The Brightest Night

  She closed her eyes and held the blue sapphire to her head again. It hummed in a strange way, like faraway chanting faintly heard through layers of rock.

  Blaze. Sunny pictured the beautiful SandWing. They’d only met once, in the Ice Kingdom. Later, she’d overheard Tsunami describing Blaze to Kinkajou: “She’s pretty but silly, one of those overly optimistic dragons. Like Sunny is sometimes, although Blaze is more self-centered.”

  This comparison had made Sunny want to shred a tree with her bare claws. She was nothing, nothing like Blaze, and if Tsunami thought so, then she really must think Sunny was an idiot with no brains in her head at all.

  Don’t think about that now. Concentrate on getting into Blaze’s dreams, she thought, and then she opened her eyes and realized she was already there. She stood in the desert, claws sinking into warm sand.

  Blaze was flying, her polished scales shimmering in the bright hot sunlight. She shone against the clear blue sky, and beautiful jewels sparkled all along her scales. She kept circling in the air and twisting her head to look down, not far from where Sunny was, but she didn’t seem to notice Sunny at first. Sunny lifted herself onto her back talons to look around and spotted a clear pool of water not far away. Blaze was admiring herself in the perfectly still reflection.

  “Good grief,” Sunny muttered. She flared her wings and waved at the SandWing in the sky. It took a lot of flapping before Blaze finally gave a little start and veered around to stare at Sunny.

  Sunny beckoned, wanting to have this conversation on solid ground.

  Blaze landed in front of her, kicking sand up Sunny’s nose without noticing she’d done so. She swished her tail around and sat gracefully.

  “Hello. I know you, don’t I?” she asked.

  “We’ve met,” Sunny said. “I’m one of the dragonets.” That was all she had to say. “Dragonets of destiny” didn’t sound right to her anymore, not since she’d found out the truth about the prophecy. She wondered briefly what would happen if she just told the SandWing sisters that the prophecy was false.

  Then they really wouldn’t listen to us, she thought. We’d have no chance of making this work. We have to let them believe it, at least for now.

  “Oh, of course, the weird-looking SandWing,” Blaze said. “Right. Which necklace do you think looks better on me? I’ve always liked rubies, but these emeralds are smashing, too, right?” She held out two gem-studded necklaces, draped sparklingly across her claws.

  “Blaze,” Sunny said. “Do you want to go home?”

  The SandWing princess looked around, blinking. “Aren’t I home?”

  “This is a dream,” Sunny said patiently. “I mean, really home. Home to the stronghold and the desert, to sand and roasted lizards and warm sunshine every day.”

  “Oh my,” Blaze said with a wistful sigh. “I remember my rooms in the stronghold. They were so big and pretty, with tall windows on three walls. I really do look my best in full natural sunlight, you know.” She spread her wings and swished them gracefully around, admiring them.

  Sunny managed not to roll her eyes. “So come to us. Don’t keep hiding in that cold, dark fortress. If you come to the stronghold, we’ll end this war and you can go home.”

  “What?” Blaze said, tilting her head. “Right now?”

  “The third midnight from tonight,” Sunny said. “Didn’t anyone give you our message?”

  “No one’s said anything about a message,” said Blaze. “From the dragonets of the prophecy! How could they keep something like that from me? Well, I am offended.” She thought for a moment, then brightened. “Oh! So you did pick me!”

  “Well, wait,” Sunny said. “We haven’t picked any of you yet. We —”

  “Right, of course, you haven’t announced it or anything, but you’re going to pick me. The only way I can go home, after all, is if my sisters are dead. Oh, how lovely! I knew you would choose me; I’m very nice. And doesn’t everyone want a beautiful queen?”

  Not at all, Sunny thought. “We’re really looking for a peaceful outcome,” she said. “That’s our goal. And then whoever becomes queen —”

  “I’m going to order a new bracelet to celebrate!” Blaze declared, jumping up and nearly dancing around Sunny. “And a crown! Of course I need a crown! Oh, now I really have to decide, rubies or emeralds? I suppose I could have two crowns! Or lots and lots of crowns! I’m so excited!”

