“They were not brought here.”
Jason looked around, and though it was a large building, and though there were hundreds of people here, he didn’t see anyone he recognized. Regardless of what he might believe, regardless of what he might have wanted, there was no sign of any of his villagers, which meant he’d made a mistake.
The mistake had been compounded. Not only had he made a mistake in coming to Lorach and thinking he could somehow infiltrate the Dragon Souls, but he had made a mistake in thinking the slaves might have the answer.
They wouldn’t have the answers.
“Therin is going to win,” he muttered.
“What was that?” the woman asked, her body stiffening.
“Nothing.”
She turned to him, and there came a flicker of anger across her face. “You said a name.”
“I said Therin is going to win.”
“What do you know about him?”
“Therin is the reason I came. He attacked my village because he’s upset with me.”
She frowned at him. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she stared at him with a bright intensity. “Why would Therin even care about you?”
“Because I upset his plans.”
“What plans?”
Jason glanced over at Sarah, debating how much to share, and decided he couldn’t share anything with them. He didn’t know anything about these people and didn’t know if he could trust them, so it was easier to keep it to himself. If it came down to it, then he would continue to hide what he needed to in order to try to keep the dragons safe.
If it came down to using the iron dragon to get them to safety, to break free, then perhaps he would have to reveal their presence, but for now… for now, he had no intention of sharing anything that would endanger the dragons.
“He planned to attack the rebels,” Sarah said.
“There are no rebels.”
She shrugged. “There are more than you know. There are free dragons, too. And there are those who continue to try to free the dragons.”
The woman watched Sarah, and there came a surge of power from her. When it was gone, the illusion covering Sarah’s eyes was gone.
Now her two blue eyes stared out.
Sarah didn’t seem to have any awareness of it. She watched the woman, almost as if unmindful of the fact that the illusion she thought she was carrying was gone.
“Sarah,” he whispered.
“What is it?”
He pointed to her eyes.
“You were sent to infiltrate us,” the woman said.
Power suddenly slammed around them, and Jason felt trapped.
Not just trapped, but as if he were falling.
Sarah was there near him, and she was falling, screaming.
It was an illusion.
More than anything, that answer filled him. He called upon the power, drawing through the iron dragon, letting that flood him.
He needed to burn it off, to draw that power away. As it flowed, he thought he could reach it, but doing so was challenging. The sense of the dragon came to him, flaring within him, starting with his hand. It began to burn, and the panic burned away with it.
Jason continued to pull, drawing more and more power from the dragon, knowing that if nothing else, he needed to tear away everything he could.
He pulled on the illusion, the power they were summoning, and he sent it through himself, through the iron dragon glove, and out to the iron dragon.
The iron dragon burned the illusion off.
Jason stumbled forward. He was back within a cell.
At least one layer was gone.
He was no longer alone in the cell. Sarah sat there alongside him, and he darted over to her, grabbing her hands. She was crying out, likely still falling within her illusion.
“Sarah,” he whispered.
She still screamed.
Jason squeezed her hands. He focused. He called upon his own illusion, thinking about what he wanted. As before, he went to snow. He used that, letting it swirl around him, the soft flakes turning over to icy, painful shards that tore at his cheeks. It was a familiar sense, and the cold whipped around him, telling him he was not alone and that there would be some way to get to safety.
Jason held on to that sense, to that power, and he held on to the connection to the snow and the cold and the ice. He looked, and snow circled him. He focused on the stream, and it formed. The cave opened up before him.
Jason grabbed for Sarah and dragged her into the cave.
It was all in his mind. Even knowing it was all in his mind didn’t make it any less real. That was the part of all of this that he struggled with, knowing this was not real, that none of this was here, and yet Jason had a hard time pushing those thoughts away, convincing himself none of this was real. In his mind, all of this was real. In his mind, all of this existed.
Jason held on to that image and imagined the contours of the cave, the crystalline reflection overhead, the water flowing through, the gentle sounds of it burbling near him.
And if he could imagine that, then should he imagine the ice dragon?
He focused on him, and with a surge, the ice dragon suddenly appeared.
The ice dragon rumbled, glancing from Jason to Sarah.
“I don’t know if you’re here or not, but I need your help.”
“Where is this?”
“Within my mind, as far as I can tell. It’s an illusion, and yet I still need your help.”
If he could somehow connect to the ice dragon, even if it wasn’t real, and even if it was within his mind, then he needed to do so. He focused on that sense, and he tried to create as much reality from this as he could.
The more he focused, the more certain he was all of this was here.
Jason breathed out, looking at Sarah. She was still crying out, the effect of the illusion overwhelming.
“They’ve done something to her mind. Can you help me heal her?”
“If this is within her mind, I don’t know that I can,” the ice dragon said.
“Please,” Jason begged.
Power surged within him.
Jason didn’t know if it was real power or not, and he didn’t know if the ice dragon was even here or not, and yet, as he thought about it, as he focused on the sense of the ice dragon, he couldn’t help but feel as if something about this were real.
And if the ice dragon were here, and if he could reach that power and could connect to it, then could he use it to heal Sarah?
Jason held on to Sarah’s shoulders and let the ice dragon’s power flow out from him. It washed over her, the same way as it had when he had tried to use the power of the ice dragon before. As it did, cold rolled through his hands.
Maybe this was all in his mind, but Jason didn’t care. If it was all in his mind, then perhaps this was his illusion, and if this was his illusion, he could use it to try to heal Sarah.
She convulsed. Cold washed over her, and much like he felt when he was working with the dragon, there was a sense of resistance. It was faint, but it was definitely there. Jason continued to push, letting his connection to that resistance flow, sending it out from him, knowing that if nothing else, he needed to have some way of overpowering it.
If it came from the dragon, if his connection to the ice dragon remained real, then he had to find some way to help her.
She gasped, blinking, and then looked over at him.
“Jason?”
“Are you back?”
“It was…”
She looked over, saw the ice dragon, and gasped again.
“Where did you bring me now?”
“I don’t know how much of this is real. I don’t know how much of this is just my mind forming an illusion versus how much of this is really happening,” he said.