Weysh marched up to his classmates. “Windy today, isn’t it?” Watching them startle was so incredibly satisfying. “It will make practice difficult,” he continued. “Everything is blowing back west, en?” He grinned and pointed the way he’d come.

“Oh! Weysh! Hello!” said Feiy. Sween simply cringed, not even trying to hide the fact that they had been talking about him. Weysh nodded to Sween and ignored the others, making for the practice targets at the back of the building.

“Well that was rude,” said Clairette.

Weysh changed to dragon and made some circles around the training field, putting them from his mind and instead doing his best to judge how the wind would affect his shots.

In due time Lieutenant Duval—Harth’s cousin on his mother’s side—took to the field. He was gangly and sallow, but in dragon could he ever control a flame. More of Weysh’s classmates joined them on the riverbank including, to Weysh’s shock, Noriago. Weysh was sure starting fights in the streets would have been grounds for expulsion.

He wondered what connections Noriago had back home, or if it was simply that Prevan’s powers that be had decided they didn’t want to make a minor ripple into something more and cast negative attention on the school. Or perhaps Noriago was simply benefiting from being dragonkind. Whatever the reason, it looked like Weysh would be stuck with Noriago until the bitter end.

Noriago, for his part, ignored Weysh all class, and Weysh didn’t feel much like talking to anyone. Thankfully there was no partnering in fire-breathing training. Lieutenant Duval had them sail over the targets one by one, blasting them with fire and critiquing their performance in front of the others. Weysh was glad to change to dragon and simply focus on the class, pushing himself to melt the metal poles as quickly and cleanly as possible. But after a time, when he was back on the riverbank watching another of his classmates take their turn, someone settled in beside him.

“Erm, sorry about earlier, Weysh,” said Sween.

“It’s nothing new,” Weysh replied.

“I told them you’re not a bad guy. But listen, Clairette told us some things about Noriago, things he did in Espanna. If they’re true, I’d stay clear of him, Weysh.”

“En? Such as?”

“Well, he already has a record. There was a house fire and a woman was badly burned and disfigured. Noriago was suspected in connection to it—largely because the woman was his father’s mistress. There was no proof he did it or anything, but it seems that’s the only reason he got off.”