“This isn’t safe at all!” Starflight called. “This is the opposite of safe. We might as well just hand ourselves over to Queen Glacier.”

“I’m right next to you,” Glory said, and grinned when Starflight lost a beat and had to flap harder to keep up. Not only was it funny, but it was also nice to know that her camouflage was working so well.

Her brother certainly seemed to have no problem. She glanced around at the endless empty blue that surrounded them as they flew north.

“Jambu?” she said.

“Still here,” answered a patch of sky from off to her left.

“You really don’t have to come with us,” she said again. The semicircle of cacti was now half a day’s flight behind them, but Jambu could still make it back before dark.

“Nah,” he said. “This is better than sun time! I feel like I’ve been rolled in sunlight and stuffed with bananas. I bet the rest of the tribe would love to come through that tunnel and have their sun time here on the sand.”

Glory pictured a hundred RainWings suddenly sprawled in the desert, snoring away, only a few miles from Burn’s stronghold. She shuddered.

“That would be a really, really terrible plan,” she said. “It’s not safe here for basically any dragon.”

“That’s what I’m trying to say!” Starflight yelped from her other side.

“Even RainWings?” said Jambu cheerfully. “Nobody cares what we do.”

“The world is still at war,” Glory said. “And some of the queens are really not to be trusted. I don’t know what they’d do with you, but it wouldn’t be friendly.”

“Why not?” asked Jambu.

Because you’re so dopey you’re just asking for it. “Because most dragons are naturally unfriendly,” she said. “Biting and fighting is what we’re built for.”

“Really?” said Jambu. “We’re not.” There was a ripple in the air as he flicked his tail.

“Well, you should be,” said Glory. “One day some other tribe might come to you and you’ll have to be able to defend yourselves. Promise me you’ll be careful when we get to the IceWings. Don’t let them know what you are.”

“All right, all right,” he said. “I think it’s pretty cute, my little sister getting all worried about me over nothing.”

Glory rolled her eyes. Why did she care? If her tribe wanted to do idiotic things, did it really affect her?

Well, it did if she planned to stay in the rainforest.

But was that her plan? The RainWings were far from the family she’d hoped for.

But if she didn’t stay with the RainWings, where would she go? With the other dragonets, to fulfill a prophecy she wasn’t supposed to be in? What about after the prophecy was fulfilled? Clay had brothers and sisters in the MudWings. Tsunami had loved the Kingdom of the Sea, apart from her crazy mother — maybe she’d still go back and challenge her for the throne one day. The NightWings, of course, would welcome Starflight with open wings anytime.

Glory glanced over at Sunny. The little SandWing flew in a tired, flappy way, but her jaw was set and determined. Would she ever fit in somewhere? She was such an odd-looking SandWing, without the poison-tipped tail all the rest of her tribe had. Would anyone want her, if the dragonets did fulfill the prophecy and end the war?

Well, presumably whichever queen they chose for the SandWings would be pretty grateful. Surely she’d take Sunny in . . . and besides, everyone liked Sunny.

Glory shook her head and stretched her talons. She was getting way ahead of herself. First we find Mangrove and get him home. Then I find the missing RainWings and whoever or whatever is taking — or kill ing — them. Then the great dragonets of destiny figure out how to stop the war, and maybe I tag along for that. And then we’ll see what happens.

“I wouldn’t mind stopping for a nap, though,” Jambu’s voice said out of the blue.

“We won’t have time for that,” Glory said. Then again, Mangrove was a RainWing, so maybe he would stop mid-idiotically-foolish-rescue for a nap — but they couldn’t count on it. “Also, Jambu, it’s not going to be like this the whole way. It’s going to get really cold by tonight, and tomorrow we’ll be in the Ice Kingdom. Where it will be seriously freezing.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Jambu said breezily.

It was already colder than it had been back at the tunnel entrance, and the desert sand below had changed to rocky, treeless hills, gradually sloping up as they flew farther north. Glory saw Sunny casting a wistful glance back at the desert behind them.

Starflight was right; this wasn’t particularly safe. Glory and Jambu were camouflaged, but there wasn’t much of a way to explain a MudWing, a SeaWing, a NightWing, and a SandWing all flying together — especially right into IceWing territory. They’d agreed to stop telling everyone they were the dragonets of the prophecy, but arriving like this, they might as well be carrying here we are! please imprison us! banners. Glory wished again that her friends had just let her come on her own. She was sure she could retrieve Mangrove by herself.

