The queen’s prisoners were kept in the sky.

For the whole first day, Clay kept his eyes shut. His talons gripped the rock below him so tightly he started to lose feeling in his legs. One glance over the edge — one glimpse of the dizzying drop below him — and he feared he would lose consciousness and fall.

With his wings folded over and clamped in SkyWing metal clips, falling meant death. Horrible, painful, bone-shattering death.

But then, he wasn’t entirely sure if that would be worse than Queen Scarlet’s plans for them, whatever they were.

His prison cell was at the top of a towering spire of rock. A narrow stone platform gave him just enough room to walk in a circle and lie down. There were no walls. There was no roof. There was only open blue sky and the fierce wind whistling around his ears day and night.

On the second day, a hunk of meat hit him in the face.

Hunger forced his eyes open. An unusual SkyWing dragon was flying in loops around his perch. He guessed she was only a year or two older than him; her horns were full size, but her teeth were still sharp and white, not yet blunted or stained. Veins of gold ran through her glimmering copper wings, and smoke seemed to be coming from her scales as well as her mouth. She stopped and hovered in front of him.

Her eyes were startling, like two small blue flames blazing through the smoke. Clay was pretty sure SkyWings normally had orange or yellow eyes. He wondered if there was something wrong with this one, like Sunny.

Something dead and bloody and charred lay on the stone in front of him. Clay took one look at the blood, remembered the shape of Dune’s broken neck, and threw up over the side of the platform.

To his surprise, the other dragon started laughing. “Oh, gross,” she said. “Too bad the barracks aren’t down there. The guards seriously deserve that.”

Unwillingly Clay looked over the edge.

His rock-tower prison was one of about a hundred spires, spread out in a huge circle. Nearly every one had a dragon trapped at the top, like him. Like him, they each had thin metal clamps on the outer edge of their wings. In the center of the circle was a bowl of rock, like an empty lake, with sand at the bottom and sheer walls. Above the walls were rows of benches, balconies, and caves for spectators to look down into the arena.

At the bottom of his tower, there was only bare rock. But from up here he could see the heart of the SkyWing kingdom stretched across the mountaintop. Queen Scarlet’s vast palace was carved into the gray-and-black rocks of the peak. Half of it was inside tunnels and caves while the other half was open to the sky and bristling with defenses. Fire-colored dragons crawled across the mountain face, digging and blasting out new palace extensions until they were covered in stone dust and dirt and looked no brighter than MudWings.

The war had slashed this kingdom with sharp talons. Clay spotted collapsed towers, scorch marks along several walls, and a ravine half full of dragon bones. Even as he watched, he saw two SkyWings carry in the corpse of a crimson dragon and dump it in the ravine. They set fire to the body and hovered for a moment over the smoke, their wings brushing against each other. Then they wheeled and flew away, leaving the body to blaze down into ashes and singed bones.

Far off to the east, Clay could see the blue, glittering line of the sea.

He also noticed the thin wires that twisted around his legs and neck. He’d been too terrified and confused to pay attention to what the SkyWings did with him when they first arrived.

The wires stretched from him out to the necks and legs of other prisoners, who all had them as well. One went to his left, to one leg of a moon-silver IceWing on the next column, who was asleep with her tail over her nose. One wire was attached to the dragon on his right, a fuming SandWing whose pacing made the wire shake. The last three wires snaked out across the circle. He couldn’t tell where those wires went; they disappeared into a tangled web above the bowl, connecting all the trapped dragons.

So even if Queen Scarlet’s captives could fly away, they’d have to all lift off at once … and then all one hundred prisoners would be stuck with each other. They wouldn’t get very far that way. He wondered what would happen if one dragon fell off his spire. Would the wires drag down all the others as well?

“Aren’t you going to eat?” asked the SkyWing who was flapping around him.

“I’m not hungry,” Clay said, tucking his head under his wing. He could hear her wingbeats as she circled him a few more times.

“Is it the wrong thing?” she asked. “I don’t know what MudWings eat. We’ve never had one before. You know, because we’re on the same side in the war. So that would be rude. Taking them prisoner, I mean. But you’re in the Talons of Peace, so the MudWings won’t care what we do to you. Come on, you have to eat something.”

“Why?” Clay asked, keeping his head buried.

“Because I don’t want you to die before I kill you,” she said, her tone so matter-of-fact that it took Clay a few moments to register what she’d said. He poked out his snout and stared at her.

“I’ve never fought a MudWing,” she said, deftly avoiding the wires as she looped around him again. “Since we’re allies and all. So I’m really curious. I bet it’s totally different from fighting SeaWings and IceWings. But Her Majesty will make you fight some of the regular prisoners first, and if you die, then I don’t get to fight you.”

“And that would be sad,” Clay said.

“Right. Not blazing at all. The most blazing will be fighting the NightWing, though. Nobody’s ever seen anything like that. What if he can read my mind and knows what I’m going to do before I do it?” She tilted her wings and swooped underneath Clay. “At least he’s eating. Hey, I wonder if she’ll make you fight each other. But then I’d only get to fight one of you. Do you think you could beat a NightWing? Probably not, huh?”

“Starflight?” Clay said. “Is he all right? Where is he?” He stood up and peered out at the circle of prisoners. It wasn’t so bad as long as he didn’t look down.

He could see several blue and green dragons who must be SeaWings, but none of the ones close enough to identify were Tsunami. Most of the trapped dragons were SeaWings, IceWings, or SandWings — they must be prisoners of war. A few were red or orange SkyWings. He guessed those were subjects who had somehow displeased the queen.

Only one prisoner was midnight black, and he was nearly on the opposite side of the circle from Clay. So far away. Clay couldn’t see his face, but he could tell that Starflight was sitting still, in his helpful “terrified stalagmite” pose, his head drooping.

If only he could read minds! Clay wished desperately that he could get a message across the arena. Although he didn’t know what he would say … maybe just that he was sorry for all the times he’d teased Starflight or hidden his favorite scroll or whined about studying.

“See him?” asked the SkyWing. “He doesn’t talk much.”

Clay snorted. “Ask him to teach you something — like how the dragons took Pyrrhia from the scavengers during the Scorching. Then you won’t be able to shut him up.”

“I’ll do that,” she said, apparently missing that Clay was joking. He squinted at her. The light up here was too bright, and it was even brighter when it reflected off her smoking copper-colored scales.

“Who are you?” he asked. “Are you a guard?”

“Ick, no. I’m Peril,” she said proudly. “The Queen’s Champion. What’s your name?”

“Clay,” he said. “What did you mean about fighting me? Why do we have to fight?”

“Wow,” she said. “Are you serious? Have you been living under a rock or something?”

“Pretty much,” Clay said with a grimace.

“Really?” She tilted her head curiously and thought for a moment. “All right. That’s the queen’s arena down there.” She flicked her long pointed tail at the bowl below them. “There’s a battle almost every day for Her Majesty’s amusement. If you win enough battles, you go free.”

“How many is that?” Clay asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Nobody’s ever done it. Her Majesty always sends me in after any dragon has a few wins, and I always kill them.” She shifted her wings in a shrug. “I’m really dangerous.”

And possibly crazy, Clay thought. How many lives has she taken? Does she keep count? Does she care?

“What are you looking for?” Peril asked. Clay had been scanning the prisoners around the circle since spotting Starflight, but he couldn’t see any tiny gold dragons or unusual colors. Where were Sunny and Glory?

“The other dragons who were brought in with me . . .” he said. “Do you know where they are?”

“The SeaWing is over there,” Peril said, spiraling up above him and pointing to a deep blue dragon halfway between him and Starflight. Clay immediately recognized Tsunami’s angry tail lashing.

“Boring,” Peril added. “I’ve fought plenty of SeaWings. Easy, once you know their tricks.”

I bet Tsunami has some tricks you’ve never seen before, Clay thought. “What about the RainWing?”

She tilted her head at him. “There’s a RainWing here?”

“You can’t fight her,” he said quickly. “They have no defenses — it wouldn’t be fair.”

“I do whatever Her Majesty tells me to,” said Peril. “But I haven’t seen a RainWing. They didn’t bring her to the arena.”

“There’s a SandWing, too,” Clay said desperately. “She’s really small and golden, and kind of odd-looking —”

“Haven’t seen any dragons like that,” Peril said. “But I’ll keep an eye out, if you want.” She did a slow backward somersault in the air and tipped her wings at him. “I’d better go warm up. Cheer for me!” Peril dove toward the arena.

He watched her glowing copper shape spiral down onto the sand below. A few other dragons were in the arena, sweeping or checking the walls or guarding the seats. Clay noticed that they all hurried to move away from Peril. Wherever she went, dragons fled, as if she had an invisible cloud of poison around her. None of them would even look at her.

Peril didn’t seem to care. She strode around the arena as if she knew everyone would clear out of her way. Her head kept turning toward the largest rock balcony, which jutted out of a cave overlooking the arena. Finally she flicked her tail and vanished into a dark opening in the side of the arena wall.

Clay crouched to peer over the edge. He hung on tightly with his talons and fought back the dizzying nausea caused by the view. The smell of the dead rabbit wasn’t helping. He wondered if he could hit one of the SkyWing soldiers if he threw the carcass from up here. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten — was it before Morrowseer appeared under the mountain? Wasn’t that a lifetime ago? — but his normally huge appetite seemed to have deserted him.

As he watched, dragons started filing into the seats below. Nearly all of them were SkyWings, but he spotted the pale yellow and white of SandWings here and there as well. There were even one or two MudWings. His heart jumped. His own kind! Did they know he was up here? Would they demand his release if they found out, even though he was supposedly in the Talons of Peace?

So MudWings and SkyWings were allies on one side of the war. Clay had never been able to remember that before, but he was pretty sure he would now. If only Starflight had thought of chaining me to a tower above gladiator fights. I might have been an excellent history student then.

He didn’t know how long it took for the stands to fill, but the sun was blazing directly overhead when two of the guards let out a trumpeting roar. All the other dragons snapped to attention. Across the stadium, heads bent, wings tipped, talons were crossed, and silence fell as everyone waited.

Queen Scarlet stepped out onto the large balcony and spread her wings, catching the sunlight in the reflection of her orange scales. The fire-breathing hiss of all the gathered dragons greeted her. Clay knew this sound only as a warning that Kestrel was about to spout flames at him. It took him a moment to realize that the SkyWing dragons were hissing with respect.

He squinted at the dragons around the queen. Several large SkyWing guards took up positions along the balcony, and two of them moved to roll something forward into the sunlight. It looked like a tree with no leaves, a sinuous curving shape with four branches, carved from a single spear of pale gray marble. Looped over the branches, with her tail wound around the trunk, was a dragon the color of deep red rose petals. But as the sunlight hit her, new colors exploded through her scales — constellations of gold sparks, galaxies of swirling violet, shifting pale blue nebulas.

Clay inhaled sharply, and at the same moment he heard gasps and murmurs flutter through the crowd below.

It was Glory, and she was even more dazzling in the sunshine than he’d expected.

A delicate silver chain leashed her to the tree sculpture. It looked flimsy and easy to break, but Glory didn’t seem interested in escaping. She stretched her long neck up toward the sun, ignoring the audience, and then coiled herself over the branches again and closed her eyes.

The guards positioned Glory’s tree in one corner of the balcony, and the queen stepped forward.

“Well?” she said in a sly, smiling voice that carried across the arena and up to the prisoners. “What do you think of my new art?”

Art! Clay thought furiously. As if Glory’s nothing more than a tapestry to hang on the wall, not a dragon with feelings and ideas and a destiny and friends who care about her.

But why wasn’t Glory fighting it?

And where was Sunny?

Dragons in the lower seats began to applaud, and soon the whole stadium thundered with the beating of wings and talons. Queen Scarlet settled herself on a large flat boulder, looking pleased, and flicked her tail for silence.

“Bring in the combatants,” she called.

Peril swept in from the tunnel, waving to the crowd. Clay noticed that the applause was muted, as if most of the dragons weren’t really sure they wanted to cheer for her.

Meanwhile three of the SkyWing guards flew up to the prisoner on Clay’s right. One of them seized the SandWing’s venomous tail and held it out of the way. The SandWing fought, howling angry curses, as the other two unclipped his wires and hooked them to a ring in the center of the ledge.

Clay thought for a moment that the prisoner was going to hurl himself off the edge, despite the bands that were still on his wings. But the guards gripped him tightly and swooped him down to the sands below. They dropped him in a heap in the middle of the arena.

Peril turned to look at him, her eyes glinting.

Clay realized with a sickening lurch in his stomach that he was about to watch a dragon die.

Clay didn’t want to watch. But he knew that if he might have to fight Peril one day, he should study her technique. He glanced up at the distant figures of Tsunami and Starflight. It looked like they were watching intently, too, along with most of the prisoners above the arena.

One of the SkyWing guards stood in the center of the arena and clapped his wings thunderously until the audience was quiet. He bowed to the queen and announced, “After four wins, Horizon the SandWing — formerly, and unwisely, a soldier in Blaze’s army — has been challenged to a match with the Queen’s Champion, Peril. Claws up, fire ready! Fight!”

He sprang out of the arena, leaving Peril and the SandWing facing each other. Horizon shrank back against the far wall, hissing.

Peril stalked slowly toward him, tilting her copper wings to reflect the sunlight. Her long tail snaked across the sand. It still looked like smoke was rising from her scales.

Horizon crouched, then suddenly leaped over Peril’s head and fled to the other side of the arena. He didn’t try to claw her or strike her on the way past; he didn’t even lash out with his poisonous tail. He just ran away.

Why is he so afraid of her? Clay wondered uneasily.

Peril turned in an unhurried way and smiled at Horizon. His black eyes darted left and right, searching for an escape. Suddenly he made a dash for the tunnel.

All at once Peril was in his way, lashing her claws across his chest. It didn’t look like more than a scratch from what Clay could see, but Horizon screamed in agony and fell back, scrabbling across the sand.

Peril followed, slashing another scratch along his side. Horizon screamed again. His banded wings flapped desperately, as if he were still trying to fly. Calmly, almost gently, Peril reached out and touched one of his wings, pinning it to his body.

Horizon’s screams intensified into one long ear-shattering wail.

Clay couldn’t understand it. She was only touching him — nothing more.

Then Peril let go, and as she stepped back, Clay saw the scorched talon print she left behind on Horizon’s scales. It looked as if she had branded him, burning his skin without ever breathing fire. Clay squinted and realized there was smoke rising from Horizon’s scratches. Did Peril have fire in her claws? How was that possible?

He looked across at Starflight’s slumped form, wishing that the NightWing was close enough to explain everything to him.

Suddenly Horizon attacked. He flung himself at Peril, slashing at her eyes and jabbing his tail at her heart.

Peril whirled, avoiding his claws, and knocked him to the sand. His barbed tail bounced off her scales with a spark like miniature lightning, and then burst into flames. Fire engulfed the poisoned tip, and Horizon howled in pain. Clay had never seen anything like it. He’d never heard of dragons setting other dragons on fire just by touching them.

Horizon beat his tail against the sand, trying to put the fire out, as Peril feinted around him. She darted in to give him another scratch, but before she could dart away again, Horizon turned and grabbed her forearms in his talons. He threw his wings around her and buried his face in her shoulder with a high-pitched keening sound.

Peril froze. Smoke billowed off the two dragons and black marks crawled along Horizon’s wings until they started disintegrating into ash. He crumpled slowly to the ground, and Peril crouched with him, holding him up with her wings.

A violent shudder went through the SandWing’s whole body. He let go of Peril and flopped slowly onto his side on the sand. Disfiguring burns had melted his facial features, and his wings were charred into black strands between large holes. His talons had scorch marks in the center of their palms.

Clay had a sudden, quick flash of memory. Kestrel had the same scorch marks on her talons. Had she fought with Peril, back when Kestrel lived in the SkyWing kingdom? How had she survived?

Peril stood up, looking down at the dead SandWing. A disappointed murmur was starting to spread around the stadium. Her copper wings wavered, and she turned to glance up at Queen Scarlet.

The queen sighed and stood up. “Well, that was boring,” she said. She raised her voice to address all the prisoners. “I hope some of you up there are braver than this pathetic creature.”

Clay had never felt less brave. Peril was clearly a whole new category of monster. If Horizon couldn’t beat her, perhaps forcing a quick death — even a horrible one — was still a better choice than being killed slowly for the queen’s entertainment.

“Don’t worry,” the queen said to the crowd, shaking out her wings. “We have a special treat tomorrow. Something we’ve never seen before! Hopefully this time someone will at least try to amuse me, unlike some dragons.” Queen Scarlet gave Horizon’s body a stern glare, turning her frown on Peril as well. Peril bowed her head and stared at the sand.

“Dismissed,” said the queen with a wave of one talon. She turned and swept away. Clay leaned out as far as he dared, watching Glory sleep while the soldiers rolled her back into the tunnels.

Maybe she was drugged. Maybe the queen had threatened her somehow. Maybe she was sick, or there was something else terribly wrong.

He didn’t know who to worry about more — Glory, Sunny who was still missing, or Starflight, who might be thrown into battle tomorrow. Was that what the queen meant by “something we’ve never seen before”?

Starflight was good at maps and dates and facts and tests, but his claw-to-claw combat skills were tragic.

Clay wasn’t at all sure that Starflight could survive the arena.

As the sun began to sink below the mountains, Clay dozed off, still worrying about his friends.

He woke up to the smell of burnt prey and the growling of his stomach. Two of the moons were high overhead, while the third was a dim ivory blur glowing behind a distant peak. His eyes were finally starting to adjust to the bigness of everything. This view was just about the opposite of what he’d grown up with under the mountain.

Clay twisted his head toward the smell of prey behind him and nearly toppled off the ledge in surprise.

Peril was perched on the far side of his stone platform with her tail tucked around her legs and her wings folded in, as if she were trying to make herself as small as possible. Even so, there was only about the length of a dragon tail between them, and Clay could clearly feel the burning heat coming off her scales. It wasn’t a warm, basking heat like Sunny and Dune had. It felt like standing too close to an erupting volcano.

“Oh, good, finally,” she said. She nodded at a lump of meat on the rock between them. “I brought you something different. Well, I made the guard let me bring it. I hope you don’t mind that it’s a little crispy.” She spread her front talons in an oddly hopeless gesture.

Clay peered at the prey, which smelled like smoky duck. He wanted it, but he was afraid of getting any closer to Peril. What if she burned him, even by accident?

“I’ll be careful,” she said, guessing his thoughts. “I’ll stay really still, I promise.” She glanced around at the slumbering prisoners. “I just thought it might be less obvious if I sat here instead of flying around you.”

She didn’t sound like a monster. Clay couldn’t put this quiet dragon together with the brutal killer he’d seen earlier that day.

He scraped the duck toward him, then devoured it in two bites. It tasted like ash and crunched strangely between his teeth.

“Oh dear,” Peril said. “That was fast. Do you want another one?”

“I’m all right,” Clay said.

She scraped one claw across the rocks. “Do you want me to go away?”

“No,” he said, and she looked up, surprised. “Stay and talk to me,” he offered.

“Aren’t you afraid of me? Now that you’ve seen what I can do?”

“Of course I am,” he said honestly. “But you’re still better company than the pigeons. All they want to talk about is nest design and who to poop on.”

Peril barked a laugh. She seemed much more subdued than she had been when they first met. He studied her face in the moonlight. “Are — are you all right?” he asked.

Peril blinked several times fast. Instead of answering, she said, “That was weird today, wasn’t it?”

“What was weird?”

“The SandWing — Horizon — the way he just gave up.” She opened and closed her wings, and Clay flinched. “Why would he do that?” Peril went on. “It’s poor form. I guess I should have pushed him away to make him keep fighting. Her Majesty was pretty angry.”

“At you?” Clay said. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

Peril blinked again. “Really?” she said. “It doesn’t?” She shook her head. “No, the queen is right. It’s my responsibility to make the fight exciting if the other dragon won’t do it.”

