“I just want to find them,” she whispered.
“I understand. I’m willing to do whatever I can to help,” he said.
Even as he said it, he knew that there were limits to what he could do to help, limits to the nature of what he might be able to offer, limits to just how far he could protect her.
She looked at him for a long moment before taking a deep breath and nodding.
“My parents always told me that I would have to lead, but they also believed one day they would be the ones to overthrow the Arnson family.” She shook her head. “We’ve been exiled for so long that it’s hard to imagine a time might eventually come when Lachen could be overthrown.”
“Well, you are royalty.”
She looked up and seemed to miss him teasing her. “Not directly,” Sarah said. “And until we managed to overthrow Lachen, I’m nothing more than an exile. The same as you.”
She was more than him, but Jason wasn’t about to push her on the issue. He had come to Dragon Haven as an outsider, a misfit, and in many ways, he remained that. He might’ve been accepted, at least for the most part, but he didn’t really fit in here.
There were times when Jason wasn’t entirely sure if he fit in anywhere.
His connection to the dragons was different enough that he did not know.
“What do you have there?” he asked, nodding to the pages.
“Movement,” she said.
“What kind of movement?”
“For the most part, it is movement of the people of Lorach. They continue to move along the edge of the forest, though it seems as if your illusions have held.”
Jason smiled tightly. It took considerable effort to place those illusions, so he appreciated that they managed to hold. He worried what would happen if they failed. He doubted he’d be able to replace them very easily.
“I’ve freed as many dragons as I can over the last few days,” he said. “We continue to weaken them. Each dragon we free from them diminishes them.” And saves the dragon, he didn’t need to add. There was a time when Sarah would have been as much an advocate for the dragons as him. With her parents missing, that had changed, like so much else had changed.
She nodded again. “I know.”
“What else do you want me to do?”
She took a deep breath, resting her hands on the table. “I don’t know. The last time the dragons of Lorach moved, we think it was because they uncovered the egg. Or they went to hatch an egg. Or… I don’t know.” She shook her head, staring at the page. “This time, I don’t really know why they continue to move. I don’t know what they intend to find.”
“Maybe they aren’t trying to find anything,” Jason suggested.
“They have to be after something,” Sarah said. “The way they’re moving suggests enough activity that they have uncovered something.” She pulled the page out and Jason stared at it, realizing that it looked something like a map. There were crosses and arrows and strange lines squiggling all over. Sarah pointed to one section. “Here’ the edge of the forest. It looks like they continue to sweep along the edge, heading back and forth, almost as if they’re searching for something.”
“For us,” Jason said.
“Maybe, but what if they’re looking for something else?”
“What else do you think they might be after? We’re hidden here,” he said.
“We are, but think about what Lorren was doing.” She tapped on the page. “This is where he’d been hiding.”
“Not so much hiding, as…” Jason realized what she was getting at.
Lorren had been in the same place not long before his death. He hadn’t been hiding. Lorren didn’t fear the Dragon Souls. He had been willing to take the fight to them, willing to attack. Then again, Lorren had been after both the egg and the misfits. Maybe not the night dragon—not at first—but when he’d learned of it, he had wanted it as well.
If the people of Lorach, the Dragon Souls, were out there now, had they uncovered something?
He studied the page but he wasn’t able to determine just what was written there. It was too strange, too difficult to make much out. “I can go and see what’s there.”
She held his gaze, not bothering to hide the hurt in her eyes. “You would do that, but you wouldn’t search for my parents?”
“I’m not sure being gone for long stretches of time searching for your parents is the safest thing, not with the—”
“The dragon. I know.”
“It’s not only him.” His protestation sounded weak, even to him. “And you understand just how unique this dragon is.”
“I understand how unique all of the dragons you have a connection to are. There isn’t anything you are willing to do to sacrifice them.”
“This isn’t about sacrificing them or not. This is about trying to ensure that the people of Lorach—and Jessica in particular—don’t gain the dragons to use. We can’t have them getting those dragons, using them against us, and finding a way to harm us.”
So far, they had only managed to influence the storm dragon, but even that had nearly been devastating. Therin had nearly killed the iron dragon, though had not corrupted him. Jason worried what would happen if they were to find a way to use their magic differently and harm his friends. He couldn’t imagine trying to battle dragons he now considered friends.
What would happen if he were to have to try to combat the ice or the iron or the forest dragon? He certainly wouldn’t take the tactic Lorren had taken. He had wanted to destroy the dragons rather than allow the Dragon Souls to gain access to them.
“I’m willing to do whatever you need me to do to see if there’s anything that we can uncover here,” Jason said, tracing his finger along the border. “I could do that and return the same day.” He looked up, meeting Sarah’s eyes. “Anything else, and I don’t know if I could return in the same day.”
“Why do you need to return each day?”
“Because the night dragon continues to push on the illusion I’ve formed. In time, I worry he’s going to be able to break free of it.”
“Aren’t you testing him to ensure he can’t?”
“I am testing him, but I still don’t know if there’s going to be a point in time when he’s going to be too strong for me to be able to do anything to keep him confined within the forest.”
Even in that, Jason didn’t like that he was confining the dragon, holding him in place. Eventually, he wanted the night dragon to be able to fly freely, the same way the other dragons did. Only, he had no idea what else would happen then with that dragon. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps trying to give the dragon an opportunity to fly freely was a mistake.
Am I the one controlling him now?
All of them?
The dragon misfits didn’t have to stay here. They did so because of him, but would it be so bad if they left? They could be safe, not having to fear what Lorach might do to them. They could fly freely.
He had to push those thoughts out of his mind.
“We will find them,” he said, resting his hand on Sarah’s. “Whatever happened to your parents, we will find them.”