They were lucky to avoid any IceWing patrols — Sunny heard one coming, which gave them time to hide down in the rocky landscape — and they landed some time after dark on ground that crunched ominously under Glory’s claws.

“Is this snow?” Clay asked, poking the dirt.

“No,” Starflight said in his know-it-all voice. “It’s just frozen dirt. We’re going to be really cold tonight.” They’d chosen a spot at the base of a short cliff, which would help block the wind, but Glory could already feel the cold seeping up from the ground through her claws and underscales.

“And we shouldn’t use fire,” Tsunami said bossily. “We can’t risk being seen.”

“Dibs I get to sleep next to Sunny,” said Clay. He grinned at her, and she beamed back. Her warm scales would be the only source of heat they had. Even Glory would have to put up with close contact if she wanted to get through the night without freezing.

Glory knew Clay was joking — he was more likely to use his own body as a shield to keep the wind away from the rest of them — but she glanced over at Starflight and caught the crestfallen look on his face.

Oh, Starflight. Maybe you should actually do something about that crush of yours. He’d never admitted it out loud, but Glory was pretty sure he’d been hopelessly in love with Sunny his whole life. She was also pretty sure Sunny had no idea, and that she might never find out at this rate.

Not my problem, Glory reminded herself. But as they huddled up to sleep, she edged around so Starflight ended up curled next to Sunny’s wings, with Clay behind both of them. She coiled herself as tightly as she could and found a spot along Clay’s tail. Jambu immediately lay down practically on top of her.

“Ooof,” Glory whispered. “A little more personal space, please.”

“I don’t know what that is,” Jambu whispered back. “But I’m really freaking cold, aren’t you?”

Glory sighed. She was. And Jambu was warm. And he was her brother.

She curled up for a second night in a row of uncomfortable sleep.

Glory woke up shortly before dawn. The sun was a thin pale line of light on the horizon, and the dark purple sky still glittered with stars. She could see her breath in the air, trails of smoke as if she could breathe fire like the others.

She wriggled out from under Jambu, who slept with his mouth open and his wings flopped wide. At least he wasn’t pink today. She found it a little easier to take him seriously when he was the gray and brown colors of the rocks below them.

She glanced down at her scales to make sure they matched the landscape as well. She liked how there was even a subtle sparkle to them, just like the frost that covered the ground.

Tsunami shifted in her sleep, growling softly. Glory realized that Starflight was already awake; he blinked at her over Sunny’s back, looking exhausted. She flicked her tail and signaled that he should go back to sleep; then she spread her wings and hopped up to the top of the small cliff to see what the land ahead looked like.

A lot like the land they’d left behind and the land they were on, apparently. Except — was that snow in the distance? Glory gave her scales a moment to shift, and then she lifted into the sky.

They hadn’t been able to see it in the dark the night before, but there was definitely snow on the taller hills ahead of them, and more snow beyond that. Glory shivered. It would get colder from here, and it was already close to unbearable. This had to be tough on Sunny and Clay as well. Maybe the others could stay here while she went on ahead. In fact, maybe she should go ahead right now, without them, so no one else would be at risk.

Except she knew perfectly well that her idiot friends would follow her and just get in worse trouble without her there to help. If she wanted to go on without them, she’d have to convince them to be smart, listen to her, and stay behind.

There was something large up ahead in the snow-covered hills — some kind of building. It couldn’t be Glacier’s palace, though; Glory knew that was far to the north, on the coldest tip of the peninsula, where no other dragons would ever want to go. This building was almost too far south for IceWings.

Glory flew a bit closer and saw smoke rising from a few of its chimneys.

Smoke means fire, she thought, which means not IceWings. She circled in the air and studied it a bit more.

It had to be Blaze and her SandWings. Glory had been wondering how they survived in the Ice Kingdom. Apparently the answer was “by not going very far into it.”

Suddenly a movement below caught her eye. She froze, hovering in the air and hoping her camouflage was perfect.

There was a dragon among the rocks, not far from where her friends were sleeping, but not close enough to see them either. He was stamping his feet and slapping his wings together as if he was trying to warm up.

Mangrove? Glory thought hopefully, gliding a bit closer. He wasn’t camouflaged, exactly, but he was black like a NightWing . . . maybe he thought that would hide him well enough. . . .

And then the dragon below let out a small plume of fire, heating the ground below him before curling up on it.

So it wasn’t a RainWing. It was an actual NightWing, on his own in IceWing territory.

Well, that can’t be good news.