Night Dragon An Epic Fantasy Adventure - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,83

should. Heading to Lorach might be exactly what Jessica wanted him to do. He turned to Janeya. “We have to disrupt what Lorach has done to the people of Dragon Haven, along with the dragons I had once freed.”

He looked over at Janeya and could feel her within the connection to the earth dragon. That connection seemed to be building the longer that he shared it with her, and she shared with him an understanding of her desire.

He looked over to Janeya. She had been willing to help so far, but what he asked from her now would be something more.

He would be asking her to fight.

“You don’t have to do this. The fight with Lorach is not yours. It’s mine. I can return you to wherever you want to go.”

And he didn’t even need to return her. The dragon could do so. Any of the dragons would do so. All Jason had to do was ask.

“You’re doing it for them?” She swept her gaze around, looking up at the other dragons.

Jason nodded.

“If you’re doing it for the dragons, it must be a good fight.”

“It is.”

She looked at the others around her before turning back to him. “Then I will help.”

20

The misfit dragons circled overhead. The newly hatched dragons were massive and immense, and they moved swiftly, powered in ways that the dragons of Lorach were not. It was not just anger within them, but other powers of the world. The swarm of dragons showed him the way the skies should look if dragons were permitted to fly freely.

The ice dragon streaked toward the rest of the misfits, and Jason looked through the ice dragon’s eyesight, searching for signs of Lorach. They had to be here somewhere. They wouldn’t have left the egg unguarded.

All he saw were dragons. Hundreds of dragons.

And the misfits.

They stayed together, and somehow the misfits remained shielded from the drawing off of the egg. Jason would have to consider that later.

“There was a time when I would’ve given anything to have seen these dragons flying like this,” she whispered. “I can’t help wondering what they sacrificed to travel like this. I can feel the conflicted energy within them.”

Jason connected to her, and as he did, he realized there was something more within the dragons. He wouldn’t necessarily call it a conflicted energy, though he did recognize there was some aspect of their power that troubled them.

“It’s getting stronger,” Janeya said. She clenched her jaw, and strangely, through the connection that he shared with her. “Do you think this will be enough?”

Jason didn’t know. Even with all of these dragons, it still didn’t feel to him like they had enough power to overwhelm the dragons he’d seen swirling around the egg. If all of those dragons were under the influence of the Dragon Souls, controlled in the way their power could be used against them, then Jason didn’t know if they would be enough.

He couldn’t help but wonder if the drawing was an attempt to call power like the eggs in the boneyard had called power. It had to be similar. That energy had drawn rapidly, as the eggs in the boneyard had developed.

This seemed so similar to him.

Strangely, it was also stronger.

Jason had no intention of harming the people of Dragon Haven. He had come hoping to rescue them, but because of the danger from the influence of Jessica and the others of Lorach, he didn’t know if he could.

He stared into the distance, sitting astride the ice dragon, feeling the power of the dragon underneath him, that energy that continued to flow, building with each moment the dragon spread his wings, beating at the air with the frosty north wind gusting beneath him.

It felt to him that all of this had been building up to a battle he was ill prepared to handle. It was a battle Jessica had waged her entire life. It was a battle she had trained for, which meant that it was a battle she was far more equipped to win.

Jason shifted so that he could look down and see the people of Dragon Haven more effectively. He stared, trying to get a better glimpse of them, but from his vantage, even borrowing the ice dragon’s eyesight, he could not see anything more.

Only the long lines stretching across the ground.

He had to turn away.

They weren’t here for the people of Dragon Haven yet. They would have to be a part of what he and the misfit dragons did, but first he