Now she felt strong. She felt like a queen. The strange dragons all looked terrified — of her. SO BRILLIANT. Everything she’d hoped for! Between the army and the magic, she’d proven her power. They wouldn’t dare argue with her anymore.
Why didn’t Mother ever dig these out? she wondered. We could have used some impressive IceWing magic during the war. She could have hidden her army or spies or an assassin to go after Burn and Blister. The gift of stealth could have made us the most dangerous tribe in the war!
Well. It’s time for an IceWing queen who’s not afraid to use all her resources.
She lowered her voice to its coldest, iciest tone. “I said,” she hissed softly. “Get. Out.”
Hazel’s gaze flickered hesitantly from her to the army to Lynx. “Of course,” she said. “We’ll — we’ll go.” She took another step back.
There was one dragon who didn’t look terrified, Snowfall realized. The frowning LeafWing behind Hazel was bristling like an angry polar bear about to charge. Her tail lashed as she glared back at Snowfall. The sooner Snowfall got that one out of the Ice Kingdom, the better.
“What was that?” Cricket breathed, adjusting her glasses to squint up at the army. “Can all dragons here turn invisible? What else can you do? Bumblebee, did you see that?”
“Sprkltoothy,” Bumblebee murmured, burying her head in Cricket’s shoulder.
“All right, all right,” Tsunami grumbled. She spread her wings. “I might have known we’d land in the worst kingdom and the first dragon we’d see would be the queen of grumps.”
Before Snowfall could bite Tsunami’s head off, Lynx unexpectedly spoke up.
“She’s not grumpy!” Lynx said. “She’s a GREAT queen and this is the best kingdom and nobody invited you here to insult us.”
Hazel had been giving quiet orders in the background, sending dragons to gather everyone, but now she paused and touched Tsunami’s shoulder before the SeaWing could argue with Lynx. “Can you lead us somewhere else?” she asked.
“Yeah, south to the Kingdom of Sand,” Tsunami said. “We’ll find Luna and Moon there. And I’m sure Queen Thorn will know how to treat a group of harmless, tired, sad dragons who’ve lost their home.”
“She’s welcome to keep you!” Snowfall snapped, throwing her wings back. Tsunami tossed her a disgusted look and turned to help organize the dragons for departure.
South, Snowfall thought suddenly. If they follow the coast … which they probably will, so they can rest often … they might end up flying within range of the Great Ice Cliff.
Which will promptly shoot them all with ice spears, even though they’ll be flying over it from the other side.
She hesitated. That would get rid of the problem completely. Those descendants of Clearsight would be gone and she wouldn’t have to worry about any of this anymore, and her kingdom would be safe again. She would be safe again.
But sending them off to be massacred was exactly the kind of thing Darkstalker would do.
Snowfall was about to speak — she was pretty sure she was about to say something — when Lynx got there first.
“You have to be careful,” she said to Hazel. “There’s an ice cliff at our southern border that attacks dragons who fly over it if they’re not IceWings. You’ll have to circle out to sea to avoid it — pretty far out to sea, I think.”
This news made Hazel look so tired (and Cricket so fascinated) that Snowfall almost almost melted.
But she couldn’t. She had to be strong. Outside dragons were dangerous; that was all there was to it.
“We’ll fly with you,” Lynx said, with absolutely NO EFFORT TO RUN THIS PLAN BY SNOWFALL AT ALL. “We’ll take you to the southern border of the Ice Kingdom and make sure you get across safely.”
“All of you?” Hazel asked, glancing up at the army again.
“Just me and Queen Snowfall,” Lynx said.
“AHEM,” Snowfall interjected. “And ten of my personal guard.”
She wasn’t quite sure why she was agreeing to go along at all. Perhaps she just wanted to make sure they were really gone. Yes, that made sense. Best to see them well over the border and definitely out of her life forever.
Should she re-cloak her army and have them follow? Or would that be overkill … a sign of fear instead of strength? Hmmm.
