A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson

Vivien Featherswallow thought she had a pretty great life. She has always been a great student, kept her head down and studied. She got good marks, was favored by teachers, anything to keep her and her family in Second Class (First Class being the most important and Third being the poor). Vivien now knows seven different languages, including some dragon tongue, which is rare for many. She hopes with her knowledge, she will be able to go into a good school. Viv loves spending time with her cousin Marquis, a very outgoing guy.

One evening, the two cousins are out celebrating when a fight breaks out. Third Class is known to have a bit of rebellion in them, and they start the fight against the First Class. It is quickly shut down, and a lot of blood is spilled, mostly Third Class blood. As they are celebrating later that night with their family, guards rush in. They claim that Viv’s parents are part of the rebellion; they take them both, leaving Viv to take care of her younger sister. Her mother’s parting words were to run away and get out of the country.

Viv takes her little sister to Marquis and his family. They discuss that this has been happening and bring up a girl named Sophie, whom Viv used to be friends with. But Viv moves the topic away from Sophie because she apparently did something to her, but it isn’t explained what. Viv says she wants retribution and wants to get her parents out. So under the cover of night, she sneaks into a library, where she knows there is an enslaved dragon, Chumana. She talks to Chumana and manages to cut out a piece of machinery that is making it enslaved. The dragon asks what she can do to repay Viv for her freedom; Viv responds with burn down Downing Street 10, thus erasing the evidence of her parents’ arrest.

Viv goes to the street to watch it happen, and since she was the only one at the scene of the crime, police take her into custody, assuming that she was the one who released Chumana. After a day in prison, Viv receives a visit from the Prime Minister herself, Wyvernmire. She explains that what Viv did was start a war. Viv now has an option: go on the execution block with her parents or take a secret job, with a blood oath that if she messes up, her parents and her remaining family will be killed. She convinces the minister to let her cousin Marquis go on this job as well.

Sent away via train, Marquis and Viv are ushered into a new school, where they meet their new classmates, including Sophie. Viv still won’t disclose what she did, but she definitely had a part and a role in Sophie’s demotion from Second Class to Third Class. While in the class, their teacher, Dr. Seymour, mentions that everyone there is there for a reason and given a second chance to help their country. They will all be given secret jobs and have three months to complete their tasks. Marquis is sent to an aviation team, while Viv is taken to the translation team.

On her first day in translation, her instructor mentions that dragons can talk via echo-communication. It means that humans can’t detect it. The class’s job is to figure out how to translate it.

Viv tries to get to know her classmates more, including fixing her relationship with Sophie, who still stays standoffish to Viv. One person she bumps into is a practicing priest named Atlas. He offers to take her to the library where she can continue to study. The two begin talking, but a guard, Ralph, comes to get Viv and decides to start a fight, claiming the two shouldn’t be together. Ralph has the same last name as the Prime Minister, and Viv realizes this might mean trouble. Ralph then starts to go after Viv, but Atlas stops him and then gets in trouble.

Ralph then takes Viv to some dragons. She has been summoned for her translation skills. While there, the dragons get snippy with her, claiming that she shouldn’t be learning their languages. The message the dragons give tells the Prime Minister that they will agree to her terms.

The next morning, a message comes to the people: there was a massive attack on their people, and it happens to be the home of Viv and Marquis. Viv needs to know if her little sister is alive and manages to sneak the information out that she is alive. But Viv still has guilt towards everything. One day, Ralph decides to capitalize on that guilt and starts taunting Viv. The taunting turns to more, and he ends up breaking Viv’s arm. She lets him, thinking she deserves it for everything she has done to the country and even to Sophie. She wakes up in a hospital. When Marquis comes to visit, he tells her that Atlas saw everything happen, and he went and attacked Ralph and is now in confinement. When Atlas gets out later on, the two continue to try and get to know each other more.

Viv throws herself back into her studies. She even goes as far as to go and talk with other dragons to see if they will spill anything about echolocation; they just get angry with her and tell her to not ask questions that are meant for dragons. She goes on to a more practical approach and continues to work with her team.

Everyone who is in the program (zoology, aviation, and translation) is invited to a ball hosted by the Prime Minister Wyvernmire. While visiting with high officials, she is learning that Wyvernmire is putting in a lot of new rules around the country thanks to all of the recent attacks. Second Class citizens can no longer learn the language of dragons. Midway through the event, Wyvernmire talks to all of the students. She tells them they now have a deadline because she needs to win this war, and none of them are offering progress. Only one person from each program will be saved and allowed to live pardoned; everyone else will be given rightful punishments. For many, this means prison and death.

