Professor Griven’s thin lips got noticeably thinner.
“Larson,” he said curtly. “You’re late. Take your seat.”
“Sorry,” Larson muttered sarcastically. He slid into the desk in the row beside mine, a dark scowl on his pimply face. He caught me looking at him and snarled, “What are you looking at, runt?”
I turned quickly away, not saying anything and after a moment, Professor Griven continued.
“Now then, before we were so rudely interrupted, I was just about to begin the test. Please do not use your own writing instruments—I will hand out ink pencils along with your parchment,” he said.
He picked up a thick stack of parchment paper and a small wooden box and began walking down the rows of desks, handing them out.
“You must show all your work,” he said, as he passed out the tests. “Simple answers on the mathematics portion of the test will not be accepted. If you need extra scratch paper, simply raise your hand and I’ll bring you some. This test is not timed—you can take as long as you need to with it. Do not begin the test until I tell you to.”
I was one of the last to get my test. I waited with the thick sheaf of parchment face down on my wooden desk, my stomach a knot of snakes as Professor Griven deliberately made his way to the front of the room. There he crossed his arms over his lean chest, fixed us all with a warning look and said,
“Begin.”
8
AURORA
I turned over the parchment with trembling fingers and read the first page. At the very top was a scoring key.
Section: MATHEMATICS
— Questions: 20
— Points: 100
Section: NATURAL PHILOSOPHY (PHYSICS)
— Questions: 15
— Points: 75
Section: DRAGON BIOLOGY & HUSBANDRY
— Questions: 15
— Points: 75
Section: History of the Madling Wars
— Questions: 15
— Points: 75
Section: STRATEGY & TACTICS
— Questions: 15
— Points: 75
Section: DRAGON PSYCHOLOGY & BOND THEORY
— Questions: 10
— Points: 50
