Peril puzzled over this for a moment. Was it some kind of SeaWing code? Was he calling her a turtle? Was that a good or a bad thing?
“Moose,” she tried out, just to see what would happen.
He squinted at her. “Uh … I mean, my name is Turtle.”
“Oh!” she said. “Right. Hello. Thank you for not screaming or fainting or throwing a crocodile at me.”
“I thought about it,” he said. “I mean, not the crocodile. Definitely not in the reptile-throwing business, me.”
Now it was her turn to narrow her eyes at him. Was he making fun of her?
“Ha ha?” he tried. “Friendly joke? Are those allowed?”
“Why aren’t you scared of me?” she asked.
“I am,” he said. “I just … you’re not the only dragon I know with dangerous powers.”
“Really?” she said. What did that mean? Who was he talking about?
But before he could answer, a roar billowed down through the corridors, like a rolling smoke cloud.
Turtle flared his wings, his green eyes wide. “What was that?”
“Probably Queen Ruby,” Peril said. Was Ruby yelling at Clay? Was Clay all right? Did he need her to come protect him? She glanced back at the row of fire globes leading uphill to the school. “Maybe they just told her that I’m here.”
“Want to go find out?” Turtle asked.
Peril frowned at him. “So I can get roared at face-to-face? That does sound more fun.”
“I don’t mean go say hi,” Turtle protested. “I mean, I’m going to eavesdrop to see what’s happening, so do you want to come?”
Peril curled her wings in, severely tempted. “Oh, no, I shouldn’t. Clay would be upset with me. He told me to wait here.”
“He doesn’t have to know,” Turtle said with a shrug. “That’s kind of the point of being stealthy. And if he doesn’t catch you, then you’re not doing anything wrong, are you?”
That sounded true. That sounded very true! Really, Clay just wanted her to stay out of Ruby’s way. So if she didn’t let Ruby see her that was basically the same thing, right? After all, he didn’t specifically say “you must hide in a cave for hours like an obedient snail.”
Stop for a moment. Think this through.
On the one talon, she was still pretty sure Clay wouldn’t approve of this plan. On the other talon, it sounded a LOT more appealing than sitting in a cave waiting to be released. On the third talon, why was this strange SeaWing offering to hang out with her? Did he have an agenda? Was it because if they got caught, she was sure to get in a lot more trouble than he would?
Then again, on the fourth talon, shouldn’t she say yes to the first friendly dragon she’d met at this school? Clay did want her to make friends. So in a way she was doing something he would approve of. Right?
Unless Clay secretly thought she was too dangerous for anyone to be friends with. He might think that. She kind of was. Her only friend before Clay had been killed by Queen Scarlet for telling Peril too much.
Well, then, maybe she needed more friends so that some of them could be expendable. If anything happened to Clay right now, it would be the END OF ALL THINGS. She would literally burn down the world. She couldn’t even think about it, or else the tunnel would soon be full of rage smoke.
But if she had Clay and Turtle as friends, and then Turtle got himself killed by Queen Scarlet or accidentally set on fire, well, then she’d survive OK, because she’d still have Clay.
It occurred to her that this was a rather morbid train of thought to be having about a new friend.
“Yes,” she said decisively, making him jump. “Let’s go. You walk in front, so I don’t whack you with my tail by accident. But don’t move too slowly, or I might accidentally step on you.” She ducked into the cave again to let him by safely.
Turtle had an “I am now sensing this was a terrible idea” expression on his face, but he took the lead without arguing and managed to walk fast enough that Peril wasn’t annoyed.
The roar echoed from above again.
Together — more or less — Turtle and Peril headed straight for it.
For the past week, Carnelian’s body had been kept in a cave near the peak of Jade Mountain. According to SkyWing tradition, their dead were offered to the sky for seven days before being burned. An old dragon named Osprey — the only one in the Sky Palace who would speak with Peril voluntarily — had told Peril that this was to make sure their spirits could fly free and return as SkyWings, instead of coming back as any other kind of dragon.
