“Uh,” she said. “I might have told her to go get help.”
“Or she might have decided I was dead and left before the same thing happened to her,” Winter said bitterly. He stood up in one quick coiling motion. “We needed her! She was going to help us find the lost city of night!”
“The what?” Peril said.
“Hey,” Moon said to Winter, trying to nudge him back down. “Maybe don’t make any sudden movements until we’re sure you’re all right. Also, I’m glad you came back, by the way.”
“I’m all right,” Winter said, stretching his wings and neck again. “It’s like it never happened.” He turned accusing eyes on Peril, who felt them like little blades of ice stabbing her own eyeballs. “Except that it did. This monster threatened you and then claimed she was here to help you.”
“I didn’t threaten anyone!” Peril protested. “Not … I mean, not really.”
“She is here to help us,” Turtle said at the same time. “At least, I think so.”
“You think so?” Peril cried, wounded.
“I mean,” he said anxiously, “I guess I wish you hadn’t burned Winter, is all … ”
“It was an accident!” Peril said. “I was trying to get away from him and we crashed —”
“It looked like a fight from what we saw,” Qibli said accusingly.
“Beware the talons of power and fire,” Moon said softly. “Maybe it is her.”
Peril looked from one face to another, her heart pounding. “What are you talking about?” she said.
“Moon had a vision — a prophecy,” Turtle said.
“About me?” That couldn’t be a good sign. If Moon saw Peril in a vision doing terrible things, then maybe Peril’s bad side really was going to win out in the end. Maybe it was inevitable. Maybe she shouldn’t even try to fight it.
But Clay said … Clay believes in me … he can’t be wrong, can he?
“Not specifically about you,” Moon said. “I couldn’t see any dragon’s faces in the vision. But there was one line at the beginning —”
“Excuse me,” Winter said. “Are we really going to tell the villain everything we know about their evil plan?”
“I don’t have an evil plan!” Peril said, starting to panic. “All my evil is spur-of-the-moment! Turtle, tell them how bad I am at planning.”
“Maybe if she knows about the prophecy, she can do something different,” Moon said. “We can change the future, you know.” She turned to Peril and said, “Listen.
Beware the darkness of dragons.
Beware the stalker of dreams.
Beware the talons of power and fire.
Beware one who is not what she seems.
Something is coming to shake the earth.
Something is coming to scorch the ground.
Jade Mountain will fall beneath thunder and ice,
unless the lost city of night can be found.”
Peril looked from her to the others. Moon’s eyes were glowing as though she was delivering a message from the stars themselves. Her voice got all low and shivery and it was decidedly creepy.
“Well?” Moon asked. “What do you think?”
“You think that first part is about me?” Peril said. Was that what Turtle thought, too? Was he just keeping an eye on her in case she started scorching the ground and knocking over mountains? “I don’t stalk anyone’s dreams. And I’m exactly what I seem like on the outside. Also, sure, I have talons of fire, but no power whatsoever. If I did have any power, my life would be pretty different from what it is now, believe me.”
“Death is a power,” Winter said. “You carry death in your talons.” He lashed his tail, shooting a hard look at Qibli and Moon. “Is this really your new ally? I leave for five days and you start working with a mass murderer?”
“You left pretty firmly,” Qibli pointed out. “You said you weren’t coming back, so why should you get a vote? Also, she just showed up with Turtle.”
“And I can just leave again, too!” Peril cried. It felt as if the thorns were still there, digging under her scales. It felt like another crocodile in the face. If what she had with Turtle was friendship, and this was what came with it, then friends were so not worth it. “I don’t need this! I don’t even want to work with any of you! I can find Scarlet on my own — that’s what I wanted to do in the first place anyway!”
She launched herself into the sky.
“Peril!” Turtle shouted. “Wait!”
That was what she’d wanted him to say, but it wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t be enough even if he could catch up to her — which he couldn’t — and even if he apologized for his awful friends and promised he didn’t think she was some predestined sinister bad guy.
