Mist Dragon Read online

  Mist Dragon

  The Dragon Misfits Book 5

  D.K. Holmberg

  Copyright © 2020 by D.K. Holmberg

  Cover by Tom Edwards

  All rights reserved.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Author’s Note

  Series by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  F lying with the massive iron dragon left him with a feeling of calm, and Jason Dreshen enjoyed the way the wind swirled around him. Rather than with wings beating at the sky the way most dragons flew, the iron dragon propelled himself forward on bursts of heat and energy, something that made him special and unique.

  The calm was disturbed by the strange burst of dragon power that had drawn him here. Jason wasn’t even sure how to describe it, other than power. It had flooded him, nearly overwhelming him, and then had faded.

  It was enough to know Lorach moved.

  Jason and the iron dragon circled over the forest, patrolling the outer edge of Dragon Haven. There was movement. These days, there was often movement around Dragon Haven, though most of the time, that movement came from the Dragon Guard in their attempt to ensure the safety of their community. Cherise and Olar, the rulers of Dragon Haven, asked that of the Dragon Guard, recalling them from their fight as leaders of the rebellion, worried about what Lorach would attempt next.

  He’d considered going to the Dragon Guard to share with them what he’d detected, but he had a feeling they wouldn’t listen. They were convinced they didn’t need to listen. Not to him. He wasn’t Dragon Guard, despite having protected Dragon Haven repeatedly.

  That didn’t keep Jason from doing what he could to offer his unique protections. Given his connection to the misfit dragons and the fact that the dragons he had bonded to were so different from the others within Dragon Haven, he could do more.

  A flicker of movement caught his attention, and through the connection he shared with the iron dragon, they veered toward it. Both he and the dragon had noticed it at the same time.

  Jason connected to the iron dragon’s eyesight. Learning that he could do so, attaching to the dragon in a way that allowed him to see what the dragon saw, had given him an advantage that others did not share. He saw the world as flashes of orange and red, layers of heat that stretched over the forest. There were some aspects that were lighter in color, such as the forest floor, and even the trees. Other aspects flared brighter within the dragon’s eyesight: squirrels and other small creatures that navigated through the forest. Larger animals, like the deer that scurried at the first sight of the dragon. Other dragons blazed even brighter.

  Eyesight like that made the iron dragon an incredible hunter. He didn’t have enough of a connection to other dragons to know whether they shared something similar, only that the iron dragon did.

  The ice dragon, another dragon misfit that Jason had bonded to, shared his eyesight in much the same way, though everything Jason could see through the ice dragon was a little different. Cooler. The ice dragon searched for movement almost more than he did heat, though he did see gradations of heat. It made everything appear different.

  As they neared the location on the forest floor where he had seen the movement, Jason couldn’t identify what it was. He tapped on the dragon’s side. “What do you think that was?”

  The dragon rumbled. “Nothing tasty.”

  Jason chuckled. The dragons were ferocious hunters and the iron dragon in particular had a way of moving through the trees that made him especially deadly. He could slither through the trees so unexpectedly that he never went hungry.

  “Not tasty, but it wasn’t anything to be concerned about?”

  “I’ve seen no other dragons.”

  Jason stared into the distance, his gaze drawn toward Lorach. Since his escape, there had been signs of movement out of Lorach, but they had not attacked. There was no evidence that Lorach even came toward them. It was a matter of time, though. Jason, along with others within Dragon Haven, knew that Lorach would eventually bring forces to bear upon Dragon Haven. They blamed the rebellion—and Jason in particular now—for what had happened to them. More than that, Jessica, the person who essentially led in Lorach, would stop at nothing to overpower Jason and claim the misfits.

  “They have to be out there,” he said.

  “The others have kept watch. We do not need to do this.”

  Jason smiled slightly. By others , he knew the iron dragon meant the dragons of the Dragon Guard. They patrolled, sweeping through the forest, keeping concealed as much as possible with the illusion Jason had cast upon them, making them appear to outsiders as nothing more than large birds. Perhaps birds that were out of place, but birds nonetheless. They would look like eagles or massive sparrows or other birds that fit within the forest. Jason tried to make sure they were as appropriate for this space as possible, though that wasn’t always easy.

  “The others are patrolling, but I feel as if this is something I need to do.”

  “You need to trust that they are capable,” the iron dragon said.

  Jason smiled to himself. He was right, but that didn’t make it any easier.

  “You have other business you need to be doing anyway.”

  He chuckled again. The iron dragon urged him in ways that the ice dragon didn’t. There was a heat within him, along with some irritation, though Jason knew it was only because he wanted to help. “By other business, you mean understanding my parents.”

