The resistance fell.
They surged forward even faster.
Somehow, whatever resistance was out there had restricted them from moving as quickly as they could otherwise, and now that the blockage was gone, the ice dragon practically streaked through the tunnel, like an arrow loosed from a bow.
And then he saw a darkened shape in the distance.
He tapped the ice dragon and they started to slow, but not nearly fast enough.
The shape in front of them was blocking the tunnel, and as they streaked forward, they were going to hit it.
Jason gripped the neck of the ice dragon. Had he not been experienced with riding on top of the iron dragon, he might not have known how to brace himself against the impact, but having done so, he recognized what he needed to do. Holding on to the ice dragon’s neck, he ignored the impact. When it struck, he rolled forward, tossed free of the ice dragon.
He struck something hard, metallic.
The iron dragon.
He wasn’t glowing, not as he had before.
But why was he here?
The ice dragon got to his feet and rumbled, the sound of his irritation filling the inside of the cave, and yet Jason worried about how much notice the ice dragon might draw. It was possible he would be attracting far more attention to them than they wanted.
The iron dragon stirred.
Jason backed up against the wall of the cave. He hesitated, not wanting to move too far forward, not wanting to get in the way of the iron dragon if he were somehow controlled by the Dragon Souls, and yet there was no sense of that. The only sense he had was that of heat still radiating off the iron dragon, and yet, he understood that if the iron dragon were to awaken and summon his power, he could blast Jason with his heat.
It was possible he could do the same thing to the ice dragon.
It would be a dangerous—and deadly—combination.
Jason crawled forward, holding on to the dragon pearl.
When he reached the iron dragon’s head, he frowned, looking him over. The iron dragon had his eyes closed, and though he moved, he didn’t seem to do so with any real intention.
What had happened here?
He crawled past the iron dragon, moving down the hallway. He pushed a hint of cold into the dragon pearl, looking around, hesitating as he did, worried that perhaps he might draw too much attention, and he saw a pair of figures lying motionless on the ground.
Jason approached slowly.
He held out the dragon pearl, ready to push power through it, and yet he didn’t know if he would be able to overwhelm a Dragon Soul if it came down to it.
There was still no movement.
When he reached them, he saw that one had his neck twisted irregularly. He wasn’t getting back up. The other lay with his leg bent, obviously broken from the way the bone jutted through the skin, pressing up against the side of the dragonskin he wore.
Jason kicked the man.
There was a groan, but nothing else.
They were both dressed similarly. They both had dark pants, a dragonskin cloak, and a jacket underneath that matched. One of the men had a medallion attached to his jacket, likely some signifier of rank, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to speak with Therin enough to know what the different ranks of Dragon Souls would be.
He glanced back at the iron dragon, but the other creature hadn’t woken yet.
Behind the iron dragon, the ice dragon rumbled.
“I’m fine. There are two Dragon Souls here, but they’re both incapacitated.”
The dragon rumbled again.
“I’m going to search them.”
“What do you expect to find?”
“I don’t know. Money?” Jason laughed to himself. Money was basically useless in his village. They operated on trade and bartered what they could. Yet, as he searched through the pockets of the Dragon Soul, he found something even more valuable.
Dragon pearls.
The man had three of them, and Jason pocketed them.
As he did, a different idea came to him.
The man was roughly his same size. And there might be some benefit in wearing dragonskin rather than his bearskin.
Before he did so, he decided it would be better to question the ice dragon as to whether the dragon would mind. If he did, then Jason wasn’t about to do so. He didn’t want to anger the ice dragon by putting on a dragonskin jacket.
Checking to make sure the other man was still down, he hesitated a moment before peeling the cloak off, and then pulled off the man’s jacket. The man moaned as Jason undressed him, but he ignored it. He moved on to his pants, and at least here he was all the more careful, not wanting to cause too much pain. It would be bad enough that the Dragon Soul would wake up without dragon pearls and without his dragonskin clothing and find that he had no power remaining.
As he pulled the pants off, he glanced down at the man’s boots.
They were just as fancy, and also made of dragonskin.
Was everything they wore dragonskin?
He carried it back to the ice dragon. When he sat it down in front of the ice dragon, the dragon glanced over. “What do you think?”
“You undressed him?”
“His clothing. Would you be offended if I wore it?”
“Why would I mind you wearing it?”
“It’s dragonskin,” Jason said.
The ice dragon rumbled, the sound filling the inside of the cave, and he flicked his tail. When he took a deep breath, he looked over at Jason, and then rumbled again.
“Why would you wear this?”
“The dragonskin offers some protection from heat. It provides some protection from the cold as well.”
“I have offered you protection from the cold.”
“You have,” Jason said, realizing that the ice dragon had provided him far more protection than he had ever realized. “It’s about the heat. I find I have a harder time with it now than I ever did before. And there’s something else.”
“What is it?”
“Your dragonskin is impervious to weapons. At least, more so than my bearskin is.”
Jason didn’t know what he might encounter, but having a dragonskin jacket and cloak might offer more protection than what he had otherwise. He could imagine the benefit it would provide.
Then again, he didn’t want to upset his companion.
“You may wear it.”
Jason tipped his head.
“I’m going to keep the bearskin jacket,” he said.
“As you should,” the dragon said.
Jason quickly changed, pulling off his jacket and pants, and slipped into the dragonskin clothing. It had been many years since he had tried on dragonskin, and he marveled anew at the suppleness of it. It fit remarkably well for clothing that wasn’t made for him, and when he slipped on the cloak, he could feel body heat clinging to him.
He shifted the contents of his pocket, moving the dragon pearls from one to the other, and then made his way back up to the two fallen men. The now mostly naked man was starting to awaken, and Jason summoned power to the dragon pearl and released it on him. It exploded into him, knocking him out once again.
He glanced at the dead man and frowned.
There was a difference between the two. The dead man carried a sword.
Jason unbuckled that and strapped it to his waist. The sword was only as long as his forearm and felt awkward, but that might be only because he was unaccustomed to wearing a sword.
He debated a moment, but then stripped the dragonskin off him as well, folding it neatly, and carried it back to the ice dragon.
“We’ll bring this with us, too.” He wrapped the bundle and tucked it under his arm.
He moved back to stand in front of the iron dragon.