“And so,” Sunny finished, “I decided we shouldn’t wait any longer. Maybe we’ll never find the Eye of Onyx, but we can still choose a queen and end the war. Someone has to, and I think it should be us.”

She paused and looked around at her friends, whose faces ranged from disbelieving to astonished to terribly worried.

“I can’t believe all of that happened to you,” Starflight said in a low, shaken voice.

“And we weren’t there to protect you,” Tsunami said, exchanging a glance with Clay.

“She did all right,” Glory said unexpectedly. “Stealing the Obsidian Mirror, that was crazy-brave. Crazy and brave, I mean. And talking Peril into saving Thorn — well, that would have made me nervous.”

“Also, confronting scavengers,” Deathbringer chimed in. He gave a little shudder out to his wingtips. “No, no, no, thanks. Not for me.”

“You’re scared of scavengers?” Glory asked, amused.

“NO,” he said. “They just … give me the heebie-jeebies, that’s all. With their … eyes and paws and … faces.”

“That’s pretty cute,” Glory said. “The big bad assassin terrified of itty-bitty scavengers.”

“One day I’ll throw a sword-waving scavenger at you and see how tough you are,” he bridled.

“But, Sunny,” Clay interjected, “we can’t stop the war. The prophecy isn’t true, remember?”

“So?” she said. “If there had never been a prophecy, would the war have to go on forever? No. It has to end sometime. I vote right now.”

“But it doesn’t have to be us,” Starflight said, then immediately added in almost a mumble, “Maybe it has to be us.” He reached up to the leaves on his eyes, remembered they were there, and lowered his claws again.

“No!” Fatespeaker said, grabbing Starflight’s talons. “It doesn’t have to be you! It especially doesn’t have to be you! You’ve done enough.”

“Sunny’s right, though,” he said. “Why shouldn’t it be us? Maybe everyone else is waiting for the prophecy and so they don’t realize they could end the war themselves. And think about all the dragons who need this war to be over.”

“My brothers and sisters,” said Clay. “If they’re still alive.”

“Anemone,” Tsunami said. “So she doesn’t have to use her animus powers and lose her soul.”

“All the SandWings,” Glory added. “They need a queen and a unified kingdom.”

“So will you help me?” Sunny said, picking nervously at a vine of small, star-shaped red flowers that snaked through the window.

“Well, even if we did, what’s the plan?” Tsunami said practically. “Pick a queen and then send Deathbringer to kill the other two?”

“Yikes,” Deathbringer said, flaring his wings. “Give me the easy job, why don’t you.”

“Oh, if only we knew Pyrrhia’s best assassin,” Glory mused teasingly.

“No, no,” Sunny said, flapping between them before they could go too far down that road. “No killing.”

“It would be almost impossible,” Tsunami mused. “I assume dragons have tried before.”

“What if we got an animus to enchant something?” Starflight suggested. “That was Blister’s plan to use Anemone, and it was a smart one. Enchant a spear to go kill Burn, or perhaps we could put her life essence in a tree and set it on fire, or something like that?”

“We’re not making Anemone do that!” Tsunami snarled.

“Are you serious? Can an animus dragon really do those things?” Fatespeaker asked. “That’s absolutely terrifying.”

“It’s a little more complicated than that, but basically,” Deathbringer answered her. “And yes, it’s terrifying.”

“No,” Sunny said again. “We’re not going to kill them!”

“I agree with Tsunami,” Clay said. “We can’t ask Anemone to use her powers. That would be awful for her.”

“I wasn’t thinking of Anemone,” Starflight protested. “I was thinking of Sunny’s father, Stonemover. He’s sort of beyond hope anyway, isn’t he?”

Is he? Sunny closed her mouth to think about that. She had a feeling that if he used his magic again, that would be it for Stonemover. Especially if he used it for something as massive as killing two dragons. But would it be worth it? To save the rest of Pyrrhia? Would he do it?

Could she bring herself to ask him to do it? He was disappointing, but he was still her father. Didn’t she want to get to know him better?

