Balthion scowled at her. “However well it was meant, Pip, hiding your friend’s presence in the forest very nearly cost him his life.”
Was Yaethi right about Emblazon and Shimmerith roosting together, she wondered? But that thought was drowned in her heart’s torrent of sorrow for Hunagu.
“I …” Pip bit her lip, fighting back tears.
“Oyda says he’ll be fine.”
“I haven’t done very well since coming to the Academy, have I, Master Kassik?”
“Huh,” said he. “You’re a barrel of trouble. From popping up in a loincloth to insulting the Dragons more thoroughly than any student has ever contrived to achieve, you’ve been creating mischief out of all proportion to your size.” His eyes twinkled. “Is that a Pygmy trait? Or shall I blame your mentor?”
Balthion snorted in turn. “Personally, old friend, I blame Zardon.”
After that, the two Masters questioned her until she was hoarse from talking. From the corner of her eye, Pip caught sight of Shimmerith lurking in the infirmary’s shadows, no doubt eavesdropping on their conversation with the benefit of her superior Dragon hearing. Roaring rajals, she had some grovelling ahead …
Shimmerith said, “Masters, there are students coming.”
Maylin, Yaethi, Duri and Kaiatha crossed the infirmary floor toward her bed. Oyda, having finished her surgery on Hunagu, joined them. Pip followed the flicker of Balthion’s eyes as he noted his son holding hands with Kaiatha. Durithion coloured, but he did not release her fingers. Pip wondered what Balthion thought. Did he approve?
Perhaps a Pygmy should take matters into her own hands, properly, this time. “Master Balthion,” she said, suddenly formal. “May I introduce my friends at the Academy? This is Maylin of Jaoli Island in the East, skilled with the blade.” Balthion rose and greeted her formally, blowing once upon her knuckles, making the sign of the peace twice in front of his face, and kissing her palm three times. “Yaethi of Helyon, some ten days north of Sylakia. She has been helping me catch up on my studies. And this is Kaiatha, who hails from Ha’athior in the Fra’anior Island-Cluster.”
“Ya’arriol, just off Ha’athior Island,” Kaiatha clarified, flushing as Balthion bent over her hand. “It’s tiny, not many know it.”
“Ya’arriol Islanders are keen followers of the Path of the Dragon Warrior,” said Balthion, regarding her with a penetrating gaze before turning to Duri. “Son, has she told you she’s probably an expert in unarmed combat? As in, her Island produces some of the best fighters in the Island-World?”
Durithion’s eyes widened. “Um … no, Dad.”
“We start unarmed combat training next semester, Master Balthion,” said Maylin, her eyes gleaming. “Well, Kaiatha. Your Island’s roots run deep.”
Kaiatha did not know where to look.
“I hate these chains,” Pip said mutinously. “I’m not an animal.”
“No,” said Balthion. “Only Humans give orders for manacles
and
a gag. Pip, fear not. Master Kassik will attend the Council. But he cannot defend you. Here comes Mistress Mya’adara with your chains.”
Pip’s eyes widened. “When’s the Council, Master?”
“Right now,” rumbled Shimmerith, with a Dragon’s smile–all gleaming fangs as her lips curled back toward her gums. Pip did not trust the spark in her eye as far as she could throw a Dragon. “I’ll carry you there, little one.”
Speeding her to her doom, thought Pip, aghast as she contemplated facing the Dragon Elders to learn the penalty for her misdemeanours.
Very softly, Oyda said, “Fly strong and true, Pip.”
C
haining up students,
thankfully, was not an everyday occurrence at the Academy. Pip’s manacles, linking her wrists behind her back to the manacles fastened to her ankles, were still warm from the blacksmith’s forge.
She scowled over the leather gag Mistress Mya’adara had buckled behind her head. She could tell that Maylin was dying to make a smart comment. Even Yaethi had a smirk for her.
Master Balthion clapped her on the shoulder. “Chew them up, Pip. I’ll try to stop by after the meeting. Kassik will want an update anyway.”
