by Lucia Ashta
Hands that had come down in the detour to the question shot back up. “You.” Dean pointed to Corey.
“We help injured dragons.”
“Correct. We might do all we can to prevent dragon fighting, but it’s impossible to prevent it all. It’s part of their nature. They’re territorial, and there will always be fights for territory and mating partners. This is about to get really bad this year as more and more females come into mating season. By aiding injured dragons to heal, we spare many of them that would have died without our intervention. What else?”
Dean called on another boy, Jace.
“We help distribute the dragons evenly across territories, so they don’t fight as much.”
“Exactly. It’s all about encouraging the flourishing of the dragon species, and this is an important part of supporting that. Dragons will fight if they’re too close to each other. What else?”
But we wouldn’t find out what other roles members of the Dragon Force played, and how those roles ultimately came back to answering Dean’s original question of what a dragon trainer should do when they see a dragon. At least we wouldn’t that day.
I’d been in the middle of thinking how incredible it was that Rosie was still invisible, and wondering how long the effect would last, when I started worrying that I might not be able to hold the effect long enough—when Rosie’s invisibility began to wear off.
As if Dean sensed what was happening before it did, he turned toward where I sat with Rosie. Every set of eyes among the Dragon Force followed his.
With the attention of an entire third of the new dragon trainees on Rosie and me, panic started to simmer within me. I tried to force my mind to hold Rosie’s invisibility in place. But the more I tried, the more her invisibility wavered, until the panic went from a simmer to a full-on boil.
I watched in terror as my hold over Rosie’s invisibility trembled and then broke entirely.
Rosie was the last to notice as her red, plump body became entirely visible before a rapt audience.
Shocked gasps circled the crowd, and there was nothing Dean, Rane, Traya, or I would be able to do to hide the dragon among us now.
19
More eyes looked my way than ever before in my life, but not a single one of them saw me, save Rosie, who looked up at me, confused by all the attention. Not even Rane would be able to see me at this distance, dappled by the shadows of the large trees.
A wave of unexpected emotion, so strong, rushed through me, leaving me shaking and on the verge of tears. Not much of what I was feeling made sense, but that fact didn’t make it any less real to my heart. I’d betrayed Rosie because I hadn’t been able to keep her invisible and safe from whatever might come next. Of course, I realized this was silly. I hadn’t betrayed her, not really. I’d done faithum for the first time in my life, and failed to maintain it. And yet... it felt as if I’d let her down. With the scrutiny of so many dragon trainees fixed on her, I got a really bad feeling, the kind that was almost always right.
I bent over Rosie and ran my hands along her plump body, wherever I could touch her. I didn’t have to worry about how I would distort her image. The trees above filtered the sunlight. The trainees would attribute any distortion I caused to tricks of the light, and I had to do something to reassure her.
Rosie was nervous. She tried to curl onto me even more—which wasn’t possible—undoubtedly creating a peculiar scene of a stunted dragon circling in place in the middle of a forest clearing.
I wanted to pick Rosie up and run. But I realized I couldn’t do that either. Our fate was in Dean’s hands, because there wasn’t a fat chance in hell I was going to abandon Rosie. The Ooba people might have been sworn dragon protectors, but one man controlled them, and I trusted Chieftain Pumpoo less now than ever.
I’d seen and heard enough from Dean to tread carefully with Pumpoo but, had Dean been any other person, I might have continued to give the chieftain the benefit of the doubt. Was it likely that he didn’t notice he was draining his people’s energy? No, but it was possible. Most people were unaware of what went on in the unseen world; he might have been too.
But beyond the energy draining and other minor facts that didn’t quite add up, caution bells wouldn’t stop going off in my head, telling me to be careful with Pumpoo. So I would be. And since Pumpoo ruled everything about our tribe, down to the color of the clothing we were allowed to wear, Dean would have to figure something out.
Across the clearing, Dean appeared to be reading my mind. Either that, or his mind was spinning looking for a way to explain the inexplicable—beyond the truth—that had unfolded right before the scrutiny of all these students. It was hard to tell, his expression was both pensive and fierce at once.
“Is that... is that a... dragon?” Jace asked, finally interrupting the shocked silence.
I watched Dean square his shoulders against all he’d have to do now that part of my secret had been revealed. He turned to face the students, his back to Rosie and me. I strained my ears to make sure I heard every single word—because these words would be important. They would define much of my immediate future.
I willed Dean to be the man I believed him to be. If he wasn’t... well, the reality was I had no idea what I’d do if I’d trusted the wrong man. All my life, my family had warned me not to share my secret. I’d disobeyed, and now my choices were being put to the test.
“Shhh,” I whispered to Rosie, so softly that no one else would hear me. “It’s going to be all right.” I hoped I wasn’t lying.
“That is most definitely a dragon,” Dean said to Jace, and to every student that hung on his words as closely as I did. Even Rane and Traya, seated on the ground, leaned forward.
“Why doesn’t the dragon look all that much like a dragon?” another of the students asked.
