of a Dragon. Hualiama became aware of an expanding of purpose and understanding, as though his attack had released a swarm of thoughts like a thousand-strong flight of dragonets scared into flight, chaotic and vibrant and alive. She could not process all that she felt. It was too unruly, too visceral. How absurd was it that her skin thrilled to a Lesser Dragon’s touch, even though he meant to trample her? That her nostrils tingled, desperate to take in the sulphur and cinnamon scents of a formidable male Dragon? She was off-the-Islands crazy, Lia told herself, unhinged by distress and fear.
The Dragon demanded, “How did you survive, little Human?”
“With the help of a dragonet, I landed in a tree.”
A great rumble in his belly resolved into what she realised was the Dragon’s laughter. “You cheated Ra’aba? What courage … girl, you’ve no idea what you’ve done.”
Abruptly, his claws tightened across her back, pinning her as though she were locked behind dungeon bars. Hualiama groaned, but the Dragon did not relent. He snarled, “Princess, attend my words well. I was never here. You never saw a Dragon who warned you to lie low for the next three days. Don’t stick your insolent little nose out of that cave, no matter what you hear. Do you understand me?”
“Aye, mighty Dragon.” Lia despised the way her voice squeaked.
“You need to get off this Island. I don’t care how you do it, just leave. Should you be found here by another Dragon, no power in this Island-World could keep you safe.”
The pressure vanished. Nauseous with disbelief, Lia had strength only to lie motionless, her eyes squeezed shut. Any moment now, a talon would slice across her neck … the Dragon’s paw would stamp down … instead, a cool breeze wafted across her bare back.
Her wide-flung eyes spied the very tip of his tail as the Dragon dropped off the cliff.
What?
To say her world had been shaken was an understatement. The Islands dangled from the sky. The stars burned in her heart. She had just been attacked by a Dragon on their holy Island, and she would live to see another dawn? Dragons were not supposed to behave as though they felt compassion. Lia played and replayed their conversation in her head. Three things stood out to her–her crazed laughter, which had triggered an incomprehensible shift in his attitude, the Dragon’s knowledge of who she was, and the sheer incredulity and joy infusing the Dragon’s voice as he spoke of her cheating Captain Ra’aba.
Nothing about their encounter made a jot of sense.
She had not learned the Dragon’s name. Islands’ sakes, she did not even know what colour he had been! In all her dreams about an encounter with the amazing, magical Dragons, she had never imagined she would count herself fortunate not be scraped off the underside of a Dragon’s paw. Such raw, animal power! She shivered.
At least, in one more irony, she had learned that Dragons could make mistakes. He thought she was important. How little a Dragon knew.
* * * *
When Flicker returned to the cave, he looked for straw-head in her customary sleeping-place, the hollow where the Dragoness in ages past must have brooded over her eggs. She was not there. Instead, the Human girl watched him from the hot pool, neck-deep in the steaming water, the expression in her eyes unfathomable.
“Ah … good hunting?” he chirped.
“If you count becoming the prey as good hunting, yes,” said Lia.
Flicker coughed fire involuntarily. “What?”
“Oh, if you must know, a Dragon ambushed me last night but left me alive–while you were nowhere to be found.”
Flicker’s wings pulsed in shame. “Shards take it, Lia, I’m sorry.” And here I’m the one who preached at you about friends always looking after each other’s wings.
He thought she would demand to know where he had been, but instead, Hualiama recounted the incident for him. “What do you make of it, Flicker?”
“I don’t understand either,” said the dragonet. “You should have been smeared across the rocks and your entrails scattered for the windrocs.”
“Nice–thanks for that image.”
He vibrated his wings very rapidly against his flanks, indicating the dragonet sense of humour under adversity. Flicker said, You’re right, the Dragons seem to know far more about Human politics than they rightly should. Dragons are devious creatures. How can they spy so effectively? Are they employing an unknown form of magic? More importantly, we need to escape from this Island, because I can assure you, to receive only a threat from a Dragon