the first time, other than when he had stripped away her illusion, he sensed hesitation from her. The isolation.
She’d been hiding from Lorach. The same as Dragon Haven. And she’d been doing it alone. Her only companions were the dragons—and Lorren. Now that he was gone, she had only the dragons.
“They can.”
“He said it wasn’t possible. That he had found another way.”
Jason wondered what other way Lorren might have discovered. “Most didn’t believe it was possible.”
“Did you show him?”
She took a step toward him before hesitating.
“I showed him,” Jason said. “I demonstrated how the dragons could be saved. I did everything that I could in order for him to know that there was no reason to continue to attack the way that he did.”
“If he knew they could be saved, he wouldn’t have kept doing it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He wouldn’t have,” she said.
Jason watched her, and he understood the way that she felt.
Given his experience with Lorren, Jason had felt something similar. There had been concern on his part about why he would have attacked, why he would’ve used the power that he possessed to cause harm to the dragons, and why he wouldn’t have been willing to listen to Jason to see if there was something that could be done to protect them. Given what Jason had shown him, Lorren should have not done what he had done.
“I showed him the dragons that were freed,” he said.
“How many dragons?”
“Hundreds,” he said.
“If you freed hundreds of dragons, then you would have decimated Lorach. We wouldn’t have to hide.”
Jason smiled sadly. “Were that only the case. Lorach has hundreds upon hundreds of dragons. Many more Dragon Souls. Now that Lorren is gone, they have concentrated the Dragon Souls with the remaining dragons, making it increasingly difficult to free the rest of the dragons.”
“Which must’ve been why he was willing to do what he did,” she said.
“I didn’t get the sense that he cared all that much. He tried to harm the dragons as much as he tried to harm the Dragon Souls. He didn’t seem to care one way or the other.”
“That’s not true,” she said.
“I can show you.”
The earth dragon rumbled.
“You don’t think she should go?”
“She will be separated from the others.”
Jason frowned, looking around. “Then it proves she would trust me.”
“What proves that I would trust you?” she asked.
“You want to know more about what he did and the dragons I’ve freed. I could show you.”
Someone who had the control of several other different kinds of dragon misfits, could be dangerous. Jason knew that, especially given what he had felt from her and the type of power he had detected coming off her. If she were to use it against him, and against the other dragons, he potentially opened himself up to danger.
At the same time, she had potential. She could act in a way that would be similar to what Lorren might have once been able to offer, only with her control, and with the power he detected from her, he had to believe that she might be able to do something more.
She might actually be able to help.
She watched him, saying nothing. Jason didn’t have anything that he could say to her, either. He needed her to agree.
If she came along with him, heading to Dragon Haven, there would be a separation. She wouldn’t have the connection to the mist dragons, or to the smoke dragons. The only dragons she would have any connection to would be the earth dragons, and given what Jason had detected, the power coming from this earth dragon and the way he sent it to him, he had a sense the earth dragon preferred to ensure she did not misuse that power.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because you need to know the truth,” he said.
“You would separate me from the others?”
“I wouldn’t do it. The mountains would. I’m not going to force you to go to Lorach.” He thought that was what she feared. “But there’s something you should see. You don’t have to be alone here anymore.”
As Jason looked over the mountain, he focused on the power that was there, feeling the cold and the energy, and a strange connection to it. It was the same sort of connection he felt when he reached through the ice dragon, an energy that suggested he might be able to draw upon even more than he had believed before.
He waited, watching her, uncertain how she might answer.
Finally, she nodded. “I will come with you.”
10
Jason felt as if