Night Dragon An Epic Fantasy Adventure - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,28
that called to Jason, and within that energy was something else.
“What do I need to see?”
“Him.”
Jason made his way around the stream, glancing over at the earth dragon, though his head barely protruded above the rocky ground. The stream spilled down the mountainside with a burbling. Jason paused for a moment, taking a drink of the cold water, detecting a familiar coppery taste to it. It reminded him of the stream that he had drunk from when he was in his home, back in the cold north.
As he stood, he saw a small alcove that looked to have been carved into the rock near the stream.
Jason frowned as he approached.
It was carved.
Not only that, but he found three small white fragments. They were tiny, little larger than the palm of his hand, and all dragon bone.
He lifted the first, feeling heat radiating within it, and wondered why that should be, but there was nothing within the bone that he recognized.
“Somebody placed these here,” he said, looking over at the ice dragon before turning his attention to the earth dragon. “Is that why you brought me here? Is this a place that people from Lorach came?”
“Not Lorach.”
Jason grabbed for the other bones. It was probably a finger bone, though it was difficult for him to know. There was heat within it, and it seemed to create a gentle haze that surrounded the bone. “If it wasn’t Lorach, then who?” He looked up and his heart hammered. “Lorren?”
The dragon rumbled.
“That’s why you wanted me to see this. You wanted me to see where Lorren had been.”
“Come.”
The dragon disappeared, though there was a faint rumbling that came from him. Jason recognized it and could feel it pulling him.
He turned to the dragon and hurried over to the ice dragon, pocketing the bones.
“Should we follow?”
“He needs to show you something,” the dragon said.
“I realize that he does, but what is he trying to show me?”
“I do not know.”
Jason held onto power and as the ice dragon took to the air, they followed the earth dragon.
They ascended over the mountains and then reached a small stream.
From there, they followed it until the landscape shifted again, becoming something altogether different. It was a sweeping grassy hillside. A few trees dotted the horizon. They were just on the border of Lorach, near enough that he recognized it, even if he didn’t recognize why they would be here.
The earth dragon rumbled again, drawing him down.
They descended, and he found the earth dragon near a small copse of trees. As before, he barely showed himself, revealing little more than his face. Jason headed forward, trying to gauge what the earth dragon wanted him to see, but could not find anything.
“What is here?”
“Him,” the earth dragon rumbled again.
Him.
“Lorren?”
Was this all about the earth dragon showing him different places where Lorren had been?
He headed through the trees, making his way slowly, and this time, rather than going blindly, he started to focus on the energy within him.
He could feel the cold coming off the ice dragon, and recognized that there was something different about it, almost as if in this place, the ice dragon struggled.
Of course he would, though. In this place, the ice dragon’s connection to the cold did not work nearly as well as he needed.
Jason summoned the connection between himself and the ice dragon, stretching outward, wondering if perhaps he might be able to press that connection far enough to reach beyond, and strained to the distant north to help the ice dragon, only to realize that he didn’t even need to. The ice dragon didn’t need his help in that.
Jason pushed power out again. This time, he swept it out through the trees.
It was a combination of the ice and the iron dragon’s power, but as he was in a copse of trees, he also chose the forest dragon, letting that energy flow out and away from him.
As he did, he felt something changing.
There was some aspect of the ground that shifted, and then he met a resistance.
Dragon resistance.
He hurried forward, moving carefully, holding onto the connection he shared with the dragons, and looked over to see the ice dragon slide forward.
He didn’t move nearly as comfortably through the trees as the iron dragon did. The iron dragon was able to somehow slide forward, using his heat to practically glide along, but the ice dragon still managed. As Jason followed, he realized there was a different energy coming off him, almost as if he were uncertain.