Glory leaped back with a hiss and opened her mouth.

“Don’t you dare,” snarled the queen. “Haven’t you done enough already?”

Glory paused, studying the SkyWing’s face.

It was perfect — as perfect as it had ever been, a shimmering orange like the orchids growing from the moss behind her, with the small rubies above her eyes glittering in the bright sunlight.

And then Scarlet’s whole body . . . flickered somehow, and under the perfect scales Glory saw something dark and melted, a horrible smeared mess where a face used to be. Behind Scarlet she caught a glimpse of a dim room with glass jars hanging from the ceiling, some of them glowing strangely.

“Oh. You’re not really here,” Glory said as the rainforest reappeared and Scarlet’s scales smoothed back to perfect. The queen was perched on the edge of Glory’s sleeping platform, but now that Glory looked closely, she could see that the SkyWing’s claws didn’t sink into the leaves below her.

Glory sat down and curled her tail around her talons. Kinkajou and Mangrove were fast asleep on either side of her, the sloth was snoring on her shoulder, and the sun had climbed higher in the sky.

“Am I even awake?” Glory asked.

“No,” said Scarlet. “I’ve been trying to catch you asleep for days.” She held up a small star-shaped sapphire that glowed an eerie blue light through her claws. “Once I realized what this was.”

“A dreamvisitor,” Glory said, recognizing the shape from her scrolls. “I read about those. An animus dragon made three of them hundreds of years ago, right? I thought the last one in exis tence was lost with the SandWing trea sure, when the scavenger killed Queen Oasis and stole it all.”

“Apparently not,” Scarlet said, opening her claws to glance down at it.

“So you’re really alive,” Glory said.

“You don’t sound as disappointed as I thought you would be,” Scarlet said.

Glory flicked her tail. “It’s not that I want you dead. I just want you not trying to kill us.”

“I never tried to kill you,” Scarlet pointed out. “I quite liked you. We could have had a thrilling time together.” She stood up and paced toward Glory until their snouts were almost nose-to-nose. “Which reminds me. I wanted to try something.”

Abruptly she lashed out with her free talon, slashing at Glory’s face. Her claws sliced right through Glory’s scales like raindrops splashing icy water over her. It was cold, but it didn’t hurt. Scarlet’s claws weren’t really there. Glory fixed that thought in her head as Scarlet lunged again. She closed her eyes and sat perfectly still. There was nothing the SkyWing queen could do to her right now. She was no more dangerous than any dream.

After a few moments, Glory opened her eyes again, and Scarlet stepped back, hissing. Smoke rose up from her nose, winding around her horns, and the dark misshapen snout underneath flickered through again for a moment, along with the room beyond.

“Where are you?” Glory asked.

“If I tell you, will you find me and free me?” Scarlet asked.

“Not likely,” Glory said. “Wait, let me think. Absolutely, definitely not.”

“But you owe me,” Scarlet said, stamping one foot.

Glory tilted her head sideways. “How, exactly, do you figure that?”

“For what you did to me,” Scarlet seethed. “I was beautiful before. I had every thing.”

“Including a pretty rainbow dragon on a tree,” Glory said. “I remember.”

“If you don’t free me,” Scarlet said, “I will find a way out of here myself, and then when I find you, I will kill you.”

“You know, something tells me that’s on your agenda either way,” Glory said.

Scarlet hissed deep in her throat and then shot a blast of flame at Glory’s face. Calm and blue, Glory thought. Stay calm and blue.

“Is someone keeping you prisoner?” Glory asked. A thought occurred to her. “Is it the NightWings?”

“If you’re not going to help me,” Scarlet growled, “I’ll find someone else who will.”

And suddenly she was gone, leaving only a curl of smoke in the air.

So there’s my answer. Scarlet is alive. Glory noticed that the leaves below her were shaking. Oh, wait. That’s me.

Kinkajou stirred as if she felt Glory shaking, too. She nestled closer and Glory felt sun-drenched warmth along her scales.

Slowly she closed her eyes, breathing deeply, and drifted out of the dream.

When she woke up, she knew right away it had been longer than an hour. Silver was crouched in front of her, stroking Glory’s nose with a worried expression. The other two were awake and stretching contentedly.

“Don’t you feel better?” Kinkajou asked.

“Yes,” Glory admitted. And no.

“Then let’s do tree gliding next!” Kinkajou said cheerfully.

“Fine by me,” said Mangrove, and Glory nodded. She was too shaken to argue.

She wondered what Scarlet would think of Glory becoming queen of the RainWings. She wondered if being a queen would make her any safer.

Sunny and Clay waved from their branch down below. Should I tell them? I should tell them. I will tell them, but not yet. Glory wanted to talk to Starflight first, to see what he could remember about dreamvisitors and if he could guess anything about the room she’d seen behind Scarlet. His giant brain was what she needed for a puzzle like this.

As Glory lifted into the sky, setting off a commotion of hidden wings, she wondered where the SkyWing queen was . . . and when she would see her again.