Sunny paced from one end of the pavilion to the other, her heart pounding. Her eyes hurt from staring at the battle, as if she’d been trying to change the outcome with the power of her eyeballs.

Don’t die trying to rescue me. Please, please, please don’t die.

It was almost killing her to watch as her mother dodged flames and claws and deadly tails. A giant SandWing slammed into Thorn’s chest and tried to drive her down onto the sand. Thorn slashed at his snout and darted away. But another soldier attacked from behind her, stabbing his venomous tail down toward the center of her spine.

Sunny shrieked with fear, and the messenger behind her nearly fell off the spire.

“What?” he yelped. “What is it? Who’s dead?”

At the last moment, Qibli barreled into the soldier and knocked him away. Sunny wasn’t sure her mother had even noticed how close that had been. She’s not careful enough, Sunny thought anxiously, standing up on her back legs and flapping her wings.

“What’s happening?” the messenger said plaintively, craning to see around her.

“It’s my mother,” Sunny said. “She’s here to rescue me.”

The SandWing scrunched his snout at her. “Are you sure? That doesn’t sound like any mother I know.”

“Well, that’s just sad,” Sunny said, trying to listen to him and watch the battle at the same time. “Even your own mother?”

The other dragon made a noise that sounded half chuckle, half snort. “My parents sent me to Burn’s army to toughen me up. They said this way I’d end up as brave as a real soldier or else dead, and either of those would be an improvement.”

“What’s your name?” Sunny asked. Down below, in the battle, Six-Claws seized two soldiers and smashed their heads together, then whirled to slash another one’s throat with his tail.

The messenger hesitated. “Am I allowed to tell you that?”

“Why not? My name is Sunny.”

“I know,” he said. “All right. My name is Camel.”

Sunny flicked her wings open and shut, brushing against the wind chimes. Camel seemed like a normal, nervous dragon. Someone she could be friends with in another life. Maybe he’d listen to reason.

“Do you have any dragonets?” she asked.

“Not yet, but my partner and I have three eggs hatching next month,” he said proudly.

“So you can be a different kind of parent than yours were,” Sunny said. “The kind that takes care of his dragonets. The kind who would attack a stronghold full of soldiers to protect them,” she added hopefully. She didn’t know much about parents in general, but she knew what she would do if she had dragonets and any of them were in danger.

“Hmm,” said Camel, looking even more anxious. He swished his tail and gazed down at the battle — the blood on the sand, the sprawled bodies, the flashing claws.

Maybe this isn’t the right approach for this dragon, Sunny thought.

“All I’m saying,” she continued, “is that I can’t stand here and watch my mother die trying to save me. Please, please, let me go help her.” She leaned toward the wide-open blue sky, imagining how she would dive in and drag all the soldiers away from Thorn.

“Oh,” Camel said uncomfortably. “Oh, no, no. I can’t do that. If Burn finds out, she might take my eggs away. That wouldn’t be good parenting, would it?”

Sunny sighed. “I guess not,” she admitted fairly. “But maybe I can stop the fighting, so nobody else has to die.”

Camel hesitated again, looking down at the battle, and Sunny wondered if his partner was one of the ones out there fighting. “How?” he asked. “I mean — you’re not —” He glanced at her harmless tail and away again quickly.

Not exactly scary. Not exactly big. Not even a little bit useful.

He was kind of right. What did she think she could really do if she joined in?

Is there another way to stop them? A Sunny way?

She stared down at the battling dragons, racking her brain.

And then something moved under the sand.

Sunny leaned forward, staring intently. Not far from one of the fallen soldiers, a patch of sand rippled as though something were buried underneath it.

Something, or someone.

Sunny had the horrible feeling for a moment that the ghost of Queen Oasis herself was about to come bursting out of the sand to attack the dragons.

But the head that popped out was not a SandWing’s. It was followed by shoulders and wings that glowed coppery orange in the bright sunlight. The dragon wriggled the rest of the way free and began swarming across the sand toward the stronghold walls.

