Ice Dragon: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Dragon Misfits Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  He got to his knees, swinging the bow around, prepared to aim, but there was no movement. There was no color at the edge of his vision, nothing that indicated anything was close.

  It was possible he wouldn’t even be able to tell. The man in the dragonskin had been obscured, so if they were to approach, he might not even know.

  Jason needed to get moving.

  Getting to his feet, he started back up the slope. He would be careful, watching for their presence. If he came across them, he would bury himself deeper this time. Either way, he had to return to the village.

  The only problem was that he didn’t know how far he had slid.

  It was possible that he had slid even farther than he’d gone with Therin. If so, how long would it take to return? As he traipsed up the side of the mountain, keeping low and moving carefully, he caught a glimpse of movement.

  Jason dropped to the ground, burrowing beneath the snow, and glanced out.

  Had they already managed to find him? He thought he’d slid far enough that he would have moved away from them, but what if they had slid along with him, keeping pace?

  The idea of that terrified him.

  Nothing approached.

  He lay there, ignoring the cold creeping through his jacket and pants, ignoring the pain burning through him. He waited, afraid to so much as move anywhere.

  When nothing else came, he poked his head up, looking around.

  As he did, he could swear that there was movement.

  He hesitated, staring outward.

  And then it was gone.

  Crawling to his feet, he started forward, winding around the mountain, and crashed into Therin.

  8

  Therin took a step back, watching Jason for a moment. His furs were crusted with snow and a deep frown creased his face. It took a moment for Jason to realize Therin held a long dagger in his hand, but he quickly slipped it beneath his jacket.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Jason glanced behind him, relieved it was Therin and not anyone else.

  “I’m glad to see you.” Something cold in his pocket caught his attention and he reached for it, realizing the rock he’d found had stayed with him. He pulled it out and held it in his gloved hand a moment. It was colder than holding on to an icicle.

  “What are you doing here?” the other man said again, studying Jason—and what he held in his hand.

  Jason slipped it back into his pocket. “I was heading back to my village, and I came across three men. There was something else…”

  He hesitated to say more. That had to be imagined, didn’t it?

  “What else?”

  “Probably nothing. Some strange creature.” Therin’s eyes twitched a moment. “But the men grabbed me. They were going to…” Jason wasn’t sure what they would have done to him.

  Therin locked eyes with him for a moment before turning his attention upslope. “What three men?”

  “I don’t know. They wore dragonskin clothing. They were clean-shaven. Dark hair.”

  Therin’s brow furrowed. “Where were you when you saw them?”

  Jason waved a hand behind him. “Somewhere up the slope. I was still quite a ways from the village, I think, but to be honest, I don’t really know how long I had to go. It could have been another few hours.”

  “How did they find you?”

  “They came across me.”

  “How?”

  Jason shook his head. “I don’t know. I’d just caught a hare”—that he’d had to leave behind. Considering how hard hunting could be, leaving anything pained him—“and I burrowed into the snow, but they still found me.”

  Therin turned his attention upslope, and a sense of heat emanated from him that reminded Jason of what he had experienced before from the strange man. He stood with his arms stuffed into his pockets, completely motionless.

  It was strange how relieved he felt at finding this man. He was thankful he had, but now he wondered whether Therin was even safe. He had the same silver eyes as the other men did. He had the same sense of sorcery about him. If nothing else, it was incredibly likely Therin was with the other men.

  And yet, Therin had done nothing to threaten him. He had wanted him to go back to the village. He hadn’t tried to capture him.

  “Who were they?”

  “Dangerous men.”

  “Dangerous like you?”

  Therin looked over his shoulder at Jason, darkness lingering in his gaze. “More dangerous than me.”

  Dangerous men close to the village.

  His mother and sister were there.

  The village didn’t have any real defenses. The main protection it had was its isolation. Other than that, the men were hunters, most skilled with the bow, but not soldiers. Certainly not magic users. They wouldn’t be able to withstand something like that.

  He had to get back to warn them.

  “Why are they here?”

  “They’re after something. There should be no other reason for them to be here. We’re too far away from the city.”

  “What city? Varmin?” Even Varmin didn’t feel right. They were far from it, but not so far that it would be unusual to have visitors from there, especially with the festival taking place. Then there was the strangeness about the men. The sense of magic he felt from them.

  Not Varmin.

  Therin looked back at him, pushing back the hood of his cloak. The silver in his eyes practically shone in the fading daylight. “Is Varmin close?”

  “Not really. The back side of the mountain. It takes several days with the right gear. Longer”—much longer, he didn’t feel the need to add—“without it.”

  “What sort of gear?”

  “Snowshoes. Climbing supplies. Harnesses, rope, that sort of thing.” The men had none of that.

  “They’re not from Varmin,” Therin said. He watched him, looking as if he might say something before shaking his head, almost in frustration. He waved. “Come on.”

  Therin continued down the mountainside and Jason followed him. He remained silent for a while, but as he hurried along, he shook away the quiet. “Where are we going?”