That night, Gideon, one of Viv’s friends in the translation department, tries to kill Viv in her sleep. When she manages to make it out alive, he claims he only did it because she is the closest to cracking the echolocation, and so if he kills her, he might be the one who wins out of their department. Atlas is there to help dissolve the situation and sleeps outside her door for the next night.

Now that all classmates are pitted against each other, Viv is on her own to crack the code of the echolocation. She manages to figure out a number of things and is able to decipher a message—a message she realizes is for her. It is from Chumana, the one she helped break out. She goes out to meet Chumana. She is upset that Viv is learning about echolocation, that she has learned so much about it. Chumana tries to convince Viv to not give any information to Wyvernmire, because it will set the rebellion back a lot. Viv doesn’t care, claiming she would rather have her sister alive than help the rebellion. Chumana leaves upset but also lets loose that there is a spy working for the rebels. Viv realizes it is her teacher, Seymour. So she goes to talk to her, and Seymour says she is working with the rebellion dragons and that it is a good cause that Viv should also join. Seymour also reveals that she already knows about the echolocation, but she has withheld information from Wyvernmire. This all just confuses Viv even more.

Things don’t get great for Viv, especially when one of her classmates, Dodie, tries to flee rather than lose to her classmates. But she is shot down by Ralph, and everyone takes it very hard. She and Marquis also get into a fight when she tells him that she found the answer to the dragon language and is planning on telling Wyvernmire. Atlas also tries to dissuade her from doing so, but she visits anyway. During her visit, she doesn’t show all of her cards; she hints that she knows something. But during the meeting, she realizes that Wyvernmire really is not honest and is planning on using the language against the peace treaty and use it for terrible reasons. Viv doesn’t want to give her the knowledge anymore.

Back with her classes, everyone is going against each other again, but it all changes when Marquis is told he won for the aviation challenge, and he will be set free (he didn’t realize that a thought he had weeks before was the answer; he unwillingly and unknowingly gave the answer to Wyvernmire). Atlas is given the same treatment, and now it’s just the translation department that needs a winner. Gideon sees another chance to have a go at Viv and tries poisoning her, but instead someone else gets the poison and dies. Then Gideon tries to shoot her, but Atlas intervenes and another recruit is shot. Gideon runs away while Atlas takes Viv to safety. The two spend the night together and share a kiss as well. But Atlas fully reveals himself as working with the rebels and tries to convince Viv she should join as well. She leaves angry.

After she thinks more about her predicament and her want to save her family versus the country, she finally decides she can’t let Wyvernmire win. She won’t give her the info she knows. Instead, she decides to come clean to Sophie. Viv was instrumental in Sophie’s downfall, all so Viv could get into college. Sophie says she will get her revenge. Viv, on a roll, decides to go to the dragon allies of Wyvernmire. She tells them what she knows and that she is studying echolocation because of Wyvernmire. She reveals that Wyvernmire is looking at working with the Bulgarian dragons, thus breaking their peace accord. The dragons start to think about changing sides and starting a war, but this time they would be on the side of the rebels.

Everyone decides to go destroy the machines and other evidence of the echolocation machines. But as they are destroying the evidence, Wyvernmire arrives with Viv’s sister. The Prime says she will torture her sister if Viv doesn’t give up the secrets. Viv agrees quickly that she will give up everything she knows. In a last-ditch effort, Atlas kisses her and tells her not to, but guards grab Atlas and are given an order to push him off the roof.

Viv is taken to translate again, but the messages she is receiving are once again for her, telling her that she should attack. She tells the guard a lie, but Marquis comes in to save her, kills the guards, and takes her further to the forest to talk with some dragons. Marquis has built a plane that will get them all out, including her sister who they managed to get. As they are preparing to flee to the rebellion headquarters, Viv realizes that Sophie is not there. She already feels so much guilt when it comes to her; she can’t just leave her. So she and Atlas stay back to go find her.

On their way back, Viv starts to think of a new plan. She will stay back and be the translator. She will be the new spy for the rebellion but at the right-hand side of Wyvernmire. Atlas tells her it’s a bad idea, but when they run into Wyvernmire, Viv decides to give it a shot. She has a list of demands, including getting rid of some of the class system and letting people live their life. She declines but does promise that her family will be safe. As Viv is thinking of her decision, a fight breaks out; Atlas is shot. She watches as his chest stops moving and sees Wyvernmire run away. Seymour comes to get her, takes her away and says it’s time to go to the new rebel center and regroup.

Viv meets back up with Sophie, her sister, and Marquis, but is devastated that Atlas didn’t make it. She still is struggling with her feelings towards the rebellion, but it seems as if the tide is turning in their favor.

In a news report that talks about what happened to Bletchley Park, it is stated that some witnesses saw a pink dragon have something in its talons; many believe that it was a young man.