“Because this dragon, a female, isn’t like other dragons. Her development appears to have been stunted, and she was rejected by her mother because of it. Her mother threw her off a cliff to her death. This little dragon, named Rosie, somehow survived, with great injuries.”
Dean took what had been theory and converted it into fact, and I thought I understood why. If he spoke with authority, the students were more likely to do what he told them.
“Why is she so small?” a third student asked.
“Because she’s a baby,” Dean said, and I could hear the smile in his voice despite the tension. Rosie was pretty darn cute. “I told you guys that this year was dragon mating season. Well, apparently it started earlier than I thought.”
“She’s really small though,” the same student said.
“Aye, she is, and that’s almost certainly the reason why she was cast away. That, and perhaps some of her irregular growths.”
“Are they deformities?” Jace asked, and I covered Rosie’s ears. They weren’t deformities, they were unique features. I’d spent too much of my life believing I was one giant mistake, and I didn’t want Rosie to go through the same—even if she was a dragon, and I couldn’t be certain she understood speech.
Dean answered, “Well, certainly her body shape and size are irregular, and her snout is rounder and shorter than a normal dragon’s. Her ears are also different, a bit floppier. But from what I’ve been able to examine of her, she’s still a healthy dragon, and once she totally heals from her wounds, she’ll be as strong as a normal dragon—at least, I hope that’s the case.”
The students appeared to be processing Dean’s explanations as fact. I thought the first question from the students would have been about Rosie’s sudden appearance. It would have certainly been mine. Rane and Traya looked as if they were about to pass out from the tension. Even though they couldn’t have known how I’d made Rosie invisible, they must have imagined I had something to do with it, being the only invisible anything around. But no one asked. I couldn’t believe my luck.
“And how did this baby dragon materialize out of nowhere?” Brune asked, and my luck came crashing down. My arms tightened
around Rosie. When she squirmed against the hold, I loosened my grip. How the hell would Dean answer this question?
“That’s a very good question,” Dean said and turned back to look at Rosie.
Crap, he doesn’t know how to answer the question! I was hoping he’d have some sort of feasible story. But the truth was that I wouldn’t have known how to answer the question either, not without revealing the truth.
“That’s a very good question indeed,” Dean repeated, bringing his hands to his hips. I guessed he was scrambling to come up with a good explanation.
Seconds passed and drew out into a full minute while the students waited for Dean’s answer. When he finally turned back to the students, I found myself leaning forward, yearning to find out what he came up with. I totally didn’t anticipate his answer when he finally delivered it. But if anything, Dean showed me he was honest. In all he’d explained, he’d told the truth. He might have withheld information, but he hadn’t lied. He didn’t now either.
“I don’t know how the dragon appeared out of nowhere. The only explanation I can think of is forbidden.”
Dean didn’t have to say it, the word hung in the air for all to hear. Faithum. Faithum was the only explanation for a dragon materializing out of nothing. I was beginning to understand that faithum was the only explanation for me as well.
20
“Do you remember how I told you that, in the Dragon Force, we look out for each other?” Dean asked.
Assent echoed through the gathered students, even though most of them seemed to be in a state of disbelief.
“The bond between us must be strong. We face dangers no one else in the Ooba tribe does, and we need always to be sure we can trust—and I mean completely trust—each other. If we can’t trust one another, then we can’t rely on each other out on the dragons’ mountains, and trust me when I tell you that you need to be able to count on one another there more than anywhere.”
Dean let that sink in before continuing. “Part of that trust means keeping confidences. In the Dragon Force, we bend, and sometimes even break, the rules.”
All eyes were on Dean now. As children of the Ooba tribe, we’d been raised to follow every single rule. Even me, though it hadn’t worked much—my very existence broke the rules.
“As dragon tamers, and especially as dragon charmers, who interact with the dragons more closely than anyone else, we risk our lives every single day. This is something Chieftain Pumpoo and his emissaries can’t possibly understand. When your life is at stake, or the life of one of your teammates, rules don’t matter much. The only rule we always keep is that we don’t harm dragons—ever. Other than that, all rules fall away when you’re staring down the fiery eyes of a dragon. If you don’t understand this need to operate by our own rules now, you soon will. The very moment when your first dragon chases you down and tries to kill you, you won’t care a bit about not using every skill at your disposal, even if it’s forbidden.”
Is he implying what I think he’s implying? Is he talking about faithum again? Does everyone else get that’s what he’s saying? That we can all access faithum... is that it? Even while I lived as what was apparently a prime example of faithum, I was still having trouble believing what Dean was saying. Dean taught more by what he didn’t say, than what he did.
Some of the students looked confused. My brother and sister looked so astounded they forgot to subdue their expressions. They, too, had been trained most of their lives to hide a secret, the one Dean was skirting around.
“In the Dragon Force, we must maintain confidences. It’s a necessity of our way of life. This dragon, Rosie, needs to remain undiscovered by the rest of our people—for now. We need first to understand how to help her and what the reasons are behind her differences. We can’t risk exposing her to the rest of the Ooba until we understand more.”
