The dragons fell, one by one, and he no longer worried they wouldn’t catch themselves. He no longer worried about the Dragon Souls tossed free. He sat upright, perched on top of the iron dragon’s back, using everything in his power in order to send the dragons scattering. He worked through them, tearing one injury after another away.
After going through a dozen dragons, the attack began to abate. He was tired. He didn’t know how much longer he would be able to fight. The power he was drawing through the ice dragon was enormous. How would he be able to continue to fight when it came down to it?
Something shook the iron dragon.
Jason diverted his attention, looking over, and he felt for the dragon.
“What happened?”
“I am fine,” the dragon said.
“But what happened?”
He didn’t get a chance to answer.
Something else struck, and David was tossed free.
Jason’s breath caught.
“Drop!” he shouted.
They plummeted.
They streaked toward the ground, moving with increasing speed, and he gripped the dragon with his legs, afraid of letting go, but at the same time, David was ahead of them. Somehow they had to get to him. David wasn’t coming around, lying motionless in the air.
“We need to go faster,” Jason said.
The iron dragon roared. Heat radiated from his back. It undulated, washing from his neck all the way down.
“You can use everything,” he said.
The dragon roared again.
His head began to glow, and the heat rolled down his neck.
Jason was afraid of getting burned, but he didn’t care. He was going to stay there, gripping the dragon’s back, holding on until they reached David. When they neared, he tried to grab him but couldn’t.
The iron dragon roared again.
With another surge, they shot past David. Jason twisted, grabbing David, and they jerked him back onto the dragon’s back.
The ground loomed in front of them.
Jason cried out, but the iron dragon stretched his wings out, and they caught the air. He batted at it, but they weren’t going to be fast enough. The ground continued to approach, and he braced himself.
The dragon slammed down.
Jason was tossed free, tearing David with him.
He rolled over, looking off to the side, and worried about where they were, what they might encounter, and yet he found he couldn’t get up.
His leg was twisted.
He crawled, trying to get to David, but David wasn’t moving.
He rolled off to the side, looking at the iron dragon, but even the iron dragon wasn’t moving. He seemed to be breathing, but that was about it.
After all of that, they would fail here?
20
The dragon was breathing, so Jason focused on David first. David was lying motionless, so he crawled over, ignoring the pain that screamed through his body with every movement. Everything he did cried out, rebelling against him, and yet he needed to reach David, to see if there was anything he could do for him.
He got up to him and rolled him over. David’s eyes were glazed, but when he checked the artery in his neck, working the way his mother had taught him, he found his pulse still beating. It was weak, but present.
Jason tried to call upon the power of the ice dragon, but didn’t know if there was enough strength left in the dragon for him to do so. And at this point, it might be a mistake to try to keep drawing upon that power.
He needed to be careful, but he also owed it to David—and the iron dragon—to heal them. Healing would require him to do the actual work. He didn’t know enough about that control, and didn’t know if he would even have the necessary power to do what needed to be done, and yet, he was determined to try.
He gripped the ice dragon pearl, holding it tightly, and set it on David’s chest. He pushed outward with power.
A surge of cold washed out from Jason into David. It was weaker than what he remembered, and he didn’t know if that came from the distance between him and the ice dragon or if it was a matter of weakness for the ice dragon. Either way, Jason was concerned about trying to use too much more strength. At this point, it might be better to refrain.
Power surged from somewhere overhead.
The ice dragon recognized what was needed. And he gave his power willingly.
It washed out from Jason and into David. The power continued to roll through the man, and David sucked in a sharp breath.
Jason crawled away, reaching the iron dragon. He rested on his side, holding the ice dragon pearl up against it. Would it even work on a dragon like this?
The ice dragon didn’t give him an opportunity to think about it too much. He sent power shooting through him in another sheet of ice lightning, and it arced from the sky and down into the dragon pearl and then outward into the iron dragon.
It flowed through him, melting into the dragon.
It was different than what the ice dragon had done for David, but it was enough that the iron dragon began to rumble.
Jason sighed with relief. He was going to save the iron dragon. And David.
He rested on the iron dragon’s side, barely able to move.
Laughter behind him caught his attention, and Jason lifted his weary head.
Therin strode toward him. He was dressed in dragonskin, a pin on his cloak similar to the one Jason wore on his stolen dragonskin. The beard he’d sported when he had visited the village was shaved, giving him a sharp and angular jaw, and color rose within his high cheekbones.
“Look at you. Everything you’ve done, and now you dress like us? I could have brought you back to Lorach. Had you only wanted to, you could have been celebrated.”
Jason didn’t have the strength within him to argue.
“And now you’ve brought me this dragon.” His gaze flicked high overhead. “And the ice dragon. You didn’t think I would find him, but I knew. I was always going to return. He is quite a bit more than I ever would’ve imagined.” He crouched down and looked Jason in the eye. “When word came to me of the dragon in Varmin, I didn’t think it would be real, and yet more and more rumors continued to roll out of there. And then the Auran thought to get involved. It was a mistake, and it’s one I will rectify now.”
“What are you going to do?” Jason asked, his voice weak. He barely had the strength to keep his head up.
“Why do you even care?”
“Leave the dragons. They can’t be used by you.”
“All dragons can be trained.”
Jason held his head up, sucking in a deep breath. He was tired. So tired. “Not these. I made it so that they can’t. Try your red dragon. You can’t train him anymore, either.”
“The red dragon died,” Therin said.
Jason’s heart sunk. He was responsible for it. He was the one who had torn away whatever he’d detected. Because of him, the red dragon had plummeted to his death.
Wouldn’t it have been better to allow the dragon to live, regardless of how Therin might have used it?
Perhaps it didn’t matter. Not anymore. All that mattered was that he was here.
Maybe he could use whatever of his power was remaining to stop Therin. Perhaps he could remove him as a threat, and in doing so, he might be able to delay what was coming.
And he had freed some of the dragons. More than anything else, Jason understood that was beneficial. He had done something that others had not, had fixed a wrong.
Therin started toward David, unsheathing his sword.
Jason held out the dragon pearl, and he pushed power through himself.