She could start by finding the Tourmaline Dragon. Did Dragons return favours? Most likely he’d chew her up for trespassing on the holy Isle …
Just then, Master Jo’el formed his finger-tent and inquired, “What language was that, Hualiama? And when did you learn magic?”
She stalled, “Magic? Are you certain, Master?”
He cocked an eyebrow at her as though it were one of his batons aimed at her skull.
“Petal,” said Yualiana, aiming a visual cudgel of her own at her brother, “Why don’t you tell us your story? Perhaps together, we might breathe the Great Dragon’s truth into these matters.”
Unfolding her tale calmed Hualiama’s frayed nerves. Flicker entertained everyone by recounting an embellished version of his feat of rescuing her–not forgetting to explain her nicknames of ‘straw-head’ and ‘flat-face’. He lapped up the laughter like a feline which found itself hip-deep in cream, preened outrageously at their compliments and of course, begged for more.
But all too soon, the conversation returned to Lia.
“Your answer?” said Master Jo’el.
Hualiama sighed.
“You’re too hard on her, Jo’el,” his sister admonished. Now officially invited to her son’s oath-taking, Yualiana appeared to have mined a vein of sympathy for Lia’s plight.
“No,” said Hualiama. “I’ve no need to tell you that this is a grave secret …”
He said, “You speak the forbidden tongue.”
“Aye, Master.”
“Hmm.” That was all Master Jo’el volunteered on the subject. Having expected a grilling, she felt like a trout hooked out of a terrace lake.
Flicker chirped brightly, “Of course, the Lesser Dragons would slay Hualiama in a wing-flip if they learned she could speak Dragonish, so keep those fangless traps of yours shut, by my wings. Anyways, I’m sure any Human can learn to speak Dragonish, even the stupid ones. I taught Lia, after all.”
“Thanks!” She smacked his scaly rump.
“Look, Ja’al, you do some magic, right? Listen.” Flicker said telepathically, You egg-headed excuse for a male, how dare you refuse my Lia? You must have scrambled windroc eggs for brains.
Ja’al peered inquiringly him.
“Are you Humans all born deaf?” Aloud, the dragonet chirped, Egg-head.
Leg-bread, the young monk chirped back.
Lia chuckled, “You said, ‘Leg-bread.’ Like this, egg-head.”
Egg-head, Ja’al repeated faithfully.
Flicker and Hualiama burst out laughing. Everyone else looked on in bemusement.
“So, uncle,” said Inniora, “now that your monastery takes women, when can I start?”
With great dignity, Master Jo’el ignored his niece’s question. But Lia did observe that his jaw tightened, and his gaunt cheeks seemed rather more pinched than a moment before.
Inniora turned to Hualiama with an overzealous smile. “Doesn’t every Princess need some kind of handmaiden? Er, companion to the royal personage? Someone to stitch their dresses? Perhaps a royal dragonet-carer, who feeds and pampers the royal pet?”
“Desperate,” said Ja’al.
Flicker purred softly, “Actually, I find her attitude most stimulating.”
“You’re mine,” growled Hualiama.
* * * *
Flicker’s eyes whirled with curiosity and pride. Twice now, straw-head had surprised him with positively draconic responses. Obviously, his skilled tutelage was not wasted! He had thought Lia incapable of properly civilised behaviour such as jealousy, and the fire in her tone revealed a hitherto veiled strength of character and purpose. And just take her thunderous rage, earlier! Oh, by the First Egg of all Dragons, he’d have her breathing fire, soon!
Ha. Only he could have been smart enough to spy her potential–instantly. Why else leap off the cliff? Now, he knew his role. He must guide the Human girl with a firm paw and protect her from the fungus-faced one, until she attained her destiny. His chest swelled. That the Ancient One should have chosen him for such a task! It struck him that she was a perfect Dragoness, a creature of guileful fires and complex passions. The glint of her scales concealed much from these fellow-Humans, but unsurprisingly, the superior intellect of a dragonet had penetrated her subterfuge. He’d have to watch her more closely from now on. Magic? Fury filling those smoky green eyes with flame? Oh, his beautiful Lia, she was a hatchling trying out her wings for the first time.
But his student must not suspect he was wise to her cunning feminine ways.
“A true Princess treats her dragonet with respect,” Flicker said loftily. “Now, this is how you issue orders, Hualiama. Inniora, fetch your harp this instant. You will accompany the fabulous firebird of Fra’anior as she sings O Erigar, My Island for us. You will all attend closely to the words.”
Slow-as-sheep Humans. They perched on their ridiculous wooden platforms and made noises of undignified confusion as Inniora fetched and prepared her instrument.