Which he wouldn’t.
Maybe if he told me he’d leave them and just be friends with me …
But he wasn’t going to do that either.
She wasn’t nearly as important to him as his precious winglet.
Well, that was just fine. She’d wasted enough time on him. Now she could get on with finding Queen Scarlet, killing her, and going back to Clay.
Peril set her course for the Claws of the Clouds Mountains, soaring directly over Possibility and beating her wings to fly as fast as she could.
She did not look back to see if Turtle tried to follow her.
Well, maybe once. But he wasn’t, so it didn’t matter.
After some time, though, when Possibility was well in the distance, she became aware of the sound of wingbeats behind her. It seemed highly unlikely that any of those inferiorly winged dragonets could have caught up to her, but she swung around with her dangerous face on just in case.
“Oh!” said the SkyWing behind her, catching air below his wings to stop and hover. And then he smiled. He SMILED. That never happened, not when dragons first met her. WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?
“What do you want?” Peril demanded. She was pretty sure this was the SkyWing who had flown out of Possibility to meet her, but had run away again once he saw Winter and Foeslayer. Had he been watching for her? Waiting for her to leave them?
“Uh,” he said. “Nothing?”
Peril hovered in the air, scrutinizing him. He was big, a lot older than her, with warm orange scales and amber eyes. No scars that she could see, which was unusual for a full-grown SkyWing under Scarlet’s reign. Huge powerful wings, long horns with faint golden markings on them. He also looked wealthier than the average SkyWing; there were gold rings on three of his claws, a black necklace with gold spikes circled his throat, and an armband wove like a snake all the way up one of his front legs, with tiny rubies glittering like eyes at one end. He also had a kind of black metal sheath fitted tightly across his chest with a padlock on the outside, perhaps containing more treasure.
She was reasonably certain she’d never seen this particular SkyWing before, although it was equally possible she had and just didn’t remember him. Was he one of Queen Scarlet’s generals? Maybe he’d been away overseeing soldiers in the war. But then surely he’d have a war wound or two somewhere.
“You’re Peril,” he said. “Right?”
“You say that like there’s actually a chance I’m someone else,” Peril said.
“Well,” he said, “there’s always a chance. Isn’t there?”
That was a weird thing to say. She tilted her head at him. “I have no idea who you are.”
“My name,” he said importantly, “is Soar.”
“Oh,” Peril said. She thought for a moment. “Really? That’s … unusual.”
“Is it?” he asked, deflating.
“Well, yes,” she said. “Not very, um — aspirational, I guess.”
“But it’s a very SkyWing name, right?” he said.
“Why?” she said. “It’s not like we get more sore than other dragons. It’s probably the other way around, since we’re built for flying longer distances —”
“Wait,” he broke in. “No, no, no. Not SORE. SOAR, S-O-A-R, like flying high over th
e kingdom. Oh, good grief. Have other dragons been thinking my name is Sore all these years?”
“Probably,” Peril said.
“Why are you the first dragon to say anything?” he demanded.
Peril thought for a moment. “Because I’m not polite,” she said finally. “No one ever taught me to be. I don’t care what dragons think, because they won’t like me even if I say all the right things and bow the right way and smile until my snout hurts, so why should I bother?”
“I know what you mean,” he said. “You can do and say everything exactly the same as everyone else, but if there’s one thing different about you, that’s all they care about.”
“I assume so,” Peril said. “I’ve never actually tried acting like other dragons.”
“Well, it doesn’t work,” he said. Something was glowing in his eyes, an old, old anger. “Trust me. You still end up banished from your own home.”
Peril looked at him in surprise. “You were banished from the Sky Kingdom, too? When? By Ruby or by Scarlet? What for?”
“It’s a long story,” he said. “I’ll tell you all of it someday. But the short answer is — for being myself. Because I had no choice, back then.”
For a moment, Peril wasn’t sure whether he felt familiar because she actually knew him, or because he sounded so much like herself.
