A wave roared onto the beach and crashed around Tsunami’s talons. Her webbed claws sank into the wet sand. Her blue wings billowed in the wind.

She lifted her head, breathing in the wild sea air.

This was where she was supposed to be. This was her ocean.

“Let me guess,” Glory said mockingly behind her. “You guys, that’s the smell of freedom.”

“Freedom smells a lot like fish,” Starflight observed. “Which, to be clear, is kind of nose-curlingly awful.”

“I love it,” Tsunami said. This was what the Talons of Peace had stolen from her. They’d kept her trapped in the stale, dreary air under the mountain her whole life, when she was meant to be out here, flying and swimming and living like a real SeaWing.

Starflight glanced up at the sky and edged back toward the dark foliage that lined the beach. “Shouldn’t we stay under the trees? What if a patrol spots us? I mean —” He stopped and took a deep breath. “We must stay under the trees. All right. Yes. Everyone back into the trees right now.”

The others ignored him, although Sunny gave him a pitying glance.

Tsunami bent her head to study the waves washing over her talons. Small shapes, silver and green and yellow, darted through the shallows. The ocean smelled much more alive than the cave river.

Was it only a week since they’d run away from their guardians? It was hard to remember exactly how long they’d been trapped in the SkyWing prison.

But there was one thing Tsunami remembered clearly: the sound of bone snapping under her talons.

She poked a hole in the sand with her claw. I had to kill that SeaWing. Queen Scarlet forced us to fight. There was no other way out of the arena. He was crazy. It was him or me.

The same thoughts kept circling in her head like lame-winged dragons. She shook her head and flared her wings. This was ridiculous. Was she a dragon or a scavenger? Dragons were meant to be fierce warriors; one little death shouldn’t rattle her so much.

Besides, Glory had done worse with her deadly venom, and she didn’t seem bothered at all.

“You know what I love?” Clay said mournfully. “Fish. Lots of fish. Big fish I can eat, not these little wriggle-scraps.” The MudWing sat down on the sand beside Tsunami. His stomach growled loud enough for all of them to hear.

Sunny giggled. “Clay, it’s only been a day since you caught that enormous pig for all of us.”

“Wasn’t enormous,” Clay said. He sighed, his wings drooping. “That was the smallest pig in the whole world.”

“You should have eaten my carrots.” Sunny clambered up to sit on his back and peer out at the ocean. The sun was just rising in a peach-pale sky, casting broken paths of light across the water. Two of the moons, barely slivers like thin claws, were vanishing behind the mountains.

“I’m serious, everybody,” Starflight said. “It’s not safe out on the beach, not with all the MudWings and SkyWings looking for us.” The NightWing was standing well out of reach of the waves, trying to shake sand off his talons.

As far as Tsunami was concerned, they’d already wasted a day flying south of the Diamond Spray Delta, basically because Starflight had worried and complained until everyone agreed. Yes, the SkyWings were after them. Yes, they were probably mad about the dragonets’ escape from SkyWing prison. And they were pretty definitely mad about the part where Glory maybe killed their queen on the way out.

But Tsunami didn’t want to keep running. She wanted to find her family. Once they knew who she was, she was sure the SeaWings would protect her and her friends.

Most of all, she really wanted Starflight to stop fretting, complaining, and bossing. It made the others ner vous and harder to organize. She almost wished the NightWings hadn’t given him back.

“Why are you so worried?” Tsunami asked him. “If they do recapture us, won’t your NightWing friends come swooping in to rescue you again?”

Starflight fluttered his wings indignantly. “I’m not worried for me,” he said. “I’m trying to keep all of us safe.” He glanced at Sunny and ducked his head.

“I’m keeping us safe just fine!” Tsunami protested. “When have I ever led us wrong?”

“Well,” Glory pointed out, “there was that one time we got captured by SkyWings and their queen nearly killed us all. . . .”

Tsunami smacked her tail into the water to send a cold wave over Glory. The RainWing hissed and jumped away from the sea.

“Stop it!” Sunny said. “Stop fighting, all of you. Clay, stop them.” She patted the top of his head to pull his attention back from the tiny fish swimming around his feet.

“Oh, yes, let’s hear from our bigwings,” Glory teased. Her scales this morning were gold like Sunny’s, but with drifting splashes of ocean blue. She sat down and yawned at Tsunami, displaying her venom-spitting teeth.

“Hey,” Clay said, nudging Tsunami’s wing with his own. “It’s all right for Starflight to worry. We don’t even know if Queen Scarlet is alive or dead. But,” he added quickly, “I know you want to find the SeaWings as fast as possible. So let’s find them instead of fighting about it, and then we can get to safety sooner.”

Tsunami shot one more narrow-eyed look at Starflight, then turned back to the ocean. Clay was right; the important thing was to find her family and a safe place for them all to hide.

“Aww,” Glory said. “So wise and big.”

