connected to through the forest dragon. That power connected him, binding him in a way that allowed him to use it. But it also allowed him to use that power on everything around him.
The egg was different than those in the boneyard. Larger. Stronger.
He had no idea what Jessica did to make this egg, but he worried about what it meant.
There had to be some way for him to shield the egg and the power it was sending off of it.
Illusion.
That was what he could do.
With a strong enough illusion, Jason thought he could prevent the egg from drawing off everyone around it. At least for now.
He created a barrier around him and then solidified it. It created a shielding, nothing more, and he didn’t try to twist the reality around him too much. That would potentially toss him out of the illusion and toss the egg out of an illusion. All he needed was to hold it.
“What did you do?” Janeya asked.
“I used the forest dragon, making it real,” he said.
“It wasn’t real otherwise?”
“It is, but this is something more.”
He squeezed power and pushed it around the egg.
The sense of pressure coming from the egg began to ease. Jason held onto the power and could feel Janeya using her connections to do the same thing.
“How long can we hold this?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know how long we have to hold it,” he said.
“Long enough for the dragons to escape?”
Jason looked up, but he didn’t know if he could feel anything from the dragons high overhead. He could feel their energy, and he suspected there was something to that energy that he might be able to better understand, but it would take time. Unfortunately, time was something he didn’t have right now.
He needed time to get the people of Dragon Haven away from here.
Jason looked high overhead, continuing to focus on the power, and he felt for something within him. Janeya took his hand.
Holding onto her, he could feel her connection, and he could feel the energy of earth through her, and he could feel something more. Confidence. She didn’t fear this egg, and she didn’t fear for the people of Dragon Haven. She didn’t fear for the dragons.
These weren’t her people.
Which gave her the ability to act in a way that Jason couldn’t.
Turning toward the egg, Jason held onto the energy within him. The egg continued to pulse. Jason strained against it. Even as he did, he wasn’t sure if the way he used power was enough. He couldn’t tell if he were drawing upon enough energy or whether he was pushing out too much.
Janeya held onto his hand, squeezing tightly. Power came from her, the energy of the earth, a soothing sensation that rolled through him. He had to seal off the egg.
“The egg is resisting me.” The more that Jason focused on the sense of the egg, the more certain he was that was exactly what he detected.
It was fighting him.
More and more energy from the egg seemed to seep out, convincing Jason of that. If the egg was fighting him, then somehow he was going to have to find a way to overpower that fight, to keep it from overwhelming him.
Sealing it off like this didn’t seem to be as effective. Jason tried to trap it but could feel the egg pushing. It was connected to something else. The more he held onto that power, the more certain Jason was that whatever he detected was tied to some distant and deep power.
Distantly, Jason felt the connection.
It came from Lorach.
There was some strange connection here, and it seemed to be drawing away.
Connecting to the egg, but connecting beyond it as well.
Somehow, the egg had a stream of power coming off of it that came from Lorach.
What was Jessica doing?
Somehow, this egg was tied to Lorach, and it was tied to whatever else he detected there. He had known it was bound to Lorach, but feeling the way it was connected startled him. It came from someplace distant.
Jason studied the egg.
There was heat within it, though it felt different than the eggs in the boneyard. Those had been warm, pulsating with the power of each of the great energies within the world. This one seemed to try to draw upon him, and was almost oily and unpleasant when he rested his hand upon it. He wanted to immediately withdraw away from it, only he wasn’t sure that he could or should just yet.
There was only