“You don’t need those other dragons,” he said. “The ones you were just with. They can’t understand you. But I can help you find what you’re looking for.”
“Oh, really?” Peril said. “Do you even know what that is?”
“I think so,” he said. He flashed around her suddenly, heading for the mountains. “Follow me!”
That wasn’t terribly convincing, but it wasn’t as though Peril had a particularly clear alternate plan anyway.
“I don’t like following anyone!” she called. With a flick of her tail, she spun herself around and caught up to fly beside him. “Hey, why haven’t I ever met you before?”
“An excellent question,” he said. “The only answer I’ve been able to come to is that Queen Scarlet prefers to keep her toys separate from each other.”
“I’m no one’s toy,” Peril hissed, curling her claws in. Why did dragons keep saying that about her and Scarlet? “Anyone who tries to play with me will find that out very fast.”
He tipped his head in a conciliatory way. “My apologies. I confess I don’t see myself that way either. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say Scarlet didn’t want her most powerful friends joining forces against her.”
Peril snorted a laugh, sending a little burst of flames into the sky. “You’re one of her most powerful friends? What can you do? Pay enemy dragons to run away?”
“Well,” he said, “I doubt Scarlet would consider this useful, but among other things, it appears that I can father dragonets with firescales.”
Peril blinked at him. He stared back at her, his amber eyes almost twinkling. He seemed to be waiting for her to collapse in a fit of joy or run around shrieking with delight or something.
“Oh, really?” Peril said. “Do you mean me? Was that your idea of a heartwarming revelation? You’re my father?”
“Yeeees,” he said carefully. “You don’t seem very excited about that.”
“Why should I believe you?” she demanded. “Where have you been my whole life? Why haven’t you ever talked to me before? What are you trying to get out of me now? What made you suddenly decide to say hello?”
“Hey, hey, calm down,” he said.
“Yeah, all right, that certainly sounded patronizing enough to make you my dad,” Peril said. “Do it again. Tell me you know what’s best for me. Say something about how I don’t really understand the world and you’re here to guide me and teach me and help me grow up, because I couldn’t possibly do that on my own.”
“Listen,” he said. “I didn’t know you were alive. I’m usually away doing … things for the queen … so I missed the entire episode where Kestrel tried to escape with you and your brother. By the time I returned, Queen Scarlet told me you were dead. She said none of Kestrel’s dragonets had survived, and that Kestrel had gone to join the Talons of Peace. Everyone was forbidden to speak of Kestrel, and I had no idea … I mean, I knew you existed, the dragonet with firescales, but I didn’t know you were my daughter until a few days ago.”
“Well,” Peril said. “I bet that came as quite a disappointment.”
“Not to me,” he said. “My daughter is powerful and amazing and terrifying. Who wouldn’t be proud of that?”
Peril sort of wished he’d left the terrifying out of that description, but still, it was a weird feeling to be featured in a sentence anywhere near the word “proud.”
“So how did you find out?” she asked.
“A, uh … a friend told me.”
“A friend?” Peril echoed. “He certainly took his time about it.”
“He didn’t know either,” Soar protested. “His name is Cirrus. He’s with the Talons of Peace. And when he told me, I had to — I mean, I immediately came looking for you. If I’d known sooner … ” He trailed off.
“You would have what?” Peril asked. “Saved me from the arena? Told me the truth about the black rocks? Stopped Queen Scarlet from using me? Stopped Ruby from banishing me? Could you actually have been useful ever in my life? I’m guessing no.”
“I could be useful now,” he said. “I can change everything for you.”
“I doubt that,” Peril said. She twisted into a spiral, arrowing for the gap between the first two mountain peaks. The wind buffeted her wings, trying to knock her off course, but she stayed straight and true through the pass, sweeping up into a mossy valley dotted here and there with doomed sheep.
As the sheep stampeded in alarm and Soar caught up to Peril, she spotted movement in a cluster of trees higher up the slope.
