“Shapeshifter?” said Winter with a hiss. “The one who was working with Scarlet?”

“You mean the one you robbed,” Bog snarled. “Perhaps you remember beating me bloody in order to steal my scroll.”

“Perhaps you remember putting our friend Kinkajou in a coma,” Qibli snapped at him, sinking his claws into the brown scales. “What are you doing here, with my grandfather?”

“I didn’t like the Mud Kingdom,” Bog grumbled. “Too brown. Thought I’d try my luck in the Scorpion Den. Looking for treasure.” He managed to flop one of his talons to a place where he could see it — and see the giant bejeweled rings on it. “Found it,” he said with a smirk.

“But what kind of idiot would meddle in royal politics again, after last time?” Qibli demanded. “You could have gone anywhere and started over.”

“I was trying to,” Bog snorted. “Vulture approached me in the market and offered me a lot of treasure to tell people this MudWing story. What was I going to do, say no to treasure?”

“That would have been a good start,” said Qibli.

“I’m confused about something,” Winter said to Qibli. “How is he a MudWing now? Didn’t we take away the scroll he was using to shapeshift?”

“Taking away the scroll meant he couldn’t write any new spells,” Qibli said. “But I’m guessing he had a little trove of spells already written — scraps of paper torn from the scroll that were enchanted to turn him into different dragons. Is that what’s in here?” He poked the pouch and Bog snapped at his talons again.

“Haven’t you ruined my life enough?” Bog snarled. “Aren’t there any actual bad guys you could go harass?”

“I would love to have nothing to do with you,” said Qibli, “but I can’t as long as you’re in the business of starting a MudWing-SandWing war.”

Winter reached for the pouch, but as he leaned over Bog’s head, the MudWing abruptly rammed his headdress into Winter’s chin. At the same moment, he lashed his tail up and around and slammed the heavy gold band into Qibli’s side, knocking Qibli off his back. Qibli scrabbled to keep his hold on the chain mail, but Bog ripped it off in a sudden, smooth motion, leaving Qibli with a talonful of limp silver links and sapphires.

Winter lunged for the MudWing again, but Bog seized something off the floor and held it out in front of him. “Stop right there,” he snarled, “or I will bite this scavenger’s head off.”

Winter froze, his gaze fixed on the little creature in Bog’s talons. It had evidently escaped the cage and made a run for the door, but Bog had caught it before it reached the threshold. It wriggled pitifully in his grip, the thatch of black fur on its head just visible over the MudWing’s heavy rings.

“We can’t let him go,” Qibli said to Winter. “He keeps showing up. He’s too dangerous.”

“Put down the scavenger,” Winter said to Bog.

“You get out of here and leave me alone,” Bog growled. He whirled and bolted out the door. Qibli dashed after him, but the MudWing was halfway across the orchard already, running as fast as he could toward the sounds of a party at one of the far pavilions.

Qibli turned back in frustration. “We can’t chase him,” he said to Winter. “Or we’ll end up right back in Vulture’s claws. We have to get out of here now.”

Winter was crouched beside a small shape in the grass — the scavenger that Bog had dropped as he fled. It scrambled to its feet and backed away from Winter, limping. One of the other scavengers darted out of the shed and waved a stick at Winter with some ferocious squeaking noises.

“I think you’ve done enough Champion of the Scavengers work for tonight,” Qibli said, poking Winter in the side. “Come on.”

They abandoned the scavengers and ran back through the trees to the spot where Qibli had left Ostrich. Cobra pushed through the bushes, grinning and streaked with dirt, as they came galloping up. A large black sack was thrown over her shoulder.

“That’s what I call living,” she crowed.

“We were seen,” Qibli panted. “We have to go.”

“Oh, wonderful,” Cobra snapped, the triumphant look vanishing from her face. She darted off along another path. Qibli and the others raced after her, keeping their footfalls as silent as possible. He kept expecting to hear shouts of alarm and pounding talons as Bog raised the entire Talons of Power militia to find them. But nothing broke the stillness of the night.

“Stop!” Ostrich whispered, catching Qibli’s wing. “Two dragons up ahead.”

She was right; two hulking figures blocked the path in one of the courtyards, leaning over a fountain and splashing water onto their faces. Cobra skidded to a stop and plunged into the shrubbery beside the walkway.

