It was still raining when Sunny woke up the next morning. She could hear the pitter-patter at the far end of the passageway, and the breeze that gusted toward them smelled damp and fresh. But it came along with dim morning light, and the wind wasn’t as cold or fierce as it had been the night before. She felt sure that the worst of the storm had passed.

She stood up and stretched, reaching her wings as wide and high as they would go and pressing her talons out in front of her.

Everything felt less awful again, somehow.

Her father was still asleep. Sunny hesitated, half tempted to leave without saying good-bye, but she couldn’t do that to him.

“Stonemover?” She picked up the burnt stick she’d used for a torch and nudged a part of his shoulder that didn’t look entirely made of stone yet.

“Mmmph?” he answered. His eyes slowly peeled open.

“I have to go,” she said.

“Already?” He sighed, this time long and smoky so she had to step back to breathe. “Can’t you stay? It’s really … quiet here.”

Really lonely, you mean, she thought.

“I’m sorry,” she said, then added with a burst of excitement, “I think I’ve figured out how to end the war. I mean, I think I found a clue, sort of. At least I have an idea.”

Stonemover’s eyes were dark and puzzled. “But …” he said. “But why? The prophecy isn’t real, remember?”

“That doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’m not doing it because a prophecy told me to. If I can stop the war, I think I should. It would be nice if someone else would take care of it, but maybe that’s what everyone else is hoping, and maybe someone just has to do it.”

“Hmm,” said Stonemover. “Somehow I suspect it won’t be that easy.”

“Maybe it will be,” Sunny said brightly. “I’ll find the Eye of Onyx and give it to one of the queens, and that’s all it’ll take.”

“Ah,” said Stonemover. “That’ll never work.”

“I thought you might say that,” Sunny said. “Don’t worry, I’ll come back and tell you all about it when it totally does work.” She smiled at him, and she thought she saw the slightest movement of a maybe-smile twitching around the corners of his mouth.

“I wish —” he said, then stopped.

I don’t even know where to begin with wishing, Sunny thought. I wish the Talons hadn’t taken me? No, because then I wouldn’t have grown up with my friends. I wish I’d been born looking like a real SandWing? No, because then I wouldn’t be me, and I wouldn’t want to be anyone else.

Maybe I wish the prophecy were real.

I wish I knew for sure that this would work.

Sunny shook out her wings. “Just wish me luck,” she said. “I’ll see you soon.”

She could sense Stonemover watching her gloomily as she headed up the passage, toward the light and the quiet rain. She wondered what her mother would think of him now, how much he had changed since they knew each other.

None of my friends got to know both of their parents. I’m lucky they’re both still alive — and I’m lucky they’re not that bad.

But now that I’ve met both of them, I know which one I want to be like.

I’m not going to sit in a cave and mope because things aren’t the way I want them to be. I’m going to go make them happen, the way Thorn started the Outclaws and searched for me. If she’d given up, how would we ever have found each other? She’d have been just another dragon in the Scorpion Den, and maybe our paths would never have crossed.

The passage ended in a shallow cave overlooking the mountain range below. The sun was rising in the east, which was also the direction of the rainforest. But the forest with the scavenger was to the west.

Do I have time? What if Scarlet gets to the rainforest before I do?

Sunny hesitated with her claws gripping the ledge and her wings outspread. Maybe Scarlet had been bluffing about knowing where the dragonets were. How would she guess they were in the rainforest, if no one else had found them there? Maybe she was only trying to scare Sunny.

Well, she did a good job of that.

Too bad I don’t have the Obsidian Mirror anymore. It’d be useful to know what Scarlet is doing. Maybe I should go warn my friends and then come back.

But what if the scavenger leaves the ruins? This could be my only chance to find the Eye of Onyx and stop the war.

It was a detour, but she had to risk it.

She leaned forward and plummeted down the mountainside, soaring west toward the scavenger ruins and, she hoped, the missing treasure.

