Peril tried giving him a significant look, of the go-away-we’re-having-a-moment variety, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“Yes, she is,” Clay said with a sigh.
What kind of sigh was that? Peril wondered. Was it an “I wish I were alone with Peril” sigh? Or a “worried about my students” sigh? Knowing Clay, it could also be a “we’re all out of goats and I really wanted one” sigh.
“What are you going to do?” she asked him.
“I should stay here and guard the academy,” he said thoughtfully. “But if Ruby agrees to leave enough guards to protect the students, I might go with her to see Queen Moorhen.”
Peril didn’t like that plan. She had a feeling she wouldn’t be invited along on any diplomatic missions, especially any that involved going inside other queens’ palaces and possibly incinerating their national treasures by accident or whatever.
“What about me?” she asked. “What should I do?”
He gave her a rueful smile that lit candles in her heart. “Whatever you want to do, Peril. That’s the whole point of being free from Scarlet, isn’t it?”
“But what do you want me to do?” she pressed.
“Peril,” Clay said, “I’m not going to be a new Scarlet for you. You get to make your own choices now.”
I am making my own choices, Peril thought grumpily. I’m choosing to do whatever you think I should do.
Maybe she could figure out what he wanted from the clues. Sometimes when Queen Scarlet was really angry, she wouldn’t speak to Peril for weeks, and then Peril had to figure out on her own what she’d done wrong and how to fix it to make Queen Scarlet happy again.
So … what did Clay want?
She studied him from horns to tail. He had turned to gaze back at Jade Mountain, his wings drooping heavily.
All right, it was pretty obvious: he wanted his friends and his school to be safe.
And the only way to do that was to get rid of Queen Scarlet forever.
Peril inhaled a sharp breath. That was it. Clay would never say it out loud — he’d never ask her for it directly. But what he really wanted her to do was find Queen Scarlet and kill her for him.
She might be the only dragon in Pyrrhia who could — especially if an animus was protecting Scarlet now.
So as much as she never, never wanted to see Scarlet again, and as much as the idea of leaving Clay to find her was heart-wrenching, that was what she was going to have to do.
It’s all right, Clay, she thought. You don’t have to tell me. I know what you want, and I’ll do it for you.
I’ll find Queen Scarlet.
And I’ll make sure she never ever hurts you again.
The plan was to sneak away in the middle of the night. That sounded like something a hero would do. She would set off on her quest alone, boldly but quietly, without giving anyone a chance to talk her out of it.
Peril could imagine flying bravely into the night — and even better than that, she could imagine the scene the next morning, when Clay found her gone and threw back his head and cried “Noooo! Peril! She’s gone to save us all! She’s so noble and self-sacrificing! But what am I going to do without her? Oh, the unbearable pain!!”
But here was the problem: when she kept going with that scene in her head, the next thing that happened was Sunny or Tsunami or Starflight showing up. And then one of them would say something like “Or hey, maybe she’s run off because she’s actually evil and in cahoots with Scarlet after all,” and/or “I knew we couldn’t trust her!”
And it all went downhill from there.
Peril didn’t want to leave Clay wondering what she was really up to. She didn’t care what the others thought of her, but in all the world, Clay was the only dragon who saw more good in her than bad. She didn’t want him to have even a moment of “is Peril really as dangerous and unstable as everyone’s been telling me?”
So clearly she had to say good-bye to him. That was obvious. It wasn’t just that she wanted to see him one more time. Or that she was hoping he’d tell her not to go. No, no, none of those. It was for his own sake, really.
She waited until the halls were quiet, and then she slipped out of her sleeping cave, which was as bare and empty as the day she’d stepped into it. Everyone else in the school had to share their sleeping cave — but then, no one else could accidentally burn up her clawmates just by rolling over in the middle of the night.
Clay had offered Peril a cave closer to the other students, but he’d seemed relieved when she refused it. So hers was close to the dragonets who ran the school instead — but she still had to go through the main central cave to get to Clay.
Which is where she nearly ran into Turtle for the second time that day.
