Cold Steel

“How awful,” said Bee, glancing at Kemal.

“A maze of mirrors will always confound the Hunt,” the headmaster went on. “I rescued Kemal by this means, but I had found him too late. He had spent so many years in a human body believing himself human that he was too old to learn how to change.”

Kemal stared at his hands as if trying to pretend we were not talking about him.

“Your Excellency, just now on the shore, I saw one turn into a hawk and fly away,” I said. “What will happen to it?”

“It will live a hawk’s life and die a hawk’s death. It is impossible to find those of our children who are lost in this way. These examples illustrate how important it is that we be the ones who greet our own children and welcome them to this world. If they do not know we are what they can be, then they will never know and are lost to us regardless.”

“Can the rest of you change shape at will?”

“Yes. All except Kemal.”

“Then why do you live in human form, Your Excellency?” Bee asked.

“As your kind spread across the lands and began to discover our young ones and kill them out of fear, we discovered our best camouflage was to walk in the world in human form, and to live among you.”

“How do they know whether to be male or female?” I asked.

His smile reproved me. “It is not the same for us as with humankind. When we hatch in the spirit world and swim in the Great Smoke, we are grubs, neither male nor female. When we come ashore in the mortal world, we become male.”

“How do you breed and produce nests, then, if you are all male?” Bee demanded.

“Would I ask you such a intimate question? Do not presume to ask it of me.” The brown of his eyes flashed with the spark of emeralds, as if his control of his human shape was slipping. He spoke in an edged tone I had never before heard from the man who had famously not once lost his temper at the academy. “I am weary, and growing restless. Is there some favor you came to ask that you believe I can help you with?”

Bee twisted her hands together. Her hesitation surprised me, as did the way she chewed on her lower lip as if nerving herself to speak.

“Your Excellency.” Maestra Lian appeared at the door. “They are clothed and settled in the upstairs room for safety. A fifth claimant has arrived.”

He leaped to his feet with such a hiss that Bee and I both jolted back. I grasped the basket, wondering if I would need to throw the skull at him.

“We are done here,” he said in a hostile tone that killed the interview. “You must go.”

Bee sucked in a huge breath and let it out all in a rush.

“Your Excellency, how do I stop dreaming?”

“Bee!” I whispered, shocked by her words.

He shrugged his shoulders uncaringly. “How do you stop dreaming? In the same way you stop breathing. You die.”

“We must leave now,” said Kemal firmly, waving us out. “I will escort you to the gates.”

We walked out of the grand house in silence.

Once on the drive, Bee spoke. “Maester Napata, how many people know that dragons roam the earth in the guise of human beings?”

“In this part of the world, I should be surprised if anyone knows, for we keep ourselves hidden.”

A coach passed us, driving toward the house. A distinguished man of middle years stared at us from the coach. Was this the fifth claimant? Certainly he was an adult, not a hatchling. What crown was he challenging the headmaster for?

At the massive wrought-iron gates, the two guards cast sneering glances toward Kemal but allowed in an insulting manner that Bee and I might pass through the gatehouse. After a formal courtesy she and I departed.

“The guards must be dragons, too,” said Bee. “They were very rude to Maester Kemal.”

“You are his champion now! I wonder if any of the attractive men at the academy college in Adurnam were secretly dragons. How does it feel to know a dragon is infatuated with you?”

“It’s nothing to joke about,” she snapped. “Imagine being orphaned in such a way, and never even having a single memory of your parentage or what you truly are! You of all people should feel sympathy for the young man’s plight.”

“Blessed Tanit! This is a change of heart! I am sure it was you who first conceived of calling him the headmaster’s dog back in Adurnam.”

“I am sorry I was too selfish to remark on the sorrows and griefs of others. People must do better in being kind to others, for I am come to see that the temperament that looks suspiciously on any person who does not wear the garb they believe is proper, is the temperament most apt to punish the unfamiliar and least apt to see justice done. Do you not think so?”