Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 126358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 505(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 505(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
“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.”
“I didn’t even know it was a possibility,” I said, shivering. “I never thought—”
“i really am hungry, though,” L’eesha broke in, interrupting me. “you told that man I was hungry and I AM.”
The last thought was delivered with a huge feeling of ravenous hunger that affected me, too. Suddenly I felt I hadn’t eaten in a hundred years, even though dinner had been just a few hours before.
Beside me, Ryse put a hand to his flat belly.
“I’m so hungry, suddenly!” he exclaimed.
I shot him a sidelong glance. Could L’eesha be projecting her needs and emotions onto him as well? But that was impossible, wasn’t it? A dragon’s emotions could only loop with its rider’s—they only projected emotions onto other people they didn’t know during a Mating Flight, and that was just because their emotions were so strong at that time and there were so many of them.
Whatever the case, I suddenly understood that I was going to have to keep a close eye on my new drakeling. There was something different about L’eesha and it wasn’t just her size or her coloring or even her beautiful rainbow eyes.
“of course i’m different—i am the Queen,” I heard her say. “now hurry up and feed me—I AM HUNGRY!”
50
AURORA
Over the next few days, it became apparent that my little golden drakeling was somehow projecting her emotions to more than just me.
She was always hungry for one thing—which meant that I was always hungry too—and so was Ryse. The hunger even spread to M’alex, who, he told me, was demanding two or three extra sheep and goats every time he ate.
The people who were closest to me were extra hungry as well, but I couldn’t tell if that had anything to do with L’eesha or if it was just because they had all bonded with dragons too.