They reached the building Jason remembered from before. It was all strange curves, made of stone, and blended in with the forest. The air here hung with the fragrance of flowers, mixing with that of the forest, and having been to various towns recently, he no longer found the smells to be quite as strange as he had before. In his village, there were no scents like that. The smells that he was familiar with were those of the burning of dung, the coppery scent of blood from a kill, the crisp cleanness of snow, and the smoky sweetness of tellum. That was it.
Sarah paused at the door and went over to David. She studied him for a long moment before shaking her head. “I can’t believe we’re going to do this,” she muttered.
“You can’t believe that we’re going to do what?”
“Allowing an Auran in here. We’ve been safe for all these years, Jason. And now you bring somebody like this here, and yet, as strange as it is, I can’t help but feel as if we need to do this,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“You don’t have to apologize to me. You have to apologize to the dragons if something happens to them.”
Jason glanced toward the field in the back, and even though he couldn’t see the dragons, he could practically feel them. With his connection to the ice dragon—and even to the iron dragon—he thought he could draw upon that power, and if he could, he thought he could summon them if he needed to. He didn’t feel like he was going into any danger here, but at the same time, he didn’t necessarily know for certain.
They stepped into the building and dim light greeted him. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. Even with the dragon sight, it was a jarring change. As his eyes began to gradually adjust, he was able to make out shapes in the distance. Sarah reached a wide stairway.
When she motioned for David to start down it, Jason hesitated. “This isn’t where we went the last time,” he said.
“It isn’t. We went a different way.”
“Why this way?”
“Because of what we need to do.”
“What do we need to do?”
Sarah shook her head. “Just get moving.”
“Sarah?”
“Jason, don’t challenge this.”
They headed down the stairs. Lanterns glowed softly, illuminating the stairs. The deeper they went, the more the air began to change, taking on a faintly moldy scent. There was moisture somewhere nearby and the air was cool, though not unpleasantly so. Then again, he doubted he would find a place where the temperature was unpleasant to him.
They reached a lower level. The stairs didn’t continue, but there was another door there. Sarah motioned for David to approach. Something about his bearing seemed to change; it was almost as if he stiffened. Sarah pulled keys from her pocket, unlocking the door, and when she pushed it open, it occurred to Jason just were they were.
“What is this?”
“You brought an Auran here,” she said.
“You’re going to put him into a cell?”
“You don’t understand what an Auran is, Jason, but trust me when I tell you that I do. We have enough experience with them and the things they’ve done to know he will use any opportunity to harm us.”
“Even though he said he spoke the words of the flame?”
“Seeing as how I wasn’t there when he spoke them, there’s no way for us to know what words they were and what they meant to him. And an Auran would likely have some way of maneuvering out of his oath.”
Jason glanced over at David. All of this had been to try to find help, but he hadn’t wanted to end up with David in jail. David had facilitated their discovery of the forest dragon, and now this would be his reward? It felt wrong, but more than that, he couldn’t help but think that Sarah was acting without thinking.
They made their way along a narrow hallway lined by doors. Each of them had metal locks, and each was made of iron or steel. When she reached one, she unlocked it, and she motioned for David to step inside.
He looked over at Jason for a long moment before turning and heading into the cell.
“I spoke the words. What words will you speak?” he asked.
“I speak the words that protect the dragons.”
“You don’t have any idea—”
David didn’t get the opportunity to say anything more. Sarah pulled the door closed, silencing him. On the other side, Jason could feel the energy, almost as if David were calling upon power, unless that wasn’t what it was. It was possible the power he detected came from this cell.
Sarah started back toward the main door and paused at another cell, opening the door. She stood there for a moment, looking inside, staring, and then she shook her head. “Go,” she said.
“Go where?” Jason asked, looking toward the stairs.
Sarah inhaled deeply. “Go into the cell, Jason.”
“What?”
“You brought an Auran here,” she said.
“I brought two dragons here as well.”
“And one of them was one you tried to hide from us. Please. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
“Or what?”
“We don’t need to go into that.”
“You don’t need to do this,” he said. “I am working on behalf of the dragons. I’ve been helping the ice dragon find the other hatch mates. I’m—”
Something grabbed him. He was too startled to process what was, but a band of power wrapped around him, thrusting him into the cell. He staggered forward and spun around, but not before the door closed on him. As it sealed shut, there came a sense of pressure all around him.
Jason didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what to do. The only thing he could think of was that he had been betrayed. The worst part was that he didn’t know whether he had been betrayed, or whether he was the one who had done the betraying.
He had kept information about the ice dragon from them, and because of that, the ice dragon had very nearly been captured. It was more than that, though. There was the danger of what he had done, the way he had almost betrayed the iron dragon. How much of this would’ve been better had he just brought news of the dragons to them here?
Jason stared at the door. He couldn’t help but think that Sarah would open it, would release him, and that he would be free again, and yet now that he was here, he didn’t know if that were the case or not.
The ice dragon would have to know. He didn’t want the dragon to worry, didn’t want the dragon to do anything. In this place, it was possible they would celebrate him and that they would protect both dragons, and yet, Jason didn’t really know.
Breathing out, he pulled out the dragon pearls. Sarah hadn’t even tried to take them from him. It was almost as if she didn’t care—or she wasn’t worried about them.
He held the ice dragon pearl, focusing on the cold. Though he was able to feel it, though there was a sense of cold flowing through here, he wasn’t able to call upon its power.
What about heat? He held the dragon pearl that he’d taken from David. It might alert the others to him.
He wasn’t going to do that. Regardless of the fact that they had held him here, and that they had decided to capture him, he wasn’t going to be the reason Dragon Haven was identified by the Dragon Souls and Lorach. If nothing else, he would hold off.
There was another option.
The iron dragon pearl.
The only problem was that in order to use that power, he had to summon something. He didn’t know if he could. He would have to find anger.
Was he angry?
Jason didn’t necessarily feel angry. What was happening now was partly his fault. He had been the one who had withheld information that the others needed. Had he spoken up sooner, perhaps the dragons wouldn’t be in danger.