“Why do you do what she says?” Clay asked. “Do you — like fighting?” What he really wanted to ask was “Do you like killing?” but he was afraid of what the answer might be. Would he like killing, if he’d been given the chance to do it over and over again with no consequences? Was that the kind of dragon he was supposed to be? Would he like it if he had to do it tomorrow, in the arena?

“Of course,” Peril said. “I’m good at fighting — and not much else. And she’s my queen. I’m her champion.”

“Why you?” Clay asked, risking getting closer to his real question: What’s wrong with you?

“No one else wants me,” Peril said matter-of-factly. “No one can even touch me. You saw that. I was born with too much fire. Usually when dragons like me hatch, the SkyWings drop them off the highest mountain peak. That’s what my mother was going to do, but Queen Scarlet saved me and killed her to punish her.” Her eyes went cold at the words my mother.

“Wow,” Clay said faintly.

“Yeah,” said Peril. “If you want to know everything, I burned up my twin in our egg. I sucked all the fire out of him and scorched him to a crisp.” She shrugged, but there was a wobbliness to her voice.

“I attacked the other eggs in my nest when I hatched,” Clay said. It felt really strange to say out loud. “At least, that’s what the big dragons told me. They said I tried to kill my nestmates. I don’t remember it.”

Peril tilted her head. “So maybe we were both born to kill other dragons,” she said. Clay wished she didn’t sound so happy about it. Maybe she’s right. Maybe she’s the monster I could be, if I let myself.

“I don’t really want to do that,” he admitted. “I like fighting, but the only thing I’ve ever killed is prey.”

“Her Majesty said I might as well follow my true nature,” Peril said. “That’s how she raised me — letting me be myself, giving me dragons to kill. Maybe you’d feel better if you could be who you really are.”

“I hope that’s not who I am,” Clay said. In the moonlight, Peril’s expression changed, and he realized he’d hurt her feelings. “Not — not that —” he stammered. Nice work, Clay. How are you going to finish that sentence? “Not that there’s anything wrong with being a killer”? Or maybe, “But it seems to be going great for you”? “I mean — maybe I was born that way, but does that mean I’m like that forever? I guess I hope I have a choice, is all. I want to be who I want to be, not who I have to be. Right? Do you ever — I mean, wouldn’t you want to be different, if you could be anyone?”

“No,” Peril said, clawing at the rock under her talons. “I’ve accepted myself, and I like myself this way. You should do the same thing.” Something clattered far below them, and Peril jumped. “I’d better go,” she said.

“Wait,” Clay said. “Please. Who’s supposed to fight tomorrow? Can you talk to the queen? Tell her not to send in the NightWing. He’s not ready for the arena.”

“Are you serious?” Peril said. “She’d be furious. She’s so excited to see him fight.”

“Tell her I volunteer instead,” Clay blurted. “Tell her I’m ready, and I promise I’ll make it exciting.”

Peril was already shaking her head. “I can’t. I’m forbidden to talk to you. She was really mad when she found out I visited you before. I guess you’re not like the other prisoners.”

Clay paused, thinking. That was strange. Why did Queen Scarlet care if Peril talked to him? “But you came to see me anyway?”

She shuffled her talons and looked a little embarrassed. “Yeah, I don’t know why. I mean, it didn’t seem fair. I like talking to you. Her Majesty never has time to talk to me, and my only other friend is old and tells the same stories over and over again. You’re blazing.”

So she doesn’t obey every order Queen Scarlet gives her. Good to know.

He realized she was looking at him hopefully. “Uh,” he said. “You’re … blazing, too?”

Peril grinned, sharp white teeth flashing in the moonlight. “That’s what Her Majesty says. She likes me the way I am and nobody else ever has. Until you.”

Yikes, Clay thought. He wasn’t sure he did like her the way she was. Or that he wanted to be best friends with a dragon who was planning to kill him eventually.

But there was something not entirely awful about Peril — an awkwardness and sadness that he kind of understood. And maybe there was a chance he could talk her out of the whole killing plan. Maybe that was why Queen Scarlet didn’t want her talking to him.

In the meanwhile, though, he had to focus on saving Starflight.

“Listen,” he said, “could you talk to her about Starflight anyway? What if you acted like you came up with it yourself? A MudWing is still something new, right? So send me in first and save him for later. Besides, if he dies in his first fight, that would be a waste, wouldn’t it?” He swallowed the lump that rose in his throat at the idea of Starflight dying.

“You think he would?” Peril said, gazing out at the circle of prisoners. Even with the bright light of the moons, it was hard to see the dark lump of dragon on Starflight’s pedestal. “Can’t he use his powers? Reading minds and all that?”

Poor Starflight. Clay wondered if a normal NightWing, raised around other NightWings, would already have his powers by now.

He didn’t want Peril and Queen Scarlet to know that Starflight was powerless, but he didn’t want them to risk Starflight’s life because they thought he could do something special.

“They’re a little unpredictable,” he hazarded. “He’s not full grown, you know. He’s still learning how to use them. Although, of course, they’re very scary when they work.” He hoped the SkyWings had no more information about NightWing powers than Starflight’s scrolls did.

“Oh,” Peril said. “That makes sense.” Her tail twitched over her talons as she thought. Clay tried to sidle a bit closer to the edge, away from her blistering heat. “All right,” she said finally. “I’ll try.”

“Thank you,” Clay said.

Peril spread her wings to fly away and then hesitated, looking at him. “You wouldn’t do that, would you?”

Clay tried to think what she meant.

“Kill yourself like that,” she said. “The way Horizon did.” She coughed, and a small ring of smoke puffed out of her snout.

Clay had no idea what he would do if he ever had to fight Peril. It sounded even more terrifying than swimming down the underground river. He met her eerie blue eyes and realized that she looked very worried.

“I don’t think so,” he said truthfully. He couldn’t imagine choosing to die that way. And he didn’t think he was brave enough to do it either.

“Oh, good,” she said. “I’d much rather kill you fair and square. Well, good night.” She leaped up into the air and beat her wings, sending a wave of heat over Clay’s scales.

He felt very unsettled as he watched her spiral down to the arena.

Peril was the first dragon he’d met outside the mountain, if you didn’t count Queen Scarlet. Maybe she wasn’t as strange as he thought. Maybe switching between friendly conversation and violence was normal for a dragon.

But somehow he didn’t think so.

Was she right about his true nature? If he’d been raised like her, killing dragons and feeding the monster inside him, maybe he’d be less worried all the time. Maybe he needed to accept that part of him, like she had. But would his friends still like him? Would he be more or less worthy of the prophecy that way?

One thing was for sure. Whenever he did end up in the arena, he’d find out how he felt about killing pretty fast.

The next morning, three blood-red SkyWing guards arrived to unchain Clay.

“What’s happening?” Clay asked nervously as they unclipped the wires around his legs. He’d gotten used to the feeling that something would catch him if he fell, even if it would probably hurt.

“Private audience with the queen,” sniffed one.

“Is that a good thing?” Clay asked. “Or a bad thing? I’ve never been a prisoner before. Unless, technically, maybe I sort of was, but not like this. This is a lot … windier. Plus there’s the queen, that’s new. Does she normally meet with prisoners? Maybe right before letting them go?”

“Shut up,” snapped the guard who had answered him before.

“Right, yes,” Clay said. “Only I was wondering about the other dragonets who were with me and if I could maybe see them —”

One of the guards tightened the wire around his neck and hissed, “Another word and there’s going to be an unfortunate accident on the way down to the throne room.”

Clay glanced over the edge and shut his mouth firmly. So far, it seemed to him that most SkyWings were just as grumpy as Kestrel.

With a start, he realized he’d forgotten to worry about Kestrel. The queen had talked to her as if they once knew each other. He craned his neck, looking for her among the prisoners, as the guards flew him down to the arena. But none of the red or orange SkyWings on the spires were quite the right color or size.

He noticed with a shiver of fear that Starflight’s perch was empty. He must have been taken away while Clay was sleeping — but why?

As they reached the sandy ground, Clay twisted to look up at Tsunami and saw three more SkyWings surrounding her. They were having a hard time getting close; she lashed and fought and swung her powerful tail at them in a fury.

Oops, Clay thought. Should I have done that? He hadn’t struggled with the guards at all. He glanced around the arena, wondering if he should try to run now. But his wings were still clamped, and there was only one doorway out of the arena. Since the guards were already dragging him toward it, it seemed a little pointless to break free and then run exactly where they were going anyway.

So he let them lead him into the smoky tunnel, lit with flaming torches and an occasional skylight cut through the rock overhead. The tunnel was wide enough for three dragons to walk side by side, wings spread. It sloped upward through the mountain, into the palace Clay had seen from his prison perch.

At one point they passed a large cave with tall narrow windows cut into the walls, casting bars of sunlight on the stone floor. A pool of water separated the cave from the tunnel. On one wall hung a full-length portrait of Queen Scarlet, staring majestically down her nose. Clay spotted the glint of a few copper scales on the floor and wondered if it was Peril’s room. There was nothing else in the cave. It occurred to him that she probably couldn’t sleep on animal skins or read scrolls because her touch would burn right through them.

But if fighting was all she was good for, why hadn’t the queen sent Peril out into the war? Why was she kept here for gladiator fights instead?

Perhaps Queen Scarlet didn’t completely trust the hold she had on Peril. If she were let loose into the world, Peril might realize she didn’t have to be a killer … or she might decide to kill anyone she liked, without waiting for the queen’s permission.

Soon Clay heard clattering and clanking and chattering up ahead, as if a crowd of dragons were busily hurrying about. Then the passageway opened out into a vast hall and he saw that was exactly what he was hearing.

He was standing on a wide balcony with no railing, two levels up from the ground floor. The balcony ran all the way around the hall in a large square, and above it Clay could see five more levels of balconies, and above that, the open sky. Dragons were hurrying everywhere, glowing in the light. Large windows were cut into the walls all the way up, so the hall was flooded with sunshine. The floors blazed as if little rivers of fire ran through them.

When Clay looked more closely, he saw a design of talon prints, inlaid with gold, running through the stone under his talons. Gold veins were carved into the walls as well, some of them branching into flames or tracing shapes like clouds in the rock.

Clay remembered that the queen must be very wealthy. This showed how powerful she was as well. Even with all this gold at their claw tips, no dragon dared to dig it out and steal it.

The guards shoved him in the direction where the gold talon prints led. Clay followed the trail, gazing at the dragons bustling around the hall. SkyWings flew from level to level, hopping across the great space and dodging wings and tails as they went. Some of them exchanged small message scrolls in midair; others were carrying buckets of water or clean animal skins or platters of food. Everyone seemed either very busy or as if they were trying to look very busy.

Clay saw one young orange dragonet winging up to the highest level with a bucket of soapy water clutched in her talons. As she reached the top balcony, her tail tangled with another dragon’s and she overbalanced. She lunged for the ledge and dropped the bucket, which plummeted all the way down, whooshing past Clay and the guards.

A moment later, there was a clang and then a furious roar briefly silenced the hubbub. All the dragons in the hall glanced down.

A furious and familiar roar.

Clay darted to the edge of the balcony and looked down. At the bottom of the hall, under a metal grid, a dragon was trapped like a pinned squirrel. The bucket was rolling across the iron bars. All the suds and water had spilled out over the prisoner.

It was Kestrel. She seized the bars and rattled them angrily as a murmur of laughter rippled around the hall.

Clay didn’t get a chance to see anything more. The guards yanked him back and shoved him along the talon-print trail again.

He wondered if that was a special cell for particularly bad prisoners and, if so, what Kestrel had done to deserve it. She’d never talked about her life before the Talons of Peace or why she’d left the SkyWing kingdom. He’d always kind of imagined that she’d been kicked out for being too grouchy. Although now he guessed that would have made her fit right in.

He stopped thinking about Kestrel as the guards pushed him into Queen Scarlet’s throne room.

The queen was seated on top of a rock column carved in the shape of clouds, staring down at the dragons on the floor below her. The wall opposite her was entirely open to the sky, revealing a steep drop and jagged rocks below. The gold tracery in the rocks and floor went over the top in here, as if a giant dragon had stumbled around the room vomiting gold all over the place. Clay could barely see at first through the blaze of reflected sunshine.

Then his eyes adjusted and he spotted Glory, laid out along her tree in the sunlight. She had her eyes closed and looked more relaxed than he’d ever seen her. A slow pulse of crimson teardrops wandered through her dark gold and navy-blue scales. Two SkyWing soldiers stood threateningly in front of her, barring Clay’s way.

Starflight was kneeling before the queen in a submissive bow. Clay broke away from his guards to crouch beside his friend.

“Are you all right?” he whispered. Starflight glanced up at the queen and gave a tiny shake of his head.

“The NightWing is trying to tell you that it’s rude to talk to anyone else before the queen in her own throne room,” said Queen Scarlet. “First you bow to me, and then you stay put until I’m ready to address you all. Really, what are they teaching dragonets these days? It’s so very disrespectful.”

“Sorry,” Clay mumbled, trying to match the bowing position Starflight was in. Somehow his talons didn’t fold in quite the same elegant way. His wings felt like they were sticking out at weird angles. He peeked under one arm at Glory and nearly fell on his head.

Queen Scarlet arched her ruby-encrusted eyebrows at him and sniffed disapprovingly.

Clay tried to stay as still as he could.

An eternity passed. There were no other dragons in the throne room besides the guards around Glory and the three at the door who had brought Clay. There was no sign of Sunny anywhere.

Queen Scarlet studied each of her claws, one by one. Now and then she sharpened them on the rocks beside her.

Finally they heard a commotion in the tunnel outside. Clay couldn’t help looking over his shoulder when he recognized Tsunami’s voice shouting curses. A whole pack of SkyWings came in dragging the SeaWing dragonet. She had several of the strange wires wrapped around her, binding her talons to her side and trapping her powerful tail. Her head whipped around, snapping at each of them, so they were having trouble moving her more than a few steps at a time.

At last they rolled her alongside Clay, and all the guards jumped back. Clay saw with satisfaction that more than one guard had long scratches and bite marks that looked like Tsunami’s work.

“Well, hello,” the queen said, looking amused. “We’ve been waiting for you. I gather you’re enjoying your stay?”

“This is an outrage,” Tsunami hissed. “How can you treat dragons this way? Especially us! We’re the —”

“— dragonets of destiny, yes, very thrilling,” said Queen Scarlet. “I understand you’ve been underground for the last six years, so perhaps you haven’t heard: not everyone wants this war to end.”

Starflight shifted a little on Clay’s left side, and Clay could tell he wanted to argue. But the NightWing kept silent.

“Personally, I think the war is quite entertaining,” the queen went on. “I pick up lots of contenders for the arena from the battlefield. And it’s a terrific distraction for those dragons who might otherwise have challenged me for the throne. No one’s even tried in about eight or nine years. Saves me a lot of trouble.”

“So it’s all right with you that hundreds of dragons have died all across the world,” Tsunami spat.

The queen gave her a pitying look. “As if you know anything about that. Have you ever been in a real battle? Have you ever seen hundreds of dragons die? Do you know anything, really, about this war?”

Tsunami’s mouth opened and closed a few times. “We’ve studied it,” she said fiercely. “We know it’s awful. We know innocent dragons are getting hurt.”

“Well, it’s easy to say war is awful,” Queen Scarlet said, waving one talon. “But it’s a lot harder to solve these problems without having a war. Especially when you’re talking about dragons. Fighting comes naturally to us. You should know — you attacked me when you barely even knew me.”

She flicked her tail forward, and Clay saw the ugly red gash in her scales. He felt queasy and guilty. Could they have done something else instead of attacking her? Would everything be different now if they’d found a peaceful way out?

Tsunami looked flustered.

“And who should be the next SandWing queen?” Scarlet asked. “Burn, Blister, or Blaze? I’d love to know if you’ve already decided that, from the wisdom and wide experience of your safe little underground cave.”

“That’s not our fault,” Tsunami said. “We wanted to be out in the world.”

Queen Scarlet looked amused again. “That’s what you think,” she said. “Hilarious. As if you’d have survived this long out here. Your minders did tell you what happened to all the other dragonets born on the brightest night, didn’t they?”

Starflight inhaled sharply. He and Tsunami exchanged glances, but Clay didn’t understand. The guardians had never mentioned any other dragonets born on the brightest night, like they were.

“Tsk, tsk,” Queen Scarlet said, seeing the surprise on their faces. “Well, I won’t go into details, but it was very sad.”

“Excuse me,” Clay said. Starflight trod on his foot, trying to shut him up, but Clay jostled him away. “Ow, stop! I have a question! Excuse me, Your Majesty,” he said. “Where’s Sunny? Is she all right?”

“Oh, the funny-looking SandWing,” Queen Scarlet said. “I think Burn will like her very much. She collects curiosities. You should see her palace. It’s quite horrifying — full of two-headed lizards and seven-toed dragon talons and stuffed scavengers with the palest skin you ever saw.” She shuddered. “That misshapen dragonet will be the perfect present for her.”

“You can’t give Sunny to Burn!” Tsunami flared. “We have to stay together!”

“I can do whatever I like,” Queen Scarlet said. “This is my kingdom.”

“What about Glory?” Clay asked. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Nothing’s wrong with her,” said the queen. “She’s quite perfect, if you ask me. A lovely accessory for my throne room.”

“But why is she all — sleepy?” Clay asked.

“RainWings are naturally lazy creatures,” Queen Scarlet said. “Hadn’t you noticed? But then, MudWings aren’t known for their brains.”

Clay stared at Glory. Had her eye twitched? Was he just imagining the slight movement of her wings? Was she asleep, or was she listening? Didn’t she care what the queen said about her?

“You have to let us go,” Tsunami said. “You can’t stop the prophecy and we’ll —”

“Shush,” said the queen, and one of the soldiers prodded Tsunami with a long stick. “Your spunkiness is starting to bore me. Now listen. In two days, we are having a big celebration for my hatching day. I want all three of you to be thrilling and fierce in the arena for me. But I also promised my subjects that today’s fight would be exciting, so if I put one of you into it, it would be very thoughtful if you could win. So. Is the NightWing up to it? Which of you is most likely to win a battle to the death against, say, an IceWing?”

“Me,” Clay and Tsunami both said at the same time. Starflight stared down at his talons, looking miserable.

“Adorable,” the queen said, narrowing her eyes at them. “But seriously.”

“Me!” Clay said. “I’m a great fighter. Put me in.” No way was he going to watch while Tsunami got slaughtered. Especially since the others would need her much more than him to have any chance of escaping this place.

“You’re delusional,” Tsunami snapped at him. “I beat you all the time. I’m the strongest of all of us.”

“Not all the time!” Clay said. “And a MudWing would be more exciting than just another SeaWing, wouldn’t it?” he said to the queen.

“True,” she mused.

“Just another SeaWing!” Tsunami raged. “How dare you? You know I’m the best fighter!”

“I love your enthusiasm, dragonets,” the queen said, clapping her wings together. “Guards, take these two away.” She flicked her tail at Tsunami and Starflight. The SkyWings came toward them, eyeing Tsunami’s teeth unhappily.

“As for this one . . .” Queen Scarlet pointed at Clay. Her eyes were malicious yellow slits. “Prepare him for the arena.”

It wasn’t until Clay felt the sand under his talons and heard the roaring of the dragons in the stands that he realized he hadn’t quite thought this plan through.

He had no idea what his fighting skills would be like against an unknown dragon. His mind went blank as the SkyWing guards dropped a hissing IceWing onto the ground opposite him. Did he know anything about IceWings?

The sun was high in the sky, and it was much warmer in the arena than up on their prison spires. Clay could see beads of silvery liquid dripping through the IceWing’s glacier-blue scales. Above them, Queen Scarlet smirked from her balcony, with Glory sleeping serenely beside her.

The same SkyWing announcer from the day before strutted to the center of the arena and bellowed at the crowd. “After last month’s battle with Blaze’s army, our queen’s dungeons were stuffed with IceWing prisoners of war. Only nine have survived. After two wins, I give you — Fjord of the IceWings!”

