Glory was not surprised to find Tsunami twitching violently in her sleep when she and Jambu landed. The SeaWing would probably be ready to fight someone the moment her eyes opened.

What was surprising, though, was discovering what Starflight got up to when he was bored.

“Hey, Glory,” he called the moment he spotted her. “Watch this!”

The NightWing rolled one of the larger pieces of fruit — a round, light pinkish melon-looking thing — in front of Clay’s nose and jumped back.

Although he was still knocked out, Clay’s nose started twitching. His snout trembled and sniffed and inched closer and closer to the melon. His stomach growled loudly. His tongue flicked in and out.

Starflight took the melon away again, and Clay stopped moving with a long, tragic sigh.

“Isn’t that hilarious?” Starflight asked Glory.

She gave him an amused look. “I’ve always figured torturing our sleeping friends would be funny.”

He sat back and flung his tail over his talons, frowning. “I didn’t have anything else to do. It’s been unbearably quiet with everyone sleeping.” His eyes flicked to Jambu. “Have you asked him about your —”

“Yup,” Glory interjected. “Dead end.”

“We’re brother and sister!” Jambu announced gleefully.

Starflight tilted his head slowly to one side and gave Glory an “is he joking?” look. “You don’t seem . . . much alike,” he politely understated.

She shrugged, and the sloth on her back said, “Squerble!”

Starflight’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Glory!” he said. “There’s a sloth on you! You’ve got sloth — a sloth — it’s sitting right on your neck!”

“I know,” Glory said. “Apparently they’re like pets to the RainWings. This one likes me. Even though I’ve explained to it that I’m pretty disagreeable.”

“Oh, fascinating,” Starflight said. His talons twitched as if he were dying for a scroll to check or somewhere to write notes. “If I remember right, pets don’t tend to do well in dragon communities. They usually get eaten by forgetful relatives or sometimes by the owner herself. Scavengers, on the other talon, apparently keep all kinds of odd prey animals as pets, like cows and goats and fish. That’s according to A Longitudinal Study of Peculiar Scavenger Behavior, anyway.”

Glory remembered that scroll, but she hadn’t taken it very seriously. Some of the things scavengers supposedly did were too absurd to be real.

“We would never eat our pets,” Jambu interjected. “Why bother? There’s enough fruit in the rainforest to be sure no RainWing will ever go hungry, and the sun gives us more than half the energy we need to survive anyway.”

“So you really don’t eat meat?” Starflight asked, giving Glory a sideways glance. “You’re all vegetarians? Vegetarian dragons?”

Jambu waved his front talons airily. “We’re not strict about it. We eat what we feel like eating. Bananas are easier to catch and peel than monkeys are, that’s all.”

Lazy fruit-eaters, Glory thought. Just like everyone says they are.

But they also have tranquilizer blowguns and a cleverly designed hidden village, she reminded herself.

It didn’t help. They didn’t even notice my egg was gone.

“Ouch!” said a small voice behind them. “I think something . . . bit me . . . what — where are we?”

Starflight bounded over to Sunny’s side. “Are you all right?” he asked, helping her stand up.

The little SandWing blinked several times and stared around at the RainWing village. “How did we get here?” She shook out her wings and peeked over the edge. “Oh my gosh, that’s a long way down. Glory, you have a cute furry thing! Can I hold it, please please?”

“Why not,” Glory said, disentangling the sloth from around her neck. “Just don’t eat it.” She passed it over to Sunny, who cradled it gently between her front talons. The sloth poked Sunny’s snout in a curious, exploratory way, then climbed up it onto her head and sat down with a yawn.

“It’s not afraid of dragons at all,” Starflight mused. “Fascinating.”

“Oooooooorgh,” Webs moaned. He clutched his head with his eyes still closed. “Everything hurts.”

Sunny crawled over to him and checked his wound. Even from where she was, Glory could tell that it looked worse. The blackness was spreading and the scratch looked angrily twisted and raw.

“Nothing’s going to get me!” Tsunami yelled, leaping to her feet. “I’ll fight off any poisonous bugs! ACK WHERE ARE WE?” She wobbled on her talons and tipped over with a thud.

