said. “He came up from below, making it difficult for us—and our dragons.”
The earth dragon had a way of adjusting the way the earth moved. Feeling the power of the earth dragon now, he wondered at the intent behind it. He doubted the dragon intended to attack. That didn’t seem to be the reason for the presence, and Jason had seen that the dragon had been willing to help before, but there would have to be a reason for him being here now.
The ice dragon began to dive, feeling the energy from Jason and so knowing which way he wanted them to go, and together they began to descend.
They burst through the cloud on their descent. When they did, the landscape spread out below them. Mostly it was icy and snowy, with swirls of snow streaking toward him, crashing into his face.
Not completely, though.
He created a barrier around himself, shielding himself from the wind.
He didn’t have to shield himself from the cold. The ice dragon did that well enough, offering him the protection that their connection granted, but then there was something else with it, not just the connection that the ice dragon offered, but there was the heat the iron dragon granted as well.
The energy of the ice dragon granted him the strength that he needed in order to create a separation between himself and the cold, and by using that, Jason pushed back the ice swirling around him. He recognized the trembling in the ground, feeling that energy from the earth dragon rumbling toward them.
It surprised him that he would be aware of it so high in the sky.
They landed on the slope of the mountain.
The wind continued to swirl, and the landing of the ice dragon did nothing to settle it. In fact, if nothing else, the ice dragon’s landing only caused the wind to stir up even more, creating a burst of power.
There was more rumbling from deep beneath the earth.
Connecting to the cold and the ice, he pulled upon power and sent it through the ground beneath him, letting the ice claim the energy. Gradually, the sense of the rumbling persisted, increasing in intensity, and he focused on it as that began to build.
By holding power and energy, he tried to determine where the earth dragon roamed. He couldn’t tell, only that the sense of the earth dragon was there.
Jason didn’t want to draw on too much energy as he focused, but in this land, surrounded by the cold as he was, the ice dragon didn’t suffer. There was no way for Jason to take too much power away from him here. The ice dragon gifted power to him, now pushing it toward Jason, who pushed it out beneath him.
There.
Jason held onto that energy as he probed, pulling at the snow.
That wasn’t going to work. He needed to pull on the ice dragon.
He anchored to the ice dragon, holding onto his connection to power, and he used that to find a way to wrap outward, embracing the power deep beneath the ground, and he pulled on it. Gradually, the rumbling started to intensify.
The earth dragon struggled against the ice.
“What are you doing?” the ice dragon asked.
“I can feel the earth dragon beneath the ground. I have to help him break free. I have to pull more.”
He left unsaid what would happen and what he worried might happen to the dragon.
“Then do it.”
Jason pulled, letting that energy flow, drawing on the sense of the dragon, but also drawing on something else there. The ground beneath his feet began to shake and tremble. Finally, he wrapped the power of the ice dragon around the sense of the other energy deep beneath him.
The ice dragon trembled, his wings spread out.
Wind swirled around him. There was a tremulous sort of energy around the ice dragon.
He needed to call that power up from the earth. Jason needed to speak with him to know just what Lorren had done, mostly so they could better understand the nature of his kind of attack on the other dragons.
Jason wrapped the power around the earth dragon and continued to pull, drawing that up from the ground.
Gradually, the earth started to shake and tremble and a section of snow shifted underneath his feet. Jason braced himself, holding on to the power in the ice dragon, and it allowed him to float. He hovered above the ground, pulling upon the ice, the cold, everything all around him.
Jason continued to call on that power, letting it explode