Seriously, if a dragonet insisted on flopping like a lumpy boulder in the middle of a dimly lit cave, wasn’t it his own fault if he got set on fire?
“AAAAH! Why are you always in the WAY?” she demanded, backpedaling at the last minute to avoid stepping on his talons.
“Am I?” he said sleepily, lifting his head. “I’m not usually. I don’t think. Other dragons go around me or over me pretty well.”
“You won’t be pleased if I go over you,” Peril pointed out. “Why aren’t you in your own sleeping cave?”
Turtle gave a little shiver. “It feels weird in there now that Umber is gone. And all the rest of my winglet, too. I should have gone with them,” he mumbled.
“Not if they’re all dead now,” Peril said sensibly. “If Scarlet has killed them, then staying here was obviously the smart choice.”
He sat up fast, and Peril tilted her head, trying to read his expression. Alarmed or horrified? Anxiety? Guilt? All of the above?
“No,” Turtle protested. “Are you crazy? That would be even worse! What if you’re right and they’re dead and I could have saved them?”
“Really? You?” Peril said.
“I do not APPRECIATE your skeptical tone,” he said, sounding briefly like an actual prince. “Just because I don’t particularly like danger or uncertainty or … or exercise … doesn’t mean I couldn’t be useful in a fight.”
Peril paused, trying to figure out how to say what she wanted to say without the skeptical tone. “RrrrrrrEEEally?” she tried, infusing the word with as much enthusiastic curiosity as she could. “YOUUUUUUU?”
Turtle burst out laughing. “You’re so weird,” he said.
“I’m not the one sleeping in the entrance hall,” Peril said. “Asking to get trampled and scorched.”
“Well, the other thing is that Tsunami isn’t back yet,” he admitted. “I’m sort of waiting for her.”
“Uh-oh,” Peril said. He gave her an anxious look and she added quickly, “I mean, that probably doesn’t mean anything. Anything involving decapitation, that is.”
“You have this uncanny ability to say whatever is the opposite of comforting,” he observed wryly.
“That wasn’t comforting?” she asked. “Um … how about, I’m sure she’s fine because a SeaWing dragonet like her could never possibly catch up with a full-grown SkyWing like Scarlet. Oh, unless it was a trap and Scarlet ambushed her.”
Turtle wrinkled his snout at her and Peril shifted on her talons. “OK, I know, I heard it that time. But it was a smart thought, wasn’t it?”
He turned to look out at the stars. “So what do we do?” he asked. “Send more dragons to look for her? What if Scarlet ambushes everyone? We don’t know how many dragons she might have working for her. What if this is her plan, and she kills everyone we send after Tsunami?”
“She can’t kill me,” Peril pointed out. “I’d like to see her try! Ha!”
Turtle gave her an odd, glittering look. “You’re right,” he said. “You and me. We should go.”
“That’s what I — wait, no,” she said. “What? She can definitely kill you.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “Anyway, Tsunami’s my sister. And my winglet is out there somewhere —”
“You hope,??
? Peril interjected. “Er … I mean, YES, they ARE.”
Turtle lifted one of his wings to shush her, tilting his head. “Someone’s coming,” he whispered. “Hide!” He ran over to the enormous gong in the center of the hall and dove behind it.
Startled, Peril twisted around in a circle before she found a shadowy corner where there was an outgrowth of stalagmites to hide behind. She tucked herself into the darkness and whispered loudly, “Why are we hiding?”
“SHHHH,” Turtle answered.
Peril tried to remember the last time she’d ever hidden from anyone before she’d met Turtle. Maybe in the Kingdom of Sand, when she was trying to sneak up on Burn’s stronghold to rescue Scarlet. But hiding was not normally her approach to problems. Why hide when you could always set your problem on fire?
Now she could hear voices approaching. One of them sounded like Clay, who was exactly the dragon she was looking for. Except now if she popped out of her hiding place he’d be, like, “um, what were you doing back there?” and it would look so, so weird and maybe suspicious, too. ARRRRGH.
Thanks a lot, Turtle. What is with this dragon and the eavesdropping?
