Mist Dragon, page 2
part #5 of Dragon Misfits Series
“I haven’t been avoiding you.” Distantly, Jason was aware of the iron dragon as he moved through the forest and felt the heat of their connection. Within the iron dragon was a sense of anger and rage that always seemed to boil beneath the surface. That anger stemmed from what had been done to him when he was younger, the way that he had been captured and held within cells deep beneath the ground, and it was that anger that bonded him to Jason. Because of that connection, he could use the heat of the iron dragon. “There has been much I’ve needed to do. The last few weeks have been filled with preparations for dealing with Lorach. Jessica knows about the dragons now, and she will bring the Dragon Souls to us.”
“They have known about Dragon Haven for years,” his mother said softly.
“Known about, but they haven’t known how to find it.”
“You have protected it.” She glanced up at the sky. From this vantage, the illusion was translucent. Few within Dragon Haven knew it even existed. There was no need. It was better for the people of Dragon Haven to believe that the city itself was protected, and they didn’t need to know that he had placed the illusion to offer an additional layer of protection. It would only make them scared. “From what I understand, you have control over powers we didn’t fully understand within Lorach.”
“By that, you mean illusion.”
She glanced over at him before nodding. “I learned enough of it,” she started. “We had to, for us to remain hidden.”
“I gathered that much,” Jason said.
“I figured you had. We hated that we had to hide it from you and your sister, but we thought that it was necessary.”
“Why, though?”
“To ensure your safety. Had we not, you would have been targeted.”
Jason pointed to one of his eyes. “What about this? You didn’t cover this.”
She shook her head. “Placing an illusion over ourselves was fairly straightforward, but placing it over someone else…” She shook her head again. “Especially when you were away from us. It became more difficult. You had some talent, but other than the enhanced eyesight it permitted you, we never really worried about it. There were few in the north who understood it, anyway.”
“It made me different,” Jason said.
“There were many things that made you different,” she said softly.
Jason grunted. As much as he wanted to deny it, there was no point in doing so. He was a misfit, no different than the dragons that he worked with. He, like the dragons, did not fit in.
Even within Dragon Haven, Jason didn’t necessarily fit in. He tried, and with his connection to the dragons, he was allowed to remain, and more than that, he was trusted to work with others here, if only so that he could help them understand the dragons better, but he still wasn’t like them. Jason didn’t know if he could be. Perhaps he never would be.
“Did he ever know I could use this power?”
His mother shook her head. “I would be lying if I told you he knew. That I knew. Neither of us believed that it was possible. Not without having the opportunity to connect to a dragon.”
Jason closed his eyes. He could feel the distant ice dragon flying high overhead. His energy was there, circling. He had to do nothing more than focus on the ice dragon and call to him, and he would come. He would prefer to be with either of them than talking about this with his mother, but he had avoided it too long.
“I don’t know that I ever would have learned about my connection were it not for one of the misfits. And because of Father, I had that opportunity.”
She looked over at him. “I don’t know how much he knew that he was helping a dragon versus harming a Dragon Soul.”
Jason remembered his conversation with Therin and how he had believed that Jason had come across the egg by chance. Knowing what he did now of his father, and believing that he had been involved in placing the egg, left Jason wondering if perhaps it had been more coordinated than he had realized. If only he had the opportunity to talk to Therin, to question him and see what he might really have known.
If he were really looking to the past, wishing he had an opportunity to speak to someone who was dead, he would wish for a chance to speak to his father. That opportunity was gone, and now he had to piece together aspects of what he might have been able to learn from his father. It was more difficult than Jason could imagine.
“What happened?” When he had first learned that his parents were Dragon Souls, he had been shocked to the point that he hadn’t questioned, not like he wanted to. His mother had offered him answers, but they were more placating answers, not real in-depth responses. Given how she had been sick and had recently recovered, Jason wasn’t sure if she would be able to offer him the answers that he wanted. Now, looking at her and how vibrant and alive she looked, and having heard from others within the city that she had taken to wandering the forest and collecting various leaves and roots and herbs for her medicines, he had to believe that she was well enough to answer questions. “Why did you leave Lorach?”
She shook her head slowly. “Many people leave Lorach.”
“How many Dragon Souls leave?”
She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Not many,” she said softly. “We weren’t as powerful as some.” She shrugged, glancing over at him before turning away again. “Strong enough, though. We had a connection to dragons and had been training with them. We were learning what those connections meant, but neither of us had ever progressed far enough to be sent out on missions to face the rebellion.”
Jason looked behind him toward Dragon Haven. “You didn’t have to fight anyone here?”
She shook her head. “I think if we would have, coming here would’ve been harder for me, but also for them.”
He shrugged. “I’m not so sure that’s true. The people of Dragon Haven are far more forgiving than you would give them credit for. There’s another who came to Dragon Haven and has been welcomed.”
“Maybe,” she said. “I think if we would have been responsible for harming others of the rebellion, or the Dragon Guard, we may not have been welcomed here quite the same way.”
Jason grunted. “Henry was.”
