2. Heat of Courage

To avoid disrupting the morbid silence, Ariana dropped quietly into her seat. Nique had gone to her preparatory school; she didn't know him, but she knew enough about him to feel deeply sorry for his predicament. The boy came from a long, proud line of guardians, but from what she'd heard, he was a profound disappointment to his parents. In the halls, children had slandered him as lazy, a glutton, and unintelligent. Based on the way he held his shoulders stiff and high in his tailored suit, the way sweat beaded on his pressed lips, the way his eyes shone white on the edges, Ariana would guess that the only thing that made him stretch out his chubby hand and take that phoenix egg was the threat of his parents' disavowal. 

As the room stood and applauded the boy's courage, Ariana followed suit, biting her lip and checking the teachers' expressions. How would they feel about appointing this boy as the next Phoenix Guardian? Their faces betrayed nothing. 

The room became quiet again as the newest Guardians in training were asked to hold their right hands over their hearts. Beast pups sat next to their human partners' right ankle as their mothers and fathers had taught them, looking as dignified as they could at that age. Dragon eggs and jittery fairie children rested in the outstretched left palm of the humans. Nique stood at the front, cradling his egg to his chest as if he had forgotten everything in the terror of the moment. 

In a booming voice, the headmaster called, "Do you solemnly swear to defend and serve the country of Chrusay , even unto death?" 

"I solemnly swear." The children squeaked, barked, and spoke as one, filling the hall with the chorus of hundreds of voices.

"Do you swear to uphold the peace of the nation, behaving with honor, courage, truth, and wisdom?"

"I solemnly swear so to do."

"Then let the bonding ceremony begin."

At the front of the room, the representative Guardians formed a circle and began to chant, moving in a slow dance. The blue dragon yawned, then with a wink at his partner began to coalesce a shimmering ball of water at the center of the circle. A whirl of fairies flew over the dance, lifted the water into a million drops, and blew it into a mist that billowed toward the new Guardians. Golden light from a rare yellow dragon, whose human was the advanced magic teacher, filtered through the fog, crowning every child with a rainbow light. The beast pups' fur began to dampen, and Ariana tried hard not to wipe off drops forming on her nose.

Be anointed with the triumphs of your forebears. The fairies' song invigorated like a breath of cold mountain air on a summer day. Be watered with the tears of our failures. The cold held her like an icy fist. She began to feel very strange and dizzy, as if something were pressing on her mind. Grow into one being, so that you may overthrow heavenly powers and protect what is sacred. 

For the first time since she had picked it up, Ariana really looked at her egg. It was the wrong color. The egg's color was supposed to represent the dragon's element: blue, red, white, or ebony. Hers looked like a tarnished spoon. She wondered if it were not a dragon egg at all, but was only a stone put on the table by accident. That thought was tossed away, though, as the song rose to its climax. All around her, the new partners saw each other through new eyes. They were merging together, forming a single consciousness. Ariana's eyes widened as she felt the dragon egg's heartbeat pulse in time with her own. This foreign object contained a piece of her own soul. Its magic was becoming hers; their fates were now irreversibly intertwined.

As the song ended, a flash of heat forced the fog out of the room. Distracted as she had been by the change overtaking her, Ariana had failed to notice that Mr. Ward and his phoenix were initiating Nique and his egg. They alone had not participated in the anointing; phoenix guardians were never anointed with water. They were baptized in flame. 

Mr. Ward placed a shiny, disfigured hand on Nique's crown. His firebird loosed a shrill cry and hovered over their heads, forming a dense ball of fire the size of a fist that had chased the fog away. As the fireball churned between him and Nique, Mr. Ward pressed his hands around it, forming into a smaller and smaller ball until it was the size of the bird's eye. He and the phoenix breathed into it, and, still hanging unsupported in the air, by some strange magic it turned into a drop that rippled like molten gold.  It seemed to draw light out of Mr. Ward and his phoenix. 

