A shadow formed, and another dragon came darting from the sky, landing next to Dizarn. The two dragons were impressive and massive, and Laric could easily imagine what somebody from the village would say if they knew that there was a pair of dragons now standing where his farm used to be.
“I will show you,” Dizarn said, striding forward and reaching his dragon. His was a deeper black, almost onyx, with shiny scales and an energy that seemed to emanate from it.
Within that, however, was a radiation of heat and a warmth that Laric felt in a different way. He could feel that power, but he also questioned what that power could do and whether there was any element of it that posed a danger to him. Dizarn approached the dragon from the front, and the creature lowered its head ever so slightly and then waited until Dizarn scrambled up one foreleg. Dizarn climbed onto the dragon’s back, settling into a space between spikes and scales, looking down at Laric as if he were as comfortable atop the dragon as most would be atop a horse.
“When you share a connection, the dragon grants you permission.” He glanced over at Laric’s dragon.
Laric walked up to Sashaak and looked up at him. “Please let me ride,” he said, feeling a little ridiculous as he did.
To his surprise, Sashaak lowered his head and gave Laric an opportunity to slowly work his way up his back. He did so hesitantly, then took a seat. Sashaak forced an image into Laric’s mind, and he saw a flash that showed him a different spellslip. One he had learned long ago. It was an element of earth, mixed with the wind that his grandmother had shown him when he was younger, one which Laric had never imagined had any real use. Surprisingly enough, however, as he sat there, the spellslip allowed him to bind himself in place. So as he formed it, anchoring himself from one spike on Sashaak’s back to another, he felt how it could secure him.
Dizarn chuckled. “If there was any question that you were Imelda’s grandson, that answers it.”
“That?”
“It’s her personal buckle. She taught it to me when I was young, and I will teach it to them as they begin to bond,” he said, motioning to where Malik and Janear were climbing up onto his dragon’s back.
“They don’t have a dragon bonded to them yet?”
“It is difficult,” Dizarn answered. “You will see.”
“Where are we going?” Laric asked.
“You said that you had not been to the border, and I think it’s time that you do. I think it’s time that you see. Perhaps once you do, you will understand that it’s time for you to come with us.”
“All right.”
Dizarn’s dragon lurched forward, taking to the air with a violence of strength and wind.
Laric sat there for a moment, still struggling to come to terms with the idea that he was seated atop a dragon, and that he might end up riding Sashaak. A part of him wondered if he should go back to town and call Rowan and the others out here. But if he did that, what would they do? And what could he do?
He had an urge to get answers, and this was the first time he felt as if he had a possibility of answers. He was in a place where he could obtain what he had been searching for, and now he had to take advantage of it, didn’t he?
He could come back.
No. He would come back.
Regardless of what he saw, he would return so that he could either get his friends and bring them with him, or defeat the mages. Depending on which came first.
It was just that Laric didn’t quite know what that was going to look like.
He patted Sashaak on the back, feeling ridiculous. Sashaak was hot to the touch, and he radiated warmth through scaled sides. Though it wasn’t painful or unpleasant, Laric was certainly aware of the heat coming from the dragon.
“We’re supposed to follow,” Laric said to Sashaak. “I’m not sure how you feel about this, but they want to show us to… Well, I think they want to show us where we can find out what Korthal has been doing. Your home.”
“It is not as you think,” Sashaak said, speaking through their connection.
“Why not?”
“You will see.”
“Do you mind if I ride?” Laric asked.
“I permit it, do I not?”
“Well, I wasn’t sure if you were permitting it because of Dizarn and the other dragon, or if you’re just allowing it yourself.”
“You will see.”
Laric wasn’t sure that was much of an endorsement.
Then he felt the pressure of potential, a buildup of heat, but it came from all around him. He felt a strange surge that almost seemed to be rising up from the earth as well, and then Sashaak was airborne. The suddenness of it overwhelmed Laric. They were up above the ground, and Sashaak’s enormous wings spread out to either side of him, catching the air, and then they were circling higher and higher. The wind around Laric was impossibly dense and painful, like sharp needles were digging into his eyes, his skin, and every bit of him.
“You need to lean forward,” Sashaak said.
Laric did as Sashaak commanded, and as he did, he felt relief from the wind. Some of it came from the simple fact that Sashaak’s spikes blocked the wind to prevent him from getting overwhelmed by it, and some of it came from power that seemed to radiate around Sashaak thanks to the dragon’s potential.
“Are you using power to protect me?” Laric asked.
“I am using power to protect myself, and you benefit.”
Laric found himself laughing at that, feeling a little ridiculous and maybe a little loopy from what was happening, but there didn’t seem to be anything to do about it other than to just accept it.
Sashaak continued flying higher and higher as he chased Dizarn and his dragon. Distantly, Laric found himself wondering what Dizarn’s dragon was named, but he didn’t know that it even mattered. The only thing he cared about was this moment, this feeling, this energy.
And hadn’t he seen it before?
In a way, all of this was an experience that Laric had encountered one other time. He had felt it from Sashaak, from the vision that Sashaak had gifted him, and he had felt it from how he had seen, and connected to, that power as it surged into his mind, giving him an awareness and an understanding of the experience of flying without actually having flown.