Her brow furrowed. “I haven’t seen him,” she said softly.
“No? He hasn’t really been difficult to find. He has a distinct appearance. Between his beard, and…” Jason frowned. He supposed that Henry wouldn’t be dressed in the same furs as he had been dressed in when Jason had first encountered him. Henry would wear clothing more suited for Dragon Haven. “Anyway. Between his beard and his connection to the dragons, I suppose he should be easy enough to find.”
His mother let out a long sigh. “I haven’t seen him. I don’t know that he would even recognize me, though I knew him.”
“Why?”
She turned to Jason, shaking her head. “Some things are not for me to share.”
Jason frowned. He knew Henry had had a difficult time within Lorach. The scars on him were a testament to that, but other than his time serving as a Dragon Soul, Jason didn’t know all that much about him. It was because of Henry that Jason had come to Dragon Haven, but there would have to be more about him. More secrets.
“You should go to him. Tell him.”
His mother shook her head. “And what would I tell him?”
“I don’t know. That you are like him. That he’s not alone.” Jason thought about his experience with Henry, and what the old Dragon Soul had gone through. He had suffered. Within Dragon Haven, Henry was unique as the only person—or had been, prior to Jason’s mother’s arrival—to have escaped from Lorach. “You could even help with the dragons. They could use somebody who has a connection to them.”
She tensed. “I don’t think they would permit that.”
Jason frowned. “Why don’t you think so?”
“I might have a connection to the dragons, or have had one, but for me to find that again is… Well, I suppose that it’s impossible. I have lost it. That time is behind me.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Jason said.
She took a deep breath, drawing herself up and turning to him. She still hadn’t unclasped her hands. There was a tension within her that surprised him, mostly because he suspected that tension was because of him.
For so long, Jason had wanted to do whatever he could to protect his mother and sister, to allow them to survive—and thrive. They had struggled and had barely held on, especially after his father’s death.
Learning now that his parents had been Dragon Souls, and they had come to the north willingly, escaping from Lorach, changed things for him.
Perhaps not significantly, though. He never would have learned about the misfits had he grown up in Lorach. He might have ended up as a Dragon Soul.
The idea gave him pause.
“I’ve wondered what Father would have said to me had he learned what I could do with the dragons,” Jason admitted.
“I suspect he would be proud of you,” she said.
“Proud?”
She nodded. “One of the things that we felt was that the dragons deserved more. While they are well cared for in Lorach, there is something off about the training methods they use. There were quite a few people within Lorach who felt the dragons deserved more. When you first encounter one, when you realize just how intelligent they are, when you see the power within those dragons, you come to understand that they are more. They deserve more.” She looked over and fell silent for a moment. “Of course, you already know that.”
Jason nodded. “I know that.”
She chuckled, shaking her head. “I should be more careful. I don’t need to lecture to you about the dragons.”
“It’s interesting hearing you talk about them in that way,” he said.
“Why is that?”
“Only that everybody within the village feared the dragons. It was difficult for me to get over that.”
“For good reason,” his mother said. “Considering how the dragons were controlled by the Dragon Souls, it was safer for you to fear them. It was safer for you to believe the dragons should be feared.”
Jason shook his head. “That’s just the problem, though. As people fear dragons, it makes it more difficult to rescue them. It makes it more difficult for us to create a time where the dragons can live freely.” He thought of the ballistae the village possessed, and how the villagers were trained to use them on dragons, attempting to hurt the dragons if they came too close to the village itself. In Jason’s lifetime, they had never been fired at dragons, and he knew that it had been generations since they had been, but there were those within the village who felt dragons deserved to be targeted.
“Is that your goal?” she asked.
“Is what my goal?”
“To free the dragons?”
Jason took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I want to ensure the dragons aren’t forced to serve. If that means freeing them”—and as far as he knew, that was what it was going to take, and thankfully with his connection to the dragon misfits, he could do so—“then that is what I will do. I have already freed dozens of dragons from Lorach. I intend to do the same again.”
She watched him, and the frown on her face faded, if only for a moment. “I believe you,” she said.
Jason snorted. Even though she believed him, he wasn’t at all sure it even mattered. Not anymore. All that mattered was that he would do what was necessary to help the dragons. All that mattered was that he would ensure they were allowed to fly freely. If it meant sending them all to Dragon Haven, then so be it. These lands were sparsely populated as it was. They wouldn’t pose a danger. Still, having flown with the dragons as much as he had, he knew the world was enormous. He had seen only a small slice of it. With as many dragons as existed within Lorach, what might it be like were they to all scatter, flying freely?
He thought of what David had once shared with him, how the people of Lorach were reassured by the idea that dragons were trained and could not use their destructive power against the people of Lorach. Would others grow to fear dragons the same way if dragons weren’t controlled?
He pushed those thoughts aside. Fearing what might be was not going to keep him from what he knew needed to happen.
“What happened to the dragons you were to bond with?” Jason asked.
