Anders stared through the uneven glass of the window, studying the place where the mountains disappeared into the clouds. He wondered what the very first dragonsmiths had been like—he wondered what the very first wolf designers had been like. What kind of artifacts had they made together? Had they worked together to discover their gifts, or had they mistrusted each other as much as wolves and dragons did today, only coming together because they had no choice?
The lessons continued all day. For a couple of hours Leif taught the group, just as Anders’s teachers at Ulfar had, but most of the time they studied independently, each reading or experimenting or learning about their own areas. Leif helped Bryn find an old text on Mositalan verbs, and walked Nico through a mathematical formula until he understood it. He seemed to know a little of everything, and was endlessly interested and patient.
Anders came away in the late afternoon feeling as if his brain was crammed full of facts and ideas, plus even more questions than he’d begun the day with.
Over the next few days, his lessons continued. Ellukka spent each morning with him, telling him stories and helping with his reading. Mikkel started to join them sometimes to help fill in the history, and Theo came to sit near them and listen—as a new dragon himself, he had a lot to learn. Rayna sometimes had reading lessons with Lisabet, and sometimes the two of them would join the others in the back of the classroom. Rayna and Theo left now and again for flying lessons—flying was mostly instinctive, but practice made perfect—returning with huge smiles every time.
Ferdie dropped through to see what Anders and the others were working on occasionally, just for fun. Bryn came by and showed them how words in different languages were sometimes the same as their own. Even Isabina looked up from her machines once in a while, though Krissin, Nico, and Patrik kept their distance. Always, Leif was there, sometimes teaching them himself, sometimes joining their conversation for a few minutes, guiding them toward a new idea or a new question.
There were times when Anders was so fascinated by the stories he heard and the new ideas that piled into his brain, and so absorbed in his lessons, that he forgot he was a wolf among dragons. He forgot that it was only Leif’s invitation to the Finskól that was keeping him safe at all.
Nevertheless, he began to learn his way around, and to think that Drekhelm really might be a place he and Rayna could live, if only they could fit in. The idea of he and his twinlivinganywhere—expecting their next meal without wondering where it would come from, putting on clean clothes every day—was still so strange he barely knew what to make of it.
But each time he was nearly comfortable, an older dragon would scowl at him as he walked down the hallway, or Nico and Krissin would whisper to each other, staring at him as they did.
Or Leif would leave the classroom to attend the Dragonmeet, and come back with a grim expression, or Anders would hear a murmur about the Snowstone. Most mornings Ellukka would show up at breakfast to report that her father said the Dragonmeet had met again the night before, talking and talking of what they might do about the possibility of wolf attack, without ever making any progress.
Sooner or later, Sigrid would make her move, and Anders wished he knew what to do to be ready. More and more, he saw he had to do something—because nobody else would.
One day nearly a week after his arrival at Drekhelm, Anders stayed back in the classroom at lunchtime to work on his latest lesson. Theo was on the other side of the table, trying to stop one of his giant stacks of records from falling over before he joined the others.
“What’re you working on?” he asked Anders, experimentally letting go of his pile, and then grabbing it again when it started to topple.
“I’m...” Anders wasn’t sure how to answer. “I’m trying to learn how to learn, I guess. I have so many questions.”
“Hey, that’s basically what I do,” Theo said, lighting up with a grin, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. Theo wasnevershort on energy. “Research, archives, figuring out where and how to store information so we can find it again when we need it, or even just figure out what questions to ask. I’m going to be a dragon librarian eventually. They really need one here at Drekhelm. What are you trying to figure out right now?”
Anders looked across at the other boy, weighing his reply. Did he dare risk an honest answer? Perhaps he could—Theo might be happy at Drekhelm, but he had family back in Holbard, and surely he’d be worried about them.
“I’m trying to figure out ten things at once,” Anders admitted. “I want badly to know what’s happening in Holbard. What Sigrid’s going to do with the Snowstone. What they’re all saying about Lisabet and me. I want to know who I am, and what I am.” The words kept tumbling out, and he found he couldn’t stop them. He didn’t even know what he was going to say next, until he found himself saying it. “I want to know what I should do. About the wolves, and the Snowstone. Because I don’t think the Dragonmeet’s going to do anything.”
Theo nodded slowly. “All they ever do is talk,” he agreed quietly. “I’ve noticed too. And they don’t seem to understand that just because it’s the dragon way that doesn’t mean there’s time for it. If the wolves have the Snowstone and they know where we are, they’re not going to wait around forever to attack.”
“Exactly,” Anders agreed. “But I have no idea what we can do, or what we should do. I thought maybe if I could figure out something about my icefire, I’d know how to protect us against it, but one wolf against an artifact that can affect the whole country?”
“Well,” said Theo slowly. “I don’t have an answer for that. But maybe I can help you with the other questions. Come with me.”
They shored up Theo’s stack of paper together and left the classroom, making their way through the hallways of Drekhelm toward the archives—the long series of caves filled with old files, records and books, artifacts and abandoned experiments, and creations left behind by generations long gone. The archives were a kind of combination library and storeroom, totally disorganized.
“How could you ever find anything in there?” Anders asked, looking through the doorway to the next cave. “Everything’s everywhere.”
“You’re telling me,” Theo agreed. “When they abandoned Old Drekhelm after the last great battle and moved here, they just hauled everything with them and dumped it, and I think everyone’s been too intimidated to go through it ever since. I’m probably going to spend the rest of my life on it, but I bet I’ll discover some amazing stuff. There are so many artifacts just lying around that nobody uses. I found one in the infirmary the other day being used as a paperweight! And it’s supposed to be for keeping pots of tea warm. And look at Rayna’s hairpins, they’re the perfect example of an artifact doing a mundane job. I don’t know what they’re for, but I bet there’s a record in here somewhere that would tell us, if we only knew where to look.”
“Rayna’s hairpins?” Anders was momentarily distracted from how overwhelming the collection of books, artifacts, and records was. “What do you mean?”
“Well, they’ve got runes on them,” Theo pointed out. “And they’re copper, right? They’ve got to be some kind of artifact.”
Anders and Rayna had wondered that themselves, sometimes—they didn’t know where Rayna had gotten them from, but they were the only thing that, no matter how desperate, the twins had never traded. And now a new thought struck Anders: if he and his sister really did have dragon blood in their veins, perhaps the hairpins had even come from family.
But Theo was climbing over a large, spindly artifact with lots of arms or legs or appendages of some sort, and pulling a huge book down from a shelf. It was the size of one of the giant Skraboks in the library back at Ulfar Academy.
“These are the old records,” Theo said. “I’m still going through them, but there are lots of things in here that talk about ways to see what’s happening somewhere else. And that would answer some of your questions about what’s happening in Holbard. I don’t know where most of the things in this book are, but if we at least know what we’re looking for, we could come back here and search through the caves. I bet the others would help, or some of them, anyway.”
Anders climbed in over the machine to look over Theo’s shoulder as the other boy turned the pages. Theo could read more quickly than Anders, so he scanned each description and paused whenever he found one that talked about long-distance observation or communication. Some artifacts were marked down as lost or broken, and some were marked down as “intact.”
“That means they’re in here somewhere,” Theo said, pulling his smooth black hair into a ponytail again, when it tried to fall into his eyes. “Someone’s seen them and tested them and written it in here.”
He turned the page again, and a jolt went through Anders at the illustration he saw. It was a large mirror, with dragons forged into the metal frame down one side of it, and a pack of wolves running down the other. He had no idea where he’d seen it before, but it looked familiar. “What’s this one?” he asked, staring down at it.
