Deathbringer.

Waiting for someone. A few someones.

You haven’t seen any sign of the dragonets, have you?

Glory’s head was spinning as she flew away. Was the NightWing here waiting for them?

Deathbringer. Seriously?

The only dragon she knew of who the NightWings wanted dead was her. As soon as Morrowseer had laid eyes on her, back under the mountain, he’d decided she was going to mess up the prophecy. So he’d ordered the guardians to kill her, which was why she and the others had escaped. Had he sent Deathbringer to finish the job? Why waste all that energy hunting her down?

But Deathbringer had sounded as if he was waiting for more than just her. She wondered if that meant the other dragonets were in danger, too. Surely the NightWings wouldn’t kill off any of them. That had to mess up the prophecy much more dramatically than Glory could.

She landed next to her friends and nearly gave Starflight a heart attack.

“IceWing!” he yelped, flailing over backward. Tsunami leaped to her feet, teeth bared. “Look out! It’s — oh.” Starflight took a deep breath as Glory’s scales shifted back to brown and gray. “Glory! Why would you do that to me?”

“Because it’s hilarious,” she said. “And shhh.” She thought they were far enough away from Deathbringer, but she wasn’t completely sure how far sound would carry in the cold, crisp air.

“You looked very sparkly,” Sunny said sleepily.

“I nearly clobbered you with my tail,” Tsunami said in a severe voice.

“And I nearly bit your snout when you were snoring last night,” Glory said. “So I guess we’re both models of self-restraint. Jambu, wake up.” She poked her brother, who was the only one who’d slept through Starflight’s alarm.

“Too cold,” he mumbled, flopping one wing over his head.

“Too bad,” she said and poked him again. “Besides, if you get up and move you’ll feel warmer.”

“More sleeping,” he insisted, folding the other wing over his head as well.

Glory sighed and left him alone. “Starflight,” she asked, “do you have any idea how literal a NightWing’s name is? Like, does it always signal something about what they do?”

The other dragonets started getting up and stretching. Starflight scratched his head. “Well, there’s Morrowseer,” he said. “He can see the future and deliver prophecies, so that’s what ‘seeing’ the ‘morrow’ is about.”

“Yes, thank you,” Glory said. “I figured that one out.”

“But did they know he’d be a prophet when they named him?” Sunny asked curiously. “Not all NightWings are. So how would they know that?”

“Maybe another prophet foresaw it,” Tsunami joked.

Starflight poked at the frozen ground with one claw. “I don’t know any more than that,” he said. “Morrowseer hasn’t told me any NightWing tribe secrets. And you’ve read all the same scrolls I have.”

“True,” Glory said. “Lots of epic nonsense about wonderful NightWings. They all have these awkward mouthful names. I think in the stories their names do usually match their skills, if I remember right.”

“Why are you asking?” Starflight tilted his head at her.

“Because I just met one,” Glory said, “and I thiiiiiiink he’s here to kill us. Well, me, at least.”

That got their attention in a hurry. She told them about Deathbringer and every thing he’d said. Almost every thing, anyhow. She didn’t want them to figure out that she’d thought he was kind of cute. That is, before she realized he was there to kill her.

“Let’s get out of here,” Starflight said when she finished. “Let’s fly south right now and get back to the rainforest as fast as possible.”

Jambu poked his nose out hopefully. “I like that plan,” he offered.

“It does sound like the warmest plan. But what about Mangrove?” Clay asked with a shiver.

“I saw something else,” Glory said. “I think it’s where Blaze and her army must be camping out.” She described the building she’d seen. Starflight and Tsunami both nodded.

“Makes sense to me,” said Tsunami. “Blaze would need a place of her own. She couldn’t survive a day in Glacier’s palace.”

“Right. It’s built mostly of ice, so she wouldn’t even be able to use her fire there,” Starflight mused.

“So here’s what I’m thinking,” Glory said. “I’m sure Mangrove saw this place, too. He’ll head right for it, probably camouflage himself and sneak in looking for Orchid. So I’ll go after him and bring him back, while you guys hide somewhere Deathbringer won’t find you, and then we all fly south as fast as possible.”

“Wait, by yourself?” Clay said. “Can’t one of us go with you?”

“Who?” Glory said. “Who else can disguise herself as an IceWing?”

Her friends all looked at Jambu, who blinked sleepily.

“And be helpful,” Glory added.

“I can be helpful,” Jambu said with a yawn. “I bet I’m better at spotting camouflaged RainWings than you are.”

Glory hesitated. That actually did sound useful. She wasn’t really sure how she intended to find Mangrove on her own.

“You can do that?” she said.

“It’s a game we play starting when we’re dragonets,” Jambu said. “One dragonet camouflages herself, and whoever sees her first, wins. So no guarantees, but it’s probably more practice than you’ve had.”

She thought for a moment and shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. I can take care of myself, and I don’t need any help.”

“Glory,” Clay said in a sort of amiably threatening voice. “You take him, or we’re all coming with you.”

Glory could tell by the looks on their faces that this was true. Stupid heroic we’re-a-team idiots. “All right, fine. We’ll go in camouflaged, but I want to make sure you can look like an IceWing, too. Try matching what I’m doing.” She let her scales shimmer back into her IceWing disguise.

Clay winced, and she guessed he’d recognized which dragon she’d used as a model. Watching Fjord die in front of him couldn’t have been any easier for him than for her.

