The dragon rumbled. “I should be able to do that.”
“I’ll remain here,” Henry said. “I don’t know what more we might have to face with the power that Therin brought to us.”
“I don’t know how much power he actually brought. With his ability to control the illusion, I think that he used that rather than any real attack.”
It seemed strange, but at the same time, it fit. Despite the fact that they had seen all those dragons, there simply had not been any.
“I still need to make sure that Dragon Haven is protected,” Henry said.
Jason nodded and climbed onto the iron dragon’s back and settled in. He was exhausted, the power of everything he had been through overwhelming him. Sarah joined him atop the dragon, and the two of them said nothing.
The iron dragon lunged into the air. There was nothing graceful about it, and the burst of power he used in order to take flight was less than normal, but he began to glow, and heat radiated along his body, propelling them forward.
As they flew, the fog lifted and the morning sun began to appear.
Jason looked off into the distance, staring at it.
Therin was defeated.
After everything, that was enough to bring a sense of relief. He had suffered so much because of Therin, and he had feared because of him, worrying about the way he would come after him and the dragons, and for him to finally have been defeated was a weight off his shoulders.
As they flew, he rested. He drifted in and out, finally coming awake as the wind shifted, becoming colder. It wasn’t an illusion as he had experienced before, nothing more than a crisp northerly breeze. Snow swirled with it, the occasional flakes soft and fluffy, not at all as it would be later in the day. In the distance, he caught sight of the peak.
“Do you want to land?” Sarah asked.
Jason breathed in, staring.
Would he be able to see anything down there? He might need to go into the village, to ensure their safety, but there might be another way.
He focused on the iron dragon, on what he could see, and he connected to him. Gradually, there came a sense of power flowing through them, and he was able to see through the dragon’s eyes.
As he did, he watched the mountainside.
He was looking for gradations of heat. He was looking for signs of movement. He was looking for anything that would tell him that what he had seen before was an illusion.
What he needed was to know the illusion had faded.
All he saw was the burnt remains of his village.
He let out a sigh. After all of that, there would still be the same destruction?
That couldn’t be. It didn’t fit with what Therin would do. He wouldn’t spend energy trying to destroy his village.
What if there wasn’t any destruction?
Just an illusion.
Jason focused on what he could see through the dragon’s eyes, and he called upon the sense of magic, that of the dragons, and he pulled on it.
He used the same connection as he had within the illusion, and he drew it through him, summoning it, and in doing so, he called it through the iron dragon glove and into the iron dragon. Heat exploded. It flowed through him, through the iron dragon, and with a flare of orange light, the iron dragon burned it off.
And then the mountainside returned.
The village was there. Movement down in the village caught his attention, and everything looked as he remembered.
He held his breath, staring.
With a start, he realized they were too close. The iron dragon was flying close enough that anyone in the village would recognize it.
Jason wondered if he might be able to use the connection to the forest dragon, and he focused on what flowed through him, the sense of the breeze, and he created an illusion around the dragon, masking them.
It happened quickly, but when it settled in, he felt how it worked.
The illusion held.
“What did you do?” Sarah asked.
“I placed an illusion on us. I didn’t want the village to know there was a dragon out here.”
“Your village is there?”
“So it seems,” he said. He smiled to himself, settling back on the dragon’s body, resting.
After all of that, after everything they had experienced, the village was still there. Therin hadn’t destroyed it. The village had been there all along.
Jason didn’t want to think about what it meant that he hadn’t needed to go to Dragon Haven. He hadn’t needed to go to Lorach. But then, if he hadn’t, he never would have known about the connection to the forest dragon. He never would have freed her.
And Therin would have used her regardless.
Eventually, Therin would have found the forest dragon. He would have found the ice dragon and the iron dragon. Killing him had been necessary. Jason and the dragons had done what was needed at the time it was needed. Because of that, the dragons were safe.
That didn’t mean that the Dragon Souls wouldn’t return.
And it didn’t mean that Henry didn’t need their help even now.
He would return to the village, eventually, but he would do so with his sister. It was time for that. Perhaps it was time to bring his mother away too.
There was no reason to remain, not as there had been before. Now he needed to better understand the dragons. Now he needed to fulfill his purpose.
He motioned to the iron dragon and they changed directions, heading toward Dragon Haven once again.
Sarah took his hand, squeezing it.
Jason smiled over at her, and she rested her head on his shoulder. They flew in silence. There was only the sound of the occasional rumble from the dragon, that of the wind whipping around them, but nothing else.
As they passed back into the lands surrounding Dragon Haven, the fog lifted and Jason looked down. There was no sign of violence. Someone had removed Therin’s body, and there were no signs of the dragons.
“How many dragons do you think he brought to Dragon Haven?” Sarah asked.
Jason shook his head. “I don’t know that he needed to bring any. He believed his power with the illusion was enough that he didn’t need to.”
And it almost had been too much to withstand.
When they reached Dragon Haven and landed, Jason patted the iron dragon’s side.
“Rest, friend.”
The dragon rumbled and slithered off into the trees.
“Where do you think he goes?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know. He’s connected to the heat, and I would have thought that it would have been the sun and the sky, but I think he goes underground.”
“It’s strange.”
“It is.”
“How many others like them do you think there are?”
“The ice dragon thinks there are several more.”
If there were several more, they would need to find them, to know the purpose behind them, but for now, he needed to do something else.
They saw no sign of violence as they headed toward Dragon Haven. Whatever influence Therin had must have been minimal. There were people out in the streets, and every so often, he caught sight of dragons soaring overhead, but there weren’t nearly as many as he had expected.
By the time they reached the main building, Jason half expected to find no evidence of fighting, but there were scorch marks along some of the walls.
Sarah pointed.
Jason nodded as they headed into the building, and he went straight toward his sister’s room.
She wasn’t there.
Sarah stayed with him. They searched the palace until they came across her.
She was in the kitchen. William was with her. He glanced from Sarah to Jason, and Jason realized he and Sarah were still holding hands.