“Ten soldiers should be enough to guard this place,” Ruby’s voice said. Peril heard three sets of talons enter the cave, and she pressed herself closer to the floor. “And with luck we’ll be back in three days. I don’t want to be away from the Sky Palace for too long. I have … someone waiting for me.”
“Thank you, Queen Ruby.” That was Starflight, the NightWing librarian.
“Did your student tell you anything else we should know?” Ruby asked. “Apart from the disturbing news about my mother’s new ally?”
“Not much,” Clay said with a sigh. “Moon’s in Possibility, with Qibli. Sunny is dreamvisiting with Glory now, so she can send someone up to the town to take care of Kinkajou.”
“Poor Kinkajou,” Starflight said softly.
Uh-oh, Peril thought. She had seen the bouncy little RainWing from a distance, but mostly she’d only heard about her from Clay. If she was hurt, he must be upset. And what had happened to the other missing dragonet, Winter? The IceWing who hated her? Peril would be all right with him being dead, out of the four dragonets. But Clay wouldn’t, of course. He’d feel all responsible and protective and worried. Oh dear, was he all right? She wished she could see his face.
“One last word of warning, although I know you won’t listen to me,” Ruby said, stopping with a loud swish of her tail. “You cannot trust my mother’s creature. She’s unpredictable and knows nothing but killing. If you won’t banish her, at least don’t leave her unguarded for an instant.”
“I can trust Peril,” Clay said, and in her shadows Peril felt her entire soul turn into a fireball. “She saved my life.”
“Plus she’s in love with Clay,” Starflight added.
Peril wondered if anyone would notice if she flew over, ripped out his tongue, and vanished into the night sky forever.
“Ack!” Clay said. “Three moons, Starflight! That’s not — it’s not even — we’re — no, no, no. I trust her because there’s good in her, and we just need to give her a chance to show it to us.”
“She may have a fragment of good in her somewhere,” Ruby said doubtfully, “but she’ll never be good enough for you. And if he’s right, and if she ever thinks you don’t love her back, she will set all your friends on fire. That’s just the truth.”
“Um,” said Starflight. “For the record, I don’t like the sound of that at all.”
Peril closed her eyes. Was it true? What would happen if Clay didn’t love her? Or if he ever tried to send her away? It was a horrible, soul-crushing thought. But she wouldn’t really set his friends on fire, would she?
Not all of them anyway.
No, she told herself severely. None of them. Not even if it’s their fault he doesn’t love me. Oooorgh, but what if Tsunami convinced him to get rid of her? She might totally do something like that. Then could Peril set just the tiniest part of her on fire?
No, no, no. Because there’s always the chance he might still love me one day, but he definitely won’t if there’s any friend-burning at all.
“Let’s not talk about this,” Clay said awkwardly. “Your Majesty, I’ll meet you back here at midnight.”
“All right, well,” she said. “You’ve been warned.” She swept majestically out of the cave, her tail making quiet dramatic swishing noises against the stone floor.
“Should I be worried?” Starflight asked. “Am I going to wake up on fire one day? How worried should I be?”
“Not at all,” Clay said. “Peril is not going to set you on fire.”
“I wonder if I have any scrolls about sociopaths,” Starflight muttered.
“Stop that.” Clay stamped one of his feet. “I’m going to ask Sunny to dreamvisit Tsunami and see if she can find her.”
“Queen Ruby will never believe Peril has changed,” Starflight called after him. There was a pause as Clay’s footsteps faded away. “Not sure we will either,” he added to himself, and then Peril heard his talons scrape against the rock as he bustled off to the library.
Silence fell across the cavern.
Peril curled her claws in and took a deep breath.
“Sorry about that,” Turtle said, his voice whispering across the empty space. A few moments later, his head popped around the edge of the rocks she was hiding behind. “I’ve been doing that all my life and I’ve never heard anyone say anything about me.”
“That’s because you’re boring and forgettable,” Peril snapped.
“I know,” he said unexpectedly. “I try to be.”
“Well, I don’t have that option,” she said, spreading her smoking talons. “ROAR. This would be a really good time to have a dungeon full of enemies.”