“Now make your scales a bit whiter,” Glory said to Jambu, “so we’re not exactly the same. And shift around the fake icicle horns.” She stepped back and studied him. “I think that’ll do. Can you remember that if we need to become IceWings?”

“Sure,” he said. He held out his wings and looked at them. “This is a pretty cool color. I’ll have to remember it once we’re home.”

“We also need IceWing names. You be Penguin; I’ll be Storm. That should be easy to remember.”

“I still think one of us should go with you,” Tsunami interjected.

“MudWings and SeaWings are the enemy here,” Glory pointed out. “And no offense, guys, but it’s not like Starflight or Sunny would be much help.”

“No offense?” Sunny squeaked. “How am I not supposed to be offended by that?” She lashed her tail and scowled.

“We’ll get in and out faster if we just keep our scales hidden,” Glory said. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back by tonight.”

“What if you find the missing RainWings in there?” Clay asked.

Glory flicked her tail, letting her scales shift back into the color of the rocks. “We’ll free them and come storming out in a big invisible herd. All right?”

Clay and Tsunami nodded reluctantly.

“Come on, Jambu,” Glory said. “The rest of you stay hidden. I mean it.” She sprang into the air with her brother beside her and let her scales adjust to the sky around them. As they beat their way north, she glanced back once and saw Sunny staring after them while Tsunami waved her talons bossily.

“It’s still cold,” Jambu moaned. “Even with my wings beating. I think it’s even colder.”

“Well, we’re up in the air,” Glory pointed out. “And the wind probably isn’t helping. But this will be over soon, don’t worry.” She pointed to the building ahead of them. “Just to warn you, there will be snow. But hopefully the SandWings keep the inside warm with their fires.”

“Snow!” Jambu said. “And fire! You know, I’ve never seen either of those.”

“I’ve never seen snow up close either,” Glory admitted.

“It looks fluffy,” said Jambu.

* * *

It wasn’t fluffy. It was wet and piercingly freezing against their talons as they landed outside the walls. Jambu let out a yelp of pain, and Glory nearly tackled him to shut him up.

“Who’s there?” called a voice from above.

They both froze, their scales the color of the white ground below them.

A SandWing head poked out a window. “Did you hear that?” he asked.

Another SandWing head wriggled out beside his. “No. And I don’t see anything. You’re imagining things again.”

“When Burn’s army shows up to crush us —” growled the first dragon.

“We’ll see them coming from miles away,” said the second. “And they’ll be frozen and weak from the cold, and we’ll have IceWing backup by the time they get here. Stop interrupting our game.” The second guard withdrew into the room. The first glanced around suspiciously, his gaze trailing across the snow where Glory and Jambu crouched. Finally he huffed out a snort and retreated back inside.

Glory flipped her tail into her brother’s talons and led the way, slipping around the thick stone walls until she found a dragon-size door. Locked, of course. She glanced up, but she’d already seen from above that there was no inner courtyard or openings anywhere on the roof, other than the chimneys, which were too small. The windows were all too narrow for a dragon to squeeze through as well. This was a proper fortress. She wondered if it had been built early in the war, when Blaze first came to Queen Glacier for protection and an alliance.

This was a pretty generous gift for Glacier to give to her ally — a whole fortress right in IceWing territory. Deathbringer’s words came back to her . . . Blaze had promised Glacier all this land if she won the war.

Glory thought of the other two SandWing sisters. She wondered what Burn had promised the SkyWings and MudWings. And whether Blister had promised the SeaWings anything, or if she’d just manipulated Queen Coral into supporting her.

“I’m not seeing a way to sneak in here,” Glory whispered. “Do you have any ideas?”

She felt Jambu shrug. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ve never done anything like this.”

They tried circling the walls one more time, but there was only the one door. Glory couldn’t see any gaps in the fortress’s defenses anywhere. Their only choice was to wait for that door to open and hope they could slip inside . . . but who knew how long that would take?

The sun was finally drifting up the pale blue sky, reflecting off the glittering snow. Glory did not want to stand out here all day. For one thing, Jambu would probably freeze to death. She didn’t like the cold either, but he’d never been out of a tropical environment before.

Same goes for Mangrove, she realized. In fact, how would he have gotten inside the fortress? Maybe he wasn’t there at all. Maybe he was lying in a snowbank somewhere, slowly disappearing into the ice.

Glory shook her head. Mangrove wasn’t the type to give up, if she read him right. And neither was she.

“We’ll have to go in as IceWings,” she said. “Just follow my lead.”

Jambu’s head appeared, nodding agreeably, as his scales shifted color. Glory let her scales change as well, then turned in a circle to check herself as best she could. It wasn’t a perfect disguise by any means. But hopefully these SandWings wouldn’t look too closely. And between her camouflage scales and venom, she felt like she had a pretty good chance of escaping even if they did catch her.

She marched up to the door and rapped smartly.

“Try to look like a soldier,” she hissed at Jambu, who was slouching and rubbing his neck behind her.

“I don’t know what that looks like,” he whispered back just before the door swung open.

A heavyset SandWing with broken claws on one talon peered out at them. “Eh?” he muttered.

“We have an important message for Queen Blaze,” Glory announced. “Take us somewhere we can wait until she returns.” Surely, like her sisters, Blaze would be off leading a battle somewhere. Once they were shown into a waiting room, they could change back to camouflage and search the fortress for Mangrove without being seen.

“Eh? Until she returns?” The SandWing looked at her as if she were mad. “Blaze is here. She’s always here. I can take you right to her.”