Darkstalker looked up and started violently at the sight of Moon.

“What are you doing here?” he said. “Why didn’t I hear you coming?” He touched his head for a moment, then gave her a searching look. “Are you all right? I can’t reach you.”

“I’m using skyfire,” Moon said.

“Skyfire? Protection spells?” he said, looking genuinely wounded. “Moon, aren’t we friends?”

“I thought so,” she said. “But then I found out you’ve been lying to me and doing some really terrible things.”

He raised his front claws to his forehead again. “All the futures are wavering, Moon. The futures where we’re not friends — those aren’t good futures for anyone.” His eyes drifted to the side, as if he was watching a path unfold. “Something is happening. Something very bad.”

Turtle escaping? Qibli thought worriedly. Is he seeing the ripples from that?

“This dragon isn’t real,” Moon said, pulling his attention back to her. She pointed at Clearsight. “I don’t know how you made her, but I know she’s not the real Clearsight. At first I was worried you’d really brought her back from the dead somehow.”

“No.” Darkstalker sighed, regarding the silent, enchanted dragon. “Rumor has it that’s the one thing an animus dragon can’t do. I’d probably need her bones to try anyway. I mean, not that I would,” he added, catching Moon’s expression. “Because creepy? Right. Creepy.”

“But that’s why she feels wrong to you, Darkstalker,” Moon said. “Because this is wrong, this … experimenting with other dragons. Trying to create a perfect dragon for yourself. Trying to change someone to be exactly what you think you want. That’s not love.”

“I do love Clearsight!” Darkstalker insisted.

“Right, and this isn’t her,” Moon said. “You loved the real her even when she fought with you, because she was always completely herself.” She spread one of her wings toward the false Clearsight. “Not the version of her you tried to create. Let her go, Darkstalker. Whatever this is — whatever you enchanted to turn into Clearsight — turn it back.”

It’s not whatever, Qibli guessed with a bolt of inspiration and horror. It’s whoever. There’s someone else under there.

Darkstalker looked at Moon for a while, thinking.

He doesn’t want her to know it’s another dragon. He knows how she’d react.

“All right, I will,” he said finally. “If you promise to stay my friend. Always.”

Moon picked up a torn piece of the scroll and started folding it carefully between her claws. “I don’t know if I can promise that,” she said. She looked him in the eyes. “Not if it’s true about what you’ve done to the IceWings.”

“What I’ve done?” he said. “What do you — that’s it.” His voice abruptly dropped into a low hiss. “That’s the change. I see it. It’s the IceWings. They’re — my spells aren’t working on them anymore.” He whirled furiously toward the window. “Who did this? What idiot — Moon, can’t you feel it?”

“A vision?” she said.

“Yes!” he said. “Your vision! It’s drawing closer — can’t you tell how soon it is?”

“I have it all the time,” she said. “Every day now.”

“I thought I’d stopped it for you! But somebody ruined my plans.” Darkstalker pounced on the other half of the ripped scroll and picked up the bottle of green ink. “Tell me what the IceWings are doing right at this moment,” he said, upending the bottle over the paper. Green ink poured out, but instead of splashing into a blobby puddle, it spread and shifted into letters that scrawled across the scroll.

“Queen Glacier is dead,” Darkstalker read aloud.

Qibli stifled a gasp. Oh no. They hadn’t been fast enough with the earrings. Winter was going to be devastated.

“The new queen of the IceWings is her daughter, Snowfall,” Darkstalker read on. “She has declared war on the NightWings after learning that the Darkstalker has returned and that he was responsible for the plague decimating their tribe. The entire IceWing army is on the move, planning to wipe out the NightWings for good.” He snarled angrily.

“So you did try to kill them all,” Moon said.

“Because I knew otherwise they’d come kill us!” he cried. “There are a lot more IceWings than NightWings right now, in case you hadn’t heard. And they hate us. They’re going to wipe out our whole tribe, and it’s all because of your interfering friends.”

“No, it’s because of you!” Moon said spiritedly. “The IceWings and NightWings were at peace! Queen Glory and Queen Glacier had worked out a truce, finally, after all those centuries of hatred. We were starting over. But of course they’re going to fight back after what you did!”

“They would have come for us anyway,” Darkstalker insisted. “As soon as they heard I was alive. That’s what your vision was always about — the coming war between the NightWings and IceWings. That’s what I was trying to save us from.”

“By murdering an entire tribe?” she said. “Darkstalker, you really don’t see how fundamentally horrible that is?”

“They started it,” he growled. He turned back to the scroll, lashing his tail. “Tell me where the IceWing army is now.”

Moon tipped her head to read the new letters that rearranged themselves on the page. “On their way to Jade Mountain,” she read. “To demand answers about where Darkstalker and the NightWings are. Oh no.” She pressed her front talons together. “Jade Mountain will fall — the prophecy —”

“It’s too late to stop it now,” Darkstalker said. “We have to go fight them, or else they’ll come here and destroy the new home we’re building.”

“Maybe they won’t,” Moon said desperately. “Qibli told me they’re afraid of the mountains on the northern border. Maybe they won’t want to come through them.”

Darkstalker stopped, looking at her with glittering eyes. “That’s right,” he said. “My spell to protect the border. That was a stroke of genius. It did an excellent job of protecting our kingdom from invading ice dragons. Well, guess what? IT’S COMPLETELY USELESS NOW.” He stabbed a claw violently into the scroll. “Thanks to whatever cleverclaws made the IceWings safe from all my spells. Now the whole tribe can come pouring through to wipe us out!”

He shook his head. “No. We won’t just wait for them to come destroy us. We’re NightWings! The greatest tribe in Pyrrhia! We’re taking this fight to them.”

He whirled toward Clearsight. “Go back to the dragon you were, with no memory of the spells I put on you,” he barked.

She smiled and nodded pleasantly, and then a moment later, sleek, beautiful Clearsight was gone, and in her place stood the thin and scowling shape of Fierceteeth. She glanced around the room, scowling more deeply in confusion.

Yikes, Qibli thought.

“You —” Moon pointed at Fierceteeth, aghast. “She — you —”

“Gather all the NightWings who can fight,” Darkstalker said to Fierceteeth. “The very young and the sick can stay here safely. The rest should meet me in the Great Diamond as soon as possible.”

“The Great Diamond?” Fierceteeth said snippily.

“The plaza below the palace,” said Darkstalker, waving one talon out the window. “Go on, fly as fast as you can. And don’t annoy me again.”

“But what for? What do I tell them?” Fierceteeth demanded.

Darkstalker’s face looked carved from stone. “Tell them we’re going to war.”