“I’m going to do what I can to get you out of here, but then you’re going to have to hide.”
He had no idea where the dragon could even hide. If the ice dragon preferred the cold and the snow, what would this dragon prefer? There was nothing like this. Even when he had been with Henry, he’d never experienced a dragon like it, which told him that whatever Therin had been attempting with the ice dragon had been done to this one. Again, an environment had been used to influence the dragon.
Jason took a deep breath, focusing on the bar, and tried to push power out again, but once again, nothing changed.
What about cold?
The more that he focused on heat, the less likely it was that he would be successful, but he hadn’t tried anything with cold yet.
He wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to call upon the cold here. It was possible he wouldn’t, but as he considered it, he thought that there had to be some way to use it. There was no cold within him, not here, but could he draw it through the dragon pearl?
It would be power coming from the dragon, and if he did it wrong, it would run the risk of summoning the dragon, but in this case, he thought that was necessary. This was the reason they had come here.
Family first.
Jason focused, and as he did, he tried reaching for the power within him, the sense of cold, and when it didn’t come, he tried again.
There was no sense of cold.
If he was wrong, and if this failed, then an opportunity to return and help the dragon would fail. He doubted he would be given another chance to get down here without others observing him. And even if he did, there would be the likelihood he would have to battle to find his way down.
It had to be now.
He squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on the ice dragon. He forced an image of what he had encountered into his mind, thinking about the connection he believed was there between them, even if he wasn’t able to access it. The ice dragon could reach it. And in doing so, he could understand what Jason needed, and he would recognize that he needed that power, the connection, and the cold.
The sense of it began to build deep within him.
Jason pulled on it, drawing everything that he could, focusing it through the dragon pearl. He held his hand out, pushing the pearl up against one of the bars, and let that energy, that cold within him, continue to expand.
Sound came from somewhere nearby, but he had to ignore it.
He needed to focus.
How could he focus when there was this sense coming near him? If they knew about the dragon and if they knew what he was doing, then they might be here to stop him.
Which meant that he had to work fast.
Jason continued to focus on the sense of cold, trying to draw something toward him, but there was no response. The longer he focused, the less likely it was he’d be able to get anything to work. There was too much distraction near him, and as much as he wanted to break the dragon free, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to.
“I’m trying, but I don’t know if I can do anything more,” he said.
The dragon rumbled and there came another surge of pressure, this one reminding him of what he had experienced when he had been around the ice dragon. He focused on that sense, trying to use whatever he could to uncover some way of reaching for the cold he would need. How could he do so?
Attempting it was challenging, and as much as he wanted to, as much as he strained against it, he couldn’t find any way to reach what he needed in order to save the dragon.
Jason looked up. He wasn’t going to be able to stop this, and whoever was coming moved quickly. The sound of them hurrying along the hall called to him, and yet, he didn’t know what else he could do.
He gripped the bars, trying to look through them, wishing there was something he could do to help the dragon, and yet there didn’t seem to be.
“I don’t have anything more,” he said.
The dragon rumbled and he focused on that power, knowing there would have to be something, some way to reach for it, but he couldn’t figure out what it was going to take. If it wasn’t the cold, then what was it?
The heat hadn’t worked for him, either, and though he thought there had to be some way to use that, he couldn’t determine what it would be. He couldn’t determine what it would take.
Fear set his heart to fluttering. He had come here chasing the sound, but if he thought about it, he had never really expected to find a dragon.
Somehow, Jason had to do whatever he could to release the dragon, and he had to find it within himself. It was a matter of chasing down that strange stirring, that sense of cold that he was so accustomed to.
That was the key.
It was a familiarity with the cold, and he was more than just familiar with it. It was a part of him. It was everything that he knew, and the more that he thought about it, the more certain he was that he could find some way of reaching for it.
The only question was how.
Jason focused, drawing on that energy, that sense within him, and the more he homed in on it, the more he could pull upon it, and he reached for it.
It flowed through him.
He continued to call upon it, to draw it forth, and he pushed it into the dragon pearl. As the cold leached out, washing away from him, into the dragon pearl, the bars of the cage began to grow colder.
He didn’t know if it would be enough.
His connection to heat hadn’t been enough, but now that he was focused on the cold, he was certain it should work.
But cold alone wasn’t going to be enough to shatter the bars.
The dragon turned toward him. Its body started to glow and heat began to radiate from it.
“I’m trying to help,” Jason said.
It was harder and harder to hold on to the cold as the dragon began to glow with an increasing intensity. He was pulling on the power of the cold, on the ice that flowed through him. He was as much a part of it as the dragon now was.
The heat continued to radiate from the dragon.
Jason tried to ignore it, to focus on anything else, and yet he could not.
All he could feel was the heat coming off the dragon.
Without wanting to, he took a step back.
The dragon belched flames where he’d been standing.
Noise near the doorway caught his attention, and three figures appeared.
Jason clutched the dragon pearl, trying to focus on the cold, on some way of attacking, and yet, power didn’t flow through him as it had before. He was growing tired, and everything he’d used in order to draw power had begun to overwhelm him.
Something shattered.
Jason spun to see the dragon shoving his head through a crack in the cell. It swiveled toward the three men, and flames streamed toward them.
When the fire was gone, nothing was left but ash.
The dragon backed up but kept his head partway through the bars of the cell.
“Again.”
Jason looked at the dragon pearl. The combination of the ice and then the heat had allowed the dragon to explode outward. He had not been strong enough with the heat, and he doubted he’d even be strong enough with the ice, but combining his connection to the ice and the dragon’s to the heat, he’d managed to do it.
He hurried forward, choosing a different section of the cell, near enough that if it worked, he might be able to break free a large enough section for the dragon to escape.
If it worked, the dragon would be freed. Jason would have succeeded in this step.
And then what?
Then he would have to find some way of summoning the ice dragon, though Jason wasn’t even sure if he had any way of doing so.