainly would, but after taking the dragon relic, Bingham needed to remain in his shop to offer it a level of protection. If Eastley were more active, he might have gone to him.

  And that was it.

  He didn’t have many others to ask for help.

  It was a strange realization to have. With all the people in the city, with as many as he had encountered, he was isolated.

  I don’t need help with this.

  He just needed to get in and do the job and figure out what they wanted from him.

  He approached the old temple.

  It was little more than a circular tower, though a single story, wide and stout, and made entirely of the black lava rock. Buildings on either side of it gave it space. Greenery surrounded the old temple, and he regarded it for a long moment, eyeing the stone.

  He didn’t know if he was supposed to go inside or if this was more a matter of him waiting for somebody else to come outside. At this point, he figured he would wait, observe for a little while longer, and then decide what he needed to do.

  He circled around the street, keeping his gaze on the temple the entire time, still a little uncertain. His heart hammered in a way that it didn’t when he was taking other jobs. Why was he so nervous about this?

  Maybe because he didn’t know what was going on here. There was some threat here that he did not fully understand, someone who had been willing and able to break into his home while he was away, and somebody who had no difficulty in doing so.

  And perhaps it was the fact that his brother had been captured.

  No. It was that my brother is the Dragon Thief.

  That was the part that made him anxious.

  Ty circled back around the street and saw a figure standing there across from the temple. This had to be who he was meeting. He approached cautiously, fingering the note for a moment as he did while watching the person carefully.

  They turned toward him and he froze.

  Ty didn’t recognize them.

  The only thing he did recognize was that they had on a necklace that bore the flame symbol for one of the Priests of the Flame, though inverted. Given that he had been asked to meet at the temple, that wasn’t at all surprising. He should have expected that he would be called here by one of the priests.

  The priest smiled as he approached. He tipped his head in a slight bow, nodding to him.

  “You,” Ty said.

  “You received the note,” the priest said to him.

  Ty took a moment to regard him, sweeping his gaze up and down, trying to appraise him briefly. He was average height, average build, and wearing the dark cloak of one of the Priests of the Flame, though the hood was pulled up, making it difficult for him to see his face or his features. His voice was soft, almost gentle.

  “I received the note. I presume it was your doing.”

  He tipped his head slightly. “We needed to talk.” The priest nodded to the temple. “What do you think of this?”

  Ty shrugged. “It’s an old building. I suppose I think of it like I think of any other old building.”

  “Old, but also distinguished, at least as far as I’m concerned. There are not buildings like it any longer. This one is unique in its structure.”

  “I wouldn’t know,” Ty said.

  “When you have a chance to visit the inside, you come to learn about the building itself. It is unique, though I suppose somebody who doesn’t follow the Flame would not have such an opportunity.”

  “Why is it unique?” Ty didn’t want to get into a discussion with this man, but he had come to him, and he had reached his home, which suggested that he knew something. Either that, or he wanted something. Maybe that was the key. Maybe he was after him for some reason.

  “It’s unique because the Flame still fills it.”

  “It was a temple.”

  “A temple, but also something more.” He turned to Ty. “What is a temple but a place where we celebrate? What is a temple but a place where people gather, those who share a common goal, and those who seek the same meaning?”

  The priests had gone through a strange ordeal with the last near eruption of Ishantil, and having calmed it, they had come to take on the belief that they were responsible for saving the city, something the king had failed at doing. They weren’t wrong, at least not from what Ty had seen. The priests had a hand in it, even if what they had done was tied to some ancient dragon relics and a power that Ty didn’t fully understand.

  “What meaning should I seek?”

  The priest chuckled. Even that sounded soft. “That is a question as old as time. We must all find our own purpose, but none can tell another what that purpose should be.” He shrugged. “In your case, perhaps your purpose should be in finding answers.”

  Ty didn’t like the way this was going, but he really didn’t like how this man seemed to know more about him than he knew about the priest. He hurriedly looked along the street, checking for any others, but it seemed to be just the two of them. There were no soldiers out, no guards, nobody else out wandering.

