2. Aurora #2
“Oh, er, right.” I nodded and he started to turn away again.
“But what if the dragons don’t like me?” I blurted out, before I could stop myself. I was dimly aware that this was a question that would only apply to me—not to Auren, if he’d still been alive. He was a male with Nobel blood and thus compatible with all of dragonkind. But I, as a woman, was not.
“Don’t like you? Well, of course they’ll like you, lad!” The courier huffed a laugh that made his mustache puff out again. “G’lornie likes you, don’t he? Aye boy, come here.”
He motioned to his dragon and the little brown came forward and sniffed me again.
Then he put out a perfectly enormous black and pink mottled tongue and licked the side of my face, startling me so much I let out a squeak of surprise.
It was like being swiped at with a warm, wet mop and the whole side of my face was wet when he pulled back.
The courier laughed again to see my shock.
“There, you see? He’s already fond of you—he doesn’t lick just anybody.
And if G’lornie likes you, all the rest will too.
He’s not just a Brown you know,” he added confidentially, lowering his voice as though he was telling me an important secret.
“He’s got a knack, he does, for scenting out the bloodlines.
He only picks those with the blood of the Ancient Riders in their veins—can smell ‘em a league off. Can’t you, boy? ”
He scratched the little Brown behind his eye ridges and G’lornie hummed, his golden eyes going half-lidded with contentment and pleasure.
“That’s my boy.” The courier looked at his mount with real affection and I saw a little of the deep connection a rider has with his dragon. There was something passing between them—some deep communication only they could understand.
Suddenly, I hungered for that bond—the bond a rider and dragon have the moment they first look into each other’s eyes.
I was so lonely—so dreadfully, soul-numbingly lonely since Auren had died.
I barely remembered my mother and I had never been close to my father.
He had doted on my brother but as a female, I was beneath his notice.
Auren had been my whole world up until he died and now… now I had no one.
But could a girl really Impress an egg and bond with the dragon that hatched from it? All the texts I had read said no and conventional wisdom would have laughed at the very idea. Why not though, I asked myself? Why couldn’t they all be wrong—at least in my case?
The legends all spoke of dragons burning a female to ashes if she got too close, but I’d been having the flying dreams. And G’lornie seemed to like me well enough—he hadn’t so much as blown a smoke ring in my direction.
Also, the courier had said the little Brown was specially sent out to find the right candidates for the Academy.
And he’d liked me so much he’d licked me—one side of my face was still damp from his drool.
So why couldn’t I go to the Academy and Impress a dragon? I looked just like my brother had in the face and I had a fairly deep voice for a girl—no one had to be the wiser. Why not go?
I’ll tell you why not, because if you’re wrong about being able to pull this off, you’ll be dead! shouted a panicked-sounding voice in my head. You can’t just pretend to be male and expect to get away with it! Can you?
That was the question, and the answer might mean my death.
“What should I pack?” I heard myself asking.
The courier shrugged.
“Nothing—G’lornie can’t carry much besides the two of us.
Besides, they’ll give you everything you need at the Academy.
Not that you’ll need much to start—just a uniform and supplies to take notes for your classes.
The professors are extremely strict,” he added, waggling those poufy eyebrows at me sternly.
“They won’t tolerate any sass or backtalk. The course load isn’t easy, you know.”
“I know,” I said quickly. I’d heard as much from father, when he was half-drunk and feeling expansive.
Auren and I had heard all about how difficult the courses were—it was one reason my father had hired a tutor when we were younger, though the expense nearly broke us financially.
Luckily for me, I had been included in those lessons—mainly because Auren wouldn’t behave unless I was at his side.
“I swear the girl is a better scholar than her brother!” I remembered the tutor—a stick-thin fellow with a receding hairline and an Adam’s apple nearly as big as a real apple—muttering.
So I should be well prepared for the Academy—academically, at least. But there was more to the Academy than academics.
I pushed away my doubts and nodded at the courier.
“Well, I guess I’d better get ready.”
“Do that.” He nodded. “G’lornie and I will be in the cave. See you at six AM sharp.”
“Six sharp,” I repeated, nodding and this time when he turned away, I let him go.
Then I went back inside to prepare, as much as I could, to take my brother’s place at the Academy. I had no idea if I would survive the experience, but I was determined to try—no matter what the consequences were.