“I think he is,” Sunny said, wrapping her forearms around Clay’s neck. Starflight sat down, flipping his tail around his talons unhappily.

Glory settled her sun-colored wings. “So now what? Should we shout ‘Hey, SeaWings, we’ve got your missing princess!’ and wait for dragons to bound joyfully out of the ocean?”

“With a feast!” Clay cried, startling a seagull into the air. “There was a feast at the end of the story! When the missing SeaWing princess got home, her parents were so happy they made a feast. I remember the feast. They ate a whole whale. That was a good feast. I bet I could eat a whale. Do you think we’ll get a feast?”

“The Missing Princess was just a story in a scroll,” Starflight said. “We have no idea what we’ll actually find in the Kingdom of the Sea.”

“That’s true.” Clay’s wings drooped. “It might not be what you’re hoping for, Tsunami. Like finding out my mother sold me for a cow.”

“Hey,” said Glory. “It was at least two cows.”

“Hmmm. Comforting,” said Clay.

It wouldn’t be like that for Tsunami. She was sure of it. Maybe Clay’s dreams of his family had turned out all wrong, but hers would be perfect. Especially now that she knew her egg had been stolen from the Royal Hatchery.

She was the daughter of the SeaWing queen.

Not only that, but according to Starflight, none of the queen’s other female dragonets had survived to adulthood. Tsunami was the only living heir to the SeaWing kingdom. One day, she would be queen of the SeaWings.

True, that meant one day she’d have to fight her own mother to the death to become queen. But that day could be as far off as she wanted it to be. Not something she had to think about now.

She spread her wings and breathed in the salt-spray air again. Out of the corner of her eyes she kept seeing tiny creatures pop out of the speckled sand and then vanish again.

“I could just dive in and look for the SeaWing palace,” Tsunami suggested.

“Out there?” Starflight sounded alarmed. He spread his wings and shook sand off them, blinking anxiously.

“Where else do you suggest I find the SeaWings?” she asked.

“Swimming in the ocean is not like swimming in an underground cave river,” Starflight lectured. “There are strong currents and unpredictable waves and, and big things with teeth —”

“I’m a big thing with teeth.” Tsunami grinned at him.

He didn’t laugh. “It’s not safe,” he said. “What if we lose you?” Tsunami wanted to poke his wrinkled-up worried snout with her sharpest claw.

“Starflight, cheer up,” Sunny interjected. “Tsunami can do anything. And how is she supposed to get home to her family if she can’t go into the sea?”

“Oh, no!” Clay heaved himself to his feet, scattering sand and nearly dislodging Sunny, who grabbed his neck with a yelp. Sand and seashells and tiny, astonished crabs flew through the air as he lashed his tail.

“Ow! Stop that!” Glory commanded, covering her eyes.

“What about us?” Clay’s big brown wings flapped. “I didn’t think of that! Tsunami, we can’t go with you to the SeaWing palace. We can’t breathe down there! How can we stick together if you’re underwater?” He clawed at the water, leaving deep gouges in the wet sand. “What are we going to do?”

Tsunami kind of adored Clay when he was in a tizzy. She also adored that it had taken an entire day for it to occur to him that the Kingdom of the Sea was underwater.

“Seriously?” Glory said to Clay. “All of those geography lessons, and not a single one sunk in?”

Clay turned in a confused circle. Crabs scurried out of the way of his giant talons. “What?”

“The SeaWings have an above-water palace, too,” Starflight said in his “see, you should have studied more” voice. “So they can receive guests, like their SandWing ally Blister. It’s on an island somewhere in the Bay of a Thousand Scales.”

“Oh.” Clay sat down with a whooshing sigh.

Sunny patted his shoulder. “I didn’t remember that either,” she offered. “So we go there, right?”

“Not easily,” Starflight said. “Both SeaWing palaces — underwater and on land — are well hidden. That’s how they’ve lasted so long in this war, even though they don’t have fire like the other tribes. Nobody can find them to attack their homes.”

“Sounds like the NightWings,” Glory sniped.

“It’s nothing like the NightWings!” Tsunami cried. “SeaWings aren’t trying to act all mysterious and pretentious. They’re just being sensible about guarding their home.”

“There are over a thousand islands to search, but it’s still probably —” Starflight stopped midsentence and glanced at the sky again. “Does anyone else smell fire?”

“Three moons, Starflight. I’m not hiding in the trees every time some little thing spooks you,” Tsunami said.

“Wait, I think he’s right,” Sunny said, lifting her head. “I hear wingbeats.”

“I do, too,” Starflight said. The spiny ridge along his back stood up in alarm, and he bolted for the trees, running as fast as he could.

“From this far away?” Tsunami said skeptically. “I don’t see anything up there.” But just as she said it, she spotted a cluster of red specks like spattered blood in the sky, winging down from the mountains in the northwest.

A SkyWing patrol was coming their way.