Mist Dragon, page 25
part #5 of Dragon Misfits Series
Which meant that he had to release his illusion.
As soon as he did, he heard the dragon rumbling. There was a strangeness to it and energy that flowed within it, and something almost like a wave that washed over him. As it did, its energy built within Jason. Power flowed with it, and he embraced it. The dragon started to swim, swirling around him. Within that swimming was a stirring. The sound that built allowed Jason to hear the dragon.
“I can protect you,” he said.
He didn’t know how he could even speak underwater, but his words came out, and he heard them.
“There is no protection. Only danger.”
“Who came after you?”
The water dragon did the same as Jason and created an image. The image formed, building, and a figure took form. The dragon reacted, water flowing around him with more violence. The dragon had been assaulted by Lorren.
“You were able to fight him,” Jason said.
“They were not going to use me,” the dragon said.
“No, they’re not. I’m glad you held out. If you like, I can help you. I help others.”
He had no idea if the dragon would accept any help from him, but he held on to the power of the other dragons, though his lungs started to burn. He didn’t know how much longer he could stay beneath the water. He was going to have to take a breath, but if he called upon another illusion, he ran the risk of alienating the dragon. He needed the dragon. If this dragon could keep Lorren from attacking, having a connection like that would be beneficial.
“Let me show you the others. Friends. You can follow me and I’ll make sure you’re safe. Please.”
Jason started to swim. He propelled himself, feeling for the energy of the dragon, though he wasn’t sure at first if it was going to follow.
The dragon followed.
Jason surfaced and took a gasping breath of air. A burst of energy carried him all the way to the shore, and he propelled himself out, resting on the rocky ledge. He borrowed heat from the iron dragon and water washed away from him, turning to steam.
Sarah looked down at him. “What happened?”
“The river dragon is in the water.”
“River?” Henry asked.
Jason nodded. “I think it’s the same. I spoke to the dragon, but I don’t even know if he’s going to follow me. I think Lorren intended to use him. He was strong enough to fight. He’s different. Lorren tried to get to this dragon, but couldn’t.” He certainly had moved away from here, which meant that the dragon was safe. He couldn’t control this one, which gave Jason some hope that Lorren wouldn’t be able to control the egg if it were to hatch.
When. Not if.
All of a sudden, a dragonlike face appeared above the water. It seemed to be made of water, trailing toward the surface, glistening in the sunlight.
Henry gasped and Sarah only stood there. Jason could feel the power coming off this dragon. The water dragon. That was probably the best way to regard it. It might’ve been born of the river, but it was made of water. Maybe that was what gave it the energy to defend against Lorren.
Jason reached for the power of the misfits, probing toward the water dragon. He needed to understand the water dragon, much like he understood all of the misfits. As he probed, he realized that might have been a mistake. The dragon resisted.
He attempted to push a message through. He wanted the dragon to know that he was working with the others, and he felt a stirring within him of the ice, iron, and forest dragons that surged, as if trying to reassure the water dragon.
“I pushed too hard.” And Jason knew better, but knowing Lorren was out there, and Lachen, had him acting in ways that he wouldn’t have otherwise. Having a dragon like that which could deal with Lorren, and which wouldn’t fear what he might do, would be a benefit, but he didn’t have a sense this dragon was willing to do that.
Power burst from the dragon and washed over Jason.
He didn’t fight.
There was no purpose in doing so, but more than that, he thought he needed to allow it. As it did, he embraced the energy the dragon swept through him. It worked over him. There came a cold chill that faded, slipping through him and then was gone. The dragon disappeared with it, slipping beneath the surface of the water and then away.
“I guess that is it,” he said. He stared at the water, noticing rippling waves across the surface. He could see where the dragon moved, the way that he undulated through the water. He could feel power, even though he didn’t think he could use it. He had done everything that he needed to. “With as few misfits as there are out here, I keep thinking that I can gather them, but maybe I’ve gathered all I can,” he said.
The water dragon wouldn’t be the last of the misfits, but he might be the last of them created the way Lorren used. At least, until Jason found a way to create more. Then again, he wasn’t sure he even wanted to. He didn’t know if creating misfits was good for the dragon or whether it only created a different kind of power. If he were to do so, if he were to create that kind of power, modifying the dragons to change them, he didn’t know if it turned them into something they were not meant to be.
For a moment, there came another rippling, and within that echoing sense, Jason wondered if the dragon were responding to him, attempting to communicate, but then there was nothing. Just an emptiness. Not the violence of the storm dragon, but almost as bad. The water dragon didn’t want to work with him. Not that Jason could even blame him. He had already done enough. He had fought enough.
Jason pushed power out to see if he might detect anything more, but there was nothing.
Instead, he squeezed energy from himself, letting it radiate out. Jason couldn’t help but wonder if he could find a way to ensure Lorren—and Lorach—wasn’t able to harm the misfits. There might not be anything he could do. It might even be too late. The power sweeping toward Dragon Haven might be more than they could withstand. With as many dragon as were coming toward them, and the danger Lorren posed, he couldn’t help but worry that they were already outmaneuvered. Dragon Haven would no longer be safe.
