“I don’t want a new life,” Peril said, bristling. “I want my own life, with all my memories intact, thank you very much.”
“You could word the enchantment yourself,” he said desperately, or slyly: Peril wasn’t sure. She found him hard to read even when he wasn’t drowned out by thunder and rain. “We could —”
“No,” Peril said. “I’m never letting you change me again. I can’t trust you.”
He wilted a little, but she was pretty far from feeling sorry for him.
“Now tell me what you did to Tourmaline,” she added.
“Me?” he said. “Tourmaline? I don’t — I can’t even — was there — who’s that?”
“Very amusing,” she said. “Almost as amusing as your ears on fire would be.”
“All right, all right, yes, I changed her,” he said. “She was getting too ambitious. Scarlet wanted her out of the way but not dead. She couldn’t get rid of all her heirs. A kingdom without any heirs is in perpetual danger … I think all the queens learned that from what happened to the MudWings a couple of centuries ago. So Tourmaline is still available if Scarlet ever needs her. She just doesn’t know it herself.”
He trailed off, regarding the battling dragons and rubbing his snout worriedly.
“You shouldn’t do that,” Peril burst out. “You can’t just take away a dragon’s memory! Turn them into someone completely new! That’s horrible!”
“I thought becoming someone completely new was exactly what you wanted,” he said, ruffled. “I like being different dragons.”
“Yes, but you still have your memory when you do that,” Peril said. “You know who you are underneath. Tourmaline, I assume, does not.”
“True,” he said. “But she was safer that way. Otherwise she would have challenged Scarlet and wound up dead before she turned eleven.”
Peril shook her head, scattering the cloud of steam that was forming around her as raindrops hit her fiery scales. “You’re like eighteen thousand different kinds of untrustworthy. Are you even really my father?”
“Yes,” he said firmly. “Kestrel didn’t know who I was — she thought I was assigned to partner with her — but I knew her. I am unquestionably your father.”
“Wonderful,” Peril said. “Such fantastic news. So where is Tourmaline? Is she here now?”
He hesitated, and then nodded.
At the same moment, Ruby let out another cry of pain as Scarlet slammed into her chest, knocking her off her feet. Lightning cracked the sky in half above the fighting dragons, illuminating Scarlet’s gloating face as she advanced on her daughter.
“Why isn’t Mommy fighting better?” Cliff cried.
Peril looked down at Cliff’s anguished face.
“You know what,” she said to Chameleon. “Fine. Keep your secret. It doesn’t matter who Tourmaline is, because Ruby has to win this fight.” For the entire SkyWing tribe, but mostly for Cliff.
“Oh,” Chameleon said. “She can’t.”
Peril stared at him. “Yes she can. Of course she can. What are you talking about?”
“Uh — nothing,” he said. “You’re right, of course she can.”
“Did you do something?” Peril asked. “Did you do something to Ruby like you did to me?”
Below them, Ruby leaped up and sliced one claw across Scarlet’s throat, but Scarlet caught her arm and kicked Ruby back into a boulder. Ruby struggled back to her feet, her wings drooping and heavy with rain.
“Well … ” he said. “Even if I did, it’s not working anyway. This shouldn’t be able to happen at all. So really, anything could happen next. It’s basically like I didn’t do anything.”
“What did you do?” Peril’s wings flared open, scattering warm raindrops all over Cliff. Nightmare possibilities were flashing through her head. He could have done anything to Ruby with that scroll. He could have enchanted her to fall asleep whenever Scarlet hit her. He could have enchanted her to go blind whenever she tried to hit Scarlet. He could have enchanted her to lose any challenge battle with Scarlet.
But he’d need a thing to enchant — that’s how animus magic works, Peril remembered. Something with room for a piece of scroll inside.
She stared wildly down at the battling queens, trying to spot something on Ruby that might be hiding an animus-touched scrap of scroll.
There.
Ruby had one small earring that she always seemed to be wearing — Peril had never seen her without it. A teardrop-shaped pendant hung from it, studded with rubies, and just big enough to open and fit a piece of paper inside.