She considered her options while she sat up on the cliff and watched the dragons below prepare to leave. They moved VERY SLOWLY. If it was true that they’d been fleeing some enemy, Snowfall thought it must have been a rather lethargic one, or else it could have caught them easily. An enormous sloth, perhaps. An elephant seal on land. A malevolent glacier.
Lynx was down there trying to help. Snowfall could see her moving between the dragons, bringing them bowls of melted snow to drink. She’d also asked one of the soldiers to fly to the nearest gift of subsistence and bring back a few seals to share among the dragons. Snowfall had considered ordering him not to, but she decided it would be queenlier not to get involved. And after all, the gift of subsistence was magic, producing as many seals as the dragons needed, so they couldn’t exactly run out.
Apparently the SilkWings didn’t eat meat, though, which added to Snowfall’s suspicions, because wasn’t that true of RainWings as well? Was anyone sure that these weird dragons weren’t working for Queen Glory?
Anyway, there was nothing growing in the pine grove that they could eat. See, the Ice Kingdom would be all wrong for them, Snowfall told herself, freezing over any twinges of guilt inside her. Too cold, no plants, dragons who want them gone. They should move right along and become some other queen’s problem.
The strange dragons had some kind of large makeshift thing that floated on the ocean, made of palm trees lashed together with vines, as far as Snowfall could tell. Tsunami had left it out at sea when she came crashing in, but she swam back out to get it and a few of the healthier dragons, plus Lynx, helped her drag it onto the shore. Snowfall watched them narrowly as they guided some of the oldest, weakest, and smallest dragons to climb on top of it. Evidently the idea was to haul them over the top of the ocean, because they were incapable of flying that distance on their own.
Then they shouldn’t have left their own stupid continent, she thought. What did she call it? Pintala? They should have stayed there and dealt with their own problems, instead of bringing them to me.
She flicked her tail to summon her favorite general. Ivory came over immediately, bowing with exactly the amount of respect Snowfall was looking for.
Ivory had been in that battle with the NightWings. But she hadn’t thought, Queen Snowfall, ugh, what a terrible choice, like so many of the dragons in her army. Her thoughts had been more like: I hope she can do this. If we survive this, I’m going to help our new queen however I can.
It wasn’t exactly “Hooray, Snowfall, she’s the best!” but it was one of the only supportive things Snowfall had heard in the chaos. That’s why she was Snowfall’s favorite, and would stay in the First Circle forever, as far as Snowfall was concerned.
“I’m putting you in charge while I’m away from the kingdom,” Snowfall said.
“Me?” General Ivory looked surprised for a moment. “Yes, Your Majesty. May I ask — what if Tundra objects?”
“Then she can eat her own tail,” Snowfall snapped. “Tell her if she complains I’ll be happy to move her down to a different circle.” Oh, she thought with a sudden surge of something almost like joy. If I escort the invaders out of here, I definitely won’t make it back to the palace by nightfall tonight. I’ll have to camp overnight somewhere. Which means I won’t have to do the wall!
Perhaps it was a bad sign that this moment was literally the happiest she’d felt since becoming queen.
Lynx waved up to her, and the dragons below rose from the beach in a whirlwind of wingbeats. Snowfall summoned the ten guards she’d chosen and leaped into the sky to join them. Not with them, obviously; more like off to the side, where she could see them but not get bumped by any of them.
Her plan to stay apart was thwarted, though, when Queen Hazel soared over to fly next to her.
“What are you doing?” Snowfall asked, banking away slightly.
“We’ll be out of your kingdom soon,” Hazel said. “I was just hoping … you’re the only queen I’ve ever met, besides my great-grandmother. And you’re not at all ancient. I mean, you seem about my age, and I just … I’d love to know how you do everything, because it’s really new for me and it’s a lot … a lot harder than I thought it would be. You know? My great-grandmother has been queen for the longest ever time, and I thought I’d have so much longer before I’d have to do this.”
Snowfall was certainly not going to feel sympathy for a weird invasive dragon from across the sea. They were NOT the same at all.
“How long have you been queen?” Hazel asked.
Less than half a year, but if she told Hazel that, the invading dragons wouldn’t take her seriously. She needed them to stay afraid of her.
