Night Dragon An Epic Fantasy Adventure - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,6

Away from the cold. Away from the snow.

And he had ended up getting closer to the dragons.

“I know you don’t want to talk to her about it.”

“It has nothing to do with what I want to talk to her about,” he said carefully. “It has more to do with how they hid that from us.”

“Because they left,” Kayla said. “They couldn’t tell us anything. They weren’t permitted to.”

He doubted that was the entirety of the truth, but maybe it was true enough.

He breathed out heavily and shook his head.

“You got away, anyway,” Kayla said, her voice dropping. “Now that mother is better, I don’t have anything. Not like you do.”

Now, their mother had recovered, at least enough that she no longer needed Kayla the same way that she once had. Did Kayla miss working with their mother? Maybe she wanted to feel important—and working with the dragons would give her that.

Which was what he needed to do.

Find some way to give her responsibility.

He smiled at his sister and held onto the power of the dragons, summoning their power through his connection. He probed the dragon sculpture again, feeling a hint of energy that came from the dragons, echoing within him.

“Do you feel anything when I do that?” he asked.

“What is it you’re doing?” Kayla asked.

“I’m trying to see if there’s anything within the sculpture that might react to the dragons,” Jason said.

“What exactly do you expect to be able to feel?” she asked, her hand waving above the surface of the dragon for a moment.

He shook his head. “That’s just it. I don’t know if there’s anything I’m going to be able to feel. There’s a sense of something from within the sculpture, some energy that strikes me as familiar, though…”

He didn’t know. More than that, he had no idea as to the purpose of the sculpture at all. The only thing that he knew was that the sculpture demonstrated considerable skill in its detailed construction.

“What are you doing up so early anyway?” Kayla asked.

“I was taking a walk,” he said.

There were only a few who knew about the night dragon, and Jason tried to keep that limited to those who really should know. Unfortunately, his sister wasn’t one of them.

She flicked her gaze to the sky, then back to him. “So early?”

“I was checking on something.”

She turned back, looking toward the forest, frowning. “You don’t have to be the only to do that. Others are willing. Able. You can let them.”

It was something that his sister still didn’t understand, something that Jason wasn’t entirely sure how to explain. Maybe he couldn’t explain, anyway.

He smiled at her, knowing he couldn’t let others be the ones to protect the dragons.

It was his responsibility. He was the misfit who had pushed so hard on behalf of the dragons. It was him and him alone.

If he didn’t do this, there wouldn’t be anyone willing to do so.

“Let’s meet later to work on your connection to the dragons,” he said.

“You would do that?”

“You’re my sister. Of course I would do that.”

Jason hadn’t attempted to see if she could reach to any of the dragon misfits yet. If she’d been working with the Dragon Haven dragons, or even the freed dragons, it was possible there wouldn’t be anything within any of those dragons he would be able to help her reach, but the misfits were different. Not only was the power different, but the way that someone could connect to them was different.

She smiled and wrapped him in a quick hug. “Thank you.” She raced off, a lightness to her step.

It pleased him to see his sister like that. There had been too long where she’d been dour and sad, and seeing her like this, moving with such happiness within her, filled him with a similar happiness.

He turned, heading into the building that housed his family, along with several others. The building itself was fairly standard for Dragon Haven, with a domed roof, long walls, and windows that let light in throughout it. Carvings of dragons adorned the outside of the building, and many other dragon carvings lined the hall inside, some of them in the stone, but most along the doorways. They gave an aura to the entirety of the building, a feel for the way the people of this place valued the dragons, and forcing him once again to reflect on what it might be like for the dragons to fly freely.

He hurried through the halls. Lanterns lit the way, casting a bright