  “Blaze, stop,” Sunny said desperately. The princess wasn’t listening to her at all, and Sunny didn’t want to lie to her, or make her show up under false pretenses. “The important thing is that you be there at the stronghold. And then we’ll figure out who should be queen. It might not be you. Do you understand?”

  “Glacier is going to be pleased, too,” said Blaze, talking right over Sunny. “I’ll have to convince her to let me go, but I can win arguments when I really want to. I’ll tell her there’s a new crown in it for her, too. I think she looks best in sapphires, naturally.”

  “So you’ll be there?” Sunny said. “Even knowing you might not be queen when it’s all over?”

  Blaze was already swanning back to the still pool. “You can live in my palace if you like!” she called back to Sunny. “I could give you a really important job, ooo, like helping me get dressed in the morning! Sometimes it takes me simply hours to choose the right anklet.”

  “Midnight at the stronghold!” Sunny cried after her. “Three midnights from tonight! That means not tonight, not tomorrow night, but the night after that. Will you remember? Will you count right?”

  “Queen Blaze!” sang the SandWing princess as she lifted into the air. “Doesn’t that sound pretty?”

  Oh, dear, Sunny thought. She stepped out of the dream and stared into the blackness all around her.

  Will Queen Glacier listen to her?

  Will she be there?

  What if all of this falls apart and we fail?

  She gripped the dreamvisitor tightly in her claws.

  That’s not an option. If Blaze doesn’t show up, I’ll fly to the Ice Kingdom and drag her back myself.

  In four days’ time, either the war will be over … or we’ll all be dead.

  Night had fallen, and the sky was full of dragons.

  That was the first thing Sunny noticed when she stepped out of the tunnel onto the desert sands. The air crackled with the sound of wingbeats and the smell of fire. Dragons soared overhead like a million bats, sinuous shapes silhouetted across the moons.

  It was time. This was the night. All three SandWing sisters would be in the same place for the first time since the war began.

  If they show up, Sunny thought. She glanced at the night sky again. It certainly seems like every other dragon in Pyrrhia might be here.

  And it was easier to see them than it should have been because of the mystery orb in the sky. It had gotten bigger and brighter every night, and now it was the same size as the other moons — two of which were full. Between the three of them filling the sky, it looked like another brightest night.

  A new brightest night when there shouldn’t have been one for another ninety-four years, Sunny thought. If that’s not an omen, what is?

  She hadn’t said that to her friends, though. She knew they’d roll their eyes at her and the whole idea of “destiny” or “omens.” But still, that third uncanny moon in the sky made her feel somehow a little more hopeful … like maybe things would be all right. The way she used to feel when she thought about the prophecy.

  Sunny climbed up to the ridge overlooking the stronghold and stood between two cacti, gazing down at it. The long black structure, all shadows in the moonlight, was vast and forbidding even from a distance, and she still had nightmares about the weirdling tower. She couldn’t imagine stepping back inside there of her own free will.

  But that was exactly what she was about to do.

  The sound of shifting sand behind her signaled the arrival of her friends, and Sunny turned to see Clay, then Tsunami, then Starflight and Fatespea
ker emerge from the tunnel.

  Fatespeaker glanced around at the desert, at the way the sand seemed to run all the way to the edge of the sky. She shuddered. “This place is freaky,” she whispered. “Starflight, I don’t think it’s safe here. Shouldn’t you stay behind?”

  Starflight shook his head. “No, I have to be here. I’m not missing this — even if I can’t see it.” He’d been practicing with Tamarin, the blind RainWing, all week. How to fly with someone guiding him; how to sense unexpected obstacles; and most of all, how to ask for help.

  Sunny slid down the hill to them and brushed Starflight’s wing with hers to let him know she was there. He leaned toward her, touching the bandage on his eyes.

  “What is that?” Fatespeaker asked, staring up at the sky. “Starflight, why is there a fourth moon?”

  Sunny had already described it to him, although his explanation didn’t make all that much sense to her.

