Its just that we knew that youd tell us not to do it.

The old wizard paused a moment to glare at her.

Then he gathered the documents he needed into a large leather portfolio and hurried out of the room.

He stumbled and huffed and kept having to readjust his spyglasses as they hurried past stack after stack.

I am talking to you, wizard.

I will not tolerate this perpetual ignoring!

the magician said, gesticulating widely until he knocked his hand hard against a wall.

Volume after volume skittered from shelf to floating stack.

Well, the Estimable Fitz gasped.

She has a name.

Yes, but I do not know what it is, the magician said.

He gave the wizard a narrowed look.

She has a name, the wizard repeated, letting the magician fall to the ground.

And it doesnt belong to you.

He motioned for the stack of books to follow him as he exited through the back door.

Lady Ignit was waiting for him there.

She was all muscle and hunger and predatory pounce.

She belongs to me, Lady Ignit said, her voice so low it was almost a whisper.

She is mine now.

That is the way of things.

And then you put her in harms way.

Or perhaps you, dear lady,arethe harm.

In any case the magic binding you to her was disrupted.

She belongs to no one.

He hoped this was true.

Lady Ignit showed her teeth.

You cant keep me from her.

You know you cant.

The cord that binds me to her is stronger than your paltry magic.

Thats where youre wrong, Zosimos said, skirting from her grasp and hurrying down the hall.

He checked over his shoulder.

She wasnt following him.

He was sure of it.

The girl still did not know her name.

Strangely, this didnt seem to bother her.

The old man had come and gone for two weeks.

Ennyn explained that he was kind.

The girl wasnt so sure.

He liked to bark orders too much.

And fuss at her for not learning.

How could she learn and how could she know?

The world she came from was all a muddle.

Her few memories were fuzzy and barbedthey hurt if she grasped too tightly.

Surely you must havesomerecollection, Zosimos said.

He kept looking over his shoulder.

Were you named for a bird, for example?

Are you Heron or Crow or Wren?

Are you Feather or Claw?

No, said the girl.

Are you Ocean or Meadow or Glen?

I dont think so, the girl said.

Useless, the wizard said.

And the mother dragon scooped her up again and cradled her in her great wings.

Enough, the dragon said.

Youre coddling her, the wizard fumed.

Do you realize what were up against?

Do you realize that youre a cranky old toad?

For a creature of her size, Ennyn had surprisingly dexterous talons.

She picked delicate blossoms from a flowering tree nearby, weaving the petals into the girls dark braids.

If she doesnt know her own name, then one of those idiots will name her.

Harness her or drain her or bore her to death with their insufferable presentations.

They are making it up as they go along.

Last I checked, the dragon said mildly, so are we.

She uncurled her neck to its full extension and lifted her head to the sky.

All those fine movements had given her a crick in her shoulder.

You dont know that anything bad will happen.

Perhapsshewill drainthem.Did you think of that?

The egg on the bed of moss gave a little shiver and a shake.

Of course I thought of that, Zosimos snapped.

I think of everything.

And it was true: he had no idea what would happen.

That was just the trouble.

How could he protect her from things that he didnt understand?

I want to protect her, the wizard noticed himself thinking.More than anything in the world.

Did you hear that?

Someone knows, Zosimos muttered.

Someones been following me.

I can feel it.

I felt nothing, the dragon said.

But the girl did.

There was something in the foresta dark, prowly something.

Or perhaps a tiger.

The girl kept one hand on the dragons neck and stretched the other toward Zosimos.

Ill try harder, the girl whispered.

But it was no use.

And she could not penetrate it.

She climbed out of the protective embrace of the dragons wing and onto the ground.

She held out her hand to the wizard and closed her eyes.

A tulip, large and lurid, grew from the center of her palm.

She smiled at the old wizard.

Very good, child!

Am I supposed to be impressed with this?

None of this matters.

Dont you like my flower?

No, Zosimos said.

Do you have a name?

The flower is irrelevant.

The only thing that matters But Zosimos didnt finish his sentence.

The magicians emerged from the curtain of green.

They looked at the girl.

There was hunger in their faces.

Bees, the girl thought.Bees, bees, bees.Though she didnt know why.

She had memories that she couldnt remember and knowledge that she didnt know.

Shed had a name once.

Shed had a house and a family and parents once.

She had magic now, but her name was nowhere to be found.

Shed never imagined shed miss it.

Despite the girls annoyance at the magician, she understood what he meant.

There was a power in a name, in the possession of ones own name.

Just as the wordbeeswas powerful and the wordtreewas powerful,her name would be powerful, too.

She could own herself outright.

The magicians picked their way through the forest.

Only one moved with any kind of nimble gracethe rest stumbled as though they hadnt walked outside in years.

The girl watched them come.

There she is, said the magician with the metal leg extensions.

There in the flowers.

Flowers, the girl thought.

And the flowers enlarged themselves.

They lifted her from the ground.

The dragon began to hiss, but the magicians didnt notice.

Instead they smiled, raised their hands, and began to clap, delicately, at her.

