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

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Because the people of Lorach fear the dragons?”

  “They fear the potential, not the actual dragons. They believe we have control over the dragons, but only so long as we maintain that hold. How long do you think it would take for the people of Lorach to believe that the dragons would harm them if they were attacked wildly?”

  “Not long, I suppose,” Jason said.

  “Not long at all. While we have this power over the dragons, while we can control them, there is a danger if we were to lose it. The danger exists not only to us, but to the people within the city. There would be panic and chaos.”

  “You understand the dragons wouldn’t just attack like that.”

  David glanced over at him. “I understand the dragons believe they wouldn’t attack like that, but what do we really know?”

  “We know the dragons wouldn’t do that,” Jason said.

  David nodded. “So we think. History tells us otherwise.”

  In the distance, Jason could make out dozens upon dozens of dragons on the ground.

  “Is that…”

  “That is exactly what you think it is,” David said. “There are a few dragons there. There are others in another location.”

  “You think that’s a few?”

  “Compared to what we have, that’s a few,” David said.

  Jason couldn’t help but stare.

  In his mind, it appeared to be dozens upon dozens of dragons. There were pens filled with them. In a way, it reminded him a little bit of the dragons within the clearing at Dragon Haven, but with those dragons, Jason had a sense of vibrancy and excitement, and with these, he felt they had abandoned every bit of that. It was almost as if they had no choice in what they were doing.

  But then, they wouldn’t.

  “I didn’t know it was like that,” Jason said.

  “I know it looks bad—”

  “Looks bad?” Jason shook his head. “It’s more than just looking bad. Look at them.” He focused on a hint of the dragons, drawing upon the ice and the iron dragon sense within him, and let that energy wash away from him. In doing so, he thought he could feel something, though perhaps what he detected was only his imagination. “They suffer.”

  “They don’t suffer,” David said. “The Dragon Souls take exquisite care of the dragons. They are well fed, well cared for, and groomed routinely.”

  As he said that, he nodded toward a man pausing in front of one of the pens. He pulled the door open and headed inside. The dragons made no effort to do anything toward him. It was almost as if they couldn’t, though Jason suspected that wasn’t true. He headed toward a small green dragon and began to run his hand along the surface of the dragon.

  Through the connection he shared with the ice and the iron dragons, Jason couldn’t pick anything up, but as he added a hint of the forest dragon, there was a sense within him, something that told him this dragon didn’t care for what was taking place.

  How could it?

  “They don’t like it,” Jason whispered.

  David looked over, frowning. “The dragons have been nothing but content in the dragon pens. I think you’re projecting your feelings for the dragons—”

  “I wish I could show you what I was feeling, and I wish that you were able to understand just what the dragons are going through, the way they’re suffering. I can assure you that they are. If there is anything that might be done for them, we should do it.”

  Jason was tempted to push outward, to use a washing of power upon them, but if he did, he would find the Dragon Souls reacting. Possibly they would react too soon. He needed more time before he did that.

  Not only that, but if he did that, he would run the risk of not being able to return and find William and Sarah. More than anything else, he would have to come back for them.

  Once he stopped the storm dragon and its attack.

  Jason couldn’t help but stare at these dragons. They circled overhead, and he looked down, feeling uneasy about all of this, but feeling uneasy about not doing anything. In doing nothing, was he complicit?

  He couldn’t shake that feeling.

  It was the reason he had been willing to attack when he had detected the sense of the dragons in Lorach in his first visit with the ice dragon. It was the reason he had felt compelled to try to do something, though he had known there was a limit to how much he would be able to do.

  And it was the reason that he felt as if he still had to do something.

  Even now, Jason felt compelled to act, to see if there might be some way to help the dragons, but feeling as if perhaps there wouldn’t be. How could there be after everything they had gone through?

  Jason couldn’t help himself. He started to push on the sense of the ice and the iron dragons. He turned his attention toward one of the smaller pens. There were a dozen dragons in there. All of the dragons were alone. No sign of Dragon Souls near them.

  It was the optimal time to see if there was anything that he could do. Jason pushed power out from him, sending it sweeping through him, and into the dragons.

  “What are you doing?” David whispered.

  “I’m just seeing if I can—”

  The dragons suddenly turned toward him, and there was a sense of rage, of great anger, and he could feel that exploding from the dragons, but he didn’t know why.

  Despite wanting to try to help the dragons, by pushing a sense of power through them, he felt resistance.

  More.

  The energy fought against him, trying to resist his attempt to help the dragons. It seemed as if the dragons were fighting, but it wasn’t only the dragons that were fighting him.

  It was the Dragon Souls.

  He didn’t see any of the Dragon Souls nearby, but he could feel their influence.

  “They are connected. Anything you do here will raise their attention.”

  Even as he said it, Jason realized that David was right. Not only had the Dragon Souls known what he’d done, but they’d turned their attention to him.

  Power flowed from them, into the dragons, and solidified the connection.

