The Firedragon Read Free Page A

in a language she didn’t recognize, and all held
wands in their hands. She glared at them, frustrated at this new
delay, then recognized two of them from the waiting room she’d sat
in before her test with the Challenge judges.
    These were contestants from one of the other
participating nations. And her competition.
    “ Move it!” she exclaimed,
shoving past them. “How do you expect to fight monsters if you’re
so slow?” She didn’t care what they thought of her – they were just
a bunch of strangers she’d defeat. Enchanters. Who had to think
they were better than her. She couldn’t wait to see the shocked
looks on their faces when she outdid them and their abracadabra.
Oh, how she’d rub their arrogant noses in the fact that they got
beat by a Norm!
    It occurred to her that Connor, an Enchanter
boy, technically fell into the same category as those bigheaded
jerks. But she’d never lump him in with them. She found it bizarre
that he’d been nominated for the Challenge in the first place,
since monster fighting wasn’t exactly his thing. Sure, he was way
ahead of his schoolmates when it came to fancy magic, and she’d
watched him vanquish enough practice dummies to know he’d be decent
if he ever faced a real beast, but he’d never battled an actual,
live supernatural creature before. Not even under the school’s
controlled conditions.
    While Aurelia had whooped
with joy when she’d been nominated for the Challenge, Connor’s face
had turned white as ash. He’d later told her that his father had
wanted one of his kids to represent him in the Challenge. And the
Gold Triumvir had made a big deal out of announcing that he had a personal
stake in the game. But why Connor, his youngest? Why not, instead,
nominate one of his adult children – Connor’s half-brothers and
sisters by a variety of stepmoms – who actually had experience?
Connor hadn’t replied when Aurelia had asked that
question.
    She saw the entrance to the library ahead
and quickened her pace. The library’s two dark brown doors sat in
an arched frame that nearly reached the high, vaulted ceiling, and
Aurelia suddenly felt very short in comparison. She peered in, not
wanting to run into any other Scholars if she could help it. She
had no desire to regurgitate the Academy’s handbook as punishment
for trespassing on the Scholars’ turf – again. And she couldn’t
stand the hoity-toity way the Scholars always looked down at her,
even when they knew she could knock them out with her bare hands if
she wanted to.
    Seeing no one else around, though, she
walked into the library and called, “Connor? You in here?”
    She was positive the answer to that question
was yes. Connor spent half his life studying, and she never
understood why. Oh, she studied too – studied monster anatomy and
behavior. She had to know her enemies in order to hunt them. If she
needed to, she could devote her attention to pages of dense facts
for hours, since her life might one day depend on those details.
But why someone would lock himself up with textbooks voluntarily,
especially for the kinds of frou-frou topics Connor apparently
enjoyed – like art history and sociology – was beyond her. He could
be so serious sometimes. It was hard to believe he was only a year
older than her.
    She darted toward the library’s tall, wooden
bookshelves and rushed down the aisles one by one, wondering if
Connor was browsing for some leather-bound pile of paper. She
didn’t see anyone. Then, hearing a slight rustling behind her, she
turned.
    A pig made of miniscule books – obviously
put together by an enchantment – trotted toward her. A faint golden
shimmer clung to the little red, blue, and brown covers, which
glittered with tiny gilt letters, and the thin white pages rippled
as the creature moved. Aurelia grinned, knowing that only Connor
would have created such a thing. He’d told her earlier that day,
when she asked him how she’d know where in the humongous