Sunny gasped.

She recognized those scales — like hers, they were a color unique to only one dragon in Pyrrhia, as far as anyone knew.

It was Peril. It had to be. Peril, the SkyWing who had helped them escape from Queen Scarlet’s palace.

Well, first she had pretended to help them escape, and then she’d betrayed them, and then she’d nearly killed Clay, but in the end she’d done the right thing, although sometimes it was hard to remember that. But without her, the dragonets and Kestrel might have been trapped in the Sky Palace until Scarlet figured out a “thrilling” death for each of them.

Sunny’s heart sank, thinking of Kestrel and how she’d died under Blister’s claws in the Kingdom of the Sea. How would Peril react to the news of her mother’s death?

But more important, what was she doing here? And why was she clearly trying to sneak into the palace?

Peril reached the walls and glanced back at the battle, but the fighting was too fierce for anyone to notice her. She spread her wings and launched herself over the wall, landed neatly in the courtyard, and darted into the palace.

Sunny inhaled sharply as an awful thought struck her.

Surely not.

“Did you see that orange dragon?” she asked Camel. “I have to follow her. Come with me, so it’s not like I’m escaping from you.”

“Um,” Camel said. “But wait, shouldn’t I —”

Sunny didn’t hear the end of that sentence; she was already in the air and winging toward the courtyard that held the weirdling tower. She could see the dark red crown of it looming over the rooftops.

Her talons came down with a thump in the sandpit and she glanced around at the tower door, but it was still closed, and, she hoped, locked. Not that a lock on a wooden door would be much use at stopping Peril and her fiery talons. The six SandWing soldiers arranged outside wouldn’t be able to stop her either. They looked curiously at Sunny, but held their positions.

Camel flapped down behind her and landed on the wall, as far from the tower as he could get without losing sight of Sunny.

She waited a moment, trying to calm down her heartbeat. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Peril isn’t here to rescue Scarlet. I mean, why would she?

But then she heard talons clattering over stone, and Peril came running into the courtyard.

The SkyWing skidded to a stop when she saw Sunny. Her flame-blue eyes went wide through the wisps of smoke that rose from her scales.

“Hi, Peril,” Sunny said, hoping she sounded more friendly than terrified.

Peril twitched nervously. “She said not to let you guys stop me.” Peril glanced around the courtyard, peering into the shadows with a hopeful expression. “Is, um — I mean, are you all here?”

“No — sorry,” Sunny said. She knew who Peril was really looking for. “Clay’s not here, but he worries about you.”

“Did he say that?” Peril asked. She touched her front talons together — the same way she had after Clay had taken her talons in his, when they had said good-bye, Sunny remembered. “That he worries about me? What did he say exactly?”

“Um,” Sunny said, trying to remember the last time Clay had mentioned Peril. They’d been a little busy lately, escaping from the SeaWings and invading the NightWing island and running from volcanoes. But he had said something about her one night in the rainforest, after Starflight had disappeared. Clay and Sunny had been curled together near Kinkajou, the little RainWing dragonet who’d been injured in the contest where Glory became queen. She was asleep, and it was Sunny’s turn to watch her; Clay was keeping her company.

“He said, ‘I wonder where Peril is right now,’ ” Sunny said. “ ‘I hope she’s all right. There’s that new queen in the Sky Kingdom —’ and I said, ‘Ruby,’ and he said, ‘Right, her. I hope she’s taking care of Peril and not making her fight anymore.’ ”

Peril waited a moment, and then said, “That’s it?”

“Well, then his stomach started growling, and he had to go look for something to eat,” Sunny said. “But he wants to see you again. I’m sure of it.”

“I bet you’ve had all kinds of adventures together,” Peril said a little bitterly.

“It’s been really scary,” Sunny said. “It seems like every dragon we meet either wants to kill us or lock us up.” She glanced around at the tower and sighed. “Case in point.”

Peril looked down at her talons. The sunlight gleamed on the gold veins in her wings.