“Wait here,” Peril said to Cliff.
“But —” he protested as she lifted off. “But you said not to interrupt Mommy!”
Peril dove at the wrestling SkyWings just as Scarlet was about to stamp her talons down on Ruby’s face. But she must have heard something over the wind and thunder, because she looked up at the last moment, saw Peril hurtling toward them, and leaped backward instead.
Ruby scrambled up and turned to look at Peril, too. “Don’t interfere!” she gasped, her heaving sides slick with blood and rain. “I have to win this myself.”
Peril skidded to a stop in front of her. “I know — but it’s not a fair fight right now. Don’t move.” She reached out and crushed the dangling earring pendant between two of her claws.
The metal exterior melted first, caving in, and Peril caught a glimpse of something white inside before it crumbled into black ash, and then the whole pendant dropped to the ground.
“Why did you do that?” Ruby cried. “That was a present from my sist — from — I have a —” She stopped, her talons moving slowly to her head as if a glacier were trying to climb out her eye sockets.
Ruby’s dark red scales glimmered once, twice, and then faded softly into dark orange instead. Her horns curved inward and her snout lengthened slightly, and her whole body seemed to get thicker and stronger. Not only that, but all her wounds vanished.
“What in the sun … ” Ruby trailed off, blinking at her newly sharp talons.
Peril was surprised, too. She hadn’t expected Ruby to be something different underneath.
“I’m s-sorry,” she stammered. “You were under a spell, too. All I know is that it was enchanted to stop you from winning this battle and I — I thought that wasn’t fair.”
“Tourmaline?” Vermilion said, stepping out of the crowd of gawking SkyWings. “But — aren’t you dead?”
“Not yet,” said Scarlet. “But she will be soon.” She shot a glare at Peril.
“This is Tourmaline?” Peril cried.
“But if I’m Tourmaline,” said the transformed queen, “then where … or who … is Ruby?”
A new flash of greenish lightning illuminated the horrible crooked grin on the old queen’s face.
“There is no Ruby,” Scarlet said with malicious delight. “I made her up. It turns out when you’re the queen, no one questions which dragons you claim as daughters. I invented Ruby completely, exactly the way I wanted her. After all, I’ve always been disappointed in the daughters I actually had.”
If she was hoping for a more devastated reaction, she must have been disappointed. Tourmaline only narrowed her eyes at her mother and lifted her chin, with an expression that looked exactly like one of Queen Ruby’s.
“Your Majesty,” Peril said to Ruby/Tourmaline. “My advice is to finish killing Scarlet and then figure this out. I have someone who can answer all your questions when you’re done.”
Tourmaline set her jaw. “Good idea.” She launched herself at Scarlet with startling speed, suddenly full of all the ferocity and danger that Peril had expected before. With two quick slashes, she ripped into one of Scarlet’s wings, and then sank her claws into Scarlet’s shoulders and her teeth into Scarlet’s neck.
Another heavy roll of thunder rumbled over their shrieks. Peril backed away from the fight, cautiously working her way to the boulder where Cliff was waiting. Below the thunder and dragon roars, she caught some of the c
onversations running through the crowd.
“But who is that? Where did Ruby go?”
“Did Peril do something to her?”
“Doesn’t matter — she’s winning now, isn’t she?”
“I remember Tourmaline! I thought the queen had her killed a long time ago … ”
“How does a dragon just … change like that? Who did that magic? We don’t have any animus dragons in the SkyWing tribe!”
“Wait, I liked Ruby. Can we get Ruby back?”
Peril climbed back up onto the boulder and found dismayed faces on both Chameleon and Cliff.
“I wish you hadn’t done that,” Chameleon said. “So publicly, too. It’s going to raise a lot of questions, and I’m afraid it’ll be really awkward for me around here if you start pointing talons.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Peril said. “You’re right, I should have let Ruby die so you wouldn’t have to feel awkward.”
“Where’s Mommy?” Cliff asked, reaching out his little talons. “You said you not a bad guy. You said that! Where did you put her?” He started to cry. “I want Mommy back.”
