Page 28 of The Infirmary for Dragon Burns and Midair Mishaps

What I needed were fresher scales. The kinds of scales that were from newly fallen shed. I turned and darted outside, racing across the meadow to the spot where Min had touched down this morning. Carefully, I shifted through the wildflowers, following the trail of turned earth from her claws, scanning left and right.

Yes!

There, like a silver stone the size of my palm, was a freshly dropped scale. I knelt down and picked it up, running my thumb over the smooth edge. This would be perfect for a shoulder covering! But I needed more for my next attempt at the armor. Much more.

I needed… to get into Min’s nesting shed.

A horn sounded suddenly, and I jumped, twirling around. The sound cut through the air in three short blasts, echoing from the direction of the town square. Birds shot from the trees next to the cottage, taking to the sky.

My chest clenched at the sight.

Horns at the academy had always sent people running because horns meant danger. But these didn’t sound like warning horns. They were an announcement.

A welcome.

Someone had arrived.

10

EDEN

I ran all the way from Bramble Cottage to the town square, slowing as the crowd of townsfolk thickened. The main road was already crowded with traveling carts and tourist wagons. Merchants had set up temporary stalls for the migration season, selling everything from painted dragon tapestries to rings with stones polished to look like dragon eggs to wooden pendants in the shape of claws. I slipped between two stalls, inching closer to the square.

“What is it?” a woman asked, pressed up on her toes, trying to spy between shoulders. “Who is it?”

“Kingsguard,” someone replied. “Looks to be an entire section of them.”

My stomach plummeted as I wove through the bodies. What was an entire section of kingsguard doing here?

A group of kids giggled, darting between people faster than I could, wearing cloaks sewn into the shape of dragon wings.

The closer I got to the front of the crowd, the better I could see. It wasn’t just one section of kingsguard. There were eighteen of them in total. They rode into the center of Ember Ridge on jet-black horses with feathered hooves, braided manes, and long glossy tails. Their tack was laid with silver and the sigil of the king, one yawning dragon’s head spitting blue fire.

The hottest fire—draconflame.

A fire that only existed in myth.

“Halt!” a voice cried. There was another short blast from a horn, and the company halted, the horses stopping in three perfectly ordered lines. The kingsguard wore the same sigil on their chestplates, those blue flames burning bright over their hearts.

My pulse skipped a beat. Surely Vaela hadn’t actually summoned the kingsguard because of a little smoke. Whether she suspected it or not, she hadn’t actually proven what I was doing. And even if she’d been certain, surely they wouldn’t have sent a contingent like this all because some burn nurse was messing around with dragon scales?

There had to be some kind of warning process. A slap on the wrist or a strongly worded letter delivered to my door by a grumpy soldier.

I was jostled from behind as the crowd converged, merchants and vendors all drawn in by the commotion. Small children squeezed between legs or hung out windows of buildings, hoping for a better view of the soldiers and their broadswords.

“Eden!”

I glanced down the row, spotting Matty’s massive shoulders rising above some of the other infirmary staff. He waved me over, and I slipped through the crowd, stopping between him and Nisse.

“What do you think they’re doing here?” I asked. “Has anyone said?”

Matty shook his head. “I’ve never seen this many all at once.”

That didn’t bode well. “This isn’t normal for the migration?” I clarified.

Nisse tucked her short black hair behind her ears. “We see the odd soldier now and then. But they usually don’t bother with us. This is… Well, they clearly have something to announce, don’t they?”

I swallowed hard.