A new flash of greenish lightning illuminated the horrible crooked grin on the old queen’s face.

“There is no Ruby,” Scarlet said with malicious delight. “I made her up. It turns out when you’re the queen, no one questions which dragons you claim as daughters. I invented Ruby completely, exactly the way I wanted her. After all, I’ve always been disappointed in the daughters I actually had.”

If she was hoping for a more devastated reaction, she must have been disappointed. Tourmaline only narrowed her eyes at her mother and lifted her chin, with an expression that looked exactly like one of Queen Ruby’s.

“Your Majesty,” Peril said to Ruby/Tourmaline. “My advice is to finish killing Scarlet and then figure this out. I have someone who can answer all your questions when you’re done.”

Tourmaline set her jaw. “Good idea.” She launched herself at Scarlet with startling speed, suddenly full of all the ferocity and danger that Peril had expected before. With two quick slashes, she ripped into one of Scarlet’s wings, and then sank her claws into Scarlet’s shoulders and her teeth into Scarlet’s neck.

Another heavy roll of thunder rumbled over their shrieks. Peril backed away from the fight, cautiously working her way to the boulder where Cliff was waiting. Below the thunder and dragon roars, she caught some of the conversations running through the crowd.

“But who is that? Where did Ruby go?”

“Did Peril do something to her?”

“Doesn’t matter — she’s winning now, isn’t she?”

“I remember Tourmaline! I thought the queen had her killed a long time ago … ”

“How does a dragon just … change like that? Who did that magic? We don’t have any animus dragons in the SkyWing tribe!”

“Wait, I liked Ruby. Can we get Ruby back?”

Peril climbed back up onto the boulder and found dismayed faces on both Chameleon and Cliff.

“I wish you hadn’t done that,” Chameleon said. “So publicly, too. It’s going to raise a lot of questions, and I’m afraid it’ll be really awkward for me around here if you start pointing talons.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Peril said. “You’re right, I should have let Ruby die so you wouldn’t have to feel awkward.”

“Where’s Mommy?” Cliff asked, reaching out his little talons. “You said you not a bad guy. You said that! Where did you put her?” He started to cry. “I want Mommy back.”

Now Peril really did feel sorry. She wished desperately that she could hug him, or at least take one of his talons in hers the way Clay did when he was comforting someone.

“It’s all right, little prince,” she said, crouching to look him in the eyes. “She has to look like that to win this fight, but she’s still your mother. She’s just bigger and tougher and a different color, that’s all. She still loves you the same.”

“Well, she might not,” said Chameleon. “That was a whole other personality I built for her, with a lot of false memories in it. She may feel differently about everyone now, even him.”

Cliff buried his face in his talons and started to sob.

“STUPENDOUSLY HELPFUL,” Peril said to her father. “For our next trick, let’s burn out all your teeth one by one.”

He took a nervous step away from her. “I only mean that I don’t know what will happen. Ruby wasn’t supposed to be able to challenge her mother at all, and certainly never win. But she’s been wearing that personality for over seven years now. Maybe over that much time, it becomes real enough to change like a real dragon would. So she became strong enough to make the challenge. You were strong like that already — I couldn’t believe how quickly you overcame the loyalty to Queen Scarlet.”

Peril snorted in disgust. “You specifically put loyalty to her in my spell?”

“Of course,” he said. “That was my assignment before I ever knew you were my daughter. Remove firescales, add Queen Scarlet loyalty, subtract all memories of Clay.”

“I’d say you’re the worst dragon I’ve ever met,” Peril said, “but Scarlet still has you beat.”

Another wild scream came from the combatants, drawing Peril’s attention back to the fight. Scarlet was trying to sink her claws into Tourmaline’s eyes, but Tourmaline was holding her off with brute strength, pummeling her underbelly with razor-sharp back talons. Scarlet’s scales were more red than orange now, covered in blood from her shredded wing, shoulders, and neck. The rain slammed down on their backs and the clouds seemed to be leaning in closer, as though they wanted to watch the fight as well.

Suddenly Scarlet slipped on the wet rocks and went crashing down on her back; Tourmaline immediately leaped on top of her, digging in her talons.

“You shouldn’t have come back, Mother,” she said. Tourmaline glanced up at the waiting crowd and shouted, “For the SkyWings!”

And then, with a ferocious crack, she snapped Queen Scarlet’s neck.

For a long moment, the only sound was the rain falling, pattering on rocks and scales and wings.

Then someone shouted, “Long live Queen Ruby!”

“Queen Ruby!”

“Queen Ruby!” the crowd roared in response.

“I gather that most of these dragons missed the message about who she really is,” Chameleon said drily.

“Shows how smart you are,” Peril said. “She really is Ruby to them. And if she has all her memories, isn’t she really Ruby? What else makes a dragon who she is?”

“Moral fiber?” a voice suggested behind her. “A coherent philosophy of life?”

Peril whirled around. “Turtle!” she cried with delight.

The SeaWing edged out from behind one of the boulders, nervously eyeing the raucous, celebrating SkyWings. He looked extremely wet and somewhat bedraggled. “I, uh … came to rescue you?” he said. “Well, to find out what was going on anyway. I heard there was a spell or something? But then I got here and it was very stormy and I couldn’t find you and suddenly there were eight million SkyWings pouring out of the mountains and a big fight going on and I thought … maybe better to stay out of the way until it’s over. Right?”

“Yes, smart thinking. If Scarlet had won, it might have gotten a little dangerous around here,” Peril said. “But don’t worry, I rescued myself. No more spells on me.” She gave Chameleon a sharp glance and he nodded frantically. “Plus also I kind of saved the day. It was epic and you missed it.”

“Nuh-uh!” Cliff said suddenly, looking up. His face was still streaked with tears, but indignation had broken through his distress. “Cliff did that! I saved the day!”

