Chapter 52: THE DRAGON THAT IGNORED HER

DIANA’S POV

The next morning, Diana expected to return to the second chair.

Master Clair walked straight past Vharos’s secured cavern stair.

Diana followed for three steps before realizing they were not going down. She stopped and raised her slate.

VHAROS?

"Resting. The Dragon Healer does not need you there this morning."

That was good news. Diana kept the disappointment that followed it to herself and caught up.

Alma walked beside her.

Diana’s two Household Guards followed behind them.

"Where are we going?"

"Lower recovery court."

Diana looked toward Master Clair.

He answered before she wrote. "You have spent several days observing the least ordinary dragon in Blackharrow. If you intend to understand unusual behavior, you need to know what ordinary behavior looks like."

That made sense.

Unfortunately.

The lower recovery court was quieter than the main roosts. Separate stone bays opened toward the winter air, each wide enough for a dragon to move without crowding another.

One dragon slept beneath a heavy insulating cover.

Another stood with a wrapped rear leg while a keeper changed the bedding beneath it.

Diana recognized the third immediately.

The wounded patrol dragon from the Winter Muster.

Her shoulder wound had closed beneath newer scales, and the heavy treatment wrapping was gone. A lighter support band remained beneath the wing.

The last time Diana had been close to her, the dragon had refused treatment unless Diana remained where she could see her.

Now the patrol dragon lifted her head, looked directly at Diana for several seconds, and returned to chewing.

Diana waited for the rest of the reaction.

Nothing else happened.

She had spent days learning not to treat every dragon movement as evidence of something extraordinary. Being ignored should therefore have been reassuring.

It still felt oddly personal.

Alma slowly turned toward Diana.

Master Clair was reading the recovery chart.

She wrote: SHE REMEMBERED ME BEFORE.

Master Clair looked at the slate.

"She noticed you before."

Diana waited for the distinction.

He nodded toward the dragon.

"Last time she was injured, frightened, recently exposed to corrupted material, surrounded by unfamiliar activity, and people were trying to remove metal from a wound she did not want touched."

The patrol dragon pulled another strip of meat from the trough.

"Today her pain is lower. The fragments are gone. She knows this court, she knows the keepers, and no one is putting forceps into her shoulder."

Diana looked at the dragon again.

That was an unreasonable number of differences.

Master Clair handed her a writing board.

"Baseline."

At the visitor mark, the patrol dragon glanced up once and kept eating. Diana recorded EATING, then studied her stance before adding WEIGHT EVEN ON FRONT LEGS.

The recovering shoulder sat slightly differently beneath the wing, so Diana added LEFT WING HIGHER.

Healer Lou, working in the neighboring bay, looked over.

"That is the recovering side."

Diana added: RECOVERING INJURY.

Healer Lou came closer and read the board.

"Compare both wings."

Diana compared both wings. The asymmetry remained, but the patrol dragon was not guarding the shoulder the way she had during the original treatment. Her weight remained even, and the muscles around her jaw looked relaxed.

Diana changed the note.

LEFT WING HELD SLIGHTLY HIGHER. NO OBVIOUS GUARDING.

The Dragon Healer nodded.

"Better."

Master Clair was apparently not the only professional in Blackharrow determined to make simple sentences difficult.

The next two dragons were equally unhelpful to anyone hoping for mystery.

One ignored Diana until a feeding pail appeared, then turned so quickly that her chalk nearly reached the board before she saw the meat.

She recorded: TURNED TOWARD FEED PAIL.

Then: FOOD VISIBLE.

By midday, Diana had filled several pages with behavior that meant almost nothing.

Apparently that was useful too.

One form eventually annoyed her.

At the top, a clerk had written: DUCHESS ARRIVAL

Diana tapped the heading.

Master Clair looked over.

She wrote: WHICH ARRIVAL?

He frowned at the page.

Diana pointed in turn toward the outer passage, the recovery-court entrance, and the marked position outside the individual bay.

They were three different moments currently being recorded as one arrival.

Master Clair understood.

"If a dragon reacts while you are still outside the court, that matters."

Diana nodded.

"If the reaction begins only after you reach the observation mark, that matters too."

Another nod.

Master Clair took the form.

He crossed out the original heading.

In its place he wrote:

OUTER PASSAGE

COURT ENTRY

OBSERVATION POSITION

He handed the sheet back.

For several days people had been writing observations about her.

This was the first time the form itself changed because she had noticed something missing.

Alma looked over her shoulder.

"You have made their paperwork longer."

Diana wrote: BETTER.

"Those are not always the same thing."

Unfortunate.

During the final observation, the dragonstone warmed faintly beneath Diana’s collar.

The dragon in front of her had already looked away.

Diana wrote: STONE WARM.

Healer Lou saw the note.

"When did it begin?"

Diana stopped.

She did not know.

Before the dragon looked at her?

After?

While she crossed the court?

She had noticed only once the warmth was already there.

Diana wrote: I DID NOT NOTICE THE START.

The healer nodded toward the form.

"Then record that separately from the dragon."

Diana looked at her.

"Your body is an observation too. It is not automatically an observation about the animal."

That was considerably less satisfying than assuming the dragonstone always meant something important.

It was also difficult to argue with.

Diana added the note under her own response rather than beside the dragon’s behavior.

Master Clair said nothing.

Healer Lou returned after lunch with a thicker booklet and held it out.

Diana read the title.

BASIC DRAGON ANATOMY, INJURY, AND DISTRESS SIGNS

Alma looked at the size of it.

"Your first book was shorter."

The healer said, "Her Grace has begun making observations that touch medical questions."

Diana opened it.

The drawings were substantially better.

Master Clair saw her expression.

"Different artist."

Diana nodded immediately.

Healer Lou looked offended on someone else’s behalf.

The healer waited until Diana stopped turning pages.

"You are not diagnosing or treating anything. You are learning enough terminology to describe what you see without calling every uneven wing an injury."

Diana finally looked up.

The healer appeared satisfied she had been heard.

Diana wrote: HOW MANY BONES?

The healer told her.

Diana stared.

Alma leaned toward the book.

"That seems unnecessary."

Exactly.

Diana began reading before they had left the Dragon Heights.

The first section she marked concerned corrupted tissue.

Diana stopped before they reached the stairs.

She opened her slate again.

DID THEY TEST WHAT WAS IN THE PATROL DRAGON’S WOUND?

The Dragon Healer looked at the question.

"Yes."

Diana waited.

Then wrote: AGAINST THE ROAD ATTACK?

This time, the healer paused.

"Command Terrace has the comparison."

Diana wrote: CAN I SEE IT?

"That is not mine to release."

Diana stared at her.

The healer added, "You can ask."

Diana looked toward Command Terrace.