Storm Dragon: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Dragon Misfits Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “I’m sure it is.” Jason focused for a moment and then headed toward the door. He thought about where they needed to go, and he headed through the halls, ignoring the sounds around him. He could feel the iron dragon out in the forest, and he used his connection to him to send a surge of heat through his iron glove, letting it flow through him. As he did, he was able to feel the iron dragon respond. The iron dragon knew what he needed, and knew that he was ready to depart.

  When they headed outside, the sky was dark.

  How long had he been in here?

  It didn’t seem as if it had been that long. He’d had a short nap waiting for Cherise and Olar, but not enough to be fully restored. If it came down to it, would he be strong enough?

  The better question would be whether the dragons would be strong enough. He had pulled on power from all of the dragons, although he had sent the ice dragon off on a separate mission, tracking the invisible dragon. And what would happen if the ice dragon got in trouble with the other dragon? Would he be able to withstand an attack?

  Then again, the ice dragon was only out there looking for information. He wasn’t going to attack. He was scouting, nothing more than that.

  When they reached the courtyard, he found the iron dragon. He climbed up onto his back, and William followed. With a surge of heat, the dragon took to the air. He began to circle, heading in a spiral above Dragon Haven, and with another blast of heat, they exploded through the illusion.

  “You aren’t waiting on the Dragon Guard?”

  Jason looked back toward the city. “They’ll come, but I don’t think they can go where we need to go. They need to keep the Dragon Souls from leaving Lorach and giving the invisible dragon more targets.”

  William sighed. “I haven’t flown with the dragons since we got here. They have me training with them, but that’s not the same as flying alongside them.” He shrugged and looked over the side of the dragon. “I think they aren’t quite sure what to make of me. I don’t have the ability to use the same power as they do, but I do have a way of reaching the dragons.”

  “What way is that?”

  “It’s a matter of connecting to their power.”

  “And how do you doing that?”

  “I understand the dragons.” He shrugged, smiling to himself. “I thought it was going to be more than that, but it’s real. I know the others don’t necessarily believe it, but I have a connection to them.”

  “I believe you,” Jason said.

  When they reached the outskirts of the forest, he motioned for the iron dragon to descend. They reached the ground, and Jason raised his hand to William.

  “Wait here.”

  The other man frowned, but Jason ignored him and hurried into the dark forest.

  At this time of night, there was nothing more than darkness swirling all around him. It was shadowed and calm and quiet, and a sense of dread washed over him.

  He didn’t even know if that sense of dread was real or part of whatever illusion the forest dragon was able to maintain. He focused on the nature of the illusion, searching for it, and couldn’t find anything.

  As far as he could tell, all of this was real, and if that were the case, then everything he was feeling came from himself and not from her. Then again, Jason knew better. It was possible she’d placed the illusion before he’d even landed. She was subtle with her touch. He tried to focus on it, but didn’t find anything.

  “Are you here?”

  His voice called out against the night, echoing softly in the darkness.

  There was no answer. There was no sense of movement or stirring around him, and he waited, looking up into the treetops, searching for any sign of her, but there was none.

  “I need to ask you for your help,” he said.

  He stood with his hands clenched in front of him, staring up at the treetops, searching for her deep green eyes. There was no sign of her, though he knew she would have to be there somewhere. The longer he stared, the more certain he was that he could feel her.

  And if he could feel her, then perhaps he could use that to know where she was within the forest.

  He was connected to her, but despite that link, there was something different between them. He didn’t have the same connection as he had with the ice dragon or the iron dragon, but he thought he needed to. The more he thought about what he shared with the forest dragon, the power she’d gifted him, the more certain he was that he needed to find something within him that would help him reach for her power more easily and effectively.

  More than that, he wanted to understand what he could do with her power. He was certain there was something there, though he had no idea what that might be.

  “There’s another of your hatch mates out there.”

  The wind picked up, stirring the leaves, fluttering high overhead.

  Jason froze in place. He recognized the sense of the wind, the way it stirred through the trees, and he recognized the power he detected overhead. It was the power of the forest dragon. Even though he couldn’t see her, she was here with him.

  “Did you know he was there?”

  That sense of fluttering of the trees came again, and when it did, Jason waited. She had to be there, but where was she?

  “He has a way of overpowering your illusion.”

  To Jason, that was the most important part of it. The invisible dragon’s ability to overcome the illusion made him dangerous—and difficult to help. Jason hadn’t been able to use the power of the ice dragon or the iron dragon. Without having that of the forest dragon, there didn’t seem to be anything he could do to help the invisible dragon. There didn’t seem to be a way to reach it.

  It made him feel helpless. Jason hated that helplessness, and he hated the fact that despite everything he had learned, every bit of power he had connected to, he was still helpless when it came to understanding all the aspects of dragon power.

  “I think your illusion helped him, though,” he said.