  “I think it’s more like a comet than a moon,” Starflight said to Fatespeaker. “I remember a scroll that mentioned something like that in the sky hundreds of years ago. Maybe it circles around and only comes back every thousand years or so. Have you noticed the earthquakes? I think they might be caused by the comet.”

  The ground trembled quietly under them, the way it had several times in the last few days. Sunny dug her claws into the sand, glancing up at the stars.

  “But it’s not going to, like, land on us or anything, right?” Fatespeaker said. “Because it sure looks like it’s gotten bigger. I think maybe it’s going to fall on us. OOH, I THINK MAYBE I’M HAVING A VISION.”

  “Stop that,” Starflight said, smacking her gently with his wing. “You know those powers aren’t real. Your visions are just your imagination.”

  Fatespeaker shot him a very indignant look that he luckily couldn’t see. “I know that’s what Stonemover said, but I think it doesn’t apply to me. My visions are TOTALLY real, and when this moon-comet thing CRUSHES US ALL, everyone will be sorry for not listening to me.”

  “All right,” he answered. “We’ll see.”

  “Where’s Glory?” Tsunami asked, coming back from scouting the top of the dunes.

  “Right behind us,” said Clay, and he jumped out of the way as more dragons started coming out of the tunnel.

  It was strange to know that all these dragons were RainWings but to see instead SkyWings and NightWings and MudWings. Glory had decided to bring fifteen RainWings along — to be voices for peace, if necessary, and to be dangerous venom-spitting backup if really necessary. She’d decided it would be safer for her dragons if they came in disguise, their camouflage scales making them anonymous bystanders. Those three tribes were the easiest disguises — no poisonous tails, webbed talons, or serrated claws among them.

  There were five actual NightWings as well, plus Deathbringer, who’d refused to stay behind and let Glory go without him.

  “But you could be useful here,” Glory had argued back in the rainforest. “You could keep an eye on the NightWings for me.”

  “I’d rather keep an eye on you,” he’d retorted. “And on all the dragons you’re about to go chat with who literally want to kill you.”

  “Hey, that’s how you and I met,” Glory said. “Maybe I’ll charm them out of the idea, too.”

  “I’m not sure charm is quite the word I’d use,” he’d mused, and gotten a swat to his nose as a thank-you.

  But she’d let him select five NightWings he thought were more trustworthy than the rest, so that the tribe would be represented at this gathering. Sunny thought that was probably a good idea, although she was still having trouble forgiving the black dragons for all their lies. Mangrove and Grandeur had been left in charge of everyone while they were gone.

  The five dragonets climbed up to stand on the ridge, surveying the stronghold below and the clouds of dragons who were already descending on it.

  “What if they start fighting?” Fatespeaker asked suddenly. “All these dragons from different tribes who’ve been at war for so long. What if something happens and they start trying to kill each other?”

  Sunny curled her tail around her talons. What an awful thought. That hadn’t even occurred to her.

  “It’d be a huge battle,” Deathbringer said. “That might end the war itself.”

  “With hundreds more dead dragons,” Sunny said. “No, that’s not all right. We’ll stop them if we have to.”

  “Right,” Tsunami said. “By asking nicely? Is that the plan?”

  “You’d be surprised how effective asking nicely can be,” Sunny said. “Maybe if you ever tried it, you’d know.”

  “Yowch,” Glory said with a grin, and Tsunami glared at both of them.

  “Well, let’s get down there before anything happens,” Clay suggested.

  “Before we go,” Sunny said, turning to her friends, “I just — I just want you guys to know that I love you. And I don’t regret anything that’s happened. I’m not mad about the fake prophecy or the Talons stealing us, because without all of that, I wouldn’t have grown up with you, and you’re more important to me than anything. You’re my brothers and sisters. You’re my real family. So it was worth it, no matter what.”

  “Awwww,” Clay said, pulling her into his wings for a fierce hug.

  “Uh-oh,” Glory said. “A mushy speech. We’re all going to die, aren’t we?”

  “She means she loves you, too,” Tsunami translated, dragging Sunny away from Clay so she could hug her as well. “And so do I.”