  Just the two of them.

  Ty glanced off into the distance, where he could see the faint glow from Ishantil. Ever since the near eruption, the volcano had seemed slightly brighter than it had before, though Ty didn’t know if that was only his imagination. Perhaps it hadn’t changed. Then again, there was that strange dragon-like face that he had seen in the flames after the egg had been dropped into the volcano. Maybe there was something to be said about it.

  He had no interest in having a philosophical discussion with this priest out here in the emptiness of night, not since the priest had called him here for a reason. It was a reason that Ty needed to understand. It was a reason that he worried about.

  Ty just frowned. “What’d you call me here for?”

  “Simply to have an opportunity to speak with you.”

  Ty backed away. “If you wanted a chance to speak, you could have come and visited.”

  “Why would I have come to your place when you have gone to so many others?”

  He tensed. “What do you want?”

  “I suspect we want the same thing.”

  “What is that?” Ty turned and regarded the man more fully this time. Other than the marker for the Priest of the Flame, he saw nothing else about him that seemed unusual. Certainly nothing that should be worrisome or alarming, though to be honest, Ty wasn’t even sure he would.

  Still, the priest had managed to break into his home. Ty had secured it well enough that he wouldn’t have expected anybody to have been able to get in, and for the priest to have snuck in—to have broken through his defenses—suggested that either he was skilled or he had somebody else working with him who was skilled.

  “I would like answers,” Ty said.

  He regarded the priest for a moment. Did his brother know this man? Could that be why he had summoned him out here?

  Or maybe the priest had called him for another reason. Maybe the Priests of the Flame had decided that he needed to chase down the Dragon Thief, his brother, and free him.

  “We all want answers,” the priest said.

  “And I want answers about my brother.”

  The priest smiled tightly, the only part of his face that was visible to him. “The Flame protects him. And you do not need to fear on his behalf.”

  Ty had a hard time with that comment and an even harder time as he watched the priest, trying to get a sense for what he was going on about. There had to be something here. He wished that he had brought somebody else with him. This was far too strange, which meant that it was far too dangerous, for him to do alone.

  “Are you telling me the Priests of the Flame are going to rescue him?”

  The man turned his attention back to the temple. “Perhaps you should unders
tand the Flame.”

  “What’s there to understand? You celebrate something I don’t.”

  “We celebrate the Flame, knowing that it provides. The power of the Flame is more than what we can understand. If you would only open yourself up to it, you would—”

  “I would burn. I have no interest in joining you on the path to celebrating the Flame,” Ty said.

  “Perhaps you are mistaken.”

  Ty shook his head. “I doubt it. The only thing I’m mistaken about is coming here.” Now that he was here, he couldn’t help but feel as if this was an incredible mistake. What had he been thinking, coming to this strange place, to a strange person, without really knowing anything at all about what they wanted from him? He was normally more suspicious than this.

  “Perhaps you should have a look inside the temple.”

  “I have told you that I have no interest in looking inside the—”

  The man surged toward him and grabbed him. He twisted his arms behind his back, and though Ty tried to fight, he couldn’t escape. He kicked, trying to get free, but couldn’t jar the iron grip off him. Ty had never considered himself weak, but he certainly wasn’t the strongest person. Had Eastley been here…

  Eastley wasn’t here, though. It was only Ty. He had to find a way to be prepared for what was happening. He had to deal with this himself.

  “Stop moving,” the priest hissed in his ear, pushing forward.

  Ty thought about the various fighting techniques he had learned. He had trained for different situations like this, though hadn’t expected to ever really end up quite like this. Not at all like he was now. He had never anticipated getting trapped by a priest on the street.

  The pressure was intense, and they were right against each other. Ty tried to jerk his arm free.

  The priest had a strong grip, holding onto his wrist. Ty couldn’t free himself.

  He tried to twist, thinking of the grappling techniques that he had learned from Eastley, but they weren’t going to work.