“When you and Tessa move off on your own—"
“Mother, Tessa and I aren’t going to move off on our own.”
“You can’t stay with us.”
“I don’t think that I can stay with Tessa, either.”
“You aren’t interested in her?”
Jason squeezed his eyes closed. There was a time when he would’ve said that he was, though at the same time, he would’ve felt as if that was beyond him. After having met Sarah, he’d started to wonder if perhaps…
Jason shook those thoughts out of his mind. “I’m more concerned about taking care of you and Kayla.”
“You don’t need to worry about us. Now. What are we eating tonight?” she asked him.
“Rabbit,” he said.
She nodded and waved for Kayla to get to her feet. “Good. Now why don’t you two run along, and I will continue my preparations. I need to get everything ready for us to reopen tomorrow.”
Jason nodded. If his mother was going to reopen her shop, then they would have another source of income. It seemed impossible to believe.
As they made their way back toward their home, Kayla didn’t say anything.
“You’ll stay with Mother tomorrow?” he asked her.
“I think I have to.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, but hopefully this is a permanent change.”
Kayla nodded.
When they reached the home, he hurried around back and dug through the snow for the rabbit but didn’t find it.
He moved over, trying a different section, but there was no sign of it there, either.
Jason hurried back inside and found Kayla working with a pot over the hearth.
“Where was the rabbit?”
“You had your marker out back,” she said.
He nodded. The marker was so that he could find it again, but there was no sign of where he had buried it.
It had to be somewhere, but he didn’t know where it had ended up.
“Can you come out and help?”
She cocked her head, frowning at him, and shrugged. After slipping on her coat and gloves, she followed him back around the house, and the two of them dug through the snow, searching for the rabbit, but there was no sign of it.
“Nothing?” Kayla asked, leaning back on her heels.
“I thought you said we still had one remaining?”
“We should have one remaining.”
Jason breathed out. As far as he knew, there should be more than just one left. There should be many, and yet, there were not.
His stomach rumbled.
He wasn’t as accustomed to going hungry as he had been.
“We still have some dried meat inside. I think we can make do with that until you can catch something tomorrow,” she said.
He nodded, following her back into the home. Why couldn’t it be easier? If his mother had come around, then there was the hope they would finally find a way out of the trouble they’d known ever since his father had passed, but now they had to figure out who was stealing from them.
Somebody had to be stealing. It was not that common for people within the village to steal from others, and so Jason didn’t know who might have been responsible. It would’ve been a simple thing for someone to sit and keep watch for his return, noticing where he buried the meat and taking it.
Without having any way of keeping track, he wouldn’t be able to identify who it was.
Unless he set some sort of a trap. It was the kind of thing that could cause trouble in the village, especially as small as it was and with as few people as were here, but he needed to know. If they were going to go hungry, then he wanted to find out who was stealing from them.
The village works best when we care for each other.
If only Jason were able to see that more often in the village.
Kayla returned to her work, boiling the water and pouring it out into three mugs and steeping the spices for tea. She tore off strips of dried meat and set them onto a plate.
They took a seat at the table, neither of them saying anything, looking toward the door.
Minutes passed, and still their mother hadn’t returned. It was hard to know when exactly she might return, and now with her feeling better, it was possible she might’ve stayed at the shop to get everything back in order. They might have cleaned everything up, but there would still be quite a bit for her to do to prepare to help others again.
Kayla was picking at her meat and Jason tore off a chunk, chewing it slowly. It was tough, though she had seasoned it well. It tasted fine, but he would have much preferred something fresher.
Sipping at the tea, he breathed in the spiced aroma, staring through the steam rising off it toward the door.
“I should go check on her,” he said.
“We can both go,” she said.
“You need to eat.”
“So does she.”
“Stay here. I’ll see if anything happened.”
He got to his feet, throwing on his coat, his gloves, and his hat and hurrying out the door and along the outer edge of the city. When he reached the hut, he found the smoke still drifting from the chimney, and he pulled the door open.
The flames had been quenched in the stove, yet heat still filled the inside of the hearth. There was no sign of his mother, and everything that she’d been working on had been neatly stacked away.
Jason frowned.
Where would she have gone?
They should have stayed with her, especially with as strangely as she had been acting. Someone should have remained with her.
He closed the door, sealing it shut, and took a different way back toward their home. When he was nearly back, thinking that he might have to sweep along a different route, he found someone lying on the ground.
Jason went racing toward the fallen form and rolled her over.
“Mother?”
He checked her neck, feeling for the artery there as she’d taught him. She was still alive, but she was cold. It reminded him of what he’d seen with Angus.
He scooped her off the ground and debated. He could carry her back to their home, but any supplies that might be needed to heal her weren’t going to be there. Anything she might have acquired today could be useful.