“Mmm,” said Pip.
Shimmerith seemed only too pleased to scoop Pip up in her paw. The Dragon walked to the end of the infirmary, the cave entrance, and launched into the darkening evening sky. The first stars were just pricking through a curtain of velvet blue, while the crescent of the Mystic moon peeked over the volcano’s rim.
Pip stared up at the Dragon’s flight muscles as they worked just above her head. She was starting to notice the differences between Dragons. Shimmerith’s hide was as smooth as a python’s skin, whereas Zardon’s scales were rough and much larger in size. Her flight muscles were large, but nothing compared to Emblazon, who was built like the brawny Sylakian warriors who used to visit the zoo on their days off, only a hundred times larger. Shimmerith sliced through the air with the ease of a honed dagger, whereas Emblazon and Zardon were all about power.
They covered the distance to the nearest volcano in seconds. Shimmerith adjusted her wings minutely, using the thousands of ancillary muscles along the main wing bones and the ancillary struts supporting the wing’s main surface–muscles providing the fine control which made Dragons such agile flyers. They soared up the volcano’s flank, crossing several fissures leaking lava, before diving between the peaks and skirting the edge of the beautiful lake she had seen before.
“The Dragons roost up there,” said Shimmerith, pointing with her chin. “It’s the only dormant peak in this caldera. Those Dragons who have a Rider, roost together with them.”
Pip wanted to say that the peak looked like Sylakian cheese, it had so many caves dotting the near-vertical cliff face on the lake side, but she was forced to keep her silence. Shimmerith swooped past this peak and directly on to the next, where she angled for the yawning mouth of a vast cavern.
“The Dragon Elders meet in here,” the Dragon noted.
She swept down a winding tunnel, taking several sharp bends and blind corners at a pace that had Pip’s heart thumping up in her throat, before breaking out into a cathedral-like cavern, dominated by sparkling rubescent crystal formations which dwarfed even the Dragons lying beneath them. Shimmerith touched down beside a lava pond in which a Red Dragon lolled, patently enjoying a molten rock bath for his vast backside. The heat sucked Pip’s breath away.
Not one of the Dragons gathered to grill the Pygmy girl could be less than a hundred feet in length, Pip realised. There were three Reds, a Yellow, a smaller but no less menacing Blue, a glowering Green of a size which dwarfed Jalador, and a sturdy Brown who clambered onto a stolid pedestal of rock sized to suit even his majestic presence, curling his tail around this perch with an ominous surfeit of purpose. Dragon eyes, fangs and claws encircled her. Pip suppressed an urge to giggle hysterically. These were the creatures who had ordered her gagged, afraid of her Word of Command? If they had any idea how terrified she was, they could just dispense with all the spine-flexing and muscular posturing and get on with the business of sharing a nibble of Pygmy meat to whet their appetites.
Zardon had asked her to write down her story, which Pip had been doing in diary format. ‘Today,’ she wrote in her head, ‘the Dragons gathered for the purpose of snacking on a Pygmy girl, according to the customs of the Dragon-kind.’
“I present the accused, the student Pip,” said Shimmerith, placing Pip carefully on her feet. She felt heat rising through the soles of the boots Mistress Mya’adara had insisted she wear.
Pip nodded respectfully. “Mmm.” Where was Master Kassik?
“Pip,” rumbled the Red in the lava pool. Pip realised he was sitting directly beneath a small flow of molten rock which fed his bath. “I am Blazon, father of Emblazon, leader of the Council of Dragon Elders. We are gathered for the purpose of judgement. The primary accusation is of assaulting the Dragon Shimmerith during the course of her duties, with physical force and with magic.”
His voice rolled over her like thunder. She wondered if they realised how ridiculous the accusation appeared at face value, a tiny Pygmy assaulting a Blue Dragon. At least the fang would grow back. Rajion had assured her of that. But none of the faces around her registered any amusement. Flames licked out of the Green Dragon’s nostrils as he shifted several feet closer. The Yellow flexed his talons.