“Don’t move too fast,” Jambu suggested helpfully. “The tranquilizer takes a little while to completely wear off.”

“TRANQUILIZER?” Tsunami shouted. “How dare you —”

“Tsunami, stop yelling,” Glory said. “Or I’ll ask him to knock you out again.”

“I’d like to see him try!” Tsunami cried.

“Please do,” Glory said to Jambu. “Do you have any darts that last for, say, days?”

“We don’t do multiple darts in one day,” Jambu explained, taking Glory seriously. “Just to be safe.”

Tsunami flared her wings and glowered fiercely at Jambu and the other RainWings who were beginning to gather on the platform around them. Suddenly Glory thought the bright purples, deep oranges, turquoise blues, and lemon yellows looked somehow too shiny and too vivid now. She’d guess that they were showing off for her friends, except she got the feeling all RainWings woke up every day and spent hours trying to look more colorful than everyone else.

“Clay?” Sunny said. She nudged the slumbering MudWing. “Clay, wake up. Are you all right? Is he all right?”

“He should be fine,” said Liana, swooping up behind Jambu. “His dose wasn’t any different than the rest of yours.”

“I’m awake,” Clay muttered. He buried his head under his talons. “I’m just waiting until Glory and Tsunami stop fighting. I was dreaming about sheep and buffalo and bears. They were all on the table in front of me and I had to decide which to eat first. Oh, and they all smelled like melons. That part was kind of weird.”

“Sunny!” Tsunami cried, making the SandWing jump. “Stay very still. There’s a sloth on your head. If I hit it just right, we can share it for dinner.” She stepped forward, flexing her talons. There was a murmur of disapproval from the watching RainWings.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Glory said. She brushed past Tsunami and snatched the sloth away from Sunny. It cheerfully wrapped its arms around her neck and reburied its nose in her ruff. “It’s mine,” Glory said to Tsunami.

“Yours?” Tsunami echoed. “Yours as in you’re saving it for a midnight snack?”

“Mine as in don’t touch,” Glory answered. “And don’t make snide comments either.”

“Me?” Tsunami said. “You’re telling me not to make snide comments?”

“Clay, come on,” Sunny said, tugging on his ears. “Make them stop so somebody will help Webs.”

Glory had more or less forgotten they’d come to find a cure for the poisoned SandWing scratch near Webs’s tail. She glanced around at the watching RainWings. Their eyes were wide as full moons and their scales glowed with pink and blue bubbles of curiosity and enthrallment. They looked as entertained by Glory’s spat with Tsunami as the SkyWings were by actual gladiator arena battles.

Maybe they resolve all their arguments by taking naps, she thought grouchily.

Clay heaved himself upright and stretched, his muscles rippling. A few of the younger RainWings went “ooooo” and tried to change their scales to match his — muddy brown with undertones of glowing amber in the sunlight.

“That’s right,” Starflight said to Sunny. “We should focus on Webs. Of course you’re right. I’ll take care of this.” He turned to Jambu and Liana. “We ur gently request an audience with Queen Dazzling.”

The two RainWings wrinkled their snouts thoughtfully. “Queen Dazzling?” Liana said. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do,” Starflight insisted. “It’s of the utmost importance. We must see her at once.”

“Dazzling,” Jambu said to Liana. “It’s not her month, is it?”

“I don’t think so,” Liana agreed. “I guess they could see her anyway.”

“We must!” Starflight said firmly. “Take us to her at once!”

“Wait,” Glory jumped in. “What do you mean, ‘not her month’?”

“Well,” Jambu said, “ wouldn’t you rather see the current queen? If it’s so important?”

Starflight’s pompous attitude fizzled out like someone had dumped a pile of snow on it. “But,” he said, “but the NightWing Guide to the Tribes said — I’m sure it said Queen Dazzling —”

“It also said we have no natural weapons,” Glory pointed out. “So perhaps it’s not the most reliable source, at least about RainWings. Who’s the current queen?” she asked Liana.

