Mist dragon, p.15
Mist Dragon, page 15
part #5 of Dragon Misfits Series
“What are you doing?” Sarah snapped.
He jerked his head around and realized that she spoke to William. He was approaching a dragon within the trees, his hand held up, leaning forward as if bowing to the dragon. They were closer than Jason had realized.
“We are here to help,” William said. “We can protect you.”
“You don’t know if this dragon is already trained,” Sarah said, running up to William. “If it’s with Lorren…” Sarah started.
Jason looked around. The mist hadn’t pressed in on him anymore. If he had other dragons with him, he would have used them with his dark and dangerous connection to the dragons. It wasn’t quite as awful as what the Dragon Souls did, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t dangerous.
Jason forced power through his connection to the iron and ice dragons, testing for anything Lorren might have done. If Sarah was right and this was one of Lorren’s dragons, he had to separate Lorren’s connection.
William continued forward, holding out his hand.
The dragon lunged. William didn’t budge. He remained frozen in place, his hand held out as he stared at the dragon.
“William!”
Sarah reached for him, but she didn’t need to.
The dragon withdrew, jerking his head off to the side. William stayed with him, holding his hand out. Jason couldn’t help but marvel at William’s confidence. He seemed unmindful of his danger.
Of course, Jason had no idea how much danger he was really in.
When William had claimed he was training the dragons, Jason had teased him, doubting that he could have actually been doing anything. Seeing this and how the dragon responded to him, he couldn’t help but feel as if William actually had a connection.
William stretched his hand out and touched the dragon on the nose, caressing it. The dragon breathed out a hint of steam that parted around William.
Sarah breathed out. “You do have a connection to them.”
William didn’t look in their direction. “Not so much of a connection as you and Jason, but I’ve been working with them.”
“You have to have some connection to do what you’re doing. I’ve never seen anybody able to approach a dragon like this if they don’t have a connection.”
Jason joined William, holding onto his connection to the dragons. Distantly, he could still feel the mist dragons trying to press upon him, though they hadn’t broken through what he had done with the ice dragon. Did that mean that Lorren wasn’t nearly as close as they had feared?
It might mean they had time. Jason hoped they had enough time.
“We are here to help you,” Jason said to the dragon.
The dragon looked at him and breathed out another steamer of smoke from his nostrils. It streamed around him.
“Something has tried to attack you. I don’t know what it is, but—”
The dragon roared and spread his wings as he prepared to take flight.
“What do you mean something attacked him?” Sarah whispered.
Jason held his gaze on the dragon. “This might be what I’ve been feeling. Maybe not even a dragon pearl, but this dragon.”
“Why would it be here?” William asked.
The answer came to Jason.
The mist.
There was probably earth.
Maybe smoke.
All of it to draw Lorach here.
“Bait,” he whispered.
Sarah looked over, her eyes going wide.
William touched the dragon, patting him on the side of the face in a caress. The dragon settled, lowering his wings and turning to William. His eyes glowed a bright orange, and then he blinked. Something about his expression changed. Jason couldn’t detect anything, only that whatever William did had made a difference for this dragon.
There came another rumble in the distance. Jason looked up. It wasn’t this dragon.
“Tell him that we won’t use him,” William said.
“Don’t you think you just did that?” Sarah asked.
William shook his head. “I don’t know how much the dragon can understand me. I don’t know if what Jason does is different enough, but it seems to be.”
Jason shook his head. “I doubt I can do anything all that different than what you are doing. Besides, I think the dragon understands you.”
“Just do it,” William said.
Jason turned to the dragon. “He wants you to know we won’t use you. We need to get him away from here. If Lorren intends to use him to draw Dragon Souls…”
The dragon roared.
“I think he understood,” William said.
Jason didn’t move. “I didn’t do anything that differently than what you did.”
The dragon roared again, and this time Jason was aware of pressure upon it.
He focused on that pressure and understanding dawned within him. An illusion still held around the dragon. Lorren had warned him that he was the one who had taught Therin how to create illusions. Of course Lorren would be able to do so.
Pressure came from mist swirling around him that Jason hadn’t seen. It was an incredible sensation. The more he focused on the mist, the easier it was to realize how Lorren could use it to generate an illusion. The effect was so different than the way Jason created them. He focused on it and tried to push through it, but didn’t know if he could overpower it, considering that his connection to illusions was different.
Lorren had shattered his illusion before. Jason would need to do something similar and overwhelm what Lorren did.
“What’s going on?” Sarah asked.
“Illusion,” Jason said.
“Jessica?”
He shook his head, focusing on the energy he detected. “I don’t think so. Jessica uses a similar power as Therin. This is different.”
Jason mixed the power of the iron and ice dragon and tried to force it away from him. Sarah suddenly grabbed his arm, and Jason turned. Tendrils of mist emerged from the ground, swirling around them. Jason stared at it, recognizing the energy.
This was Lorren’s dragon. He was here.
