Storm Dragon: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Dragon Misfits Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

  There wouldn’t be a misfit dragon out here. Regardless of what the Dragon Guard might think, they wouldn’t be found here. There had only been one ice dragon, and he didn’t expect for there to be any others, no matter what the Dragon Souls and Therin might’ve tried.

  He couldn’t help but wonder if there was any way to reach for the connection to the undiscovered misfit dragons. Would there be some way to understand what they were looking for and whether there was anything to know about them?

  He focused on it, thinking about the power deep within him, thinking about the way he was connected to the ice and the iron and the forest dragons. What was the common theme?

  He didn’t know.

  The dragons started to descend. As they did, something shifted in the air. It was a change in the current, an energy that joined them.

  It wasn’t natural.

  And it was a dragon.

  “Do you sense that?” he asked the iron dragon, sitting up on his back.

  Heat radiated along the side of the iron dragon, and he glowed with a warmth. “I feel something.”

  Jason frowned, wondering what it was and why he would suddenly detect something. It was different than what was coming off the other dragons with them.

  Looking up at Henry, he could tell the other man didn’t seem to notice anything. He rode without any change in his posture, and there didn’t seem to be any shift to the energy within him, but Jason was certain of what he was detecting.

  What was it?

  He continued to focus, straining to better understand what he was coming up with, but he didn’t know if it was even real. Perhaps the energy he sensed was someplace distant, or perhaps it was not real at all.

  Jason looked around. Within the clouds, it was difficult to make anything else out, nothing but the wisps of white swirling around them. The wind whipped at him, catching his dragonskin cloak, and he had a sense of power he no longer knew what to make of.

  There was another possibility.

  He focused on the ice dragon and reached out for him. With a gentle request, he asked the ice dragon to turn his attention this way, to see if there was anything he might be able to uncover. If they were heading toward an ambush, he wanted to be ready.

  More than that, Jason didn’t want to get into a dragon battle. He’d seen the dragons fighting before, and he wanted nothing to do with it. If nothing else, he wanted to protect as many of the dragons as he could. If he couldn’t, then he would have to turn the others away. He should be able to heal them, to join with them, but first he had to find them.

  The ice dragon shifted course, charging toward them. As he flew overhead, Jason was aware of the power coursing through him. That power radiated through him, rolling with a defined energy, and it washed over everything.

  It was strange he would notice it that way, but none of the other dragons seemed to recognize that the ice dragon was searching. There was a connection within him, a sense of what the ice dragon was doing. Because of it, Jason was able to determine that origin of the strange power. It flowed outward from him.

  Dragons, and quite a few of them.

  He tapped on the iron dragon’s side, and the iron dragon surged forward, racing with more speed. As they streaked in front of Gordon, the other man hollered over at him.

  Jason ignored it. He ignored anything other than the sense of the other dragons in front of him. He reached through the iron dragon, he reached through the ice dragon, and he prepared for the possibility that he would need to send a healing connection over anything in front of him.

  Better yet, he was also ready for the possibility he might have found a hatch mate. He didn’t think so. The nature of the power didn’t feel the same, but what if that was what he detected?

  There had to be something out there.

  They dropped below the clouds. Jason shifted the illusion that he’d been holding around them, masking the iron dragon. Whatever he sensed was near.

  More power filled him, radiating from him, and he pushed outward from the ice dragon and the iron dragon, combining their strengths. A fog billowed away from him.

  He directed that fog, the same way he did when he was removing an illusion, and within that fog came a sense of power that he could override, and he crashed toward it.

  Still, he was convinced there were dragons, and quite a few of them. He couldn’t see them, though. That part troubled him the most. Why shouldn’t he be able to see the dragons? Was there someone holding on to an illusion?

  He did feel the same sort of resistance that he felt when an illusion was present, but he didn’t think that was the case. He pushed outward again.

  A form appeared in the distance.

  It seemed as if the fog billowed around it, circling it, and as it did, he marveled at the size of the dragon. It was enormous, easily larger than any other Jason had seen before, but as he pulled back the fog, he couldn’t discern anything else about it.

  It was invisible.

  He glanced back. The others didn't seem to be aware of what he’d found, but he was certain of it. An invisible dragon.

  “Do you see that?” he asked the iron dragon.

  He wanted to make sure he wasn’t the only one seeing it. If he was, then he would need to know why he was imagining an invisible dragon. The iron dragon roared, and when he did, the invisible dragon spread enormous wings, and something streaked toward them.

  Jason tapped on the iron dragon and he twisted, rolling and spiraling, and they barely managed to move out of the way.

  Whatever had come at them had been powerful—and he hadn’t seen it.

  More than that, the invisible dragon was nearly three times the size of the iron dragon.

  Something roared again, and it streaked toward them.

  The iron dragon dove.

  Energy swirled around, and it took Jason a moment to realize what he detected. It wasn’t just that there was a dragon, and it wasn’t just that the dragon was enormous, but it was the nature of what he was detecting.

