Professor Zephyr nodded thoughtfully.
“Yes, that’s a possibility. But we don’t want the dragons upset either. We need to find one of them the rest will all listen to.” She looked at Ryse. “Don’t you ride a Midnight Gold-wing? The other dragons should be willing to hear from him.”
“Actually, Lysandra’s dragon might be the one to ask,” he said, nodding at me. “He rides a Golden Queen who can bespeak all the other dragons at once.”
“Really? You ride a Golden Queen?” Professor Valis’s dreamy eyes sharpened as he looked at me.
My heart started pounding but I did my best to keep my face neutral.
“Yes, Sir, I do. She’s the first one hatched in over a century,” I said.
“Indeed. There were many Golden Queens during the Madling Wars,” he said, frowning. “No one seems to know why they stopped being hatched.”
Ryse and I exchanged a look but neither of us said anything.
“Anyway, Lysandra’s dragon seems to have the unique ability to talk to all the dragons at once,” Ryse said, moving smoothly to another topic. “She has a stronger mental voice even than my M’alex. So if we want to spread the word among the dragons to be ready for battle, she might be the one to ask.”
“All right, then have her tell the dragons to tell their riders to get ready,” Professor Zephyr said. “But be sure she lets them know that this is a warning only. We hope we are wrong about the Madlings having a resurgence, but we want to be ready in case we’re not.”
“I’ll tell her,” I said. “L’eesha?—”
“already done,” I heard her pipe up in my head. Despite her great size, her mental voice was still light and quick. “i have told them all to be on alert, my Auri. they will tell their riders to be ready to fly if we need to.”
“Were you listening in on my conversation?” I asked her. I knew that in times of distress she could see what I was seeing and hear what I was hearing—which was something other dragons couldn’t do—but I hadn’t expected her to be up this early.
“you seemed worried,” she sent back. “i wanted to be sure you were all right.”
“I’m fine,” I assured her. “Just make sure you don’t alarm the dragons and riders. We want them to be ready to fight—not panicked out of their minds.”
“the dragons are telling their riders now,” she informed me. “they are being careful not to alarm anyone.”
“Oh—my B’ormoth just bespoke me!” Professor Griven said, frowning.
“And my K’ellen,” Professor Valis said. He looked at me. “It seems your Golden Queen is quite a quick communicator, Cadet Lysandra.”
“She’s one of a kind,” I said, nodding with pride.
“Very well—we need to get moving.” Professor Zephyr clapped her hands together. “We’ll meet her in the Infirmary again tonight after dinner. By then, hopefully we’ll have made some progress.”
But as it turned out, we didn’t have to wait to meet again. Because well before dinner, things had changed drastically for the worse.
67
AURORA
Just after lunch time, a ragged villager came riding up to the Receiving Bowl. I didn’t see him but one of the little Browns who was sunning himself in the huge, curved stone surface did and told L’eesha, who informed me.
The villager had ridden his horse nearly to death. It was blowing and foaming as he dismounted. And he was shouting the same thing that Chud Larson had been saying,
“They’re coming! They’re coming!”
The visitor described seeing hordes of black things flying overhead and some of them dropping down to bite the unprotected people below. But according to him, they were only a day behind him.
“I got word from another rider who came from the Village of Ashcroft,” he told the Head Master, who was still pale with grief. “He told me they were just behind him, so I got a bit of a start. But they were close on my tail, Sir! They’ll be here tomorrow morning at the latest—maybe before!”
Finally, the Academy lurched into action. With yet another eyewitness account of the Madlings streaming towards us, the Head Master was at last forced to believe.
Everywhere, people were trying to get ready. The wooden closures for all the entrances of the caverns were found and pushed into place. Only one opening was left—the largest, which was big enough for three Gold-wings to come out at once, would be kept open and guarded by two of the older dragons who were too old to fly but still able to flame. The rest of the Academy was locked up tight.
