Page 8 of Grave Situation

“Stay in bed. We’ve no useful information. Did Tia have any?”His response is so immediate, I know he was waiting for me.

“No. Leicht says, ‘It’s back,’ but that’s all. They’re all quite distressed. I think the riders will be with them all night.”

“That’s what we’ve heard also. Get some rest. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.”

Tomorrow broughtnothing except the odd, itchy feeling of expectation. Or, as I once heard one of the city’s gate guards say, “Sweet fuck all.” I’ve found the best forms of expression are to be found amongst the guard. Or dockworkers. Now there’s an education. Too bad the City of Knowledge doesn’t have docks.

The day after was the same. No new information, just an annoying mental itch. By day fifteen, the only thing that’s happened is the first true snowfall of the season—one that sticks to the ground instead of melting quickly—and most of the mages around the city were losing interest. Even Master Samoine told me to stop worrying about it. The dragons would tell us more when they could. Fucking dragons. If I was even a slightly stupider person, I’d march down to their valley and tell them exactly what I thought of them.

I said as much to Tia, and when she’d finished laughing so hard she cried, she told me she didn’t think the dragons knewanything more than they’d already said. She wouldn’t say more than that, but honestly, it sends cold chills down my spine.

It’s back? What is? Why? Clearly not anything good, or they wouldn’t have been in such a flurry.

My class is distracted this morning, whispering to each other whenever they think I’m not paying attention—which is never, but they haven’t caught on to that yet. We’ve been trying to work with air, which is the easiest element, and after fire should be simple for them, but clearly I’ve overestimated their capabilities. I’m about three seconds from threatening to hang them all over the chasm by their pinky fingers when a hushed argument breaks out.

I fold my arms across my chest and watch. It seems mostly to consist of Lenora Gill, Drey Hart—Mr. Baby Merchant—and Cary Meister hissing at each other, “No, you do it!”

“One of you had better do it before you all find yourselves scrubbing latrines for a week,” I say lazily. It’s quite amusing, the way their heads snap around, eyes wide. “What is it that none of you want to do, by the way?”

They exchange glances.

“Someone had better speak very soon. I’m losing patience, and you all know how little I had to begin with.”

Drey gulps and casts a glance over his shoulder toward the window I floated him through only a few months ago. “It’s not… That is…”

I raise a brow, and he pales. “Well, Professor, yesterday we heard a rumor that your sister is a dragon rider.”

Oh. That. Really? It took them this long to find that out?

“Yes.”

They wait.

“Was that all?”

Cary, who’s the only one so far able to use air to blow out a candle after he’s lit it, says, “The dragons seemed really upseta few weeks ago. Most of us woke up; they were that loud. Do they… Do they do that a lot? Only… nobody’s talking about it.”

Not to first-year students, they wouldn’t be. Well, fuck. I guess I get stuck with this delightful little task. “They don’t do that a lot. In fact, in all the time I’ve been here, they’ve never done that—not all of them at once. You will occasionally hear dragons screaming. They have… feelings just like we do.” I try not to choke on that sentence, glad Tia’s not paying attention right now. She’d just tell Leicht, and then he might think I liked him. “They’ll scream if their rider is seriously injured or killed, or if another dragon is. They also scream if they’re angry. Basically, if you’re close to a dragon who’s screaming, leave.”

The whole class is staring at me in fascination. I haven’t gotten such undivided attention from them since the first day. I suppose that’s a sign I should continue. Ugh.

“Dragons communicate telepathically amongst each other and can do so over long distances. Any distance, to the best of my knowledge. They can also communicate this way with their bonded rider.”

A hand shoots up. It’s one of the students who hasn’t earned her name yet. “Does that mean telepaths can speak to dragons?” she asks breathlessly.

“No. Mages cannot speak to dragons—well, they can, using their voices, but if they expect to get an answer in return, they will be sorely disappointed. Despite what many people think, dragon riders are not mages, in the same way that healers are not mages. They are three completely different Talents that do not cross over, ever. Riders don’t have an excess of kinetic energy the way we do, and we don’t have the brain structure that would allow a bond with a dragon. The only human who can speak telepathically with a dragon is their bonded rider.”

The disappointment on her face tells me she had dreams of being a mageanda dragon rider. Perhaps I should ask Tiato introduce the class to Leicht. That would cure them of such ridiculous notions.

“So… did someone die? Or a dragon?” Drey asks. “Is that why they were so upset?”

“No. We’re… unsure at this time what the fuss was. The dragons themselves aren’t being very clear. It’s important to remember that dragons are an intelligent species and not subject to the laws of humans. They have treaties with us because it suits them to do so. They bond with riders for the same reason.” Fuck knows what it is, though. I asked Tia once if she knew, and she told me it was none of my business. I’m still not sure if she knows or not.

“What I don’t understand,” Lenora begins, speaking slowly, as though she’s choosing every word carefully, “is why it’s so important to have dragon riders. They train for war, don’t they? For battle. But there hasn’t been a war in Vaderyn in hundreds of years.”

One of the more highly educated students parts his lips, a superior expression on his face, but I cut him off. “That’s true. The primary reason for that is that the dragons won’t permit it. However, our dragon riders train for war for other reasons too. They support all continental nations in stamping out banditry and maintaining neutral borders. And while there hasn’t been war in Vaderyn for a long time, the world is bigger than the continent. This year, you’re learning continental politics and history, but next year, you’ll be learning about other places.”

Those students who never expected to leave their villages and definitely didn’t know how big their own countries were, much less the world, stare at me in shock. “There are other places?”

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