Night Dragon An Epic Fantasy Adventure - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,100
Haven, and had he not, so much more would’ve been lost, but because he had been willing to become that fighter and had been willing to do the hard and necessary work, others had been able to thrive.
If they could stop Lorach, they could finally find peace. They could finally thrive.
First, though, the people of Dragon Haven had to get to safety. Find the others.
Rebuild.
That would take time.
And a leader like Sarah.
She turned them, marching back toward Dragon Haven.
It would be a long walk, but better than to march into Lorach, toward the danger, and toward the possibility of their own suffering.
Climbing on the ice dragon, he waited for Janeya to join him. One by one, the rest of the Dragon Guard, along with Henry—and surprisingly William—began to climb onto the backs of dragons.
He looked around, and then they took to the air.
The dragons flew with a wild intensity. As they reached their peak altitude, Jason glanced behind him and found Janeya watching him. He forced a smile, but he could tell through their shared connection that she knew what he was thinking.
They flew, and he found the drawing energy of another egg calling him, pulling him forward, and he recognized that the source of it was nearby.
His dragon started to descend, moving quickly, and as he did, he realized that there was something there, some aspect of energy that was calling upon him, dragging him forward, and he felt it pulling him.
As it did, he realized there were other dragons. They were not alone here. But the dragons were on the ground.
“Another egg?” Janeya asked, motioning to the dragons on the ground.
“I’m not entirely sure,” he said.
He followed the pull of the egg. As that power pulled upon him, the ice dragon started to circle, lowering to the ground until he came to rest near a circle of two dozen dragons surrounding an egg. Other dragons with them descended, though didn’t get close to the dragons, as if they feared getting too close to them.
These dragons were dying.
He jumped from the dragon’s back and tried to look around, worried about whether there might be anything that he could do to help the dragons, nothing seemed to be obvious.
He headed toward the oblong, pale shape in the center of the circle.
It was pulling on the dragons around it. It was feeding on them.
Destroying them.
That’s what would have happened to the people of Dragon Haven.
To their dragons.
And Jessica doesn’t care.
“They’re gone,” Janeya said.
“The egg pulled too much,” he whispered.
Was that what would happen to him if the egg would pull too much from him?
“Can you help them?”
Jason turned to the egg. The only way he thought that he could help would be by pushing power out and connecting to the egg and trying to add enough energy that it would hatch, but even as he did, he could feel that there was some resistance.
He tried, pushing on power, letting it flow out from him, but the egg continued to draw from the dragons.
And then it cracked.
A small dragon emerged. It was multicolored: red, orange, green, blue, and black. As Jason looked around him, he realized the dragon was the color of the dragons that had surrounded him.
He formed an illusion around the dragon, pushing power out and solidifying it.
The dragon fell asleep.
Jason hurried to the nearby dragons and rested his hand on the first one, but there was nothing that could be done. He moved from dragon to dragon, but they were all gone.
Cold.
They had been fed upon.
Power had been stripped from them, and now there was nothing remaining.
“How could she have done this?” Janeya whispered.
“I don’t know. She’s terrible. She sees the dragons and their power as tools to be used. Wield it against her people and those who she thinks oppose her.”
Janeya stared at the fallen dragons. “I would never have thought that anybody would do anything like this.” She looked up at Jason, and he noticed a resolute look in her eyes.
Jessica had learned something, but then she had used it against the dragons. It was her way of destroying his free dragons. He swallowed and made his way over to the ice dragon, and they took to the air.
“We need to find the other eggs.”
They found nearly a dozen other eggs. Almost one hundred dead dragons. The dragons with him had increased with each Dragon Soul they’d pushed off a dragon, freeing the dragons again, but it hadn’t felt like enough. They were still too few.