“I’m pretty sure it’s Magnificent right now,” Liana said. “Unless she handed it over to Grandeur a bit early.”

Oh, no, Glory thought. Don’t say it. Don’t say it.

“You take turns being queen?” Tsunami burst out. “Are you serious?”

“Only the ones who want to,” Liana said. “Most of us find it way too much work, you know?”

“Yeah, SO boring. Dragons bother you all day long,” Jambu agreed. “Makes me glad I can’t be queen.”

“So who can?” Glory asked. “Anyone? Or only the royal family?”

“Royal family!” Jambu echoed with great amusement.

“Oh, right,” Glory said. “RainWings don’t do families,” she informed her friends. Sunny tilted her head, but luckily the RainWings kept talking before she could say anything sympathetic.

“Pretty much any female in the tribe can be queen if she wants to,” said Liana.

“Really?” Tsunami said curiously. “How about me? Can I be queen? I’m originally a princess, you know. And I’m really good at telling dragons what to do.”

Liana and Jambu looked at her dubiously. Tsunami shifted her sea-blue wings, raised her snout in a queenly way, and flashed the royal glowing patterns in her scales.

“Well,” Jambu said, “I guess you could ask.”

“Absolutely not,” Glory said. “Have a little tribe dignity, for moons’ sake. You cannot have a SeaWing as queen of the RainWings. Tsunami, quit that.”

“When you say it like that, it does sound weird,” Liana agreed, scratching her ruff with one talon.

Glory didn’t want to know what Tsunami was thinking right then. Something about what a useless, ridiculous tribe this was, probably. “So, fine, take us to Queen Magnificent,” she said. “How far is the palace?”

Most of the RainWings politely tried to muffle their laughter.

“We don’t really do palaces,” Liana said. “Come on, follow me.”

Jambu and the other RainWings stayed behind, waving, like a bowlful of butterflies, as Glory settled the sloth on her shoulder again and she and her friends followed Liana up into the treetops.

The treehouse she led them to was not much different from all the others, although it was a bit higher and closer to the sun, with an open roof and five giant open windows in the curved outside walls. A short hanging walkway, glowing with fuchsia flowers shaped like dragon tongues, led from the doorway to another large platform. Seven dragons were standing in a line on the platform. Most of them looked bored or sleepy, although one or two had angry red flickers sparking through their scales.

“Here you are,” Liana said, landing and nodding at the end of the line. “Magnificent will get to you eventually.” She squinted up at the sky. “Probably before dark. Depending on what these others are here to complain about.”

“We have to WAIT?” Tsunami barked. “In a LINE? Shouldn’t visitors to the rainforest automatically go to the front?”

The waiting RainWings all shimmered green with displea sure and shot Tsunami unfriendly looks.

“We can wait,” Glory said. “No big deal.” The sloth flopped out on her back and made a snoozy sound.

“It’s a big deal to Webs,” Sunny pointed out. “Look how much pain he’s in.”

Webs contrived to look even more pathetic than he had a moment earlier. He flopped down on the platform and groaned softly.

“Sorry,” Liana said. “This is how we do it, to be fair. Nobody gets to go ahead of anyone else.”

Tsunami drew herself up as tall as she could and glared at her. “Didn’t I mention that I’m the royal daughter of the queen of the SeaWings?”

“That sounds lovely for you,” Liana said. “I’m on a gathering patrol now, but I’ll come back to check on you all afterward.” She took a step back, made a cheeky little bow to Tsunami, and flew away.

“Well, I never,” Tsunami sputtered. “Maybe we should tell them who we really are.”

“Shhh,” Glory hissed at her. “We agreed to stop doing that.”

“You don’t think Queen Magnificent would lock us up, do you?” said Sunny.

“Doubtful,” Starflight agreed. “I bet these dragons haven’t even heard of our prophecy. I’m not sure they’d particularly care.”

“True,” said Glory. “They don’t care about much.”

“Better safe than sorry, don’t you think?” Clay said. “I vote we keep it quiet. I mean, you never know how dragons will react, right? Sorry, Tsunami.”