Fjord lashed his tail and snarled at Clay.

“And in this corner, an unusual case — a MudWing, but not one of our allies. No, this dragonet was found hiding under our mountains, protected by the Talons of Peace. Is he one of the dragonets of destiny? Not if he loses this battle!”

A murmur of laughter rippled around the seats, but in the closest faces Clay could see expressions of uneasiness and, he thought, concern. He spotted a large MudWing in one of the balconies, frowning down at him. Try to stop this, Clay thought at him, praying hard. Do something! I’m one of you!

But the MudWing shifted his gaze away, as if he didn’t want to watch but couldn’t afford to leave.

The SkyWing announcer went on. “If these prophesied dragonets are as wonderful and legendary as they’re supposed to be, this should be a showdown to remember. I hope you’re prepared to impress us, dragon of the mud. I present to you … Clay of the MudWings! Claws up, teeth ready! Fight!”

Clay blinked as the SkyWing flew out of the arena. He’d never been called “of the MudWings” before. It might have been a warmer feeling if he hadn’t been surrounded by more than two hundred dragons, including MudWings, ready to applaud his imminent death.

He felt quite far from wonderful and legendary as the IceWing slithered toward him. This was it: kill or be killed. Time to find out if he did have a monster inside, and if it was the useful kind or the kind that would make him hate himself afterward … or both.

Fjord’s pale blue scales were the color of sky reflected in the snow on the distant mountain peaks. His eyes were slightly darker blue and full of malice. Extra horns like a ruff of icicles stood out around his head. A long claw scratch down his neck had barely begun to heal, with dried blood still sticking to the scales around it. He hissed, darting a deep blue, forked tongue between his icicle-sharp teeth.

“Uh, hello,” Clay said as the IceWing drew closer. “Fjord, right?”

Fjord stopped and stared at him, still flicking his tongue in and out. He was only a head taller than Clay, but he looked a lot older and scarier.

“I’ve never met an IceWing,” Clay said, edging back a step. “I’ve never met much of anyone, really. I mean, I guess I read that you were all the color of ice, but I didn’t realize ice came in so many colors. Like, you know, blue. Very surprising. It’s cool, though. Oh, ha ha, no pun intended.”

“Boooo!” called several dragons from the upper seats. “More blood! More death! Somebody bite somebody!”

“Are you trying to get us both killed?” the IceWing growled. “Shut up and let me kill you.”

“I’d rather not,” Clay said, stumbling back another few steps. A flicker of movement caught his eye, and he glanced up into the sky. Starflight was nearly leaning all the way off his column, flailing his tail and bound wings frantically at Clay. Trying to tell him something. But what?

Something about IceWings. Something they’d learned from the scrolls and lectures.

Something pretty important, judging from the way Starflight was freaking out.

The NightWing was pointing to his mouth. Fire? Clay looked at Fjord dubiously. He didn’t think IceWings could breathe fire. Wouldn’t they end up melting their palaces every time they used it?

Then again, Fjord was definitely doing something with his mouth, and it wasn’t smiling.

Clay ducked and rolled out of the way just as a blast of what looked like sparkling smoke shot out of Fjord’s mouth. A tiny bit of it brushed his wing tip, and Clay felt a horrible chill rattle through his whole body.

Oh, right. Freezing-death breath. That is important. Thanks, Starflight.

Now he remembered the freezing streams of cold air that IceWings could shoot from their mouths. Of course, he couldn’t remember anything about how to fight it.

Fire would probably help, though. Clay inhaled, pulling the warmth up from his chest as Fjord’s head snapped around toward him. The IceWing opened his mouth to breathe on Clay again, and Clay sent a blast of fire right between his teeth.

Fjord jerked back and scrambled across the sand, batting at his mouth with his clamped wings. The flames had been swallowed instantly by the chill of his scales, but the IceWing looked even angrier than before.

“Sorry,” Clay said. “Listen, do we have to fight? What’ll happen to us if we —”

Fjord interrupted by racing at him with his front talons outstretched. Clay had to shut up and dart out of the way, barely dodging the sharp claws. Fjord’s long, whip-thin tail snaked around and whacked him across the face so Clay was momentarily blinded.

Instinctively Clay threw his wings over his head and lashed out with his back talons. He felt one connect and heard Fjord roar with pain. As his sight cleared, he saw that he’d accidentally hit the scratch on Fjord’s neck, which was bleeding again.

Fjord fell back for a moment, touching his neck gingerly with his claws. His tail lashed, and his bound wings beat the air.

How am I going to get out of this? Clay thought. He couldn’t feel a monster rising up inside him. Whatever had driven him to attack the other dragonets at hatching was buried too deep. He didn’t want to kill Fjord. He didn’t want to kill anyone.

He wondered if he should have let Tsunami fight instead. No, I’m the first-hatched and the biggest. I couldn’t let any of the others risk themselves when I could fight for them. He clawed at the sand and lowered his head to stare into Fjord’s eyes. I have to kill him, don’t I? There must be a part of me that can do that.

He’d always hoped his monster wouldn’t be necessary. Some part of him had always figured that the prophecy would somehow come true, the war would end, and all dragon killing could be avoided forever and ever … without him ever having to hurt another dragon.

But it’s too soon for the prophecy. Our fault, for escaping early.

Still, we had to, to save Glory —

“BOOOOOOOOOO!” more dragons in the crowd shouted. “A sheep could have won this fight by now! What are you doing? Thinking? Less thinking! More killing! Claw him, claw him, claw him!”

They sound just like Kestrel. Clay couldn’t tell if they were rooting for him or for Fjord — or whether they just wanted to see someone die.

Fjord dropped to all fours and ran at Clay again, hissing with his tongue as if he were about to shoot more freezing air.

Kestrel’s shouted battle commands flashed through Clay’s head. He dropped and rolled under Fjord as the IceWing flew at him. With a quick slash, Clay raked Fjord’s underbelly, leaving a trail of blood through the softer scales. He flipped back upright and spun to face the other dragon again.

Fjord shrieked, doubling over.

“YAAAAYYYYYY!” shouted the crowd.

“What is wrong with you?” Fjord yelled at Clay. “That’s not how MudWings fight! I was trained in your techniques!”

“Well, I wasn’t,” Clay said. “Sorry.” He wondered whether he fought like a SkyWing instead, the way Kestrel had always wanted. He had a feeling she would say no, he didn’t fight like a SkyWing, he fought like a lame wildebeest. But at least it seemed to catch his opponent off guard.

Clay dug his claws into the sand, watching Fjord clutch his bleeding belly. If he attacked now, he could surprise the other dragon and maybe even win. But he felt bad enough, seeing the damage he’d inflicted. He couldn’t imagine doing worse — like what? Could he break Fjord’s neck? He shuddered, remembering again the crack of Dune’s neck snapping. That wasn’t him, no matter what Kestrel or Peril said.

“All right, dragons.” Queen Scarlet’s voice cut through the rumble of the crowd, and everyone went still. “Fjord and Clay, we don’t have all day. Some of us have kingdoms to run. One of you kill the other one right now, or I’m coming down there to end you both myself.”

Fjord snarled and dashed at Clay again. There was no time to think. Clay reared up and grabbed the extra horns around Fjord’s head, shoving the IceWing’s snout aside before the freezing breath hit him. The cold air blasted toward the lowest row of seats, and several dragons clambered over each other to get away, yelping with alarm.

Fjord’s talons locked around Clay’s chest, and they grappled across the sand. Clay’s wings were pummeled by Fjord’s, which were silvery and strangely tough. His talons were full trying to keep Fjord’s head pointing away from him. He couldn’t fight back as Fjord clawed his shoulders. Bright pain zigzagged through Clay’s scales.

“Time to die,” Fjord growled. He whipped his tail around to trip Clay’s back legs and the two dragons went down in a heap with Fjord on top. The IceWing wrapped his claws around Clay’s neck and pressed hard.

Failing again, Clay thought hopelessly as the strength in his arms began to fade. For the last time. In a moment he’d have to let go, the IceWing’s head would be free, and Fjord would blast Clay with a final killing breath.

Then it would all be over.

Clay closed his eyes. He couldn’t bear to see the circle of prisoners up in the sky, knowing that Tsunami and Starflight were up there watching him die.

He heard a faraway yell, and Fjord’s head jerked up. Clay opened his eyes again and saw that the IceWing was looking up at the prisoners. So was everyone else in the stadium. He followed their gaze and saw a blue dragon far overhead, thrashing in the net of wires above the arena. The other prisoners were shouting and scrabbling to hold on to their rock towers as the weight of the dragon threatened to drag them all down.

It was Tsunami. She must have thrown herself off her prison cell, trying to get to Clay. But the wires held her fast, and she was fighting like an insect caught in a spiderweb.

“Get up there!” Queen Scarlet roared, and all the SkyWing guards around her lifted off at once.

This is my chance, Clay thought. Fjord was distracted. Now he should kill him. He should. He had to. If he could have killed his nestmates in their eggs, he should be able to kill this dragon who had nothing to do with him.

But he still couldn’t. He kept thinking, Fjord is as much a prisoner as I am. Why should I get to live instead of him?

This is why the prophecy is doomed — because of me.

So Clay was the only one looking at the ice dragon when a jet of small black droplets spattered against the side of Fjord’s face and neck.

Fjord flinched in surprise and automatically reached up with one talon to wipe his face clean. But before his claws reached his snout, both dragons heard a hissing noise. Clay stared in shock as the black drops started to bubble and smoke. The scales underneath them began to melt.

Then Fjord screamed.

It was the worst sound Clay had ever heard. The dragon Peril had killed had screamed in this kind of agony, but to be right underneath the dying dragon, his screams piercing Clay’s ears, was so much worse.

One of the drops had landed in Fjord’s eye, and that was the first thing to disintegrate, leaving a smoking black cavity in his skull. The side of his face slowly dropped away like ice melting. Fjord lurched off Clay, clawing at his own neck. The spray was eating into his open wound.

Clay covered his eyes, feeling sick. Why couldn’t death be clean, painless, and fast, if it had to happen at all?

It finally occurred to him to wonder who had sprayed the IceWing. It must have come from the direction of the queen’s balcony. He looked up and saw only three faces up there, staring down at him and Fjord. The rest of the guards were up in the sky, dealing with Tsunami and the other prisoners.

Queen Scarlet, who looked pleased.

Glory, who looked asleep.

And Peril, who looked … frightened.

After Fjord finally died, to the sounds of uproarious cheering, Clay was flown back to his tower and locked down again. He could see that extra chains and wires had been added to Tsunami’s cell, and the prisoners on either side of her kept shouting angry things about how she’d nearly killed them. But she waved her tail at Clay, and he felt a tiny bit better, though not much.

He hadn’t won fairly. He hadn’t found the strength in him to kill. He hadn’t even wanted Fjord to die. Something — someone else — had killed Fjord for him. And yet there was a ball of wrenching guilt sitting in his stomach. Guilt about Fjord; about Dune; about Glory’s weird drugged state; about Sunny, wherever she was; about Starflight, who’d never survive the arena; and about Tsunami, who might, but only if she didn’t get herself killed doing crazy things first.

He couldn’t eat the pig dropped off by the SkyWing guard that afternoon. He just watched gloomily as it ran around his platform, squealing in terror, until it blundered over the edge. Then he felt bad about that, too.

Feeling sorry for prey. Some hero dragon you are.

Clay kept his back to the arena during the afternoon fight, which was between a SeaWing and a scavenger the queen had found in the woods. He’d thought queens would be more careful around scavengers after what happened to Oasis, but now that he saw how pathetic they were, he understood why Queen Scarlet didn’t worry about them. The scavenger was allowed to keep his funny little weapons, but they didn’t do him much good. The fight was over quickly. Clay covered his ears so he wouldn’t have to listen to the munching and crunching and the cheering crowd.

He slept a little that evening, but his sleep was full of nightmares and dying dragons.

It was almost a relief to wake up after dark and find Peril huddled in the same spot as before. Even the heat wafting from her scales was welcome, as the winds were stronger and colder than ever.

“Oh, hi,” she said in a rush. “You were amazing today. Although I have no idea what you did. I was looking at the prisoners and then suddenly — well, yikes. That was scarier than me. I mean, I’m pretty scary. But, wow. How did you do that? You don’t have to tell me. I mean, you might have to do it to me. You probably will. Which is the scariest thing ever. It was like — I never thought what it might be like, sitting up here watching me kill other dragons. And then I’m the one watching, and thinking, that’s going to happen to me. So. But still amazing. Can you tell me? You don’t have to tell me.”

“Stop,” Clay said, worn out with guilt and worrying. “Peril, it wasn’t me. I didn’t do — that — to Fjord.”

She exhaled, and a small burst of fire shot from her nose. “It’s all right,” she said. “I didn’t think you’d tell me. I’d keep it secret, too.”

“No, seriously,” Clay said. “I think it was Queen Scarlet. She wanted me to win. She must have done something while everyone else was distracted.”

Peril looked skeptical. “I’ve never seen her do anything like that before,” she said. “But I guess she might. She definitely doesn’t have a problem with cheating.” She spread her talons, opening and closing her claws as if offering herself as an example. “I guess she might have found the poison in her treasury somewhere.”

“Have you seen my friend Sunny?” Clay asked. He was starting to feel the pain of the scratches across his back and the bruises on his throat.

“Oh! Yes,” Peril said. She looked at him sideways with sly blue-flame eyes. “That’s why I came. I’ll tell you where she is, but I need you to do something for me. And if you won’t do it, I won’t tell you.”

Clay tried to move his aching wings, but they felt stiff and sore. He could tell that dried blood was caked through his scales and the spiny ridge along his back. “You don’t have to do that, Peril. I’d help you anyway.”

“Sure,” she said. “Well. We’ll see. It’s not an easy thing. And you might get in trouble. I’d definitely get in trouble, if Her Majesty found out.” She scratched at the rock underneath her.

“I don’t mind,” Clay said. “I’m in enough trouble anyway. Is Sunny all right?”

Peril scowled as she answered. “Yes, she’s fine. Not a scratch on her. Eating like a queen. Making friends with all the guards. It’s a little nauseating, if you want to know the truth.”

“That’s Sunny,” Clay said, exhaling with relief. “What do you want me to do?”

“She told me I wasn’t allowed to watch!” Peril burst out. “I’m the only dragon in the whole Sky Kingdom who’s supposed to stay away from the arena tomorrow. It’s not fair!”

“Why?” Clay asked, his stomach sinking. What new horrible battle did Queen Scarlet have planned? “What’s happening?”

“I don’t even know!” Peril flared. “It’s some kind of trial! Doesn’t that sound boring? Why would she keep me away from that? I wouldn’t have cared until she told me not to go. Listening to dragons talk about laws is about as exciting as picking sheep fluff out of your teeth. Plus it always ends the same way anyhow. Queen Scarlet just likes the drama of trials and formal executions. Nobody’s ever innocent.”

“Kestrel,” Clay said. “It must be Kestrel’s trial. Queen Scarlet said something about that.”

“Well, whoever she is, I want to watch,” Peril said stubbornly. “So I thought maybe if I hid up here, behind you . . .”

Clay glanced around. The IceWing to his left was asleep. The platform to his right was still empty. If he stood at the edge of his prison and spread his wings, and Peril crouched down, he might be able to shield her from the eyes of the queen.

He tried opening his wings again and winced. The clamp bent the outside of his wing in, as if it were rolled under and pinned up. But he still should have been able to open most of his wing, even if he couldn’t fly with it.

“I’m too sore,” he said to Peril. “I mean, I’ll try. But I can’t really open my wings right now, so I don’t know if I can hide you.”

Peril frowned. “Let me see,” she said, pointing to his back imperiously.

He hunched around until his back was toward her. She drew in a sharp breath.

“That sounds bad,” he said, trying to twist his neck around to see. “It can’t be that bad. Kestrel believes that pain teaches you stuff, so trust me, I’ve been clawed before.”

“Not by an IceWing, I bet,” she said. “They have ridged claws so they can grip the ice as they walk. It’s like getting clawed four times with each claw instead of once. Can you picture that?”

“Um, sort of,” Clay said. “It feels better with you near it.”

“It does?”

“Like, the heat, I mean,” he said, embarrassed, although he wasn’t sure why. “It’s better than the wind.”

“I don’t know how to fix it,” she said, sounding frustrated and helpless. He felt her heat draw a little closer. “I guess I could stand here, if that helps.”

Clay remembered the poison cave under the mountain and the stinging pain under his scales. He wondered if the same treatment would work here. “There is one thing,” he said hesitantly. “If it’s not asking too much — I think putting mud on the scratches might help.”

“Oh my gosh, of course,” she cried. “That’s it! I can get you mud! Wait here.” She sprang off the tower and flew away.

“Wait here,” Clay echoed to empty space. “Because I was going to go where? For a walk?”

He pulled his wings in and tried to huddle against the wind, but it howled at him from every direction, and the tower was even colder now that Peril was gone. The pain felt worse and worse as the moments ticked by and the moons rose higher in the sky. He was shivering badly by the time he saw her spiraling up toward him.

Between her front talons, she was carrying a large rock cauldron, filled with thick brown mud. Clay twisted around to watch her as she landed behind him.

“Where’d you get that?” he asked.

Peril nodded at one of the distant walls of the queen’s palace. Clay squinted and saw the reflected glint of moonlight off a cascading waterfall.

“The Diamond Spray River starts at the bottom of that wall,” Peril said. “It leads all the way to the sea. At least, that’s what I hear. I’ve never left the Sky Kingdom.” She stuck one of her claws into the cauldron. Clay watched curiously as the mud began bubbling and boiling.

“Why not?” he asked. “You must be one of the most powerful dragons here. Why don’t you just come and go as you please?”

Peril looked a little shocked. “I would never disobey Her Majesty! That’s how my mother got killed.” A theory suddenly popped into Clay’s head, but before he could explore it, Peril kept talking. “Besides, I have to eat the black rocks every day, or I’ll die. The queen makes sure there are always enough for me.”

“Black rocks?” Clay asked, puzzled.

“It’s part of the curse of having too much fire,” Peril said with a shrug. “I’m lucky the queen takes so much care to keep me alive.”

“Have you ever tried not eating them?” Clay asked.

“Once, when I was a lot younger,” Peril said, shifting her talons awkwardly. “I got mad at Her Majesty because she wouldn’t tell me anything about my mother. I wanted to run away. So I stopped eating the rocks to see what would happen, and I got really sick. Like, almost dying sick.”

“Oh,” Clay said. Her story had a feel of wrongness to it, like scales that didn’t overlap properly. It seemed pretty convenient that the queen just happened to have a way to control the most dangerous dragon in her kingdom. But he was hardly an expert on SkyWings with weird, deadly conditions.

“Is that also why you don’t challenge her for the throne?” Clay asked. “Because I’m betting you could beat her in a fight.”

Peril gave an outraged squawk and nearly hit him with her tail. “I don’t want to be queen! What an awful thought! Stop saying treasonous things and turn around.”

Clay presented his back to her, opening his wings as wide as he could. Some part of him expected her to plaster the hot mud on with her talons. But he realized she couldn’t do that without burning him just before Peril flung the entire contents of the cauldron over his scales.

“Yaa —” Clay clamped his teeth down hard, forcing himself not to yell. The mud was as hot as Kestrel’s fire-breath, and at first he felt like all his scales were being burned off.

Then the shock passed, and a moment later the heat became bearable. Clay felt the mud soaking into his injuries, instantly soothing the pain. If only he’d had something like this after all his training sessions with Kestrel!

“Much better,” Peril said with satisfaction.

Clay rolled his shoulders. His muscles already felt looser and stronger. “Wow. Does that work for all MudWings?”

“Of course,” she said. “How could you not know that?”

“What about other dragons?” Clay asked, turning around to face her. He wondered if this was a trick he could use to heal his friends, if they were ever together and free again.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I’m not sure anyone’s tried. Because that would be weird. Like, what kind of SkyWing would let you put mud on her scales? Yuck.”