“A long time,” she answered. It actually felt very true as she said it. Maybe when you barely slept, all the days and nights seemed a thousand times longer.
“Oh,” Hazel said. “So you must find it really easy by now.”
Snowfall hoped her face didn’t give her away. “There are … challenges, of course,” she said. “But the IceWings have a lot of traditions in place that I’m responsible for upholding. They help keep the kingdom safe and orderly, so as long as I follow them, everything stays in its place and everyone will be safe.”
“Safe would be so great,” Hazel said sadly. “We lost our home and our trees before I even hatched. If we had traditions like that once, they’re gone now.” She paused for a moment, gazing off west as if the horizon was lined with the ghosts of everything her tribe had lost. After a few heartbeats, she asked, “How did your last queen die?”
“Evil magic plague,” Snowfall said. “Yours?”
Hazel hesitated. “Well … I don’t think she’s dead. But I don’t know for sure. We were fighting this enemy who can take over dragon minds and control them, and it got control of Queen Sequoia. So it might have killed her, I guess, but I think it would keep her alive, to use her against us.” She sighed, and then noticed the way Snowfall was staring at her. “What?”
“An enemy who can take over dragon minds?” Snowfall asked. “Was his name Darkstalker?”
“N-no,” Hazel said cautiously. “That is, we always thought it was Queen Wasp, but it turns out maybe it’s a plant?”
Snowfall narrowed her eyes. “A plant.”
“A very evil plant,” Hazel added.
What was more likely — an evil plant, or that Darkstalker’s terrible NightWing powers somehow reached across the ocean to ensnare a mythical continent full of Clearsight’s descendants?
Snowfall pondered this for a moment. Nothing really seemed beyond Darkstalker’s magic or malevolence, in her opinion.
Or maybe it was some other magic, malevolent NightWing. There could definitely be others.
“So if she is still alive, are you going back to save her?” Snowfall asked.
“Definitely. Yes. If I can figure out how,” Hazel said. “How to stop the mind control, I mean.”
“But then wouldn’t you have to give your throne back to her?”
“I’d do that in a heartbeat!” Hazel said fervently.
Would I? Snowfall thought. In exchange for my mother back?
Yes … but they still weren’t the same. Hazel, for instance, probably didn’t have a nefarious missing sister lurking around.
“Is there anyone else who wants to be queen?” Snowfall asked. “I mean, someone who might take the throne from you?”
Hazel cast a glance over her shoulder, and Snowfall followed her gaze to the LeafWing who’d been frowning at her before. She was flying close to her green friend, almost close enough to twine their tails together, and it looked like they were arguing.
“No,” Hazel said. “I mean, there are dragons who would probably be better queens than me. But they don’t want it.”
“Ha! They say they don’t want it,” Snowfall burst out. “You want some advice on being a queen? Watch your back. Don’t trust anyone. Someone is always plotting to take your throne, or murder your subjects, or steal your territory!”
Hazel blinked, shading her eyes from the bright reflection off the snowy cliffs to their left. “Always?” she said faintly. “Even here in the Distant Kingdoms?”
Snowfall snorted. “Especially here. And especially the NightWing tribe — watch out for any dragons with black and silver scales. They can read your mind and see the future and they want to wipe out all the other tribes so they can be the only ones left.”
“That sounds like Clearsight,” Hazel said thoughtfully. “I mean, not the mind reading. I’ve never heard that she could do that — can dragons here really do that? But she could see the future … and her descendants nearly wiped out my tribe.”
“See?” Snowfall batted a seagull away from her with her tail. “NightWings. Evil. Untrustworthy. And yes, totally mind readers.”
“She doesn’t sound evil in her book, though,” Hazel offered. “I read it a few times on the journey and she sounds much kinder than, say, Queen Wasp. I don’t think she would have wiped out a tribe or hurt anyone if she could help it.”
Snowfall rolled her eyes. This green dragon wasn’t going to rule much longer if she kept trying to see the best in dragons like Clearsight.
