He looked up. Three darkened shapes approached, and he frowned.
“You called them,” he said.
The dragon turned away, disappearing into the forest.
The three dragons quickly descended, landing in front of him. When they did, Sarah climbed off one, Henry followed, and a third person Jason didn’t know remained seated on one of the other dragons.
“You’re the reason they summoned?” Sarah asked, frowning at him.
“It’s my sister,” he said, nodding to her. Kayla still stood by the iron dragon. She hadn’t moved, and she stared at the dragons, her eyes wide.
“What happened?”
“Our village was attacked. Destroyed. I think it was the Dragon Souls. Therin. He left a dragon pearl as a taunt.”
“He wouldn’t leave a dragon pearl. They’re far too valuable.”
“He would if it was a reminder that I wasn’t able to help the red dragon as much as I thought I had.”
“But you freed the red dragon.”
Jason breathed out heavily. “I thought I’d freed the red dragon. It’s possible they found some way of overpowering what I can do.”
Even that seemed surprising. When he’d freed the dragons, the others had tested, trying to find out if there was any way for the Dragon Souls to overwhelm what he had done, but they had not.
Henry had failed. David had failed.
But then, Therin was something else. He was powerful.
More than just powerful, Therin was motivated. He was determined to exact revenge. And he understood the risk Jason posed to the Dragon Souls.
“You brought her here for protection.”
He nodded.
“What about you?” Henry asked.
“I intend to go after them.”
“How?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know. I’m just going to go after them.”
Henry started laughing. Sarah shot him a hard look.
“It’s a mistake,” the other man said. “He doesn’t know anything. He didn’t even know anything about Lorach. He can’t go in there and hope to find them.”
“He can’t leave his people, either,” Sarah said. “You know what they would do to them.”
“It’s already too late,” Henry said. “If they’ve taken them, the prisons are difficult to reach. The rebellion knows better than to get involved with that.”
“They might, but I don’t,” Jason said. “Knowing Therin, I doubt he placed them in prison.”
Henry watched him, saying nothing.
“I’m more concerned he’ll force them into slavery.”
Sarah watched him. “We can help.”
“Sarah. You know what your parents will say about this. The rebellion is already stretched thin, the Dragon Guard—” Henry started.
“I don’t know that we have much choice, Henry.”
“There’s something else,” Jason said.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know what happened to the ice dragon. I can still feel a connection between him and myself, but I haven’t seen him in several days. With what happened, I would’ve expected him to respond to a summons, but he didn’t.”
“We haven’t seen him, either,” Sarah said.
Jason hadn’t thought that they would. The ice dragon would remain hidden, and he would’ve stayed in the north, in the cold, rather than returning to the forest and the warmth.
With as cold as it had been, he thought the ice dragon would have been somewhere he could reach.
Combining the attack on the village and the fact that he could no longer reach the ice dragon, he was concerned Therin had figured out some way of holding the ice dragon.
“If you can detect him, it’s unlikely they have him,” Henry said.
“But you don’t know that,” Jason said.
“The dragons choose when they respond,” he said.
“I know. And I’ve seen it often enough to understand there are times when the dragon may just be hunting, but with what we’ve been dealing with…”
He would’ve expected the ice dragon to have remained in contact with him. It troubled him far more than he wanted to admit that he had lost track of the dragon.
Sarah grabbed his hand and nodded to the iron dragon. “Come on. Why don’t we get your sister settled. Then we can talk about what we need to do.”
Kayla remained silent as they walked into the town. She wore an expression of incredulity, and when she looked back toward the clearing, her eyes widening again, Jason understood. She struggled with the idea of the dragons and what they meant for her, but she struggled just as much with the idea of where they were.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Sarah asked as they headed back to town. She and Jason took up the rear position. Henry guided them toward the town, with Kayla in between.
“There was a violent storm. Kayla and I were out looking for any evidence of dragon movement—”
“Your sister knows about the dragons now?”
“She discovered it on her own. When I returned the last time, she wasn’t at home. I found her in the cave the ice dragon had claimed for himself.”
“I can imagine how hard that was for her,” Sarah said, studying Kayla’s back.
“She took it in stride. She didn’t seem to be bothered by it, and offered to stay with me.”
“Why were you out searching for signs of dragons?”
“I’m convinced Therin will return. Or, I was convinced.” Jason squeezed his eyes shut, pushing away the image of the burned husk of the village. There was nothing left. Just debris. In time, snow would consume it, leaving nothing but a memory. Eventually, even that would fade.
It was no longer home, which left him uncertain. What would he do now? Where would he go?
“We were looking for any signs of dragons. I didn’t see anything, and hadn’t seen anything in the week that I’d been back.”
“We haven’t noticed any movement either. We have been tracking them, paying attention to where the Dragon Souls have been traveling, but we haven’t uncovered anything else.”
“I thought I might have a way of detecting them. I didn’t expect to be surprised like that.”
“They’ve been working with dragons for centuries, Jason.”
It was something similar to what Therin had told him when they had faced each other the last time. The other man had suggested that he was ignorant, and that was exactly what he was. He thought he knew more than he did. He had known about dragons and how to connect to them for less than a few months, and in that time, he had barely acquired the knowledge needed in order to withstand their attack.
Somehow, he had allowed himself to become arrogant, confident in the idea he knew more than he did. He had allowed himself to come to believe he’d be able to defeat the Dragon Souls alone.
“I know.”
Sarah took his hand, squeezing it. “I didn’t say that to upset you. I’m just trying to remind you that they know more than we do. We learn from the dragons, so in that we have an advantage, but they have centuries of knowledge we do not.”
He looked up, meeting her eyes. “They know more than you know in Dragon Haven?”
“We have experience here, but even that experience isn’t the same as what they have. The trainers in Lorach are gifted. As much as we hate what they do to the dragons, they are able to accomplish far more than we are able, and do so with far more skill than we have. We rely on our communication with dragons. Camaraderie. And we rely upon what the dragons are willing to let us do.”
“I never expected they’d destroy the village like that,” he said. And that was another piece of his pride. He knew what Therin was willing to do. He knew how violent he was willing to be, and still he had somehow allowed himself to believe Therin wouldn’t do anything to harm anyone other than him.