He was an animus dragon. A miserable one who wished he had never been hatched; a dragon whose power had stolen his one love, his hope for a family, his home, and, in the end, his very scales, which were turning to stone around him.
What she couldn’t see was how — she couldn’t see all the steps and choices that had brought him here. What if she chose differently? Was it possible to have powers and not lose everything else? The mind reader who’d been speaking to her seemed to think so. If she could find him — if she could learn from him, maybe she could avoid Stonemover’s fate. He certainly seemed like a better role model than this poor dragon.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should get back. It was … nice to meet you.”
“You too,” he said with another sigh.
It took Moon a while to find her way back; she was relieved when she finally saw the light of the sleeping caves up ahead. And she hadn’t been gone as long as she’d thought; the same four dragons were still awake, and Carnelian was deep in the same dream, now battling an IceWing.
As she approached her sleeping cave, something tugged insistently at her mind. Someone’s dream, perhaps — but as she let herself follow it, suddenly she found she was listening to a conversation, as clear as parrots shrieking in the rainforest:
I see how you benefit from this plan, but I’m not hearing any guarantees for me. Killing is easy enough, but if I kill them, how do I know you’ll tell me the truth? And what happens to him if they catch me?
They won’t catch you, said a deeper, more slithery voice. Just do it. Do this for me, and I’ll give you the one thing you want most.
Moon froze, staring around the deserted hallway.
What was that?
It wasn’t the mind reader’s voice — not the one Moon was starting to think of as her friend. These voices were close by, and the conversation was happening between minds, not out loud.
How could that be possible? Were there even more telepaths here?
And … why were they talking about killing?
Moon closed her eyes and tried to listen as hard as she could. But now she couldn’t separate out the conversation she was looking for; it had either ended or faded back into the confusing, rolling sounds of the dreams around her.
Her eyes popped open.
That’s the answer.
A dreamvisitor.
Someone had been using a dreamvisitor to talk to one of the dragonets at the school.
And whoever it was … was planning a murder.
“It’s MORNING!” Kinkajou sang, pouncing on Moon’s tail. “Isn’t that WONDERFUL?”
Moon blinked hazily at the RainWing, who was now more pink than yellow, but altogether still too bright. She felt as if she’d only just fallen back to sleep.
“It is the opposite of wonderful,” Carnelian observed grouchily. She flung her wings over her head.
“We get to meet our winglet today!” Kinkajou cried. “Isn’t that exciting?” She nudged Moon’s tail with her own and then plunked herself down on the moss beside her, giving off so much delighted energy that Moon felt both contagiously uplifted by it and exhausted at the same time.
“What does that mean, our winglet?” she asked, hoping perhaps she could fall back to sleep while Kinkajou explained. She missed the feeling of her mother’s scales at her back while she slept. She wondered if her mother missed her, too.
“Oh, it’s the best idea,” Kinkajou said. “I mean, all right, I was a little worried about it at first because I was, like, ACK that means I’ll have to make friends with a NIGHTWING, but now that I know it’s you, there’s nothing more to worry about, because you’re just lovely and not in the business of kidnapping or experimenting on dragons after all. Right?” She poked Moon’s shoulder.
“Right,” Moon agreed. “What?”
“We’ve been organized into five winglets — get it? It’s not a whole wing of dragons, just a smaller group, so, a winglet. Five groups of seven dragonets, with one dragon from each tribe. We’re in the Jade Winglet; my friend Tamarin is in the Gold Winglet. The idea is that we’ll work with the other six dragonets and get to be friends with them and then we’ll totally understand all the tribes and nobody will ever want to go to war ever again. It’s brilliant, I love it. I can’t wait to meet our SeaWing, they sound so weird. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”
Kinkajou seized Moon’s tail and tried to drag her to the door.
“All right, I’m coming,” Moon protested, wriggling free. She rubbed her eyes as Kinkajou bounced ahead to the door.
And then, with a horrible jolt, she remembered what she’d heard the night before.
If I kill them …
Moon shivered from wings to tail. If someone at the school was planning a murder, she had to tell Sunny or Starflight. But she couldn’t — not without revealing her own secret.
