He couldn’t help but think that illusion had to be there. If they were trying to trap them here, if they were trying to use them, the illusion would be what was holding them.
Jason thought about it, focusing, and the more that he did, the more certain he was that he would be able to discover that illusion and uncover the key to it, and yet, he didn’t know if the answer was there.
He pulled open the door.
There was nothing but another hallway.
“Do you see anything?” Sarah asked.
Jason stared into the darkness. As he did, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was anything on the other side of the door. There was no sign of shimmering, no sign of anything that would indicate there was anything here. There was no energy, nothing.
The answer had to be here.
If he could find that answer, if he could uncover what was here, then he believed he could figure out some way of getting them to safety.
“There’s no sign of shimmering. I’m going to focus on the power here,” he said.
He closed his eyes and thought about the power within the iron dragon glove, the way it felt, the way it surged within him. As he did, he tried to reach for that power, and it filled him.
It came slowly, but it was there. It was a distinct sense and Jason focused on it, letting that sense roll through him. As it did, he understood that he had something here.
This was an illusion.
Even though he didn’t see anything here, and even though there was no sign of shimmering, there was something off about this place.
What had he done before?
He had pulled upon the power. If he could do the same thing now, then maybe he could draw that illusion away. It involved taking that power, sending it not only through himself, but through to the iron dragon.
What had the iron dragon done?
The answer came to him.
He had burned off the illusion.
It was strange to think of it like that, but he was certain that was what had happened. The iron dragon had taken the energy, and rather than using it, rather than twisting it, the iron dragon had burned it off.
That kind of power flowed through Jason and he pulled upon it, letting it fill him, and as it did, he focused on it, letting it roll through him, through the iron dragon glove, and distantly to where the iron dragon hid.
Jason had no idea where the iron dragon was, only that he was able to detect his energy. That sense of the iron dragon was out there, and if he could hold on to it, he could use it, and in doing so, Jason knew that he could reach for something more than he could otherwise.
He let that sense of the iron dragon fill him.
He pulled that power across the distance, through the iron dragon glove, and he let it flow to the iron dragon.
The illusion faded, and as it did, Jason stared.
It was still a hallway.
Strange.
“What happened?” Sarah asked.
“Why?”
“You told me to watch for shimmering, and I saw some shimmering, but I didn’t know what it meant.”
Jason shook his head. “I don’t know. There was something here, and I…”
Had he burned it off?
And even if he had, there was a possibility that whoever was here was aware of what he was saying and doing. If he mentioned the iron dragon, then there was a possibility he would reveal the creature’s presence. He didn’t want anyone to know about the iron dragon except for those who had seen him.
“I pulled away power,” he said.
“I don’t see anything different,” she said.
Jason started forward carefully, looking around as he did. He didn’t see anything different, either, which was part of why he was troubled. Even though he believed there was something different here, he wasn’t sure what it was or what it might mean.
“We have to move carefully,” he said.
They made their way along the hallway, and a sense of something caught his attention. Jason paused. As he looked around, he noticed that doors lined the hall.
Had they been here before?
Even if they had been, why hadn’t he noticed them? He didn’t think that he had pulled off the illusion here. If the illusion was there, and if there was some sense of the doors along the hallway, why would he not have noticed them when he had first stripped away that illusion? Was there something else to it that he needed to know?
He didn’t think so. He held on to a sense of the illusion, and he held on to what he was able to detect. There was nothing here.
Jason frowned as he looked around.
Why was he thinking he saw anything?
He closed his eyes. Once again, he focused on the energy around him.
As he did, he realized that what he was detecting was there, and it was subtle.
It was different than what he had picked up on before. That had been obvious. It was almost as if that were what he was meant to find.
This next layer of energy was different, hidden from him, masked in such a way that he could barely detect it.
Jason pulled. He pushed that energy through the sense of the iron dragon, and it burned away.
As it did, something changed.
Jason opened his eyes, and when he did, his breath caught.
There were hundreds upon hundreds of people all around him.
14
Sarah squeezed his hand, pressing close to him, and Jason stared, scarcely able to believe what he was seeing.
The illusion had been that of the cell, and then that of the larger room, and as he had stripped away layers of the illusion, he had dug deeper and deeper, coming to the point where he was now.
A woman stood across from him.
She had dark hair, and yet, that wasn’t what caught his attention the most. It was the color of her eyes.
They were eyes like Jason’s real eyes.
“You,” he said to her.
He didn’t need to look through the illusion to know that this was the same woman who’d questioned him. Somehow, he was able to know, and he could practically feel that about her, but how?
“Who taught you how to do that?” she asked.
“Who taught me how to do what?”
“To strip away the illusions?”
“No one taught me.”
If this did come from Therin, why would he want Jason to master illusions?
He wouldn’t.
There was another possibility.
Jason would need to get to the forest dragon. Her resisting was the only reason he had for it.
Unless Therin just hadn’t known Jason would be able to figure it out.
“You had to have been trained by someone. Did they send you here to infiltrate us?”
Jason glanced over at Sarah, and with a start, he realized she had matching eyes like his, and he frowned for a moment until he realized she was holding on to an illusion.
Would they realize she was?
Given the nature of the people here, and the fact that they were trying to hide from him, that they were holding an illusion—and an elaborate one at that—left him thinking that perhaps they might.
“Who do you think sent us?”
She scowled at him. “They have been trying to understand us for years. Did they send you to infiltrate us?”
She watched him. There was a strange and threatening sense from her, though Jason wasn’t sure if she was going to attack him.
He debated what to do. He was still holding on to his illusion, to the one that showed that he had two silver eyes, and yet, he had a sense that she was able to see through that.