Night Dragon An Epic Fantasy Adventure - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,93

happen if it doesn’t. If it fails, then I worry you’ll feel the summons again and you’ll end up right back here. I managed to hatch the egg, but…” He closed his eyes. He could still feel the energy coming, as if another egg were summoning power. Jason looked around. “Where’s Sarah?”

“Seeing as how I don’t remember anything from before this all happened, I’m not sure I can help you find anyone.”

Jason focused on the power within him, and he weaved his way through the people, Henry following. By the time he found Sarah, he knew exactly what he needed to do. He mixed the combination of the ice and iron dragon, then added the power of the forest dragon to it. In doing so, he washed it over Sarah and could feel the pressure there.

There was resistance, but then he pushed past that resistance. He overpowered it, and Janeya hurriedly added her own connection to the mist dragons along with the earth dragons.

“Sarah? Are you there?”

She stared blankly for a moment before blinking. Clarity returned to her eyes and she looked over at Jason, hurriedly noticing Janeya, along with the way that Janeya held onto Jason’s hand. A frown crossed her face.

“Jason?”

“Do you know where you are?” he asked. He wanted to ask about her parents, but guilt kept him from doing so.

“I…” Sarah closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. That clarity blinked for a moment, almost as if it were going to disappear, but then it returned. She swept her gaze around before settling on Jason and then on Janeya. “I guess I don’t.”

“Lorach has been summoning you.” He told her about the egg and how it fed, her eyes widening. “All of it is similar to how Lorren tried to use the dragons. Now you’re well outside of Dragon Haven. Lorach called you here.”

Sarah looked at Jason, irritation in her eyes, though it was irritation that he understood, irritation that he recognized, irritation that he thought he deserved.

“Where have you been?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have left.”

She shook her head. “No. You should not have. I found my parents.”

“I heard from Henry. I’m so sorry—”

“Where did you go?” she demanded. “You’d said you were going to be there for me. To find them. And you didn’t.”

He swallowed while looking to the sky at the other dragons. “I was summoned. Directed, possibly.” Jason didn’t even know which it was. If he thought too much about it, he believed the night dragon had been a part of why he’d gone after Janeya. “You know that I would do everything that I can to protect the people of Dragon Haven. I wanted to be there for you.”

“I don’t really know that,” she said. “All I know is that you disappeared.”

“To figure out what was going on with the dragons.”

“But you didn’t tell us what you were doing. You didn’t tell us where you were going. You didn’t…” Sarah shook her head, and she looked over at Janeya. “My name is Sarah L’aral. Who are you? And why are you with Jason?”

The ground rumbled beneath Janeya as she summoned power. It was dangerous having these two together, especially as he could feel irritation coming off Janeya. “My name is Janeya Arnson.”

Jason’s breath caught. “What did you say?”

“I’m Janeya Arnson.”

Jason shared a look with Sarah for a moment, his heart hammering.

Arnson.

He knew the name.

David Arnson. Jessica Arnson.

She’d told him of Lorren, and how he’d rescued her.

Or stolen her.

She was related to them.

Her control over the dragons, so different than most, made more sense.

Jason thought of the conversations he’d shared with David, discussions about the purpose of the dragons, discussions about how the people of Lorach would not have recognized the power of the dragons and would have feared it. Discussions that even now, Jason thought, shaped some of his opinions about the dragons.

“How is that possible?” Sarah asked.

Janeya frowned. “How is what possible?”

“Your last name,” Jason said.

“What about it?”

Jason reached for her, ignoring Sarah’s hard glare. “It’s the same as the king and queen in Lorach.”

23

He sat off to the side of the road where they had tried to help as many of the people of Dragon Haven as possible, looking over at Janeya where she sat beneath a tree. She chewed on her lip, and every so often, she would look up at the sky, as if she might find answers there. Jason knew there would be no answers there, just as he knew there were