Where would they go? There were plenty of free dragons that could carry the people of Dragon Haven away, but he wanted the dragons of Dragon Haven and of Lorach to live freely and to survive, not hide. Only, by running, they would be doing just that.
Using the dragon sight, he looked through the iron dragon’s eyes as he circled high above them. He couldn’t see everything the dragon saw, but there was movement. Lots of it.
And Jason knew where they needed to go.
He breathed out, feeling power flowing through him. He climbed onto the dragon’s back, and they took to the air, heading toward the border, toward Lorach, and toward Lorren.
23
A s they neared the Lachen dragons, Jason had a distinct awareness of energy building in front of him. It came from dragons, but it was something else as well—the strange misfit energy that came from Lorren’s dragons. There were hundreds of dragons. That was only part of the power he felt. The rest came from Lorren’s misfits. He somehow had to save both.
He braced himself by holding onto the ice dragon power along with that of the iron dragon. He mixed the connection as he soared above the forest, the colors blurring past him.
He found Sarah watching him.
“We aren’t far,” he said.
“Are you sure about this?”
Jason nodded. “We need to—”
He cut off. There came a surge of power. He didn’t know what it was, only that he could feel the buildup of a kind of dragon power that he had never felt before. An explosion of energy, though he didn’t have a sense it was directed at them.
Henry twisted, leaning off the side of his dragon, looking down at the ground.
“Can you see anything?” Sarah asked.
Henry sat back upright. “I can’t. Whatever it was had incredible power, but I don’t know what they’re using it for.”
Jason tried to determine what was out there, though the power and pressure continued to build. Whatever was happening would come again. As he looked over the side of the iron dragon, he could feel it rising. The suddenness of that buildup left him uncomfortable. It was Dragon Soul power, but not the kind that he had known before, and he didn’t think it came from the misfits.
Jason headed toward it.
Another energy rumbled alongside them as Lorren headed toward the Dragon Souls.
“That fool,” Jason muttered.
Henry looked over at him, frowning. “What is it?”
“I think he intends to attack the Dragon Souls.”
“That many dragons?”
There were several hundred. Far too many. Jason knew Lorren was powerful, but against this many dragons, the misfits would be overpowered. Even with what he’d experienced, he had a hard time thinking that the earth dragons and the mist dragons could withstand this kind of onslaught. They would be overwhelmed.
He wasn’t willing to allow any dragon to die. They to had intervene now.
“If I don’t do anything now, Lorren is going to destroy these dragons. We have to free them.”
But why here?
That was the real question he had. Why would Lorren have come here?
Not only that, but why would Jessica and Lorach have come here?
Could it be only that Jason had placed the egg illusion here?
That wouldn’t have drawn Lorach.
There was still that strange energy he detected. He had no idea what it meant, only that there was something about it that left him worried.
The ice dragon circled overhead. He could feel the power and energy of him, the cold coming from him, and he thought about the heat of the iron dragon, even the illusion of the forest dragon. If something were to happen to him, the dragons would still be safe. He had a shared bond to the dragons, not one that forced them to serve them.
“If something happens to me, be ready to act. Otherwise…”
Henry frowned, shaking his head. “I’m not going to wait here while you do something stupid.” He started to pull off.
“Where are you going?” Sarah called after him.
“He can’t do this alone. Neither can Lorren. If these fools think to take on Lorach, then I’m going to see if the Dragon Guard will join us, but I need to be closer to Dragon Haven to summon them.”
These fools.
Jason didn’t want to be a fool. He didn’t want to be like Lorren, either.
How could he be something different?
That was the answer he had to discover before Lorren started destroying more dragons and before Jason felt more death around him.
Energy rumbled in the distance with a buildup of power from the Dragon Souls.
The dense fog in the distance caught his attention, and Jason raced toward it. That was Lorren.
Tendrils of the mist streaked toward him. Lorren strode upward, somehow walking on those tendrils the same way as Jason would ride upon a dragon.
“You would use illusion against me? I will find that egg.”
“No,” Jason said. “I’m going to keep you chasing illusions—”
Lorren blasted him with another tendril of mist, and it came streaking toward Jason, forcing him to react, to press power out from him that froze the fog. He dropped for a moment.
Lorren reacted, catching himself, came streaking toward Jason.
Using the ice and the iron dragons, Jason sent another burst of power toward Lorren. The combination crackled together, streaking through him, ripping him with power.
Lorren disappeared.
Then Jason felt a strange shriek.
Dragons under attack.
He couldn’t wait.
Even if they waited, there was no guarantee that they would be able to act in time. No guarantee that the Dragon Guard would reach them. And if he waited, dragons would die. He had felt it before, and had almost felt it with one of the dragon misfits.
Jason turned to Sarah. “Stay up here. If dragons get directed off, I need you to help them.”