*  *  *

The burnt village was easy to spot from the air: a dark gash, stark and black against the surrounding greenery. Sunny spiraled toward it, studying the trees with her sharp eyes and looking for any movement that might be a scavenger.

Nothing so far, but it was late afternoon and Sunny wasn’t even sure whether scavengers were normally nocturnal or preferred the day.

She landed lightly in a cloud of ash that smelled like a wood fire. The ruins were still and deserted, and Sunny wondered uneasily if she had been wrong. What if the scavenger wasn’t here? Or what if she’d been here but was now gone, and Sunny had missed her?

Think positive.

She paced the entire perimeter of the den, searching every structure with even half a wall still standing. Every noise made her freeze and listen, her head cocked to the side, but it was always squirrels in the nearby trees or other little creatures scurrying in the underbrush. Which reminded her that she was hungry, so she caught a mouse and ate it, sitting on the old bell platform at the center of the village.

Well. There was no one here now, but that didn’t mean she should give up. Maybe the scavenger would return later. Except she probably wouldn’t if she spotted a dragon prowling through the ruins … but then again, if she’d stolen the treasure from the SandWings, that meant she had to be fairly bold and reasonably stupid.

Still, Sunny decided to hide, just in case.

She found a tree with thick, overlapping leaves and wide branches and settled into the crook of the trunk, keeping a sharp eye on the burnt village. From here she had a good view of most of it, and she spent the rest of the day watching and waiting.

By nightfall, as one of the moons climbed cheerily up the sky, Sunny had begun to doubt herself again. I should just go. I don’t have time to sit here — I have to get to my friends in the rainforest.

Besides, if she comes during the night, I won’t be able to see her anyway. If only I could see in the dark like Tsunami.

She dug her claws into the bark, forcing herself to be patient. If the Eye of Onyx was nearby, it was worth waiting for. Once she had that, she’d have a way to end the war.

Which won’t stop Scarlet from wanting to kill us, of course.

She stared hard at the village, now a shadowy mass of odd lumps and pointy shapes, overlaid with the silvery moonlight.

Was that —?

Something was moving in the forest outside the ruins. A small light bobbed up and down not far from the ground, blinking in and out as it went behind trees and bushes.

Now her ears could pick out the sound of footsteps. They were very quiet, but here and there a twig snapped, and she recognized the noise of paws brushing through leaves.

Softly she unwound her tail from the branch and slithered down the trunk. She crept silently through the dark village toward the light as it left the trees and floated toward a set of collapsed stone stairs, if Sunny remembered right from her earlier tour of the ruins.

There were two of them.

Two scavengers, one of them with short, fluffy hair — but the other one’s hair was long and she moved in a quick, confident way. Sunny was sure it was the same scavenger from her dream.

She waited until they climbed onto the steps and sat down. They were warbling in low tones that sounded like some of the rainforest monkeys, and the one with the long hair sometimes waved her paws as if she were drawing a picture in the air.

Flower did the same thing, Sunny remembered.

Now, the trick would be to approach them and get the treasure without scaring them off — and without getting attacked. They didn’t look like they were carrying any sharp little weapons, but you never knew with scavengers, according to the scrolls. And if these two had stolen the treasure, that meant they’d killed Queen Oasis, so they could be very dangerous.

She paused in the shadows for a moment, considering, and finally decided a direct approach was the only option.

“Don’t run away,” she said, stepping out in front of them and spreading her wings.

Both scavengers yelled with fright and promptly tried to run away.

Sunny leaped into the air and landed in front of the scavenger from her dream. That was the one she wanted. “I said, don’t run away!” Sunny barked, even though she knew the scavenger couldn’t understand her. “Hey! Come back!” She flung her tail out and tripped the little creature as it bolted in another direction. “I won’t eat you, I promise!” She pounced and managed to trap the scavenger between her front talons.

