The sound of bells rang out over the courtyard. I couldn’t determine the origin, other than to tell it did not come from the chapel.

“Is it that time already?” asked Academy Leader Silver rhetorically. “Time to wrap things up here. Join me, Hero Percy.”

With very little choice in the matter, I followed him back towards the chapel and up the first steps. At least I had a convenient excuse to abandon my drink on a table next to my path.

“Everyone!” announced Academy Leader Silver. He continued with only the slightest pause to allow people to quiet down and face us. “Thank you very much for witnessing this historical moment with us. Unfortunately, we will have to steal the heroes away from you for a time, but fear not, you will have another opportunity to speak to them at supper. Please feel free to speak to any of the staff if you have any requirements.”

There was a murmur that wasn’t quite agreement or disagreement, but Academy Leader Silver ignored it. He decisively turned to face me instead. I had to fight the instinct to take a few steps back and off the steps. I was relieved to see that Branneth and Lilianna join me, and that hadn’t been an emotion I’d expected to feel. Some more of our hosts also joined the group, including Assistant Oxenden, with his face freshly scrubbed.

In a more conversational volume, Academy Leader Silver said, “Heroes, let me present to you some of the staff here at the dragon academy. I am Academy Leader Silver, in charge of the new section, and this is my right-hand, Assistant Oxenden. To my right is Academy Leader Darkwater, and Assistant Altengart, of the old section. Now what you’ve been waiting for – a tour of the academy and a visit to the dragons!”

Yes. Yes, that was exactly what I had been waiting for.

We exited the courtyard into a large empty hall, carelessly dismissed by Academy Leader Silver as the upper dining hall. Walking straight through the middle, we came out onto a covered walkway overhanging the edge of a cliff. The mountains fell away dramatically beneath our feet. Far below us I could make out a patchwork of fields, forests and villages. An involuntary shiver run down the middle of my back. There wasn’t any wind, but the threat of it was a heavy presence of its own.

“The Enduring Lands,” announced Academy Leader Silver proudly. “Magnificent, isn’t it?”

“Magnificent,” I agreed.

Branneth strode forward to lean on the railing, while Lillianna moved as far away from the edge as she could. I moved to stand between her and the plunging depths. I offered her an arm, and she took it with a quick grateful smile. We were led along the walkway and down steps carved directly out of the stone of the mountain. The steps twisted round in between cliff faces. The back of the chapel was now above us. Then we were through the little pass. The space would probably have opened up if it hadn’t been for a massive wall filling the space from side to side.

The building had multiple entrances. We were led to a pair of human sized doors, and I eyed the larger versions. I hoped that was a result of excessive pride, and not a typical height of a dragon.

“Welcome to the new section,” said Academy Leader Silver. “We’re still in the process of constructing it, but it’s coming along well. Heavens be thanked, we haven’t had an incident since we started using them.”

“What type of incident?” asked Branneth.

“Thunderstorm owls,” said Academy Leader Silver. “They were getting into the old section and taking off with the eggs and even the younger dragonets.”

Academy Leader Darkwater’s face looked like a thunderstorm of its own, but he didn’t say anything to contradict Academy Leader Silver.

“How terrible,” said Lillianna.

I hastened to share her sentiments. If I was considerably less sincere, then it was no-one’s business but my own.

“We’ll have to stop that,” declared Branneth.

I couldn’t quite tell if he thought he was sharing some unthought of wisdom, or if he was making a personal vow. Either way, I hoped he kept me out of it.

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“The ceremony grounds are that way,” said Academy Leader Silver, moving us down a passageway and past the indicated doors. “You’ll see them tonight, when the other candidates have arrived.”

Other candidates. Excellent. I very much approved of other candidates. Many candidates. Enough candidates that there wouldn’t be enough dragons to go around.

“And don’t worry,” said Academy Leader Silver. “You’ll also get your chance to fly sooner than you might have expected! We will take you on am excursion with our experienced riders tomorrow afternoon.”

I hadn’t been worried before, but I certainly was after that announcement. It was just one flight, I told myself. Supervised and planned. Very little chance of an attack or any other type of unpleasantness. It would be fine.

