Mist Dragon, page 12
part #5 of Dragon Misfits Series
The energy from the mist dragons still pressed upon him with enough force that Jason strained. Even connected as he was to the three dragons, there was almost too much working against him.
He didn’t know whether Lorren had access to more dragons than what he admitted to. He might have drawn upon the energy of the smoke dragons and the earth dragons, using that connection to overwhelm Jason.
“Release your hold on the dragons,” he said.
“I will when you do,” Lorren said. He stood casually, almost comfortably. “You aren’t going to be able to win.”
“Why must it be like this?”
“Because I have taken your measure. And you play at something you cannot fully understand.”
He surged again. Power exploded from him and toward Jason. The energy was significant, a sharp explosion that blasted away from him, striking Jason. It was the power of the mist, but it was the power of something else.
He was drawing upon other dragon’s energy.
Jason thought he understood. The dragon pearls of the freed dragons.
As he felt the power coming from Lorren, he recognized some aspect of it. It wasn’t something he could necessarily see, but it was a power he could feel. It flowed from him, from deep within him, a connection to energy that Jason had felt before. He knew those dragon pearls.
Could he connect to those dragons?
He focused on the sense. It was different than what he felt from the dragon mist. This was the heat energy of the dragons coming to the pearl. He used his connection, that which formed between him and the other dragons, and forged a connection to those dragons, sending a question.
A faint stirring was the answer. All he wanted was for the dragons to know he was here. If the dragons understood that, perhaps they would withdraw their support of Lorren.
Then the power around him started to fade.
Jason moved forward. Power filled him, but he grew increasingly tired. He wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer. Now that he knew the secret to Lorren’s power, he might not need to.
Lorren watched him. “What did you do?”
“I alerted the dragons that you intended to hurt me.”
Jason glanced around the room. The mist remained frozen, as did everyone else within it. He held them, isolating them within that power to ensure they were secured, but also trapped in his illusion.
He altered it.
He stared at Lorren. “You won’t be able to use the power of dragons I freed. I rescued them from the Dragon Souls, and I will not allow you to torment them or turn them against me.”
Lorren reached into his pocket and grabbed for something. It was another dragon pearl. Jason focused on the pearl. As far as he could tell, it was a different dragon pearl, one from a dragon Jason hadn’t freed.
There was something he could do.
He focused on the ice dragon, the forest dragon, and the iron dragon, using the combination of energy to connect to that dragon pearl. A connection formed.
Power surged, answering him—and not helping Lorren.
Lorren glared at him. “This isn’t over,” he said.
“You don’t have to wage a private war against everyone who works with dragons. You don’t have to fight us. We’re—”
“You’re trying to save the dragons of Lorach, and yet you don’t know anything about the power that exists in the world.”
“I know enough,” Jason said. “And I’ve learned I can work with the dragons. They can be saved.” Jason looked at Lorren and frowned. “You are the reason those dragons disappeared,” he said softly.
Lorren turned his attention to Jason, staring at him. “What dragons would those be?”
He spoke to Sarah. “When I came to your parents, I told them how I had felt the other dragons, and I didn’t know what happened to them, only that I had seen the Dragon Soul dragons. They disappeared.” Or so he had thought. Could that resistance not have been coming from the Dragon Souls as he’d feared? Jason had worried that Jessica had taught the Dragon Souls how to fight in such a way that he wouldn’t be able to restore the dragons, but maybe it was Lorren. Having seen how powerful he was, he couldn’t help but think that perhaps that was what it was.
“The dragons beyond the mountains. That was you.”
Lorren glared at him. “The dragons must be used in the right way.”
Hearing that told Jason all he needed to know about Lorren. His wasn’t a desire to help dragons at all. Why would the mist dragons allow themselves to be used by him?
Unless they didn’t know any better.
Could he connect to those dragons and share the truth? As he tried to form a connection, he failed. He retreated.
“You don’t have to be like Therin,” he said. “I spent enough time with him to know him.”
“You don’t know him like I knew him,” Lorren said.
“Probably not. You traveled with him for years, and I only traveled with him for a day, but I battled him for long enough that I understood him.” He sensed a hesitation within Lorren, and Jason thought to use it. Maybe he could get through to Lorren. “I was the one who killed him,” Jason said.
“He’s not gone,” Lorren said.
Jason sighed. “He is gone. We fought. He tried to use illusion against me, he tried to use one of the misfits against me, but when I got through to the misfit, I separated Therin from the illusion and killed him.”
Lorren looked around. “This is more than just illusion.”
“That is my connection to the dragons,” Jason said.
Lorren stared at him. “He’s really gone?”
“He’s gone. We have taken the fight to Lorach. There are fewer of the Dragon Souls with dragons remaining. With enough time, I’m convinced we can stop the Dragon Souls entirely.”