The second scavenger suddenly came running out of the ruins and threw something at her. This turned out to be the tiny lamp they’d been carrying, which bounced off Sunny’s scales but left a stinging burn where it hit.

“OUCH!” Sunny roared. “All right, I might eat you if you keep doing that!” She swept her tail around and knocked the second scavenger over, then picked up the first scavenger and hopped a step back, growling.

The scavenger between her claws was kicking and wriggling and being generally impossible. Sunny was trying really hard to hold it gently, but it was like hanging on to a moonbeam.

And the other scavenger was already struggling back upright, probably to attack her again.

Sunny looked around and spotted a building that hadn’t burned as badly as the rest of them. Two of the walls still stood, forming a corner made of heavy round stones. The walls were as tall as Sunny’s head — too tall for a little scavenger to jump off, unless they were more like frogs than Sunny thought they were.

She deposited the first scavenger on top of the wall, then whipped around, seized the second scavenger, and stuck him up there as well. They both made little yelping sounds and clung to the stones.

“There,” Sunny said. “Now you can’t run away.” She sat down and folded her wings back. “So. Where is the treasure?”

Their big eyes stared back at her. Sunny reached for a branch, set it on fire, and stuck it upright in the ground, so she could see them better.

The scavenger from her dream pointed at Sunny and chattered something at the other scavenger. If she were my pet, I could give her a name, Sunny thought. Maybe something like Holler, for all that noise she was making. And the other one could be Fluffy, for his hair.

She smiled. Holler and Fluffy. Totally cute. But also maybe totally responsible for this whole war, if they were the ones who stole the treasure. They looked a little small to be treasure thieves, but then, all scavengers were too small to be trying something that idiotic.

“The dreamvisitor,” Sunny said, cupping her front talons together as if she were holding a jewel. “The one you had in my dream. Where is it?” She tilted her head.

Holler and Fluffy started arguing, or at least, it certainly looked that way, raising their voices and barking at each other, waving their paws.

Sunny watched this for a moment, then stuck her claw between them and said, “All right, you’re adorable, but that’s enough. Dreamvisitor? Treasure? Now?” She rested her open talons between them.

Holler hesitated, looking at Fluffy, and then reached into a pocket of the fabric that was draped around her. She pulled out the sapphire and dropped it into Sunny’s palm.

“Whoa,” Sunny said. She hadn’t actually expected that to work. She raised the jewel to her eye and studied it. It certainly looked like the animus-touched gems from the scroll.

“Thank you,” Sunny said to Holler. “Where’s the rest?”

Holler blinked at her.

“Um,” Sunny said. She took the jewel and put it on the ground, then drew a large circle around it in the ashes and mimed adding more jewels to the circle. Then she spread her wings around it and waved at the imaginary pile of treasure. “The rest of the treasure. That you stole. Where this came from.” She picked up the dreamvisitor and waved it again.

Fluffy indicated the imaginary treasure and barked something at Holler. Holler ignored him, pointed over Sunny’s shoulder, and said something to her in what really sounded like an imperious tone of voice, if it wasn’t too crazy to think about scavengers trying to order dragons around.

Sunny narrowed her eyes at Holler. Now that she had a moment to think about it, she could see that both scavengers were smaller than Flower. They didn’t seem entirely full-grown. Scavengers reached their full size before twenty years, didn’t they? So if the treasure had been stolen twenty years ago — surely it couldn’t have been these two who took it.

But there was the dreamvisitor, real and heavy in her claws.

Fluffy began chattering vigorously at Sunny. Holler grabbed his shoulder and tried to stop him, but he fended her off. He pointed at the imaginary pile of treasure and then at himself and then at Sunny. That. Me. You. And then he mimed picking something up and giving it to Sunny.

Is he offering to bring me the treasure? Sunny’s hopes rose.

Holler stamped her foot and snapped at him. He put his paws on his hips and yapped back.

