The cave evensmelledcold, like minerals and decay — a scent I didn’t pause to analyze.
It took several minutes for my eyes to adjust, and Sorsha gradually expanded her light until it illuminated the sharply sloping walls of the cavern, which came together at the top like the inside of a cathedral. Here and there, tunnels and chambers split off from the main cave, where icicles longer than my entire body hung suspended.
A steadydrip, drip, dripwas the only sound apart from the clomp of our horses’ hooves. Clouds of steam rose from the backs of our mounts, and their occasional chuffs of unease echoed loudly off the ice.
As we made our way deeper into the cavern, however, I became aware of a low rumbling noise that raised the hairsalong the back of my neck. It reminded me of a moan, though the sound wasn’t human.
Adriel paused, turning to me as he said, “Take off your jacket.”
Kaden stiffened.
“Why?” It was freezing in the caves, even with my new fur-lined cloak.
“You reek of gnome.”
Irritated, I turned toward him, but the serious, calculating look on his face gave me pause. He wasn’t offended by my smell. He wanted to use it.
With a tight nod, I unbuttoned my cloak, handing it to Kaden as I shrugged out of my jacket. Adriel took it, bunching up the leather and stuffing it into a canvas sack from his saddlebag.
“Here,” said Kaden, shucking off his own jacket and sliding it over my shoulders. It was deliciously warm and smelled like him. Of charred cedar and night.
“You don’t need to —”
“Yes, I do,” he said quietly, his voice gentle as he tugged the collar into place and started fastening it over my woolen undershirt. My breath skittered as his fingers worked the buttons, brushing up the center of my abdomen and resting briefly between my breasts.
“Why didn’t you tell me I reeked?” I asked as he fastened my cloak under my chin. His featherlight touch still heated my skin, and my voice came out embarrassingly strained.
“It doesn’t bother me,” he murmured, mouth tugging into the ghost of a grin. “Underneath the gnome stench, you still smell like you.”
Kaden released me, and we kept walking toward that unsettling noise. My fingers itched for my blade, but I didn’t draw my weapon. Kaden’s shadows unfurled around us, caressing my ankles like a friendly cat, though I sensed he was restraining himself from yanking me back to keep me from whatever inhabited these caves.
The passageway Adriel was leading us down narrowed, coming to a fork. The royal guard turned, taking an even narrower twisting bend, and I found myself wondering how he knew where to go. As the tunnels shrank, each way seemed as likely as the other, and I had the bleak thought that Eckoghari — whatever he was — might sustain himself by feasting on the corpses of lost travelers.
The dripping sound became more pronounced the deeper into the caves we walked, and an unpleasant sulfuric scent filled my nostrils. The ground sloped sharply downward, and I clung to Kaden’s horse to keep from sliding on the ice.
Sorsha’s light danced up ahead, and the source of the odor became clear. A large glistening pool lay sunken into base of the cavern we had entered, steam wafting from its surface as melting icicles dripped from above.
My heart gave a jolt, and a foolish hopefulness surged inside me. Maybe Eckoghari was off hunting elsewhere and we’d be able to pass through the ice caves unharmed.
But then the water stirred, intensifying the pungent sulfur smell that seemed to clog my airways. The surface bubbled, steam rushing forth in lush waves as a slick reptilian head appeared.
We all froze, our gazes locked on the pool’s undulating surface as the creature emerged. Wet scales glistened ananemic, faded blue in Sorsha’s faelight. A slick, scaly snout pointed toward us, the monster’s head bobbing on a long, graceful neck. Pronounced ridges followed the curve of its back, leading down to a pair of spiny wings.
The thing was as large as a house, with a thick spiked tail and sharp, curved talons that were each as long as my arm.
A dragon.
I sucked in a gasp as the realization hit me. Eckoghari, the gnome-loving beast that guarded the ice caves, was an enormous blue dragon.
Water gushed off its mammoth body as it glided toward the edge of the pool, shaking its wings and tail like a dog.
Kaden’s horse whinnied and jerked its head, and Sorsha’s tried to turn and run, though she kept a firm hold on its lead.
Nobody drew a weapon. At first, I thought the others might not want to appear to be threatening the great dragon, but then it occurred to me that our mundane blades might be useless against the beast.
Finished shaking itself, the dragon turned its head to face us, and I blinked as two milky white eyes appeared.
Eckoghari was blind.