That kind of talk always made Queen Scarlet roll her eyes, though. She let her tribe follow whatever rituals they cared about, but she was not much interested in what happened to dragons after they were dead.
Peril had visited the body twice, at night when everyone else was asleep. She didn’t remember ever meeting the fierce red dragonet in the Sky Kingdom, but then, she didn’t know most SkyWings by name. Queen Scarlet didn’t like it when Peril tried to talk to other dragons. To be honest, neither did the other dragons.
So Peril had seen the mourning cave by moonlight — the tall arched roof, the towering slender pillars of pale gray rock, all the windows and skylights that opened to the air. And she’d seen the burned dragon wrapped in white silk, as still and empty as any of the charred bodies Peril had left on Scarlet’s arena sands.
But she hadn’t seen the cave in the daytime before. She hadn’t seen the sunlight pouring in, white and gold and backed with blue sky, or the wind rippling the silk so it looked like Carnelian was breathing.
Now it really looked like a place where a spirit could be set free … a place where a new SkyWing might rise again.
Unless it was scared off by the angry dragons gathered around the body anyhow. On the plus side, at least all the shouting meant no one could hear Turtle and Peril sneaking up the passage toward them.
Turtle crouched behind a boulder near the cave entrance. Peril peeked in, long enough to see at least a dozen SkyWings crowding the chamber, and decided to stay farther back, keeping a few curves of the wall and several columns between her and the queen who hated her.
“I smell lies all over this story,” snarled a SkyWing — not Ruby, but Peril didn’t recognize the voice. “First you tell us you’re harboring a violent, bloodthirsty criminal, and then you show us a dragonet who has died in exactly the way that creature kills.”
Oh — that’s me, Peril realized. I’m the violent, bloodthirsty criminal. Unfair! I don’t thirst for blood. If I need to fry someone to cinders, I will, but I’m not rampaging around killing dragons for fun! I haven’t even killed anyone in months! Bloodthirsty INDEED.
“It was a fire,” Tsunami’s voice interjected. “I don’t like Peril any more than you do, but I promise she didn’t do this to Carnelian.”
Very supportive, thanks, Tsunami.
The unfamiliar SkyWing hissed with disbelief. “What sounds more likely to you,” he snarled, “that Scarlet’s pet monster has murdered a dragon loyal to Queen Ruby, or that some MudWing figured out how to set off a dragonflame bomb and accidentally killed our soldier instead of her supposed IceWing target?”
“I want to know where the MudWing is.” Queen Ruby’s voice was unreadable without her facial expression. Was that cold fury, or grief, or calm decisive leadership? Peril had no idea. This queen was so different from the submissive daughter she’d played all of Peril’s life. Peril couldn’t figure her out at all.
“You don’t seriously believe them?” the other SkyWing cried, his voice rising again. “Look at Carnelian! Look at these burns! Here and here, these marks even look like talon prints!”
Peril coiled into herself, remembering the weight of the dragonet she’d dragged out of the burning cave. Too late, too late to save her. But if she had — if it had worked, if Carnelian were alive now — would Ruby have forgiven her? Would Clay have been proud of her?
Would he have called her his “wings of fire” again, and would it have changed an
ything?
“Don’t touch the body,” the queen said sharply.
“Peril pulled Carnelian out of the fire,” Sunny said, her voice more subdued than usual. “So you will find Peril’s prints on her — but it’s because she was trying to save her.”
Multiple hostile snorts. The arguing SkyWing clearly wasn’t the only one suspicious of the true story.
“Tell me what you’re doing to find and punish the MudWing who did this,” said Queen Ruby. “What is her name?”
“Sora.” That was Clay! It felt like wings spreading inside her heart. Clay was speaking! In his wonderful warm voice! “She — she’s my sister.”
He sounded so, so sad. Peril wanted to burst into the cave and wrap her wings around him. No, that would only hurt him more. What she should do instead was wrap her wings around the SkyWings who were being mean to him. Then she could watch them burn between her claws.
Now that was the kind of thought she probably shouldn’t share with Clay.
“Your sister?” said one of the other SkyWings. “This escape is looking more and more convenient, isn’t it?”
