Only… He did.
Jason focused on the ice dragon. The ice dragon had remained with him, following the storm dragon. He knew the ice dragon was near. He kept his focus on him, thinking about what the ice dragon would do, the way he was out there, the power he possessed. As he did, he reached for that connection between them, letting the ice dragon know he needed him.
“I can’t believe that David is a prince,” William said.
“I don’t know how he’s going to pull through this,” Jason said.
“What do you mean?”
“He openly fought against his sister.”
The sense of the ice dragon continued to build, getting closer and closer. Jason held on to that sense, letting it fill him, drawing it closer to him. With a burst of power, an arc of ice lightning streaked toward the ground.
Then the ice dragon was there.
The dragon was enormous, much larger than the last time Jason had seen him up close, almost as if he were growing with each day.
“It’s time for us to go,” Jason said, motioning for the others to join him. Sarah scrambled onto the ice dragon’s back, but William hesitated.
“William, come on,” Jason said.
“I…”
He started back toward the palace.
Jason drew upon the power of the ice dragon, adding the heat from the iron dragon, and he let it wash over William again.
When it struck, the other man paused, turning slowly. There was a look on his face, one of confusion, and he hurried back toward them.
“I don’t understand what was happening,” William said.
“I don’t either, but we need your focus.”
“What happens if she does that to me while we are flying?” William asked.
“I don’t know,” Jason said.
The ice dragon rumbled but before he had a chance to launch into the air, the door to the palace opened and Dragon Souls streamed out, Jessica at the head of them. When she saw the ice dragon, a triumphant gleam shone in her eyes.
The ice dragon reared up and icicles erupted from his spine, shooting toward the Dragon Souls, hitting some of them. The ones he shot toward Jessica evaporated, turned to mist with nothing more than a blast of her heat.
The ice dragon pulled upon power, and it took Jason a moment to realize what was happening. Rather than flapping his wings, lurching into the air, he drew upon the ice lightning, the way he had powered himself in the past. Using that, they surged into the sky.
Jason marveled at the control the ice dragon displayed as they streaked into the air.
“We have to reach the storm dragon,” Jason said, tapping the side of the ice dragon.
“It might be too late,” the ice dragon said.
Jason looked in the distance, and as he did, he saw the storm clouds.
They were rumbling toward them, power exploding from them, and he realized what the ice dragon said was right. They might already be too late.
The storm dragon was here.
Rather than moving toward the city, he was heading beyond it, and straight toward the dragon fields.
20
Jason stared into the distance, focusing on the storm and the power rolling in with it. He could feel the storm, almost as if he could sense the electricity in the air. It came from the rumble of thunder, the bolt of lightning that followed, and it came from the sense of rain that flowed with it. There was a power to the storm dragon that was different than what he experienced with the other dragons, but he saw nothing of the dragon itself. All he saw was the storm cloud rolling toward them.
Somehow, Jason was going to have to stop the storm dragon. How, though?
They raced toward the dragon fields, the ice dragon sweeping across the sky, speeding as if he were sliding on ice. In all the time that they’d traveled together, this was the first time the ice dragon had flown in such a way that it felt as if he were gliding across the sky. He seemed to have increased in skill and speed in the time since Jason had last flown with him.
Then again, the ice dragon had grown in size as well. Had spending time high overhead, flying within the clouds, soaring in a place that was a different kind of cold, changed him?
“We have to get to these dragons and get them moving,” Jason said. “I saw the dragon yard.” He looked at Sarah, whose eyes widened. “I saw where they kept them. They are arranged in pens, and the Dragon Souls—”
“Enough,” she whispered. “I don’t know if I can take it.”
“I figured you wanted to know.”
“I want to know, but only if there’s something that can be done for them. Seeing as how I don’t know if anything can be done…”
“I think that we can save them. At least, I think that I can save them, but it’s going to take time. We’re going to have to prevent the storm dragon from destroying them, as well.”
“See?” she said.
“What should I see?”
“The dragons of Lorach need our help.”
“So does the storm dragon.”
As they neared the dragons, he realized he might be too late.
Dragon Souls were moving within the field of dragons. There were easily a hundred different Dragon Souls working along the rows of dragons.
William gasped and Sarah leaned forward, mouth agape. He could practically feel her desire to help the dragons, to do whatever they could to free them.
“I always knew there were dragons here, but I never knew I would find so many,” she said.
“I’ve tried to heal some of them, but I can’t do so fast enough.” He stared down at the field of dragons. “I can’t release them fast enough. I try, but the Dragon Souls react, getting them back under control.”
“I thought you had a way of protecting them so they couldn’t be controlled.”
“So did I.”
They continued toward the dragons. Jason debated whether he would try to free the dragons, but if he were to do that, he worried it would use too much power. It might run the risk of weakening the ice dragon and the iron dragon. He needed the dragons to preserve their strength for what they might face with the storm dragon.