Now Peril really did feel sorry. She wished desperately that she could hug him, or at least take one of his talons in hers the way Clay did when he was comforting someone.
“It’s all right, little prince,” she said, crouching to look him in the eyes. “She has to look like that to win this fight, but she’s still your mother. She’s just bigger and tougher and a different color, that’s all. She still loves you the same.”
“Well, she might not,” said Chameleon. “That was a whole other personality I built for her, with a lot of false memories in it. She may feel differently about everyone now, even him.”
Cliff buried his face in his talons and started to sob.
“STUPENDOUSLY HELPFUL,” Peril said to her father. “For our next trick, let’s burn out all your teeth one by one.”
He took a nervous step away from her. “I only mean that I don’t know what will happen. Ruby wasn’t supposed to be able to challenge her mother at all, and certainly never win. But she’s been wearing that personality for over seven years now. Maybe over that much time, it becomes real enough to change like a real dragon would. So she became strong enough to make the challenge. You were strong like that already — I couldn’t believe how quickly you overcame the loyalty to Queen Scarlet.”
Peril snorted in disgust. “You specifically put loyalty to her in my spell?”
“Of course,” he said. “That was my assignment before I ever knew you were my daughter. Remove firescales, add Queen Scarlet loyalty, subtract all memories of Clay.”
“I’d say you’re the worst dragon I’ve ever met,” Peril said, “but Scarlet still has you beat.”
Another wild scream came from the combatants, drawing Peril’s attention back to the fight. Scarlet was trying to sink her claws into Tourmaline’s eyes, but Tourmaline was holding her off with brute strength, pummeling her underbelly with razor-sharp back talons. Scarlet’s scales were more red than orange now, covered in blood from her shredded wing, shoulders, and neck. The rain slammed down on their backs and the clouds seemed to be leaning in closer, as though they wanted to watch the fight as well.
Suddenly Scarlet slipped on the wet rocks and went crashing down on her back; Tourmaline immediately leaped on top of her, digging in her talons.
“You shouldn’t have come back, Mother,” she said. Tourmaline glanced up at the waiting crowd and shouted, “For the SkyWings!”
And then, with a ferocious crack, she snapped Queen Scarlet’s neck.
For a long moment, the only sound was the rain falling, pattering on rocks and scales and wings.
Then someone shouted, “Long live Queen Ruby!”
“Queen Ruby!”
“Queen Ruby!” the crowd roared in response.
“I gather that most of these dragons missed the message about who she really is,” Chameleon said drily.
“Shows how smart you are,” Peril said. “She really is Ruby to them. And if she has all her memories, isn’t she really Ruby? What else makes a dragon who she is?”
“Moral fiber?” a voice suggested behind her. “A coherent philosophy of life?”
Peril whirled around. “Turtle!” she cried with delight.
The SeaWing edged out from behind one of the boulders, nervously eyeing the raucous, celebrating SkyWings. He looked extremely wet and somewhat bedraggled. “I, uh … came to rescue you?” he said. “Well, to find out what was going on anyway. I heard there was a spell or something? But then I got here and it was very stormy and I couldn’t find you and suddenly there were eight million SkyWings pouring out of the mountains and a big fight going on and I thought … maybe better to stay out of the way until it’s over. Right?”
“Yes, smart thinking. If Scarlet had won, it might have gotten a little dangerous around here,” Peril said. “But don’t worry, I rescued myself. No more spells on me.” She gave Chameleon a sharp glance and he nodded frantically. “Plus also I kind of saved the day. It was epic and you missed it.”
“Nuh-uh!” Cliff said suddenly, looking up. His face was still streaked with tears, but indignation had broken through his distress. “Cliff did that! I saved the day!”
“Well, a little bit,” Peril admitted. “But it was maybe eighty-five percent me.”
“It was NINETY-SIXTY-FIVE-NINETY PERSON ME!” Cliff objected.
“I have little brothers,” Turtle said to Peril. “Trust me, you’re not going to win this argument.”
