Free Dragon Fire by Dina von Lowenkraft Page B

come back. Or figured out how June could have shifted somewhere else Saturday night without leaving a trail. All he had found was a trace of emptiness. As if she, too, could erase her trail at will. Which would mean she wasn’t a puppy. And she might be Paaliaq.
    “Stop pacing,” Dvara said from the couch. “We need to see how he reacts to our trails and triggers at school first.”
    “If he can erase his trails, he can avoid our triggers.”
    Dvara smiled. “Yours, yes. But I made some that can only be triggered when they’re together. And when they’re together, I don’t think they’re looking for triggers.”
    Rakan stood still. “You’re a genius. But I still think we should go.” He could feel June’s throbbing energy at school. And she was projecting as loudly as a thunderstorm that she was with her mate. And yet, Rakan couldn’t pick up any trace of another dragon’s energy.
    “You’re useless when you’re in puppy love. Jump her and get over it. We probably won’t stay here much longer anyway, now that the other dragon is back.” Dvara stood. “Alright, let’s go.”
    Rakan ignored her comments about Anna and took off down the stairs until he realized that Dvara had shifted to school. The upper hallways always remained empty until the bell rang. He cursed and followed her trail to the third floor corridor, surprised to see her sprawled on the floor. And to find himself face-to-face with two identical men.
    Every cell in Rakan’s body braced for combat. They were the source of the void-feeling trails, but they weren’t dragons. They didn’t have a rök. Or a smell. They were dressed in the fluid black pants that all male dragons wore and their heads were shaved like Old Dragons even though they had the lean build of a younger dragon. Their chests and arms were covered in runic like tattoos that made the hair on Rakan’s neck bristle. As did their identical purple eyes. “What are you?” Rakan mind-touched his sister, relieved to find she was only stunned. “Why did you attack Dvara?”
    “Quiet,” said one of the men, silencing Rakan with a unidirectional sound wave that knocked him to the floor. “Verje will ask the questions.”
    Immobilized by the high pitched whine in his left ear, Rakan watched as Verje cupped his hands. Two spheres of white light emanated from his palms. They grew as they moved forward. Dvara struggled to her feet and lurched to the side, but the light surrounded her anyway. Rakan stood slowly, still dizzy, and reached out with his mind-touch to analyze the sphere as it circled him, but all he felt was the chill of emptiness. He reached out farther and hit a thin layer of void that his mind couldn’t pass through. He slid his mind-touch along the void. It surrounded them both. He tried to shift out of it, but couldn’t. They were trapped. Rakan growled. “What do you want with us?”
    “The rules are simple,” said the one called Verje. “If you answer the truth, or at least what you believe to be the truth, nothing will happen. If you answer in any other way, the pressure of the sphere will increase. Which should prove to be rather unpleasant. Sverd tends to be heavy handed.”
    As Verje spoke, thousands of scintillating points filled their spheres. Rakan tried to touch them with his mind to determine what kind of particles they were, but couldn’t. They were unlike anything he had ever come across. He quickly rescanned the sphere. If their spheres were surrounded by a thin layer of void, how could new particles have entered? Matter can’t travel through void. Neither can sound. Yet he could hear Verje. There had to be a passage he could exploit. If he could find it.
    “Why should we answer you?” Dvara moved as if to attack, but instead fell to her knees with a gasp of pain.
    “We have no quarrel with you.” As Rakan spoke, a weight squeezed his chest like a huge pair of hands on a child’s toy. His knees wobbled. The pressure made it nearly