“However, several other matters have also been raised to this Council,” Blazon continued, “namely your insults to all Dragon-kind, your duping of Jalador the Green, your uncontrolled display of magic, and your connection with the shadow creature discovered by Emblazon.”
At his words, two of the Reds snorted fire out of their nostrils. Pip jumped, but Shimmerith’s paw steadied her at once.
Blazon said, “Will the accused promise, on pain of judgement, not to use any magic during these proceedings?”
Pip bobbed her head again. “Um-hmm.”
“Shimmerith?”
A cool claw touched her cheek, slicing the gag apart. Pip had some trouble clearing her mouth, but she finally managed to spit out the pungent leather.
“Who will speak for the accused?”
“Where’s Master Kassik?” Pip whispered to Shimmerith.
“Silence,” she hissed.
“Kassik is right here.” Pip’s head snapped about. Had one of the
Dragons
spoken? The Brown Dragon … the erect way he perched on that boulder, his expression … “I am Kassik the Brown, Dragon Shapeshifter and Head of the Academy,” he said, in a voice as deep as an earthquake.
Pip could not prevent the squeak that escaped her throat. The Master of the Academy
was
a Dragon? Who better to run a school for Dragon Riders? Her obvious amazement made several of the Dragons chuckle, but it was not a comforting sound.
The Yellow Dragon, in a surprisingly husky voice, said, “We waste time. I shall dispense with one accusation, at least. I contend that Jalador the Green, being young and unwise–with due respect to the other Greens, mighty Verox–did not grasp the danger posed by this Human girl when she dazzled him with the praises dripping from her snake’s tongue and slithered into the heart of our community.”
The Green Dragon raised his right foreclaw. “Granted.”
“It is so granted,” said Blazon. “Who speaks for the accused?”
“I, Cressilida, shall speak,” said the Blue, her soft voice filled with nuances that escaped Pip’s understanding. Inclining her head almost playfully, she said, “Pip is but a fledgling amongst these Humans. She’s the newest member of a unique community. Coming to us from a troubled background, her introduction to the Academy has been fraught with challenges, not least from her own kind. By her word received from Kassik, she had little notion of the powers hid within her breast before she joined us. What she did today, was to mount a courageous defence of a friend’s life. We should applaud such a noble deed.”
“Further, I pay tribute to Zardon the Red’s wisdom in bringing into our roost one whose miniscule stature conceals gifts unheard of since the days of the Ancient Powers. Of course her magic is uncontrolled. She lacks the most basic training. I contend that we should nurture her powers and turn them to our service. As she grows in wisdom and stature, she shall prove a mighty warrior on the field of battle.” Pip was grateful no Dragon laughed at the word ‘stature’. “And we scent evil on the winds, my friends. Battle will come.”
Blazon nodded. “The defence is well spoken. Any further words, Cressilida?”
Cressilida added, “I deplore her assault on Shimmerith, and most especially her contemptible insults. Pip was puffed up with pride, strutting like a courting Dragon. She must be taught the error of her ways. What better place to teach her than here, beneath Kassik’s tutelage?”
One of the Reds snapped, “And the shadow creature?”
“It hunts her,” Cressilida stated flatly. “It seeks her powers. Imagine such a power corrupted to the works of evil?”
Pip shuddered.
Blazon inclined his head. “The wisdom of Cressilida. Kassik. Your evaluation.”
“The girl did not lie about the shadow creature, which she calls the Shadow Dragon,” said Kassik. The Yellow hawked and spat a glob of molten rock over his shoulder at this. “Or, she believes she does not lie. She knew about her unusual strength before she arrived. It was identified by the Oraial. She knew she could feel magic. And she believes she used a Word of Command when the Oraial was about to die, summoning him back from the spirit-world.”
This last statement raised a snarl of collective hostility from the Dragon Elders.
