When it struck Therin, he jerked upright. He turned toward Jason. “You would rather have me finish with you first? Fine. I will do that. But you should know I will not take pity on you. You have destroyed plans years in the making and very nearly disrupted everything that we have worked for.”
“I’m going to keep disrupting it.” He drew on more power, letting it out toward Therin.
It washed over him harmlessly.
Therin stood there, heat radiating from him. He was calling on the power of his own dragon pearl.
Jason wasn’t going to be able to overwhelm him.
Therin had knowledge, and not only that, he had more power than Jason possessed. He was able to outmaneuver him, and he had far more experience than Jason.
Jason tried again, using the cold, drawing through the ice dragon pearl, but nothing happened. There was power, but it didn’t do anything to Therin.
“You could have been useful,” Therin said.
“I don’t want to be useful to you.”
“And now you’re wasting your opportunity.”
“I’m not wasting anything. I’m doing what needs to be done.”
“By dying?”
Therin approached, and Jason shifted. Pain tore through him. His leg throbbed and he could not even move.
He had spent so much time and energy ensuring that the others were healed, he hadn’t paid any attention to trying to restore himself. And that was a mistake. He should have tried to help himself, to use whatever power he could summon and find some way of healing his leg before it got to this point, but now there was nothing left.
And the worst part of it was that Therin seemed to know. He watched Jason, smiling, and power emanated from him, trickling away from him, but nothing more than that. It was almost as if he were playing with Jason. Toying with him.
“How do you want to suffer?”
“You won’t be able to use the dragons. I’ve protected them.”
“You might have thought you protected them, but you know so little. We have centuries of experience with dragons. Anything you think that you have done will fail. The dragons will be mine.”
Anger filled Jason. “They aren’t yours to claim.”
Therin leaned close, laughing darkly. “If only that were true.”
Power built from him. Jason reached into his pocket, fumbling for one of the dragon pearls, and came across the iron dragon pearl. The iron dragon was resting, healed, but would there be enough power within him?
The kind of power that came from the iron dragon was different than what came from the ice dragon, and yet, Jason didn’t know how much energy the iron dragon had used for his evasive flight pattern. It was possible the crash had taken too much out of the iron dragon.
What choice did he have but to try?
Jason clutched the pearl and focused.
In this case, he focused on his anger at what Therin promised to do to the dragons. He focused on the way that Therin intended to use them, and he focused on the power he knew was within himself.
There was an anger within him.
It had always been there, and yet he never let it out. He kept it confined. Living in the village, powerless as he often was, there was no way to unleash that rage. And having been around the iron dragon, having known what it had experienced, Jason recognized it.
It wasn’t the same as the ice dragon. That was a sense of home. This was a sense of rage at what he’d gone through, anger at what others had done to him. And because of that anger, Jason knew that he could pull upon it.
The iron dragon started to glow softly.
It diverted enough of Therin’s attention that Jason pulled on power, summoning it through the iron dragon.
As he did, he forced that power from him. It exploded through the dragon pearl and slammed into Therin.
It sent Therin flying. He crashed on the far side of the clearing.
Jason watched, but he didn’t get up.
He breathed out heavily. “Thank you.”
The dragon rumbled softly.
He tried to move his leg, but he couldn’t.
“Is there any way for me to heal myself?”
A surprising voice answered.
“You would have to draw power through the pearl and into yourself. You can use it that way.”
“David?”
David stood several yards away. His hands were clasped in front of him and he swayed as if unsteady. A gash on his face that Jason hadn’t noticed before had started to heal.
“Try to draw that power through you. I would offer, but I don’t know that you would trust me.”
At this point, Jason wasn’t sure who to trust, and David was as good as anyone. David had been a part of this.
Jason focused on the energy of the cold. He thought of the experience he had with the ice dragon. He thought of his home.
He drew that power through him.
He gasped.
The cold was overwhelming, almost more than he could handle.
It forced him to spasm, and his entire body straightened as he struggled against the power passing through him.
Jason cried out. The only thing that he could think of was to try to hold on. Pain surged through him. It was cold and hot at the same time.
And then it retreated. As it did, the pain within him began to draw away.
He let out a shaky breath, and he looked up to see David watching him.
David nodded. “How do you feel?”
“I’ve been better.”
“I’m sure you have. It’s surprisingly painful for something with such healing power.”
“I didn’t realize it hurt like that.”
Jason tested his leg. It didn’t hurt as it had before.
He leaned forward, getting to his knees, and took a deep breath. Could it be that he would actually survive this?
With the thought, there was a burst of energy near him.
Jason looked up.
Therin stood.
David turned toward Therin, raising his hand, but with a burst of power, Therin sent David flying away.
Therin smiled at Jason. “One of the advantages of dragonskin is that it absorbs most impacts. I must admit I am surprised that you were able to summon so much power. What was that? The ice dragon? I can only imagine how useful he will be once we tame him.”
“Not the ice dragon.”
He pulled on the anger flowing through him at the way that Therin had attacked David. The way that Therin attacked him. There had to be something within the power he could summon, some way to use it to overwhelm Therin.
“It doesn’t matter what it is. All that matters is that you will—”
Jason didn’t give him a chance to finish. He pushed all that anger, letting it flow through him, and drew through the iron dragon. There came a blast of orange heat, and it exploded through Jason and into the pearl, slamming into Therin.
Therin braced himself, and he managed to hold out, letting the power part around him. Jason pushed more and more through him, letting all that power flow, and yet there was nothing he could do to injure Therin.
Therin was far too powerful for him.
“I need your help,” he said to the iron dragon.
The iron dragon stirred, but he hadn’t fully recovered. He tried to move but all that happened was that his body writhed, heat rolling down his torso.
Therin started forward. “You don’t understand yet, do you? You think you would work with the dragons, and that is your mistake. The dragons are to be trained. Used. They are not to be your friends. And yet, you still don’t understand. I will ensure that you do. In time, you will understand plenty about the power of the dragons.” He reached Jason, pressing heat out. It wrapped around him, circling, a spiral of it. It wasn’t painful, not the way it once would have been, and he suspected that had to do with the dragonskin. There was still the energy of it, and he could feel it washing over him, and regardless of what he wanted to do, he tried to resist, but there was nothing that he could do.