Or to try to help the dragon.
Could he do the same thing he had when it had been about aiding the iron dragon? If there was some way to free the dragon from the other’s influence, then maybe he could help.
What had he done with the iron dragon?
He had pushed, and yet, he had used the ice dragon’s power.
Reaching into his pocket, he found the dragon pearl. It was cold, as it often was, but not unpleasantly so. He gripped it and focused on the power flowing through him. As they got higher into the sky, he was able to draw upon that chill in the air more easily, and he let that flow through him and into the dragon pearl.
For a moment, he hesitated, waiting to see if there was anything he might be able to detect about the ice dragon. If he were somehow limited, if he were injured, then Jason would need to refrain from using that power. If not, then he would be able to draw upon it.
It seemed as if the dragon had been restored.
He summoned strength, letting that power flow through him, and sent it outward.
He targeted the maroon dragon, letting the energy flow into it. He drew through the ice dragon, the same way he had in the cave when he had been trying to help the iron dragon. In doing so, he could feel that power, and there was a strange resistance.
“What are you doing?”
“Quiet,” Jason said.
David leaned close. “You will destroy her.”
“Who?”
“If you try to take control of the dragon while she is flying, you will destroy her.”
Jason swallowed, looking over at David. “How did you know what I was doing?”
“I told you I can feel it.”
“How is it that you can feel what is being done with the ice dragon that well?”
“Because I can.”
“What makes you think I will destroy the dragon?”
“A fall from the sky will kill even a dragon.”
Jason glanced down. “We need to descend,” he said to the iron dragon.
The dragon roared and then plummeted.
The sudden change was almost too much for Jason, and he gripped the dragon’s back, squeezing onto him as they whistled through the air, steam rising all around him. As they went, he wondered if they would have enough speed, but a shadow formed overhead.
He glanced up.
The maroon dragon plummeted along with them, moving quickly, and Jason ducked his head, pressing his body up against the iron dragon.
David looked up, and Jason couldn’t read the expression on his face. Was it happiness?
He had half a mind to throw the man off the dragon. A dragon might not survive a fall from that high, but a man definitely wouldn’t.
Instead, he grabbed David, pulling him closer to the dragon’s back, and they squeezed against the iron dragon.
As they descended, the dragon rolled, and did so at the last moment. Had he not, they would have been raked by the maroon dragon’s claws.
There was another one out there. He had heard it, but he’d not seen it yet.
There was no time to look and see where the other dragon was, and it took every bit of Jason’s effort to hold on to this dragon, to be prepared for whatever else he might do.
The iron dragon spun, rolling through the sky, hissing as he did so.
More power radiated from him.
The entire body of the iron dragon began to glow with an intense light.
Not the entire body. His whole thorax, extending out to his wings, but not his head and neck.
It seemed almost as if the dragon refrained, knowing Jason wouldn’t be able to tolerate it. The dragonskin protected him. Where his body touched the dragon, he was able to withstand the heat, and he glanced over at David. David wasn’t tolerating it nearly as well. Wearing Jason’s bearskin, he was forced to shift, moving from place to place so that he didn’t get burned.
The sudden change had made a difference, though. They spiraled toward the ground, like an arrow streaking toward the target.
As they did, Jason glanced up. He focused on the power through the dragon pearl, and then pushed.
He ignored David’s objections, setting aside everything other than the sense of power he was pushing outward. If he could reach the dragon, he could eliminate whatever influence was obscuring it, and then he might be able to free it from whatever the Dragon Soul was doing.
The dragon roared.
Jason sent the power washing over the dragon.
He wasn’t acting alone. Much like when he had tried to help the Dragon Soul, trying to heal him, there was an influence from the ice dragon, guiding him, showing him what was needed to help. As he worked, Jason could feel that guidance, the way the ice dragon was helping, using his power.
Freeing the maroon dragon.
The dragon roared again and Jason didn’t dare look up. He let that power flow through him, and as it met the resistance of whatever was injuring it, he continued to push, drawing power from the ice dragon, summoning it through him, through the dragon pearl, and outward and into the maroon dragon.
It struck and Jason pushed, letting that power flow through him, and it washed over the maroon dragon.
There was resistance, but much like he had with the iron dragon, he forced his way through it. Now that he understood what was necessary and how to accomplish it, he found it much easier to overwhelm that resistance. It came from somewhere deep within the dragon, an injury, a scar, and he forced it through the dragon.
In doing so, he found that he was able to remove that injury.
The ice dragon guided him, letting him direct the power, and as it worked through the maroon dragon, something changed.
The dragon didn’t chase them with nearly the same speed.
As he looked back, the dragon started to plummet.
They weren’t all that far off the ground. Only fifty feet or so, but it was enough that Jason worried whatever he’d done had injured the dragon. It was the warning the Dragon Soul had given him.
Jason couldn’t help but think that he had done what was necessary. If the dragon had been captured by the Dragon Soul, it was possible that whatever he was doing was freeing the dragon.
He let the power roll through the dragon, and strangely, as he did so, he felt a stirring, a connection that formed.
For a moment, he thought he shared the dragon’s perspective, but then it passed.
As the dragon crashed into the ground, there was a thunder of sound. The dragon cried out, someone else screamed, and Jason looked down.
The Dragon Soul.
There was more than just one Dragon Soul.
Two had been riding on the dragon.
Where was the other dragon?
The iron dragon rolled and then began to climb.
“There’s another dragon out here,” Jason said.
“I can feel it,” the iron dragon rumbled.
“Can you tell where it is?”
“I cannot.”
He looked over at David. “What about you? Do you know where the other dragon is?”
“Why would I be able to tell where the other dragon is?”
“Because you’re a Dragon Soul. You would have some way of knowing where the other is. Where is it?”
“I only knew about the maroon dragon.”
“You knew?” Jason sat up, facing David. “What do you mean you knew?”
“How do you think we got there?”
“How many other dragons were here?”
“There were three that carried us. One departed, heading back to Lorach.”
“Then you knew that there would be two. The maroon dragon and—”
A shadow suddenly loomed overhead.
Jason dropped down, but he wasn’t fast enough.
Something grabbed for the iron dragon.