“In the meantime, here are our mature dragons,” he said, with a dramatic gesture as he swept open another door.

The area we walked into was a collection of what could barely be considered pens, considering the size of the animals. The dragons were about two meters off the ground, with wings laid flat along their sides. Their bodies were between three and five meters long, with another similar length of large, muscular tails. Roughly half had a row of spines down their backs, and they were a mixture of colours and patterns. In the first pen, a single dragon was pacing back and forth, a distance of only five steps each way. Two further had dragons draped unmoving over large logs. Another was submerged in an insufficiently large pond. I was forcibly reminded of documentaries of badly funded zoos.

> I'm sure you've all seen the painting "Saint Percival First Meets Dragons". I find added appreciation for that great artwork in knowing just how inaccurate it is.

The group stretched out as I took my time. Branneth and the two academy leaders pulled forward while I moved from dragon to dragon. Some of the attendants came out to hover at the edge of the space.

“They’re all in separate pens?” I asked, trying not to include any of my thoughts in my tone of voice.

“Yes,” agreed Assistant Oxenden. “Fully mature dragons can’t safely be kept together, except strictly during breeding.”

“Doesn’t that make it difficult to be a rider?” I asked.

“Oh! No, that’s not a problem. Dragons with riders are kept safely in induced adolescence. We only advance the dragons that have explicitly chosen to create new dragonets.”

“Are they just kept like this all the time?” I asked. “I imagine it must be a little boring for them here without even riders to interact with.”

“We do what we can,” said one of the attendants defensively. “There is a larger area we cycle the dragons through, but it’s really hard now that we can’t let them go outdoors.

Another volunteered, “We try to make feeding them somewhat of a game. For instance, we used to have a device that let us freeze fruits in with their water, but someone confiscated it.”

“It was being misused for pranks,” said Assistant Oxenden, but without much conviction.

“It was not!” retorted the attendant hotly. “We accounted for everything when applied for the magic exemption. Darkwater—”

“Academy Leader Darkwater.”

“—Academy Leader Darkwater just didn’t want us using anything in the new campus that he didn’t introduce first in the old campus.”

“Hush, he might hear you. Don’t make more trouble for Academy Leader Silver.”

“I’m sure that the heroes don’t need to hear us gossiping like students,” said Assistant Oxenden repressively.

He was entirely wrong, of course. I definitely needed to hear all the gossip. My future life and happiness might depend on it.

“You said the juvenile dragons are not as aggressive?” asked Lilianna, when they settled into embarrassed silence. Good girl. You ask them.

“They aren’t aggressive at all,” said Assistant Oxenden quickly. “Perfectly safe.”

Unfortunately for him, it seemed that someone had forgotten to warn the attendants to keep to the party line.

“Unless you aren’t paying attention and get caught out by a tail-whip,” sniggered one.

“Or you take them outside,” said another, to general mirth.

“Take them outside?” repeated Lilianna tentatively.

I blinked myself. I had assumed that riding a dragon would necessarily involve, you know, going outside. If it was in fact an entirely indoor pursuit then perhaps I had been too hasty to assume general unpleasantness.

Assistant Oxenden must have realised that he’d have to explain. “It’s an old problem. The new section is entirely covered, but the old section has many outdoor sections. We theorise that humans look different to dragons when under glass than when we are under the full holy light of the gods. We recently had a batch of dragonets that had been brought up entirely indoors. When we took outside for the first time, it seems they reacted very badly to how their riders looked. But there were no serious injuries, and we have a process in place now to handle the situation. Shall we catch up with the group?”

> This seems like superstition but is surprisingly probably accurate. Dragons see far higher into the light spectrum than humans do, and it isn’t uncommon for glass to ‘shade’ these ranges. Seeing a human in daylight for the first time might well have look like they have been possessed by demons.

He sped walked forwards and beyond the reach of further questions.

Lilianna leant in my direction. “I know I might be judging too quickly, but the treatment of their dragons is…”

“Concerning,” I agreed in a quiet voice.

For more than one reason. A society that didn’t respect the animals under their care tended not to show much decency to the humans, either.

Memo to self: investigate the other countries and cultures