That was the goal, but Jason wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted. He wanted to prevent Dragon Souls from using the dragons, but there was some part of him that questioned whether that was what he really needed to do. Reaching for the dragons, to connect to them differently, might be more critical. By using what he knew, he had to believe that he might be able to get through to the Dragon Souls, and perhaps even help them come around.
Lorren might not come around, though. With his attitude about the dragons, and what he was willing to do with them, he had to wonder if there could be any way of turning him back.
What would it be like if the world was filled with dragons and those who could connect to them, but where they were all free? It seemed almost impossible to believe.
Lorren watched him, and Jason waited for him to say something else. Lorren moved his hand. With a swirl of sharp mist, he disappeared.
Jason released the illusion. Sarah surged forward, looking around at him, as did Henry. The others gradually came back around, the illusion releasing more slowly.
“Where is he?” Henry asked.
“Gone,” Jason said.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
That was the part that troubled him. Lorren could be anywhere. With his ability, the way he could connect to the mist, he might be able to hide among them. And if that were the case, then Jason had no idea how they would keep track of him.
The sudden disappearance troubled him, but more than that, he couldn’t shake the feeling that as much as he might not care for Lorren, and as much as he had no reason to trust him, if Lorach were coming for Dragon Haven the way they all believed, Lorren might be a part of it.
How could they control that, though?
Given what Jason had felt while out with the dragons, he suspected that Lorren was powerful and likely dangerous.
He needed to be careful.
They all needed to be careful.
Lorren wanted the dragons.
“We have to find him,” Jason said. Either to find a way to work with him… or to stop him. Jason hoped it didn’t come down to that.
“We have other things to be concerned about,” Henry told him.
“We might, but we also need to know what he’s doing. It might make a difference between us succeeding and not.”
“What do you think he’s up to?”
Jason shook his head. “I wish I knew. Unfortunately, I have no idea.”
11
J ason reached out with his connection to the dragons, trying to probe for Lorren, searching for where he had gone, but there was nothing. The other man had disappeared altogether. He looked up at the treetops, searching for any sign of the mist dragons, though he saw nothing. What would his smoke dragons or earth dragons even look like?
Would they be dangerous?
Jason headed slowly to the forest. The iron dragon followed him, but there was no sign of other dragons.
“What do you think you’re going to find here?” Sarah asked.
William was near her, once again with the small red dragon. The dragon seemed far more confident this time than Jason would’ve expected from him, though of course, perhaps the dragon was more confident knowing what they might encounter.
“William and I came across something when I was here before.”
“You told me you thought it might be a dragon misfit.”
“Right. We thought it came through the trees, but I don’t know if that was it at all.”
“What was it, then?” Sarah asked.
“What if it was in the ground?”
Sarah’s eyes widened. “One of his.”
Jason nodded. “That’s my concern.” William looked at them with confusion. He hadn’t been there for Lorren’s show of strength. Jason didn’t think William could fully understand what had taken place. “When Lorren attacked, he mentioned having several misfits. Dragons he had somehow created. Three of them. The mist dragons, which he used to attack. Smoke dragons. And earth dragons.”
William’s breath caught. “You think we came across one of his earth dragons?”
Jason nodded. “The timing is right and it fits with what we know of him. He might have surrounded Dragon Haven.” He looked over at Sarah. “I would expect he had preparations.”
He’d tricked them into bringing them into the council chamber, and had separated Jason somewhat from his connection to the ice dragon—at least initially. Lorren might have thought Jason needed proximity to the dragons to use their power, much like he would have required proximity to the mist dragons to use theirs.
“So if these were earth dragons, what are you hoping to find?” Sarah asked.
“A trail,” Jason said.
They headed to the forest, returning to where they had detected that strange undercurrent of energy before. As they neared it, Jason couldn’t feel anything.
“We need to be careful,” Sarah said. “It’s dangerous to go after him.”
“Even after what he did?”
“I know what he did, but I don’t want us to go after him. As long as he leaves Dragon Haven alone, what does it matter?”
Jason held her gaze before looking at the red dragon with William. “I don’t have the sense that he’s going to leave Dragon Haven alone. He wants the dragons.”
“That’s not the reason you’re going after him, though.”
Jason shook his head. “He wants to stop Lorach. We could do it together.”
“Even after what he did?”
“What did he do but try to wrest control of the dragons? He failed. I still think we can find him, and then convince him to work with us, not against us.”
“I don’t know if you’re right,” Sarah said softly.
Neither did Jason.
That was what troubled him.
He followed the same path they’d taken when they’d been here before, heading through the trees. “When we were here before, the treetops trembled. It was as if something moved through here that slammed into the trees.”
Sarah looked up. “And you think that was this earth dragon? I’ve been around many dragons over the years, and none of them could damage trees without harming themselves.”
“Show her,” he said, motioning to the iron dragon.