“What about you?” Sunny asked. “Um, have you …” She didn’t know how to finish that sentence. Have you stopped killing dragons? Have you found a safe way to live around others? Have you by any chance come here to rescue a dragon who really wants to kill me?

“The answer is, she’s not,” Peril said sharply. “Ruby. Is not taking care of me. She ordered me out of the Sky Kingdom as soon as she took over. She said if I ever set claws in the Sky Palace again, she’d find a way to kill me, and I’d better believe it. She said I was dangerous and unpredictable and she didn’t want me near her subjects.” Her voice broke and she coughed, ducking under one wing.

“Oh, Peril, I’m so sorry,” Sunny said.

“Don’t feel sorry for me.” Peril lifted her head and frowned. “I am dangerous. That’s, like, the whole entire point of me.”

“That’s not true,” Sunny said. “You can be whatever you want to be. I mean, I could say, well, I have no barb on my tail, I guess I’m just harmless and useless and should sit in the corner covering my head whenever there’s a fight. But I don’t want to be useless and I’m not going to do that, not if dragons I care about are in danger.” She glanced at the sky, wondering anxiously how the battle was going and whether Thorn was still all right. “Um, speaking of which … I could really use your help right now.”

Peril shook herself, copper scales flashing. “I can’t help you. I have to rescue Scarlet while everyone is distracted with that battle outside.”

Sunny felt a cold shiver of fear run through her scales. She had still hoped maybe that wasn’t why Peril was here. “But why?” she cried.

“I’ve been waiting days for a chance like this, when I could get her out without fighting anyone,” Peril said. “So you can tell Clay, I’m trying really hard not to kill anyone.” She hesitated, looking at the guards behind Sunny, between her and the tower. “I’m trying,” she said again.

“No, I mean, why would you help her?” Sunny asked. “After everything she did to you?”

The breeze picked up into a quiet wind, scattering grains of sand across Sunny’s claws and bringing her the heavy, scaly smell of fear from the SandWings behind her. They hadn’t moved from their spots, but they stood tensed and ready with their weapons. Sunny guessed at least some of them knew who Peril was from visits to the Sky Kingdom with Burn.

“I know Scarlet’s not perfect,” Peril said. Understatement of the year, Sunny thought. “But she didn’t kill me when she could have, when anyone else would have, when I was a dragonet. And she didn’t throw me out. She treated me like I was special.”

“She lied to you,” Sunny pointed out. “About Kestrel, and about the black rocks she said you had to eat so you could never leave her. She was using you, not taking care of you.”

“She took better care of me than my mother did,” Peril flared. “And from what I saw of her, Kestrel isn’t the nicest dragon in the world either, right?” She hesitated again, then said tentatively, “Have you seen Kestrel? Do you know where she is? I wonder … I’ve been wondering if I should have gone with her when she asked me to.”

Sunny’s heart sank. She didn’t want to deliver this news. But I can’t lie to her literally twenty seconds after I just accused Scarlet of so much lying. I don’t know how she’ll react. But I have to tell her the truth.

“Peril,” she said softly. “I’m really sorry, but … Kestrel’s dead.”

Peril stared at her for a long moment, her odd eyes glowing blue and black, and then slowly, like a mountain crumbling, she collapsed to the stones and covered her face with her talons. “No, no, no,” she said. “I sent her away. I said we’d find each other again.”

“I know,” Sunny said, wishing she could wrap her wings around Peril the way Clay had. But Clay was the only dragon she knew who could touch Peril without dying. “I know. Oh, Peril, I’m so sorry. Listen,” she said desperately. Her anxiety about the battle outside was making every scale on her wings feel like jumping off and flying away. “Listen, I’m like you. I thought my mother didn’t want me either. But I just found out that’s not true, just like you — my mother wanted me the way Kestrel wanted you. Except I’m so afraid she’s going to die before I get to know her, and that’s why I need your help, please, Peril. She’s attacking the palace right now trying to rescue me, and you could save her. I’m sorry, I know it’s awful to throw all that at you at once, but I really need you.”

