“I’ve heard of something like that,” Sarah said.
“You have?” Henry asked.
She nodded. “It’s reported by some of the trainers. When they work with the dragons long enough, when they get close enough to them, they say they can begin to see shimmers of color around them, almost as if they’re seeing what the dragon sees.” She studied Jason and tipped her head to the side as she did. “I guess I wasn’t expecting anyone here would have that ability.”
“I don’t know how much of the ability I really have, but I can connect to the dragon.”
“Just this one?” Henry frowned as he stared into the distance. Heat began to build from him, whatever connection he was using to the dragon pearl he carried swirling around him. “What about the ice dragon?”
“I don’t have the same connection to the ice dragon. At least, not yet.”
And yet, he had seen the ice dragon in his vision. He had been able to summon the ice dragon in his mind, and because of the ice dragon, Jason had been able to help Sarah. He believed that much was real.
If nothing else, he wanted to be able to connect to the iron dragon and the ice dragon, and more than that, he thought that he needed to connect to the forest dragon so that he could find some way of restoring her.
If she was controlled by the Dragon Souls, he would have to find some way to do so.
He started forward. The other two followed him, but he shook his head. “I think I need to do this by myself, at least the part where I try to help the dragons.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“I still need to get the iron dragon away, and the two of you don’t need to risk yourselves.”
“We might be able to help with the Dragon Souls,” Henry said.
Jason had forgotten about them. Though he hadn’t seen them in his vision through the dragon’s eyes, he suspected there would be Dragon Souls there. There would have to be. And from what he had seen before, he expected at least two or three Dragon Souls per dragon.
With that being the case, that could be ten to fifteen different Dragon Souls.
It was a lot of power.
Jason would have to work quickly, and hopefully surprise would be on their side.
They started forward and Henry motioned, signaling that he was going to loop around. Sarah stayed with Jason.
They crawled forward, moving quietly now, slowly, and keeping off to the side of the forest. He darted from tree to tree, focusing on saying as hidden as he could. The heat from the iron dragon persisted, and from what Jason could tell, it was that heat holding back the other dragons. If he didn’t get there in time, the heat was going to fade.
The iron dragon needed their help. Jason could feel the way he was trying to push against what the Dragon Souls and the other dragons were doing to him. The iron dragon was fighting with everything that he had, but how long would he be able to hold out?
“I don’t know how long he’s been at it, but…”
“It couldn’t have been more than an hour or two,” she said.
“I thought we were trapped for a couple of days,” he said.
“I know it felt like we were trapped for a couple of days, but look at the sky.”
“What about it?” He looked up, noting the position of the sun and thinking about where it had been when he had seen it before.
“It doesn’t look all that different from when we were first here. It’s strange,” she said, shaking her head. “When we went into town, it was late in the day, and I remember Henry saying something about wishing it would be closer to night.”
Jason frowned, thinking about that and remembering what he had said, and realized she was right. And if it had only been a short period of time that they’d been trapped in the illusion, perhaps he’d gotten to the iron dragon in time.
He darted to the next tree, and when he did, he caught sight of the iron dragon. He stood at the edge of the forest, heat radiating from his body, his scales glowing head to tail, his wings piercing the ground, and everything was orange, the molten metal seeming to flow along the surface of his body. It was like a blast furnace holding everything else at bay. Even the dragons surrounding him weren’t able to get any closer.
Jason could barely manage to get any closer.
Directly ahead of him was a small greenish dragon, and he could see two Dragon Souls. He focused on the greenish dragon and pulled through the connection to the ice dragon.
As he did, power flowed through him.
There was a resistance, but it wasn’t what it had been.
Strangely, the muted connection to the ice dragon was no longer there. He thought he understood. Whatever illusion had been used on him was gone. The link to the ice dragon which he had seen within the illusion had faded, and now he was better able to reach for the ice dragon.
He pulled on that power, and within his mind, he could practically feel the ice dragon roaring his approval, sending power through Jason, through their connection, and it washed over the dragon in front of him.
The dragon stiffened.
There was a resistance, but Jason had felt that resistance before, and now that he understood what was taking place, he could overwhelm it.
He pushed.
The resistance faded.
The dragon stiffened and twisted, looking back in his direction.
He blinked. This green dragon had faint yellow eyes and he looked at Jason, locking eyes, and there came a surge of understanding.
The dragon roared.
The Dragon Souls next to him turned their attention to him, but too late.
The green dragon swung his tail and chopped down the Dragon Soul nearest him. His tail struck the other, and just like that, they were gone.
The dragon took to the sky and disappeared.
“They’re going to know we’re here,” Sarah said.
Jason stepped out into the open. There was no choice but to draw attention to himself now. Two dragons appeared. He hadn’t seen them from where he had stood at the edge of the forest, but now he did. One was a bright red dragon, almost maroon, and it reminded him of the one Therin had rode, but smaller. Next to that dragon was a purple-scaled one. Both had enormous spikes protruding from their backs and their wings were tilted off to the side, almost as if they were ready to take flight. Five Dragon Souls faced them.
Jason focused on the dragons. He needed to unleash everything he could add to both of the dragons at the same time, but he didn’t know if he could do it as quickly as he needed to. He called upon the power from the ice dragon, letting it flow through him, and when he did, it rolled out and through him and into the two dragons. Jason continued to push, and he did so without any attention to how much power he was calling. He washed it over their heads, blasting past the resistance.
The dragons stiffened, and almost at the same time, they convulsed slightly.
And then it ended.
The Dragon Souls were building power, and Jason realized Sarah was holding something in front of him, blocking whatever the Dragon Souls were doing.
The dragons looked at Jason and took off, sweeping into the air, disappearing.
“So much for them helping us,” he muttered.
The iron dragon swung his tail.
Jason hadn’t been paying attention to the iron dragon, only registering that the heat had remained. The power building off the iron dragon was enormous.
His tail, a blade of molten metal, sliced and slashed through the five Dragon Souls. When he was done, steam radiated from their remains.
Jason didn’t have a chance to even think about it any longer. He turned to the iron dragon, focusing on the other dragons that were there.