The iron dragon rumbled, and power flowed from him. He rammed into one of the trees, and the branches trembled, shaking overhead.
“That’s just one tree,” she said.
“Can you show her more than one tree?” Jason asked
The iron dragon spread his wings and rammed into the trees, shaking them. Even as he did, it still didn’t make the ground tremble the same way as when they had been here before.
“We have to figure out where the earth dragons could gain access underground. Lorren has them around us somewhere,” he said.
He recognized the tracings of power that existed, and even if he didn’t know where they came from or how to reach them, Jason knew that power had to be there.
The iron dragon remained near him, power coming from him. It trembled the ground, creating an echoing sensation. At first, Jason wasn’t sure what the dragon tried to do, but gradually he recognized it. He used his power to connect to what was beneath them.
Sarah connected to her dragon pearl, trailing after him. He didn’t feel anything more within the way that she was holding onto that power. He could feel the sense of energy and the connection to the dragon.
“Do you detect something?” William asked, running up alongside him. The red dragon chased after William, something playful in the way he did.
Jason couldn’t help but smile as he watched the dragon.
“I think the dragon detects something, though I’m not exactly sure what it is. I can feel some energy there.”
The energy coming from the iron dragon surged, suddenly significant. A reverberation came beneath him from someplace underground. The dragon moved ahead of him, and Jason followed.
He came upon another ridgeline and stopped. A river rushed in the distance. Jason lingered for a moment, staring down. This was where the iron dragon had led him. Was it a coincidence that he had come across an egg in the river, and now he stood in front of this river?
“What is it?” Sarah asked as she came up behind him.
He didn’t think that it was the same river, but he couldn’t help feel as if there was something unusual here. “This is where the trail leads,” he said. “There’s something down there.” Turning to the iron dragon, he asked, “Can you see what’s down there?”
The dragon rumbled, then launched off the ledge, hovering in his unique flying style.
“I can’t get over how strange it is watching him fly,” Sarah said. “It’s the way he glows, I think.”
“His glowing gives him a connection to the power within him.” Jason smiled as the iron dragon descended along the rock wall. “I remember when I first started working with him. He couldn’t fly at the time. I wasn’t sure if he would be able to learn. There was something different about him, the metallic wings and how they moved, that made it so that I wasn’t at all sure about what he could do. It’s just that he had never had a chance to stretch…”
Jason stared at the iron dragon, an idea coming to him. It was one he hadn’t considered before, though he should have.
“What is it?” William asked, joining him at the edge of the ledge looking down. The dragon with him perched at the rock line, leaning forward and breathing out with a streamer of smoke that drifted toward the river.
“I’ve been looking for other misfits, thinking about how to find them, but I haven’t given any thought about whether there’s been any trend among the misfits we’ve seen.” He looked at the iron dragon. “They haven’t been beyond a specific distance from Lorach.”
“That’s true,” Sarah said, crouching down and staring at the river. “All of them are within a day by dragon.”
“That makes sense. Therin would want to make sure he could check on them,” William said.
“What if that’s not it?” Jason asked.
He looked at the dragon flying below him and had a different idea. “We’ve been assuming Therin took eggs from Lorach to do these experiments, but from what Henry said, he wouldn’t necessarily have been permitted to do that. At least, not with many eggs. They’re too valuable.” Which meant there might have to be another source for eggs.
“Where would he have gotten them?” William asked. “Did he take them from Dragon Haven?”
Sarah shook her head. “We would have known. And if they’re not from Dragon Haven—”
“Some of them might be from Lorren,” Jason finished.
“That’s why he’s come?”
Jason stared at the iron dragon. It made more sense why Lorren had been so angry at the misfits—and why he’d believed there was something about them he was owed. It was because they had been his eggs, as much as a dragon egg could belong to someone.
“Why would he have done that?” William asked.
“I don’t know, but I think we have to find out.” Jason didn’t know what it would involve, only that understanding the egg and the way the misfits formed might be the most important thing he could do for the dragons—other than freeing them from the Dragon Souls.
“We could return to where the other dragons were hatched and see if there’s anything to help us,” William suggested.
That didn’t feel right to Jason.
They need to find Lorren. Not go searching for where the dragons had hatched.
“We’ve spent plenty of time in your homeland,” Sarah said. “Not that I wouldn’t go back if you think it’s going to be beneficial, but I don’t know how much more we’re going to find there.”
Jason shook his head. “I don’t even think that’s where we’d need to go. Therin didn’t place that egg. As far as he was concerned, that egg had been stolen from him. He went looking to see where it had gone. It was the others, though. The iron dragon. The forest dragon. The jungle dragon. The…”
“The what?” Sarah asked.
He looked over at her. “The storm dragon. I know so little about him, but I think we have to figure out what Therin did and where he placed those eggs. When we understand that, we might be better able to understand more about what he did that allowed the eggs to hatch.”
