As they drew closer, Audrey smelt the unmistakable scent of dragon on the breeze, and the sound of their bugling calls ranged from young and piping to powerful and mature to a failing warble of an old beast. Even as they came up to the Academe the sound was distant, as if the dragons themselves were still some distance off.<br/><br/>They drew up outside its grand doors, a welcoming party already assembled. There was a gathering of five men of varying age, one very much wrinkled and stooped, another with greying black hair who seemed to be looking at a tree some way off, another with auburn hair that brushed his shoulders and a sever expression, the fourth bespectacled and portly, and the fifth seeming not to be part of the welcome but lounging against the wall with an amused gleam in his eyes. She recognised the last man as a cousin-by-marriage – not a blood relative or one who she saw more than once every few years, but still family. Seeing how interwoven many of the noble houses were, it wasn’t likely she would be able to go anywhere ‘civilised’ without bumping into someone connected to her in some way.<br/><br/>One of the Academe’s servants opened the door of the carriage, looking very sleek in the black-and-red livery of the school.<br/>