She couldn’t believe Turtle was here! That was something only a friend would do, wasn’t it? Come to rescue her from a spell? Deep inside another tribe’s kingdom, risking the wrath of a dangerous queen?
“Maybe you do like me after all,” she said to Turtle.
“You’re a loon,” he said. “Of course I do, even when you’re scary, which, let’s be fair, is most of the time.”
“But what if I’m the ‘talons of power and fire’?” Peril asked. “Shouldn’t you ‘beware’ me instead of being friends with me?”
“I can beware you and like you at the same time,” he joked. “Besides, if I have a choice, I think I’d rather be on the side WITH any talons of power and fire, frankly.”
“Cliff! CLIFF!” Tourmaline came bounding over the crowd, barreling through SkyWings with her wings spread. She landed on the boulder and swept Cliff up in her arms. “Did you see that? Mommy won!”
He wriggled anxiously, trying to see her face. “But where is Mommy?” he pleaded. “You don’t look like Mommy. I want her.”
Tourmaline winced, set him down gently, and looked over at Peril. Scarlet’s blood had almost turned her scales back to red, but the rain spilled over her wings and back, revealing Tourmaline’s unfamiliar orange again.
“Do you know how this happened?” she asked Peril. “Do you know who can fix it?”
“Fix it?” Peril asked. She skewered Chameleon with her gaze as he started to sidle off.
“Yes — change me back into Ruby,” said the new queen. Behind her back, Chameleon shook his head furiously and clasped his front talons together like he was begging Peril to keep quiet.
Peril blinked away raindrops. “You … you want to be Ruby again?”
“I am Ruby,” Tourmaline answered. “I remember everything about being her. All I need is to look like her again.”
“But don’t you want to be yourself?” Peril asked. “The real true actual Tourmaline?”
Tourmaline put one wing around Cliff and shook her head. “I will be myself. Ruby is the SkyWing queen and Cliff’s mother. Now that I know the truth about my sister — about me — I can be even better at both of those things.”
If I show her what Chameleon can do … I’ll be giving another queen his power. He could fly away right now, with no one the wiser about his scroll or his shape-shifting. But if I let him do that, no one will know what he’s doing with it. He could end up working for another terrible queen.
I guess it comes down to who I trust more … my new queen who always hated me … or my father, who betrayed me as soon as he met me.
She thought about Clay, and loyalty, and everything he’d ever said about the family you make and the dragons you should trust and how to make the world safer for everyone.
Peril sprang across the boulder and cornered Chameleon just before he could take off. “This is the dragon you need, Your Majesty.”
* * *
The queen took them to a quiet library room of the palace, lined with scroll jars, desks, and wooden sculptures of trees that made Peril very nervous, but it was private enough that they wouldn’t be interrupted. She kept her wings and tail tucked in close to her and ignored her father when he noticed and gave her a significant “I can still help you with that” look.
“Show the queen,” Peril said to him.
“Do I have to?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Tourmaline.
“Let’s ask my talons,” Peril said, lifting them up and nodding thoughtfully at them. “Oh, guess what, they say yes, too.”
Cliff giggled. He and Turtle were the only other two allowed in the room, and both watched curiously as Chameleon undid his metal sheath again.
This time he did not reach for his pouch of shapes, and Peril decided not to point that out. She could leave him one secret, since he loved them so much.
But he did bring out the scroll and undid the leather binding with an aggrieved sigh. Carefully, he unrolled the blank end of it along the floor.
“This is what I use,” he said. “It’s animus-touched.”
Tourmaline tilted her head at it. “Where did it come from?”
“I … found it,” he said evasively. “All I have to do is write an enchantment in here, tear it off, and give it to you to wear, in whatever way you want. Then as long as you wear it, you’ll be whatever the enchantment says you are.”
Chameleon straightened his shoulders and gave Tourmaline a sly sideways look. “In fact, I could make you anything,” he offered. “For the right price, I can make you invincible. I can make you as strong as ten dragons. I might even be able to make you a mind reader. Imagine the possibilities! What have you always dreamed of being?”