  His voice was softer, and he knew the dragon was there, closer, and he searched through the trees, staring up at the darkness, trying to find where she was. There was nothing there to signal her presence.

  And yet, even though he couldn’t see anything, he knew she was there. He could practically feel her energy.

  “I need to get to him before he destroys other dragons. He’s killed one, and with as large as he is and as powerful as he seems to be, I worry he’ll do the same to others.”

  The trees continued to flutter, movement stirring around overhead.

  The breeze drifted toward him. Jason focused on it, letting the sense of it roll through him. He swayed with it for a moment. It was a familiar sensation, and as he swayed in place, letting the breeze drift with him, he felt himself carried along with it.

  “I know you want to help the other dragons. I know you don’t want anyone else to suffer.”

  “He doesn’t suffer.”

  The voice came from behind him, and he turned slowly. When he did, the dark green eyes blinked out of the darkness. How had she managed to get behind him? He didn’t think she should have been able to do so quite that easily, but with her ability, it was often difficult to know what she was capable of.

  “He suffers. I felt the way he suffers.”

  “He only suffers because he was attacked. He wouldn’t have suffered otherwise.”

  “And I intend to help protect him from another attack,” Jason said.

  “I’m not sure you can. These others. They use and use, and they seek to control, to abuse.”

  “I understand they do, but I also know we can help.”

  He was convinced he could, and the more he thought about what the dragon had gone through, the more certain he was there would have to be some way to help the dragon. It had to do more with his connection to the misfit dragons. It had to do more with what he was able to feel about the dragons. It had to do with even the dragons controlled by the Dragon Souls. If Jason could help all of them, then he would need to fin
d some way. The challenge was that he didn’t know quite what it was going to take, though he was willing to try to learn.

  “That one has no help,” the forest dragon said.

  Now her voice came from the other side of him and Jason turned slowly, trying to follow her, but he couldn’t track her. She moved so silently that he knew she was holding an illusion around him. Perhaps the darkness wasn’t nearly as complete as it seemed, or perhaps the sound was muted as part of her illusion, though none of that really mattered. What mattered was that she was incredibly gifted with illusion.

  “You don’t know what he was feeling. You don’t know what I was detecting. There’s a need within him for something more. There’s a need within him for power and understanding.”

  Jason wasn’t even sure how much of that was real. He had felt the anger, and he’d felt something else, but he didn’t know what it was or how he could work with the dragon in order to protect him. The more he thought about it, the harder it was to know whether there was anything he would even be able to do. He couldn’t help but think he had to find some way of helping the dragon, but he didn’t know what that way was going to be. The dragon needed him, but the other dragons needed him too.

  “Your illusion showed me his emotions. I could feel the way he strained against it. I could feel the rage within him. And I could feel the justification he felt in doing so.”

  Jason hesitated, tensing. “You can’t think that.”

  “The other dragons have been twisted.”

  “They have been, but they can be saved too. You’ve seen that.”

  The forest dragon went silent, disappearing for a moment.

  He wasn’t sure what he was hearing. Could she really think the dragons didn’t deserve to be brought back from a torment like that? She’d suffered, she’d experienced it, and because of that, she should know better. She should understand that something like that would be not necessarily her fault.

  And there had to be some way to help those other dragons. More than that, he was convinced there was a way to help not just those other dragons, but the invisible dragon as well. That was the one he thought he needed to help the most. If he could find some way of doing so, if he could find that connection, then he could help another misfit.

  “I know you don’t mean what you just suggested,” he said.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because you’ve experienced that influence. You know what it’s like.”

  “I know what it’s like, just as I know that the dragons would want to be freed of that.”

  “And I can free them of that.”

  “For how long?”

  “There has to be a way I can prevent them from being influenced again.”

  “You think that, but I’m not so sure there is.”

  “I’m convinced there is,” Jason said.

  There had to be, but he had no idea what it was going to take, though he was determined to find out what it would be.

  “I need your help.”

  “You have whatever help I can give you.”

  “I might need more direct help.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Because you’re afraid?”

  There came a rustling within the trees that Jason tracked the sense of, focusing on where she was moving. He wasn’t able to tell all that much, but he could feel where she was shifting within the trees and knew she was darting from one position to another.

  As she did, he followed her, watching where she was heading. This time, he was able to see more clearly what she was doing and where she was going.

  He didn’t have to struggle quite as much as he had before. He could track her, he could find that energy, and because of it, he was certain that he could keep up with her.

  Which meant she was letting him.

  “You aren’t afraid.”

  “All creatures know fear,” she said.

  “I shouldn’t have implied that you’re afraid of the Dragon Souls.”

  “You speak nothing but the truth. I do fear. I don’t want them to find me. I don’t want them to be able to influence me. And as I continue to understand the nature of my powers, I don’t have to worry about it.”

  “You don’t have to worry about it because I’ve helped to protect you.”