  The invisible dragon must have been controlled.

  Which meant there were Dragon Souls here.

  10

  Something shifted, and the invisible dragon streaked toward them. It did so faster than Jason could track. If he hadn’t been pushing on the billowing fog, he might not have noticed what it was doing. As it was, he was barely able to make it out through the fog. There was something there: a sense of power, and a sense of danger.

  The iron dragon seemed to sense it. He began to roll.

  Jason had flown with the iron dragon enough times that he was familiar with this flight technique, even if it wasn’t one that he was particularly comfortable with. It required him to hold on to the dragon with a specific posture, wrapping his legs around the creature and gripping tightly to the iron dragon’s scales, though the glove helped as well.

  They spun and the iron dragon twisted, looking to see where the invisible dragon attacked.

  There was definitely an attack.

  An explosion of power threw them forward a little. Jason need to follow. A roar erupted. One of the dragons that had come with them was dropping from the sky.

  Jason pushed outward, using a combination of fire and ice, joining them together in a way that would grasp that dragon, to scoop him up before he managed to fall to the ground.

  It was almost enough. He cushioned the dragon’s fall, and then he pushed fire and ice together, forming a burst of water that he washed over the dragon, trying to guide a healing flow. The ice dragon controlled that and healed the dragon as quickly as they could.

  Jason turned his attention to the battle in front of him.

  It was a single dragon. The invisible dragon, a wind dragon or whatever it was, overpowered four others.

  There was an amazing amount of control to his power. The dragon used strange attacks, bursts of energy, not flame or heat or anything Jason had ever encountered before. When it struck, it pushed back the dragons.

  Jason tried t
o see if there was any figure on top of the dragon. Holding on to the billowing fog to work past any barricade the invisible dragon held and didn’t see anything on the dragon’s back.

  Could he have been wrong? Could there not have been a Dragon Soul there?

  He didn’t think so. The dragon was there. The sense of control over it was there.

  Another dragon was struck, and much like the last, he went spiraling down, crashing into the ground. Jason reached outward, using power from the ice dragon and the fire dragon, but he wasn’t fast enough.

  The dragon collapsed.

  He didn’t have time to change the nature of his focus, and he didn’t have time to try to help that dragon. The iron dragon roared, turning toward the invisible dragon. Heat began to work along his body, rolling off him.

  Jason could feel the rage building up within the iron dragon.

  It was a familiar sensation, and it was one he knew all too well. It was an emotion he shared. They hated getting attacked, and the two of them hated the nature of what had been done to them.

  The invisible dragon streaked toward them, moving considerably faster than even the iron dragon could. Another burst of power streaked toward them, and Jason reacted.

  He did the only thing that he could think of.

  He drew upon the power of illusion.

  In this case, he wanted to wrap the invisible dragon in the illusion, wanting to know whether there was anyone else there and, more than that, wanting to see the dragon.

  As the illusion folded over the dragon, it rippled.

  For a moment, the dragon was visible. It had dappled gray scales and sharp spikes along the surface of its body. He didn’t see anyone sitting atop it. Dark clouds swirled around it, moving strangely.

  He hadn’t attempted to try to heal the dragon, thinking he needed to ensure his own safety and stability first, but if it was going to continue attacking them, perhaps trying to heal it, to do whatever he could to ensure the dragon’s safety, might be the most sensible thing to do. It might keep the dragon from attacking.

  He used a burst of heat and ice, combining the two. As they washed outward, they flashed, surging with water, and he swept that through the dragon.

  There was no sense of any sort of influence. It hadn’t been controlled? This was just the dragon.

  He had to wrap the illusion around the dragon. He had to somehow calm the dragon, to let the dragon know they were no danger. Jason had no idea how to connect to a dragon like this.

  There was rage from it, but it was different than what he detected within the iron dragon. Within the iron dragon, it was more of a righteous sort of rage, the anger that came from being harmed before. From this dragon, it was something else.

  Jason didn’t really understand what it was, only that he could feel that anger flooding off the dragon. It was almost as if there was a confusion within the dragon, some lack of understanding as to what was happening to him.

  And if that were the case, then maybe that was the source of his anger.

  He tried to push a healing over the dragon, but in order to stay ahead of the invisible dragon, they had to spiral, leaving Jason almost thrown free, with a lack of control over anything. He was nearly tossed off the dragon’s side, and he clung on to him, but barely.

  He had no idea what was taking place around him. He had no idea what was happening with the other dragons, but as he dangled, as he tried to stay on the iron dragon’s back, he couldn’t help but feel something else out there.

  There had been that sense of other dragons. There had been a sense of Dragon Souls. Which meant he hadn’t seen everything.

  He tried to focus on his connection to the ice dragon, but in attempting to stay ahead of what was happening, and to maintain his control of his healing ability, he wasn’t able to do anything.

  There was no connection. It was almost as if he had been severed.