Her breath caught in her throat. She knew that color orange, knew it like a bloodbath of fear and awe sweeping through her.
With slow, majestic wingbeats, a glittering dragon rose out of the trees and plunged toward them.
It was Queen Scarlet.
Peril had found her — or she had found Peril — at last.
“It’s the queen,” Peril said, squaring her shoulders. “You run. I’ll stop her.” That’s what I’m here for. This is the moment when I take her down forever. I’ll finally use my fire for something that will make Pyrrhia a safer place.
“Wait,” Soar said. “Before you attack her, hear her out.”
Peril whirled around and read the betrayal in his face before her mind had even processed his words.
“You’re working with her,” she growled. “You brought me to her on purpose!”
“Well,” he said, “to be fair, that’s what she wanted, but it’s also what you wanted, isn’t it? So does that really count as a betrayal? I mean, now everyone’s happy. So … yay, me?”
Queen Scarlet arrived then with a whoosh of hot air, circling maddeningly around Peril and Soar. Peril had forgotten how bad the scar on her face was. The queen looked thin and ragged, but still alight with fury, like a cold flame that would never go out.
“Oh ho,” Scarlet called to Soar. “That’s a face I haven’t seen in a while.”
Me? Peril thought. “I’ve been looking for you,” she called back, whipping around to keep the queen in sight. “You can’t threaten my friends like that and get away with it.”
“Friends?” Queen Scarlet laughed a high, genuine laugh that bounced merrily off the mountain peaks. “Is that what you think Glory is to you, darling? I’m sure she cares about you so very much. Do you think anyone would cry if I’d dropped your decapitated head in their talons? Admit it: nobody loves you the way you are except me. That’s always been true and it always will be true.”
“No, it’s not!” Peril cried. “There are other dragons who like me!”
“But wouldn’t they all change you if they could?” Scarlet said pityingly. “They would strip away your fir
escales and squash your lovely craziness into a well-mannered box. Not me, though. I think every inch of you is just perfect.”
“As long as I do what you want,” Peril pointed out. “The minute I have a thought of my own, you hate me.”
“Oh,” Scarlet said. “That sounds new! Have you had any of these ‘thoughts of your own’ yet? All I’ve seen from you so far are those MudWing’s thoughts and decisions. If you actually do have one of your very own, I can’t wait to hear about it.”
“Can you two please stop arguing?” Peril’s father interjected. He angled down to land on a circle of giant boulders. Peril swooped after him, choosing the barest rock she could find, and Scarlet joined them a moment later.
The three SkyWings glowered at one another for a long moment. At least, Peril and Scarlet were glowering; Soar looked infuriatingly pleased with himself.
“I’m smarter than you think,” he said to Queen Scarlet. “I figured it out. You lied to me all these years, but I know the truth now.”
“How thrilling for you,” she replied with lidded eyes, hissing smoke out her nostrils.
“This is Kestrel’s daughter,” he said, his voice rising. “My daughter.” His tail flicked toward Peril’s, as though he were tempted to twine it around hers, but stopped at the last moment.
“Yes, I know,” Scarlet said. “She certainly is. But you didn’t deserve to know. You had no right to do what you did, and so I decided you’d never get to meet the monster that came of it. I’m sure every queen in Pyrrhia would agree with me.”
“Why? What did he do?” Peril asked. Her heart felt like a campfire that was about to be stomped out.
Scarlet smirked. “So you still haven’t told her. I love it. Acting all indignant and self-righteous about me lying to you! And yet here you are, lying to your own daughter right now. Tsk tsk tsk.”
“I’m not agreeing with her,” Peril said to Soar. “But I don’t like being lied to. What is she talking about?”
“Now is … is not the time,” Soar said awkwardly. “I’ll tell her everything later.”
“You don’t need to tell her,” said the queen. “I’ll just go ahead and show her.” In a lightning-fast move, she suddenly leaped from her boulder to Soar’s, flipped him onto his back, and pinned him to the boulder.
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