But I have to warn them, don’t I?
Her mother’s favorite rule rang in her head. Stay secret, stay hidden, stay safe.
And what if I’m wrong? Maybe it was just a dream. My dream, or someone else’s.
But it had definitely felt like two voices talking to each other.
What good is having this power if I can’t do anything about what I hear?
“I have to go to the library,” Moon said. She didn’t know enough about dreamvisitors. All she knew was that there were three of them, created by an animus dragon thousands of years ago. She knew they were sapphires, and she knew any dragon who held one could walk in another dragon’s dreams and sometimes communicate with the dreamer that way.
But she didn’t know who had them now. The scroll she’d read said they were lost centuries ago. Maybe if she could figure out where they were, she could find a way to warn Starflight and the others without giving away her own power.
“You can’t go to the library now,” Kinkajou said. She held up one of the little boards with a message chalked on it. “We have our first class with our winglet this morning.”
The sound of the bronze metal gong being struck reverberated through the halls — BONG! BONG! BONG! — three times.
“That’s the first warning,” Kinkajou said. “Come on, Carnelian!” She grabbed a scroll from one of the racks by the door and threw it at the SkyWing’s head. “We have to figure out where our meeting cave is.”
Carnelian unfolded her wings with a majestic scowl and flowed off the rock ledge like a wrathful waterfall. She stalked past Kinkajou and Moon without a word and turned left, clearing a path through the milling dragonets with the force of her glare.
“Does that mean she knows where we’re going?” Kinkajou asked Moon.
Moon spread her wings with a confused shrug.
“Well, one way to find out!” Kinkajou bounded after the SkyWing.
Moon hesitated. She didn’t want to be late for her very first class, although getting to the library to research dreamvisitors seemed more important. But her teacher and clawmates were waiting … and she could always go to the library after class … and maybe she’d find a way to ask about dreamvisitors during the discussion.
Reluctantly she followed Kinkajou, keeping her head down to avoid the looks from the dragons around her. That didn’t help to block out their thoughts, though. The ones who noticed her definitely remembered the scene from the prey center — there were echoing murmurs of Oh, there’s the weird NightWing who doesn’t talk and She’s the one who tried to steal that IceWing’s scavenger and Seems stuck-up like all the other NightWings, doesn’t want to make friends with anyone.
After a minute she realized, though, that most of the dragonets were too busy worrying about their first class to pay much attention to her. What will they think of me? was the prevailing whisper in all their minds. Will anyone like me? What if I say something stupid?
She didn’t catch any thoughts about strange dreams or murder plots, although it was hard to tell through all the noise.
Carnelian went through the Great Hall — where Fatespeaker was sitting prou
dly with a mallet next to the bronze gong — and chose a tunnel on the opposite side, slanting up. To Moon’s surprise, this passageway was lined with plants: some with pale green heart-shaped leaves growing out of cracks in the rock, others with vigorous bundles of dark purple leaves, sprouting from small pots of dirt. Green vines covered the ceiling, winding around the green and yellow globe lights, with long blue flowers hanging down like dragon tails. A rivulet of silvery water trickled down the center of the tunnel, carving a small groove in the stone.
As they went higher, the air felt more damp, until finally they ended up in a cave swarming with vines that was open to the sky on one side. Water cascaded down the back wall like a moving, bubbling tapestry, pouring into a small pool that fed into the stream in the tunnel.
Tsunami sat on the ledge with the morning sun shining behind her, grinning at them as they came in. Her royal blue scales looked as if they were made of melted sky.
About time, she thought. Her tail shifted, rustling the trails of leaves that spilled across the floor and out onto the mountainside. My own fault for getting up at the crack of dawn, but really it’s time to get started, let’s GO!
Moon ducked her head. There was something about the SeaWing that made her nervous, and it was only partly the fact that her thoughts were so loud.
BONG! BONG! went the gong, only twice this time.
