48. Aurora
AURORA
“What do you mean, what has he done?” Ryse demanded, rising to stand protectively over me and L’eesha. “Auri hasn’t done anything—he’s bonding with his dragon!”
“Cadet, you have allowed an unfit drakeling to hatch!” Yarsmouth said, ignoring him and glaring at me. “That is strictly against the rules of the Academy.”
“What do you mean, unfit?” I asked, looking up as I cradled L’eesha protectively close to my body. “She’s perfect.”
“No, she’s a runt and a genetic anomaly,” he declared, frowning at her. “There is no such thing as a golden dragon.”
“There is now,” Ryse growled. “So you’d better get used to it!”
“Don’t touch her!” I warned the Master. “She’s mine and I’m hers—there’s nothing wrong with her—not a thing!”
L’eesha must have felt my animosity for Yarsmouth and my fear for her safety because she suddenly piped up in my mind,
“this is the bad old one? the one who made my Auri sad?”
“Yes,” I told her distractedly. “That’s him. But you can’t—”
But before I could finish the sentence, she’d snaked out her long neck and nipped Yarsmouth. Well, I say “nipped” but as he jumped and howled, I saw that she had actually taken quite a sizeable chunk out of his calf.
“That creature is a menace!” he exclaimed as L’eesha delicately spat the chunk of flesh out onto the sand. Apparently he wasn’t good enough to eat—or not as good as fresh goat, anyway.
“I’m sorry,” I said stiffly. “She doesn’t like you.”
“Doesn’t like me? She’s too young to form opinions of humans yet!” he exclaimed.
“No, she’s not,” I told him. “She hasn’t liked you since you said she wasn’t really talking to me.”
When I looked up at Ryse, I saw he was struggling not to laugh.
“It seems she’s not too young to have opinions after all,” was all he said.
Master Yarsmouth gave me a furious look.
“I’m bringing this to the Head Master! You, Cadet Lysandra, are in big trouble!”
Then he hobbled off, his calf streaming blood, with a sour expression on his face.
“L’eesha, that was bad!” I exclaimed, looking down at her in concern.
I felt the mental equivalent of a dragon shrugging.
“i told you i would bite him,” she said. “but he tastes nasty. please give me more meat!”
I gave her another chunk of goat meat, but I couldn’t help being worried. L’eesha had just been hatched and already she was causing controversy. What would the Head Master say? What would happen to us?
Because I was no longer an “I”—we were an “us” now. Where she went, I would go and I would never, ever give her up. I knew that to the marrow of my bones—I couldn’t love my drakeling more if I’d carried her for nine months in my own body and given birth to her myself.
“What do you think the Head Master is going to do?” I asked Ryse, who had a worried look in his golden eyes.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head.
“Is what he said really a thing? Helping an unfit drakeling to be hatched, I mean—is that a crime?” I asked.
Ryse frowned reluctantly.
“Well…yes. But it’s usually when someone who hasn’t really Impressed an egg breaks it open or when an egg is declared off-limits because it’s clearly malformed and a cadet helps it hatch anyway.”
“But I did Impress L’eesha, and her egg wasn’t deformed!” I protested.
“That may not be the way the Head Master sees it.” Ryse put a hand on my shoulder. “Look, Auri—no matter what happens, I’m with you. If he tries to throw you out of the Academy, M’alex and I will go as well.”
“You will?” I looked up at him uncertainly.
He nodded firmly.
“We will. And I’m not just speaking for myself—M’alex agrees.”
“Thank you.” I felt a surge of gratitude and L’eesha wanted to know what was going on.
“Master Yarsmouth is angry because you bit him and he’s going to tell the Head Master,” I tried to explain. “You really shouldn’t have bitten him, you know.”
I felt a burst of indignation coming from her tiny body.
“the bad old one was making you sad! he needed biting.”
“Yes, but I told you not to,” I said reprovingly. “Anyway, would you like to meet someone who doesn’t need biting?” I asked, motioning to Ryse, who knelt down beside us and looked into her eyes.
“Hello, L’eesha,” he said softly, smiling at her. “You’re beautiful.”
I expected to have to interpret for him since dragons can only speak to their riders, but L’eesha surprised me by understanding him at once.
“of course i am beautiful—I am a Queen,” she replied.
When I relayed this to Ryse, he let out a surprised laugh.
“She thinks very highly of herself, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, I guess so.” I scratched her gently behind her tiny eye ridges and L’eesha closed her swirling rainbow eyes and made the soft trilling-humming-purring sound I loved so much. But now I could hear it with my ears, not just my mind.
Ryse’s smile turned into a look of concentration, and I knew he must be bespeaking his dragon.
“Actually, M’alex says she really is a queen,” he remarked. “I’m not sure what that means, but he’s very adamant about it.”
“yes, i am the Queen,” L’eesha agreed—again apparently hearing what he was saying and not needing any interpretation. “and the Queen is always right.”
Just at that moment, Master Yarsmouth approached again, stalking over the sands with a frown on his face.
“Cadet Lysandra,” he said, frowning down at me. “The Head Master wants to see you in the office at once. Bring your dragon.”