Masked under an illusion the whole time.
Jason tried to use the ice dragon to freeze it, but it failed.
“Be ready,” he said to William.
“For what?” William said. He still had his hand on the dragon, who rumbled periodically, though seemed calmer than he had been before.
“I don’t know. We may need to get moving quickly.”
He was going to need the ice dragon. He could feel the power coming from the ice dragon, and could feel the need to use that power, only… For some reason, the ice dragon felt separated from him in a way he hadn’t before.
Was that more of Lorren’s illusion?
The iron dragon was there, the power from him still potent and pushing through Jason’s awareness, a surging energy that hummed within him. He was going to have to unleash that energy.
As he did, he realized he wasn’t the only one attacking. Sarah did as well. She forced a burst of energy through her dragon pearl. Jason noticed a loosening of the connection to the ice dragon and used it as he froze the mist. Sarah burst power outward, as well.
The illusion shattered.
The dragon near William roared, and William took a step toward him, touching him again. William had never had a connection to dragons before. There came a surge of energy and power, and almost a connectivity.
He didn’t have time to focus on it.
He could feel the mist dragon sending power around them. The illusion would re-form if he did nothing. Jason radiated the heat of the iron dragon and the cold of the ice dragon and mingled them together. He added what he could of the forest dragon. If Lorren attempted to use illusion on them, then Jason would use the same. He would reject what Lorren had done and form his own illusion. Not only illusion. Jason would form his own reality.
He shifted everything around him, twisting it.
Without looking at William, he said, “Get the dragon out of here.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. You need to get the dragon out—”
Tendrils of mist began to swirl, streaking up and around Jason’s feet, working up his legs and around his waist. Somehow they overwhelmed his illusion and reality.
He called upon the ice and heat, shattering them.
The same mist began to swirl around the dragon and William. Jason reacted, shattering that as well.
“Now!”
William scrambled for the dragon. It seemed the dragon lowered his head, giving William an easy way to climb on. “Where should I go?”
Jason shook his head. “Away from here. Not to Dragon Haven. Not yet.”
He needed to better understand this dragon before he encouraged William to bring the dragon to Dragon Haven. It was still possible the dragon had been compromised. If so, he didn’t want to be the reason the people of Dragon Haven were harmed. Jason and Sarah would have to make sure the dragon William had traveled on to Varmin returned safely.
William climbed slowly onto the dragon’s back, and though the trunks didn’t look to be as heavy as they probably were, he still struggled with them. He staggered onto the dragon, clutching the trunks, pulling them with him. Once he got situated, he held an arm on either side of him, strapping them down across the trunks, but Jason wondered whether he would be able to hold onto them.
“It might be better if you leave those behind,” he said.
William looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “I’m taking them.”
William and the dragon took flight, bursting into the air, and the dragon circled, carrying them higher and higher. He watched for long enough to ensure that the dragon was unharmed and that William would remain unharmed as well. When he was confident that they escaped, he let out a relieved sigh.
Another dragon rumbled.
It was further downslope.
Jason felt for dragons, and vaguely detected another. Several others.
Dragon Souls. They’d already fallen for the bait and had come.
“The Dragon Souls Lorren intends to attack are here,” Jason said.
“Then we let him,” Sarah said.
“You know what happens when he attacks Dragon Souls,” Jason said.
“Jason—let him do what he needs. Isn’t that what we need?”
“We need to help the dragons.”
“And I don’t like the idea of helping the Dragon Souls,” Sarah said.
Jason shook his head. The mist didn’t try to come for them again, as if Lorren had abandoned his attempt to attack them. “I don’t either, but not all of them are Therin and Jessica. We need to help the dragons. We need to rescue those dragons. Not destroy them.”
Mist started to swirl again.
Jason exploded power out from him again, and the mist shattered.
He had to find Lorren.
It made no sense to hide. If he was here, Lorren should not have been concealing himself. He strode down the mountainside, focusing on what he could of the dragons and straining to detect Dragon Souls. As he made his way along the mountainside, he realized he was heading toward the iron mines.
He closed his eyes for a moment, focusing on the iron dragon. “I’m going to need your help.” He used the connection between himself and the iron dragon, pulsing on the power that flowed through the iron dragon, drawing it through to him. There came a reverberation of energy. An acknowledgment. He worried about the iron dragon and Lorren, especially with what they had found. “Bring the others.”
He hoped the dragon understood.
Continuing onward, he let the sense of the dragons draw him forward. When he reached a clearing, he suddenly stopped. Not just a dragon. Several.
He reacted. Using iron and ice, he washed power through the nearest dragon. There was resistance that came from the Dragon Soul training that he pushed through. On a whim, Jason added an extra element from the forest dragon. He had no idea whether that would make a difference, but maybe it would augment what he had done. As he pushed power through him, it exploded into the dragon. It freed him from the resistance. He used the same mixture as he swept through the others, one after another, before the dragons had a chance to react.