“Queen Moorhen has agreed to meet with you,” Sunny said a little desperately. “Here or at her palace, whichever you prefer — we can send a messenger to her right now. She wants to help you find justice. We all do.”
Peril always thought of Clay’s soul as a torch that never went out: burning clear and true all night long. Sunny, on the other talon, was a blaze of warm sunlight — the annoying kind that gave a dragon headaches and made you want to scorch things because STOP SMILING ALREADY THE WORLD IS HORRIBLE GO AWAY.
(Peril knew this was bad. Sunny was the only one of Clay’s friends who tried to be nice to Peril, and yet Peril still wanted to push her off a cliff on a daily basis. Sometimes she dreamed that she’d left Sunny in Scarlet’s cage and run off with Clay, and at the end he’d turn to her and say, “You were right, we don’t need anyone else! Forget all the smiling SandWings and brave SeaWings and beautiful RainWings we’ve ever known!” But then, she supposed, he wouldn’t be Clay, her Clay, who loved his friends so much he kept trying to die for them. That was a plan, by the way, that was never going to happen on Peril’s watch.)
“Your Majesty,” a new voice cut in suddenly. “Someone is approaching from the north.”
“Queen Moorhen?” someone else asked.
“No,” said the watcher. “I see orange scales … ” She trailed off, and in the silence that followed, Peril felt an overwhelming wave of horror surge slowly, inexorably toward them and then crash over everyone listening.
“It’s Queen Scarlet,” Ruby whispered. “You were right. She’s still alive.”
And coming to kill you, I bet, Peril thought. Since I wouldn’t do it for her.
* * *
It was the night after Peril had freed Scarlet from Burn’s weirdling tower. The two of them were huddled around a fire in the unfriendly wasteland between the Ice Kingdom and the Kingdom of Sand. Scarlet was picking bits of reindeer out of her teeth and Peril was trying not to stare at her queen’s newly disfigured face.
“We’ll go home tomorrow,” Scarlet growled. “I’ll figure out how to kill those prophecy brats from there, with or without you.”
“You should know —” Peril hesitated.
“What?” Scarlet threw a hoof at her, whacking Peril hard just above her eyes. “Don’t mumble! I’m furious at you already! I cannot handle you being annoying as well as disobedient right now!”
Peril rubbed her forehead and tried to remember why she’d thought rescuing Scarlet was a good idea. Or maybe she’d always known it was a bad idea, but she’d still felt as though it was her responsibility. Or maybe she’d just needed Scarlet to stop slithering through her dreams, making every night even worse than the days of crocodile throwing and dragons screaming at her.
“It’s just that Ruby is queen now,” Peril said. “And the SkyWings really love her,” she added, a little vindictively.
Scarlet flapped one dismissive wing. “I know about that. But Ruby will roll right over and hand back my throne. She’s a good daughter, unlike SOME dragons I could mention.”
“I don’t think she will,” Peril said. “She’s made a lot of changes already. She doesn’t do what Burn wants her to do. She’s pulled back on all the fronts of the war since destroying the Summer Palace. As if she’s consolidating her power and gathering her warriors to defend the palace — and herself. Plus, she, um … she banished me. She’s a lot scarier than I thought she was. A lot scarier than you think she is.”
Scarlet glowered at Peril, her yellow eyes full of flames. After a long moment, she said, “That’s what Burn thought, too. That if I tried to return, Ruby would defeat me.” She threw back her head and laughed a strange hollow cackle. “Ruby, of all dragons? She’s a mouse.”
“She’s not,” Peril said. Truthfully, Peril wasn’t sure what Ruby was. But a part of her knew she was digging in her claws about it because she wanted to hurt Scarlet. She wanted to hurt her the way she’d been hurt, and she wanted to scare Scarlet away from the Sky Palace.
True, if Scarlet returned to the Sky Palace, then Peril could, too. She’d have a home again. But it wouldn’t be worth it, because then Clay would be in danger. The minute Scarlet had her army back, she’d go after him, and Peril wouldn’t be able to stop her.