  “Me too,” Starflight said quietly, and they all wrapped their wings around him together. Sunny felt the sinewy curve of his shoulder pressing against her snout and smelled the herbs in the bandage on his eyes. Poor Starflight. Is that enough of an answer for him? I do love him. But … like a brother. I wish I felt more….

  There wasn’t time to say anything else. It was almost midnight. They leaped into the sky, soaring down toward the stronghold with the RainWings and NightWings streaming out behind them.

  From above, as they approached, Sunny could see that the courtyard looked deserted. The monument to Queen Oasis was a tower of darkness, rejecting the moonlight and casting a long shadow across the sand circle around it. The soldiers’ barracks were empty. The flat white stones stretched blankly, glowing as if they were made of the same stuff as the weird moon. Fire flickered from torches that studded the courtyard like claws.

  What if they don’t come?

  The dragons who had flown in to watch were gathered all along the walls, wing to wing. They’d torn out the heads on spikes and dropped the gruesome trophies onto the sands below, making room for the hundreds of spectators instead.

  It was hard to tell which tribe was which in the silvery moonlight. All the dragons seemed to have scales of silver and black and gray. But Sunny was pretty sure she spotted SeaWings sitting next to MudWings; IceWings beside SkyWings; SandWings and NightWings and RainWings barely a few claws from one another.

  That’s what I really want, Sunny thought. A Pyrrhia where all dragons can see that we’re basically the same, no matter what kinds of natural weapons we hatch with, or don’t hatch with, for some of us. A Pyrrhia where it doesn’t matter what tribe you’re from, because you can have friends from any tribe. Like us.

  As her gaze scanned the walls, she spotted familiar SandWing scales and her heart squeezed happily. Thorn was here, along with Six-Claws and Qibli and no doubt more Outclaws. Even if everything went horribly wrong, Sunny had this strange, warm feeling that her mother would care about her and want to know her, whether or not she saved the world.

  Sunny was surprised to find herself thinking, Maybe that’s better than a prophecy and a great destiny.

  But I do still have to save the world. Right now, in fact.

  She was on one side of Starflight with Fatespeaker on the other; they guided him down to the sand, and Sunny heard Fatespeaker describing the scene for him in a whisper. Clay thumped down next to her and sneezed as sand went up his nose.


  Tsunami and Glory arrived without Deathbringer, who had been sent to the walls along with the dragons they’d brought with them. Sunny was a little surprised that Deathbringer had agreed to be that far away from Glory, but she glanced at the determined look on Glory’s face and figured she wouldn’t have argued with that either.

  Glory herself was disguised as a SkyWing, red and gold scales rippling along her wings. “Ironic, right?” she’d said, lashing her crimson tail. “Now at least I look like I belong in the prophecy.”

  And judging by the murmurs coming from above them, the audience was thinking the same thing.

  The five dragonets, Sunny thought. As Morrowseer foretold. Here we are, prophecy or no prophecy.

  Now where are the queens who blister and blaze and burn?

  A rumbling growl came from the dark entrance to the old palace.

  And Burn stepped out into the moonlight.

  Three moons, Sunny thought, she’s even bigger than I remembered.

  Burn was a massive, heavy dragon with jagged scars all over her pale yellow scales, including a particularly vicious one all along her side under her left wing. A more recent wound was slashed across her snout, oozing olive-green pus and dark blood. Her black eyes glittered and her stained claws gleamed with what looked like fresh blood as she slithered across the stones toward them.

  “So you came,” she hissed. “I thought the rumors couldn’t possibly be true.” She cast a seething look up at the hundreds of watching dragons. “I hope you have a good reason for disrupting my battle plans.”

  “This war is over,” Sunny said, as loud as she could. There was a ripple of whispers along the walls as her words were passed along.

  “Really,” said Burn. “Because you say so, is that it?”

  “Because we all say so,” Tsunami retorted. She flared her wings to include all the dragons above and around them.

  “Interesting,” said Burn. “But I see a problem. In fact, I see two problems, flying this way right now.”