Peril pressed her talons into the stone and sat up. She took a deep breath, exhaling smoke in a cloud around her wings. Finally she looked down at Sunny, with an expression as though she was trying to find any small part of herself in Sunny’s eyes.

“Tell me more,” she said. Her legs trembled as if they might not keep holding her up, but she listened intently as Sunny explained about Thorn and the Outclaws.

“All right,” she said at last, when Sunny paused for breath. “I’ll stop the battle. But then I’m setting Scarlet free, so don’t try to get in my way.”

“But —”

“That’s the deal,” Peril said stubbornly. “I’ve already lost one mother. Scarlet is what’s left, so she’s the best I can do.”

Sunny curled her tail around her talons. She was very worried about this plan, but there wasn’t time to keep arguing. And what could she say? Having no mother would be better than having that mother? What did she know about it, really?

“Thank you,” she said instead. “I trust you,” she added. She wasn’t sure she really did, but she wanted to. “I know you can do it without hurting anyone.”

“Um,” Camel said unhappily from above them. “I really think I shouldn’t let this happen.”

“You can’t stop her,” Sunny said to him as Peril shot into the sky. “And your job is to watch me; that’s all Smolder said. I’m not going anywhere, see? Well, except back up to the pavilion to watch. Come on.” She followed Peril up and watched the shimmering copper scales flash toward the battle outside the walls.

From the high pavilion, Sunny could see two more corpses lying below the battle, but after a heart-stopping moment, she realized that neither one was Thorn or Six-Claws. She stared at the battle intently until she finally spotted her mother, grappling claw to claw with a soldier.

Smolder was there, too, not far from Qibli, shouting orders and darting around the formations. He was one of the first to spot Peril as she approached. Sunny could tell because he froze very suddenly, staring in the direction of the SkyWing.

The soldiers around him turned to see what he was looking at. Three of them took one look at Peril, shrieked, and fled into the desert, their shadows flickering rapidly across the dunes until they vanished in the direction of the Scorpion Den. Sunny guessed they had been to Burn’s palace and seen what Peril could do.

She’d never seen what Peril could do, not to another dragon. She’d been trapped in her cage while all her friends were in the arena at the Sky Palace, so she’d missed all the fighting. But Clay had told her about it — the melting scales, the black talonprints burning into her victims, the scorched smell — and it sounded terrifying. She hoped she wasn’t about to see it now.

Gradually the Outclaws stopped fighting, too, and fell back, until there was a wide circle of dragons around the clear space of sky where Peril hovered.

Sunny’s sharp ears caught some of what Peril was saying to them, but not all of it. Something about taking over the fortress, something else about surrendering.

She saw Smolder start forward as if he were going to argue with Peril. Oh, please don’t, she thought anxiously. It was strange to admit it, but she actually liked him. She definitely didn’t want him to die or get his scales melted.

But several SandWing soldiers grabbed him and pulled him back, shaking their heads and pointing to the smoke that rose clearly from Peril’s wings.

Thorn said something, and Peril gestured toward the stronghold. With a sort of grateful bow, Thorn flew past her, followed by all her Outclaws.

“Hooray!” Sunny cried, flapping her wings with excitement. “Race you to the courtyard, Camel!” She leaped off the tower and soared down toward the stones where she’d first landed in the stronghold.

Thorn had just set down and was turning to issue orders to her dragons when Sunny catapulted to a stop in front of her and threw her wings around her mother.

“By all the snakes!” her mother yelped. “Sunny!” She lifted Sunny off her talons and spun her around. “Never mind!” she shouted at the Outclaws over Sunny’s shoulder. “Found her!”

Sunny felt giddy and weightless, like a tent with its pegs pulled up, flying loose in a sandstorm. “You came to get me,” she said breathlessly.