He ran, praying for speed, and reached the hut, threw the door open, and set her down on the recently cleaned cot.
He looked around. He’d never taken the time to learn from his mother. It was never something he’d thought would be beneficial for him. He was a hunter like his father. His sister was going to follow in his mother’s footsteps, and she was the one who was going to train to be a healer—or would have, had their mother not let herself go.
He didn’t have any idea what to do or what medicines might be useful.
The only thing he had was the dragon pearl.
Would it even work?
Jason had no idea. He squeezed the pearl, pulling it from his pocket, and rested it on her chest. Focusing on the heat deep within himself, he pushed it out through the dragon pearl and let it roll away from him and into his mother.
At first, he detected nothing.
There seemed to be a strange resistance to that pressure as he tried to push it through her, but the longer he focused, the more he felt it drawing up through him. There was some resistance still, and he forced his connection to the dragon pearl, to the power he knew was within it, and let it roll out through her.
She gasped.
Jason held on to the connection to the dragon pearl, to the heat, and waited. It continued to flow through her, no longer meeting the same resistance.
She took in another breath. Her eyes blinked open and she rolled over toward him. “Jason?”
“It’s all right. I’m here.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. We found you outside.”
“We? Is Kayla here?”
He sighed, shaking his head. “No. I guess I found you out here.”
“Where am I?”
“Back in your shop.”
“Shop?”
Her gaze swept around the inside of the room before turning back to him. She held his eyes for a long moment and then fell back into a slumber.
At least she seemed to breathe more easily. He pulled up a chair, watching her.
How had he helped heal her?
He didn’t really understand the magic of the dragon pearl, only that there was some within it, and because of that, he was able to connect to it. He was able to use the power of the dragon, borrowing from it.
It was strange that the power from this dragon pearl seemed to be heat, but that was always the way he detected it. The dragon within the cave was an ice dragon, so different than the one Henry rode, and he would’ve expected the power to be different, too.
The more he focused on that power, the more he felt it was a similar sort of thing.
Kayla needed to know that their mother was resting. He needed to let her know that he’d found her, but he didn’t feel comfortable leaving.
Would it be safe to carry her back to their home?
She should rest, but he wasn’t about to leave her alone and have her wander again.
He lifted her, and she stirred briefly before falling back into a stupor. When he stepped back outside, he discovered that the wind had picked up, kicking through the village. The bright and sunny day had ended, leaving nothing more than a cold chill in the air.
He let out a heavy sigh and hurried back through the streets, making his way toward their home. As he neared it, a figure behind the home caught his attention.
Jason swore under his breath.
He raced inside, setting his mother down in the chair, motioning to Kayla and ignoring her objection, and then ran outside.
A section of snow had been dug up.
Where was that figure?
He looked around. All he needed was to find movement. With his dragon sight, he should have enough of an advantage, but he didn’t see anything.
Someone had been out here.
Who would steal from them? It was such a terrible thing for anyone to do, to take from those who had so little, who had suffered so much, and yet now he had proof that someone was there.
Jason glanced along the street in either direction but found nothing.
Back in his home, he stood in the doorway. “Keep an eye on her. I found her passed out in the street.”
“You found her where?”
“In the street. And when I was carrying her here, I saw someone digging behind our house.”
Kayla’s breath caught and she glanced toward the back of the house. “Who would do such a thing?”
“I don’t know. But when I find them…”
He grabbed for his bow, strapping on the quiver, and stepped back outside.
Kayla followed. “Jason, you don’t need to do this. We can figure it out another time.”
“Someone has been stealing from us.”
“Does it matter?”
“It matters if we starve.”
“Does it matter right now?”
He took a deep breath, forcing down the irritation rolling within him. She was right. It didn’t matter right now. The thief could have returned to their home, hiding from him.
There was no way to know who it was. The only way he thought he might be able to uncover the culprit would be to watch, and he had no idea what that would take. He certainly couldn’t do it tonight. Whoever was responsible for stealing from them now knew he was on to them.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, he returned to their home, taking a seat at the table next to his mother. Kayla sat across from him and chewed slowly at her meat. She sipped at her tea, saying nothing. When she was done, she sighed, carrying her dishes back to the washbasin and setting them inside.
“Will you help me carry her back to the room?”
Jason nodded and, between the two of them, they guided their mother back into her room and onto the bed. She looked no different than she had every day over the last year.
How could she be so vibrant for most of the day, and then crash like this?
“I wish she would have stayed awake a little bit longer,” Kayla said. She stood at the edge of the bed, looking down at their mother, twisting the fabric of her dress and her fingers.
“At least we know that she can come around,” Jason said.
