I shrugged, blushing from his compliment.
“The pendant makes other people see what they expect to see. No one expects to see a girl at the Academy.”
“No, they don’t—but they should,” he said frowning.
He was still trying to decipher the verse at the end of the oldest book, the one that had paintings of Golden Queens with female riders and Madlings in it. He’d told me that he had a feeling the Academy was going to be very sorry they had outlawed female riders and allowed the Queen eggs to collect dust for so many years.
“But why were the Queens so important?” I asked him, as he was studying one night.
He shook his head.
“I don’t know, but I’m sure they are. They once played a vital role in the Academy’s Dragon Ranks.”
“Maybe they lay more Gold-wings and other Noble dragons than regular females,” I suggested.
“Maybe,” he said, frowning. “But I have a feeling it’s something more than that.”
Now that at least one person I trusted knew my true identity, I felt much more secure. I knew that Ryse wouldn’t betray me—he protected my secret even more closely than I did.
Every time I walked out the door, he insisted on checking first to be certain I was wearing my Dragon Glass pendant. But I liked to take it off when it was just the two of us alone at night. I felt less inhibited when I wasn’t wearing it and I began to wonder when Ryse might make good on his promise to kiss me “more than twice.”
But for quite a while, he was still treating me like I was made of fine china—maybe because I was still having my courses.
Finally, though, I stopped bleeding. It was with immense relief that I hid away the torn towels at the bottom of my dresser drawer and told Ryse that I no longer needed any willow bark tea or the hot water bottle he so considerately kept filled for me.
But he still didn’t do anything but kiss me on the forehead and hold me in his arms as we slept…until the night L’eesha started having growing pains.
55
AURORA
It was a wonder she hadn’t had any before, to be honest. At just under a month old, she was now as big as a grown common Brown dragon and was still eating like it was her personal mission to make goats and sheep endangered species. She was rapidly outgrowing her Hatch-mates too, making even the Gold-wings look small in comparison.
“She’s going to be the biggest dragon at the Academy if she keeps on like this,” the Master of the Dragon Caverns told me.
A Dragon childhood didn’t last very long, since they grew so fast. Most of the hatchlings that had been in the nursery were now sharing space in the huge, honeycombed area on level five with the grown dragons. The Master of the Caverns kept them separated from the larger dragons, of course, though he complained that several times L’eesha had gotten around the barrier meant to keep the juveniles and adults separate and had gone to talk to the older dragons.
Mostly she spent time with M’alex, who was extremely protective of her. The second time the Master of the Caverns complained, I came up to the Fifth Level and found her sheltering under one of his massive royal-purple and gold wings.
Neither dragon was happy to be parted but I explained to them both that they had to follow the rules. And, at last, I was able to lure L’eesha away with the promise of a fresh goat.
She was well into her adolescence by then and she gave me plenty of attitude when I told her she couldn’t keep going around the barrier to see M’alex whenever she wanted to.
“why can’t i go?” she asked sullenly, as she followed me back to the juvenile dragon enclosure. “it’s a stupid rule—why can’t we spend time with the older dragons?”
“Because you’re still tiny compared to some of them,” I pointed out. “They might hurt you by accident if one of them stepped on you.”
“none of them would dare to hurt me,” she informed me loftily. “i am the Queen.”
I rolled my eyes.
“That’s your answer to everything!”
“because it is true!” she protested. “now where is the juicy goat you promised me?”
I got her settled with the goat and extracted a reluctant promise that she wouldn’t go around the barrier again—at least, not right away. It was always exhausting fighting with her because she argued so much. I was sometimes envious of my friends, who had bonded with dragons that had much more malleable temperaments.
“They’re easier to direct because they’re not as smart as L’eesha,” Ryse said when I complained. “She’s the most intelligent dragon I’ve ever heard of—I should know because M’alex tells me what they talk about sometimes.”