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world,” Clay said. “Well, maybe after flying. And eating. Gosh, I’m hungry.”

“I’ll just fetch and carry for you all night, shall I?” Peril said.

“Oh, no, you don’t have to —” But she was already gone.

Clay sat down and tucked his tail around his talons, thinking.

He had a pretty good idea why Peril wasn’t supposed to watch the trial tomorrow. Queen Scarlet had said something about Kestrel disobeying her. Plus there were those burn scars on Kestrel’s talons.

And it wasn’t too hard to imagine Kestrel trying to kill her own dragonet. Especially once she figured out there was something wrong with her.

Peril thought her mother was dead. How would she react when she found out it was Kestrel — and she was still alive?

Peril brought him three rabbits and two more cauldrons of mud during the night. She stayed at the edge of the rock platform, but the heat from her scales helped keep the mud warm on Clay’s back.

It also kept the nightmares away. While he was talking to her, the weight of Clay’s guilt felt lighter. Which was strange, he knew: Peril was responsible for a lot more death than he was. But it didn’t bother her. He wished he could be so untroubled. If he had to fight in the arena again, perhaps he could take monster lessons from her.

“Won’t someone be looking for you?” he asked as the sun started rising over the distant sea.

She shook her head. “I’m supposed to be down in the caves looking for black rocks all day,” she said. “As long as I stay up here, behind you, hopefully no one will notice me.”

“Not even the guards?”

“They won’t feed the prisoners until midday,” she said. “The trial is set for dawn. Look, see?” She edged a bit closer to him, peeking around his wing.

Clay looked down and saw dragons filing into the arena seats. They seemed quieter, more subdued than they were for the fights. SkyWing soldiers dragged two large boulders out onto the sand. One of them twisted three large iron rings into the ground in a triangle, then attached thick chains to them.

“Quick, spread your wings,” Peril hissed. “Here she comes.”

Clay flapped his wings open as Queen Scarlet slithered onto her balcony. He noticed she had traded her gold chain mail for a vest with small black chain links instead, studded with diamonds. She didn’t even glance up at the prisoners, although Peril stayed carefully huddled behind Clay’s back. Glory was not brought in — no art required at a trial, Clay guessed.

Finally Kestrel was hauled into the ring, hissing and spitting at the guards around her. A chain looped around her snout kept her from breathing fire at them. More heavy chains weighed down her talons and tail so she couldn’t lash out.

“It’s weird,” Clay whispered to Peril. “I’ve always hated Kestrel, but it still makes me mad to see her like that.”

“How do you know her?” Peril asked.

“She’s one of the three dragons who raised us, under the mountain,” Clay explained. “They didn’t like us much, but they were supposed to keep us alive until the Talons of Peace came back to get us for the prophecy.” He stopped, swallowing, as he thought of Dune. And Webs — had he survived the underground river?

“At least you had someone. I guess even terrible parents are better than no parents,” Peril said. Clay glanced down at Queen Scarlet and wondered if that was true. She’d been the closest thing to a mother that Peril ever had. But what kind of mother made her daughter kill dragons in horrible ways every day?

Maybe Peril would have been better off with no one. Dune and Webs weren’t all bad, but Clay wasn’t sure he’d have chosen a life with Kestrel over growing up alone.

Then again, if he was right, Kestrel was Peril’s real mother. Would Kestrel have been better for her than Queen Scarlet? Not if she was prepared to throw her off the mountain. At least the queen had kept Peril alive.

He hoped that watching this trial wouldn’t upset Peril. He wondered if he should warn her about Kestrel being her mother. But what if he was wrong?

“I have real parents, though,” he said instead. “Somewhere in the Mud Kingdom, there’s a pair of dragons who can’t wait to get me back. I’m going to find them one day.”

He couldn’t see Peril’s face, but her silence said a lot. She didn’t think he was going to survive this place. Or maybe she thought that if he did, it would be at the expense of her own life.

Something he didn’t want to think about.

The SkyWing who did all the arena introductions climbed onto one of the two boulders and spread his blood-red wings.

“That’s Vermilion,” Peril whispered. “Her Majesty’s oldest son. He always argues for the prosecution.”

“Why does Scarlet bother with a trial at all?” Clay asked.

“Only SkyWings get trials,” Peril said. “Her Majesty likes watching the performance of it — and she thinks it makes her seem like a just and fair ruler.”

Clay withheld his snort of disbelief.

The crowd’s murmuring died down as another SkyWing climbed onto the other boulder. His scales were a more washed-out red, as if they’d been scrubbed with sandstone for a long time. He moved slowly, dragging his tail behind him like a carcass.

“And that’s Osprey,” Peril pointed out. “He argues for the defense. Not very well, or he’d lose his head. He’s really old and almost blind. He’s nice to me, though, because I’ll listen to his stories of the old days. He told me he used to have tons of treasure, but a scavenger came to steal it and managed to paralyze his tail before Osprey ate him. So now he can’t fly, and he gave all his treasure to Her Majesty so she’d let him live here.”

“Tough bargain,” Clay said. He felt a wave of heat as Peril rustled indignantly.

“Back in the way-old days before the Scorching,” she lectured, “before we had queens and armies, he would have just died. Scavengers killed a lot more dragons back then. But now, because of our queens, we rule the whole world, and dragons have help when they need it.”

“You sound like Starflight,” Clay said. “Will there be a test at the end of this lecture?”

“He wouldn’t talk to me, by the way,” she said. “Not even when I asked him to tell me the history of the Scorching, like you suggested. He just buried his nose under his wings and ignored me.”

“Wow,” Clay said, looking across at the slumped black dragon. “He must be really depressed.”

Peril was quiet again. Clay wished he could call across to Starflight and tell him they’d find a way out of this. If he really yelled, Tsunami might be close enough to hear him, but he didn’t think Starflight would. And besides, hollering escape plans across the arena probably wasn’t the best idea.

In any case, the trial was about to begin. Queen Scarlet beat her wings, and all the dragons turned their attention to her.

“Loyal subjects,” she said. “This dragon, Kestrel, once of the SkyWings, stands accused of the highest treason — disobeying me. Vermilion speaks for the prosecution.”

“Your Majesty,” Vermilion said, bowing and crossing his talons. “The facts are clear. You gave an order. Kestrel disobeyed you and fled the kingdom. She has been living under your mountains for the last seven years, aiding and abetting the Talons of Peace, who also refuse to follow Your Majesty’s orders. She deserves a long, painful execution. There is no need to drag this trial out.”

The dragons in the seats made their hissing fire-breath sounds and flapped their wings. Kestrel glared at the queen. Smoke seeped from her bound mouth and nostrils.

“Well said.” The queen nodded to Vermilion. “Now Osprey may speak for the defense. Or not, if he’d prefer to sleep through this trial, too.”

The crowd laughed appreciatively.

Osprey stretched his neck toward the queen, then toward Kestrel, as if he were trying to get close enough to see their faces from his boulder.

“Your Majesty,” he said in a voice creaky with age but still loud enough to carry to the prisoners up above. “I do have one or two words to say in this prisoner’s defense.”

Queen Scarlet’s tail lashed slowly behind her as she stared down at him. “Certainly,” she said. “That’s what you’re here to do. Go ahead.”

Osprey cleared his throat, coughing out a black puff of smoke. All the dragons were leaning forward to listen. Clay could feel Peril’s heat dangerously close to his scales as she tried to peek under his wings.

“Consider first the charge of disobedience. Kestrel did not do as you ordered — but then, didn’t you reverse the order after she was gone?”

What? Clay could barely follow the old dragon. Was this not about Peril?

“Osprey,” Queen Scarlet hissed. “Speak plainly, or do not speak at all. And let me point out that one of those options would be much smarter than the other.”

“Forgive me, Your Majesty,” the old dragon said, straightening his wings. “I must speak. Kestrel was one of your most loyal soldiers. She was sent through the breeding program, on your orders, and brought forth one egg. Upon hatching, it turned out to hold twin dragonets.”

Behind Clay, Peril gasped, nearly loud enough for the dragons below to hear her. Clay flapped his wings, trying to cover the noise, but no one looked up. All eyes were on the trial.

“We know all this,” said Queen Scarlet, yawning. “Skip ahead to the part where we execute her.”

“The dragonets were defective,” Osprey went on stubbornly. “One had too much fire. The other did not have enough. As per SkyWing custom, you ordered Kestrel to kill them both and stay out of the breeding program for the rest of her life.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Peril whispered behind Clay. He ducked his neck to look at her. She met his eyes, shaking with confusion. “I’m the only twin SkyWing hatched in the past ten years, but he can’t be talking about me. My brother was dead when we hatched. I killed him. Then my mother tried to kill me, and Queen Scarlet stopped her.”

“Or maybe that’s just what she told you,” Clay whispered back.

The queen rose to her full height and spread her wings so the sunlight caught on the rubies embedded around the edges. “Quite reasonable,” she said.

“But Kestrel tried to escape,” Osprey pressed on. “She took her two dragonets from the hatching cave and tried to flee with them down the mountain.”

“So you agree she disobeyed me,” said Queen Scarlet. “Then I think we’re done here.”

“You caught her at the Diamond Spray River,” Osprey said. “And there you issued a new order. You told her you would forgive her disobedience on one condition. She must choose one of the dragonets to die, and then you would spare the other’s life, and Kestrel’s own.”

“No,” Peril whispered.

“Then she did obey you, didn’t she?” Osprey said. “She killed the dragonet with too little fire, right there at the river. With her own claws.”

“And then I changed my mind again,” Queen Scarlet said. “I am the queen. I can do that.”

“You told your guards — I know, for I was one of them — to kill the other dragonet and take Kestrel back for trial. She tried to grab her daughter and fly away, but the heat of the dragonet’s scales burned her talons before she was a wingbeat into the sky, and she had to drop her. She fled, leaving her only living dragonet at your mercy.”

There was a heartbeat of silence.

“Sounds guilty to me,” Queen Scarlet said cheerfully. “We’ll execute her tomorrow. And while we’re at it, let’s execute him, too, for boring me.” She pointed at Osprey.

“No!”

Clay nearly fell off his tower as Peril exploded past him. He flapped his wings for balance as she shot toward the sands. His front right leg flailed free, and when he glanced down, he saw that Peril had accidentally burned through the wire as she flew away.

“It can’t be true!” Peril cried, landing on the sand beside Osprey. “Tell me it’s not true!”

Kestrel reared up with a muffled roar. From the look on her face, Clay could tell she’d thought Peril was dead this entire time.

“Oh, yes,” Queen Scarlet said maliciously to Kestrel. “Didn’t I mention she’s still alive? And working for me?” She turned her fierce yellow eyes on Peril. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“You lied to me!” Peril shrieked. “You said she was dead!”

Queen Scarlet sighed. “Look at the trouble you’ve caused,” she said to Osprey. “Peril, dear. Would you have wanted to know your mother was alive somewhere, raising other dragonets and wishing she’d killed you instead of your brother?”

Peril hesitated.

“She could have escaped with your brother,” Scarlet pointed out. “You’re the one who burned her when she tried to save you. She thought she chose wrong. That’s why she didn’t come back for you.”

Kestrel roared unintelligibly through the chains.

“Haven’t I kept you alive all these years?” Scarlet went on. “Finding you the black rocks, feeding you, making you my champion? Don’t you appreciate all the things I’ve done for you? Aren’t I a better mother than her anyway?”

“I want to stand for her,” Peril said, almost too softly for Clay to hear.

Smoke hissed from Scarlet’s nose, billowing up around her horns. “What?” she said slowly.

“I call upon the tradition of the Champion’s Shield,” Peril said. “It says the queen’s champion may stand forth for any dragon sentenced to execution. If I can defeat the next dragon you set me to fight, you must let her go free.” She looked into Kestrel’s eyes for the first time. “I want to stand for my mother.”

Queen Scarlet’s yellow eyes were small slits between orange scales. “Now where,” she hissed, “did you hear about that particular law?”

Peril shifted on her talons. “I read about it.”

“I bet you did,” Scarlet said. “With claws that burn right through paper when you touch it. Someone’s been telling you things too big for little dragon ears.”

“No!” Peril said too quickly. “Nobody —”

The queen was airborne before Peril could choke out another word. Queen Scarlet snatched Osprey up in her talons and shot into the sky.

“Stop!” Peril yelled. “It’s not his fault!” She leaped into the air and beat her wings, chasing them.

Clay watched the queen rise higher and higher above the arena. Osprey writhed in her claws, his tail hanging heavily below him. Scarlet had nearly reached the height of the wire net when suddenly she opened her talons and dropped the old dragon.

He plummeted like a stone. Clay had never thought about how a dragon needs his tail for balance while flying. Osprey’s wings were slow to extend, and when they did he lurched horribly, dragged down by the useless weight of his tail.

Peril darted at him, talons outstretched, but he twisted away from her and she stopped, helpless. If she caught him, the burns would kill him just as much as the fall would, perhaps even more painfully. Clay saw her claws reach out again anyway, but it was too late.

Osprey flapped his wings in one last burst of energy, but he couldn’t right himself. He hit the sand at an awkward angle. Every dragon in the arena heard the ripping and snapping of bones breaking and wings tearing as he tumbled. He collapsed near the arena wall. Peril landed beside him.

Queen Scarlet fluttered delicately back onto her balcony perch. “I hope this has been a lesson to any other dragons who were thinking of teaching my champion bad habits,” she said, glaring around the arena.

“He’s not dead,” Peril said, clawing at the sand.

“He will be soon.” Queen Scarlet waved a dismissive claw. “Now. I won’t argue with the Champion’s Shield. The champion has asked to stand for the prisoner. I will choose her opponent, and they will battle at the end of the games tomorrow. If she wins, Kestrel goes free. If not, well, I’ll have a dead champion, but at least we’ll get to execute Kestrel right afterward. All in all, a wonderfully bloody day for me and Queen Burn to look forward to.”

The cold wind whipped around Clay, piercing the wounds on his back and whistling through his scales. Burn was coming here. Tomorrow. And when she left, she’d be taking Sunny with her.

“All right,” Peril said, staring down at Osprey’s last dying spasms. “Tomorrow, then.” She reached for Osprey’s talons and stopped, her claws hovering over his, agonizingly close but not touching.

“Of course we’ll have to lock Kestrel back up,” said Queen Scarlet. “We wouldn’t want her to try escaping again. You understand.”

“Fine.” Peril turned and looked at Kestrel. They faced each other as Vermilion dismissed the crowd, and dragons began to pour out of the arena, buzzing with excitement.

When most of the crowd was gone, Kestrel pointed to the chains around her mouth. She wanted to talk to Peril.

“No,” Peril said as one of the guards stepped forward. She stared into Kestrel’s eyes. “You killed my brother. You left me here. And it’s your fault my friend is dead. I may not want you dead, but I don’t want to know you.”

She turned and left the arena. The guards dragged Kestrel away under Queen Scarlet’s triumphant smile.

Clay’s head was spinning. He tried to catch Tsunami’s eye, but she was storming around her platform, clawing angrily at the air. Across from him, Starflight was sitting up and looking at the sky.

Clay tried to think. If Peril succeeded in freeing Kestrel, surely Kestrel would try to free the dragonets as well. Maybe she’d go to the Talons of Peace for help.

But by then it might be too late, at least for some of them. Certainly for Sunny, who would be on her way to the SandWing stronghold in Burn’s clutches. And perhaps for Starflight, who would have to fight in the arena tomorrow. Maybe even for Tsunami and Clay himself, if they had to fight, too.

No, they couldn’t wait for Kestrel. They had to escape before the games tomorrow. Clay wondered if Peril would help them, now that she knew how the queen had betrayed her.

He waited hopefully for her to come back, but the day wore on with no more activity in the arena below. The hot sun baked the mud on his back until it began crumbling away into dust, while the wind yanked at his tail and his wings like a dragonet playing with prey. And Peril never came.

When the guard dropped off another pig at midday, Clay tried to ask him to take a message to Peril. But the guard snorted fire at him, scaring the pig right into Clay’s talons, and flew away without responding. The only good news was he didn’t notice the broken wire attached to Clay’s front right talon.

By the time the sun started drifting down over the western peaks, Clay was getting anxious. Was Peril all right? What if Queen Scarlet decided to get rid of her before she could fight for Kestrel?

Heavy wingbeats in the distance distracted him from his worries. He looked up as a score of SandWings appeared from the west, outlined by the red glow of the setting sun. The largest was in the lead, with the others fanned out in a V formation behind her. They swooped toward the queen’s palace, staying in perfect lines, and vanished beyond a distant wall, where Clay guessed the landing field for visitors was.

Burn was here.

She was the biggest and meanest of the three rivals for the SandWing throne. She held the SandWing palace stronghold. From what Clay could remember, she was the most likely to win the war — and the most likely to kill anyone who got in her way.

Dune had warned them that she was the most dangerous dragon in Pyrrhia, even meaner than Queen Scarlet. They knew the story of what she did to the SkyWing egg before they all hatched. Scarlet was bad enough, but Burn was the worst possible dragon to get her claws on the dragonets of destiny.

It seemed like only a few moments had passed when Clay saw the lead dragon come winging back over the wall toward the arena. As she flew closer, he could see her muscles rippling in her back like wind over sand dunes. Her poisonous tail was coiled up above her and her black eyes were staring straight at Clay.

He found himself crouching lower as she swept overhead. Her neck whipped around to keep her eyes on him as she flew in a circle, around and around just above him. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t read her expression at all.

After a minute, she hissed at him with a forked black tongue. She darted away to circle over Tsunami’s head, and then Starflight’s. Even Tsunami seemed cowed by this silent inspection. All three dragonets stayed still and watched her, until Burn flew away again and disappeared into the palace.

We have to get out of here, Clay thought. Now. Tonight. He couldn’t imagine what those dark eyes would see in Sunny. He had a horrible feeling Burn would “collect” the little SandWing by killing, stuffing, and mounting her on the wall.

But it was impossible. This was worse than their situation under the mountain. There, at least, they’d been together. Clay wasn’t the clever thinker of the group. He couldn’t come up with bright ideas and brilliant escape plans all by himself.

He realized Peril hadn’t kept her end of the bargain by telling him where Sunny was. So even if he could get down from his prison, he’d have no idea how to find Sunny in the vast SkyWing palace.

Had Peril forgotten about him? Or was she angry for some reason?

Clay paced, fretting, and the loose wire whacked at his other talons. He peered down at it. The sun was just a golden sliver against the mountains, and the moons were only starting to climb the sky, so he didn’t have much light.

He held up his free talon to the last of the sunlight. The wire had a curious clasp that held it in place around his leg as long as it was mostly taut. But now that the wire was loose at one end, he could see how to slide it out by worrying it with one claw. The other end had once been attached to Horizon, the SandWing prisoner Peril had killed. Now it was clipped to a ring in the center of the empty rock platform, which was why no one else had noticed that it was swinging free.

After a few moments of poking the clasp, Clay was able to work the wire off his leg. He was left with a stretch of wire about the length of his own tail. It was made of a hard sinewy metal that gleamed silvery-pink in the last rays of the sun — the same stuff in the bands on his wings. He could guess that it was fireproof, or other prisoners would have blazed through the wires long before him. Which meant Peril’s scales must be significantly hotter than regular fire, to blaze through the wire so easily.

Clay glanced around. Most of the prisoners were curled up to sleep for the night. It was only sunset, but there was not much else to do up on the rock columns. There were no guards in sight. There must be some kind of welcome banquet happening for Burn. Hopefully all the SkyWing soldiers would be there, feasting and laying bets on the gladiator fights scheduled for tomorrow. And hopefully Peril would be in her room, the closest cave to the arena. If he could just get her attention … if he could only talk to her, maybe she’d find a way to save them.

He wrapped one end of the wire around each of his front talons and tried sawing it across the wire that extended from his neck out into the web. He’d hoped it would slice through or something useful like that, but both wires looked undamaged when he stopped.