“Shhh,” Qibli said. He tugged Winter under an imposing statue of Vulture and spread his wings to hide him. Ostrich played along, pretending to measure him from wingtip to wingtip.

“Hmm,” she said as the two figures came toward them. “Yes, I think we can manage an excellent tattoo of, uh, your face along here.” She sketched out a shape with her claw on one of his wings. “And perhaps a pattern to match on the other side — diamonds are always popular, or snakes …”

“Skulls!” shouted one of the approaching dragons. “Th’only good tattoo izza skull!” He staggered sideways and the other dragon shoved him away from her with a hiss.

“Sirocco and Rattlesnake,” Qibli muttered, staring fixedly down at his wings. He prayed that the hood would be enough of a disguise to hide him. His mother was very still, and he wondered if it was strange for her to see her other two children — who had, presumably, been working for Vulture the whole time she’d been imprisoned. Did she feel as if they’d betrayed her?

“Of course, there are always gem-embedding options,” Ostrich said. “I hear they’re painful, but such a statement.”

“I want a ruby inna middle of my forehead!” Sirocco bellowed, lurching toward Ostrich. “Can you do that?” He tripped over his own tail and slammed down onto his snout, yelping in pain.

“You are such an embarrassment,” Rattlesnake fumed. “That’s why Grandfather thinks we’re both stupid; because all he can see is you and your big empty head! Why aren’t you on patrol?” she suddenly barked at Qibli and Ostrich. “Don’t you know the compound is on lockdown tonight?”

“Yes,” Ostrich stammered. “Just — on a break.”

Rattlesnake swelled up so she looked twice her size. “On a break, sir,” she said menacingly. “One day I will inherit all of this, both my brothers will be dead, and everyone will come crawling before me the way they crawl before Grandfather.” She tossed her head and suddenly caught sight of Cobra in the shadows. A slight frown creased her forehead. “M-Mother? Aren’t you —”

Cobra moved so fast that Qibli wouldn’t have been able to stop her, except that he knew what she would probably do and he’d been waiting for it. She had the disk out and ready to fly but he managed to knock her arm aside before she could throw it.

“You can’t kill them!” he cried. “Mother! They’re your children!”

“You’re my only dragonet,” she said coldly, reaching for another chakram.

“Qibli?” Rattlesnake gasped. She leaped backward and opened her mouth to yell for help.

Suddenly Winter was there, knocking her over, seizing her snout, and smacking her head into the tile. Almost at the same moment, Ostrich leapt at Sirocco, who was blinking in confusion. She landed on his back and threw her wings over his face.

“No,” Qibli said to Cobra. “They’re awful, but they’re still my brother and sister.” He ran over to Ostrich, untying his hood. The black fabric worked just as well to muffle a dragon as it did to conceal one. Sirocco flailed around frantically at first, but soon he was bound and gagged behind the statue, tied up with a canopy stolen from a nearby pavilion. They dumped Rattlesnake next to him, unconscious and tied up as well.

“I thought your years as an Outclaw would have made you less soft,” Cobra said to Qibli disapprovingly, staring down at her other two offspring.

“There’s nothing weak about being compassionate,” Qibli retorted.

“Can we fly now, before we run into any more of your loving family?” Winter asked.

Cobra beckoned and darted away, past the fountain, around another statue of Vulture, and to the edge of a stand of tall, bristling cacti. Beyond it, Qibli could see the outer wall of the compound, with the wide-open sky of stars beyond that.

“All right,” said Cobra. “Stand back. This is going to be a little dramatic.” She took a deep breath, then exhaled a whooshing ball of flame that engulfed the cacti.

Instantly several explosions went off inside the fire, as Vulture’s traps all burst into action at once.

“What the —” cried Winter. “I thought the plan was stealth!”

“Stealth, and then flying really fast!” Cobra crowed. “See you at the palace!” She launched herself over the flames, beating her wings furiously.

Qibli couldn’t hear anything beyond the crackle and roar of the fire, but he was sure Talons must be converging on them from all directions. He grabbed Ostrich and hauled her into the sky with him. “Don’t look back!” he shouted to her as they swept over the wall. “Just keep flying!”

Winter’s moon-pale shape soared up alongside him and together the three of them flew after Cobra, north to the palace of Queen Thorn.