  “You know what business.”

  “I know what business, but I have a feeling you don’t know what business,” Jason said.

  The dragon rumbled and turned suddenly, veering away from the outskirts of the forest edge, taking them back toward Dragon Haven. He led them away from Lorach and away from danger. It was probably for the best. Jason had no interest in battling with Dragon Souls from Lorach, though if he did, he knew he could free dragons. He had done so before, at least until Jessica had learned to counter the effect of what he had done. With her newfound skill, Jason worried that he would not be able to save more of the Lorach dragons from slavery.

  “You don’t need to turn back quite so quickly,” Jason said.

  “I need to hunt. You need to do the same.”

  “If I need to hunt, then—”

  “Not that kind of hunting.”

  In the distance, the outskirts of Dragon Haven came into view. There was an illusion over the entirety of the city, masking it from any outsiders, though to Jason’s eyes, the illusion shimmered, fluttering slightly so that he could see beyond it. It took very little for him to make out the outline of the city through the illusion itself. He held o
nto that illusion, tugging on the power of it, and tested it. For a moment, some aspect of the illusion flickered.

  Jason sat upright, frowning. “Did you see that?”

  “I see nothing,” the iron dragon said.

  Jason frowned. The illusion was such that it masked everything within Dragon Haven, concealing even the heat of the dragon’s eyes. He borrowed from the iron dragon again, using his connection to look down and see if there was anything that he might uncover within the city, but as he did, he found nothing. Through the dragon’s eyes, it looked as if it were nothing more than a stretch of forest. Perhaps a stretch where there was an absence of other movement, though Jason had hesitated at the idea of forcing more heat through the illusion to avoid the likelihood that a dragon might decide to hunt here and uncover Dragon Haven.

  As far as he could tell, the illusion held. Some aspect of it didn’t feel quite right, though. Despite his ability to see down below him, to make out the illusion, he worried why he had seen a flickering.

  This was all that stood between them and discovery. If Lorach decided to send a squadron of dragons their way, sweeping over the forest, it would be a simple matter for them to find Dragon Haven without the illusion.

  Or maybe not. That might simply be Jason’s arrogance. Dragon Haven had survived without his presence for decades. Centuries, even. The city itself was old and remained from a time long ago when dragons were revered in this part of the world. The artifacts set throughout the city, many of them sculpted in the shape of dragons, suggested that. The people of Dragon Haven all shared a similar philosophy: All wanted to help the dragons, and none wanted to see them trained the way the Dragon Souls would do. Both groups had the same powers, though, which limited what Dragon Haven could do against Lorach.

  They circled for a moment over Dragon Haven, and Jason continued studying the illusion, watching to ensure that there was no change to it and testing whether there was anything more that might have indicated a flickering of power. He saw nothing. It should have relieved him, and he supposed that it did, but he also wanted to ensure that the illusion was solid.

  He called upon the power of the forest dragon, feeling her distantly. His connection to her was different than the one he shared with the iron and the ice dragons. Whereas those dragons readily lent him strength, the forest dragon didn’t often do the same. She had power that she gifted to him, though with a reluctance. Much of the illusion Jason utilized came from himself, almost more so than it did from the forest dragon. He used that now, trying to borrow some of her power, knowing that if he were to do so, the effect would be far more significant and would force the illusion to take greater hold over Dragon Haven.

  “Are you done?” The iron dragon snorted, twisting so that he could look over at Jason.

  Jason chuckled to himself. “I think so.”

  “I would have you leave me.”

  They descended, crashing through the illusion. Knowing that it was there gave Jason the ability to anticipate where it would pass over him, but it still was a bit jarring going through what looked to be the forest and suddenly seeing the city spread out below him. The entirety of Dragon Haven consisted of domed-roof buildings, all made of stone, and it was massive, occupying the space in a clearing within the forest. Somehow, the forest had grown around the city and did not appear to have tried to grow over it. It was a marvel Dragon Haven had never been discovered before.

  They came to land in a small clearing on the outskirts of the city. It was a space designated for dragon landings, large enough for a dozen dragons to cluster, all of them capable of taking riders, but it was also large enough for the half-dozen or so small dragons that frolicked. Because dragon eggs were rare, the younger dragons were prized. They had all been rescued from Lorach before they had been trained, which allowed the people within Dragon Haven to establish a connection to the dragons to help ensure they never suffered the way that dragons within Lorach did.