  He tried to help them, but he had split his focus too much.

  And now he didn’t dare try. If he did, Dragon Souls would strengthen their connection far more than what Jason wanted. He had made a mistake.

  “We need to move,” David said.

  “Wait. I can help.”

  “I know that you want to help, but I don’t know if you should help. At this point, all you’re doing is drawing more attention to your presence. My presence. All you’re doing is giving Jessica the opportunity to justify what she’s done.”

  “I can’t leave these dragons here.”

  “And you can’t save them. You can’t save all of them. I understand you want to, and given everything that you have shown me, I feel as if there should be something more done for them.” It was the first time David had said that. “But now isn’t the time. These dragons were harmless, but in doing what you have done, you have raised their masters’ attention, and we now have to deal with them coming at us.”

  “I can fight them off,” he said.

  Even as he said it, Jason wasn’t sure if that was true. He might not be able to fight off the Dragon Souls. It was hard enough to keep pushing through these dragons.

  “Help me,” he murmured to the ice and the iron dragons.

  A sense of power filled him. He called upon that power, and he sent it slamming outward. It filled the dragons.

  As it did, Jason could feel the separation from the bond formed by the Dragon Souls.

  They were free.

  With a loud screech, the dragons took to the air.

  As soon as they did, chaos began to reign.

  Men ran from the building in the distance—probably where the Dragon Souls were housed. They raced toward the dragons and power began to burst from them, building.

  Jason was going to have another chance to fight off the effect of the Dragon Souls.

  They headed away,
and a strange vision flashed into Jason’s mind.

  The ice dragon.

  As it did, Jason focused on that vision. He focused on what the ice dragon was trying to show him. The ice dragon tried to gift him a vision, to show him what experienced. Jason looked through his eyes, the same way he had once looked through the iron dragon’s eyes, and in doing so, he saw a storm cloud.

  It rumbled in the distance, and he frowned as he focused on it, thinking about that power, about what he could detect. It was there, but it was faint.

  He opened his eyes and looked all around.

  “He’s near,” he whispered. “The storm dragon.”

  “What?”

  Thunder rumbled in the distance as a storm cloud moved toward them.

  17

  He focused on the storm cloud and tried to peer into the distance to better understand what he picked up on, but all he knew was the power coming from the storm cloud. That power seemed to rumble, rolling through him. As he focused on understanding, there was nothing other than the emptiness.

  The emptiness of the storm dragon.

  Thunder clapped, close, and he shivered.

  “That is the storm dragon,” Jason said, pointing to the distance.

  The blue dragon dove toward the ground, and Jason hesitated. He didn’t want to climb off the dragon’s back until he knew what was taking place, but he had a sense the blue dragon wouldn’t participate in anything without David.

  Could the dragon have chased them here?

  These other dragons were in trouble.

  “You have to get these dragons out of here,” he said.

  “Where would I have them go?” David looked at the dragons in the distance. “All of them are trained. They aren’t able to be free.”

  “But they shouldn’t stay here. We don’t know what might happen, but…”

  Thunder rumbled again, and Jason looked up at the sky. The overwhelming power of that thunder caught his attention, and he stared. In the distance, the skies were streaked with deeper gray that streamed down, almost as if it were raining, but he didn’t know if that were true.

  Dragons swirled in the sky, dozens of them, and swarmed toward them.

  Jason leaned over, clutching the blue dragon’s neck, concern filling him.

  “I don’t think we’re going to be able to outrun it,” Jason said.

  “And I don’t think we have much of a choice,” David said.

  They started to fly. In the distance, the thunder continued to rumble, the sound of the storm dragon chasing them. The swarm of dragons behind them was sweeping forward, moving with a rapid pace, energy and power flooding off them, streaking toward the dragon.

  How much longer would they be able to withstand this?

  He had to try something different.

  Jason turned, shifting, and started to work on calling upon power from the other dragons, using both the ice and the iron dragons, before finally trying to mix in a hint of the forest dragon.

  It might not even work.

  The dragons swirled after them, giving chase.

  He realized the mistake in that.

  The Dragon Soul dragons were heading straight toward the storm dragon. Fire burst from them, roars erupting in the sky, a terrible sound that he had only heard before in illusions.

  Seeing such a battle for real was something altogether different. Even as he looked, Jason couldn’t help but feel as if what was taking place was incredible.

  Not that he wanted an attack, or for the dragons to come after him, but the idea that there might be something like this, some sense of power more than what they’d ever experienced before, left him marveling.

  The power he detected behind him was incredible.

  Jason turned, unable to help or do anything but stare.

  Dozens upon dozens of dragons chased them.

  “It really is awe inspiring,” Jason muttered.

  “Perhaps if it wasn’t coming after us,” David said.

  “We should be able to outrun it,” he said.

  “Should and will are not necessarily the same.”

  “We have to keep them from heading toward the storm dragon. I don’t know what the storm dragon might do, but I have a sense that if he attacks, and if he uses everything in his power to overwhelm the other dragons, they won’t survive it.”