Scarlet unconsciously reached one talon toward her scarred face, but didn’t touch it. “You think Ruby would fight me?” she asked. “She couldn’t win. Not against me.” But Peril could see it in her eyes — Scarlet knew what it was like to be afraid now. The venom attack had melted more than her scales; it had eaten away some of her confidence. The time she spent trapped in Burn’s tower of horrors probably hadn’t helped either.
Peril shrugged. “I guess you’ll find out.”
There was a pause.
“No,” Scarlet said. “I have a better idea.” She bared her teeth at Peril. “You return to the Sky Palace and kill her before I get there.”
“I can’t do that!” Peril cried. “I’m not even allowed in the Sky Palace. Ruby said she’d have me executed if I went back.”
“She can’t have you executed if you kill her first,” Scarlet said.
“Well, I’m not going to kill her,” Peril said. “You can’t make me. You can’t make me kill anyone else for you. I’m not that kind of dragon anymore.”
Scarlet’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, really? You think you’ve changed so much? I know you. You like killing dragons. You’ve always liked it. It’s one of the things I can stand about you — none of the simpering, moaning guilt another dragon might have. You were born to burn your enemies. And mine. Mostly mine.”
“I don’t have to be,” Peril said stubbornly. “Clay says I can be whoever I want to be.” She knew right away that mentioning him was a mistake.
“Oh. That MUDWING,” Scarlet snarled.
“He wouldn’t like it if I killed Queen Ruby,” Peril said. “He wouldn’t like me at all if I did that.”
“But I won’t like you if you don’t,” Scarlet pointed out.
Peril couldn’t believe the stab of dismay that made her feel. Why did she still care, after everything Scarlet had done to her? Why did she feel suddenly horribly desperate to be Scarlet’s favorite pet again?
I don’t care. Stop caring!
“Just one more dragon,” Scarlet purred. “Kill Ruby for me, and then you can go follow your aggravating mud dragon. It’s the least you could do after you wouldn’t let me kill that SandWing spitball.”
Peril poked her claw into a scorched circle of grass under her talons. This could be a way to please Scarlet and perhaps save Clay as well. Could she bargain Ruby’s life for Clay’s? Would Scarlet promise to let him live?
But, for one thing, she couldn’t trust Scarlet to keep her word, and, for another, Clay still wouldn’t like it. Even if she only did it to protect him, she knew he’d be disappointed in her. The last time they’d seen each other he’d been
hopeful … he could see another possible future for her. She wanted to be that dragon for him.
“No,” she said. “That’s my final answer.”
“Then you’re useless to me,” Scarlet hissed furiously.
The next morning, Scarlet was gone. Peril had not been able to find her, and no one else had seen her for months, even in their dreams … until she tried to get an IceWing student to kill the dragonets for her.
* * *
Still trying to make other dragons do her killing. So something had kept her scared — maybe Peril’s words, or maybe hearing what had happened to Burn and Blister.
But if she was coming this way now, then she wasn’t scared anymore. Or perhaps her rage had finally surpassed her fear.
Who was she looking for? Did she know Peril was here?
“I’ll go face her,” Ruby said, her voice clear and strong.
“No!” cried one of the SkyWings. “We’ll fight her off! All of us!”
“That’s right,” said another. “She’s not a challenger — you don’t have to face her alone.”
“She’s an enemy,” said a third. “And you’re a much better queen than she was. We want you, not her.”
“I agree,” said Clay. “The throne is yours now and she can’t have it back. We’ll all fight beside you.”
A long pause. Peril stabbed at a crack in the rock wall beside her, scowling. She didn’t like the sound of Clay acting all loyal and supportive to someone who wasn’t her. That was her special Clay voice; that’s the one he used when he told Peril she would always have a place at Jade Mountain and said things like “I want you to stay.” He wasn’t supposed to use it WILLY-NILLY on dragons who hated her.
Ruby cleared her throat. “Thank you,” she said. “If that’s how you all feel, then we’ll fly out there together.”
Peril heard claws scraping on the rocks. She pictured the queen spinning toward the sky. A moment later, the cave echoed with the sound of flapping wings as they all took off.