But as he slid the wires across each other, an eerie note echoed across the arena, like the lone cry of a bird or the last hum of a harp string.

That was kind of cool, Clay thought. He wondered if he could make different notes. He tried sliding the wire farther away from him, then closer to his neck, and then he tried the other three wires attached to his legs. The sounds were different — higher, lower — but still with that eerie, melancholy quality to them.

Maybe Peril will hear this and come talk to me, Clay thought. But how would she know it wasn’t just the wind or owls calling?

A song. The only song he knew was the one Tsunami sometimes sang to annoy the guardians — about the dragonets coming to save the day. Still. Maybe that’ll tell her it’s me calling.

He tried the wires again until he found the notes he wanted. It was fully dark now, with only a distant glimmer of moonlight creeping up the mountains. He couldn’t see the prisoners across the arena from him at all, but he hoped Starflight and Tsunami would be listening.

Clay concentrated, sliding the wires in order.

Oh, the dragonets are coming. . . .

He paused. It was too slow. When Tsunami sang it, the song was fast and fierce, so you could imagine a hall full of dragons roaring it at top volume. But Clay couldn’t get between the wires quickly enough to get the notes right and keep that tempo.

He tried again.

They’re coming to save the day. . . .

The notes echoed around the arena, soft and mournful. How would Peril ever recognize it? It sounded like ghosts of ancient dragons whispering from under the sands.

Maybe if he kept practicing.

They’re coming to fight … for they know what’s right. … the dragonets . . .

Clay stopped. The last “hooray!” would sound particularly ridiculous as an ancient ghost whisper. This was hopeless.

“Oh, the dragonets are coming. . . .”

Clay leaned forward. Was that an echo coming back to him?

But … he could clearly hear words in it. . . .

“They’re coming to save the day . . .” He swiveled his head to the left. That was definitely a voice — a second voice.

And neither one was Tsunami, because these dragons could actually sing.

“They’re coming to fight … for they know what’s right … the dragonets . . .”

Now there were at least six voices, all as soft and haunting as the notes from the wires. They slowly faded out, leaving off the last hooray just as Clay had done.

The prisoners were singing.

Clay set his wires together and began to play again. This time one voice after another joined in. As the arena began to fill with moonlight, Clay saw the prisoner to his left, the IceWing, with her silvery head stretched toward the sky, singing.

He picked up the pace a little the fourth time around, although the notes still had that eerie, plaintive sound. Even if this didn’t get Peril’s attention, the singing filled him with a wild, hopeful feeling. It seemed like every prisoner in the sky was singing now. He was pretty sure he could even hear Tsunami’s croaky voice and Starflight’s pure tenor.

This song meant something, even to dragons hardened on the battlefield and in the arena. They believed in the dragonets and the prophecy. For the first time, Clay’s dreams of doing something big and legendary and helpful seemed like they belonged to this world instead of his imagination.

They were on their sixth time through the song, all of them singing wholeheartedly, when a blast of fire shot through the arena doors below and Queen Scarlet stormed onto the sand with Burn right behind her.

“Stop that infernal noise right now!” Burn roared.

The singing broke off at once. Clay quickly hid the wire in a fold of his wing, although he didn’t think the queens could see the prisoners very well, up in the dark.

“You,” Queen Scarlet growled, pointing at Tsunami. “And you.” She pointed at Starflight. “And — well, probably not you, but get down here anyway,” she snarled at Clay.

SkyWing soldiers spilled out of the tunnel and soared up to the three dragonets. Clay realized they were about to discover his missing wire. He lunged away from the two who’d come to get him, flapping and whacking their heads with his wings.

“Here, stop it or we’ll drop you,” one of them snarled.

“But he’s a —” the other one started.

“Shhhh,” said the first. “You heard the queen. We don’t call them that.”

It was enough. In the confusion and the dark, they each thought the other had unclipped that leg, and they flew him down to the sand without catching their mistake.

Tsunami and Starflight both gave Clay concerned looks, and he realized he must still have a fair amount of blood and mud crusted to his scales.

“Bring them this way,” Queen Scarlet snapped, stomping into the tunnel with Burn. Clay reached out and brushed wings with Tsunami as they were shoved along. Whatever happened next, at least he was with his friends now.

They stopped at Peril’s cave. Peril was resting her head on one of the narrow window ledges, staring out at the sky. She turned and gave Queen Scarlet a cold look.

Clay noticed that the full-length portrait of the queen was gone from the wall. A pile of ashes smoldered on the floor under the spot where it had been. He saw the queen’s eyes dart to the empty wall, and more smoke curled from her nose.

“Out,” she said to Peril.

“This is my room!” Peril snapped back.

“I’m the queen here,” Scarlet said. “You do as I say. Go sleep in the arena. If anyone else tries to sing, fly up and burn out his tongue.”

Peril’s tail lashed furiously. A moment passed, and then she stormed toward the door. The two queens had to scurry out of her path in a very undignified way, and Clay saw a few of the SkyWing guards hiding smiles.

The wave of Peril’s heat swept over them, and she hurried off down the tunnel, barely glancing at Clay as she went by. He stared after her, worried. Maybe she is mad at me. But why?

“In here,” Queen Scarlet said, shoving Starflight into Peril’s cave herself. He stumbled trying to jump over the pool of water and ended up with his back legs splashing around for a moment. Tsunami shook her guards away and hopped over the pool, and then Clay followed.

“You will not interrupt my feast again,” Queen Scarlet hissed. “I’m sure you’re very amused with yourselves.”

“Why don’t you kill them?” Burn asked. She was much bigger than Scarlet; her head scraped the top of the tunnel, and her talons were twice the size of Clay’s. She wore no precious jewels or chain mail, but her claws and teeth were stained red from all the blood she had shed, and a vicious scar was burned along her left side, below the wing. There was no white to her eyes at all; they were orbs of pure, menacing black.

“Because that wouldn’t be fun,” Queen Scarlet answered. “I want to see them fight. We have a whole day of entertainment planned for tomorrow. It’s my hatching day! I want it to be thrilling.”

Clay was starting to hate the word thrilling.

Burn gave the SkyWing guards a glare, and they quickly shuffled up the tunnel, out of earshot. She lowered her voice so only Scarlet and the dragonets could hear her. “But if they are the dragonets of the prophecy, then the best way to break the prophecy is to kill them.”

“Well,” Scarlet said. Her tongue flicked in and out of her mouth as she regarded Starflight. Clay could tell she still wanted to see a NightWing in combat. “Perhaps. But that didn’t work so well for you, did it? Everyone knows about the SkyWing egg — all the SkyWing eggs, in fact.”

Clay’s ears pricked. What did that mean?

Burn’s tail thumped the floor hard enough to shake the ground below Clay’s feet. “On the contrary, that worked perfectly. They don’t have a SkyWing, do they? Only four dragonets — the prophecy is already incomplete.”

Clay and Tsunami exchanged glances. She didn’t tell Burn that Glory is one of us. She wants to keep her new “work of art” for herself.

“And yet our ignorant subjects are always yowling about the dragonets who are going to save the world,” Scarlet said. “They believe in it, no matter what they’ve heard about broken eggs. If we kill the dragonets now, out of sight, it does us no good. Even if we hang their bodies from the palace walls, no one will believe it’s them.”

Burn bared her teeth in a snarl. “The world doesn’t need a prophecy. It needs me as queen of the SandWings.”

“But listen,” Scarlet said smoothly. “If we put the dragonets in the arena, everyone can watch them die. They’ll see how weak they really are. They’ll lose all their faith in the dragonets, and more important, in the prophecy. It’ll all be over. Much more powerful than just making them disappear.” The SkyWing queen cast a sly look at her guest. “Don’t you agree?”

“And what if they win?” Burn demanded.

“They won’t,” Scarlet said. “But of course killing them ourselves is a solid backup plan.”

“Excuse me,” Tsunami interrupted. “You know we’re right over here, right? Don’t you want to hatch your evil plans somewhere more secretive?”

Clay thought the combined force of the queens’ glares would knock her over, but Tsunami just glared back.

Scarlet opened a pouch slung under her wing and scattered several round black rocks across the mouth of Peril’s cave, on the tunnel side of the pool of water. She opened her mouth and breathed on them, and the rocks all burst into flames. In moments, the dragonets were trapped by a wall of fire.

“Sleep well, so you’ll be thrilling in the arena,” Queen Scarlet said. “I thought I’d get to play with you for longer, but I guess you all have to be dead by sunset tomorrow.” She sighed. “Nobody lets me have any fun.”

Clay listened to the heavy thump of the queens’ talons fading away up the tunnel. He turned to look at his friends just as Tsunami cannoned into him.

“Ow!” he yelped, but he didn’t fight her off as she twined her tail with his and wrapped her wings around him.

“I’m so glad you’re alive,” she said. “You incredibly huge idiot.”

“So am I,” Clay said. “But I’m more glad you two are alive.” He reached out a wing and drew Starflight into their hug. The NightWing rested his head for a moment on Clay’s shoulder, and Clay felt worried all over again about what would happen to Starflight in the arena.

“We need to figure out how to get out of here,” he said.

“First we’re cleaning you up,” Tsunami said, stepping back and shooing Starflight out of the way. “Into the water. Go!”

“That’s not important,” Clay said. “I feel —”

Tsunami pushed him into the pool.

Clay surfaced, coughing and sputtering. The pool was almost as deep as he was tall. He could stand on the bottom and hold his head above the surface if he kept his neck extended. The water was cold, but with the black-rock fire so close, it was slowly heating up.

“See?” Tsunami said. “Much better.” She leaned over the edge and rubbed the scales on his back, cleaning off the dirt and blood. Clay decided it wasn’t worth arguing with her.

“That was pretty smart,” Starflight said to Tsunami. “With the song. I have no idea how you managed to pull a melody out of your ear after being completely tone-deaf your whole life.”

She blinked at him. “I didn’t do that. I thought you did!”

“It was me,” Clay admitted. He drew out the wire and slid it across the floor. Starflight picked it up and peered at it.

“How did you break that?” Tsunami said. Clay really liked the tone of awe in her voice. He wished he could say he’d done something clever.

“I had help,” he admitted. “That dragon who was just here — Peril. Her touch can burn through it. She did that by accident.”

Starflight reached up and fingered the bands on his wings, looking thoughtful.

“That dragon is psychotic,” Tsunami said. “Didn’t you see her decimate that SandWing? And she’s Kestrel’s daughter, which kind of makes sense.”

“Yeah,” Starflight said. “No wonder Kestrel always hated us. I bet the Talons of Peace thought she’d want to be on dragonet-minding duty after what she’d lost. But we just reminded her of her dead children every day.”

Clay shivered. He hadn’t thought of it like that. “Peril’s not completely crazy,” he said. “She’s kind of nice when she’s not killing someone. She brought me mud for my back. And she said she found Sunny.”

Starflight’s head shot up. “Where?”

“Can she get to her?” Tsunami demanded. “Can she set her free?”

“I don’t know if Peril will help us,” Clay said, rolling his shoulders in the water. “I haven’t talked to her since the trial. I’m afraid she’s mad at me.”

“I’m not mad at you.” Peril stuck her head through the wall of fire and looked down at Clay in the pool.

Tsunami jumped back with a hiss of alarm. Starflight crouched and froze, watching Peril with large eyes.

“Oh, good,” Clay said to Peril. He wondered how much of their conversation she had overheard. Would she help them even if she’d heard Tsunami calling her names? She certainly wasn’t giving Tsunami the friendliest look. “Where have you been?”

“I didn’t want to put you in danger,” Peril blurted. She flapped her wings, and the fire whooshed higher around her.

“Come inside,” Clay said. “It’s weird talking to someone on fire.”

He ducked his head underwater, and Peril hopped over the pool into the cave. Tsunami and Starflight both backed up to the windows, staying as far away from Peril as they could.

Clay climbed out of the pool and spread his wings so Peril’s heat could dry them off. She coiled her tail in close to her and dipped her head at him, ignoring the other two.

“I was afraid the queen would hurt you like she hurt Osprey,” Peril said miserably. “I shouldn’t even be talking to you. If she finds out I like you, she’ll do something awful to you just to punish me.”

Tsunami gave Clay a sharp look he didn’t understand.

“Can you help us escape?” he asked Peril hopefully.

“I wish,” she said. “That would make her madder than anything. But I can’t get you through that fire.” She flicked her tail at the wall of flames.

“Could we use the water to put it out?” Starflight asked. He flinched as Peril turned to look at him.

“No — those rocks have to burn down to embers. They can’t be put out any other way.”

“What about Sunny?” Clay asked. “Is there anything you can do to free her? We have to rescue her before Burn takes her away.”

Peril’s blue-flame eyes narrowed. “You talk about this Sunny a lot. Is she really that important?”

“Yes!” all three dragonets answered at once. Peril’s tail twitched. Clay had no idea why she looked so displeased.

“Peril,” Tsunami interjected. “Listen. Sunny is like a little sister to us. To all of us.”

Starflight looked down at his talons.

“Think about your brother,” Tsunami went on. “Wouldn’t you have saved him if you could?”

Peril’s expression shifted, and she nodded. “A sister. Yes. I understand. All right, I’ll help.”

“Where is she?” Starflight asked. “Is she all right?”

“She’s in a kind of birdcage,” Peril said, “hung over the feasting hall. Everyone will be celebrating out there all night tonight, but tomorrow, while they’re watching the arena, I can sneak in and get her.”

“Oh, thank you!” Clay nearly twined his tail around hers, but he remembered at the last second not to touch her.

“What about Clay and Starflight?” Tsunami asked. “I can survive the arena, but they can’t.”

“Um, I can survive the arena, too,” Clay said. “Hello, I already have.”

“And how did you do that, exactly?” Tsunami asked. “I happen to know you don’t have secret venom in your claws.”

“I know what to do!” Starflight cried, jumping to his feet.

“In the arena?” Tsunami said skeptically.

“No, right now,” he said. “I know how we can get out of here.”

Starflight pointed to the flames rising from the black rocks. “Peril, the fire doesn’t hurt you, right?”

She shrugged. “It tickles a little, that’s all.”

“And the fire is coming from the rocks. What if you picked up the rocks and moved them? You could put the fire somewhere else and open the doorway for us, couldn’t you?”

Clay’s heart was beating fast. Peril tilted her head at Starflight. “He is smart,” she said. “Just like you said. I guess I could do that.” She sounded like she wasn’t entirely convinced. “If you’re really sure you want to escape tonight.”

“Of course we are,” Tsunami said, springing to her feet. “Let’s get out of here.”

“But Sunny —” Starflight said.

“We hide somewhere and wait until Peril can free her tomorrow,” Tsunami said.

“And Glory,” Clay said. “We have to save Glory, too.”

“Glory?” Peril’s brow creased in a frown.

“The RainWing. Queen Scarlet’s new artwork,” Clay said.

“Oh,” Peril said. “Her. She’s very beautiful.” She narrowed her eyes at Clay, which confused him.

“Let’s run away now and worry about that later,” Tsunami said. “Is there somewhere we can hide?”

Peril snapped her wings open. “Below the waterfall. There’s a cave only I know about.” She turned, nearly smacking Clay with her tail, and hopped over the pool into the fire. Clay watched in amazement as she wrapped her claws around two of the black rocks and picked them up. She stepped into the tunnel, and the fire from the rocks went with her, blazing around her talons.

Carefully she piled the fire on the rock floor outside until there was a gap big enough for the dragonets to jump through. Tsunami went first, and then Clay, and then Starflight. When they were all out in the tunnel, Peril rebuilt the wall of fire across the cave entrance.

“There,” she said with satisfaction. “Now she’ll have no idea how you got out.”

“Can you get these off our wings?” Starflight whispered, pointing to the bindings. Peril gave him a hard look.

“Maybe,” she said. “But maybe I’ll wait until I know you won’t leave without saying good-bye.”

“We wouldn’t leave without our friends,” Clay promised. She scowled.

“Which way to the waterfall?” Tsunami asked.

Peril nodded up the tunnel and slithered off, leading the way.

“Stop making her mad,” Tsunami hissed in Clay’s ear as they followed.

“Me?” he said, genuinely surprised. “What did I do?”

“Well, you’re a handsome idiot,” she said affectionately. “And I’ll tell you later.”

Which didn’t clear things up at all.

Shortly before they reached the central hall of balconies, the tunnel turned left and began to rise. Peril signaled for them all to move quietly, and they crept toward the sound of dragons shouting, singing, and smashing things.

Peril glanced over her shoulder at Clay, who was concentrating on moving his talons carefully over the rocky, gold-laced floor. “Hey,” she whispered. “Once you’re free … what are you going to do?”

“We’ll go find our parents,” Clay whispered back. “I’ve never been to the MudWing kingdom. I can’t wait.”

“Really?” Peril said. “You’ll go straight there? Just the five of you?”

“Absolutely. As soon as poss —” Clay started, and then Tsunami trod heavily on his tail. He squelched a yelp of pain and made a face at her. When he looked up again, Peril had hurried ahead.

Clay guessed they had climbed two levels, circling behind the balconies, when they reached an open doorway as tall as five dragons and just as wide. They hid around a corner of the tunnel and peeked out.

The doorway led out onto a flat half-circle plateau between the cliffs, packed with SkyWings and SandWings and lit by floating globes full of fire. Most of the SkyWings were wearing gold or copper or precious jewels that sparkled in the firelight. The SandWing desert dragons looked rough and common next to them, and many of them stood awkwardly as if they would rather be charging into battle than making polite conversation at a party.

Statues of Queen Scarlet in different regal poses were scattered about the floor, some carved from marble, some of gold, others of smooth black rock with rubies for eyes. Tables around the outside were piled high with food, and several kinds of prey were also running frantically between the dragons’ claws. A low rock barrier kept the prey from escaping into the tunnel, and all around the plateau were steep cliffs going either up or down, so they were trapped.

Clay saw a SkyWing pause mid-conversation, smash her talons down on a mountain goat, pop it in her mouth, and continue chatting with the SandWing opposite her. He also spotted a couple of scavengers among the prey. Instead of running around like terrified chickens, one was trying to climb the cliff; the other was crawling under one of the tables to hide. It made him wonder if scavengers were smarter than they looked.

Now that he could see the feast was out in the open air, he realized how the dragons out here had heard the prisoners singing. He’d been wondering how the sound had carried down the long tunnels, but from here the arena was only a short dragon hop across a couple of cliffs.

Queen Scarlet lay on a tall golden throne, looking down at the other dragons. Another, shorter throne was set up next to her for Burn, although Burn’s enormous height brought their heads to almost the same level. Burn kept shifting and scowling as if the fancy curved seat was uncomfortable.

Starflight grabbed Clay’s shoulder and pointed at a large birdcage hanging over the center of the space. It was held aloft by wires like the ones on the prisoners’ legs, strung between tall poles on either side of the plateau. Occasionally a dragon or two would fly up and circle the cage, peering in, and then fly back down to the floor.

Crouched inside the cage with her wings over her head was Sunny. Her golden scales glowed dully in the firelight, as if she were just another piece of treasure.

“Stop,” Tsunami whispered as Clay started forward. “I know. I want to go get her, too.”

“But if we do it right now, it’s suicide,” Starflight agreed. “Better to let them think we’d leave without her. If they know we care about her, they’ll use it against us.” His tail lashed in frustration.

“But she’s all alone,” Clay whispered. If only she knew they were there, not too far away. He stretched a little farther out, looking for Glory, but he couldn’t see her. Perhaps Scarlet was hiding her from Burn.

“You guys cross first,” Peril said. “Crouch low and run, and hopefully they won’t spot us.” She sent Tsunami darting across first, and the others followed one at a time. Clay found himself wishing he had darker scales that could melt into the shadows like Starflight’s. They huddled around the next bend, waiting for Peril.

“Sorry,” she said when she caught up a few moments later. “I had to wait for the queen to look away.”