  “Are you so sure?”

  “Aren’t you?” Jason stretched his hand out, creating the illusion of the jungle dragon, and David looked over. “We didn’t know what was responsible. What else could it have been?”

  “We don’t know that was this dragon.”

  He closed his eyes, focusing on the connection to the ice dragon, and vaguely he felt it. It was there, but he couldn’t help but wonder if there was something more that he wasn’t able to detect.

  The ice dragon was following the storm dragon, but the storm dragon was fast—far faster than he could follow. Thunder rumbled and lightning struck. When it did, the dragon surged faster.

  Could that be the key to its speed?

  As the thunder eased, the storm started to abate, but only briefly. The dragon slowed slightly.

  The dragon held the storm together.

  The storm gave it speed.

  That was why it hadn’t gotten here any faster. It was still incredibly fast, but holding the storm together probably took magical strength as well, and that strength probably kept the dragon from getting here too quickly. Knowing that he was a storm dragon, knowing the nature of his power, it was possible the storm dragon was able to draw upon the elements within the storm and could call upon power that the other dragons simply could not.

  He would have to find a way to use that to slow the dragon.

  How to break up a storm, though?

  The other dragons needed his help.

  If they ran, the other dragons wouldn’t be able to get away fast enough. He doubted they could outrun the storm dragon.

  Jason worried about the ice dragon. He worried about what would happen if they were to chase the other dragon, and he worried about what would happen if he wasn’t fast enough to chase away this dragon.

  What he needed was some way to divert him.

  But how?

  “I need to get up there,” he whispered.

  “You need to do what?”

  “I need to get up to the storm.”

  “I thought you said the dragons were in danger.”

  Jason glanced over at the field. From here, he could make out dozens of dragons with a dozen different colors, and their heat and power radiated from them, creating a sense of magic and power that filled him. It was a place he’d wanted to come. Now that he was here, now that he wanted to do whatever he could in order to heal them, he wasn’t sure if this was the right thing at this moment.

  He needed to protect them.

  Healing could come later, though if he tried to heal these dragons, maybe he could free enough of them that they could scatter.

  He needed to chase off the storm dragon and then figure out how to help it. The challenge was finding a way to do it.

  “The dragons are in danger, but only if the storm dragon reaches here. I need to do something to try to steer the storm dragon off.”

  David looked over at the deep blue dragon. There was affection in his eyes. Jason couldn’t ask anything of David that would harm the dragon. The dragon would suffer.

  “You stay here,” he said.

  “You can’t go without a dragon. If you need to get up there to try to steer the storm dragon away, I will do what I can to help. I suspect this dragon will as well.”

  Jason looked at the dragon, wondering if he would even be given a choice. Though David didn’t have him trained and coerced the same way the other dragons were, he still had to wonder if there was something about the nature of the connection that would force the dragon to serve.

  He focused on the iron dragon. There was a distant sense of him.

  He might be able to keep up with the storm d
ragon.

  These dragons here, the dragons of Lorach, wouldn’t be nearly fast enough. His dragons—the misfits—might be.

  And that was what he needed.

  Within his mind, the sense of the iron dragon roared.

  It came vaguely, but it was there.

  He looked through the iron dragon’s eyes, and he saw the ground flowing underneath him. The iron dragon was coming.

  “I don’t need you to fly me to the storm dragon, but can you get me closer?”

  David frowned. “We can bring you as far as you need to go.”

  “Not that far. The iron dragon is coming.”

  David looked up toward the sky, staring into the distance, sweeping his gaze around. “You can call to him?”

  He could call to the ice dragon as well, and combined with the two dragons, he had to think there would be some way to stop the storm dragon, but he didn’t know what it could be.

  The iron dragon continued to race toward them. When they got high enough in the air, Jason searched the sky. They weren’t going to be fast enough. The storm rumbled in the distance, the power of it exploding near them.

  There was something he could try. Jason could ask the iron dragon attack.

  It would be dangerous, and it would expose the iron dragon to the violence of the storm dragon, but if he didn’t, more dragons might be harmed.

  “Chase this dragon,” he whispered.

  The iron dragon rumbled in his mind. It was there, almost as if he were right next to him. The iron dragon changed directions and veered toward the storm dragon.

  As he did, there came even more power, and the iron dragon exploded with heat and flame and violence. The sky erupted with light.

  Near him, David gasped. “What was that?”

  “That was the iron dragon,” Jason said.

  He closed his eyes, and he could practically see what the iron dragon was doing, could see what the iron dragon had seen, but he focused instead on the ice dragon and what he could uncover by looking through his eyes. He was able to make out the vague shape of the iron dragon, and the storm dragon turned toward him.

  Jason added what he knew from the ice dragon to the iron dragon, letting the two dragons work together, the combination merging, and in doing so, becoming even more powerful. As he worked, he felt that connection between them solidify, and the dragons evaded the storm dragon.