“I guess I’m more punctual than she is,” Snowfall blurted, “so you’ll have to be, too!”
“I will try,” Jerboa said, inclining her head again.
“Have you thought about what I asked?” The IceWing queen began pacing again. Before Jerboa could answer, she interrupted herself. “Well, I’ve changed my mind. I need something else instead.”
Jerboa arched one eyebrow. “Oh?”
“The Great Ice Cliff,” Snowfall said. “It’s completely stupid.”
“I’ve always thought so,” Jerboa agreed.
“It protects our southern border from, I don’t know, invading SandWings, if they were dumb enough to try that,” Snowfall said. “I’ve only seen its animus magic work once.”
“Shooting ice spears at any dragon who crosses the border that isn’t an IceWing,” Jerboa said. “That’s why we meet on this side of it.”
Snowfall rolled her eyes at the obviousness of this observation. “But here’s the problem. Maybe most dragons would try to attack that way, over land, and so we’d be protected. But what if Darkstalker comes back? Or another dragon like him comes along? And they try coming at us over the water instead? What if they fly around and come in our northern border? Or east?! OR WEST?!”
Jerboa sighed. “It’s too cold for anyone to do that,” she said. “The truth is, other tribes are not the slightest bit interested in stealing your kingdom.”
“Maybe not, but they might be interested in killing all of us!” Snowfall said. “I can think of a very big scary awful dragon who was pretty recently interested in that exact thing!”
It was very unfortunate that Snowfall’s reign had begun as a result of the plague Darkstalker had sent to wipe out the IceWings. He hadn’t succeeded, and he was gone now, but as a result, Snowfall had ended up as an incredibly paranoid, perpetually anxious queen. Which made her exhausting for Jerboa to deal with.
“So I want you to expand the Great Ice Cliff for me,” said the queen. She waved one talon at the kingdom behind her. “I want it to go all the way around, along the entire border of the kingdom.” She paused, then gave Jerboa a narrow, suspicious look. “Something has happened. But you can’t go tell Queen Thorn.”
“I have never spoken to Queen Thorn,” Jerboa said truthfully. That didn’t mean she never would, but Snowfall seemed satisfied enough with her answer.
“I have scouts patrolling around our borders day and night,” Snowfall said in a hushed voice. “I’ve told them to fly out into the ocean as far as they can to keep an eye on everything for me. Just in case someone DOES attack.”
“Oh?” Jerboa said again. She had discovered that this was often the only contribution she needed to make to a conversation, especially when it was with a queen.
“And guess what one of them saw?” Snowfall whispered.
Jerboa arched her brows again.
“DRAGONS!” Snowfall shouted. “Hundreds of dragons! Coming this way! Across the ocean! I don’t know from where! But they’re coming for my kingdom and I won’t let them! Build me more Ice Cliff RIGHT NOW!”
“Maybe they’re not coming for your kingdom,” Jerboa pointed out. She had a pretty good idea of what dragons those were, from what Moon and Luna had said. She hadn’t realized they were so close, though. “Maybe instead of shutting them out with magic, you should see if they’re all right. Maybe they need help.”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH!” Snowfall screamed. “No! It’s an invasion! And you have to stop it!”
“Queen Snowfall,” Jerboa said firmly, trying to cut off the tantrum before it got much worse. “Your mother and I had an agreement. She never abused my animus powers.”
“And look how she ended up!” Snowfall cried, even more frantic. “She could have won the War of SandWing Succession! She could have protected the tribe from the plague!”
“No,” Jerboa interrupted. “If she had come to me then — if I had known — we would have stopped it sooner and saved her. But she couldn’t get to me … she was too sick. That’s why she sent you.” And I rather wish she hadn’t. Queen Glacier was a reasonable dragon to deal with. Queen Snowfall, on the other talon …
“She should have told me about you sooner,” Snowfall said. “Our own animus dragon is exactly what we need.”
“I’m not your animus dragon,” Jerboa observed. “And I have bad news.” She saw the panic sparking in Snowfall’s eyes and hurried on quickly. “Animus magic isn’t working. Right now. Apparently.”
Queen Snowfall stared at her, confusion and rage and alarm battling in her expression.
“Sorry about that,” Jerboa added.
“WHAT?!” Snowfall roared.
Jerboa spread her talons. “It just isn’t. It’s not working for me or any of the other animus dragons. All previous spells are still working. But nothing new can be cast.” She shrugged, her wings rising and falling in the chilly air.
“How is that possible?” Snowfall shouted. “Why is this happening NOW, just when I found you?! I NEED THAT MAGIC!”
“Or perhaps,” Jerboa said, “this continent would be better off without animus magic for a little while.”
Snowfall jabbed one claw at her. “Prove it. Prove that it doesn’t work.”
Jerboa agreeably snapped a frozen twig up from the ground. “I hereby enchant this twig to turn anything it touches green,” she said. She held it out to Snowfall.
“Absolutely not,” Snowfall snapped.
With another shrug, Jerboa tapped herself with it — shoulders, snout, wings. Her color stayed the same. She poked a nearby rock, but it remained as gray as ever.
Snowfall grabbed the twig out of her talons and glared at it, then threw it as far as she could. Jerboa kept quiet, resisting the urge to say, See?
“If you can’t do magic,” Queen Snowfall spat, “then what good are you? You’re completely useless!”
Jerboa watched the queen spin and fly away, fury radiating off her like a cloud of ice particles.
Completely useless, Jerboa thought, allowing herself the smallest of smiles. Yes. Just like I’ve always wanted.
TUI T. SUTHERLAND is the author of the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling Wings of Fire series, the Menagerie trilogy, and the Pet Trouble series, as well as a contributing author to the bestselling Spirit Animals and Seekers series (as part of the Erin Hunter team). In 2009, she was a two-day champion on Jeopardy! She lives in Massachusetts with her wonderful husband, two awesome sons, and two very patient dogs. To learn more about Tui’s books, visit her online at tuibooks.com.
Text copyright © 2019 by Tui T. Sutherland
Map and border design © 2019 by Mike Schley
Dragon illustrations © 2019 by Joy Ang
Cover art © 2019 by Joy Ang
Cover design by Phil Falco
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
First printing, August 2019
e-ISBN 978-1-338-21453-6
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