“How?”
“That is, and was, the question. I found it fascinating, but I find the cultural phenomenon of assigning outcaste status to be fascinating in general.”
“Even where Dragons are concerned?”
“No. I understand the Dragon concept. It is not, as you must feel it is, like the Barrani custom; it is not political in that way. Dragons have, historically, been much more direct: they fight. The stronger destroys the weaker. The flights rise and fall on the basis of the strength and power of their leaders.
“We may swear eternal and immortal enmity, and we may throw our entire focus into the destruction of those enemies—but we do not doubt that they are Dragons. We do not make our enemies outcaste simply because we can. That is the Barrani way. The human way. It is not the way of our kind. We destroy what we feel we must, and for our own reasons—but we understand, at the same time, that our most dangerous enemies are...us.”
“But the outcaste—”
“Yes. It was determined that the outcaste was no longer kin. He was no longer Dragon. It is fundamentally different.” The Arkon bowed his head for a moment, almost as if in prayer. When he exhaled, there was smoke in his breath; to Kaylin, it had the scent of ash.
“You are aware of the Barrani Test of Name, the Barrani Tower of that test.”
Kaylin nodded. “There’s no such test for Dragons.”
“No. And yes. Our existence as Dragons is our test. When we are born, however, we take one form. We are either Dragon or human. As children, we cannot easily switch between the two; half of our existence, half of our life, is empty. Waiting. We feel its absence, but cannot alleviate it. The whole of our childhood is training to do just that.
“As the Barrani do, we require True Names. It is my belief that our names are more complicated than Barrani names, but in essence, they serve the same function. The Barrani have the Consort. The Dragons do not. When we speak of Dragons in the Empire, we speak of adults. In our own tongue, the children are not Dragons.
“Barrani children will become Barrani adults, if they survive. Human children will become human adults. Likewise the Aerians, the Leontines, the Tha’alani. That is not true, however, of the Dragons. Our children will not inevitably become adults—Dragons. Many fail to mature.”
“What happens to them?”
“For the most part, they die.”
“Youkill them?”
“No, Kaylin. Not unless it is necessary. But they are not counted as Dragonkin.”
“The outcaste was a Dragon.”
The Arkon’s breath once again came out in a mist that smelled of ash. “He was considered a Dragon, yes. He could walk as man and fly as Dragon.”
“But you said he’s not a Dragon.”
“Lannagaros.” Bellusdeo placed a hand on the Arkon’s shoulder. “This is not necessary.”
He seemed to draw strength from her hand, although his eyes were now upon Kaylin. “Until we have our Names, we cannot conquer the duality of our existence. We are not one thing or another, in either form; we are always both. It is why we can breathe fire when we stand on two legs.
“The Draconic form or the human form do not come easily or naturally—but even at birth, we retain an echo of the knowledge of either, depending on our gender. To become one or the other is an act of both will and faith.”
“And the outcaste could.”
Silence. Kaylin waited for the Arkon to break it. She had never seen him so somber.
“Yes.” He bowed his head again. She thought he had finished. But he raised it as Bellusdeo let her hand fall from his shoulder. “Yes, he could. What we did not know—what we could not know at the time—was that he hadalsofailed.
“You have noticed that I have taken an interest in your friends, Mandoran and Annarion.”
“This is relevant because?” Kaylin asked, although she thought she understood.
“They are not Barrani in most senses of the word. They are other. In a like fashion, the outcaste was other. He could walk as a man; he could fly—and fight—as a Dragon. But that was not all he could do. He understood, far before we did, that he was not a duality.
“Some hatchlings cannot cohere. They cannot wed the concept of the two forms into an indivisible whole. They are not attached to their first form, as the majority of the failures are; they are not attached to their second form. They are not wed to the concept offormas a single cohesive attribute.
“You understand why Mandoran and Annarion are of specific interest.”