“And what about you? What happens if you get turned away?”
He smiled at her. “Then I’m going to need you to find a way to get to me.” Jason patted the iron dragon on the side. “This one isn’t your fight. Not yet.”
The dragon rumbled.
He climbed to his feet and used a burst of energy that carried him up to the ice dragon. He landed on the ice dragon’s back, immediately leaning down, whispering to him. Then they dove.
It happened quickly, shooting on a burst of ice lightning, carrying them to the ground as quickly as possible. Jason added to it, using what he could of the iron dragon to give them a burst of power. He pushed it out, blasting at the nearest of the dragons. It was a surge of power and a combination that allowed it to swirl, flowing over the dragons.
He felt resistance, but with as much force as he utilized, it fluttered only a moment before fading. There came a roar. Dragons scattered, and five of them took flight. There came other shrieks from the dragons. He couldn’t see it, only that there was something more taking place, the energy that Lorren was using. And he was targeting the dragons, harming them.
Jason had the distant sense of dragons tossing their Dragon Soul riders, and he hoped they acted quickly enough to keep them from restoring their hold over the dragons. If they didn’t…
The dragons took off.
Sarah was there, guiding them.
She headed toward the dragons, joining with them, sweeping them off and toward Dragon Haven.
Jason used a hint of ice and iron together, pushing through those five dragons again to ensure they were protected, and found that they were.
He turned his attention to the dragons in front of him. The ice dragon roared, power coming from him, energy building. That sense filled him. There wasn’t anything else that he could do. The ice dragon’s power exploded.
More dragons were down there. Jason had started to push when a flock came toward him. Dozens of them.
He braced himself.
Sitting astride the ice dragon, Jason started to call upon as much power as he could. He sent ice and iron energy through them, picking them off one at a time and healing them. The resistance swept away. Dragons were freed, one by one, and they tossed their riders.
Jason wasn’t fast enough. Dragons streaked toward him. They moved quickly, with Dragon Souls on top of them, guiding them. Several of the dragons had more than one rider.
Dragons of every color came toward him. Black, blue, green, yellow, red. All of them streaking, all of them building power. All of them filled with the energy of the Dragon Souls. Jason couldn’t see Lorren, but as he heard the shrieking agony of Dragon Soul dragons around him, he knew that Lorren continued his attack. It wouldn’t be much longer before he finished it. Then those dragons would destroy the Dragon Soul dragons.
Jason needed to save them.
First, he needed to protect himself.
Jason had to try a different approach. He shifted reality. He created a barrier around him, thickening the air and preventing the dragons from penetrating it.
The ice dragon roared. “How long will that hold?”
“I don’t know. I might be pulling on too much power. I worry she won’t have the strength to replenish her egg.”
More than that, if he didn’t act quickly enough, the illusion he needed to hide the egg would fade. Then Lorren would know how to find the real egg.
He had to move quickly. With the barrier around him, he could form the healing and swept power toward each of the dragons. It gave him a little bit more time, but they continued to come in an onslaught of dragon power.
There was an explosion beneath him. He needed to be here. Whatever he detected was the reason Lorach was here, and maybe even why Lorren had come.
“Be ready,” Jason said. “I’m going to need you to call power from above.”
The dragon roared, understanding filling him.
The ice dragon could use a different kind of attack than others, and maybe with the ice lightning, he could slow things. Jason pushed out a blast of power, and it exploded toward the ground. They descended, dropping quickly. He clung to the ice dragon’s back. Dragons followed them, circling. Jason tried to heal more of the dragons as they descended, and each time he did, they tossed a Dragon Soul rider. He still didn’t worry about the rider. All he cared about was the dragon.
Distantly, he had a sense of Sarah directing dragons away. He hoped she could work fast enough. He hoped that he could continue sending the dragons toward her. He hoped they could be enough.
When he had done this around Jessica, she’d managed to fight him. At that time, Jason hadn’t used the same technique that he used now. He had barely been able to withstand the storm dragon and hadn’t been able to mix the power as well as he could now. This time, he added all of the misfits together. He formed that barrier around him as he healed other dragons.
They neared the ground, sweeping just above the treetops. Power came from below, assaulting them. Jason could feel that power building, the energy in the air, slamming into them. He couldn’t do anything differently.
He held onto the barrier as much as he could. Power came toward him.
Another explosion of power built near him.
A fog in the distance caught his attention, and a faint, vague rumbling. Lorren was out there. His power targeted the Dragon Soul dragons, though Jason couldn’t get to them. He had to focus on what was in front of him.
Jason directed the ice dragon toward that power. Something burst near him.
They reached the ground. There were dozens of dragons near him, all of them turning toward him, but they didn’t move. Power flowed through the dragons. Jason could feel that energy, was aware of it, and realized there was something about it that he could use. There was more power within him.
Strangely, he’d felt something like that before.
It was a drawing sensation. The only time he had felt that before had been with the dragon egg and the dragon misfits. This time, there were only these dragons.
