“I can feel there’s something there,” he said. “I cannot tell what it is.”
“Does it feel like your hatch mates?”
David pressed his lips together and frowned.
“It feels similar,” the ice dragon said.
If it was similar, then it was probably the hatch mates, but why wouldn’t it be the same?
Everything about this felt off. The longer he flew with the dragon, the longer he traveled, the more he began to wonder whether what he detected down there would be another unusual dragon.
A misfit.
He stared at the ground and, clutching the dragon pearl, he pushed out a hint of cold, letting it wash away from him. It was nondirectional, and when it struck the ground, it diffused away. There was strength behind it, the strength of the ice dragon, but there was no real purpose to it.
He needed to be more careful with using power like that. Anything he might do would potentially waste any energy he—or the dragon—possessed. And he needed to ensure that they had enough strength to pull through this.
David shook his head. “You should not be so casual about that.”
“Casual about what?”
“About using your power in such a way.”
“You can tell what I do?”
David nodded thoughtfully. “Surprisingly, I can.”
“Why is that surprising?”
“I would not have thought I would have been able to do so. And yet it seems that when you draw upon this ice dragon, I’m able to tell.” He twisted and looked over toward the iron dragon. “Can you use his pearl as well?”
Jason considered ignoring the question. It revealed too much about him, he thought. And yet, if there was any way to better understand the nature of the dragon pearls, and to better understand if there was something he could do differently in order to borrow that power, then shouldn’t he pursue it?
“I haven’t figured out the key.”
“Some dragons are difficult. It takes great training to draw power from them.”
“You’re not training this dragon.”
“Be that as it may, it is unusual for me to be able to detect your use of power.”
Jason thought he understood. “You think you could use it.”
David glanced down at Jason’s hand. “I suspect I could, only I don’t know if I would understand what is necessary.”
That was a key piece that Jason was not about to reveal. He wasn’t about to share with David that it would involve pulling on the cold, the familiarity of it, and he wasn’t about to reveal that in knowing that cold, letting it flow through him, he could…
Was David somehow influencing him?
He looked over, watching David.
He didn’t think so, but he wondered if the meandering nature of his thoughts was related to something David was doing.
He had to be careful. He didn’t want to be used—and he really didn’t want the dragon to be used. At this point, his control over the ice dragon and the dragon pearls was the only thing keeping David from overpowering him. That and his promise made through the words of the flame.
As they descended, the ground began to take on form. The trees were a bit different than what he had experienced before. Humidity wafted toward them, warmth that wasn’t present in the upper air. It was almost overbearing, and the ice dragon surged with cold, as if he were attempting to fight it.
“Will you be all right?”
“I will need to resist,” the ice dragon said.
“Do you think that you can do so?”
“For now,” he said.
“If you need to return—”
“I’m not returning,” the dragon said.
Jason wasn’t about to argue. When it came to this, and when it came to what they would need to do, he thought the dragon needed to decide for himself. He would know the limits he had, if there were any real limits.
He held on to the dragon’s back, clinging to him, and the cold continued to radiate away from him. The iron dragon descended more rapidly, plunging toward the ground. His body began to glow, more so than before, and yet, as they neared the trees, the glowing retreated.
They circled, finding a clearing and coming down in the middle of it.
Once down, Jason looked around. The trees were tall, with broad leaves, and there was heavy underbrush all around. This was nothing like the forest he had seen near Varmin, and it was nothing like the forest he had seen near the town at the base of the mountain.
David climbed off the ice dragon and looked up, breathing in deeply. His eyes closed and he held his hands out to either side, palms facing up. As he took those deep breaths, he looked all around.
“Do you know where this is?” Jason asked.
“This is Saren. I haven’t been here in quite some time.”
“The forest or this place?”
“These lands. All of this. There will be several towns scattered throughout.”
Jason frowned. He hadn’t seen any sign of towns, and yet, from above, it would’ve been difficult to do so.
Strangely, the dragonskin seemed to protect him even here. There was less of a sense of the heat, and he was able to tolerate it much better than he probably would’ve in his bearskin. He glanced over at David, looking to see how David was handling it, and he seemed to be doing fine.
“Well?”
David pressed his lips together. “I will do what I can.”
“I thought you said you detected something here.”
“I thought that I could, but I will need some time to focus on it.”
“That wasn’t what you said.”
“It might not have been what I said, but it will take me some time to determine if there’s anything here I can uncover.”
Jason wanted to argue, but it wasn’t going to change anything. The longer they lingered, the more he suspected the ice dragon was going to suffer. He looked over and studied the ice dragon. There seemed to be a shell of ice around him, and it glistened, water dripping from it.
“If you suffer too much—”
“I will stay until this is done.”
“You don’t need to torment yourself.”
“I wasn’t there with you for him,” he said, looking toward the iron dragon.
For his part, the iron dragon slithered between the trees. He moved quickly, gliding along the ground, almost as if this were his element, though even here, Jason didn’t think the iron dragon was particularly comfortable. There were no mines, and there was no iron, and there was nothing that was familiar to the dragon.
He could tolerate the warmth, but he would be unlikely to tolerate much else.
“You didn’t have to be there physically to be there,” Jason said.
“I will be there this time.”
Rather than arguing, Jason turned and studied David. David was focusing, and rather than concentrating on the trees, or on the sky, he was looking down. He made a steady circle, his feet dragging through the fallen leaves and debris. He murmured something softly, his lips moving, though Jason didn’t hear anything coming from him.
As he approached, he looked to see if he might be able to understand anything about what the man was doing, but he couldn’t identify anything.
“David?”
“Quiet,” the Dragon Soul said.
Jason debated arguing, saying something back to him, but what would the point in that be? He needed David’s focus, and if he had some way of finding the dragon, then they needed to use it.
Instead, he turned to the ice dragon.
“Can you feel your hatch mates?”
“There is something here, but I’m not able to determine what it is. I have a sense of energy, and it reminds me of what we felt near him.”
The iron dragon continued to move, winding through the trees.
“Do you think you could work with him to pinpoint it?”