  “The others have protected me. Much like we will protect the other.”

  “You don’t think I did anything?”

  “You served as a conduit.”

  It was the first time he’d been told by the other dragons that what he was doing didn’t necessarily matter. Hearing it from the forest dragon troubled him.

  “You think the other misfits, dragons like yourself, must be the ones to help this dragon.”

  “I know we must be.”

  “The ice dragon is looking,” he said.

  “I know he is. Much like I know you know where to find him.”

  Jason took a deep breath. “You could help.”

  “And I have told you that you will have whatever help I can offer.”

  He watched, but then she disappeared. He waited, hoping that she might reappear, but she didn’t.

  It troubled Jason.

  It had more to do with the attack she’d experienced. He was certain of that. She’d survived the attack and he had healed her, using the connected powers of the ice and the iron dragon. Because of that, she was given more strength, and she didn’t have to worry about others attacking or using her, not as she had before. But at the same time, she seemed to be truly afraid.

  Why, though?

  It didn’t just have to do with the Dragon Souls. She’d faced the Dragon Souls and she knew Jason was willing to battle with them, to use whatever was required to stop them and to prevent the other dragons from being tormented the same way that she had been.

  Could it have to do with the fact that she was a female?

  He hadn’t considered that before. When Therin had attacked, he’d taunted her, tormenting her, making comments about what he would do to her and with her.

  With that kind of threat, how could she be anything but afraid?

  He thought perhaps there was something he could do, some way to offer her some protection, but perhaps staying here in the trees was the only protection she could have. If she stayed here, then she wouldn’t have to fear the Dragon Souls grabbing her, using her, abusing her.

  He also had the sense that she—like the ice and iron dragon—wanted to find the other misfit dragons. This invisible dragon was one of them, and there would be others, but it would take them working together to find them.

  And it might take them working together to help this one.

  Jason stared up into the trees, waiting, looking for any sign the forest dragon might return, but she was gone.

  Every sense of her had disappeared.

  He turned away. As he headed back toward the iron dragon, he thought he heard the faint stirring of the wind and the fluttering of scales, a sound so similar to leaves moving overhead, but he couldn’t be certain. It might be only his imagination—or nothing more than her illusion.

  Either way, he turned away from the forest, determined to find some way to help but uncertain what it was going to take.

  When he reached the iron dragon and climbed onto his back and they took to the air, two dark green eyes stared out at him from the forest.

  Jason focused on that connection between them, trying to find some way that he could use what he knew existed between them, but he couldn’t do so.

  And then they headed south. Toward Lorach.

  12

  The iron dragon landed in a clearing. They had been here before, but when they had come the last time, there’d been an illusion placed around them and everything they’d experienced had been not quite as it seemed. Now, when they landed, Jason was certain this wasn’t an illusion—but still searched for any influence that might’ve been placed on him. He checked, searching for currents of a subtle illusion, something that might have twisted
around him, and didn’t come up with anything.

  “What was that?” William sat on the iron dragon’s back, resting off to the side. He seemed not to mind the heat wafting off the iron dragon, though the iron dragon had taken to controlling the nature of the heat coming off his body much better than when Jason had first come across him. Now he had enough control that he could prevent others from suffering when they sat on him.

  “What did you feel?”

  “I don’t really know. There was a strange tugging sensation.” William shook his head, looking all around. “It was almost as if everything sort of shimmered for a moment.”

  “You felt that?”

  “What was it?”

  “It was tied to the illusions. I used enough of my connection to the forest dragon in order to determine if there was any illusion here. When I was here the last time with Sarah, we got trapped in an illusion and very nearly didn’t escape.”

  “I still don’t really understand how that’s even possible.”

  “We came from the forest, where the forest dragon had been already influenced by Therin. He was able to use her and her power. He forced her to act on us, to tie an illusion around us.”

  When they had been here, it had seemed so real. Even now, Jason wasn’t even sure how much of it had been real and how much had been mixed with the illusion. Part of what they had gone through in Lorach had to have been real. They had seen what he believed to be the city, been captured by Dragon Souls and held. And had escaped. Some part had to have been real. It would’ve made the illusion that much more effective. His time working with the forest dragon had taught him that. By mixing reality with an illusion, a much stronger image was formed. When he created his illusions, forming the wind and snow, it was his familiarity with them that made the illusions so strong, but others wouldn’t necessarily have the same familiarity. And mixing reality with the illusion would make it easier.

  Which left him wondering whether or not he had truly encountered any of the slaves. Perhaps he had. If so, then was there any way that he could help them too?

  Coming to Lorach and not trying to help them seemed like a lost opportunity. He didn’t know whether they were all like him and had the ability to reach for the power of the dragon pearls, but if they did, they shouldn’t be slaves. They should be able to use that power, and they should be able to work with the dragons, the same way the Dragon Souls were allowed to do.