From here the tunnel branched in several directions. Peril took the one leading down under the cliff where the feast was. The torches were spaced farther apart as they went along, so the tunnel grew darker and darker. Soon Clay could hear roaring up ahead, and this time he knew for sure it was a waterfall.

They emerged on a narrow ridge halfway up a tall, craggy cliff. By the light of the moons, they could see straight down to a glittering, winding river far below. The waterfall pounded ahead of them, loud and fierce, and the wind carried bursts of cold spray into their faces.

Starflight pressed himself back against the cliff. “Are you sure you don’t want to unbind our wings now?” he said, closing his eyes.

“You’ll be fine,” Peril said. “It’s easy to climb down from here. I’ve done it when my wings are tired. See? The cave’s right there.”

Clay peeked over the edge and saw a small gap in the cliff far below, like a tiny gash in the wall behind the waterfall. It was definitely a journey he’d prefer to do with functioning wings. But if they had to keep Peril happy . . .

“I see some claw holds,” he said. “And we can rest on that boulder halfway —” He stopped. Over the roaring of the waterfall, he could hear wingbeats. Someone was coming.

He spun around. “Hide,” he said, frantically pushing Peril toward the tunnel. “If they find you helping us, the queens will kill you, champion or not.”

She stopped in the mouth of the tunnel, staring at him. Clay turned and saw Tsunami and Starflight wearing matching shocked expressions.

“How did you do that?” Peril whispered.

“Do —” Clay started, and then he felt the heat in his talons. He had touched Peril’s scales without even thinking. He looked down, expecting to see dark scorch marks and claws crumbling to ash. But his talons were only glowing a warm red, and even as he looked at them, the redness and the heat faded away until his talons felt entirely normal again.

“Stop gawping,” Tsunami ordered, shoving him at the tunnel. “Everybody run.”

“I don’t think so,” said Queen Scarlet’s chilly voice behind them. Clay turned slowly and saw the SkyWing queen descending from the cliff above, her bejeweled wings spread wide.

“Thank you, Peril,” the queen said nastily. “You may be excused.”

Clay didn’t understand. Thank you for what? Peril gave him an agonized look and fled up the tunnel.

Queen Scarlet smiled at the dragonets as SkyWing soldiers began to rain from the sky. “Going somewhere?”

The queen was not pleased to find her wall of fire still in place when the dragonets were hauled back to their cell. She sighed disapprovingly.

“So you’ve figured out what MudWings hatched from blood-red eggs can do,” she said. “I suppose it was only a matter of time.”

Clay glanced at the others in confusion as the guards used long shovels to scrape the rocks aside. What did she think he’d done? Tsunami and Starflight looked grim, as if they understood a lot more than he did.

“Find the ten most sober guards,” Scarlet instructed Vermilion. “Post them out here. These dragonets are done ruining my party.” She glared at the three of them as they were pushed into the cave once more and the fire wall was scraped back into place. “It’s really very selfish of you,” she snapped. “My hatching day only comes once a year. I’ve been planning this for months. So stop being awful, or I will take Burn’s advice and kill you right now.”

They waited until she was gone and the spiny backs of ten very grouchy SkyWing guards filled the passageway outside. Then Tsunami pulled Clay and Starflight to the far corner, where the wind whistling through the narrow windows would cover their conversation.

“I don’t remember anything about that in the scrolls,” she whispered to Starflight.

“There was one reference to a legend from before the Scorching,” Starflight whispered back. “But I didn’t think it meant anything. The guardians never said there was anything special about a red egg. I don’t think they’re even all that rare.”

“What are we talking about?” Clay asked.

“You, you great lummox,” Tsunami said, poking him with one talon. “And your no-good, evil girlfriend.”

“I — who?” Clay said.

“Peril,” Starflight explained. “The one who betrayed us to Queen Scarlet instead of helping us escape.”

Clay was finally catching up. “You think she did that?” he said. “Why would she do that?”

“Because she wants to keep you here, obviously,” Tsunami growled. “This is what happens when you’re too nice to psychotic killer dragons.”

“I’m still confused,” Clay said. “How do red eggs come into it?”

“Don’t you remember the prophecy?” Starflight asked.

Clay winced. It was the one thing the big dragons had tried to drill into their heads over and over again. But it never seemed to stick in his.

“For wings of earth, search through the mud,” Starflight quoted, “for an egg the color of dragon blood.” He stopped and looked expectantly at Clay. There was a pause.

“What, me?” Clay said.

“Tell us about the legend,” Tsunami said impatiently to Starflight.

“It was something about how MudWings hatched from dragon-blood eggs can walk through fire,” Starflight said.

“Oh, that’s all?” Tsunami said, her voice laced with sarcasm. “Well, that doesn’t sound at all useful. Certainly not worth mentioning.”

“Hey, if I had my scrolls with me, I’d have all the information we could possibly want,” Starflight pointed out.

“Wait, that can’t be right,” Clay said. “Kestrel burned me plenty of times in combat training.”

“But you have no scars,” Tsunami said. “She tried to set you on fire way more than the rest of us, and you always healed in, like, a day.”

“It still hurt, though,” Clay said. He remembered that really clearly.

“The mud,” Starflight jumped in. “Dragons draw strength from their natural habitats. SeaWings are most powerful in the ocean. I bet you had to encounter mud before your full immunity from fire could develop.” He paused, thinking, and his expression turned hopeful. “Maybe my powers will be activated by moonlight or something.”

“If that’s true, the Talons of Peace were especially stupid to keep you underground,” Tsunami said.

“We’ve been on those columns at night for the last couple of days,” Clay said. “Do you feel any different?”

Starflight glanced at the stars glittering outside the window. “No,” he admitted after a moment. “But maybe I just don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like.”

They sat for a moment quietly.

“Do you really think Peril betrayed us?” Clay asked.

“She definitely did,” Tsunami answered. “She doesn’t want to lose you.”

“Oh,” Clay said. “That’s so sad. I guess she doesn’t have any other friends.”

“Clay!” Tsunami said, exasperated. “Don’t feel sorry for her. She just betrayed us. And by the way, she clearly likes you as more than a friend.” Clay blinked in surprise, and she nudged his wing with hers. “Hey, I get it. You’re lovable or whatever. But you can’t forgive her for this. She’ll only get more possessive if she thinks she can get away with it.”

“You should stay away from her,” Starflight agreed, shaking his head. “She can’t be trusted.”

“I guess she’s not going to rescue Sunny either,” Clay said sadly.

“No,” Tsunami agreed. “We’ll have to do that ourselves.”

“Tomorrow,” Starflight added. They all looked out at the guards stationed in the tunnel. Even if Clay moved the fire rocks, the three of them were no match for that many fierce, bad-tempered warrior dragons. They were trapped for the rest of the night.

“We’ll figure out something,” Tsunami said.

Clay was exhausted. He hadn’t slept much, and then only badly, since his fight with Fjord. He curled up on the floor, and the other two flopped over him — the way they all used to sleep, in a pile of dragonets, before Kestrel insisted on the sleeping caves and rocky ledges for beds.

The warmth and weight of the other two was just what Clay needed. Despite his fears about the morning, his guilt over trusting Peril, and his sadness at her betrayal, he was asleep within moments. And he didn’t have a single nightmare.

The roaring of dragons woke them the next morning. The three dragonets barely had time to scramble to their feet before guards began pouring into their cave. The black rocks had burned down to embers, which the SkyWing soldiers swept into the pool easily with their tails. Several of them grabbed Tsunami and pushed her toward the arena; the rest herded Clay and Starflight up the tunnel.

“Wait!” Clay cried. “Where is she going? Why can’t we go with her?”

“Listen to him. Oh, please hurry up and kill me,” mocked one of the SkyWing guards.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be your turn soon enough,” said another, and they all cackled unpleasantly.

Clay and Starflight were shoved up a flight of long, wide, black stairs and emerged blinking into bright sunlight.

They were standing on the queen’s balcony, overlooking the arena. Queen Scarlet was already there, lounging on her throne. She smirked at them.

“I thought you’d appreciate the best view in the house for this.” She nodded at the arena, where Tsunami was snapping and clawing at the guards around her.

Fat chains were wound around their necks, and Clay and Starflight were bolted to rings on the balcony floor. Burn stood next to Scarlet, ignoring the throne provided for her. She glowered at all the dragons equally. Clay got the feeling she preferred actual fighting over watching other dragons fight.

He jerked back against his chain as Glory was rolled forward into the sunlight. She was still lying in relaxed loops around the tree, with waves of emerald green and peacock blue drifting through her scales. Her eyes were closed, but as she rolled past, Clay was sure they opened a tiny bit, just enough to see her friends chained nearby. At least, he hoped that’s what he saw.

Burn’s black eyes were fixed on Glory as well.

“Oh, that’s my new toy,” Queen Scarlet said airily. “Pretty, isn’t she? I bet I’m the only queen with my very own RainWing.”

“Waste of food,” Burn muttered, but her expression was envious.

“She doesn’t eat much,” Scarlet said. “She’s more like an exotic plant than a dragon. Water, lots of sunshine, a little fruit, and a monkey here or there. Worth it until I get bored of her anyway.”

“Hmmm,” said Burn.

The seats were filled with hundreds of dragons — all the dragons in the Sky Kingdom, it seemed to Clay. They roared and stamped their feet, demanding bloody entertainment.

Vermilion fluttered down into the center of the arena. “Fellow dragons,” he called. “Loyal SkyWings and visiting MudWings and honored SandWing guests. We have a full slate of thrilling games today, so let’s begin!” He turned to gesture to Tsunami just as she broke away from her guards and charged at him. With a yelp of terror, Vermilion shot into the sky, barely escaping her talons.

The dragons in the audience roared with laughter. Tsunami hissed at Vermilion as he looped in circles above her.

“Looks like someone’s mistaken me for her opponent today,” Vermilion announced with a nervous laugh. “Sorry to disappoint you, SeaWing, but there’s a much more dramatic fellow we’d like you to meet.” He gestured to the sky. Several guards were wrestling with a pea-green SeaWing on one of the spires.

“Down on the sands, we have one of the so-called dragonets of destiny,” Vermilion bellowed, staying up in the air. “Are they really so great and powerful? This is how we find out. I give you … Tsunami of the SeaWings!”

The sound of beating wings and hissing fire-breath filled the arena. It was louder than Clay had expected, as if the watching dragons were really rooting for her. He could pick out some of the voices in the crowd.

“It’s really them! The dragonets of destiny!”

“Well, you saw what the MudWing did to Fjord! What was that?”

“Did you hear the mountain singing last night?”

“Such a fabulous party . . .”

“. . . must have been an omen.”

“. . . ghosts in the peaks … the dragonets are here . . .”

“. . . wearing the same ruby medallion! It was too embarrassing.”

“. . . hope she wins . . .”

Clay glanced at Queen Scarlet, who had smoke billowing in rings around her horns. She flicked her tail at Vermilion as if to say, Get on with it.

“AHEM,” said Vermilion. “Some of you may remember a dragon a few months back who refused to fight.”

“BOOOOOOOOO!” the crowd chanted obediently.

“Indeed,” said Vermilion. “Tried to start a regular prisoner revolution, didn’t he? Tried to get all the dragons to stop fighting. Well, clearly he had to be taught a lesson, or we’d all be lying in our caves right now, bored out of our skulls. Am I right?”

“WOO HOOOO!” the crowd agreed.

“So what’s the best way to punish a SeaWing?” Vermilion swooped over the crowd, trying to look as if he was perfectly comfortable in the air instead of on the sands where he usually did his announcing.

“Chop off his head!”

“Stuff grass in his gills!”

“Drown him!”

Vermilion sighed. “All good suggestions,” he said. “But no. The best way to punish a SeaWing — is to take away their water. All their water. For months.”

Tsunami looked up at the queen’s balcony and met Clay’s eyes. Her scales were pale with horror.

The writhing SeaWing landed hard on the sands, dropped by the guards. He was twice as big as Tsunami, with talons as sharp and curved as fishhooks. Dried blood flecked his mouth as if he’d been trying to drink from his own veins. His scales were dull and crusted, and his dark green eyes were bloodshot and rolling wildly in his emaciated skull.

He looked completely insane.

“Dehydrated, mentally unstable, and ready to fight at last. It’s Gill of the Seawings! Claws up, tails ready! Fight!”

Gill didn’t wait for Vermilion’s order. He tore across the sand toward Tsunami as soon as he’d recovered his balance. His mouth was open as if he thought he was roaring, but no sound came out. His tongue, purple and swollen, lolled to the side.

Tsunami leaped over his head and ducked into a roll as she landed, carrying her halfway across the arena. She spun to face him as Gill turned and charged her again.

“He’s fast,” Starflight whispered to Clay. “He’s desperate.”

“Tsunami’s fast, too,” Clay said. But he wondered if she was feeling everything he’d felt, down on the sands. Facing her first battle to the death, was she hesitant to kill another dragon? Because Gill wouldn’t hesitate at all. He couldn’t be distracted like Fjord. He’d been driven mad with thirst, and he’d tear Tsunami apart without knowing what he was doing.

The big green dragon reared up with his wings spread and tried to slam himself down on Tsunami’s back. She slashed at his underbelly with her claws. Bright red blood spurted over her blue scales. Gill’s talons slipped off her back, and he crashed face-first into the sand as she shot out of the way.

He was up immediately, lunging after her. His claws seized her tail and he yanked hard, lifting her off her feet. She wriggled in midair and sank her teeth into the webbed skin between his talons.

Gill did his soundless roar again. There was something unearthly about watching dragons fight in silence. It made Clay feel like his scales were crawling across his back.

Gill dropped Tsunami and she whirled quickly, smashing her tail into his legs. The big SeaWing went over like a toppling boulder. The thud of his body landing shook the whole stadium.

Tsunami pounced on his head, pinning his wings with her back talons. She seized his horns in her front claws and shoved his face into the sand. His tail thrashed, bucking her up and down, but Tsunami’s weight was too much for him to throw off.

“I’ve won,” Tsunami shouted. “You can all see that. We can end this now, without killing anyone. I ask you all to let me let him live!”

There was a stunned silence across the arena. Clay glanced at Queen Scarlet, wondering if she would stand up to argue with Tsunami. But her expression was smug, as if she knew exactly what would happen next.

“KILL HIM!” several SkyWings shouted at once. “Snap his neck! Pull out his teeth! Oooo, gouge his eyes! Something gory! Death! Death! Death! Death!” Suddenly all the dragons were shouting at her in unison.

Tsunami lowered her head, breathing hard. She seemed to be studying Gill, perhaps wondering if there was any way to bring him back from the madness.

“She doesn’t have a choice,” Starflight said. “It’s her life or his. If she lets him go, he’ll kill her right away. She has to know that.”

Yes, but knowing that doesn’t make it any easier, Clay thought.

“Perhaps our ‘dragonet of destiny’ doesn’t have the stomach for battle,” Queen Scarlet called snidely. “Maybe war is too scary for her. Perhaps she’d like to go back into hiding instead?”

Tsunami lifted her chin and stared straight into Queen Scarlet’s eyes. With a wrench of her talons, she snapped Gill’s neck in one clean break. The expression on her face said, all too clearly, I’m imagining this is you.

“Disappointing,” Queen Scarlet said to Burn, as the crowd of dragons erupted in cheers.

“Catastrophic,” Burn growled. “Look, the idiots love her now.”

Dragons were leaning over the top of the arena walls to throw small jewels at Tsunami. A couple of little emeralds bounced off her scales as she dropped Gill’s head and stepped back from his limp body.

Tsunami gave the cheering dragons a disgusted look, but that didn’t stop them.

“Don’t worry, I have a plan,” said Queen Scarlet. She rubbed her front talons together. “But now it’s time for the NightWing! My hatching-day present to me!”

Starflight’s terrified eyes locked with Clay’s. All his know-it-all superiority vanished in a heartbeat.

“Wait!” Clay cried as the guards started to unchain Starflight. “Let me fight for him instead!”

“These dragonets,” Scarlet said, waving a claw at Burn. “Constantly pushing and shoving to save each other. It’s just the weirdest thing.” She signaled to the guards with one talon, and they hauled Starflight off to the tunnel. Clay leaned his full weight against his chains, trying to break free, but they held fast.

“You’re not spoiling this for me, MudWing,” Scarlet said. “I’ve been dying to see the NightWing fight. He’s so very sparkly and good-looking. I think after he’s dead I’ll cut off his wings and hang them on my throne room walls. Wouldn’t that be magnificent and thrilling? All those silver scales sparkling like diamonds against obsidian. I love it.”

Burn growled low in her throat. “This is a frivolous palace,” she muttered.

“Careful how you speak of your allies,” Scarlet said. “Remember you need us.”

Burn shifted her wings and kept her mouth shut.

No one had chained up Tsunami after her fight. She was still standing in the arena, her back turned to the SeaWing corpse, which was already beginning to smell of dead fish.

Then Starflight was shoved out of the tunnel, and Clay realized what Scarlet’s plan was. Hope fluttered inside him. Tsunami would never kill Starflight. Not in a million years. Not even to stop one of his endless lectures about the science of fire-breathing.

“The rarest of all dragons,” Vermilion called from the safety of a ledge opposite the queen’s balcony. “A real live NightWing. Is he the dragonet of the prophecy? Let’s see what happens when two of them have to fight each other. Tsunami of the SeaWings and Starflight of the NightWings! Claws up, teeth ready! Fight!”

Tsunami and Starflight stood looking at each other. Tsunami’s sides were heaving, and she was covered in Gill’s blood. She looked a bit scarier than usual, and Starflight clawed the sand nervously, as if he wasn’t entirely sure she wouldn’t snap and kill him.

Slowly Tsunami walked over to Starflight. He opened his wings, and she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

“BOOO … ooo?” called a solitary voice from the crowd, dropping off as no one joined in.

“Awwwww,” went a few dragons in the upper seats, far enough from the queen that they wouldn’t be recognized.

“This is getting worse and worse,” Burn hissed through gritted teeth.

“Aren’t you going to fight?” Queen Scarlet called. Tsunami and Starflight didn’t even look up. “That’s very annoying,” the queen added. “Go on, you’ve been stuck with each other for years. You must be ready to kill her, NightWing. Doesn’t she drive you mad?”

Clay looked over at Glory, wishing she’d smile at him. She’d joked often enough about ways to shut up both Tsunami and Starflight. But her eyes stayed closed.

“No?” Scarlet leaned forward. “Oh, fine, be the worst gladiators ever. Vermilion! Release the scavengers!”

Vermilion flapped his wings, and a huge cage came rolling out of the tunnel. The queen’s son flew to the top of it and bit down to sever the cord that held the door. The door fell open, and four scavengers burst onto the sand, waving claws and squeaking ferociously.

“Scavengers? To kill the dragonets of the prophecy? Are you mad?” Burn snarled.

“Well, it only took one to get your mother,” Scarlet observed. Burn’s head whipped around, her venomous tail arching up toward the SkyWing queen.

“Oh, calm down,” Scarlet said with a snort. “It’ll be fun. I’ve got more things waiting in the wings to kill them if this doesn’t work. This is the only NightWing I’ll probably ever get in my arena, and I want to see him fight everything.”

Clay leaned forward, worried. They’d never practiced fighting or hunting scavengers. Scavengers only attacked dragons with treasure, and the dragonets didn’t have anything. He wondered if Starflight had read about their fighting techniques in any of his scrolls.

Then again, scavengers were still prey, only a little fiercer and pointier. The guardians would often release animals in the caves for the dragonets to chase, so they could learn hunting skills. Were scavengers really any different from lizards or goats or ostriches?

Tsunami pushed Starflight back against the wall and spread her wings in front of him, baring her teeth at the scavengers. Three of them ran right at her; the fourth took one look and bolted for the tunnel entrance.

Well, it wasn’t normal for prey to run at a dragon. So perhaps scavengers were a little different after all.

