“I’m a boy. Everyone who looks at me sees a boy—no, a man of the Academy. I’m a strong, brave, confident man.”
And as I looked in the mirror, I saw a change. Nothing startling—my hair didn’t change color, and I didn’t grow six inches all at once. But my jaw looked firmer, and my eyelashes were a little shorter. My shoulders seemed just a touch broader. In short, I really did look more manly.
I leaned forward, feeling myself tingle all over. Was it true? Or was I just imagining it? I was almost certain the changes I was seeing were being made by the pendant. Just as my father had said, it showed the wearer the way he (or in my case, she) wanted others to see them.
I hadn’t seen these changes when I first put the Dragon Glass pendant on, back at my own home. But I had been all by myself there. Maybe it was working better here at the Academy because there were more people to see me. Maybe its subtle magic was enhanced by the attention of those around me—those I wanted to see me as a boy. Also, they expected to see just another male cadet when they looked at me—the pendant fed their expectations and made them real.
“It’s working,” I whispered, touching the Dragon Glass at my throat. “You’re actually working!”
I felt a tingling in my fingertips, as though the pendant was agreeing with me. Maybe I would be all right after all.
Feeling a bit more hopeful, I went back to The Great Dorm and climbed into my cot.
“Hey—where were you? I never saw you at the Cook-pot,” Jorn-o said, when he and the others came back in the room, their skin red from steam and their hair slicked back.
I made a show of groaning as I rolled over onto my back.
“Wasn’t feeling very good,” I told him, hoping he would accept my excuse. “I think I ate too much at dinner.”
“Well, you did eat a lot.” He looked concerned. “Want me to show you to the Infirmary?”
“No thanks.” I shook my head. “Just need to get some rest. I’ll be fine in the morning.”
“Okay, well. Let me know if you change your mind.” He toweled himself off vigorously as he spoke and I kept my eyes on his face and avoided looking at his body.
Honestly, this was going to take the most getting used to, I thought as all around me the other First-years were doing the same. Seeing naked men surrounding me several times a day was going to be a trying situation. We had been a very private family back home and I had never even seen my brother or my father with their shirts off.
Of course if anyone had found out my secret, they would have accused me of immersing myself in sinful temptation, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. The male bodies around me were scrawny for the most part and the way the cadets acted wasn’t exactly fodder for any kind of fantasy.
They were laughing and running around The Great Dorm naked, snapping each other with towels with their male bits dangling and bobbing in a most ridiculous way. I had often wondered what I might see on my wedding night if I got married—well, here was my answer and it was frankly off-putting. Not that I didn’t like males—it was just that they seemed to be very silly creatures when you left them to their own devices.
And they say women are too thoughtless and emotional to fly a dragon, I thought, rolling my eyes mentally. But look at these fools, running around acting like little boys.
But soon enough the bell tolled again—I wondered where it was located and how we could hear it all over the Academy. Was the sound conducted through the vents that kept the whole place supplied with outside air? I didn’t know but I was relieved when an older man who must be one of the professors came to stand at the end of the rows of beds and shouted loudly that everyone needed to get to sleep.
“Enough rough-housing now, boys!” he ordered, looking sternly at two cadets who were wrestling—one had the other in a headlock and they were both grunting like animals. “I know you’re excited to be here, but you need your sleep. We get an early start here at the Academy and you want to wake up bright and early to see the Rankings posted in the Mess Hall.”
His words caused more chatter among the cadets, not less, but at least everyone started making their way to their cots. As soon as everyone was sitting on the edge of their bed, the professor turned a switch and the glowing lamps far above our heads dimmed to blackness.
I snuggled deeper into my cot. The sheets and coverlet I’d been given were thin and despite the volcanic warmth that radiated from the inner walls of the mountain, it was cold in the huge, echoing dorm. I hoped that the smaller dorms would be warmer—or that I wouldn’t be in a dorm at all but in a two-person room soon.
It would all depend on how I did on the exam.
I’ll do my best to make you proud, Auren, I promised my brother as I drifted off to sleep. I’ll live the life you wanted, and I’ll ride the dragon you should have had…if the dragon will have me, that is.
With that troubling thought in my head, I finally drifted off to sleep.
I had no idea how much trouble I was going to be in when I woke up the next morning.
12
AURORA
The Mess Hall smelled amazing again the next morning, but my stomach was in knots, and I couldn’t pay attention to food.
There was already a crowd of First-years gathered around the Rankings, which were written on parchment and hanging on the far wall. I went with Jorn-o and the others to see them, but I was too small to push my way through the taller boys.
Jorn-o got through though—he and Leaper muscled their way to the front of the crowd. When my new friend saw the names, he whooped and punched a fist in the air. Then he pushed back through the knot of boys.
