Night Dragon An Epic Fantasy Adventure - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,84

had to ensure that whatever Jessica attempted to do with the freed dragons—and the dragon egg—was stopped.

Far below them, dragons swirled, blackening the sky.

Somehow, they had to stop these dragons from attacking. “I’ll take any suggestions you might have,” Jason said.

“The dragons seem to have an idea,” Janeya said.

Jason looked over at the dragons, realizing she was right. As he watched, he realized the dragons had begun a circle, but it was more than just the way they circled. They formed a pattern, and within that pattern, he felt a growing power. It was the power of the ice and the northern wind. It was the power of heat and the anger of lava and metal. It was the power of the earth rumbling distantly. It was the power of the wind and that of illusion. It was even the power of the wild storms raging in the distance. All of that built from within the dragons as they circled. It crackled between them, radiating all around.

“What are they doing?” he asked the ice dragon.

The ice dragon roared, and through the connection, Jason realized he needed to look at not only what the ice dragon and the other dragons were doing, but what the night dragon did.

The forest dragon sent darkness swirling among the other dragons. Within that darkness came a sense of energy, and it seemed as if it subdued what the other misfit dragons created.

Not to squelch that power, but to mask it.

The forest dragon created an illusion.

It was a kind of illusion that was different than what Jason had learned to create. This wasn’t an illusion to alter the image of reality. This was simply hiding the power, blackening it out, changing day to night.

Thunder rumbled and lightning crackled within a storm cloud, coming from not only the storm dragon but from these other dragons, all of them having some distant connection to the night dragon and the storm dragon. As they held onto that power, and as it continued to crackle around them, Jason searched for something within it that he might better understand.

Only, as he focused, he felt nothing other than that growing buildup of power.

Suddenly, the dragons below began to call. The sound echoed, piercing the masking that the night dragon created, the shriek of a hundred dragons coming to him.

The Dragon Soul dragons knew something was taking place.

Even with the dragons knowing what was taking place, Jason didn’t know if there was anything they were able to do to stop it. Given the power of a dozen female dragons and all the other misfits, there might not be anything they could do against it.

Jason stayed on the ice dragon’s back, feeling that energy building around him. It was their attack. Only, what kind of an attack?

The pulsation around him persisted, that strange drawing sense.

There was something about all of this that struck him as the way Jessica wanted to pull power. If it was about misfits, then did she intend to destroy them or was this only her way of trying to control them?

Jason had been to the boneyard and recognized a sensation similar to this, but it wasn’t quite the same.

Maybe it could not be the same.

“I have to be down there,” he said. “That’s the only way I can deal with this summons.” He had to help the egg.

Wasn’t helping dragons what he’d always done, anyway?

It might do what Jessica wanted, but Jason thought he could save the egg—and the dragon—and use his connections to ensure she didn’t get to use them.

“How do you expect to get down there? There are too many dragons.”

Jason met Janeya’s eyes and held her gaze for a moment.

This was somebody he had not known very long, but somebody that he now felt a strange and strong connection to, somebody he wanted to ensure remained protected, avoiding danger. There was one way that he could watch over her.

“Protect her,” he said to the ice dragon.

With that, Jason jumped.

The fall jarred something within him.

Wind whistled around him, cold and biting, the sound overwhelming. Despite that, there was a strange calmness everywhere around him, something that left him feeling as if he were dropping, but dropping alone.

Perhaps he should have been more careful. Perhaps he should have taken the ice dragon with him, descending together, rather than jumping and plunging, risking himself in this manner, only Jason wasn’t sure that going with the dragon would have permitted him to penetrate the dragons swirling around. This was something he