  Jason held on to what he could with the forest dragon. If he could use the illusion, maybe he could trap the invisible dragon within it and could convince the dragon that he wasn’t a threat.

  How was he going to do that?

  It would involve changing them into something else.

  Think small. He focused on a bird. A sparrow. Nothing large.

  As he held on to that illusion, he let that sense roll through them, filling him. It was an incredible sense of power.

  The illusion was the key.

  He needed to work quickly. He focused as much as he could on the illusion and everything around him, and he held on to that power, that connection, and it rolled over him.

  Jason could feel the illusion taking hold.

  And then the attack shifted.

  No longer was it focused on him and the iron dragon.

  The dragon changed course, turning.

  Jason rolled over, holding on tightly to the iron dragon’s back, looking behind them.

  As he did, he saw why the dragon was changing his focus. It was the other dragons. And yet, they weren’t alone. Others attacked.

  Dragon Souls.

  As they flew, it seemed as if the Dragon Souls were helping, but only because they appeared to be attacking the invisible dragon. The power they were expending was enormous, and he had to try something.

  Still, Jason wasn’t sure if there was anything that he could do.

  Maybe heal them.

  He attempted to press outward, but the invisible dragon continued attacking.

  He wasn’t strong enough. This invisible dragon was too much.

  Jason focused on the dragons that had come with them. Had he not paid any attention to them while they were flying, he wasn’t sure he would have been able to know how to reach them. As it was, there was a certain signature to them, and a familiarity, and Jason reached through that familiarity, that connection, and he used the power of illusion in order to change them.

  Suddenly the sky was filled with small birds.

  The Dragon Soul dragons all streaked past them, almost as if confused. The invisible dragon attacked, power bursting from him, and it exploded into one of the other Dragon Soul dragons. One dragon crashed into the ground. Another dragon turned toward the invisible dragon and tried to attack, but the invisible dragon blasted it with energy as well.

  The Dragon Souls turned their focus on that attack, almost as if they could see the invisible dragon, though Jason didn’t believe that was even possible. It was hard for him to think that they were able to see anything.

  He rolled an illusion over the dragon.

  As it hit the dragon, something changed.

  It became a bird, but it did so slowly, and with a mixture of colors.

  And then the bird faded.

  The illusion failed.

  The invisible dragon seemed immune to illusions.

  Jason should have expected that. When he had tried to wrap the illusion upon the invisible dragon the first time, he had failed. Why would it make a difference now?

  He tried a different approach. Rather than placing an illusion and releasing it, he wondered if he could place an illusion and then continue to hold it. If he could do that, then maybe he would be able to hold on to the illusion over the dragon, and if that were the case, then he could get the Dragon Souls to shift the nature of their attack, to turn somewhere else.

  The illusion washed over the other dragon. He held on to it, squeezing, letting it stay wrapped around the invisible dragon. There was a strange fluttering sense, the way the illusion almost failed, but then it solidified again.

  Jason squeezed on to it, holding it, worried that he wasn’t going to be able to maintain it, and yet as he did so, the dragon appeared to be nothing more than a small bird.

  The other dragons circled, and Jason wanted nothing more than to free them from Dragon Soul influence, but if he did that, he would have to release his hold on the invisible dragon. Within the illusion, the invisible dragon seemed calmer than he had been before. It was almost as if maintaining this illusion maintained somet
hing else for him, some way for him to hold on to a sense of calm within himself, and if Jason released that, then there was a real chance that the dragon would attack the other dragons again.

  At least he understood why they’d been attacked.

  The dragon feared that they might be with the Dragon Souls. And if the Dragon Souls had been attacking, and if their dragons had also been trying to somehow train and control this dragon, then it made sense that the invisible dragon would be angry.

  Jason would be angry for him.

  Every so often, the illusion began to shimmer, and Jason was forced to call upon more power, trying to connect to the forest dragon. He had no idea how long he would be able to maintain it. It was possible he was draining the connection between him and the forest dragon rapidly, and yet he knew he needed to hold on to it as long as possible. The moment he lost that connection, the other dragons would realize what was going on and would change the focus of their attack.

  Gradually, the other dragons began to circle and turn away.

  He had lost track of where the Dragon Guard and their dragons had gone, but perhaps that didn’t even matter. All he cared about was what was taking place with this dragon and where he was going. If he could maintain that connection, and if he could understand the dragon’s issue, then he would be able to help protect the dragon.

  This had to be one of the misfits, but it was nothing like the others. Unlike the others, this dragon had displayed a receptiveness to what Jason could do, but in this case, the dragon seemed almost as if he didn’t want Jason to do anything.

  But then, this dragon had been attacked. The Dragon Souls had come after it the way they had come after the forest dragon. Maybe he could use that, too.

  He held on to the illusion. It was the only thing he could think of, and the longer he maintained it, the more the dragon seemed to calm. Eventually the dragon began to relax, no longer struggling against the illusion, and he flew, nothing more than a sparrow flying through the sky, streaking south.