push power out, holding onto something similar to the illusion, Jason recognized that something different was taking place.
By holding onto that power, by creating that aspect of the illusion, Jason could use it, but he also could feel that illusion starting to shift. He didn’t have control over it.
“What are you doing?” Janeya asked.
“I’m not trying to do anything,” he said. “Something is taking place here, but…”
He felt the way the power was continuing to flow out from him.
It was a mistake.
He tried to withdraw, trying to pull back that energy, but there wasn’t anything that he could do.
He shifted what he was doing.
He couldn’t push as much power out from the other dragons, not without risking weakening them, but what if he drew upon the power of the northern mountains?
In the back of his mind, he could feel the ice dragon roaring, though Jason didn’t know why he was. He snapped his eyes open and looked around and found the ice dragon watching him.
“Go on,” the ice dragon said.
“What am I doing?”
“I don’t know,” the ice dragon said, and yet, there was power flowing within him, power that suggested to Jason that he needed to keep pushing, that he needed to keep using his energy, that he needed to keep it flowing out from him.
In doing so, Jason could feel the energy coming off the ice dragon, the cold and familiar sense of the north, and used everything in his power to send that energy outward.
Surprisingly, it seemed almost as if the dragon bones stored that power, creating something of a reservoir. The power Jason was drawing started to fill the bones.
“What are you doing?” Janeya asked.
Energy continued to build, rising up within him. The bones pulled on power from him. That power flowed out through him, as if the bones themselves summoned it, trying to siphon it away from him. Even as he attempted to resist, he could do nothing to withstand it. There was simply too much power being drawn off him. It was power that flowed through him, calling upon the energy that filled him, and yet it was nothing he could control.
Unlike with the dragon egg, he was certain the energy came from him. It was flowing down from high overhead, a power he channeled. Jason was giving it as much strength as he could and he tried to prevent the bones from drawing on him, but there wasn’t anything he could do. Surprisingly, he could feel something within him, a sense of energy that started to cry out, a screaming of power.
As he focused on it, he realized what it was.
The ice dragon cried out to Jason, calling out to him, demanding he continue to summon energy. He didn’t dare test the connection between them to determine why, not trusting whether he’d be able to withstand the overwhelming draw power on him. If that energy continued to flow out from him, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to withstand it, and he feared what it might do to him.
Jason held onto it as it flowed out around him, holding it tightly within him. There was something within it. A reflection of power. A reflection of familiarity. It headed into the dragon bones, and it filled them with a strange surge of energy, of power that rose up from within, and it exploded.
An idea came to him.
He continued to push power out, letting it roll out and into the dragon bones. Then he shifted it.
By shifting the nature of that power, Jason could feel the energy changing, and he could feel something about himself changing. He used everything within him to shift it, drawing not only on the forest dragon from so far away, but drawing upon the power of the illusion from within him. Jason could feel that power over illusion within him, and he recognized some other aspect to it that he needed to contain, some other aspect that he needed to better understand.
And then he could do no more.
The illusion held.
The connection to the north, to the cold, to the energy of the mountains, began to take on a life of its own. As he held onto that power, Jason recognized that sense and knew there was nothing more he could do. The only thing he was in control of was the way he held that power. Only, now he wasn’t even holding onto that power. The power was drawing from the north on its own, not even requiring his connection.
There was