When he dealt with Reltash and his friends, they had strength and Jason did not. He was accustomed to their bullying, and he was accustomed to dealing with the way they would pick on him, but perhaps he didn’t need to be.
He now had experience. He now had a different view of the world. That view gave him insight they didn’t possess. Insight often equaled a different kind of intelligence.
“I’m going to need your help,” Jason said.
“With this one?”
“A different one.” He started to climb onto the iron dragon. “I’m concerned about the ice dragon.”
“I thought we had agreed that he is hunting for the other hatch mates.”
“He might be, but he has been so distant, and it leaves me wanting to know whether or not he is still there.” Jason glanced over toward the main part of Dragon Haven. They would be leaving soon, and he needed to be prepared for the journey, which meant he should still be practicing. Yet before they went, he wanted to go one more time to see if he could uncover anything about the ice dragon. “Could you bring me there?”
The iron dragon rumbled. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”
Jason nodded. “I’m sure.”
The iron dragon took to the sky, his body undulating, heat working through him. He blasted forward, and it carried them up into the sky, over the mountains, and quickly toward snowcapped peaks in the distance.
Jason sat atop the dragon, enjoying the warmth radiating off his body, the swirls of heat and mist in the air, and the wind whirling around him.
All of this was unique and strange and wonderful. All of this was something he never would have believed that he would be capable of. All of this was something that he had thought impossible.
All of it was now his reality.
At least his reality while sitting atop the iron dragon.
He leaned forward as they neared the village—at least what remained of the village. He hadn’t wanted to come back here ever since the attack, and as he looked out, the heat haze coming off the dragon created something of a shimmering.
Jason stared through it, and he could feel the energy that was out there. He could sense the destruction, the remnants of what had once been his village, and he looked away.
He couldn’t stomach staring at it. He couldn’t stomach seeing what had once been his people.
He didn’t know if he would ever be able to look upon the village in the same way.
He hadn’t given much thought to it, but once he rescued the people from Therin—when he rescued them, not if—he had no idea what he was going to do with them. They would have to go somewhere, but he didn’t have any idea where he would bring them. Perhaps there wasn’t any place he could bring them that would be safe.
It might not even matter. All that mattered was that he find them. That he find his mother. Jason looked away, turning toward the cave in the distance. The iron dragon headed toward it and Jason embraced that sense, thinking about the power within the cave, thinking about the ice dragon.
As had been the case so often lately, there was no additional sense of the ice dragon within the cave. Though he could still feel the sense of the ice dragon, his awareness of him was faint and distant.
Nothing he expected.
For whatever reason, the ice dragon was hidden from him.
He would return. Jason had little doubt that the ice dragon was somewhere, especially as he could feel him so strongly within his mind, but he wondered how long he would be gone.
Taking a deep breath, the iron dragon banked, and rather than heading back toward Dragon Haven, they continued south. They flew over other mountaintops, soaring high into the air, where the wind was cooler, thinner, and where he could feel a change. There was something about this place that felt different.
After a while, they passed beyond the mountains.
Jason had never traveled this far before, and he looked down. The landscape was bleak and darkened, and it seemed as if it had been destroyed. There were some signs of life, some evidence that things were returning, but for the most part, it was emptiness. Dragon Haven was an oasis, surging with energy and life, whereas this was something else.
The dragon banked again, twisting back toward the mountains. As they turned, Jason had a sense of power that seemed to pull upon him. He glanced back behind him, wondering if there might be something he could detect, but then it faded.
That sense was there, though he didn’t know if it would be safe to pursue. For all he knew, there were Dragon Souls. They were far enough away from the rest of the kingdom that he doubted they would encounter Dragon Souls, but he didn’t know for certain.
The iron dragon surged heat, glowing more intensely, blazing nearly as bright as the sun. Only his head and neck didn’t glow quite as brightly, allowing Jason the ability to cling to him, holding on to his position, leaning forward as he maintained his place on the dragon.
They flew rapidly, circling, and it took Jason a moment to understand just what the iron dragon was doing.
He was pursuing the ice dragon.
“You’re more worried than you’re letting on, too.”
“I don’t detect him as I once did,” the iron dragon roared.
Against the wind, the sound of his voice was drawn away, little more than a rumble, but Jason was still able to determine what the dragon was trying to tell him.
“I can still feel him,” Jason said.
“I feel him as well, but feeling him and knowing where he is are different matters altogether,” the dragon said.
It was the same feeling Jason had.
They had seen no evidence of the ice dragon, and the farther they had flown, the more distant the sense of the ice dragon had become. Wherever he was had to be within the realm of the kingdom, but it was hard to pick out, and certainly not prominent enough for Jason to be able to determine just where the ice dragon had gone.
Could he have headed closer toward the capital city?
He doubted the ice dragon would risk that. He knew the danger of the Dragon Souls, and Jason doubted that the ice dragon would do so without help.
Would he, though?
He thought about what he knew of the ice dragon. He could fly higher than any of the other dragons, up in the clouds and in air so thin, none of the other dragons would be able to survive it. With as high as the ice dragon could go, and with as easy as it was for him to withstand the cold, Jason didn’t know if the ice dragon would do something like that.
It was entirely possible he would circle there, especially if it were for a hatch mate.
Jason glanced up. Perhaps that was what they needed to do.
If they went higher, he might be able to find answers, but he didn’t know if the iron dragon would be able to withstand it.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, he patted the iron dragon. “I think it’s time for us to return.”
“Are you sure? I can sense your concern for him.”
“It’s not that I’m not concerned for him, but if anything would’ve happened to him, I would’ve felt it.”
As he said it, he knew it was true. His connection to the ice dragon was such that he was certain he would have known. He was certain he would have felt it.
Even now, as he reached through that faint connection between them, he could feel that nothing had harmed the ice dragon. The connection was there, as solid as it had ever been. It was just faint, distant, making it difficult to discern whether or not there was anything more within it that he might be able to pick up on.
They turned back toward Dragon Haven.
When they flew, he focused on the sense of the iron dragon, and he focused on the ice dragon, and he even thought about the forest dragon. So far, Jason hadn’t spent much time with that dragon, though he suspected that he would need to. In order to understand all of these unique dragons, he was going to have to see if there was anything he might be able to learn about each one.