‘Those shoes are more dangerous than dragonfire,’ he breathes into my hair.
I shrug him off. We walk back to the ballroom in silence and when Atlas tries to take my hand I pretend not to notice. I slip through the door and Marquis immediately locks eyes on me from across the room. When he sees my loose hair and Atlas appear in the doorway behind me, his mouth spreads into a smirk. I ignore him and scan theroom. Hollingsworth has also returned and is talking to a small man by the drinks table. I make a beeline for her and Marquis’s smile falters.
‘I’m sorry to interrupt,’ I say loudly.
The man looks at me in surprise and Hollingsworth turns round.
‘Vivien,’ she says, smiling. ‘How delightful to see you again.’
I glower at her.
‘Would you excuse me, Henry?’ she says to her friend.
The man bows his head and, with a curious glance in my direction, scurries away. Hollingsworth looks at me expectantly.
‘So?’ she says. ‘How have you been enjoying life at Bletchley?’
‘Do you mean how am I enjoying life since you got my parents arrested and ruined my future?’
Hollingsworth clicks her tongue and takes a sip of champagne, leaving a smattering of red lipstick on the rim of the glass.
‘We’ve already discussed this, Vivien. Your parents have no one to blame for their arrest but themselves. And, if I’m not mistaken, you ruined your own future by breaking your house arrest to free a criminal dragon. Am I wrong?’
I feel my cheeks warm. She’s not wrong. I could have stayed home with Ursa. Had I done that, I would simply be the unfortunate daughter of criminals. Not a criminal myself.
‘You were never interested in my mother’s work,’ I say. ‘When my university application flagged my parents as apotential threat, Wyvernmire sentyouundercover to find out if they were rebels.’
‘Yes, I admit that is true,’ Hollingsworth says. ‘ButI also had my own intentions. Your mother is interesting, of course, but it was you who intrigued me. Universities send the applications they receive to study Dragonese to the Academy, and yours impressed me. I’ve yet to meet another person your age who speaks so many dragon tongues.’
I try to keep my expression hostile, but the shock shines through.
‘I fully intended to invite you to join my apprenticeship programme,’ Hollingsworth says. ‘But our Prime Minister had other ideas. She decidedshewas going to have you. I was sent to recruit you, not for myself, but for the DDAD.’
I glance around nervously. So Hollingsworth must have signed the Official Secrets Act, too.
‘So Wyvernmire was always going to offer me a job?’ I say, thinking of the day I met her in handcuffs. I lower my voice. ‘Even if I hadn’t freed that dragon?’
Hollingsworth nods. ‘The DDAD operated a cross-country, cross-class recruitment programme, but the university application process gave them some of the finest selections to choose from. They spotted you just like I did. Of course, if you hadn’t broken your house arrest, then you wouldn’t be a criminal like most of the recruits here, but Wyvernmire had plenty of offers up her sleeve to entice you.’
‘She has me working with … languages,’ I say hesitantly. There’s no way I can be sure about what exactly Hollingsworth knows.
‘Of course she has,’ she replies. ‘Language is as crucial to war as any weapon.’
‘Then how can you let her gatekeep them?’ I say suddenly. ‘You’re theChancellorof the Academy for Draconic Linguistics – your job is to preserve and promote dragon tongues!’
She leans in closer to me, still gripping her now empty glass. ‘That Academy isgovernment-funded, Vivien.’ Her eyes dart once round the room. ‘And government-controlled.’
I look at her as understanding dawns on me. How long exactly has the government been controlling the learning of dragon tongues?
‘Over the years our funding has become smaller and smaller, our access to new languages more restricted,’ Hollingsworth says quietly. ‘Two-thirds of our departments have been shut down.’
‘But why?’ I say. ‘War or no war, we still need to be able to communicate with the dragons. Dragon tongues are part of our society, part of our country’s heritage—’
‘Did you know that the Academy was the first institution to record the dragon tongues of Bulgaria in writing?’ Hollingsworth says. ‘We created their written form using the Latin alphabet, instead of Bulgaria’s natural Cyrillic. Do you know why?’ She peers at me closely and her voice becomes almost urgent. ‘Few people in Britannia’s government read Cyrillic, and one must be able to understand a language in order to manipulate it.’
Why would the British government want to manipulate Bulgaria’s dragon tongues?
‘To control languages, to control words, is to control what people know.’