Tsunami cuffed aside the first scavenger with a swipe that sent it flying into the seats. All the closest dragons lunged for it, clawing and shouting and climbing over each other to catch it. The scavenger landed, screaming, in one SkyWing’s outstretched talons, and the dragon promptly ate him.

The other two scavengers skidded to a stop and backpedaled out of Tsunami’s reach. She flicked her tongue at them.

Meanwhile, the scavenger who had tried to run came hurtling back out of the tunnel, herded by a trio of large SkyWing guards holding long spears. He pelted across the sand, letting out one long shriek of fear, until he crashed into the opposite wall and fell over. He didn’t get up again.

“This is going well,” Burn muttered. “The NightWing isn’t even doing anything.”

“The other two scavengers are female,” Scarlet pointed out. “They sometimes last a bit longer.”

One of the scavengers pointed, and they split up, circling Tsunami from different directions. They approached slowly, each holding out a silvery claw. Tsunami eyed them until she couldn’t watch them both at once. Then she turned and lunged at the one on her left.

That one darted under her talons and stabbed at her underbelly. Tsunami yelped and reached to grab the scavenger, but it had already scurried away.

At the same time, the other scavenger shot behind Tsunami’s back and threw herself at Starflight. The NightWing tried to bat her away like Tsunami had done, but she swerved around his claws. Suddenly she was climbing up his front leg and before he could shake her off, she scrabbled onto his back.

Clay tensed. He’d never seen a move like that. Definitely not something a cow would try.

Starflight tried to twist his head over his shoulder to bite at the scavenger, but she moved fast, clinging to his scales like a salamander going up a rock. He shook his head furiously and reached up to claw her off. She wriggled aside, and he accidentally clawed his own neck. A thin trail of blood trickled from his scales.

“Not very impressive,” Queen Scarlet sniffed. “I suppose they can’t read scavenger minds. Not enough going on in there.”

Clay clenched his talons. That scavenger was getting close to Starflight’s snout. If she stabbed that claw into one of his eyes . . .

“Tsunami!” he yelled.

Tsunami was halfway across the arena, chasing the scavenger who’d attacked her. Tsunami was faster, but the scavenger kept changing directions and running underneath her. At Clay’s call, Tsunami whipped around and saw Starflight’s danger.

She raced toward him, but before she got there, Starflight suddenly gritted his teeth and slammed his head to the ground. The scavenger was flung forward over his horns, landing hard and rolling into the wall. Almost instantly she was up and staggering away from his teeth, which snapped on empty air.

Starflight didn’t chase her. He stood rubbing his head, watching the scavenger stumble on the churned-up sand. When Tsunami started past him, he reached out and stopped her. Tsunami’s own scavenger ran by and helped Starflight’s scavenger lean against the wall. The two scavengers glared around at the stadium full of dragons. Loud angry squeaking noises came out of both of them.

“You’re right,” Scarlet said with a sigh to Burn. “This isn’t nearly as thrilling as I thought it would be. Let’s go straight to the IceWings!” she shouted across to Vermilion.

He signaled, and guards took off from all over the stadium. Clay watched in dread as they scattered to the IceWing prisoners. He counted at least eight IceWings up there. He vaguely remembered something from one of Starflight’s lectures about how IceWings hated NightWings from some long-ago war.

“Finally a smart idea,” Burn hissed.

“Let me fight, too!” Clay pleaded. “Put me in there with them!” He knew three dragonets had no chance against eight IceWings, but he would rather be down there with his friends than stuck on the balcony, unable to help.

Suddenly a cloud seemed to pass over the sun. The fluttering of wings made all the dragons look up as a wave of darkness flew overhead. One piece of the darkness separated from the rest and spiraled down into the arena, ducking under the web of wires.

As he descended magnificently onto the sand, wings outstretched, Clay recognized him.

Morrowseer had arrived at last.

Clay was torn between relief and anger. What had taken the NightWing so long?

A hush fell over the arena. The SkyWing guards hovered up in the sky, halfway through unchaining the IceWings. All the dragons stared at Morrowseer, whose vast black form seemed to fill the whole arena. His darkness sucked up all the light around him.

He pointed to Starflight and addressed Queen Scarlet. “This dragonet is ours.”

Just him? Clay thought. What about the rest of us? He was afraid if he spoke up, the queen would kill him before Morrowseer had a chance to save them. But maybe he could get into Morrowseer’s thoughts. . . .

“Ours who?” Queen Scarlet said. “We found him with some Talons of Peace revolutionaries. Are you telling me the NightWings have finally chosen sides?”

Burn chimed in with a snarl. “Are you allying yourselves with an underground peace movement instead of a real queen?”

Morrowseer glanced up at the sky, where a flight of black dragons was circling. “No,” he said in his deep rumbling voice. “I come only to claim this dragonet as ours. We will take him and go.”

“Oh, will you?” said Queen Scarlet. “On whose authority? Would your mysterious queen like to appear and discuss the matter with me?”

Morrowseer’s eyes glittered dangerously. “Do not anger the NightWings, sky dragon. Give us our dragonet.”

And the rest of us! Clay thought as loud as he could. Over here! Dragonets of destiny! Four more besides Starflight! All totally key to the prophecy! Maybe Morrowseer had forgotten they were there. But he could read minds — couldn’t he hear Clay shouting for help?

Queen Scarlet stamped her foot. “No! I want to see him fight IceWings! It’s my hatching day!”

For a moment, as everybody paused, Clay was afraid that Morrowseer would give up and fly away. Then the black dragon’s tail twitched, just the tiniest bit, and all at once several NightWings came plummeting out of the sky.

Clay watched in awe. He must have called them with his mind.

Without a word or a visible signal, the NightWings fanned out across the circle of prisoners. The SkyWing guards dodged out of the way, looking terrified. Each pair of NightWings fell on an IceWing prisoner, talons slashing. Within moments, all the IceWings were dead. Their silvery corpses flopped across their cells. Bluish-red blood dripped slowly down the sides of the rock spires.

That wasn’t fair, Clay thought. The IceWings were all chained up — they couldn’t fight back. If the NightWings are so tough, why not free all the prisoners instead of killing more dragons? He looked down at Morrowseer again and thought he saw the dragon’s scornful gaze pass over him. Oops. I mean, thank you, NightWings! We’re very glad you’re here. ALL FIVE OF US!

So much smoke was pouring out of Scarlet’s nostrils that it was hard to see her eyes. Beside her, Burn’s tail was lashing. She looked ready to jump down and attack Morrowseer herself.

The large NightWing smiled coldly. “There,” he said. “We’ve taken care of your IceWing problem. Now we’ll be going.” He beat his wings once, lifting up into the air, and then swooped down on Starflight.

“Wait!” Starflight cried as Morrowseer’s talons closed around him. “What about my friends?”

YES! Clay screamed in his head. WHAT ABOUT US?

Morrowseer didn’t even look down at the dragonets. He soared off into the sky, carrying Starflight away with him. The rest of the NightWings circled once more and then followed him south.

Clay felt like he’d been pummeled by a SeaWing tail. A rescuer had come down from the clouds … and decided not to rescue them. He met Tsunami’s eyes. Hers were bitter and angry.

She was not the only one. “Guards!” Queen Scarlet roared. “I will have one thing go right today,” she fumed. “Fetch my champion. And clean up that mess down there.” She swept one wing toward the arena.

Burn looked too angry to speak. The queens watched in silence as SkyWings hurried onto the sand and started dragging off the bodies of Gill and the scavenger. The two scavengers still alive were shooed back into the cage and rolled away. Guards threw chains over Tsunami, who submitted without fighting for once, perhaps too shocked and angry to muster the energy.

All around the stadium, a shocked stillness hung over the watching dragons. Clay guessed it had been a long time since they’d seen anyone win a showdown with their queen.

“As you all know,” Scarlet said suddenly, her voice regal and commanding as if mystery dragons hadn’t just swooped out of the sky to steal her toy, “yesterday my champion, Peril, offered to stand for the accused prisoner, Kestrel, in a Champion’s Shield. She will now fight a dragon of my choosing, and if she wins, Kestrel goes free. If she loses — then I suppose I’ll have to get a new champion.”

She paused, expecting a reaction from the crowd, but nothing happened. Queen Scarlet frowned. “Oh, right,” she said. “You think Peril can’t lose. Well, it so happens that we have a special guest here today — a dragon whose scales are impervious to fire. Isn’t that … thrilling?”

Clay barely had time to register this before guards seized him.

As he was being dragged into the tunnel, he caught a glimpse of Queen Scarlet’s face and realized she knew exactly what she was doing.

She knew he and Peril were friends. Or had been, before her betrayal anyway.

The queen was forcing Peril to choose between him and her mother.

And now Clay had to choose between killing Peril … and death.

Sand that was sticky with blood clumped between Clay’s talons. The sun beat down, bright and hot in his eyes. He paced around the arena, thinking. Was there any way out of this?

He couldn’t count on Peril sparing his life, that was for sure. She’d betrayed him once. Surely she would do it again, if it was to save her mother.

He heard her scales scraping along the tunnel and turned to face her as she entered the arena.

She stopped, and it was like every emotion in the world hit her face at the same time. “I should have guessed,” she said, furious and low, so only Clay could hear. “The only dragon here who can touch me. No wonder she wanted me to stay away from you.”

“I guess you should have,” Clay said. Peril flinched.

“There you go, Peril,” Queen Scarlet said. Behind her, Tsunami was dragged onto the balcony, wrapped in chains and glowing with anger. “That’s the dragon you have to kill before I set your mother free. Have fun!”

Peril slid toward Clay, and he fled to the opposite wall. She hesitated, then put on a burst of speed and chased after him. He waited until she was a heartbeat away, then lunged forward and body-slammed her to the ground.

The crowd roared with surprise and delight.

She lay there gasping as he got up and ran to the other side of the arena again. She’s not used to her opponents being able to hit back, he thought. Fiery heat blazed where his shoulder had touched her, but it faded quickly.

He turned with his back to the wall and crouched, waiting for her to get up. Slowly she rolled to her feet and paced toward him. This time she stopped a short distance away.

“I’m sorry,” she said plaintively. “I know you’re mad. I made a mistake. I just — I thought you were trying to get away from me.”

“Well, I am now,” Clay said.

“I don’t want to kill you,” she said, clawing the sand in frustration.

“Buuuuut you have to,” he finished for her.

“I had a whole plan,” she said. “A plan where I saved you after Kestrel, and you liked me best of all.”

“Peril, that’s insane,” he said. “I don’t care if you save me. I want you to save my friends. That’s what’s important to me.”

She snarled suddenly. “I’m your friend! You don’t need them!” She leaped at his head, and he shoved himself upward, throwing her over him and into the wall. He was across the arena again by the time she was able to crawl to her feet.

“I’ll stick with the friends who aren’t trying to kill me, thanks,” he called.

“I’m not — well —” She stamped her talons again. “It’s not fair! The others can have any dragon! I only want you!” Her wings snapped open and she leaped up, then dove at him with her claws outstretched.

Clay snatched a talonful of sand and threw it in her eyes. She shrieked and blundered sideways in the air. He leaped to grab her shoulders and flung her to the ground. He rolled her onto her back and sat on her, looking down into her face.

“I know I don’t know much about anything,” he said. “But I think it doesn’t have to work like this.”

“It does,” Peril said, struggling to push him off. Her talons shoved ineffectually at him. “Dragons kill each other all the time. In war, in here, anywhere, for no reason at all. That’s how we are. Especially you and me. We’re the same. We’re dangerous.”

“That’s not how I am,” Clay said. “No matter what happened when I hatched. I can’t feel this killer inside me that’s supposed to be there. Maybe that’s what the prophecy is about. Maybe the dragonets are supposed to show everyone how to get along without a lot of killing.”

He noticed that the closest dragons in the audience were leaning in, listening intently. He hadn’t been speaking for the whole stadium to hear, but at least a few had.

Queen Scarlet wasn’t among them. “Hurry up and do it, then,” she called from her balcony. “You have her at your mercy. Use your venom! That was thrilling, and I didn’t even get to see it the first time!”

Clay and Peril stared at each other for a moment.

“Did she just say what I think she said?” Clay asked.

“But if the venom didn’t come from her,” Peril said, “then where —”

Clay whipped around to face the balcony as Glory suddenly reared up in a blaze of sunflower gold and cobalt blue. She snapped her thin chain like a reed and launched herself off the marble tree. Her mouth was wide open, hinged like a snake’s. She hissed, and a jet of black liquid shot out of her two longest fangs.

Burn shoved Queen Scarlet in front of her and shot into the sky. Glory’s venom hit Scarlet on the side of her face.

The SkyWing queen began to scream.

The stadium erupted in pandemonium. All the dragons tried to take to the sky at once, crashing into one another and clawing viciously to get away from Glory and the screaming queen.

“Wait!” Peril grabbed Clay as he jumped away from her. She reached up and touched the bindings on his wings. They broke apart instantly, and his wings stretched free for the first time in the Sky Kingdom.

“Thank you,” he called, lifting off.

The guards on the balcony had all scattered after Burn, so when Clay landed next to Glory, there was no one left but him and her and Tsunami, and Queen Scarlet, who was beating her own head with her wings and staggering toward the edge.

“Glory!” Clay cried. “You’re awake!”

“Of course I am!” she flared, tugging on Tsunami’s chains. “You couldn’t tell I was faking? I was waiting for the right moment to do something. Did you seriously think I was asleep this whole time?”

“Uh —” Clay said.

“You looked pretty asleep,” Tsunami said.

“Well, that’s great,” Glory said. “For the first time in my life, I pretend to be as lazy as everyone thinks RainWings are, and you actually believe it. I’m glad my friends have so much faith in me.”

“Hey, you never told us you could do that,” Clay said, pointing to her venom-spitting teeth. Beyond them, Queen Scarlet crashed into her throne and screamed even louder. Her gold chain mail was starting to melt into her scales.

“I never could before,” Glory said. “Are you going to help me with this?”

Clay grabbed the marble tree and tried to lever it under Tsunami’s chains.

“So how did you do that?” he asked.

“Oh,” Glory said, “well, there’s a logical scientific explanation and seriously, right now you want to have this conversation?”

“You scared off Burn, but she won’t stay gone for long,” Tsunami pointed out.

Clay gave the sky a worried look. “Peril!” he shouted. “Get over here!”

“No!” Tsunami said. “Not her! Keep her away from me!”

“We need her help,” Clay insisted as Peril landed beside him. “Their chains and bindings,” he said to Peril. She hesitated. “Please,” he added. “If we’re really friends.”

“All right,” she said, glancing at Queen Scarlet. She touched the chains around Tsunami, and they broke apart, collapsing with great clanking sounds to the balcony floor. Clay held his friends’ wing bindings away from their scales, and Peril burned right through them.

“Now we get Sunny,” he said, leaping into the sky.

The air was full of beating wings, red and gold and desert pale, whacking into each other and knocking one another off course. Peril shot ahead of him, clearing a path as dragons panicked out of her way. Clay saw her tail accidentally brush a SkyWing’s leg. The other dragon howled, clutching the burn, and tumbled into the side of the mountain with smoke rising from his scales.

Tsunami and Glory were close behind Clay as they soared up to the feasting hall, over the cliffs. Wind billowed under his wings, and despite his fear of Burn, he felt that same fierce joy grip him at the freedom of flying. After days of being terrified he might fall, it was exhilarating to know that now he couldn’t — that he had the whole vast crystal-blue sky to move in.

Peril reached Sunny’s cage first. Clay saw Sunny peering through the bars, trying to figure out what all the noise from the arena was about. Then her gray-green eyes landed on Clay, and her face lit up with joy.

“I knew you’d be all right!” she cried as the three dragonets each nosed her through the bars. “I knew I shouldn’t have worried. I just kept thinking about the prophecy and how we can’t die because we have to stop the war.”

Tsunami snorted. Peril hovered in front of the cage and sliced through the bars with her claws. The metal sizzled and steamed for a moment, then dropped to the ground below.

Sunny flung herself out the door into Clay’s arms. She pelted him happily with her unbound wings.

“Wait,” she said, looking around. “Where’s Starflight?”

“We lost him,” Glory said.

“What?”

“Stop that,” Tsunami said, hitting Glory with her tail. “Glory means Morrowseer came and took him away. He’s fine. Better than us, especially once the dragons stop panicking and start looking for us. Let’s head for the river.” She banked around toward the cliff, scattering clumps of rusty blood-red sand from her wings.

“But — he just left?” Sunny asked. She caught one of Clay’s talons and stopped him in midair. “Without us?”

“He didn’t have a choice, Sunny,” Clay said, clasping her claws in his.

“Clay, wait,” Peril said. Her copper wings shivered, and she clenched her talons as if she were about to split in two. “My mother. If Queen Scarlet isn’t dead, the first thing she’ll do is kill her.”

“She’s right,” Clay said as Tsunami and Glory came winging back to see why they hadn’t moved. “Tsunami, we have to get Kestrel out.”

“Why?” Tsunami challenged. “What do we care? Kestrel was awful to us.”

“We care anyway,” Sunny said softly. “We can’t help it. Even you.”

“I don’t,” Glory said. “She was going to kill me. Remember?”

Clay did remember. He remembered every cruel word, every vicious bite. But he also remembered Kestrel offering herself to Queen Scarlet in their place. And he remembered the scars on her palms, and the look on her face when she saw that Peril wasn’t dead.

“She didn’t raise us to care about her,” Tsunami argued. “Kestrel was just keeping us alive, and if that’s what she wants, the best thing we can do is run away right now.”

“I’d like to be something more than alive,” Clay said fiercely. “I’d like to be the kind of dragon she doesn’t think I am — the kind they write prophecies about. That dragon would rescue her no matter how awful she is.”

Tsunami lashed her tail, nearly knocking Glory sideways. Even though she was covered in blood, her blue scales shone through in the sunlight like buried sapphires. She glared at Peril for a long moment.

“Fine,” she growled at last.

“Not me,” Glory said. “Do what you like, but I’m not a big mushy ball of forgiveness like you are, Clay.” She met his gaze calmly, but her scales were rolling red and black like embers inside thunderclouds.

“Then take Sunny, go to the cave at the bottom of the waterfall, and wait for us,” Tsunami said.

“Can’t I help?” Sunny asked. “I think I could —”

“Yes, by not getting yourself killed,” Glory said. She tipped her wings at Sunny, and flashed away over the edge of the cliff. Sunny hesitated, then squeezed Clay’s talons and followed her.

“This way’s the fastest,” Peril said. She beat her wings, soaring up the cliff that overlooked the feasting grounds. Tsunami made a face at Clay and followed her. Clay could still hear the shouts and roars coming from the arena. He couldn’t tell if the queen was still screaming. Dragons filled the air; none of them seemed to be searching for the dragonets yet, but he knew it wouldn’t be long.

As they flew up, Clay passed a narrow shelf of rock with a scrubby bush clinging to it. To his surprise, a scavenger was hanging from the cliff face a few lengths above the shelf. It was one of the prey scavengers from the party; it had somehow managed to climb up this high without being spotted. It was still struggling up the rocks, gasping for breath and shaking with exhaustion. Clay glanced up at the distance to the top of the cliff and realized how much farther it still had to go, especially for such a tiny creature.

He didn’t know why he felt sorry for it. Scavengers were delicious nuisances, nothing more, according to everything he’d been taught. But he was going that way anyway … and it had tried so hard . . .

Clay dropped back, scooped the scavenger up in his talons, and flapped after Peril and Tsunami again. The scavenger gave a yell and started shoving at Clay’s claws, but it carried no weapons and, as far as Clay could tell, scavengers had no natural defenses of their own. This one was smaller than the others he’d seen, with a thatch of black fur on its head and smooth skin nearly as brown as Clay’s scales.

It wriggled and beat at his talons frantically for the few moments it took to reach the top of the cliff. Up here the view was mountains in all directions. Clay didn’t know what a scavenger’s natural habitat was, but this was the best he could do. Peril and Tsunami were already vanishing into a large hole that was the open roof of the main palace hall. Clay set the scavenger down gently behind a tall boulder.

