Jason wanted to tell her otherwise, but the buildings had all been burned. Nothing but charred husks remained. He wandered between the buildings and looked for his home.
It was gone. Everything here was gone.
The people were gone.
Something had happened. Either they had run off—and if they had, then there should be evidence of them—or they had been taken.
“What do you think happened?”
“Dragon Souls happened,” Jason said. “I thought we had more time.”
Kayla looked over at him. “You knew this was going to come?”
“Not this. I knew there was a possibility of something. They’re angry with me, and I knew they might attack.” And he had been looking. That was the whole point of going out of the village, wandering with Kayla, searching for any sign of dragons or anything else. He had been searching for them. He’d known there was a possibility that the Dragon Souls would come, that they would attack, and yet now that they had, he hadn’t expected this.
Therin had done this.
He wandered, making his way through the remains of the village, and something caught his eye near one of the flames.
He approached slowly.
It was a small sphere, and it rested on the ground, glowing with the reflected firelight all around them.
He crouched in front of it, and Kayla approached him, watching. “What is it?”
“It’s a dragon pearl.”
“What’s a dragon pearl?”
Jason picked up the pearl, holding it in his palm. It glowed softly and had a hint of warmth in it, a residual energy from whoever had used it.
It was a taunt. He recognized it.
More than that, he thought that he recognized what dragon it came from. He believed it came from Therin’s red dragon.
The dragon was freed. He had been there, and he’d seen the dragon freed. There shouldn’t be anything he needed to worry about when it came to the red dragon.
But then, this dragon pearl suggested otherwise.
Had Therin come up with some way of recapturing dragons Jason had freed?
He squeezed the dragon pearl and pushed power through it. The pearl began to glow, warming in his hand, and he cried out, anger filling him.
“Jason?”
He let out a frustrated breath and threw the dragon pearl, hurling it with every bit of strength he had. He had no idea if it was safe to even use, or whether there was some way that Therin might borrow the power within the dragon pearl to find a way to follow him.
“They came for the village,” he said.
“Who?”
“A dangerous man. A madman. I disrupted his plans.”
“You did that?”
Jason turned to her, meeting his sister’s gaze. “Where do you think I’ve been going?”
“When you said you were working with the dragons, I had no idea.”
“I’ve been working with the dragons. It seems my work with the dragons has done the one thing I didn’t want to do.”
With the dragon pearl here, the taunt Therin had left him, he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps the people in the village weren’t dead. It was just as likely Therin had gathered them up and brought them to Lorach. Knowing Therin and his cruelty, he would use them. He would force them into slavery.
And it would force Jason into deciding whether he would go after them or not.
There were quite a few people in the village he knew well. There were quite a few people whom he still cared about. Even though they had essentially abandoned him and his family, leaving them to fend for themselves, he still cared. And then there was his mother.
Would Therin even know who she was?
He certainly wouldn’t treat her kindly. He wouldn’t know she needed to be fed. She would waste away, her mind gone, and by the time he found her, she would be lost.
He had already lost his father because of Therin. He wasn’t going to lose his mother.
That involved something different. Something dangerous. And Jason wasn’t sure if he was able to do it. It would involve taking a risk.
And yet, how could he not?
He needed to take that risk. He needed to find his people.
“What are we going to do?” Kayla asked.
He had to find something for her.
The answer was obvious, but would they help?
“I’m going to get you to safety,” he said.
“There is no safety. Not if they can attack like this.”
“I’m going to bring you someplace they don’t know.”
“Where?”
“It’s called Dragon Haven.”
Jason made his way around the outside of the village, looking for any other signs of what might be left here, but as he wound through the outskirts, he didn’t uncover anything. There might be remains that he could use to help him in his own taunt.
It was possible Therin hadn’t brought them anywhere. It was possible they were already dead, and yet knowing Therin as he did, knowing the way he’d attack, Jason couldn’t help but think he would have held on to his people. Therin would want to use them, to abuse them, to find some way of tormenting Jason even more.
As he looked, he didn’t find anything. He searched, scanning every place around him, looking for evidence of bodies. That was the hardest part. He hated that he had to search for the remains of people he knew, and yet, he didn’t find any. It left him filled with a strange relief. They weren’t here, but it was possible that they were still captured. Captivity might be a fate worse than death, and as much as Jason hated to admit it, he had to decide whether it was even worth his time to go after them.
If he didn’t, who would?
No one would.
He focused on the iron dragon. Perhaps he should have let the dragon bring him all the way back to the village. At least then, he might have come in time. But then, he doubted that was the case. The avalanche was connected to the attack. The more he thought about it, the more certain Jason was that it had all been tied together.
He wanted to cry out. He wanted to shout at the sky. He wanted to rage.
He let that anger fill him.
It reverberated, ringing through the glove of iron dragon pearl on his hand. The sound echoed throughout the night and his hand began to glow. The throbbing was pushed away and power filled him, leaving his fist filled with fire.
He stood in place, shaking with his anger, shaking with the desire for vengeance.
Somehow he would find it.
He focused on the iron dragon. The creature would have to be there somewhere, and he would have to come to him. Jason sent a surge of energy, using that to call to the dragon.
He couldn’t have gone far.
He turned in place, that anger nearly overwhelming, and he found Kayla watching him. Fear filled her eyes.
“What is it?”
“I don’t like that,” she said.
“What don’t you like?”
“Whatever you’re doing. I don’t like it.”
Jason suppressed the anger, tamping it back down. It was difficult to do, and he struggled against it, but he wasn’t going to scare his sister.
Slowly, the glowing in his fists began to abate.
He studied everything. He fixed it in his mind. He was going to remember this place. He was going to remember what had happened here. And he was going to ensure Therin understood his vengeance.
He was going to find a way to understand his power. And when he did, he was going to stop Therin.
Light bloomed in the sky, and Jason looked up to see the iron dragon descending. When he came to a stop near them, the dragon breathed in heavily, his eyes glowing as he searched the remains of the village.
“What happened here?”
“The Dragon Souls happened.”