“Hello!” Tsunami said. “Welcome to your first class. Nice work finding the right cave. Carnelian, Kinkajou, and Moonwatcher, right? Oh, be impressed, I’ve been practicing so hard to memorize all of you. Thirty-five new names! Easy as cows for Starflight, but a whole lot trickier for me and Clay, believe me. I mean, it helps that I knew some of you before, of course.”
“Like ME!” Kinkajou trilled.
Tail kisser, Carnelian thought grumpily.
Someone moved in the tunnel behind Moon and she turned to see a smallish MudWing coming into the cave with a SeaWing close behind him. She didn’t recognize the MudWing, but the SeaWing —
“Turtle!” Tsunami said enthusiastically. “Oh, good, I asked to be given your winglet first. Hey, everyone, this is my brother. Can you believe I have a brother? Or a million brothers, apparently, but I’m just assuming this one’s the best, since he’s here right now.” She slung one wing over his shoulders and gave him a toothy grin.
Turtle smiled back at her. “It’s true, I am.”
Moon studied the green SeaWing dragonet, remembering the vision she’d had when she first saw him — the vision of him attacking Anemone. Could he be the one from the dream last night? Was someone trying to convince him to kill his sisters?
She tried cautiously to reach into his mind, which she didn’t exactly know how to do; it was like trying to listen harder in one direction. Most dragons were constantly broadcasting their thoughts and feelings, but Turtle still had that odd quiet around him, as though his brain were wrapped in blankets. It was almost peaceful, leaning into his thoughts, but also a little terrifying, because Moon had absolutely no idea what was going on in there.
Is there any chance he’s the voice in my head? Are there any SeaWing telepaths? If he can shield his thoughts, maybe he can send them, too…. Mystery voice? Are you Turtle?
He caught her staring at him and smiled, but there was no clear answer in his expression.
“This is my clawmate Umber,” Turtle said, turning to the little brown MudWing.
“Oh!” Kinkajou said. “Clay’s brother!”
Sora’s brother, Moon thought, and realized she’d been hoping Sora would be in their winglet.
“That’s right,” Umber said. His mind rippled with warmth and anticipation in a way that matched Kinkajou’s. Moon could also sense relief — almost an ongoing, permanent state of relief that seemed to have to do with not being at war anymore.
“Ooo, the Jade Winglet is so cool,” Kinkajou said happily. “I wonder who we’ll get for our IceWing and SandWing. Does Sunny have any sisters?”
But Moon could now sense the last two dragonets coming up the tunnel, and her heart dropped.
“Actually,” Tsunami said, “after yesterday, we decided to switch a couple of dragons around, since you guys seemed like a good match.” She flicked her tail at Winter and Qibli as they stepped into the cave. “You’ve already met, you’re all interested in scavengers — we think you’ll fit well together.”
BONG! went the warning bell one final time.
Moon stared into Winter’s cold blue eyes and felt as if ice was traveling across her scales to her wingtips. How could she hide from him if they were constantly in class together?
It’s her, he thought, and an echo came from Qibli’s mind as well: It’s her.
Now I can keep an eye on her, thought one.
Now I can figure her out, thought the other. Did she just get more tense as we came in? Is it Winter she’s worried about, or both of us? She looks a little scared of everyone. But also like she can take care of herself, if everyone would just leave her alone. She likes that RainWing, though, her clawmate, the one who’s all heart. I wonder if I can get her to like me.
I’ll find out why she knows so much about scavengers, Winter thought. I’ll find out everything about her.
I could protect her. Would she want that? Qibli wondered. It’s what I do best. It’s what I’ve done for Thorn since I was three. She said I need to find something else to do with myself, that I’m wasting my potential and she has enough dragons to protect her. As if I trust any of them. Wonder what Thorn would think of Moon. Is she a threat? Or the kind of dragonet the Outclaws are sworn to protect? Why haven’t I figured her out yet?
And then, more softly, but chiming from somewhere inside both of them: I wonder what she thinks of me.