“I’d better go check on the raft,” Hazel said, squinting down at the dragons towing their contraption through the waves. “I hope we can talk more later!” She whisked away, leaving Snowfall to her unending circle of anxious thoughts.
It was a much longer flight than Snowfall had anticipated, partly because the strange dragons had to stop to rest, like, ALL the TIME, and partly because they had to detour so far out over the ocean to stay out of range of the Ice Cliff, and partly because the raft was unwieldy and awkward and the dragons towing it kept switching places and once a surprise wave flipped the whole thing over and everyone had a massive panic attack and dove into the water to rescue the floundering swimmers, even though Tsunami and Turtle were right there and everything was totally fine and all the overreacting was completely unnecessary.
But by late afternoon, they finally reached the far side of the tundra that was the disputed territory between the Ice Kingdom and the Kingdom of Sand. (Territory that was DEFINITELY Snowfall’s! As far as Snowfall was concerned, the land belonged to the Ice Kingdom, and Queen Thorn could stick a cactus up her nose if she thought she had any right to it!)
The pebbly beaches gave way slowly to a coastline of yellow-white sand, and the temperature grew warmer and warmer as they flew. Just as the sun brushed the western edge of the orange-flooded sky, Tsunami came flying out of the water, waved at Hazel, and pointed to something down below.
A hut with a palm-frond roof, tucked into a small cove where the water was calm and clear. And standing outside the hut, on the sand: four dragons, gazing up at the sky.
Snowfall narrowed her eyes, wishing again that the stupid gift of vision ring actually worked. IceWing eyesight was sharper than that of most other tribes, but she couldn’t see their faces clearly from this distance, like she wanted to.
She could see, though, that one of the dragons down there was pale green with bits of blue and gold and white, and that it had four wings, like some of the strange dragons from across the sea — the SilkWings, Hazel had called them.
Also, it was standing next to what was CLEARLY a NightWing. A NightWing! With one of the weird rainbow dragons! They WERE working together! Snowfall was right all along!
She felt a shiver of fear run along her scales and tried to tamp it down. There were ten well-armed IceWing soldiers with her. She had the gift of stealth and the gift of strength. That NightWing was the one who should be scared.
The other two were SandWings, boring, nothing to … wait.
Snowfall swooped low
er and let out a hiss.
One of the SandWings was Jerboa.
Jerboa, HER animus dragon! Her animus who was supposed to live in a hut all alone and never talk to anyone but the IceWing queen! (Maybe that wasn’t exactly what Queen Glacier had said, but something like that!) She wasn’t supposed to help other SandWings and weird dragons from across the sea and she DEFINITELY SHOULDN’T BE HANGING OUT WITH A NIGHTWING.
NightWings had their own animus dragons! They didn’t need Jerboa, too! Why was she helping one of them? Or ALL OF THEM MAYBE ACTUALLY?
So maybe Jerboa WAS lying about animus magic being broken, because she didn’t want to help IceWings anymore, because now she was working with Snowfall’s enemies!
Snowfall’s wings were vibrating with stress and anger and nerves as she crashed onto the beach ahead of the other dragons.
The SilkWing bounded toward her with her whole face alight. “Is Blue with you? And Swordtail? Wait, you’re not a SilkWing, sorry — but — oh! Sundew!” She hurried past Snowfall and threw her wings around the frowny LeafWing, who, it turned out, had other expressions besides menacing, such as startled.
“Sundew!” the SilkWing cried again, letting her go. “I can’t believe you all made it here! Where’s Swordtail? And Blue?”
Sundew’s pleased look fell away and she dug grooves in the sand with her claws. “They’re not here, Luna. I’m so sorry.”
Luna pressed her talons to her face, but before she could burst into tears, Sundew’s companion jumped in.
“They’re still alive, as far as we know,” she said. “But Queen Wasp has them. It’s a long story.”
“We’re going to get them back,” Sundew said fiercely. “I promise you that. Even that slugs-for-brains Swordtail. We’ll figure out how to save them.”
“Yes!” Luna said. “I’m so ready! If you know how to cross the ocean, I’ll do it right now!”
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