“I have a dragon pearl with me,” he said.
“Ah. They must have missed it. I was assured they were quite thorough in their search, but one can never tell.”
“It’s hidden.” Jason focused briefly, testing to make sure that the illusion for his eyes remained, and as far as he could tell, it did.
“I think I’d prefer not to know,” she said, smiling at him.
“Why did you harm us?”
“Harm you? Did you not present yourself for testing?”
“Is this all part of the test?”
“Is it?”
Jason reached for his head, rubbing the back of it where the strike had knocked him out. Everything ached.
He looked around, trying to get a sense of what was taking place, and yet with this woman, he had no real idea. She watched him, studying him in a way that left him feeling exposed. There was more than just an intensity to her gaze. There was something about the way she looked at him, almost as if she were knowing him the same way the dragons had known him. Jason wanted to look away, but he had a sense this was her test.
It was possible none of this would be a way to reach the Dragon Souls. After everything he’d gone through, Jason no longer knew if that was even a real possibility, or if he’d already missed out. If she was here and intending to test him, he didn’t know whether she intended to allow him and Sarah access to the Dragon Souls, or whether this was her way of finding whatever answers she wanted from him.
He sat up, letting his hands drop to his sides. He focused on the iron glove, afraid he might reveal too much with it, but he didn’t think so. Somehow even though he’d been knocked unconscious, he’d maintained the connection and the illusion. It was possible the dragons had been responsible for that, but it might have only been that he had reestablished the illusion the moment he had come around.
“What do you want with me?”
The woman watched him. “You came for testing. You claim to have come out of Gilroy.”
Jason nodded.
She leaned back. “Gilroy is an interesting place. We’ve been working to establish our presence there, but the longer we’ve been there, the harder it has been for us to ensure the safety of our people.”
Jason didn’t blink. He knew nothing about Gilroy. That had been Sarah’s lie, and if he said anything, it was all too possible that he would reveal his ignorance.
“What I find interesting about Gilroy is the nature of the rebellion there.”
“What rebellion?”
She pressed her lips together. A sense of heat from her surged briefly before retreating. “What rebellion? You say that as if you don’t know. If you are from Gilroy”—the way she said it suggested to Jason that she believed he was not, and he was increasingly concerned about what it would take to escape from here—“then you would know that the rebellion has been quite severe in Gilroy.”
Had Sarah known? He didn’t think so. If Sarah had known about a rebellion picking up steam somewhere near, she wouldn’t have used that as the claim of where they were from. It would’ve been too dangerous to do so.
“I don’t know anything about the rebellion.”
“No. And yet you come here with an ability we search for. How convenient.”
“I was told to come here and present myself for testing.”
“Told by who?”
“He never gave us his name.”
That much he thought would be reasonable. He didn’t know enough about the Dragon Souls to know whether or not they would reveal that, but he suspected they would keep that sort of thing to themselves.
“Tell me more about your experience in Gilroy,” she said.
“What more is there to tell? We came across a Dragon Soul, and he thought we had potential. Our village is isolated,” Jason said.
At least in that much, he could try to make their ignorance understandable. It would only work in so far as Sarah backed up what he said. He had no idea what she was telling her interrogator, or whether she had said something similar.
“There aren’t very many villages in Gilroy.” She flashed a dark smile. “I’ve traveled through there extensively, and I have more than enough knowledge of the area to know the villages.”
“We were on a hillside. It was a mining village.”
She frowned. Would she know about any place like that?
It might’ve been easier for Sarah to reveal that they came from Varmin or one of those villages near Varmin. At least in that case, Jason might not have felt quite so helpless when it came to trying to justify his knowledge. Creating something of this Gilroy was difficult for him, as he had no idea of anything about Gilroy. He didn’t know if there was any particular export that he needed to be aware of.
With a mining village, at least he had some experience. He didn’t know enough about Varmin to know what they did with their iron, but he had enough experience with tellum to be aware of the mining process. Even the iron dragon would have knowledge. He thought he could use that knowledge to help him anticipate what she might ask.
“A mining village. There aren’t any mining villages in Gilroy.”
“We were isolated,” Jason said again.
“If you are so isolated, then how is it that two of you come to us with such potential?”
“I think it’s because we were isolated. Your Dragon Soul thought we’d been separated long enough, and he wanted us to come here to learn.” Jason looked down, trying to maintain an image of subservience. “He told us that we could learn to work with dragons. He told us we could gain power.”
“It is that what you want?”
“I just want to understand.”
That much, at least, was true. The woman sat silent, and Jason resisted the urge to look up and meet her eyes. Eventually she got to her feet and left the room, closing the door and leaving Jason locked inside.
He checked his legs, finding they were bound with the same chain that had restrained his arms, and as he looked around the room, he understood what she had said about the nature of the chains. They were solid, and he shouldn’t have been able to break through them. The fact that he had torn through one, that he’d used his dragon pearl in order to carve through it, would have suggested far more questions.
Jason swore under his breath. He should have known better than to have revealed himself like that.
He got to his feet, although the chains made it difficult to move around. He was tempted to try to burn through them, but if they saw him using the heat from the dragon glove, then there was a real possibility they would try to question him differently. He already had enough questions about who he was and where he was from, and he had no idea whether he was answering them effectively.
So much for trying to infiltrate the Dragon Souls.
He couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps feigning that he and Sarah were siblings had been a mistake. It might’ve been better for them if they had claimed that they had met along the road. At least then, only one of them would have been suspicious. This way, they were both suspicious.
Jason checked his pockets, feeling through them. They had stripped him of his cloak, but they had left him in the dragonskin pants and jacket.
Without that, Jason wasn’t sure if he would have felt quite as safe. And he continued to search, looking for the leaf.
He found it. It was there in his pocket, and he reached in and ran his fingers across the surface of it.
Strange they hadn’t taken it.
He had little doubt that they had searched him, and they had checked to see if he had any dragon pearls on him. The fact they hadn’t taken the leaf suggested they didn’t view it as anything significant.
When he pulled it from his pocket, cupping it in his hand, he ran his fingers along the surface of it. There was a smooth sense to it. He detected a hint of warmth, though not nearly as much as he did with the other dragon pearls. The shape was unique, almost as if it were a carving rather than a dragon pearl. Given how different it was from the other pearls, he thought he understood why it wouldn’t have been quite as noticeable.