Corey said, “But won’t all of our people protect her, just like us? Chieftain Pumpoo would protect her. He’s the one who’s constantly reminding us that our sacred purpose is to protect the dragons. He wouldn’t harm her.”
I wished I could see Dean’s eyes then, but he hadn’t turned back around.
“Chieftain Pumpoo has said all that.” Dean was treading very carefully, I could tell. He had to. Pumpoo didn’t allow disagreement with his teachings. None. “But we are the dragon experts. The dragon charmers especially, we know how to deal with dragons in a way that Pumpoo doesn’t, simply because he hasn’t spent the endless days working with them as we have, as I have. If we turn Rosie over to him, he might harm her without intending to. Or someone else might. Because he’s right in saying that protecting the dragons is part of our sacred purpose, we need to keep her hidden until we’re absolutely certain she can’t be hurt by a lack of understanding.”
I heard everything Dean said, but I hinged on how he’d said protecting dragons was part of our people’s sacred purpose. What was the other part? Was there something else I didn’t know about, or was he just fumbling to give a satisfactory explanation to a very bizarre situation?
I couldn’t see Dean’s face, but I could see Corey’s, and he didn’t seem convinced by Dean’s explanation. Neither did a few of the others. Uh oh.
“We won’t delay in sharing the information with the chieftain any longer than necessary. But for Rosie’s sake, we have to. I’m not asking that you keep secrets, I’m just asking that you trust me on this, and keep this necessary confidence.”
He was exactly asking them to keep secrets, and I doubted a single one of the dragon trainees had missed that fact.
“I’m asking that you not tell anyone about Rosie, not even the students from Shula and Yoon’s groups. For now, the fewer people who know, the better. Once we determine that Rosie is safe, we’ll tell everyone.”
“Safe from what though?” Corey asked. “Our people would never hurt her. What are we protecting her from by keeping this ‘confidence?’ We have skilled healers among our people, and they aren’t members of the Dragon Force. They might be able to help her.”
“By keeping her presence among us quiet, we protect her from... well, from the unknown. She’s too important to risk taking any chances, however small. We’ll wait until I say so. You may share the news of Rosie with others, but only once I say you can, after I’ve had the chance to confer with Shula and some of the other more experienced dragon charmers.”
His reasoning was weak, and everyone there saw it, including him, I thought. But what else could he say? That the chieftain wasn’t to be trusted? That there was far more than Rosie we didn’t understand, and that we couldn’t trust hardly anyone with that knowledge?
“Am I clear on this?” Dean asked. The usual authority in his voice faltered, as if he understood that he was asking a lot, premised on a weak foundation. “Rosie is to be kept among those of us here, and no one else. I need to understand why she could appear out of nowhere first. No one is to tell anyone.”
“Agreed,” Rane said, and Traya, sitting next to him, nodded.
Dean said, “I need to be certain all of you agree, not just these two trainees. We’re in this together. Do you all understand the importance of keeping this confidence?”
The students dutifully called out yeses and ayes.
“Good,” Dean said. “We’ll dismiss early today. I need to see to this dragon. Once I check her out, maybe she can become a part of our classes, and you can be the few lucky ones who get to learn directly from a dragon far sooner than most dragon trainees. I’ll send word of where we’ll meet tomorrow. I’m not sure where it’ll be yet, it depends on her. But it’ll be at the rise of the Suxle Sun, so be ready.” Dean nodded his dismissal. “Until then, remember, not a word to anyone.”
Dean watched the students disperse, including Rane and Traya, who looked over their shoulders at Rosie, and what they supposed was me, several times. When everyone was far enough away that they couldn’t hear what he said, he moved right over to Rosie and me.
“Are you still here?” he asked m
e.
“I am,” I said, still getting used to the fact that I was talking with someone outside of my immediate circle of family and Marie.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know, I’m sorry. I couldn’t hold the invisibility over Rosie any longer. It just stopped working.”
He bent down to pet Rosie. This time, she didn’t flinch. “It’s all right,” he said. “If that’s the first time you did something like that, then it’s amazing that you managed it for so long. It’s just unfortunate how things worked out.”
“Why unfortunate?” I asked, even though the sinking feeling in my chest seemed to already know.
“Because now we have to find a way to protect Rosie, and you—and fast. If Pumpoo comes to get her, I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep her from him.”
“But he won’t come, will he? The students said they wouldn’t tell.”
“They did say that.”
“You don’t believe them?”
“It’s not that I don’t believe them, it’s that I know how well Pumpoo has taught his people to do as he wishes.”
“And you think the students would tell?” I’d just seen them all agree to keep the secret.
“I think it’s difficult to expect someone to do differently than they’ve been trained to do. Had the trainees been full-fledged charmers, then I’d say, without a single doubt, that our secret was safe, even with Yoon, who idolizes Pumpoo. We charmers have been through too much together, we understand we have to have each other’s backs no matter what. But the trainees don’t get this yet.”
“They said they did. I’m young and untrained too, but I understand the importance of confidences. They can do the same.”