  “The three men you encountered are what’s known as Dragon Souls. They’re incredibly dangerous, deadly skillful, and powerful.”

  “Sorcerers?”

  Therin paused and looked at him. “I’ve already told you it’s not sorcery.”

  “I know what I saw.” Therin started down the slope, moving away. “How do you know so much about them?”

  “Because I was once one of them.”

  Jason hurried after the man, once again noting how no tracks seemed to remain behind him, unlike where Jason walked. He left deep footprints in the snow, and though the wind was picking up, shifting the snow around his footprints, he didn’t pass nearly as quietly as Therin did. It was almost as if the other man could disappear.

  “What’s a Dragon Soul? They have the same silver-colored eyes as me.”

  Therin glanced back at him, locking onto his silver eye for a moment. “They do.” He continued onward. “Dragon Souls are men gifted with a connection to the living dragons. They can use their power.”

  “That’s how you lit the fire? With that sorcery?”

  Therin grunted. “A sorcerer implies I have magic of my own. I merely use what I can from what the dragons have given me.”

  Inherent magic and borrowed. Both are dangerous.

  A different realization came to Jason then. Therin had seen a dragon.

  “What are they like?”

  “You’ve seen what they’re like. It’s lucky you managed to get away. I suspect they believed you a slave.”

  The man’s comment came back to him. “They did. Why?”

  “Dragon Souls keep slaves, and they often breed with them. They need someone who has a connection to the dragons to train them. The slaves are able to work with the dragons, but they don’t have enough power to use them against the Dragon Souls. They need the slaves because they’re
not threatening.”

  Therin looked over at him then. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes.

  “You already knew you had dragon sight. I could see it when we first met. I can see it now in the way that you look at things, favoring your silver eye. That as much as anything is a giveaway. There is no shame in it, Jason.”

  “A dragon killed my father,” he said.

  Therin stopped, crossing his arms over his chest. “What do you think Dragon Souls do with the dragons?”

  “You told me they use their power.”

  “They use power from dragons they control. You can blame the dragons for what happened to your family, but if anything happened, it was not the fault of the dragon.”

  Jason ran to catch up to him but stumbled, scrambling back to his feet to hurry after him again. “You can’t take the blame off the dragons. I know what they did.”

  “You know what your people claim the dragons did, not what they were responsible for.” Therin continued down the slope. “The dragons are trained. They are controlled, but they are also trained. The trainers are the ones responsible for the way they behave.” He paused, glancing over at Jason. “Do you have any animals in your town?”

  “We keep dogs.”

  “Do you blame the dogs if they bite someone?”

  Jason understood what he was getting at. “The dog might have to be put down if it’s too violent. Do you do the same with dragons?”

  “Not often,” Therin said.

  They continued down the slope a bit longer. “Why are the Dragon Souls here? We don’t have any dragons. There haven’t been any seen in decades.”

  “Yet you blame a dragon for what happened to your father.”

  “My father wasn’t killed in the village. He’d descended for trade in Varmin.” It wasn’t even in Varmin where his father had been lost, but outside of it. “He was the cannon master. He was responsible for making it farther down the mountain to find the necessary supplies.”

  “And what supplies are those?”

  “You were there. You saw what my people do.”

  “You draw attention to yourselves.”

  “It’s not about drawing attention. It’s about celebrating.”

  “What do you celebrate?”

  “We celebrate that there hasn’t been a dragon attack on the village in many years.”

  Therin glanced back, and he looked as if he wanted to say something, but he didn’t. Instead, he continued onward.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To stay ahead of the Dragon Souls.”

  “You don’t even want to know why they were here?”

  “I know why they were here.”

  “You said that, but I’ve told you there hasn’t been a dragon attack in decades. There are no dragons in these mountains.”

  “I have experienced the Dragon Souls enough to know the reason they would come hunting these mountains. And I understand the kind of things they think they’ll find. You’re lucky you got away, but I don’t know if you’ll be able to return to your village very easily. They will not stop their search.”

  “But I’ve told you—”

  “I’m aware of what you told me. And I am aware of what Dragon Souls search for.”

  Therin continued to make his way down the mountainside, and Jason struggled to keep up. The other man moved quickly, gliding atop the snow, reminding Jason of what he’d seen when he had been captured, however briefly.

  “That’s why you were there, isn’t it?”

  “I was there because it was where I was needed.”

  “Did you find anything?”

  Therin glanced up the slope again, frowning. As before, a sense of heat built from him, radiating away from the man. “Nothing useful.”

  “Where are you going now?”

  “Continuing my search.”

  Jason kept up with Therin as they walked. He plunged deeper into the snow with each step, his boots sinking, and wished he shared Therin’s way of gliding across the top of the snow. The other man didn’t appear to struggle at all, mand with each step he took, Jason was forced to take double that.

  “Why did you think there was a dragon?”

