Ever since they’d defeated Therin, there’d been no sign of the man. The first few weeks after defeating Therin had been the hardest. Jason had kept vigilant, worried Therin would come after the village, the dragon, and that Jason alone would know enough to withstand him. With each passing day when there had been no sign of Therin, Jason managed to relax further, though he still wasn’t completely convinced Therin was gone. Maybe he hadn’t survived the journey down the stream. With as cold as the water was, it was possible he had not. Even with a dragon pearl to draw energy from, to keep himself warm, it might not have been enough to overpower the natural cold.
In Jason’s mind, it was better if Therin had not survived. They didn’t need the Dragon Souls’ attention upon the village. The fact that they had come there once had been enough, and if they believed there was a dragon, then it was dangerous for not only the dragon, but for Jason and the others he cared about—and cared about protecting. There would be no way to protect them if the Dragon Souls returned.
“What if we’re searching too far away?” Jason asked.
“I’ve searched closer,” the dragon said.
“If you can reach through me and detect something, maybe I can reach through you and detect something.”
The dragon rumbled again. It seemed to be his way of agreeing with Jason, but even if the dragon agreed, Jason still wasn’t sure what it would take to detect anything. More than that, it was possible he would never learn. It was possible there was no way for him to detect anything. He didn’t understand the connection between himself and the dragon. Only that he had some way of using the dragon pearl.
Could he draw through that connection?
If he couldn’t, there had to be some other way to see if he could help the dragon. What did he know about power and the Dragon Souls?
He thought about what Therin had said to him. There were other eggs that they had placed, and as far as Therin knew, none of them had hatched.
And maybe that was true, but Jason trusted the dragon. He trusted that the dragon would be aware of his hatch mates and would be able to detect the others.
But there was an advantage Jason had that the dragon did not.
Therin had revealed something to him.
Could he use that?
Understanding what Therin had done required knowing the man.
More than that, it might involve going someplace that Jason didn’t want to go.
“We need to head back,” he said.
“You have abandoned the search already?”
“No. I think we need to approach it differently.”
“How so?”
He inhaled deeply, letting it out. “When my father was killed”—his voice caught, the same way it did each time he spoke of his father—“there had to have been other eggs involved. The man who was responsible for moving them would have done so there.”
“You no longer blame the dragons for what happened to him.”
“I don’t. I understand the dragons aren’t responsible for what happened to my father.” He swallowed. “I want to do whatever I can to help you.”
He forced down the pain of thinking about his father. It had been easier in the days since learning what had really happened. Living with the belief that the dragons had been responsible for his father’s death had been hard, and for some reason he found it easier knowing his father had died for a different reason. Seeing this dragon, getting to ride him, and knowing the cave his father had once shown him was the reason the dragon had survived made it all the more bearable.
It still wasn’t easy. Losing his father was never going to be easy, but he had to think that his father would have appreciated what had happened. He had to believe that his father would have wanted the dragons to thrive, even without knowing them himself.
“Where was this?”
Jason wondered how much the dragon was aware of what he was thinking. It was possible that he could connect to all of it and know everything Jason was thinking about, but it was equally possible that he didn’t understand the emotion. He might know the language, but he might not comprehend the reasons that Jason suffered as he did.
“There’s a village on the back slope of the mountain.”
“Back slope?”
“The side with less snow.”
“That will be more difficult for me to reach.”
“I understand.”
“I will bring you as close as I can. And you will search.”
“I will do what I can,” Jason agreed.
“When you find something, you will summon me.”
“I’m not sure I know how to summon you.”
“You will summon me the same way that you did before. You will call upon my power.”
Jason reached for the dragon pearl, squeezing it in his hand. “That summons you?” He thought about the way that Henry had called the dragon.
“Drawing upon my power alerts me of your need.”
“And you can find me?”
“I can.”
They began to descend, and as they did, the snow shifted. Wind was whipping around, obscuring them, and there was something else, something Jason had realized when they were flying. The dragon had changed course, heading back toward his home mountain. From here, they would be able to reach the village, but they had descended down the back face of the mountain. Snow stretched through here, though it wasn’t nearly as treacherous as the snow on the front face.
The dragon dropped, reaching the snow, and then began to glide, skiing above the surface of the snow. Jason remained on the dragon’s back and said nothing as they glided farther and farther down the mountain.
There were parts of this mountain that were more heavily traversed. There were sections of it where roads had been built, easier ways of traveling between the villages dotting the back side of the mountain. His village was the highest point on the mountain, and it had been the most difficult to protect, but at the same time, it held a certain level of prestige among the villages because of its role in defending against the dragons—along with their access to tellum. He wondered what the people of the village would think if they knew that such protections were unnecessary. They probably wouldn’t believe it. Had he not experienced the dragons the way he had, and had he not seen what the Dragon Souls were willing to do, he would never have believed that the dragons were not interested in harming their people.
