The dragon remained unconscious, as if slumbering, and the longer they’d been here, the more Jason began to worry that something worse had happened to him. The Dragon Souls must have summoned him, and yet, now that they were gone, unconscious and dead, the summons should have abated; and yet the dragon still seemed affected.
He pushed power through the dragon pearl, focusing on the iron dragon, and as he did, there was no resistance as there had been before.
He released that power and tapped the dragon on the side of his head, running his hands along his massive jaw.
“Time to wake up,” he whispered.
He touched the dragon, feeling the warmth of the dragon’s jaw, the strangely metallic texture, and on a whim, he pushed outward, doing the same as he would if he were holding on to a dragon pearl. Yet with the iron dragon, he was only trying to connect to the dragon itself, not to a pearl.
There was a strange surge, but then it faded.
Jason wasn’t even sure if that surge was real, but if it were, then the connection had formed. Could he use the power of the iron dragon? Whatever power he detected was that of molten metal.
He caressed the dragon’s cheek again.
There came that strange surge again, almost a reverberation, and as he felt it, Jason couldn’t help but wonder if something was happening between him and the iron dragon.
He pushed again. He had no idea what he was doing, only that it seemed to be working. More than ever, Jason had to wonder if he shouldn’t have spent more time with Henry, learning what it meant to be at least a partial Dragon Soul. If he had learned that, would he have known enough to use that power now?
He’d probably know no more than he did now.
It wasn’t as if he would gain anything more. He had a connection to the ice dragon, and he had kept the ice dragon alive, but he had also now rescued the iron dragon—twice.
He had to think that was something beneficial, even if it meant he’d been a part of several of the Dragon Souls dying.
It was difficult to think about that.
Living in the village, death was a constant companion and a real possibility for so many of the people, and yet Jason had never directly experienced death until his father had passed. Seeing the Dragon Souls die was far more real.
All things must die. Don’t fear it, but don’t chase it.
He pushed the thought out of his mind. There was no point in thinking like that, and it was easier to focus only on what he could control.
And that was helping the dragon as much as he could.
He pushed again, sending a surge of warmth toward it.
Warmth didn’t seem to work, but would cold?
When he had been focusing on the iron dragon, he’d been using whatever connection to the cold he had, and yet there had to be something else to it. He pushed on the cold sense that flowed through him, sending that into the iron dragon.
In doing so, there came an echoing sense.
With it came a jolt.
The dragon rumbled.
Heat began to radiate off the iron dragon and he shook his head, whipping his tail. Jason ducked underneath it, afraid of the force of that tail, knowing the way it could cut through someone.
He glanced back and noticed that the ice dragon had moved back as well, and cold was radiating off him.
Between the two of them, there was fire and ice, the contrasting nature of the two filling the inside of the tunnel with a strange sensation.
“What happened?” Jason asked as the iron dragon awoke.
“You were gone,” the iron dragon said.
“I was gone to find the ice dragon,” he said, pointing to the crouching ice dragon. Sharp spikes protruded from the entirety of him, and it was the first time that Jason had seen the dragon so prepared for battle. He had seen the dragon fight before, and he had witnessed the way he could use the ice spikes and push them out, but he hadn’t seen him do so in quite some time. They were almost beautiful. Deadly, but beautiful. The spikes protruded, glistening sharp points that Jason suspected the dragon could shoot, targeting anything within the cave.
“I felt drawn,” the iron dragon said.
“How did it feel?”
“You would draw me the same way?”
“I wouldn’t, but I would like to know how it felt.”
“It seemed as if they were adding to the song.”
Jason tipped his head, wondering what sort of song the iron dragon would even hear. “What did it sound like?”
“It sounded like bells tolling.”
It was the sound of metal ringing. Of course it would be. And it shouldn’t surprise him that the Dragon Souls would have some way of using that power to draw the iron dragon. It wasn’t unlikely that they would somehow uncover the key to it. The Dragon Souls were powerful, they had quite a bit of experience with the dragons, and it would be easy enough for them to know what it would take to attract the iron dragon.
“And that song called to you?”
“That song drew me. I followed it here, and then something else happened.”
“What else happened?”
“I felt resistance.”
Jason glanced back at the ice dragon. His spikes were still protruding, and though it might only be his imagination, they seemed to be retreating.
“What sort of resistance did you feel?”
“I don’t know that I can explain. The resistance was there, and it allowed me to know the song was wrong.”
“That was us,” Jason said.
“You fought them?”
“I didn’t know what it was, but I felt something. I thought there was resistance in the tunnel, and when I began to feel it, I realized I needed to push against it. As I did, I felt that resistance fade.” And now that he knew what it was, he wondered if he could recreate it. If he could counter what the Dragon Souls did, if he had some way of overpowering the way they summoned them, would he be able to free dragons?
It seemed impossible to even consider, but then again, a year ago, it would’ve seemed impossible to even be speaking to a dragon.
Now he was speaking to not just one dragon but two. He had saved not just one dragon but two. And if the ice dragon was right, then there might be more for him to find.
Would they all be like this?
He frowned, looking past the iron dragon, and he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps he was going about things the wrong way.
If they found dragons that had specific tendencies, they would be able to understand just what Therin and the others had been up to.
They weren’t typical dragons.
But then, Jason had known they weren’t going to be typical dragons. That was the whole point of what they were doing, the way Therin had used them, thinking he could harness the abilities of a different land. Therin had wanted to conquer these lands, to add them to the Lorach kingdom.
“I don’t know how long we can stay here,” Jason said.
“Those two won’t pose any challenge,” the ice dragon said. His words were clipped, and they were spoken with a little more harshness than he usually used, as if he still wasn’t sure what to make of the iron dragon.
But then, it was possible that he didn’t know what to make of the iron dragon. The ice dragon had wanted Jason to find another, to find the hatch mate, and now that they had done so, it wasn’t at all what he had expected.
Of course, Jason wasn’t what anyone would’ve expected. The ice dragon wasn’t what anyone would’ve expected. Why should the hatch mate be anything different?
“We should still move. I don’t how many more Dragon Souls will be out there.”
There had been five, and now four were gone, and yet… Jason had a hard time thinking that was all of them. There had to be more, and if they had brought down only a few of them, how long would it be before they realized and sent reinforcements?