If he didn’t stop this, if he didn’t overpower what was happening around him, his efforts wouldn’t make any difference. Jason let that power explode through him.
Steam continued to rise, billowing outward. It was incredible, and it washed over everything. There was a sense of energy, and Jason pushed on that energy, forcing it outward. He could see nothing but the steam, could feel nothing but the powers conflicting and slamming against each other within him.
That energy slammed outward, and as he let it roll outward, he continued to focus on that energy.
And then everything he had was gone.
He leaned back.
The iron dragon began to cool, the shards of ice stopped raining down, drifting off to snow, then to a gentle drizzle, and then even that stopped. The wind whipping around started to fade.
Jason prayed he’d stopped all of this. He prayed he’d done enough to disrupt the illusion. And yet, he wasn’t sure. He wouldn’t know until the fog lifted.
Gradually, a hint of wind began to shift.
Jason focused on that wind. There was something about it that was familiar.
It took a moment for him to realize why, but when he did, his heart sank.
It was the sense of the wind he felt when an illusion was forming.
19
Gathering himself, Jason climbed down from the iron dragon. He couldn’t tell how much strength the iron dragon had left. He’d drawn considerable power from the iron dragon, from the ice dragon, and from himself. He felt wiped out. All he wanted was to lie down and rest, but he couldn’t. He knew he couldn’t. The dragons needed him. Dragon Haven needed him. Within Dragon Haven, his sister needed him.
Somehow, he was going to have to find the strength within himself. He was going to have to resist, and if it came down to facing Therin, Jason was going to throw everything he had at the other man. If it came down to using a combination of fire and ice, he was going to do it. If it was a matter of fighting an illusion, of focusing on some way of seeing beyond that, Jason was going to do that, too. He would take whatever it was and overwhelm the other man. He was determined to stop him. He was determined to overpower him. He was determined to do this.
The energy was there, swirling around him, and he focused on it.
He could do nothing else.
Gradually, the wind pulled the mist away. Jason tried to see through it, to see if there was anything he could detect from the shimmering within it, looking for clues as to how the forest dragon was still helping. Hadn’t he saved the forest dragon? Hadn’t he used his healing touch?
Even that might not have mattered. If Therin had a dragon pearl for the dragon, and if he knew how to use it, anything Jason might’ve done to try to help the forest dragon wouldn’t have mattered. It would be the same as if he would have acquired the ice dragon pearl. At least Jason had kept that from him, and he’d prevented the Dragon Souls from having one. When it came to the iron dragon, Jason was the only one to possess a dragon pearl.
“Sarah?” He whispered her name into the darkness, against the fog, wondering if he would be able to find her. As he looked around, as he searched for her, for Henry, he tried to find shapes moving in the fog.
There was nothing. There was nothing but more fog.
Jason struggled to see against it, searching for some way to look beyond, and found nothing.
“Sarah?” He called her name a little louder this time and stood fixed in place, searching through the fog. It started to lift, thinning a little bit, but he still saw no figures outlined in the fog.
There was a dragon. But Jason could feel the dragon through his connection, through the way that his hand tingled, burning slightly, practically throbbing. He focused on the iron dragon, on what he could feel of him, and began to wonder if there was anything he could use in order to help see through the darkness. If the iron dragon was able to draw upon enough heat, he might be able to burn off the fog, but he didn’t know if it was safe to ask the iron dragon to risk himself.
With everything they’d been through, every bit of energy they’d expended, the iron dragon might not have enough strength in order to fight.
Jason searched, and that strange fluttering sense continued to gust around him. He recognized it and waited for another illusion to form. The fog continued to hold, and nothing else changed.
As he searched, he wondered how many dragons they might encounter.
Therin would’ve brought dragons to Dragon Haven, and he would’ve sent Dragon Souls in order to try to control and overpower the dragons, but would he have brought dozens, as he had when he came for them the last time? Or perhaps he would’ve brought more. Hundreds. It would’ve been too many. After everything Jason had done, every bit of energy he’d used, he didn’t know if he had enough strength to withstand an attack. He didn’t even know if he could draw upon the power of the ice dragon or the iron dragon. Even if he could, could he mix them in a way that would be curative to a dragon trained by the Dragon Souls?
He breathed out, looking all around, searching for Sarah. For Henry.
They would have been close. He was certain of that, but then, with as much heat as the iron dragon had created, it might’ve been too much for them. They might’ve been thrown back, forced away, and if that were the case, then he had no idea where they would’ve had to go.
Every so often, he looked back, searching for the iron dragon, but he could still feel him. He knew that he was there.
Why isn’t the fog lifting?
It was a strange fog, but stranger still was that breeze that gusted through, that reminder of an illusion, and Jason kept waiting for something to shimmer, to reveal itself as a new illusion, but nothing happened.
Maybe Therin was trying to decide what sort of illusion he would maintain.
Maybe he wasn’t able to form one.
It was possible the power of the fog, of the ice dragon and the iron dragon combined together, was enough to overpower anything Therin might be able to do.
Jason tried to find his way through the fog, to find what had happened to Sarah and Henry. He needed them. He needed not only to know what happened to them, but he wanted to have their help. As he attempted to maintain his control over this fog, to use it to eliminate any illusion, he would need their support.
“Sarah!”
He cried out her name again, calling against the darkness, trying to find some way to get to her, but there didn’t seem to be any response.
She was there. She had to be. Just like Henry had to be out there.
Turning his attention back to the iron dragon, he headed over to him. The dragon let out a low rumble and steam hissed off his back.
“How tired are you?”
“I used considerable energy,” the dragon said.
“Would you be able to draw more if it were needed?”
“I can try.”
“Can you fly?”
“That does not take much energy.”
Jason scrambled onto the dragon’s back, and with a lurch, they took to the air. It wasn’t nearly as fluid as the dragon’s usual flight, and as they traveled, he clung tightly. Fatigue persisted, but it wasn’t as all-encompassing and overwhelming as it had been. At least now, the fatigue began to leach out of him, the rest allowing him to restore his strength.
They circled, moving slowly. The dragon glowed with a soft light, and it did little to push back the gloom of the fog. The higher they traveled, the thicker the fog seemed to be.
The sense of the ice dragon was there.