The ground began to change. Smaller shrubs dotted the surface.
This was what most people in the village used for firewood, if they were able to bring it upslope. It was difficult to carry most of this wood up the slope, so they relied upon dung, which was far easier to acquire.
The longer he traveled, the more the landscape changed, though it did so in a way that was similar to the front face of the mountain, giving everything a familiarity, though he rarely traveled in this direction.
And then the dragon skidded to a stop.
“This is as far as you can bring me?”
“There are others not far from here,” the dragon said.
Jason nodded. He climbed off the dragon’s back and patted the creature’s side, then stepped away.
“You will summon me when you need me.”
He reached into his pocket, feeling for the dragon pearl, and sent a surge of power through it. “You can feel that?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will summon you.”
With that, the dragon pumped its wings and took to the air.
As he did, Jason watched as his form became ever more distant. Eventually, he became lost in the clouds, nothing more than a memory.
Jason breathed out, squeezing the dragon pearl, hoping he’d be able to reach the dragon when it came time to leave, but if he could not, at least from here, he thought he might be able to find his way back to his village.
It would be a long climb, and potentially treacherous, but there were plenty of people who had come down from the village to this part of the world. From here, Jas
on knew he’d be able to return.
He started down the slope, clutching his bow, holding his bearskin jacket around him, trying to ignore the chill, and yet, it wasn’t the chill that sent a shiver through him. It was the idea that he was going someplace dangerous—a place where his father had been lost—and going without any protection other than his bow.
It was a mistake, he thought, and yet it was something that needed to be done.
7
It was late in the day when he saw light flickering in the distance. At first, he thought it was someone’s campfire, and he moved carefully, slowly, thinking that if he approached too quickly, he could raise the wrong kind of attention. He’d expected to come across others long before now. The dragon had detected someone, so he’d expected he’d find that someone, but there’d been no sign of anyone else on the road with him. And it was more of a roadway than a vast expanse of snow. The wind wasn’t nearly as harsh as it was on the front face, and though the evening brought snow, it came in softer flurries rather than the violence he knew from the front face of the mountain.
It might’ve been easier to have come this way and hunted, and yet the longer he’d been down here, the less he’d seen signs of life. There were some birds flying overhead, but that was about it. There was nothing else. Certainly no signs of a herd of deer or any other creature that might’ve been valuable to him. He passed a few copses of spindly trees, but within them he found no trace of squirrel or rabbit or anything that would have been edible.
These lands were overhunted. It was for that reason that he preferred to hunt the front face. The work might’ve been more difficult, and he rarely caught something, but coming this way would force him to compete against the others from his village.
Could that be who he’d come across?
There were times when people from the village would descend far down the mountainside and come back empty-handed.
At least when Jason returned empty-handed, it wasn’t quite the same climb. And when he did find something—which was increasingly common these days—he didn’t have to share it with as many people as the hunting parties did.
Maybe that was why someone had been stealing from them. It was possible the hunting parties had been splitting too much, making it so those who’d been out hunting had to go hungry. If that were the case, Jason would’ve expected to have heard something more about it, and yet there had been no sign of others suffering starvation.
He approached the light slowly, and when he did, he realized there was something off about it. It wasn’t just a campfire, not as he had believed.
He had found the town of Varmin.
Jason had visited here once before with his father, but it had been a long time and he could barely remember what it had been like. The journey down with his father had taken the better part of several days, and the return had been nearly a week. That had been a time when he was much more willing and interested in venturing out of the village. He remembered how hard it was to travel this way. His father had worked with him, training him to hunt, and had used it as an opportunity to explore a part of the world they didn’t visit as often.
He recalled the buildings themselves. Many of them were made of wood, something not nearly as common up in the village. There they preferred to use ice, and packed it against stone dug out of the mountain itself.
More than that, in Varmin they were far more eager to light fires than they were in the village. There was less of an issue with acquiring the necessary firewood.
Seeing the flickering lights lifted his spirits, if only for a moment.
It reminded him of the festival, and yet knowing what he now did of the festival and the purpose behind it, he couldn’t help but think that was a mistake. There was no reason to try to taunt the dragons. And there was no reason to fear them, either. The dragons were only a threat to them because of the Dragon Souls, though he doubted anyone within the village would know that or understand why.
He continued down the mountainside, moving cautiously. Doing so meant he ran the risk of questions, and though there were enough people from his village who visited this far down the mountain, the fact he’d come this way by himself would raise questions.