“I’ve always known she could come around,” Kayla said. She didn’t look up. “This has always been her choice.”
“I think it’s been too hard,” Jason said.
“Hard for her? How has it been any easier on us? For you? You nearly died—twice.”
He didn’t look up and meet her eyes. She didn’t know what he’d gone through, not yet. He needed to share more, but he didn’t know whether there was anything he could say to her. How could she understand the dragons weren’t what she believed? How could she understand the dragons weren’t responsible for what had happened to their father?
Unless he showed her.
If anyone needed to know, it was Kayla.
If they could find someone to watch their mother, Jason knew he needed to bring Kayla down to the cave, and once there, he needed to introduce her to the dragon.
“At least she woke up for a little while today,” he said.
“You think she’ll come around tomorrow, like she said?”
He watched his mother as she breathed, each one coming slowly, steadily, and yet a bit raggedly. “I don’t know.”
Kayla stood there for another moment before heading out of the back room. She returned a moment later with the chair and rested it against the wall, taking a seat.
“You don’t have to stay with her,” Jason said.
“We both agreed we need to keep an eye on her. I’ll do this.”
“You could sleep next to her.”
She shot him a darkened look. “Last time I did that, she wet all over me.”
He resisted the urge to gag. They’d been through enough with their mother that both of them knew she didn’t have the same control over her bodily functions as she once did—or should. It wasn’t that she wanted to do the things that she did; it was just that she had changed, had reached a state where she could no longer function. Both of them believed it was intentional, and yet he couldn’t help but hope that she might find some way beyond it.
If she didn’t, what would become of Kayla?
Without any way of making a living, she would probably have to marry. That meant leaving the village. And perhaps that wasn’t the worst thing that could happen for her. Everything in the village would serve as a reminder of what they’d lost, of their mother, their father, and his inability to provide for them.
In another year—if they made it another year—they might not have much of a choice. At least they could look into marrying her off to someone who might be able to provide for her.
If Kayla were married off, that would only leave Jason, and though he didn’t have any intention of marrying at this time, eventually, the village would expect it of him.
What would he do then?
“You should get some sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I’ve learned how to sleep in the chair,” Kayla said.
She rested her head back, staring at their mother, and Jason remained there for another moment. There wasn’t anything he could do. If she was sleeping, then Kayla was right and he needed to take the opportunity to get more rest for himself. He needed to hunt, and he needed to be successful. Not only did his mother need it, but his sister did, too.
He’d thought Kayla was hopeless before, but he hadn’t paid as much attention to what she was going through as he should have. In the time since he’d returned from his dragon hunt, he’d thought he understood, but it didn’t seem as if he did. They might have been better fed, but even their full bellies didn’t change the fact of what they were going through. It was nothing more than continuing the motions of living.
Now that he’d f
ound the dragon, and now that he had a possibility of trying to understand something more, he’d begun to find hope.
His sister didn’t share that hope.
More than anything, that troubled him. She deserved more. As her big brother, it was his responsibility to help her find more. Especially if their mother wasn’t going to be able to help.
Jason took a seat at the table, lifting his mug of spiced tea and inhaling the steam. He breathed it in, thinking.
Somehow, they would have to do something else.
And perhaps it was time for a more drastic answer.
He’d been to the base of the mountain where there were others. Life wasn’t nearly as hard as it was here, and though it would be a long and arduous journey, he couldn’t help but think that for his sister and mother, it was a journey that needed to be taken.
It would mean leaving behind everything and everyone they knew, but if they reached it, then they could start a new life. Maybe there would be someone there who could provide help for their mother, a healer who had knowledge that could bring her back permanently.
Or perhaps they would run into someone like Gary. Or Dragon Souls. Either way, danger.
That threat was enough for him to hesitate.
Jason hated that he allowed himself to fear those others, but what choice did he have? If he wanted to protect those he cared about, he needed to choose the right way on their behalf. For the sake of his mother and what she was going through, he thought he had to find some way to help her. And for his sister, if she had lost all hope, then it was up to him to help her find it again.
Jason stared into space, sipping his tea, his mind turning. As tired as he was, and as much as he needed to rest, he wasn’t sure he would be able to.
4
He headed down the slope, clutching his bow tightly, his quiver of arrows at his side and his mind turning. He’d left Kayla and his mother behind, though he doubted his sister would leave her alone. At least his mother still seemed to be sleeping peacefully, almost as if she’d exerted herself too much the day before. Perhaps that was all it was. He had to hope she might come around and that she would be able to return to being a healer.
Kayla’s haggard features suggested she hadn’t slept nearly as well as she claimed. She had nodded to him when he left, saying nothing, and Jason had no idea what he could say to his sister.
Iron Dragon: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Dragon Misfits Book 2) Page 4