“What?” he said. “Why?”
“Because,” she said, “when you’re mad, it’s useful to have dragons around that you can set on fire without getting in trouble.”
He rolled his eyes. “Somehow, I don’t think Clay and Starflight would be pleased if you set anyone on fire, even their enemies.”
“That makes no sense,” Peril said. “Everyone wants to see their enemies on fire. Are you telling me your mother never cheered herself up by having someone torch a bunch of bad guys in front of her?”
“Um, no,” said Turtle. “First of all, we’re SeaWings, so we don’t have fire, remember? Secondly, my mother mostly cheered herself up by writing scrolls about all her problems. And third, she used her prisoners as bargaining chips, not toys.”
“Our prisoners were definitely Scarlet’s toys,” Peril said.
“And so were you, it sounds like.”
Peril snorted a burst of flame and he jumped back. “No! I was more than that! I was like a daughter to her!”
“All right, all right,” he said. “So what are you going to do about Ruby and Clay and all of that?”
“What can I do?” she said. “You heard Starflight. They’ll never trust me with Clay. And they’re right: I’m not good enough for him. He’s good all the way through, not just in little fragments. I mean, if saving Clay’s life wasn’t enough, what else is there?”
“I can think of one thing,” he said. “I bet it would make everyone forgive you, even Ruby.”
“Well,” Peril said. “Yes. I thought of that.”
“You have to kill Queen Scarlet,” he said. “And I’m coming with you.”
The clouds swept past them like ribbons of smoke, sliced and scattered by the slash of their wings. Below them, the Claws of the Clouds Mountains lurked like the long, long spine of a giant sleeping dragon, black except where the craggy peaks were studded with light from the moons. Peril could see the silver flicker of the Winding Tail River running along the eastern edge of the mountain range. They were about to fly over the curve where it veered east and then north again.
She loved flying, and not just because she was a SkyWing and all SkyWings loved to fly. It was more than
that for her. There was nothing else in her life that she could love in such a joyful, uncomplicated way. Up in the sky she could stretch her wings as wide as she wanted; she could whip her tail and dive and soar and spin, and she didn’t have to keep all her limbs so carefully close to her, watching her perimeter every moment.
Up here, there was nothing to burn.
Everyone and everything was safe from her as long as she was in the sky. At least, that was usually the case. She didn’t normally have a SeaWing flapping around on her tail. He was doing a reasonably good job of keeping his distance, but she felt a startled jolt every time she saw him out of the corner of her eye.
Peril still wished she could have talked to Clay before she left. But she wasn’t sure she could look him in the face anymore after the conversation she’d overheard.
Not until I’m bringing him the charred bones of Queen Scarlet anyway.
“Where are we going?” Turtle called from behind her.
She twisted in midair to give him an incredulous look. “To kill Queen Scarlet,” she said. “Remember? There was a whole conversation a few hours ago. I’m pretty sure you were there, because I was like, ‘you’re not coming with me,’ and you were all, ‘how are you going to stop me?’ and I was all, ‘I can think of a pretty good way,’ and you were like, ‘by setting me on fire? That sounds like cutting off your tail to spite your wings,’ and I was like, ‘I could cut off YOUR tail,’ and you were all, ‘let’s just go before Ruby comes back —’ ”
“All right,” Turtle finally interrupted. “I know all that. I mean, where are we going to kill Queen Scarlet? How do we even start looking for her? Or my sister?”
“Oh.” Peril did a looping flip in the sky. She had searched for Scarlet for months after releasing her from Burn’s weirdling tower, with no success. What did she think would be different now?
“The mountains?” she suggested. “Maybe we could … fly around them. A lot.”
“Forgive me for mentioning this,” Turtle said, “but I’m getting the impression that you’re not much of a planner.”
“What have I ever needed to plan?” Peril demanded. “Do you know anything about my life? Here’s how it went: Wake up, eat breakfast, Queen Scarlet tells me to kill one of her prisoners, I kill that prisoner, eat dinner, go back to sleep. Pretty simple. Not a lot of big decision-making involved.”