“Of course I did, beetle,” her mother said, stepping back and looking around. “Six-Claws told me everything. I spent seven years looking for you; I wasn’t about to lose you after only ten minutes of conversation.” She grinned with all her teeth. “Besides, I’ve always wanted to invade Burn’s stronghold. I take it she’s not here.”

“Luckily,” Sunny said. “I doubt she’d have surrendered as graciously as Smolder did.”

“We should do the tour quick before she comes back, then,” Thorn said cheerfully, as if she hadn’t been scales away from death a few moments earlier. “What do you think that is?” She put one wing over Sunny’s shoulders and steered her toward the black obelisk Sunny had noticed before.

Their claws sank into the sand around the monument, which was white and clean as if it were swept every day. As they got closer, Sunny could read the words carved and painted in gold on the side of the pillar.

“Yikes,” Sunny said, suddenly realizing what it meant. She scrambled sideways, off the sand, pulling Thorn along with her. “Queen Oasis is buried under there! Right below us!”

“Probably where she died,” Thorn guessed, looking up at the walls Burn had added after she took over. “This would have been right outside the original palace, where the scavengers attacked her.” She peered at the inscription again. “That’s more poetic than I would have expected from Burn. Very impressive.”

The sound of wingbeats overhead made them both look up as the SandWing soldiers came flapping back into the courtyard. With them were Peril and Smolder, who spiraled down to land beside Thorn.

“I’m going to be in so much trouble,” Smolder said to Sunny with a sigh. “Burn might actually kill me this time. Losing you and Scarlet in one fell swoop? That’s probably worse than anything my brothers ever did.”

“I’m sorry,” Sunny said.

“Sorry enough to stay our prisoner?” Smolder asked hopefully.

“Who is this hilarious dragon?” Thorn asked her.

“This is Smolder, Burn’s brother,” Sunny said. “Smolder, this is Thorn, my mother. She’s the leader of the Outclaws. And this is Peril.”

Thorn half bowed again to Peril. “Our lucky angel,” she said.

Peril nodded, looking a bit uncomfortable. Sunny guessed she wasn’t used to gratitude, and that she’d certainly never been called an angel before.

“Perhaps I should move to the Scorpion Den,” Smolder said gloomily. “Thorn, was it? Hmmm.” He gave her a thoughtful look, as if he’d heard of her somewhere before.

“I need to kill the dragon who betrayed me,” Thorn announced. “His name is Addax. Please produce him.”

“Oh, no, don’t,” Sunny blurted. “I mean, don’t kill him, please. He only — he just — he had his reasons, and look, I’m all right, aren’t I?”

Her mother tilted her head at Sunny, looking surprised and concerned. “Don’t you want to punish him? Aren’t you angry?”

Am I? Sunny glanced at the barracks of soldiers beyond Smolder. Somewhere in there, Addax had been reunited with his family. And somewhere in there, he was probably hiding right now, knowing what might happen to him next.

“Punishing him won’t make anything better,” Sunny said. “It’ll probably just make someone else angry and vengeful and lead to more awful things. I’m really all right. Let’s leave him and get out of here.”

Thorn brushed Sunny’s wing with hers and nodded. “All right, if that’s what you want. Mercy is yours to grant. I have one more question for this dragon, though.” She turned to Smolder. “You’ve lived here a long time. Can you tell me if you have any NightWing prisoners?”

Smolder shook his head. “No. I’m afraid my sister doesn’t keep most of her prisoners. Alive, I mean.”

“You had one NightWing, though,” Sunny offered. “In Burn’s collection, didn’t you? The stuffed one that Scarlet destroyed?”

“What?” Thorn said. Her wings went very still. “What do you mean, stuffed?”

“It’s sort of a hobby for Burn,” Smolder said with an embarrassed expression. “If she finds a dragon she wants for her collection, she’ll usually kill him and stuff him herself…. I know, it sounds pretty horrible.”

“It is horrible,” Sunny told him bluntly. “It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever heard, ever.”

“Where?” Thorn said to Smolder in a cold voice. “Show me this murdered NightWing. Right now.”