They were quite pleased.

Well, most of them were.

said the man with spyglasses attached to his face.

said the woman with green skin and a third eye below her throat.

I am sorry that we frightened you before.

You have so much to teach us.

You dont even have to do a thing.

Im fairly certain our experiments wont hurt a bit.

You are a very special child.

Do you know that?

The dragon couldnt stand another second of this.

She lowered her head, extended her neck, and uncurled her wrath between the girl and the magicians.

Away, she snarled.

The tall magician with the predatory walk stepped forward.

The girl felt a great wave of sorrow crash over her.I dont like that woman, she thought.

And the more sorrow she felt, the more the magician began to smile.

Move along, all of you, Zosimos said.

The child is not for you, and shes not for your experiments, neither.

The child belongs to herself.

Shed have died if I hadnt saved her.

She was drowning in a sea of sorrow, the tall woman said.

She already belongs to me.

Lady Ignit rolled back her shoulders.

She smiled as boulders launched themselves into the air and hovered just overhead.

Move back, dragon.

You do not want us as enemies.

There will be much sorrowing if you are dead.

The magicians edged away from Lady Ignit, alarm on their faces.

Well, huffed the magician with the mustache I say.

This is a bit much, dear lady, said the man with the metal points on his hand.

This is not what we agreed, said the woman with the third eye.

It is a sin to harm one.

She turned to the old wizard.

There is no need for any of this.

If the girl could have done so, she would have named herself already.

Just as she couldnt speak the names of things until the time was right.

Just as all words were gone from heruntil theywerent.She looked at the tall woman.

Bees, she said.

Bees, bees, bees,bees.

And just like that, the woman was bees.

Or bees were the woman.

A woman-shaped swarm hovering in the midst of everything.

Arms of bees touched a face of bees.

A mouth of bees opened into a buzzy scream.

Take it back, they shouted at her.

I dont know how, the girl cried.

She tumbled off her enlarged flower and fell hard on the ground, cutting her hands and knees.

Panic burned her throat.

Give me a name, the girl pleaded.

If I have a name, Ill know what to do.

The old wizard tilted his head.

He could leave Lady Ignit in this state.

Of course he could.

The bees remained in their woman-shape, a mask of terror pressed upon its face.

Zosimos closed his eyes.

Bees, the girl thought.Bees, bees.She couldnt stop.

The flowers became bees.

The stones became bees.

The baubles in the mustache of Master Ulf.

And then his entire mustache.

And then his hands.

Zosimos had buried what was left of his family eons ago.

Before any of these magicians were born.

Before even Ennyn was born.

A codger among codgers.

A grump among grumps.

If he named her she would be

He could hardly bear to think of the word.

Master Ulf screamed as his arms became bees.

Then his shoulders, then his chest.

Xanthippe, Zosimos said.

Your name is Xanthippe.

But I shall call you Xan.

It was his sisters name.

His sister was troublesome, too.

He hadnt thought of her for centuries.

Now the memory of her nearly broke him in half.

Xanthippe, he said again.

I claim you, child.

I am responsible for you.

You are as family to me as my first family was.

Try hard, dear.

Your magic is beholden to you, not you to it.

Tell it what you want it to do.

Her name was Xan.

She felt it in her bones.

Just asbeebelonged to bees andtreebelonged to trees, soXanbelonged utterly to her.

She saw the bees.

The bees that were the tall woman.

The bees that were flowers.

The bees that were stones.

The bees that were the hands and the shoulders and the mustache of Master Ulf.

And she knew what to do.

She raised one hand.

And then the other.

There was magic all around her.

And it harmonized with the magic in her bones.

She felt herself draw it inward, with her own strange gravity.

It was dizzying, this magic.

Satisfying, too, taking that which was wrong and making it right.

Though how much rage, the girl did not know.

Not for a long time.

Though Zosimos remained wary of his colleagues motives, Xan was quick to forgive.

And this was only partially her fault.

Xan could not forgive herself for what she had accidentally done to Lady Ignit.

The woman had saved the girl, so a favor had been owed.

And then the girl saved the woman, fulfilling the debt.

Xan now owed Lady Ignit nothing, and Lady Ignit couldnt forgive her for it.

There, Zosimos had said at the time.

The woman spat in his face.

There are some people, Xan decided, who will never be your friend.

And that was that.

Sorrow is dangerous, she told herself.

It was a thing she knew was true, though she couldnt say why.

One night she woke to a strange dream.

And a dragon so small it fit in her pocket.

And a creature in a swamp.

Xan pricked up her ears.

His joints cracked and creaked as he bent.

Had they always done that?

This sort of thing isnt well covered in the literature.

It was warned against for a reason.

And shell have to learn how to use it on her own.

I just hope I have enough time to teach her a little bit.

I just hope shell have the sense to listen.

I just hope shell be ready.

And then shell grow up, the dragon said, a great weight in her voice.

Is anyone ever ready for that?

Xan waited and waited for Zosimos to answer.

He said nothing; the dragon said nothing.