He didn’t see the Dragon Souls who would’ve commanded them. Instead, he contained his focus on the freed dragons. Now that they were freed, he wanted to send them away.
“Jason?” Sarah’s voice was tense. Power radiated from her.
He spun toward her and saw her point. Three dragons came through the trees, the rumbling that he had heard before emanating from them. All three were enormous, though there was something different about these dragons than others that he had seen. They had massive wings and spikes running along their sides. Their scales appeared dappled, almost as if camouflaged. He used the mixture of power he had been drawing, sending it toward these dragons, but even as he did, he could feel resistance.
He tried to take a step toward the dragons but found couldn’t. The ground clung to him.
The rumbling persisted. It was the sound he had heard before.
Using the energy of the dragons he had bonded to, he tried to pry his feet out but could not. He was trapped.
With a dawning understanding, he realized what these creatures were.
“The earth dragons,” he whispered.
14
T he ground squeezed Jason’s feet, pulling him under. Everything around him seemed to have changed. He couldn’t see the trees nearly as well, and he was sinking deeper into the ground. He had no idea what happened to the other dragons that he had freed from the Dragon Souls—or whether it was even real. The only thing he could think of was the way the earth pulled him under, like an avalanche that would swallow him. Jason had experience with avalanches, but none with the ground itself threatening to consume him. If he couldn’t break free, he had no idea what might happen, though he started to have his suspicions. Lorren would trap him.
Lorren wanted to remove Jason. Then he would claim the misfits.
Jason had to fight it. Not just for himself, but for the dragons.
Why wouldn’t he work with them? What had Jason done that had upset him this much? He’d been willing to fight, ready to go to battle against Lorach. Lorren should want to work with them, not fight.
Trying to use the ice dragon, he realized that ice might not do anything to counter the power of earth. What would? He searched his mind but couldn’t come up with a better solution.
Sarah cried out and anger surged within him.
He shifted his attack. Rather than attacking the dragons, trying to free them from whatever influence Lorren might have over them, he needed to do something different. He needed power.
The iron dragon was nearby. Jason called upon his energy, heating the ground, and found that it merely softened before solidifying around him again. That wasn’t going to be effective. He had to try something else.
The only dragon he had remaining was the forest dragon.
He thought about what he had done with William, the way that he had reduced the weight of the trunks. He had to do something similar now.
The forest dragon’s power flowed through him. Her energy was there, slow and subtle, the energy of a dragon who remained quiet and mysterious.
What would he do?
Shifting reality. He could solidify the ground and then harden it into stairs, but if he did that, he would have to do it rapidly enough to counter the way the dragons used their control over earth. Then he would have to do something similar for Sarah. All before whatever Lorren intended could take place.
He focused on what he wanted, summoning the power within him, and then burst it outward. It solidified for a moment.
Jason took a step and grabbed for Sarah, pulling her with him.
The illusion shifted, fading.
He swore softly, reaching for the forest dragon’s power as he felt it coming through him. This time, Jason shifted everything around him, holding it tightly. As it held, he took another step.
The earth dragon overwhelmed his connection again. This dragon was powerful.
Unless all of the earth dragons had come.
That would be more than what he could withstand.
He had to try another approach.
“Jason!”
He looked over at Sarah and shifted things quickly enough to grab her and pull her into the same pit as him. She wrapped her arms around him.
“What’s happening?” Sarah asked.
“This is the earth dragon. Or dragons. There’s one more thing I can try, but I don’t know if it’s going to work.” He focused on the iron dragon. “Be ready.”
Heat began to build. He had to use it, though he had never tried to use it in the way that he would attempt to now. It was something that he had to try, though.
He forced it beneath him, exploding power from underneath, out through his feet, all while holding tightly to Sarah and holding her against him.
The explosion shot them up and freed them from the earth. As they streaked into the air, he continued to use the energy of the iron dragon, forcing them higher and higher. Wind whipped around them, cold and biting, threatening to overpower his connection to the iron dragon. Jason ignored it, focusing instead on the way that he held onto the energy of the iron dragon.
Sarah gasped, and they started to descend.
Then the iron dragon was there, swooping beneath them. As they landed, power surged. Jason squeezed his iron glove around the dragon as he gripped his back, settling Sarah onto the dragon’s back and holding her there. Only then did he allow himself to breathe out heavily.
“Lorren attacked us?” she whispered.
“He’s trying to claim the misfits from me. If he thinks they’re his…”
Lorren was capable and had the power of multiple misfit dragons. More than Jason possessed. More than that, Lorren had created those dragons and probably understood the way their power could be used and how to control it. That mattered.
As he tapped on the iron dragon and they started to circle back around, they headed toward the south end of the city and descended. The iron dragon hovered in place, not touching the ground. If he did, Jason didn’t know if the earth dragons could trap him. The iron dragon had known the power of the iron mines and had used that to escape, but Jason didn’t know if the earth dragons would be able to overwhelm that.
