“I knew it,” Gideon breathed.

Jet shook his head, feeling somewhat like he’d just been drowned in a river of information, only to get slapped by a trout on his way up. “D…dragons?”

Laura nodded. She drew from the pipe and breathed out before continuing. “Dragons. They can do magic without tools, you know? Free magic. No tomes, no staves. There’s a girl around here who tamed one and uses it to make ice. It hunts in the woods… It’s wildly illegal, I’m sure, but also cheap as hell.”

“Wait, wait… There’s a dragon running around the capital city, that no one has noticed somehow, that someone’s tamed, which does nothing but make ice for some girl to sell to these ice cream shops?” Jet asked, a hand to his suddenly-aching head. What’s going on? I leave the capital for a few weeks and everything goes nuts.

This isn’t how this is supposed to go. I’m supposed to go on a heroic journey, bring back the prisoner, slay the True Dragon, and if everything went well and the prisoner behaved, maybe pardon the prisoner for his good work. Instead… how on earth did I end up here, chasing after an ice-cream-obsessed dragon who has nothing better to do but supply the pettiest criminal enterprise of all time?

Gideon gave Jet a look. “Don’t be ridiculous, Jet.”

“Oh, that’s where we draw the line?” Jet muttered under his breath.

“Nobody’s ever tamed a lesser dragon. If there’s a girl bringing a dragon around, but no one’s ever seen the girl and the dragon at the same time…” He waggled his brows at Jet.

Then she must be the dragon, Jet thought, finishing the thought. He nodded slowly.

“Never seen the dragon at all, in fact. Been taking it from her that she got it from one.” Laura shrugged. “Not that I wanted to see the dragon. Scary-ass things, dragons. And that girl’s got the scars to prove it.”

“Scars?” Gideon asked, suddenly intrigued.

Laura nodded, gesturing at her throat and chest. “Claw scars. Run down her neck into her shirt. I haven’t seen the end of them, but, well… she isn’t one of my girls, after all.”

Gideon’s brows furrowed. He put a hand to his chin.

If she has scars from a dragon… Jet shook his head. “Maybe she has tamed a dragon, after all. If we think about it, Leo was willing to stay with that human girl… it’s entirely possible for dragons to form bonds with humans, and vice versa, as we’re all living testament to.”

“No… I don’t think so. What kind of girl is running around in the woods taming wild dragons? Dragons don’t like humans, the same way humans don’t like dragons. Humans run around, smash dragon nests, attack unsuspecting dragons and kill them for no reason… you know, all the same stuff dragons do to humans. At this point, most dragons are going to attack humans on sight. Leo’s a special case, a cult’s god raised from birth by humans. The rest of them won’t behave like that.”

Laura cleared her throat, giving the two of them a good look. “Leo… isn’t that the name of the boy sitting outside? He ain’t no dragon.”

“Well, actually,” Gideon started.

“No ma’am, he isn’t. Different Leo,” Jet interrupted, before Gideon could get started.

“He is a dragon. Humans can turn into dragons,” Gideon finished, ignoring the interruption.

Laura raised her eyebrows and harrumphed, shaking her head disapprovingly at Gideon.

“See? There’s no need to be so rude and interrupt me. No one’s going to believe me anyways,” Gideon said, gesturing at Laura.

Jet rolled his eyes. He gave Laura an apologetic look, which she returned with an understanding smile.

“Anyways, I think we should meet this ice-seller of yours. If she is a dragon, and she’s scarred like that, she might be someone we should know,” Gideon said. He gave Jet a significant look.

“What does that mean?” Jet asked, putting his hands on his hips.

“She has scars from fighting dragons, as a dragon. You don’t want to get to know that kind of dragon, in the middle of the human-dragon war?” Gideon asked.

Jet paused. He nodded, slowly. “No, you’ve got a point.”

“I mean, dragons fight dragons all the time, don’t get me wrong. It’s not like they’re all bleeding-heart Leos. Mates, food, hoards, getting pissed off or drunk… well, more or less all the same reasons humans fight one another, dragons fight one another, too. It could very well be that her hoard met an untimely end, and that’s why she’s got those scars. But on the off-chance she’ll help us, it’s worth meeting her,” Gideon argued.

“Fair enough. And if she isn’t…” Jet put a hand on his sword.

“Hey now. Don’t go killing our ice seller. Even if she’s a dragon…” Laura trailed off.

Gideon shrugged. “After all, in the worst case, she doesn’t seem to be killing humans willy-nilly. I think that’s good enough.”

“Wait, you don’t want to kill this dragon?” Jet asked, flabbergasted.

Gideon shrugged. “She doesn’t seem to be doing harm. Why bother?”

“You’ve never—” Jet rubbed his face, forcing himself to stop. This is just Gideon being Gideon. Deep breath. If you were advocating against killing the dragon, he’d definitely be for it, it’s just that he’s a contrarian bastard. I can’t let him control the conversation.

“If she’s even killed one human…” Jet threatened.

Gideon gave him a look. “If you followed that rule, you’d kill yourself.”

Jet paused. He looked down at his sword, then back up at Gideon. “That’s different. That was war.”

“And bandits, and cultists…” Gideon pointed out.

“That’s different than murder.”

“Not to the bandits and cultists.”

Exasperated, Jet looked at Gideon. “You killed bandits and cultists too! Where’s this coming from?”

“Oh, I mean, I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me. But does it bother you?” Gideon asked, a smug smirk on his face.

Jet jabbed the pendant. Gideon jolted, then raised a hand to the collar and scowled. “What was that about?”

“Just… you being an asshole, in general,” Jet said, turning to leave the ice cream parlor.

“Hey, come by any time! If you want a sweet treat or a…” Laura waggled her eyebrows, “…sweet treat, we’re open all hours of the day and night.”

Jet forced a smile. He waved a goodbye and stepped out the door.

As he left, Gideon let out an exasperated sigh loud enough for Jet to hear and turned to Laura, the same long-suffering look Jet usually wore on his face. “Laura, that Jet, can you believe him? Always rushing off before he finishes the job. Where do you usually meet your ice-seller? And where?”

“You gonna kill her?” Laura asked, regarding him with a suspicious look.

“Nah. Not unless she’s evil. And I won’t let Jet kill her either. Well…” Gideon turned over his shoulder and smirked at Jet, who stood awkwardly half-in and half-out of the door. “Not that he could solo-kill her if he wanted to.”

Jet narrowed his eyes at Gideon. “Mind your tongue.”

“What? It’s true,” Gideon called back.

Laura nodded, satisfied. She reached into her pocket and drew out a piece of paper, quickly scrawling a few streets on it. “There. That’s where you’ll meet her. Name of Rana.”

Gideon grinned. He saluted sloppily. “Thank you, ma’am!”

“Don’t go killing her, now!” Laura called after them, as they stepped out into the sunlight.