“With either of those options, we’d have to pick which sister we want to be queen,” Glory said. “And they’re all terrible.”

“Blaze seems nice,” Clay said optimistically.

“Blaze is a dizzy idiot who’d be dead by day two,” Glory said. “I say Blister. She’s evil, but she’s smart, so she’d probably rule the kingdom fine, and if we’re her allies she’ll leave us alone. I think. Well, maybe not. OK, probably not. But at least we’d know where she was.”

“Wait,” Sunny said. “I don’t want to kill any of them.”

“Burn is the least awful,” Tsunami argued. “She’s mean, but she’s not scheming. We’d see her coming if she tried anything on us.”

“Mean and brutal,” Starflight reminded her. “Remember the murdered dragons in her collection. And the SkyWing egg she smashed — just an egg, not even a dragonet yet. As long as she’s alive, I don’t think we’re safe.” He paused, then added, “I don’t think Sunny will be safe.”

Sunny leaned over to brush his wing with hers.

“So how do we decide?” Clay said. “Who do we choose and who — and how — I mean, are we really going to —”

“No!” Sunny said. “Listen, for once, please —” But Tsunami, Glory, Fatespeaker, and Deathbringer all started talking over her at once, arguing about the sisters and how to get rid of them.

Sunny clapped her talons over her ears and shouted:

“Stop! I SAID STOP!”

Everyone blinked at her in the sudden silence.

“No,” she said again, more firmly. “We are not killing any of them. We’re not using magic to do something underhanded. We are going to get all three of them in one place, and then we will either have a competition, like the RainWings have, or we’ll let all the SandWings decide.”

“Let the SandWings decide?” Tsunami said skeptically. “What?”

“Like when we decide things together,” Starflight said, understanding immediately. “By voting. Or talking it out. Like the NightWings, or Queen Coral’s council.”

“All the SandWings?” Glory said. “I don’t see how that could work.”

“They’ll never agree to it,” Deathbringer said, shaking his head. “The sisters. They haven’t been in one place together in over eighteen years. They certainly won’t put the decision about the throne in the claws of their future subjects.”

“Well, that’s what we’re going to try,” Sunny said stubbornly. “I think we can get them all together, especially if you guys help me. But if you don’t, it doesn’t matter. I’m doing it anyway.” She settled her wings back and looked at her friends defiantly.

There was a long pause. Sunny could imagine what they were thinking, what they were about to say. “Oh, Sunny. It’s a sweet idea, but it’ll never work. You have too much faith in the goodness of dragons. You’re so naïve and ridiculous. Why don’t you work on a project here in the rainforest instead, like counting bananas or something? Your crazy ideas and obsession with the prophecy is just —”

“All right,” said Clay. “I’m in.”

Sunny’s heart leaped. She beamed at him.

“Me too,” said Starflight, struggling to his feet. “It’s worth a try. I want it to work.”

“But you need to rest!” Fatespeaker protested.

“We need to be safe,” Starflight said, “and we won’t be safe, and neither will our friends and all the dragons who count on us, until the war is over.”

“I agree,” said Glory. “I’ll help, too. Although I can’t leave my dragons here for long, not with the NightWings so close by and not settled yet.”

“The NightWings are your dragons, too, now,” Deathbringer pointed out. Sunny caught the way he looked at Glory and thought, What he really means is: I am yours, now and forever.

Is that how Starflight feels about me? She glanced at him, with his sad bandaged eyes and determined expression. I don’t … I don’t think that’s how I feel about him. I mean, I love him … but not like that.

“Fine!” Tsunami said. “Fine, yes, of course I’m in. It’s never going to work, but I’ll do it. Whatever it is. So. Then. What are we doing?”

Suddenly they were all looking at Sunny; even Starflight’s face was tilted in her direction.

You wanted their attention. You wanted them to listen to you. You’d better earn this.

“We start by sending a message to Burn, Blister, and Blaze,” she said firmly. “We start with Blister — and we get to her through the Talons of Peace.”