“I think it was your father who came to get me and brought me here,” I told him. “Unless there’s more than one Jorn in the Courier Division.”
“There isn’t and I know he brought you—I saw you slide off G’lornie’s back. He flies really high for a Brown, you know. And he’s extremely intelligent.”
“Yes, he is,” I agreed, remembering how the little Brown had pushed away the second piece of bread and the worry for me that I had seen in his golden eyes. “He’s a wonderful dragon,” I added.
I seemed to have said the exact right thing because Jorn-o’s kind and homely face broke into a wide smile.
“He is,” he said. “Come on—do you want me to show you around before the upperclassmen come to get us?”
“Yes, please,” I said, nodding. “I’ve been feeling kind of lost here.”
“Oh don’t worry—that’ll pass once you get to know the Old Drake,” Jorn-o told me. “There’s six levels—did you know that?”
I shook my head. I’d heard my father talk about his time at the Academy many times, but he hadn’t really spoken much about the geography of the dormant volcano that housed it.
“Well, there are. We’re standing on the lowest level—the Receiving Bowl,” Jorn-o said, his voice taking on a lecturing quality. “Anyone can come here—it’s open to the public. But the rest of the Academy is strictly for the professors and cadets who live here.”
“What’s up those stairs?” I asked, nodding at the polished stone steps at the far end of the vast bowl-like area we were standing in.
“The Assembly Hall—it’s technically still part of the first level,” Jorn-o told me. “They the second level is where we’ll be living—that’s for the cadet’s quarters, the mess hall where we eat, communal baths?—”
“Wait a minute—communal baths? As in…everyone taking a bath together?” I felt my heart turn to a stone in my chest.
“Well, sure—it’s not a big deal.” Jorn-o shrugged.
It absolutely was a big deal to me.
“How many people are we, uh, bathing with?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
Jorn-o frowned, as though he thought it was odd I should ask, but answered anyway.
“You know—whoever’s in your dorm. First-years are put into dormitories, about twenty boys to a dorm. They all share a necessary room and eat at the same table, that kind of thing.”
“So…you’re saying there’s no privacy? None at all?” I asked, my voice going high on the last word.
“What do you want privacy for? How can you get to know the cadets in your class if you don’t live with them?” Jorn-o asked. “You have to be able to trust the riders in your group when you’re in formation and you have to know them if you’re going to trust them.”
“I just…I’m used to having my own bedroom and bathing room, that’s all,” I muttered, wondering what I was going to do.
“Well, you only have to be in the dorms for your First-year,” Jorn-o told me. “Second-years get roommates and Third and Fourth years get their own rooms. And Wing Leaders, of course—they get their own rooms as well. Of course the professors get a room to themselves that’s right next to the cave their dragon lives in.”
“That’s all very well, but a year is a long time to live in a dorm with twenty boys,” I muttered. How in the world was I going to manage this? It had never occurred to me that I wouldn’t have my own room at the Academy. Why hadn’t I thought of this?
“If you’re shy, don’t worry about making friends,” Jorn-o said, clearly mistaking the source of my anxiety. “You’ll get along fine—you’re a Lysandra, after all. Auren Lysandra—right?”
I frowned.
“How did you know my name? Did your father tell you he was going to get me?”
Jorn-o shook his head.
“Just said he was going to collect a candidate from an ancient and remote Great House. But look at you…” He gestured at me with one hand. “I mean, that blonde hair and those pale purple eyes? Nobody but a Lysandra has such coloring. You’re probably the most recognizable Great House of any of them. Well, besides the Skorens, of course,” he added. “But they stand out for other reasons.”
“They do? How?” I asked.
Jorn-o shrugged.
“You’ll understand when you see one. Anyway, be careful of them—they have short tempers. Not that you’ll probably run into any as a First-year cadet. The upperclassmen mostly keep to themselves. Well, except in the Mess Hall and during Mating Flights,” he added and then looked troubled.