His mother watched him for a moment, then finally shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does. You were progressing within the Dragon Souls. You were going to learn their secrets. You were training to work with the dragons. Something changed.”
“We changed,” she said softly.
As Jason watched her, he realized that she wasn’t going to share with him. Perhaps it didn’t matter, but Jason couldn’t shake the feeling that it did matter somehow. In order to know about himself, to understand his parents, he might need to know.
She offered a sad smile. “I hope you don’t hate me for what happened.”
The irritation within him faded. “I don’t hate you. I don’t think I could hate you.”
“I haven’t thanked you for everything that you did for me when I was… Well, when I wasn’t well.”
“You’re my mother. Of course I was going to help you.”
She pulled him toward her and wrapped him in an embrace, and Jason breathed in before softening for a minute. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to better understand more about his parents, more about what had happened and why they had left, and perhaps the only way that he could would be by going to Lorach. It was the one thing he didn’t think he could do. Not while Jessica was there and ruling.
It was even more reason for him to remove her—and her influence—from Lorach.
2
T he ice dragon circled high overhead. Most dragons could fly high in the sky, piercing clouds and streaking through the upper reaches of the sky, but the ice dragon had a unique ability of doing so more easily than other dragons. He could soar beyond places that other dragons would dare go. Most would find the air too cold and thin, but the ice dragon seemed to thrive on that, which didn’t surprise Jason, given his origins.
He clutched the dragon’s back, squeezing the spikes on his spine, holding on to him. Bending low, he pressed himself up against the dragon, almost for warmth. The dragonskin he wore kept him as warm as possible, though his connection to the iron dragon augmented it, keeping him protected in ways that the dragonskin would not.
Jason breathed in, trying to fill his lungs. The air was thin, and it was difficult to catch his breath, so he was thankful that the dragon did the work. Were he to have to fight, Jason doubted that he would be able to do so.
He stared down toward the ground, borrowing from the ice dragon’s eyesight, and could make out contours flowing beneath him. There was some aspect of the ground that made it easier to see through the ice dragon’s eyes. He wasn’t looking for gradations of color as he would with the iron dragon. All he searched for now was movement. The ice dragon was skilled at looking for that.
“Have you seen anything?” he asked, barely getting the words out.
The ice dragon roared softly, a rumble coming from him. “There is nothing,” he said.
“Nothing?”
“There is nothing.”
Jason focused on what he might observe, but he still did not see anything. He wasn’t nearly as skilled at looking through the ice dragon’s eyesight as he was through the iron dragon’s. Not because his connection was any less, though there were times when he questioned which of the dragons he was most bonded to, but because of the way the ice dragon’s eyesight worked.
Thankfully, seeing nothing was a benefit. He didn’t necessarily want to encounter anything, not out here. It was his way of searching and ensuring that Dragon Haven was safe. He had hunted like this with both dragons. Not just the iron dragon, using his eyesight to look for movement, but also with the ice dragon, hoping that by staying connected to him, he could search for Dragon Soul movement.
In the time since speaking with his mother, Jason had found himself avoiding Dragon Haven. Perhaps he should not, but he had questions, and every time he got close to the city, he worried that he would encounter his sister. She deserved answers as well, no differently than Jason did. He would find it challenging to keep from her what he had uncovered, along with his suspicions about their parents.
Something had happened to the dragons.
More than ever, Jason felt that to be the case, but even as he learned more about his parents, and learned more about where they had been and what they had done, he still didn’t know enough.
He should have asked her more about Lorach. He should’ve asked her about how to navigate through the city, through the people, and should have asked her about what she might know about Jessica and her parents and all of the Dragon Souls, only he had not.
What more would she know that Henry did not?
He sighed and continued to focus over the side of the dragon, looking out into the distance, straining to see if there was anything that he might be able to see. He looked for movement, but he also looked for anything that might be out of the ordinary. He didn’t necessarily need to lean off the dragon to see, either. He did it because he wondered if there might be something that his own vision might reveal, but he could make out nothing.
He patted the ice dragon’s side. “We could head north.”
He could feel a hint of amusement within the ice dragon; it came with a soft, rumbling roar. The dragon streaked away, and it took very little time for them to reach the northern mountains. They slowed, circling overhead, and Jason took that opportunity to look out over the mountainous landscape. There was a time while he had been living here that he had believed that the mountains were everything. It was easy enough to think that they went on forever, an endless rolling mountainous landscape, despite knowing others who had descended all the way down the mountain and come back. He could see the mountains now before him, the way they stretched outward, a jagged jaw of rock and snow-peaked mountains. They grew ever taller the farther Jason and the ice dragon went, until the snow covered the entirety of the mountains. Wind whistled this high in the sky, and the ice dragon descended, moving low enough for Jason to feel the wind whipping along his cheeks, to feel the bite of the snow and ice, and to recognize the power that existed here and just how different it was from Dragon Haven. He smiled at it. It wasn’t home, but it was no longer as fearsome as it had been when he had been growing up. He knew there was a way to protect himself, and he knew that there was something more beyond here, so he no longer worried the way that he once had.