  Jason climbed down from the iron dragon’s back and patted him on the side, feeling the heat flowed, though not dramatically. He had always managed to withstand the heat coming off the iron dragon and now was no different. He could feel that energy shifting along the dragon’s side, practically slipping along the surface of his body. He had considered the dragon a construct of molten metal, though he didn’t know if that was an accurate description. He did seem to be made of metal, which was why his method of flying was so different.

  The dragon slithered off, drifting into the forest. He moved quickly and, unsurprisingly, he could move just as quickly along the ground as he could through the air.

  Jason looked around the clearing and was surprised that there were no other dragon trainers out. Three of the small hatchlings frolicked near one end of the yard, but there were no other dragons present. He hadn’t paid attention to whether the dragons were startled by his arrival with the iron dragon, though he suspected they were not.

  Dragon Haven was built centuries ago, and by people who revered the dragons, the artifacts scattered all throughout the city fascinated Jason. Some were sculptures, markers of power that the dragons once possessed, and others were in the style of the buildings themselves. Many buildings were made of stone, though with curves that didn’t exist anywhere else. None seemed made of wood—or any that were had long ago decayed.

  Dragon Haven was a massive city, far larger than the population who occupied it now. Those who did were all part of the rebellion battling with the people of Lorach, striving for the freedom of the dragons.

  He headed into the city. There were others out, though many were people Jason didn’t know. Dragon Haven was large enough that there were often people he didn’t know, but he was often absent from the city as well, which made getting to know the people a little bit more difficult. He made his way along the cobbled street and found himself meandering along the outskirts of the forest. It was as if he avoided going into the city.

  In reality, that was part of what he was doing. He was aware enough to acknowledge that he had no interest in visiting with his mother, especially as she was the person he avoided most. He felt betrayed by her, though he knew he shouldn’t. After wandering, Jason found himself at the edge of the forest, the city behind him. He stared toward the trees. This place was so much warmer than his home. When he had grown up living in the northern mountains, suffering with the cold and the ice, he had come to terms with what it meant to survive there. He had grown skilled, competent, even, at survival. In order to thrive in his village, that was a necessity.

  The only difference now was that Jason recognized that what he had been doing was not living. Even now, he wasn’t entirely sure that what he was doing was living. It felt as if he were singularly focused, tied to helping dragons, which perhaps was not necessarily a bad thing.

  “I think you’ve been avoiding me.”

  Jason turned to see his mother standing behind him. She was dressed in clothes befitting Dragon Haven: a loose-fitting pale blue dress cinched at the waist with a leather strap. A pouch hung over one shoulder, and he could imagine that she had it filled with medicines and herbs that she had collected outside the city. As a healer, his mother would have been valued in any place, not the least within Dragon Haven. Jason’s connection to the dragons, and the power they lent him to heal others, could only go so far. It couldn’t be used to restore everyone, even though the power often felt limitless.

  “I haven’t been avoiding you. There are things that I’m responsible for.”

  She nodded, her hands clasped in front of her as she watched him. It was strange for him to see her like this after she had been so long incapacitated. She looked… well. He had spent so much time trying to ensure that she survived, that she was cared for, and now that she was upright and active and alert, he knew that he should be pleased that he had helped her, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d been misled his entire life.

  “You’ve always been the responsible one.”

  “That was Father
,” he said, turning away.

  She joined him at the edge of the forest. “It’s easier for me to collect some of the medicines here.”

  Jason glanced over. Her graying hair was pulled back into a braid. The wrinkles along the corners of her eyes were deeper than he remembered, and there was a hint of a frown etched across her face, something so familiar to him, along with the determined set to her jaw.

  “After he was gone, you took over his responsibilities. Neither Kayla nor I would have survived were it not for you.”

  Jason nodded. “I did what I needed to do,” he said.

  “And he would’ve been proud of the man that you’ve become,” she said.

  Jason looked at her. “He taught me what I needed to know.”

  “Did he?” She started to reach for him but withdrew when Jason stiffened. “I wonder if perhaps we made a mistake bringing you there.”

  “You didn’t bring me there. You had me there.”

  She nodded. “I suppose that’s true.”

  “You suppose?” He had wondered when he was younger how his mother had learned the different healing arts that she had mastered. There weren’t many within his village who had her same knowledge of medicines and herbs. It was possible she had learned some of it in Varmin, the larger city down the back slope of the mountain, though he had never known for certain. She didn’t speak of it. Now he understood why. “Why that place?”

  “You would like to do this now?”

  “Is there another time?”

  She started to smile, but it faded quickly. She watched him before turning to look back out toward the forest. “I have been trying to talk with you for weeks. Ever since you learned, you’ve avoided me.”