the dragon’s acquaintance. “I don’t know which was sillier,” she remarked as she finished, “him thinking I’d believe his story about not being a mage, or treating me as if I were a monster. I asked him if he would take responsibility for the dragon and he refused, so I kept her.”
Niko sighed. “Lightning scares people,” he reminded her. “I thought you were going to keep a grip on it — and on your temper.”
“I did,” she retorted. “I just gave him enough of a shock to make him drop the tongs, and I warned him. He would have killed her,” she said defensively, rubbing the dragon between its tiny ears. “I can’t abide people who blame others for their mistakes, Niko, you know I can’t. I’d like to give his teacher a piece of my mind.”
“And if he’s a new mage?” inquired Niko.
Tris snorted. “How could that be? He’s a grown man!”
“Lark didn’t know her gift with needlework was magic until she was nearly thirty.” Lark was one of Tris’s foster-mothers, a powerful thread mage. “It’s not unusual for the person not to know, if his power, or hers, comes from things used every day,” Niko added.
“Hmpf,” replied Tris, unconvinced. “Well, he knows now. And it’s not like there aren’t fistfuls of glass mages in this city, so I won’t be stuck with him.” Any mage who was certified by Lightsbridge University in Karang or Winding Circle temple in Emelan agreed to a pact to get a mage’s credential: he, or she, had to teach any new mage if there was no teacher with that same magic on hand. Despite their age, Tris, her foster-sisters and her foster-brother all wore the medallion that marked them as accredited mage-graduates of Winding Circle. Sandry and Briar had written to her about the mage-students they had taken on since Tris and Niko left Emelan. Tris preferred to avoid their fate. She was responsible for Little Bear and now, it seemed, for the dragon. That was more than enough for her.
“You should check on him in the morning. Make certain that he has a teacher,” Niko said. “No fooling about, Tris. A student is a serious matter. Can that thing even digest charcoal?”
The glass dragon took her muzzle out of the box that held sticks of charcoal and belched. This time she produced semi-transparent black glass globes that rolled over the worktable.
Niko stretched a hand out to the creature and twitched his fingers. “Come here, you,” he ordered.
The dragon looked from Tris to Niko to Tris, plainly thinking it over. “It’s all right,” Tris assured her. “He’s my teacher.”
Niko smiled at her. “One of the strongest bonds between mages, isn’t it?”
Tris nodded.
Gingerly the dragon walked over to Niko and, leaning back on her haunches, sat up. First the mage looked her over, inch by inch, examining the seamless joins of wings to body and claws to feet. Then he conducted an examination with his sensitive fingertips. He got nipped once for putting a finger into the dragon’s gullet. “Don’t do that,” he said absently. “Now, stay.”
He patted the dragon on the head as if she were a dog, then set his bony fingers on his closed eyelids. Tris raised a hand to shade her vision as white fire sprang from Niko’s eyes. Startled, the dragon fell on to her back. Quickly she scrabbled to her feet and turned to see if her tail was still there.
When Niko opened his eyes, the dragon sneezed noiselessly.
“Very likely,” Niko told her. He looked at Tris. “She’s… strange,” he said, frowning slightly.
Tris bridled in defence of her newest stray. “Of course she’s strange,” she retorted. “The one who made her tried to kill her.” She didn’t even notice that she had accepted Niko’s decision that the dragon was female.
Niko sighed. “That’s not what I meant. I don’t know if I ever told you, but I hold a credential in glass magic — ”
“In addition to your credentials in teaching magic, seer’s magic and star magic,” the girl replied. “That’s why they wanted you for this circus.” With a wave of her hand she included the boisterous gathering of mages downstairs.
“Yes, Trisana,” replied Niko patiently. “Now, I learned to make glass to expand my magical vision, and because I like glassmaking. I can tell you that this creature contains a surge of glass magic, but it’s not focused in the way that a trained glassmage would do it. Her skeleton is made of glass magic. I’m picking up