Heat built from Sarah.
“How did you hold on to a dragon pearl?”
“I didn’t. I’m using the dragons there.”
“I didn’t know you could do that.”
She sat up. “I didn’t know I could do it either, but I can feel that power. It’s overwhelming. It fills me.”
Jason wasn’t aware of that power the same way she was. He could feel the sense of the dragons, but he didn’t feel power radiating from them the way Sarah appeared to.
And if she was feeling power, and if she were able to use it, then maybe there was something she could do.
“Do you think you can use that power?”
“I don’t know how.”
“Try to free them.”
“Jason, I don’t have the same healing touch that you do. Yours is tied to the dragons, and—”
“And I don’t have the same connection to the dragons you’re detecting. We’re different, and that difference makes us stronger.”
Sarah leaned over, staring at the dragons, a look of longing in her eyes. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking, what she wanted to do, but he could see she was concerned about what she saw below.
The more he stared, the more certain he was that there was power down there. He focused on it, searching for whether he could reach that power the same way Sarah could. Unlike with her, it didn’t flow into him. He felt the power behind him, that which was within the palace, and he could feel the power within the ice dragon and the connection to the iron dragon, and distantly to the forest dragon.
Then there was the storm dragon. There was the energy of that storm, the wild nature to it, the violence that thundered within it. Jason could feel that energy as well, but he didn’t know how to use it, or even if he could.
He stared at the ground, holding on to the illusion that kept them mas
ked. How much longer would he be able to hold it before Jessica appeared?
She would be there soon.
She would have to be. When she came, it might be too late. She would try to turn the dragons of the Dragon Souls against the storm dragon. It was possible she might even succeed. And if she succeeded, what was he willing to do? Could he destroy the storm dragon?
He shouldn’t bring William and Sarah into whatever he intended. It would be too much for them. Already he doubted he was going to be strong enough to stop the storm dragon—or even anything Jessica planned.
“I need to get the two of you to safety,” he said, looking at Sarah and William.
“You can’t do this by yourself.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen or what might be necessary to stop this attack.”
“You might need our help. Besides, I’m lucky,” William said, smiling for a moment before it faded. “And I don’t want to end up back with Jessica. If she has some way of controlling me, forcing me to serve her, I don’t want to be with her.”
“We’re staying,” Sarah said.
The only thing he could think of was heading into the storm.
The ice dragon veered around and moved toward the storm.
“Uh, Jason?” William said, turning toward him. “What are we doing?”
“We are heading into the storm,” he said.
“Can I ask why?” Sarah asked.
“William said he was lucky.”
“Lucky, but I don’t know that luck will overcome stupidity.”
“I need to reach the storm dragon before Jessica sends her fleet of Dragon Souls at him.”
“Maybe I want to reconsider my choice,” William said.
Jason glanced over, shaking his head. “Too late.”
They streaked toward the storm.
The ice dragon moved quickly, sliding across the sky. They approached the storm with a blast of speed and a burst of power. He could feel the energy around him as they neared.
The storm dragon was within the storm cloud, but as they neared, Jason couldn’t see the dragon. All he could see was the clouds thickening around him, the energy within the air, the rain that poured down suddenly, and the lightning that crackled. Every so often, thunder rumbled, and he wondered if there was any way to even see the storm dragon within the storm clouds.
That dragon had to be here.
The ice dragon slowed, staying within the storm cloud.
Jason looked around, searching for the energy coming from the dragon, but he didn’t find anything.
He used heat and ice, mixing them together, but that wasn’t going to be successful. All it would do was create a mist, but that mist wasn’t going to reveal the dragon.
Jason focused instead on the illusion.
If he could shift things, then perhaps he could uncover the way that the dragon hid within the storm cloud.
As he did, the illusion settled upon him.
Nothing else changed.
Much like before, the illusion was washed away.
The storm dragon had the ability to overpower the illusion. As much as he tried to fight it, as much as he tried to overwhelm that, he couldn’t prevent the storm dragon from defeating the illusion.
The answer was within him. Jason believed that.
What if he drew upon the power of the ice dragon and the iron dragon and added it to the forest dragon? He tried that, mixing them, and the sense of it flowed through him, rolling through him in a way that would connect it all.
The energy was there. The power was there. The connection between him and the forest dragon was there. And so too was the bond between him and the other dragons.
This power was more than he could overwhelm.
“Stay within the storm,” he said to the ice dragon. “We’ll have to see if we can break up the storm.”
Would that work, though?
There might be something else he could do.
Rather than focusing on overpowering the dragon and risking the creature’s ongoing anger, Jason tried something else.
Understanding.
That had been the key with the other dragons.
If he could uncover that power, he could use it.