His low, quiet voice still managed to fill the hall. "We give you ourselves, in the hope that you will give yourselves selflessly for your people. The breath of Doem is your power; use it not for personal glory, but to be a shield for the nation. They will look to you for hope as they have looked to us. Give it to them, at whatever cost." Mr. Ward and his partner exchanged a meaningful glance, the translation of which was lost to Ariana, but she could tell there was emotion in it. With utter gravity, the blue-eyed firebird plucked the golden drop from the air and threw it onto the boy and his egg. It flashed and spread with golden tongues of flame, but Nique did not move; he seemed to be in a trance, and the terror that had contorted his face earlier was gone. The fire flickered out without burning anything on him, and without another word, Mr. Ward and his partner passed out of the hall and disappeared. The long eyelashed water wielder watched them go with big, sad eyes, and some of the fairies whispered tensely. Lead by Headmaster Karan, the room, Guardians and citizens alike, dropped to one knee as they passed. 

When, they rose, Karan called, "Citizens of Chrusay, greet our newest Guardians!" Cheers erupted, and fathers began to clap the new Guardians on the shoulders while mothers wiped away tears of mixed happiness and worry.  Ariana saw the fox mother whose kit had been chosen first proudly touch noses with her child. She and the class representative's parents struck up a conversation. A knot of people crowded Nique, but Ariana didn't miss the fiercely proud expressions of his distinguished parents. Nique himself just seemed stunned.

"There you are!" Ariana turned at her mother's voice. As always, Peri looked half wild, with feathery nutmeg hair stubbornly breaking free of the bun she'd tried to tie it in. She never managed to look presentable, but she had tried. Her eyes were dry, and she flashed Ariana a big grin. "You've waited so long for this, and here you are, a real Guardian!" she cooed. 

Her father, Hatim, a short man with a reckless adventurousness belied by his laid-back personality, ruffled her hair. "You'll be the strongest of them all, my sweet. I know you'll do the family proud, just like  your grandma." 

"You bet I will!" Ariana summoned the bravest front she could manage and matched her mother's smile. After her parents had examined her egg and told her it was unique, which hardly seemed like a compliment, they hugged her goodbye. From now on, she would be raised by the Academy. Ariana grinned as she waved them off, trying to look excited instead of homesick and frightened. Her egg felt heavier. At least, she thought, turning to look at where Nique was now obscured from view, it hadn't been as bad as that. She held her egg up to eye level. 

"We are going to be perfectly good Guardians," she told it with conviction. She gave it a little kiss, and as her heart warmed at the thought of saving helpless people, the egg seemed a little happier too. As she pressed toward the dorms, she found herself slipping by a group of teachers.

"We must prepare for difficult times," the advanced magic teacher was saying. He was a dark skinned man in golden robes. His dragon nodded. "Doem would be a fool not to strike now. That boy will not graduate. This selection will make us weaker than we have ever been." 

"Shh," Headmaster Karan's direwolf partner growled, flicking his nose at Ariana and flattening his ears. He seemed to have left Karan to greet parents and joined the other teachers alone.  

Ariana felt a burst of rage and pushed her way into the circle of conversation. "You haven't even given Nique a chance! I bet he'll be the best Phoenix guardian ever! You're just being mean!" To her shame she realized her eyes were brimming with tears.

"You need to learn not to disrespect your elders, girl," the teacher said. His black eyes, flecked in gold, narrowed with anger.

"You know nothing yet of the world you live in, child," the direwolf said gently. "Those words was not meant for your ears. Apologize to Master Yagar and go to the dorms with the other girls. You have much to do before classes tomorrow." 

"But!" she protested.

The direwolf growled deeply, and she recoiled, realizing for the first time that she could look him in the eye without dropping her gaze. And he was sitting down. The turn of his mouth was stern, and she remembered that Speaking Beasts got quite offended when their wisdom was not respected. She quickly bowed and apologized, cheeks flushing pink with embarrassment. It wasn't even the first day of school yet, and she was already getting into trouble!