“And stay away from dragons from now on,” he said sternly, although he knew the scavenger couldn’t understand him. The scavenger stared at him, its mouth opening and closing. Not even clever instincts, Clay thought. Why wasn’t it running away?

Not his problem anymore. He nudged it with his claw, turned, and dove into the roof hole. Down at the bottom of the hall, he could see Peril and Tsunami spiraling onto the grate over Kestrel’s head.

From here he could also hear the clamor in the tunnels. Most of the SkyWings were outside, hiding in the sky around the mountain peaks. But the heavy thump of dragon feet and clattering of claws and teeth echoed through the hall.

Burn only had to collect her soldiers — a shield between her and Glory’s venom — and then she’d come searching for the dragonets.

Clay landed beside Tsunami on the grate and then jumped back as Kestrel’s yellow eyes glared through the bars at him.

“What are you doing here?” she snarled.

“Rescuing you,” Tsunami snapped back. “Against my will.”

“Stand back,” Peril said, reaching for the metal latticework. She laced her claws through the thick bars, and the sharp smell of melting iron filled the air.

Clay had never seen Kestrel look so uncertain before. She watched Peril with an uneasy expression, flicking her forked tongue in and out. Peril kept her own eyes fixed on the bars. They were much thicker than the delicate birdcage Sunny was in, and took longer to burn through.

“I thought you were dead,” Kestrel said finally.

“I thought you were dead,” Peril answered without any warmth in her voice.

“I heard Scarlet had a lethal new champion,” Kestrel said. “I didn’t know it was you.”

Peril shrugged. “I guess I didn’t need you. I turned out all right without you.” Clay and Tsunami exchanged glances. “All right” wasn’t exactly how Clay would have described Peril.

“Queen Scarlet took care of me,” Peril went on. “She found me the black rocks I needed and gave me a purpose and a place to live.”

“Black rocks?” Kestrel broke in. “What black rocks?”

“Hey!” A pair of SkyWing guards came charging out of the nearest tunnel. “Stop!”

One of them made the hissing fire-breath noise and shot a bolt of flame at Tsunami. Clay flung himself in the way and felt the fire blast his scales. Hot pain flashed through him, and then faded a moment later. He shook himself as the red glow ebbed from his scales and looked up into the guard’s shocked face.

Tsunami lunged at the other guard, slashing his side and then slamming her tail into his head. He staggered back, then threw himself on her with his large wings beating back her defense.

At the same time, Clay’s guard attacked him. They grappled, and he felt her talons rake the wounds that were still healing on his back. He threw her off with a fierce heave. She skidded into the wall just as the last bar snapped, and Kestrel rose, huge and angry, out of her cell.

Clay had forgotten how big Kestrel was. Her red scales were scraped and chipped in places where the chains had pinned her down. Her talons looked blunted, as if she’d been clawing at the walls of her prison.

“Kill them and let’s go!” she roared.

Peril darted toward the guard who had Tsunami pinned. He let go of her, but it was too late. Peril’s talons caught him and sliced through his neck, leaving black scorch marks behind that bubbled and smoked. He tried to scream, and she raked his throat again, burning through the flesh and scales like they were paper.

Clay felt sick to his stomach. He was glad he hadn’t eaten anything in a while. He looked down at the guard he’d been fighting. Her orange eyes were watching Peril in terror. She was only a soldier, fighting for her tribe and her queen.

“Run,” he said to her. He hauled the SkyWing guard up and shoved her at the tunnel. She didn’t hesitate; in a flash of red and gold, she was gone.

He turned and saw Peril’s face. She knew he’d been protecting the guard — a total stranger — from her. She knew now for certain how he felt about what she did.

“Stupid worm,” Kestrel hissed from behind him. “She’ll raise the alarm. Queen Scarlet will catch us in moments.”

“Queen Scarlet is probably dead,” Tsunami said sharply. “And don’t talk to Clay that way. Just — follow us and stop talking.” She launched herself up toward the sky. Clay met Peril’s eyes again. Her claws opened and closed, reaching toward him, and then she pulled them back.

“Come on,” he said to her, trying to put understanding in his voice that he didn’t feel.

They lifted off after Tsunami, copper and brown and red wings glowing as the sun reached them. Clay burst into the air and banked sharply toward the waterfall. He could feel Peril’s heat close on his tail.

The rocky cliff flashed by beside them as they dropped toward the base of the waterfall. Tsunami led them closer to the bellowing water, whisking through the spray. Clay closed his eyes for a moment, turning his face into the mist of droplets.

The sounds of the palace faded behind them, swallowed by the waterfall’s roar, as they plummeted farther and farther. This waterfall was taller than the one Clay and Tsunami had encountered on their way out of the mountain. It bounced over outcroppings of rock, divided into smaller cascades, poured in long, straight sheets and then shot out in bursts like dragons of water lashing out with their claws.

At the bottom Clay saw a glittering ice-clear lake, with the Diamond Spray River crawling out the other side, through sloping hills east and south, toward the sea. Stubby trees and ragged scrubland, brown and green, edged the lake at the base of the mountain.

Tsunami angled toward the dark gap in the wall near the bottom of the waterfall. As they drew closer, Clay saw a glint of gold as Sunny peeked anxiously out.

They touched down on the muddy banks of the lake, in a thick copse of trees beside a small cave nearly hidden by the roaring wall of water. As Peril landed, the grass around her talons shriveled to ash. She looked down at the blackened earth and curled her tail in close to make her imprint as small as possible.

“Kestrel!” Sunny cried. “You’re all right.”

“No thanks to you five,” Kestrel growled, lashing her tail. “You wanted so badly to be free. Now do you see why we had to protect you?” One of her wings snagged on a tree branch and she wrestled it loose, growling.

“You’re welcome,” Tsunami snapped back. “We could have left you in the Sky Kingdom. I would have.”

Clay couldn’t resist the mud squelching between his claws. He threw himself to the ground and rolled, letting the warmth coat his arena-dusty, aching scales.

“Good grief, Clay, yuck,” Glory said. She edged toward the lake and spread her wings to catch the sunlight.

“Careful.” Tsunami reached to pull her back. “If they’re looking for us, they’ll definitely spot a bright purple dragon from the air.”

Glory flared her ruff at Tsunami. “I am not bright purple. Queen Scarlet called this my violet mood, thank you very much.”

“Oh, sorry,” Tsunami said. “I meant to say they’ll definitely spot a moody violet dragon from the air.”

“You are the epitome of hilarious,” Glory said. “Anyway, I can take care of that.” Her wing scales shimmered as if they were drawing in the sunlight, and then the purple color started to break up like water being poured into paint. Soon she was the color of the muddy ground below her. “Happy?” she asked Tsunami.

“I want to know what my cool power is,” Tsunami muttered. “You’ve got camouflage scales and venom-spitting teeth. Clay is immune to fire. Starflight apparently has big dragons waiting in the sky to save him whenever things get scary. What do I get?”

“Clay is immune to fire?” Sunny asked. “What? And did you say venom-spitting teeth?”

“Yeah,” Clay answered. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be nicer to Glory from now on, Sunny.”

Sunny flapped her wings in outrage. “I’m always nice to — oh, you’re teasing me,” she said as he choked with laughter. She smushed a giant talonful of mud into his face. Clay ducked away and noticed Peril watching with drooped wings and a sad expression.

“See, we can take care of ourselves,” Tsunami said to Kestrel. “You didn’t even know what Clay and Glory could do. You didn’t think we were good for anything, but it was your own fault for keeping us underground and treating us like eggs.”

“Oh, we did everything wrong,” Kestrel said scathingly. “Go ahead and blame us, but we did as the Talons of Peace asked. You would probably all be dead if we hadn’t.”

Tsunami lifted her chin. “We’re not going back to the Talons of Peace,” she said.

“We’re not?” Sunny squeaked. Glory gave her a scornful look.

“Oh?” Kestrel said. She bent her head to avoid the branches and gave Tsunami a sharp orange glare. “What is your magnificent plan, if I may ask?”

“We’re going to find our homes,” Tsunami said. “And our parents. We’re going to see this war firsthand, instead of reading about it in scrolls. And then we’ll figure out for ourselves if we’re going to do anything about it.”

“But, Tsunami,” Sunny whispered, tugging on her wing. “The prophecy! We have to!”

“Shh,” Clay said. He drew her back, away from the wrathful look on Kestrel’s face, just in case there was any fire-breathing about to happen.

Privately, he agreed with Sunny. They couldn’t just ignore the prophecy. Something had to be done about the war, and everyone was waiting for the dragonets to do it. He kept thinking of the prisoners, singing the song of the dragonets as if it would save them.

But he also agreed with Tsunami — they couldn’t do anything until they were out in the real world, figuring out what could be done. On their own, without the Talons of Peace keeping them away from their families and everything that made stopping the war important.

There was a pause as Kestrel and Tsunami glared at each other. Smoke puffed from Kestrel’s nose, drifting away on the air. Clay glanced at Peril, but her eyes were fixed on her mother.

“Fine,” Kestrel snorted unexpectedly. “What do I care? I’m done with you. I’ve done everything that was asked of me, and all I have to show for it is a pack of ungrateful lizards. Go find your precious families. I don’t care what happens to you.”

“Oh, Kestrel,” Sunny said, climbing over and hugging Kestrel’s leg. “You don’t mean that. You know we appreciate everything you did for us.”

Clay caught Glory and Tsunami rolling their eyes at each other.

“You’re on your own now,” Kestrel said. She pried Sunny off and stepped back toward the lake. “And good riddance. Peril, are you coming?”

Peril hesitated.

“I thought you were coming with us,” Clay said. Peril’s eyes brightened.

“Over my charred, dead body,” Tsunami growled, whacking Clay with one of her wings.

“Why not?” Glory said, her eyes on a passing butterfly. “Maybe Peril’s the missing dragonet you all need for the prophecy … your ‘wings of sky.’ ”

Clay blinked at her. “Wow. Do you think so?”

Tiny scarlet flame shapes flickered around Glory’s ears, and she shrugged.

“Oh, could I be?” Peril breathed.

“No!” Kestrel spat.

“The largest egg in mountain high,” Glory quoted. “If you hatched with a twin, your egg must have been huge.” Her eyes stayed on the butterfly instead of looking at the other dragonets.

“That’s true!” Peril said. “Maybe I’m part of your destiny!” She looked at Clay hopefully.

“Not a chance,” Kestrel said. “Peril and her brother hatched over a year before you misbegotten worms. The prophecy speaks of five dragonets hatching together on the brightest night. Face it, your SkyWing died in the egg. I saw the broken shell and the murdered dragon who carried her.”

Clay looked down at his muddy talons. Kestrel was right. He hadn’t remembered the exact words of the prophecy. There was no way Peril could be the fifth dragonet.

“Sorry,” he said to her. Her copper wings slumped. “You can come with us anyway,” he offered.

“I can’t,” she said. “I have to go back for the black rocks.”

“Tell me about these black rocks,” Kestrel ordered.

“You must know,” Peril said. “I need to eat them every day in order to live.”

Kestrel lashed her tail, uprooting one of the bushes without noticing. “More of Scarlet’s lies,” she spat. “You don’t need anything like that.”

“But — I stopped taking them and got sick,” Peril said.

“Poison in your food,” Kestrel said. “One of Scarlet’s favorite tricks.”

Peril looked up at the palace on the mountain. Smoke curled from her copper scales and her claws dug into the ground.

“Come with me,” Kestrel said roughly. “I’m not much, but I’m better than Scarlet.” She reached toward Peril and then saw the scorch marks on her own palms and pulled back. Peril ducked her head, huddling into her wings.

“Where are you going, Kestrel?” Sunny asked.

“None of your business,” Kestrel answered.

Sunny sat back, looking hurt. Kestrel took a step toward the lake and rubbed her talons against a rock to sharpen them. She glanced back at Sunny.

“But I suppose,” she said, “when you realize you need me, you can send me a message through the dragon of Jade Mountain. Not that I’ll come running, mind you. You deserve all the trouble that’s coming to you.”

“Before you go,” Tsunami said, “tell us what you know about our eggs and where they came from.”

Kestrel snorted. “Well, there’s no surprises with you. Webs stole your egg from the SeaWing queen’s own hatchery.”

“Tsunami!” Sunny gasped. “You’re royalty! Just like in the story!” Tsunami twitched her tail, looking surprised and thoughtful.

“Morrowseer brought us Starflight’s egg,” Kestrel said. “Dune found Sunny’s egg in the desert, hidden near the Scorpion Den. And our big, strong hero came from somewhere around the Diamond Spray Delta, near the sea, where the lowest-born MudWings crawl.”

Clay turned to look at the river that flowed from the lake. His heart started pounding with excitement. His home — his family — they were closer than he’d imagined.

“What about me?” Glory asked.

Kestrel shifted her wings in a shrug. “I have no idea. Webs scrounged you up somewhere after we lost the SkyWing egg. I never cared where, because I knew you weren’t important.”

“Oh, go away!” Tsunami burst out. “Everything you say is hurtful and mean.”

“Everything I say is true,” Kestrel said.

“I don’t think you’d be good for me,” Peril said, staring up at her. “I never imagined you like this.”

Kestrel hunched her shoulders. “I am the way life has made me. Take it or leave it.” She spread her wings. “Because I’m going now, and you can come with me or not.”

“Remember,” Clay said to Peril, “she tried to save you. She’s not the kindest dragon, it’s true, but look. She cared about you enough to do this.” He took one of Kestrel’s talons and opened it so Peril could see the scorch marks burned across her palms. Kestrel snapped her teeth at him and yanked her arm back.

Peril shook her head. “I’m not ready,” she said. “Maybe one day we’ll find each other again.”

Kestrel’s tail whipped back and forth, churning up the ground. “Well. Suit yourself.” Her orange eyes shifted balefully from one dragonet to the next and landed on Clay. “Listen, MudWing. For all your noble talk, you’re not going to be any use to the others if you can’t fight and kill to defend them. Just think about that.”

Her words stung, like they always did. His hopefulness wilted a little. Clay felt Sunny nudge him sympathetically.

Tsunami took a threatening step toward Kestrel, but before she could say anything, the large red dragon spread her wings and launched herself into the sky. She banked over the lake and flew off to the west without looking back.

Clay met Peril’s eyes. “Some reunion,” she said, glancing down at the blackened earth below her.

“You can still come with us,” he offered. “Even if you’re not in the prophecy.”

“No,” she said slowly. “I don’t think … I don’t think I deserve to.”

He tilted his head at her. “What does that mean?”

“It’s like you said,” she said. “You’re the kinds of dragonets they write prophecies about. You’re heroes and saviors and I’m — well, I’m the opposite of that. I’m the bad guy.”

“I’m not a hero,” Clay said. “You’re the one who got us out of the Sky Kingdom.”

“Only because of you.” She shook her head. “I thought I was born a killer, but it turns out I wasn’t. Queen Scarlet made me that way … or I let myself become that way. It’s like I chose it without knowing I chose it. But you were born that way.” Clay winced, and he felt the other dragonets staring at him. “You knew what you were like, and you chose to be something else. I guess I feel like I can’t be one of you unless I can do that, too.”

She blinked, her blue-fire eyes taking in each of his friends. “I’m going back to the Sky Kingdom. That’s where I belong, and I need to know if Queen Scarlet is dead.”

“Don’t you want to leave?” Clay asked. “Don’t you want to see the world outside the Sky Kingdom?”

Peril stirred the ash below her talons. “Not until I feel like the world can be safe from me,” she said.

“Can we speed up the touching good-bye?” Tsunami asked. “Because we’ve got company.” She nodded grimly at the top of the cliff.

Two flights of dragons were lifting off in graceful spiral formations. One group gleamed red and gold; the other shimmered with pale white heat. The unmistakable shape of Burn soared over them both. After a moment, they split apart, and dragons fanned out in every direction. Their wingbeats filled the sky. Their long necks whipped from side to side as they searched.

The hunt for the escaped dragonets had begun.

“What do we do?” Sunny asked in a hushed voice.

“We should get to the delta,” Tsunami said. “We can find Clay’s family there. Maybe they’ll help protect us.”

“And then we’ll be at the sea,” Sunny said, “so we can find yours, too. And maybe Starflight will find us there? Do you think he’s looking for us?”

“Doubtful,” said Glory. Sunny’s face fell. “He’s with his wonderful NightWings now. And I hate to point this out, but there are about two hundred dragons overhead who actually are looking for us. The minute we stroll out from these trees, they’ll be on us like fur on a squirrel.”

“Well, I have an idea,” Clay said hesitantly, “but you’re not all going to like it.”

“Oh, good,” Glory said. “My favorite kind of plan.” Clay tried to smile at her, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

What have I done now? Clay pointed to the river. “We swim to the delta.”

Glory made a face. Her claws rippled from brown to pale blue and back again.

“I’m not a very good swimmer,” Sunny said anxiously. “But I guess I could try.”

“They’ll see us from the air,” Tsunami pointed out.

“Not Glory,” Clay said. “She can camouflage herself in the river. And if she rides on your back, she’ll hide you, too.”

Glory and Tsunami both looked less than thrilled at that suggestion.

“Then we roll Sunny in mud and put her on my back,” Clay went on. “I’ll stick to the shallows, and from the sky we should look like part of the riverbed.”

Peril jumped in. “I’ll wait till you’re gone and then fly off in a different direction. Maybe I can lead them away for a while. It’s not like they can touch me or do anything to me, once you’re safe.” She glanced at Clay and then away again.

“All right,” Tsunami said. “It’s our best shot. Let’s do it, then, and quickly.” She slid into the lake with Glory.

Clay turned to Peril. “Are you sure?” he asked. “What if Burn takes her anger out on you?”

“How, exactly?” Peril asked. “There’s only one good thing about me, and it’s that no dragon can hurt me. Except you, I guess.” Her wings wavered.

Clay took her talons in his, feeling the heat draw into his scales. “That’s not the only good thing about you, Peril.” He twined his tail around hers and wrapped his wings around her.

She leaned into his shoulder. “You make me hope that’s true,” she said.

“Clay,” Tsunami called. “We have to go.”

Clay pulled away, and Peril stepped back, rubbing her talons where they had touched him. “Be careful, all right?” he said.

She nodded. “When you end the war, come back and visit me.”

Sunny lay down in the mud, letting Clay cover her scales. Her golden glow disappeared under the thick layer of brown. He made sure to submerge her tail and pack mud into the gaps between the spines along her back. When he was done, she didn’t exactly look like a MudWing, but she certainly didn’t look like Sunny anymore.

“I feel all heavy and goopy,” she said. But her weight was barely more than a cow’s as she climbed onto Clay’s back and clutched the spiny ridges. He lifted her easily and slid toward the lake.

The other two were already floating in the water, waiting. It was eerie, seeing only the blurry outline of his friends. With her wings spread, Glory hid most of Tsunami’s shape, although bits of blue wings and tail stuck out here and there. Clay hoped it wouldn’t be enough to spot from the sky.

Sunny wriggled to look over her shoulder at Peril. “Thank you for helping us,” she said.

“After betraying us first,” Tsunami muttered. Glory shoved her head back under the water.

“Good luck,” Peril said.

“You too,” Clay said. “Bye, Peril.”

As Clay slid into the lake, he felt her eyes staring after him. He hoped she would be all right.

They paddled along the lakeshore cautiously, trying not to send out too many ripples. The still, clear water flowed around Clay’s talons, icy cold. He felt the stirring of a current as they reached the mouth of the river, and then they were swimming downstream, following the Diamond Spray River away from the mountains.

Clay felt like his scales were being washed clean of the dust and pain of the arena. His wings stretched free and his friends were close again. Maybe they weren’t safe yet, but at least now he had a chance of protecting them.

The Sky Kingdom was behind them.

Ahead of him were the Mud Kingdom swamps and the Diamond Spray Delta, and his parents, and home, at last.