She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure quite what she thought of either of them; she kind of wanted to hide from them but she also wanted to keep listening. It was hard, actually, to have any thoughts of her own when so many others were crowding in all at once. From across the cave, Kinkajou was brimming with Eeee! The ominous handsome glittery brooding IceWing! Umber thought quietly, Wow. He’s gorgeous. And Carnelian sat down with her wings folded and scowled at her talons: Bah. I hate everyone. All of these dragons would be useless in battle.
Moon found herself edging a little closer to Turtle, who was like a small island of peace in the middle of the crosscurrents. Eight dragons in one small cave, all thinking at the same time. How was she going to get through this?
“Let’s go around and introduce ourselves,” Tsunami said. “I mean, maybe it’s unnecessary, but that’s what Sunny said to do. And then she said I probably wouldn’t listen to her anyway, so I am proving her wrong, so there. I’m Tsunami, if anyone didn’t know. I was going to give myself a title like Commander of Recruitment, but then for some reason everyone voted that I would be terrible at recruiting, whatever that is all about, so they made me Head of School instead. So I’m pretty much the boss. And I’m running your first small group-discussion class, which was Glory’s big idea, so I figure we’ll figure it out together. Any questions?”
“Yeah,” said Carnelian. “Are we stuck with this group?”
“That’s not quite how I would put it,” said Tsunami. “But yes.”
“What if we would prefer to be in a group with other IceWings?” Winter asked. “Such as my sister?”
“That’s not how the winglets are set up,” Tsunami said. “But you’ll be in some bigger group classes with her and have plenty of time to make other friends as well.”
“I love our winglet,” Kinkajou volunteered.
“When do we eat?” Umber asked. “Just kidding. Pretending to be Clay.” He grinned, then shot a look at Qibli. Did he think that was funny? I hope that was funny. Did I sound like an idiot?
Oh, it’s Qibli he noticed, Moon realized, not Winter. It was impossible to ignore how handsome Winter was, especially with Kinkajou thinking about it all the time. But it was true that Qibli was good-looking, too, in a warmer way, now that she loo
ked. His thoughts were so distractingly fascinating that she hadn’t noticed it before.
“Ha! Actually I brought food,” Tsunami said. She cleared aside a tangle of vines and revealed a carved stone bowl full of fish, which she set in the middle of the floor. “Help yourselves.”
“Awesome,” said Turtle.
“Yyyyyyyuck,” said Kinkajou. “I’ll wait and have a banana later, thanks.”
Moon took a step toward the fish, but so did Winter, and she jumped back to stay out of his way. He gave her a curious look. She’s frightened of me. Mother would be so proud. He turned away, skewering a fish on one of his claws. I guess I did threaten to slice off her face.
“Here,” Qibli said, taking a fish and handing it to Moon. She could feel the heat rising from his sand-yellow scales as she accepted it.
“Thanks,” she said. He smiled crookedly at her, thinking rushing, busy thoughts about what else he could do to get her to like him, and trying to fit her into a pattern of other dragons he’d known before. She had never met a dragon who had so many thoughts a minute. Consciously he was thinking about her; unconsciously he was observing that Carnelian was the most battle-scarred and probably the most unpredictable dragon in the cave, so he was angling his tail toward her, just as a precaution. And part of him was also remembering what he knew about Tsunami and the kinds of dragons she liked, while yet another part was planning to go out and survey the mountains later.
It was almost like reading a scroll, or maybe like reading five scrolls at once. Moon wished she could escape his attention and just listen to him think for a while.
“Right, introductions,” said Tsunami. “Carnelian? Want to go first?”
No, muttered the SkyWing’s brain. She heaved a deep sigh. “I’m Carnelian.”
There was a pause.
“Anything else?” Tsunami prompted. “What should we know about you? Family, favorite color, anything?”
Carnelian growled, low in her throat. “I’m a loyal subject of Queen Ruby,” she said finally. “I’m in the camp that believes Queen Scarlet is dead, and if she isn’t, I’d be happy to kill her myself to protect my queen’s throne. I’m here because my queen told me to be, although I should be training with my battalion and guarding her palace, not eating slimy wet fish with a bunch of spineless dragonets.” She frowned at them all for a moment. “And my favorite color is red.”