Drake descended the stairs two steps at a time as he arranged the collar of his tunic. He wouldn't normally be dressed like that, but there were certain situations in which any man should suck up and do what needed to be done. In this case, Drake needed to show why people feared the Draconians. And that he could do beyond any doubt.
But he had other things jumbling inside his mind that made him waver. Drake hadn't yet confessed to Hope the thoughts that tortured him in those two months. A cold emptiness inside his being resided where the Fire Dragon should have been. A feeling of incompleteness unsettled him in every hour of every day.