“Regardless of what she knows or doesn’t know, the fact is she’s already showing vicious tendencies and she’s clearly a runt,” the Head Master said, frowning. “Also, her coloring is all wrong—everyone knows there’s no such thing as a solid gold dragon. Under such circumstances, I’m not sure we can allow her to live.”
“What?” I demanded so loudly that I woke up L’eesha, who—up until now—had been sleeping deeply on my shoulder. She raised her head, her rainbow eyes blinking sleepily as she stared at the Head Master.
“You heard me, Cadet,” the Head Master said, frowning. “I know it’s painful, since you just bonded with her, but I think Master Yarsmouth is right—she’s got to go.”
“You can’t take her from me!” I took a step back, my entire body trembling with rage. A fierce, protective, maternal love welled up in me and I knew I would fight to the death to protect my baby!
“Cadet, I don’t think—” the Head Master began.
“Wait!” Ryse cocked his head, as though he was listening. “Can’t you hear that?” he asked us both.
I paused for a moment, my heart pounding, and heard what he was talking about.
It was the dragons—they were roaring.
“M’alex is in a rage!” Ryse reported, his eyes wide. “He says how dare you think of killing the Queen?”
“What? I don’t…” the Head Master began, but then his eyes went wide as well. “Well…it seems that my own dragon, B’eshba, is upset by the idea as well,” he admitted reluctantly. “No, no—it’s all right,” he muttered, and I realized he was talking to his dragon, not to us. “I won’t…I won’t. I’m sorry—I didn’t know.”
At last, he looked back at me and L’eesha, who was staring at him from my shoulder with her rainbow eyes whirling.
“Er, forgive me, Cadet Lysandra,” he said at last. “It appears that the dragons are all insisting that your drakeling be allowed to live.”
I felt a rush of relief as I reached up to stroke her tiny head.
“Thank you, Head Master,” I said sweetly. I had the strong urge to say, “I told you she was perfect!” But I held myself back. I was too flooded with relief to want to take him down a peg. I just wanted to cuddle my baby drakeling and let the rest of the world take care of itself for a while.
“is this a bad man, too?” L’eesha wanted to know, as she stared at him.
“No, no,” I assured her mentally. “He’s not bad—he’s the Head Master.”
“maybe I should bite him just in case,” she suggested.
I told her sternly that she must not bite him and hastily asked the Head Master if I could be excused.
“L’eesha is hungry again,” I told him, as an excuse.
“Er, of course, Cadet. You’d better go feed her.”
There was a perplexed frown on his face, as though he wasn’t exactly happy about the situation but clearly, he wasn’t willing to go against every dragon at the Academy—including his own—to do anything about it.
“Thank you.” I made a brief bow, which made L’eesha hiss as she dug her tiny claws into my shoulder, and Ryse and I left at once.
“Well, crisis averted,” he remarked, as we left the Head Master’s office. “For now, anyway.”
“What do you mean, for now?” I asked, frowning up at him. “Please don’t tell me you think there’s going to be more trouble over L’eesha!”
“I think she’s causing quite a stir—challenging the established order of things—and the Academy doesn’t like that.” Ryse sounded troubled. “But I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you,” he added. “Since every dragon in the Old Drake just stood up for ‘the Golden Queen.’”
“Is that what they’re calling her?” I asked with wide eyes.
He nodded.
“That’s what M’alex tells me. He’s calming down now that they’re no longer threatening her,” he added.
“Tell him I said thank you for his support,” I said gratefully. “I was really worried, there for a moment.”
“You had a right to be,” he said gravely. “I’ve never seen them talk about destroying a drakeling that’s already bonded with a rider, before.”
