The white dragon paced furiously over the snow-dusted grass. The sound of frozen blades cracking under her talons carried across the wide-open tundra.

Jerboa sighed and wheeled down toward her. She couldn’t keep hiding in the clouds forever. Each moment she delayed would only make the young IceWing queen more hostile.

She landed on claws that were instantly freezing. Even though she’d been alive for so long, she’d never gotten used to cold temperatures. Her SandWing blood wanted to be out in the desert, rolling in warm sand.

“Finally!” Queen Snowfall shouted, bounding over. “I don’t have time to wait around forever! I have an entire kingdom to run!”

“Sorry,” Jerboa said. She inclined her head as politely as she could without actually bowing. “Queen Glacier usually arrived after I did.”

“Well —” Snowfall dug her claws into the ground, scowling. Her wings gave a little tremor; Jerboa had noticed that happen before whenever she mentioned Snowfall’s late mother. It made her think maybe there was a heart under Snowfall’s icy exterior after all … one that mourned for Glacier. But there weren’t many other signs of it.

“I guess I’m more punctual than she is,” Snowfall blurted, “so you’ll have to be, too!”

“I will try,” Jerboa said, inclining her head again.

“Have you thought about what I asked?” The IceWing queen began pacing again. Before Jerboa could answer, she interrupted herself. “Well, I’ve changed my mind. I need something else instead.”

Jerboa arched one eyebrow. “Oh?”

“The Great Ice Cliff,” Snowfall said. “It’s completely stupid.”

“I’ve always thought so,” Jerboa agreed.

“It protects our southern border from, I don’t know, invading SandWings, if they were dumb enough to try that,” Snowfall said. “I’ve only seen its animus magic work once.”

“Shooting ice spears at any dragon who crosses the border that isn’t an IceWing,” Jerboa said. “That’s why we meet on this side of it.”

Snowfall rolled her eyes at the obviousness of this observation. “But here’s the problem. Maybe most dragons would try to attack that way, over land, and so we’d be protected. But what if Darkstalker comes back? Or another dragon like him comes along? And they try coming at us over the water instead? What if they fly around and come in our northern border? Or east?! OR WEST?!”

Jerboa sighed. “It’s too cold for anyone to do that,” she said. “The truth is, other tribes are not the slightest bit interested in stealing your kingdom.”

“Maybe not, but they might be interested in killing all of us!” Snowfall said. “I can think of a very big scary awful dragon who was pretty recently interested in that exact thing!”

It was very unfortunate that Snowfall’s reign had begun as a result of the plague Darkstalker had sent to wipe out the IceWings. He hadn’t succeeded, and he was gone now, but as a result, Snowfall had ended up as an incredibly paranoid, perpetually anxious queen. Which made her exhausting for Jerboa to deal with.

“So I want you to expand the Great Ice Cliff for me,” said the queen. She waved one talon at the kingdom behind her. “I want it to go all the way around, along the entire border of the kingdom.” She paused, then gave Jerboa a narrow, suspicious look. “Something has happened. But you can’t go tell Queen Thorn.”

“I have never spoken to Queen Thorn,” Jerboa said truthfully. That didn’t mean she never would, but Snowfall seemed satisfied enough with her answer.

“I have scouts patrolling around our borders day and night,” Snowfall said in a hushed voice. “I’ve told them to fly out into the ocean as far as they can to keep an eye on everything for me. Just in case someone DOES attack.”

“Oh?” Jerboa said again. She had discovered that this was often the only contribution she needed to make to a conversation, especially when it was with a queen.

“And guess what one of them saw?” Snowfall whispered.

Jerboa arched her brows again.

“DRAGONS!” Snowfall shouted. “Hundreds of dragons! Coming this way! Across the ocean! I don’t know from where! But they’re coming for my kingdom and I won’t let them! Build me more Ice Cliff RIGHT NOW!”

“Maybe they’re not coming for your kingdom,” Jerboa pointed out. She had a pretty good idea of what dragons those were, from what Moon and Luna had said. She hadn’t realized they were so close, though. “Maybe instead of shutting them out with magic, you should see if they’re all right. Maybe they need help.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH!” Snowfall screamed. “No! It’s an invasion! And you have to stop it!”

“Queen Snowfall,” Jerboa said firmly, trying to cut off the tantrum before it got much worse. “Your mother and I had an agreement. She never abused my animus powers.”

“And look how she ended up!” Snowfall cried, even more frantic. “She could have won the War of SandWing Succession! She could have protected the tribe from the plague!”

“No,” Jerboa interrupted. “If she had come to me then — if I had known — we would have stopped it sooner and saved her. But she couldn’t get to me … she was too sick. That’s why she sent you.” And I rather wish she hadn’t. Queen Glacier was a reasonable dragon to deal with. Queen Snowfall, on the other talon …

“She should have told me about you sooner,” Snowfall said. “Our own animus dragon is exactly what we need.”

“I’m not your animus dragon,” Jerboa observed. “And I have bad news.” She saw the panic sparking in Snowfall’s eyes and hurried on quickly. “Animus magic isn’t working. Right now. Apparently.”

Queen Snowfall stared at her, confusion and rage and alarm battling in her expression.

“Sorry about that,” Jerboa added.

“WHAT?!” Snowfall roared.

Jerboa spread her talons. “It just isn’t. It’s not working for me or any of the other animus dragons. All previous spells are still working. But nothing new can be cast.” She shrugged, her wings rising and falling in the chilly air.

“How is that possible?” Snowfall shouted. “Why is this happening NOW, just when I found you?! I NEED THAT MAGIC!”

“Or perhaps,” Jerboa said, “this continent would be better off without animus magic for a little while.”

Snowfall jabbed one claw at her. “Prove it. Prove that it doesn’t work.”

Jerboa agreeably snapped a frozen twig up from the ground. “I hereby enchant this twig to turn anything it touches green,” she said. She held it out to Snowfall.

“Absolutely not,” Snowfall snapped.

With another shrug, Jerboa tapped herself with it — shoulders, snout, wings. Her color stayed the same. She poked a nearby rock, but it remained as gray as ever.

Snowfall grabbed the twig out of her talons and glared at it, then threw it as far as she could. Jerboa kept quiet, resisting the urge to say, See?

“If you can’t do magic,” Queen Snowfall spat, “then what good are you? You’re completely useless!”

Jerboa watched the queen spin and fly away, fury radiating off her like a cloud of ice particles.

Completely useless, Jerboa thought, allowing herself the smallest of smiles. Yes. Just like I’ve always wanted.