“I have an excellent idea,” Sunny announced. She gently scooped her claws around Fluffy and lifted him off the wall onto the ground. He yelled and flapped around a bit until she let him go and stepped back, and then he stopped, watching her warily. “You go get the rest of the treasure, and when you come give it to me, you can have Holler back.” Sunny tapped Holler lightly on the head.

This took a while to sink in. Sunny pointed to the forest, held up the dreamvisitor, pointed to Fluffy and Holler, in several different combinations, until finally Fluffy took a few steps toward the trees, calling up to Holler. She yapped back at him, and he bobbed his fluffy, shaggy head, then hurried off into the darkness.

“I hope this works,” Sunny said to Holler. “I’m not actually going to eat you or anything, even if he doesn’t come back.”

“Yibble yibble yibble,” Holler said to Sunny, or at least, that’s what it sounded like.

“You’re very cute, but you’re all a lot of trouble,” Sunny said.

“Yibble! YIBBLE YIBBLE!” Holler shouted, pointing over Sunny’s shoulder again.

Or maybe she was pointing at Sunny’s shoulder. Where Flower had been sitting in Sunny’s dream.

“Oh,” Sunny said, thinking of Glory’s sloth. “Do you want a ride? Are you sure?” Sunny flicked her tail. “You won’t be scared?”

“Yibble!” Holler demanded.

“All right,” Sunny said, scooping her up. Holler shrieked, with a little more terror than Sunny thought was necessary, considering she’d asked for this. As Sunny set her on her shoulder, Holler grabbed Sunny’s neck and balanced herself across her scales, making startled yelping noises.

“Hold on tight,” Sunny said, swinging her head around to check that Holler was firmly in place. She spread her wings and leaped into the sky.

It was a clear, starry night; all the clouds from yesterday’s storm had blown away, and two of the moons were half full in the sky overhead. The rustling leaves below them looked like waves rippling on the sea.

Sunny soared up in a long arc, swooped down across the forest, and veered back around again. The scavenger was quiet on her back, which was much preferable to shrieking.

I hope Fluffy understood me, Sunny thought. I hope he hasn’t gone to get a pack of other scavengers with pointy things. Imagine if he really does come back with the missing treasure! I could be moments away from holding the Eye of Onyx.

The Eye of Onyx, and power over the whole Kingdom of Sand.

Sunny shivered from horns to tail and felt the scavenger clutch her neck tighter.

Whoever holds the Eye could be queen. Even I could be queen. That would be one way to end the war — none of the three sisters wins, and I take the throne. Sunny, queen of the SandWings.

Of course, that would leave three dragons with a single unified mission: kill me.

It was scary, but it gave her an eerie thrill to think about, too. What if that was her real destiny — to rule the SandWings?

She glanced down at the forest and saw movement near the torch she had lit. Fluffy was back! She tucked in her wings and dove toward the ruins, landing with a thump right in front of him.

Fluffy jumped back with a yell. His eyes widened when he saw Holler on Sunny’s shoulder, and he launched into another shouting fit, practically hopping up and down. Holler slid off Sunny’s back and joined in.

Sunny wasn’t interested in their little monkey squabble, though. She was interested in the bulging canvas sack that Fluffy was clutching.

Reaching over Holler’s head, she deftly lifted the sack out of his paws. She turned toward the firelight and, fidgeting with excitement, emptied the contents of the sack onto the ground.

Gold coins and jewels tumbled out and bounced through the ashes, clinking and clattering into a small pile. Most of the jewels were tiny — none as big as the dreamvisitor — and barely worth stealing. The biggest object was a statue of a dragon carved from blue stone, with emeralds for eyes. The Lazulite Dragon, Sunny guessed, remembering the scrolls about the missing treasure.

She sifted through the pile, her heart sinking. She knew the answer at first glance, but she dug through it all, examining every coin, just to be sure she was right.

She was.

The Eye of Onyx was not there.