“What if they didn’t?”
“I don’t know what else they might do. It’s possible they’d bring them somewhere else, and if they did, you still run the risk of them being forced into something dangerous. I think… I think we’d better be prepared for the possibility that your people are going to be difficult to find. Maybe impossible. You’re going to have to move carefully. We both are.”
Jason glanced up at the sky again, looking at the dragon as it soared overhead. From where he stood, he couldn’t tell the size of the creature. It appeared to have blue scales, and it circled before disappearing.
Did it circle for longer than it would have otherwise because of what Jason had done? He worried he’d drawn attention to them, though he didn’t think that he had. He doubted the dragon would have noticed what he was doing quite yet. Even if he had noticed, the dragon shouldn’t have notified the Dragon Soul.
Unless he had no choice.
Jason didn’t really understand what happened with the dragons the Dragon Souls used. It was possible the dragon wouldn’t have any choice but to share what Jason was doing, and to share the nature of the connection and power that he was drawing on.
He tore his gaze away from the sky, looking back into the city.
Sarah slipped her arm into his.
“We’re supposed to be brother and sister.”
“Once we find the Dragon Souls, but not until then.”
They meandered through the city. There was a strange energy around everything. It was beautiful, and yet, the more he looked, the more certain Jason was that he felt a certain tension underlying everything. At one point, he saw dark-cloaked figures moving along the street. As he stared, he could tell that they wore dragonskin. Dragon Souls.
There were other soldiers marching along the street, though they were dressed in simple armor, and some in chain mail. Most of them were given a wide berth, though not nearly as wide a berth as the Dragon Souls were given by people in the street.
Sarah took a deep breath. “I don’t know how much longer we can waste time here.”
“I understand. I agree we need to find the location of the Dragon Souls.”
“We’re going to have to turn ourselves in to them.”
“Are you sure?”
“How else do you propose we get their attention?”
Jason tensed. The moment they did was the moment he would be tested on how well he was able to hold on to the illusion. For now, he’d been able to focus only on his eyes, but as soon as he had to split his focus and hide not only his eyes but his hand, he worried that he wouldn’t be able to hold it for long enough.
“Let’s get this over with,” he said.
“We should have a plan for meeting,” she said.
“How?”
“I… I don’t know. It depends on what they have us do, but we should figure out someplace to meet if something happens.”
They neared a river that separated this section of the city from the other. On the other side of the river, the buildings were taller. Larger. Many of them had gilding along the sides. Several had gardens surrounding them, taking up much more space than the buildings on this side of the river had.
He looked along the back of the river on the other side, and he saw a dragon sculpture.
He pointed to it. “Right there.”
“What about it?”
“Leave word there.”
“We don’t even know what kind of store that is.”
“Does it matter? It’s got a dragon.”
“What if it’s a dragon butcher?”
He frowned at her.
She shrugged. “What if it’s a dragonskin tailor? I imagine they have to have some in the city. Are you sure that you want us to meet there? What if he tries to steal your lovely clothing?”
“It’s lovely now?”
“Well, you were permitted to wear it. That’s more than most can say.”
Jason smiled. “I got a sense that he was particularly amused by the fact that I asked.”
“I suspect he was. It’s probably rare for them to be asked.”
“I don’t know if he knew it was rare.”
It was difficult for Jason to have an idea what the dragon knew about. There was some knowledge of the other dragons, and yet there was an innocence about the ice dragon as well. He had Jason’s knowledge, but nothing more than that.
“If something happens, we’ll meet there,” she said.
“Fine. We can meet there. And otherwise, we try to get word wherever we end up.”
She nodded.
They crossed the bridge.
As soon as they did, a strange tingling washed over him.
Jason looked over, meeting her eyes.
“Did it—”
She shook her head. “Nothing. Nothing’s changed. You’re fine.”
He breathed out. “Tell me you felt it, too.”
She nodded. “I felt it.”
“What do you think it was?”
“I don’t know. A dragon—” She cut herself off, looking around. “There. We know quite a bit about using the dragon pearls, accessing their power, but we don’t know nearly as much as they know here. The Dragon Souls have been connected to the dragons for far longer than we have. They use that power in a way we don’t even understand.”
“But Henry knows.”
“Henry knows, and he’s taught us as much as he can, and before Henry came, we were limited in how much we knew. Since Henry’s arrival, we’ve grown, our knowledge of the power we can use increased, but even in that, there are limits. The Dragon Souls have a different kind of connection to the dragons. The way they use their power is different than how we use it.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“Mostly we think it’s because they force the use of the dragon’s power.”
They needed to be careful with what they were saying—they didn’t want to draw the attention of the Dragon Souls before they were ready—and they really shouldn’t be having a conversation like this out in the open. What would happen if the strange sense he had detected somehow allowed the Dragon Souls to hear what they were saying? What would happen if it somehow gave them the ability to know what was in their minds? The ice dragon had already told him he had some way of connecting to him, so what if the Dragon Souls could do the same thing?
Standing on the bank of the river, Jason was all too aware of how much power was in the city. It seemed to press upon him, an awareness of it, and though he recognized it, that didn’t mean it was any easier to tolerate. He worried about what the source of that power would be, and he worried about how many Dragon Souls they might encounter, and he feared what that might mean for them.
“Where do you suspect Henry went?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
A pair of dark-cloaked figures in the distance caught his attention, and he nodded. That was where they needed to go.
They started toward the Dragon Souls, and he felt dread rising up within him. There was no reason for it. This was the whole purpose of coming, and yet, now that he was here, he didn’t want to do it.
Sarah started forward. When she reached the nearest of the Dragon Souls, she bowed deeply.
“Excuse me. We are looking for the Dragon Souls training. My brother and I were identified as potential candidates by one of your own.”
The man looked down his nose at them. He had narrow lips, a sharp nose, and eyebrows that pointed at the corners. “Were you?”
“We were far to the west. Gilroy. There was an accident when he was bringing us here, and…”
She kept her head down, her eyes on the ground, and Jason mimicked her. He had no idea if this was even going to work, and he worried that they would run into trouble just trying to reach the Dragon Souls.