10. Dragon

Graff and Anderson decide Ender must take command early, despite Graff’s brief moral qualm. Ender is assigned a private room, a commander’s hook (limited to scheduled sessions), and the long-discontinued Dragon Army, revived with a stigma. He learns he cannot trade soldiers and that his roster is built from advanced Launchies and delayed graduates.

On first muster, Ender reverses bunk seniority to keep new boys close and enforces brisk discipline, forcing the army to practice immediately. In the battleroom he reorients their thinking—“the enemy’s gate is down”—and demonstrates movement-combat integration, showing leg-freeze kneeling, spin evasion, and wall jackknifing.

Bean, the smallest and quickest, answers well and imitates tactics; Ender publicly singles him out, both praising and needling him to make him a focus. After practice, Bean demands a toon; Ender refuses until Bean proves soldiering skill, leadership usage, and followership. Ender then wrestles with guilt, realizing he is deliberately isolating Bean as Graff isolated him, to harden and sharpen him.

Planning to rely on evening help from friends, Ender is blocked by a new rule: only same-army practices are allowed, on fixed schedules. He practices alone with Dragon and goes to the game room, where Alai and Ender share uneasy banter and a parting “salaam,” acknowledging a wall between them.

The next day, their cordiality masks separation; Ender mourns the loss of effortless unity with Alai. Concluding that he will no longer be broken by manipulation as he was with Valentine, Ender channels anger into resolve to defeat the teachers who keep isolating and testing him.