Jason paused at the outside of the town. Varmin was a large town, spread out over a flattened section of the mountainside and along the slope, built in such a way that it flowed downward.
Not only was there the light from flames inside of buildings, but there was the scent of smoke, that of firewood rather than dung, all of it filling his nostrils. Other smells were there, food baking, the scent of strange spices, and every so often, the sound of a steady thundering.
The first time he heard the thundering, Jason paused. It had been a long time since he’d heard that, and it reminded him of the cannons used by his people during the festival, but he didn’t think this thundering came from cannons. It was something else, though he wasn’t entirely sure what.
When it came a second time, rumbling beneath him and reminding him of the dragon, he reached for the dragon pearl, gripping it for a moment as he worried there might be some need for its protection.
He needn’t have been concerned.
There was no additional rumbling.
He reached the outskirts of the town. He didn’t have any money, and he hadn’t come with anything to trade. He should have brought the coin pouch he’d taken from Gary, but that remained in his room, hidden.
Jason took a deep breath and started into the town. He passed a couple of widely spaced buildings. The snow was not nearly as deep here as it was higher up the mountain. His boots crunched in the snow nonetheless, and the longer he made his way, the more he felt the snow beneath him shifting. It was unlike anything he was accustomed to in the higher reaches of the mountain.
He followed the trail into the village, making his way between a series of buildings, and searched for anyone who might be out in the growing darkness.
There was nobody.
So far, he had encountered nothing. The more that he traveled, the more he thought there would be someone here, but he didn’t find anyone.
Could everybody be in for the night?
In his village, it was uncommon to come across people out at night. Jason enjoyed the crispness of the evening air and the rarity of stars twinkling overhead. Others feared the snow and storms that came each night.
When he had come here before, he had done so with his father, and they had visited a market, but he saw no sign of the market now.
Perhaps it was closed for the evening.
As he wandered through the street, he didn’t find any place to go.
The rumbling came again.
It was close, but more than that, there was something about it that tugged on an awareness within him.
It wasn’t the dragon. The ice dragon wasn’t going to approach the town of Varmin without Jason summoning him, which meant it was something else. He paused as he reached the southern edge of the town. He still hadn’t encountered anyone else, though there were plenty of homes with lights glowing within.
There was a part of him that was tempted to knock on doors, to ask questions, but that wasn’t going to get him any answers.
Instead, what he needed was to find a place to settle for the night. In the morning he could venture out, and he could ask the questions he wanted. It would be easier in the daylight rather than the growing darkness. At night like this, he would only raise suspicion.
It would be easier to find others who would recognize he came from the village. There was no harm in revealing that fact, and more than that, he thought it would be beneficial. He might be able to uncover more information that way than he would otherwise.
Where would he settle for the night?
That was his big question. When he had slipped down the mountainside and ended up in the town, he’d had some idea of what to do. He’d traded for the dragon pearl, using that to get money to stay someplace.
He wasn’t about to trade the dra
gon pearl now. He understood its value, and there was more than that to it. He had no interest in losing his connection to the ice dragon, the only thing that would help him find his way back up to his village.
He was empty-handed. Which meant he was going to have to sleep out in the night. With his bearskin coat, he had protection. With the connection to the dragon, he wasn’t about to freeze, and if it came down to it, he thought he could use the power through the dragon pearl, though he wondered if doing so would draw the dragon to him.
Shelter.
He wandered, finding a towering pine forest growing near the southern border of the town. The trees were narrow and stretched like fingers toward the sky, covered by fragrant pine needles. He wandered between them and decided that he could stay here. If nothing else, the forest would offer a certain protection, and at least there was less wind here. As far as he could tell, no snow was blowing in, so he wouldn’t have to worry about that, either.
Weaving through the trees, he looked for one that might offer him more protection than the rest. Maybe he could find some fallen branches and create a hut for the night.
More than just that, he could start a small fire.
Jason smiled to himself. It had been a long time since he had used wood for a fire.
With the dragon pearl, it would be an easy enough thing to start the fire. He thought the dragon would understand that, and hopefully it wouldn’t draw his attention, summoning him.
Nothing his father had ever told him would help him here.
Jason began to gather the fallen branches that he found. Some of them were little more than strips of needles, and others were larger, and after he had wandered for an hour, he had a sizable pile. He dragged them toward a clearing within the trees. While the pine trees might provide some protection, the fire would offer protection of a different sort.
Jason leaned over, using the dragon pearl, and summoned warmth.
It was a different sensation than when he had drawn through the dragon, trying to use cold. In this case, he was focusing on the warmth within himself, and pulling that out. He thought he was able to do so, that he had enough strength, and in doing so, he could feel the connection to the dragon.
Iron Dragon: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Dragon Misfits Book 2) Page 8