  “Rumors, mostly. I’ve been following rumors, and in that, I thought I was going to find…” He shook his head, looking down the slope of the mountain before turning his attention back to Jason. “It doesn’t matter what I thought I was going to find. It wasn’t there. Perhaps I’ll go to this Varmin and see what I can find.”

  “If the dragons are trained, why look for them?”

  “There are some that are free. And there’s the…”

  Jason frowned. “What? Who else has dragons?”

  Therin’s eyes narrowed a moment. “The rebellion.”

  He continued to glide along the surface of the snow, making no mark in it. Jason couldn’t help but feel amazed by that, nor could he help but feel astonished by everything that he had found around Therin. There was something about the man that impressed him, and yet it seemed almost as if Therin were reluctant to use those talents.

  “The rebellion fights the Dragon Souls?”

  Anger seemed to cross his face. “Yes.”

  Jason frowned at the answer. There was something Therin wasn’t sharing with him, though he didn’t know why or what that might be. “Why are you out here hiding?” When Therin didn’t answer, Jason waved a gloved hand at Therin’s furs. “You’re dressed in furs, but you have the same magic as the Dragon Souls. You’re hiding.”

  “Because of who I’m dealing with. I understand how dangerous they are, and I know that if I make a mistake, I won’t survive it.” He met Jason’s eyes. Therin’s silver eyes were unreadable, and yet, there was something about them, some sort of power Jason was able to feel. The longer he looked at the other man, the more certain he was that Therin was using more power than what he was letting on.

  Therin paused. Even when he stopped, he didn’t sink very far into the snow. He made a little more of a mark in it when he was standing still than when moving, but not nearly as much as Jason did. When he stopped, he sank deep into the snow, the bearskin boots doing nothing to give him the same lift that Therin had.

  “I’ve had others with me, and I lost them. I understand the dangers of having someone else accompanying me.”

  “How long have you been doing this?”

  “Long enough.”

  Therin looked as if he fit in the village, though Jason suspected that was part of the point. Because of the beard, he could have been from anywhere.

  Not at all like the Dragon Souls. They didn’t fit in. Their clean-shaven faces would end up freezing out here. Then again, the Dragon Souls had dragonskin clothing. With something like that, they were protected in ways that others were not.

  “Why aren’t you a Dragon Soul any longer?”

  “I can’t serve what I don’t believe,” he said softly.

  He continued onward, and Jason tried thinking of something he could say, but he couldn’t come up with anything. He had no idea what the other man had been through, and no idea of the kind of things he had experienced. All he knew was that he was here now.

  After they had walked for a while, continuing downward the entire time, Jason glanced back, looking over his shoulder. Every so often, he had a sense there was movement near him, though he didn’t know why that should be. He had noticed something before, and yet, there hadn’t been anything there. Perhaps it was nothing more than his imagination, but he couldn’t shake the sense that something was out there.

  “What is it?” Therin asked.

  “I keep thinking I see something. It might be nothing.”

  “What do you think you see?”

  He shrugged. “Normally I can see movement pretty well, and every so often, I catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye.”

  “How certain are you of this?”

  “Not at all. That’s why I keep looking.” Jason stumbled, catching himself, but not before
he ended up with a face full of snow. When he got up, he shook his head. “It’s probably nothing more than my mind working me over after what I experienced.”

  The other man grunted. “Possibly.”

  He paused again, and when he did, he reached into his pocket, pulling something out. He held it out, turning slowly in place, looking.

  “What are you looking for?” Jason asked. “I can feel…” What was it that he could feel? He wasn’t sure what it was, or whether or not it was even real. “Power, I suppose.”

  The other man studied him. There was something unsettling about those silver eyes. How bad must it be for others to have him look at them with one silver eye?

  “You have the gift, Jason. The dragon touch. You have it.”

  “I don’t have anything like that.” He turned away, closing his eyes. He didn’t want to have anything to do with the dragons. It was bad enough that he had dragon sight, and if Therin believed he were dragon touched as well…

  That was a power he would rather not possess. It would be easier—better—not to have anything else like that.

  “You don’t have to fear it. It won’t hurt you.”

  Two kinds of magic…

  “The dragon—”

  “Was controlled.”

  If that were the case, it meant Dragon Souls had been in Varmin. They had been the reason his father had died. Why, though?

  Tessa hadn’t spoken about it very often, and he was careful not to push her about it. Then again, he didn’t really want to know what Tessa had experienced, the way she had seen his father suffer. She was the last one to have been with him alive. Because of his father, Tessa had managed to escape. She still lived. His father did not.

  Therin turned away and continued onward, descending rapidly. Every so often, Jason would drop to his buttocks and slide down to catch up to the man. It was almost as if Therin were sliding while standing, gliding along the surface of the snow, and yet even if that were what he was doing, he didn’t leave any marks; he left no sign of his passing. There was no evidence that he’d been here at all. It amazed Jason.

  “How do you travel the way that you do?”

  “Walking?”

  Jason pointed to his tracks, and then to Therin’s. “Not just walking. You’re moving in a way that you aren’t leaving any evidence of yourself.”