“How came she to the knowledge of magic?” asked Verox, the venom behind his question clear for all to hear.
“Pip?”
She cleared her throat uneasily. “Mighty Blazon, I was never schooled in magic. When I was a child, I was chained for display in a slave market. I broke the pole to which I was chained. That was the first I knew of magic.”
Thankfully, she had anticipated this question. But she was unprepared for the Yellow Dragon roaring, “So, why bother with those flimsy chains? I vote we run a claw through her chest right now!”
“Calm yourself, Lavador,” Blazon raged. “Finish your reply, girl.”
Pip wished her voice sounded stronger. She might have fled, but for the chains binding her ankles. She said, “Lately, I have begun to sense a little of magic, such as when Rajion heals another Dragon. I think it lies within me, untutored, as mighty Cressilida said.”
“Who will speak against the accused?”
Blazon had his pick of at least four voices, including Lavador’s. In the end it was the Yellow’s passion which won out. Turning the blazing pools of his gaze upon Pip, he sneered, “Her presence in this Academy has been based entirely upon a deception. The so-called Shadow Dragon arrived with her. It was never seen over the Cloudlands before. Now there are threats and rumours abroad and Zardon, who chose her, is chasing smoke and vapours around the Islands. The truth is simple. I contend that she
is
the shadow.”
Pip gasped, but her reaction was drowned by Lavador’s rising volume. Spitting fire, the Dragon said, “In the jungles, she was born. Like a shadow, she slipped among us. Having blinded Zardon to her true nature, she won a place here in this school. But now in extremity her true nature is revealed. None but the Ancient Powers have ever possessed the gift of Command. Even her size is calculated to deceive. Her insults are nothing. Inside that frail quasi-Human shell hides a monster, able to fell a Dragon at a blow, able to bend the very air to her Command and, by Kassik’s own testimony, able to summon a creature from the very portals of the spirit-world. A word from her could slay us all!”
It took Blazon some minutes to calm his Council. “Let the accused be heard.”
Pip did not know where to start. Finally, filled with self-loathing at her fear of the Dragons’ judgement, she turned to Shimmerith and said, “Shimmerith, what were you thinking? What threat does a peaceful, plant-eating Ape pose to the Academy or, Islands’ sakes, to a Dragon?”
By way of answer, Shimmerith bared her teeth.
“You would’ve killed my friend without a thought. You should learn to engage your brain before–”
“–claw and fang?” snarled Blazon, the sheer force of his malevolence driving her back against Shimmerith once more. “You presume to teach the Dragon Elders wisdom, hatchling?” His flaring wings sprayed molten rock either side of him, but he quietened the others once more. “Speak to the accusations or do not speak at all.”
Pip wrestled her temper into submission, but it simmered beneath the surface of her words. “Mighty Blazon, I joined the Academy because of Zardon the Red. He gave me no choice. Of course I wanted to escape. You’re free creatures. Do you understand what it is to leave home, Island and family, and live in captivity for seven summers? I was grateful to have a good friend in the zoo–Hunagu, the Oraial Ape. He cared for me. And Master Balthion, who taught me to speak Island Standard. Blazon, I contend that these accusers disrespect Zardon’s wisdom and insight.”
Low growls echoed in the cavern, but no Dragon spoke.
“I am very sorry I injured Shimmerith. I didn’t think it was possible.” Her voice lowered as, once more, she pictured Hunagu’s foolish grin as Shimmerith drove in for the kill. “But when I saw her about to kill my friend, I reacted. The words I said were perhaps the most foolish words uttered since the dawn of the Island-World. I spoke in anger. I regret it now.” Drawing a shuddering breath, she added, “I respect all Dragons. I will accept the judgement of the Dragon Elders, Blazon.”
From the side, Verox snarled, “Words, little one. What of your heart?”
Pip turned to him, meeting his gaze directly. “Mighty Verox, I wish you could cut open my chest and examine my heart.”
“Easily accomplished.” He gave a smoky snort of amusement.