“Why would they like it?”
“The dragons like to feel superior. Even the little ones. And given the size they attain, superiority suits them.”
“I don’t think they like to feel superior,” Jason said.
William shot him an annoyed look. “You don’t know that. Just because you can ride them and speak to them and use their power…”
Kayla laughed again.
“The yellow one here likes it when you stroke his wings,” William went on. He approached the yellow-scaled dragon. They had stopped frolicking and turned their attention to William. Two of them snorted at him, steam erupting from their nostrils, but they angled downward. From the way they did so, Jason could feel something almost playful about them, not nearly any sense of anger, and certainly nothing that would be meant to harm the other man.
“Why aren’t there more than this?” Kayla asked. She glanced from Jason to William. “There are quite a few of the larger dragons, but I don’t see all that many little ones.”
“Females are rare,” William said. “Not just that, but an egg hatching is equally rare.”
“If they’re rare, then why would they have put some of them in the mountains and in the iron mines?”
William shook his head. “Stupidity. Probably nothing more than that.” He looked up as the iron dragon circled, creating a shadow on the ground. “Then again, had they not, we wouldn’t have known such beauty, would we?” He smiled again, turning his attention to Kayla.
As the iron dragon settled to the ground, Kayla turned toward the yellow dragon, holding her hand out.
Jason looked over at William. “Am I going to have to watch out for you now, too?”
William winked. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He strode forward, joining Kayla with the younger dragons.
Jason stood there for a moment, considering joining his sister, but decided against it. It might be better for her to have some time with William, to have him be the one to guide her through the city. As William didn’t have any power over the dragons, and no way to use the dragon pearls, who better to guide her in an understanding of the dragons’ role than someone who didn’t necessarily share in that power?
Instead, Jason headed toward the iron dragon. His glove began to throb, taking on a bit of the heat of the dragon.
“Have you seen any sign of the ice dragon?”
The iron dragon rumbled softly, shaking his wings. There was the sound of metal screaming, and he had a sense from the iron dragon that he was amused at the nature of that sound.
“Nothing.”
“He’s out searching for others like you. Other hatch mates.”
“I’m certain that he is,” the iron dragon said.
Jason didn’t like the idea of heading toward Therin and the kingdom without knowing more about what had happened to the ice dragon and whether or not he needed to be concerned, but he could feel him distantly, so he believed that he was still there.
“I’m trying to learn how to place an illusion,” he said to the iron dragon.
“What is an illusion?”
“Creating the appearance of something that is not there.”
The iron dragon snorted. “You can create only what is real.”
“I’ve seen another do it.”
“He can do only what is within him.”
Jason frowned at the comment. There was something within it that struck a chord with him. “What do you mean?”
“The truth is within you. Reality is within you.”
The dragon rumbled again, and he began to glow.
Jason turned his attention to the iron glove, staring at it. He could feel the energy within it, the way that it throbbed, but he also knew how his hand had once looked.
Was that the key?
If he could find some way to hold on to that connection, something within him that would allow him to keep hold of that sense, then he thought that perhaps he might be able to maintain an illusion.
He stared at his hand for a long moment, focused.
He thought about the way that his hand had once looked. He thought about the power of the iron dragon and how it had slid over his hand. In doing so, he pushed outward through his hand.
Something seemed to shift, a faint shimmering. It was almost a sense of heat that swirled around him, though this was a little bit different. As it did, he could see the image of his hand begin to take hold.
It was going to work.
He looked over at Kayla. He had promised that he would work with her, but now that he was here, holding on to the power, he realized that perhaps it didn’t matter. Kayla was preoccupied by visiting with William.
They reached the end of the grassy training ground and Kayla looked over at him, but William said something and she laughed, turning back to him.
He had wanted to stretch his legs, but perhaps that wasn’t what he needed to be doing.
No, what Jason needed was to focus on the illusion and try to uncover the secret to be able to create one. Once he did that, then he could take all the time that he wanted. For now, what he needed was to focus. What he needed was to master this technique.
He leaned up against the iron dragon, who had curled down on the ground. Jason pressed his back up against him, feeling the heat radiating from him, recognizing the comfort of it, and then he started focusing on power. He concentrated on the energy within him. He let that power flow out, struggling to master the illusion.
In order to help the people of his village, he was going to have to master it. He would have to do it quickly. He had no idea how long he had, but he suspected that the other villagers—including his mother—couldn’t tolerate him waiting too long.
If he did, and if something happened to his mother, Jason didn’t know that he could ever forgive himself.
Behind him, the iron dragon rumbled softly, power pulsing out from him.
7
Jason sat in the small room with Thomas as he attempted to hold the illusion. In this case, he was trying to create nothing more than a change to his hand. It was easier than working on his eye color. At least with his hand, he could see what he was doing. In doing so, he tried to focus on having it match the other one, and calling upon that power was easier than he had expected. It was power that filled him, energy that was a part of him, and it didn’t require drawing through the dragon pearls quite as he had suspected.
Still, he hadn’t managed to hold on to the illusion for more than just a moment.
That wasn’t going to be long enough for what he needed to do. Not nearly long enough. He attempted to latch on to this image, trying to trap the understanding of what he needed, to use that, and yet as he did, it flickered.
He was able to maintain the illusion for a moment. And that was it.
With a frustrated sigh, he looked up at Thomas. “That’s as long as I can hold it.”
“That’s as long as you are willing to hold it,” Thomas said.
“I’m trying to do it, but I just can’t.”
Thomas shook his head. “You keep saying that you can’t, and yet you have shown that you can. Your issue isn’t a matter of what you can or cannot do.” Thomas got up from the soft chair. He stopped in front of the hearth, which still crackled with a warm flame. The smell of the woodsmoke drifted out, and Jason noticed it the same way he did every time that he was here. It was still a sweet smell, and its fragrance filled his nostrils.
“Had you grown up in Lorach, you would’ve understood your abilities better than this.”
“And yet I didn’t,” Jason said. Thomas had said something similar before, and each time he did, Jason grew increasingly frustrated. It wasn’t that he was being deliberately difficult. It was more about how his power was so different than what Thomas was familiar with.