Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn Page B

more nervous, like he was trying to convince himself. She used to be able to tell what he was trying to say. But now, was he trying to say it was okay that they were going slow, or did he really did want to go further?
    On the other hand, Tam didn’t have any doubt. They were in the bathroom when Kay told her what had happened. She hadn’t meant to. She started by talking about the day of the plane crash.
    â€œWhat were you doing out driving around?” Tam asked. Just like Kay’s Dad.
    â€œI just was. I’d been hiking.”
    â€œAnd your dad caught you? Oh my God, how pissed off was he?”
    She shrugged. “I think he was too busy. He just sent me home. He and my mom didn’t get home ’til like midnight.”
    â€œSo you had all night to think of an excuse.”
    â€œSort of. I mainly just watched the news with Jon.”
    A pause. Kay wished she could see Tam, but Tam was still in the stall. “Jon came over?”
    Kay hesitated, because she knew she’d walked into a trap and Tam was about to pounce on her. “Yeah—”
    â€œWait a minute,” Tam said, throwing the door to the stall open as the toilet flushed behind her. “You and Jon were home alone, your parents were gone, you were together on the sofa, and you didn’t do it?”
    â€œNo.” Kay pouted, defensive. “It was kind of in themiddle of an international crisis. Not exactly the right kind of mood.” Except for all that kissing they’d done…
    â€œWhat better time?” Tam glared while she washed her hands. “I swear, there’s going to be a big war and you’re going to die a virgin. Then how will you feel?”
    â€œA lot like I do now, I bet,” Kay said.
    â€œWhich is?”
    â€œAnnoyed.”
    â€œThere, you see?”
    Kay let the subject drop by not commenting. Jon didn’t seem to mind, and that was the important thing. This was about the two of them and no one else. At least, she didn’t think Jon minded. He’d have said something, wouldn’t he? Wasn’t it normal for guys to want to sleep with their girlfriends? She was the crazy one, according to Tam.
    Arguing with Tam over whether or not to have sex was bad enough. If she and Jon started arguing about it…Maybe it would be just as well if the situation never changed at all.
    Â 
    That Saturday, Jon called Kay in the morning and asked if she wanted to go climbing. “I have to get out of the house,” he said. “Away from all this news.”
    She knew the feeling. Her mother had been interviewed again about Dragon and the border, along with historians discussing old newsreel footage and commentators agitating either for peace or for an invasion to take back the territorywith all its valuable oil reserves and mines. “How dangerous can the dragons be?” reporters kept asking, referring to the old films from when the Silver River Treaty was negotiated. They could fly; they could burn entire towns with their fire. But they’d taken people by surprise last time. This time, we knew what they could do, we’d be ready for them. That’s what people were saying, and the talk made Kay nervous. She didn’t want to find out how dangerous the dragons could be.
    Jon picked her up, and they went to a favorite spot south of town, an established sport climbing rock with permanent anchors—and well away from the border, thankfully. Driving, they talked about nothing in particular. School gossip, summer job prospects—both of them had worked for a rafting company the summer before and were debating about returning. College, the future. It seemed so vague, especially when all Kay could really think about was whether Artegal was okay. Whether Captain Conner had told anyone about them.
    Then, fortunately, there was the climb, and that took all of her focus. Other problems slipped away.
    It seemed strange to be using her climbing gear for