“No, you’re right,” she grumbled. She stretched her wings and neck. “I just can’t believe they knocked us out and now they’re making us wait around to see the queen.”

“Yeah,” Glory said. “It would make so much more sense if they’d chain you all up in a cave and starve you and ignore you for a day or two and then throw you in prison after you save one of their princesses. Oh, no, wait, that’s what your mom did.”

“At least there’s food here,” Clay said over Tsunami’s sputtering. He had scooped up a pile of the fruit from the first platform and brought it with him. Looking pleased with himself, he started arranging the choices in front of him. “What do you think these are?” He poked a branch covered in what looked like bright yellow sundrops.

The dragonets shared the fruit; even Webs perked up enough to eat. But Glory wasn’t hungry. She passed a small orange fruit up to the sloth, but didn’t eat anything herself. Like Jambu had said, the sun had filled her up more than any food ever had. Which was weird, and she didn’t want to think about it or about what it meant that she’d been kept away from something so important for practically all her dragonet years.

Instead, she wandered toward the walkway and back, trying to peek across to the queen’s treehouse. Through the windows she could see rainbow scales, bright blue and shimmering yellow and emerald green. She also spotted garlands of white flowers with petals like dragonfly wings. The RainWings seemed to use flowers for decoration the way the other tribes used jewels and precious stones.

Glory glanced at Tsunami. The SeaWing was still wearing the strands of pearls her mother had given her in the Kingdom of the Sea. She acted like she’d forgotten they were there, but occasionally Glory saw her running them through her claws.

But her mother was a little bit crazy and a smidgen evil, Glory thought to herself. Wouldn’t I rather have no mother than one like Queen Coral? Even if she did come with pearls?

“What are you seeing the queen about?” she asked the first dragon in line. He jumped, startled to be spoken to.

“Oh, uh,” he said slowly. “I’m just wondering if I can get my assignment changed. Like, right now I teach dragonets about fruit gathering, but I really think I’d be better at, like, advanced napping techniques.”

Glory only barely managed not to laugh out loud. He was clearly not joking. Was “advanced napping techniques” an actual subject? She decided it would be rude to ask.

“What about you?” she asked, turning to the next dragon in line. This one was tall and pale orange, and a small gray-blue dragonet sat in the curl of her tail, frowning grumpily.

“I’m bringing this dragonet in for punishment,” said the tall dragon. “He seems to think it’s funny to stuff berries up the noses of sleeping dragons during sun time.”

The little gray-blue dragon huffed a noise that was somewhere between amused and outraged and made a gruesome face at Glory. She made one right back, and he gaped in surprise.

“I’ll tell you why I’m here,” snarled the third dragon in line. He was one of the two with the furious red flickers along his ruff; the other was at the back of the line. Glory thought they might be the only angry RainWings she’d seen so far.

“Uh-oh,” said the “napping techniques” dragon with a sleepy smile. “Mangrove is complaining about something again.” The tall orange dragon chuckled appreciatively.

“Complaining about something!” Mangrove yelped. “I’ll say! Something we should all be complaining about! My Orchid isn’t the only one who’s missing, you know!”

Glory tilted her head. “Your orchid?” she asked. Was this another weird RainWing thing, where it would turn out they were bizarrely attached to their flowers?

“My partner,” Mangrove growled. “Orchid. She’s been missing for three weeks. I’ve asked the queen every day since then to send out a search party.”

“Sometimes dragons need a break,” said the first dragon with a shrug.

“Maybe she’s taking a really long nap somewhere,” agreed the tall orange dragon.

“Three. Weeks,” Mangrove hissed.

“And other dragons are missing, too?” Glory asked Mangrove.

“At least twelve in the last year, including Orchid,” he said grimly.

A chill crawled down Glory’s spine. So the MudWing soldiers weren’t the only ones encountering something malevolent in the rainforest.

There was something out there, lurking behind the colorful birds and exuberant flowers and tall whispering trees. Something that could take out two MudWings at once . . . and also make twelve RainWings disappear without a trace.