“That was just L’eesha trying something new,” I said uncomfortably. I couldn’t see over his broad shoulder, but I could feel my dragon watching us in consternation.
“That’s no excuse for risking your life!” he exclaimed.
Pulling away from me, he rounded on my dragon.
“Don’t you know that only the most experienced dragons are able to pull off a dive like that? If you had gotten the angle wrong—even by a little—or your wings hadn’t been strong enough to snap out and catch the wind—you’d both be dead right now!”
I got a mixture of shame and defiance from L’eesha.
“Tell him I know what I’m doing!” she demanded.
I frowned at her.
“I really don’t think you want me to say that,” I sent back.
“You’re grounded for the next week—no flying with Auri until you can prove to me you’re going to be more responsible,” he snapped at L’eesha.
She glared at him angrily.
“He can’t tell me that we can’t fly together!” she exclaimed.
“I’m afraid he can—Ryse is our Wing Leader,” I reminded her.
To be honest, I was sorry we wouldn’t get to fly together again for awhile—I loved soaring above the clouds with her. But Ryse was right—she had to learn a lesson about being reckless.
In the meantime, Ryse was still upset. It seemed to me that there must be something else besides L’eesha’s antics that was upsetting him. But before I could take him aside discretely and ask, Professor Humbolt landed his Cerulean Silver-wing beside M’alex. He slid stiffly out of the saddle and stalked over to us, frowning.
“All right—whose idea was it to take over my class and subvert my orders?” he demanded.
I felt an instant stab of guilt. I hadn’t considered how my professor might react to L’eesha’s interference in his class, but I supposed I couldn’t be surprised that he was angry.
“That was my fault, Sir,” I said humbly. “Er, it was my dragon who sort of, took over. I should have reined her in.”
“Yes, you should have, Cadet!” he snapped. “I’m giving you a failing grade for that little maneuver—an F which is most definitely going to affect your final grade in my class.”
“what is he saying? why is he giving bad grades to my Auri?” L’eesha demanded, sounding distressed.
M’alex must have explained to her, because the next minute, she got angry.
“you tell your rider he’d better not give my Auri any of those nasty Fs!” I heard her telling Professor Humbolt’s dragon. “you tell him to behave and leave my Auri alone!”
“No, L’eesha—don’t say that!” I begged.
But it was too late—clearly the professor’s dragon had told him exactly what L’eesha had said because he turned to look, first at her, and then at me, with an incredulous expression on his face.
“Cadet Lysandra, are you actually telling your dragon to threaten me?” he demanded.
“No, Sir!” I said quickly. “I’m very sorry if she spoke out of turn. She’s only been hatched a little over a month and she’s very headstrong, I’m afraid.”
He shook his head.
“You expect me to believe that your dragon came up with that threat herself? Dragons don’t act in that manner!”
“I’m afraid L’eesha does, Professor,” Ryse said, stepping in smoothly. “She’s a very unusual dragon, as you can see. There hasn’t been a Golden Queen in the ranks of the Academy’s dragons for over a century.”
“I don’t care how long it’s been since her kind of dragon has been here, there’s no excuse for her disrespect!” Professor Humbolt blustered. He pointed at me. “And don’t think I didn’t see that dive you took off the cliff when you first took off. That’s dangerous and against all the flight safety rules the Academy has laid down to keep you youngsters from killing yourselves.”
“Yes, Sir. I’m sorry, Sir,” I said miserably, knowing there was nothing I could say or do to change his mind.