“Well, a little bit,” Peril admitted. “But it was maybe eighty-five percent me.”

“It was NINETY-SIXTY-FIVE-NINETY PERSON ME!” Cliff objected.

“I have little brothers,” Turtle said to Peril. “Trust me, you’re not going to win this argument.”

She couldn’t believe Turtle was here! That was something only a friend would do, wasn’t it? Come to rescue her from a spell? Deep inside another tribe’s kingdom, risking the wrath of a dangerous queen?

“Maybe you do like me after all,” she said to Turtle.

“You’re a loon,” he said. “Of course I do, even when you’re scary, which, let’s be fair, is most of the time.”

“But what if I’m the ‘talons of power and fire’?” Peril asked. “Shouldn’t you ‘beware’ me instead of being friends with me?”

“I can beware you and like you at the same time,” he joked. “Besides, if I have a choice, I think I’d rather be on the side WITH any talons of power and fire, frankly.”

“Cliff! CLIFF!” Tourmaline came bounding over the crowd, barreling through SkyWings with her wings spread. She landed on the boulder and swept Cliff up in her arms. “Did you see that? Mommy won!”

He wriggled anxiously, trying to see her face. “But where is Mommy?” he pleaded. “You don’t look like Mommy. I want her.”

Tourmaline winced, set him down gently, and looked over at Peril. Scarlet’s blood had almost turned her scales back to red, but the rain spilled over her wings and back, revealing Tourmaline’s unfamiliar orange again.

“Do you know how this happened?” she asked Peril. “Do you know who can fix it?”

“Fix it?” Peril asked. She skewered Chameleon with her gaze as he started to sidle off.

“Yes — change me back into Ruby,” said the new queen. Behind her back, Chameleon shook his head furiously and clasped his front talons together like he was begging Peril to keep quiet.

Peril blinked away raindrops. “You … you want to be Ruby again?”

“I am Ruby,” Tourmaline answered. “I remember everything about being her. All I need is to look like her again.”

“But don’t you want to be yourself?” Peril asked. “The real true actual Tourmaline?”

Tourmaline put one wing around Cliff and shook her head. “I will be myself. Ruby is the SkyWing queen and Cliff’s mother. Now that I know the truth about my sister — about me — I can be even better at both of those things.”

If I show her what Chameleon can do … I’ll be giving another queen his power. He could fly away right now, with no one the wiser about his scroll or his shape-shifting. But if I let him do that, no one will know what he’s doing with it. He could end up working for another terrible queen.

I guess it comes down to who I trust more … my new queen who always hated me … or my father, who betrayed me as soon as he met me.

She thought about Clay, and loyalty, and everything he’d ever said about the family you make and the dragons you should trust and how to make the world safer for everyone.

Peril sprang across the boulder and cornered Chameleon just before he could take off. “This is the dragon you need, Your Majesty.”

*  *  *

The queen took them to a quiet library room of the palace, lined with scroll jars, desks, and wooden sculptures of trees that made Peril very nervous, but it was private enough that they wouldn’t be interrupted. She kept her wings and tail tucked in close to her and ignored her father when he noticed and gave her a significant “I can still help you with that” look.

“Show the queen,” Peril said to him.

“Do I have to?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Tourmaline.

“Let’s ask my talons,” Peril said, lifting them up and nodding thoughtfully at them. “Oh, guess what, they say yes, too.”

Cliff giggled. He and Turtle were the only other two allowed in the room, and both watched curiously as Chameleon undid his metal sheath again.

This time he did not reach for his pouch of shapes, and Peril decided not to point that out. She could leave him one secret, since he loved them so much.

But he did bring out the scroll and undid the leather binding with an aggrieved sigh. Carefully, he unrolled the blank end of it along the floor.

“This is what I use,” he said. “It’s animus-touched.”

Tourmaline tilted her head at it. “Where did it come from?”

“I … found it,” he said evasively. “All I have to do is write an enchantment in here, tear it off, and give it to you to wear, in whatever way you want. Then as long as you wear it, you’ll be whatever the enchantment says you are.”

Chameleon straightened his shoulders and gave Tourmaline a sly sideways look. “In fact, I could make you anything,” he offered. “For the right price, I can make you invincible. I can make you as strong as ten dragons. I might even be able to make you a mind reader. Imagine the possibilities! What have you always dreamed of being?”

“Don’t trust him,” Peril interjected.

“Queen,” said Tourmaline. “Both as Tourmaline and as Ruby, that was what I always wanted to become. And I did, without any strange magic.” She tapped the scroll. “I want it to say: Turn this dragon back into Ruby, queen of the SkyWings, with all her memories intact.”

“That’s it?” Chameleon said irritably. “No superpowers?”

“That’s it,” Tourmaline said. “I want to watch you write it. Do it now.”

She leaned over his shoulder, staring narrowly at the page as he dipped his claw in a small inkpot and wrote in scratching, crooked handwriting. As soon as he was finished, he blew on the paper, tore out the written part, and passed it to the queen.

“Check this for me,” Tourmaline said, holding it out for Peril and Turtle to examine.

“You saw me write it!” Chameleon protested. “When could I have snuck in any extra instructions?”

Turtle took the paper and studied it on both sides, bringing it close to his eyes. It said exactly what Tourmaline had asked for.

“I think it’s the best possible solution,” he said, handing it back to Tourmaline. Peril nodded. If this was what the queen really wanted, she wasn’t going to argue. She could understand it.

But as for herself, she was staying Peril, exactly the way she was. Firescales and all. No more magic shortcuts to becoming a better dragon, for Clay or for any other reason. In the end, it didn’t matter what other dragons thought of her; what mattered was learning to accept the dragon she was and then making herself the dragon she wanted to be — the long, hard, real way.