Using it meant he would be drawing upon the energy of the storm dragon. Jason didn’t know if he had the ability to control that much violence. He didn’t know if he had the ability to withstand that much anger. Every time that he focused on the storm dragon, he had the sense of the rage within him, hot and boiling, mixing with the thunder and lightning, the anger that filled the dragon. It was so different than the other dragons, so different than what he had experienced even with the iron dragon.
As he did with the other dragons, he simply focused on it.
When he had reached the other dragons, the key had been in understanding their nature and how they were connected to the world. In the case of the storm dragon, Jason thought the key might be in comprehending the nature of the rage and the violence of the anger.
The actual key for this dragon was some aspect that rumbled within it, and it kept him angry. All Jason needed to do was to find out what that was, to understand it. If he did, he might be able to dig into that and find a way to know the nature of the dragon, and to allow himself to be filled with that power.
The understanding of the dragon wasn’t there.
Thunder rumbled. Lightning crackled near him. It left everything around him on edge. Rain whistled around him, but the ice dragon changed the rain, turning it to snow that swirled around him, mixing with the wind and the violence within it.
What would motivate this dragon?
Not only the attack. The Dragon Souls had attacked, which had prompted the violence from the dragon, but there was something else as well. There was some other reason that the dragon was the way that he was, filled with violence and the tempest of the storm.
When he had placed the illusion on the dragon the last time, there had been a sense of calm. What if he didn’t place an illusion on the dragon, but placed the illusion around the dragon?
He needed to calm the storm.
Jason focused, picturing crystal blue skies, not a cloud in sight, and he thought about the beauty of it. He formed that scene around them, removing the storm clouds, removing the thunder and the lightning and the rain, removing even the wind. All he left was the clear blue sky. He separated it from everything, including the land. There was nothing but sky for as far as he could see.
Then the dragon appeared.
He was light blue, with a hint of gray working through him, and enormous. When Jason had seen the dragon before, he had been amazed by the size of the creature, the scale of him. Now that he saw him here, he couldn’t help but feel the dragon was even larger than he remembered.
The ice dragon flew alongside the storm dragon. Jason held on to the image of the sky, the blue all around them, nothing else but that.
There was peace.
The storm dragon settled. From here, Jason could feel the sense of calm washing over the dragon. As they flew, there remained an edge within the dragon, a sense of power, something that seemed to fill the creature. He knew that he had to find more calm, a way to help the dragon fully relax.
The sense of the dragon was there, but he wasn’t able to call upon it.
There was a sense coming from the dragon.
The dragon wanted him to understand.
Jason didn’t know why or whether that was even accurate. The more he focused on the dragon, the more certain he was the dragon didn’t want to be separated from the hatch mates.
He turned toward the storm dragon, trying to maintain the calm and illusion. There was resistance to it, but that pushback came from the storm clouds that surrounded him, the power of the dragon beating upon the illusion he was holding, yet Jason was determined to maintain it.
“You aren’t alone,” he said.
The dragon turned toward him.
His eyes had a gray to them, almost a flinty a
ppearance, and streaks of color flashed within them. It was like lightning behind his eyes.
“You aren’t alone. There are other dragons like you. Other dragons that are different. I can help.”
The storm dragon watched him for a moment before turning away, continuing to fly toward the crystal blue sky.
And perhaps that was all he wanted. Maybe the storm dragon wanted nothing more than a sense of calm, a way for the storm to end.
Could Jason help with that?
He could use the illusion. The more he drew upon the forest dragon, the more certain he was that he could continue to maintain that illusion, and he had to believe he could do something that would help calm the dragon and find a way to settle him. The challenge was in finding how. It had to be more than just the illusion. It had to be something longer lasting, something Jason wouldn’t have to hold on to.
It had to be something within the dragon.
If it wasn’t tied to the dragon feeling alone, then it had to be something else.
“Let me help. I’ve helped the other dragons, and I can help you, too. Let me work with you. Let me understand.”
Jason tried to connect to the storm dragon, to use his understanding of the dragon, the way he connected to the other dragons, and yet there was no such link to this dragon. There was power from him, but nothing more than that.
What he needed was that connection. If he could forge it, he might be able to better understand the dragon in a way that would help him know what the creature needed and longed for.
He was certain the dragon longed for something. He didn’t want the violence of the storm. The dragon didn’t desire the rage that flowed through him.
The dragon wanted peace. He wanted calm skies.
What else would the dragon want? What else would help keep him calm and peaceful? If it was nothing more than the blue skies, then Jason could maintain this illusion for a little while longer, but it might not be enough. The storm might overpower him.
Something pushed upon him, and Jason turned.
The illusion held, and within the illusion, he wasn’t even there. There was the ice dragon and the storm dragon, nothing else. There were blue skies, but no ground. Nothing else.
Storm Dragon: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Dragon Misfits Book 4) Page 24