Chapter 2

Clay swept the bones of dinner into the river with his tail. The stripped white

shapes bounced away in the current.

Fires flickered around the edges of the great central cave. Echoing space

yawned overhead, dripping with stalactites, like huge teeth. The cave dome

was big enough for six full-grown dragons to fit across with their wings

extended. The underground river flowed along one wall, muttering and

gurgling as if it were plotting its own escape.

Clay glanced at the two small sleeping caves that opened onto the hall

— currently empty — and wondered where the other dragonets had gone

while he was cleaning up.

“AHA!” yelled a voice behind him. Clay threw his wings over his head.

“What’d I do?” he yelped. “I’m sorry! It was an accident! Or if it’s the

extra cow, Dune said I could have it because Webs would be out late but I’m

sorry and I can skip dinner tomorrow!”

A small snout poked his back between his wings. “Calm down, silly,”

Sunny said. “I wasn’t aha-ing at you.”

“Oh.” Clay smoothed his crest and twisted around to look at her, the

smallest and last-hatched of the dragonets. A pale lizard tail was disappearing

into her mouth. She grinned at him.

“That was my fierce hunting cry,” she said. “Did you like it? Wasn’t it

scary?”

“Well, it was certainly surprising,” he said. “Lizards again? What’s

wrong with cows?”

“Blech. Too heavy,” she said. “You look all serious.”

“Just thinking.” He was glad Kestrel and Dune couldn’t read minds like

NightWing dragons. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the idea of

escape all through dinner.

Clay lifted one of his wings, and Sunny nestled in close to him. He

could feel the warmth from her golden scales radiating along his side. Sunny

was too small and the wrong color — tawny gold instead of sand pale like

most SandWings — but she gave off heat like the rest of her tribe.

“Dune says we should go study for an hour before bed,” she said. “The

others are in the study cave already.”

Dune, the maimed dragon who taught them survival skills, was a

SandWing, and so was Sunny … more or less. There was something not quite

right about the littlest dragonet. Not only were her scales too golden, but her

eyes were gray-green instead of glittering black. Worst of all, her tail curled

into an ordinary point like the tails of most dragon tribes, instead of ending

with the poisonous barb that was a SandWing’s most dangerous weapon.

As Kestrel often said, Sunny was completely harmless … and what good

was a harmless dragon? But her egg fit the instructions in the prophecy, so

she was their “wings of sand,” whether the Talons of Peace liked it or not.

Of course, there were no “wings of rain” in the prophecy at all. The

dragonets had all heard — many times over — about how Glory was a lastminute substitute for the broken SkyWing egg. Kestrel and Dune called her a

mistake and growled at her a lot.

Nobody knew whether the prophecy could still happen with a RainWing

instead of a SkyWing. But from what Clay knew of SkyWings, he was very

glad they had Glory instead of another grumpy, fire-breathing Kestrel under

the mountain.

Besides, if anyone was likely to mess up the prophecy, it was him, not

Glory or Sunny.

“Come on,” Sunny said, flicking him with her tail. He followed her

across the central cave.

Twisting stone tunnels led off in four directions: one to the battle area,

one to the guardians’ cave, one to the study room, and one to the outside

world. The last was blocked with a boulder too big for any of the dragonets to

move.

Clay stopped and pushed against the rock with his shoulder as they went

by. He often tried to open it when the big dragons weren’t around. Someday

it would move when he did that. Maybe not a lot, but even a tiny shift would

let him know he was finally getting close to full grown. He felt big. He was

constantly bumping into things and accidentally knocking stuff over with his

tail or his wings.

Not today, he thought ruefully when the boulder didn’t budge. Maybe

tomorrow.

He followed Sunny down the tunnel to the study room. His enormous

feet and thick claws thumped and scraped along the stone floor. Even though

he’d lived under the mountain his whole life, it still hurt to walk on bare rock.

He was constantly stubbing his talons, and they always ached by the end of

the day.

Tsunami was strutting around the study cave barking orders. Sunny and

Clay sat down by the entrance, folding their wings back. A breath of air

drifted down from the hole in the roof, far overhead — the only window to

the outside in any of the caves. At night, without the distant hint of sunlight,

the room felt colder and more hollow. Clay stretched up and sniffed at the

darkness that had fallen on the other side of the hole. He thought it smelled

like stars.

A map of Pyrrhia hung on the wall between the torches. Tsunami and

Starflight loved staring at the map, trying to figure out where their hidden

cave was. Starflight was pretty sure they were somewhere under the Claws of

the Clouds Mountains. SkyWings preferred to live high among the peaks, so

anything could happen in the deep caves below without being noticed.

“All this history is so confusing,” Sunny murmured to Clay, swishing

her tail back and forth. “Why don’t the three sides just sit down and talk out

an end to the war?”

“That would be great,” Clay said. “Then we could stop studying it.”

Sunny giggled.

“Stop that,” Tsunami said bossily, stamping her feet at them. “No

whispering! Pay attention. I’m assigning parts.”

“This is not proper studying,” Starflight pointed out. His black

NightWing scales made him nearly invisible in the dark shadows between the

torches. He swept a few scrolls between his talons and began to neatly sort

them into stacked triangles. “Perhaps I should read to everyone instead.”

“Dear moons, anything but that,” Glory said from the ledge above him.

“Maybe later, when we’re trying to fall asleep.” Her long, delicate snout,

glowing emerald green with displeasure, rested on her front claws. Ripples of

iridescent blue shimmered across her scales, and tonight her tail was a swirl

of vibrant purples.

If it weren’t for Glory, Clay thought, none of them would know how

many colors there were in the world. He wondered what it must be like in the

rain forest, where there was a whole tribe of dragons that beautiful.

“Shush,” Tsunami scolded. “Now, obviously I’d be the best queen, but

let’s make Sunny the queen, since she is a real SandWing.” She bustled over

and pushed Sunny into the center of the cave.

“Well, sort of,” Glory muttered under her breath.

“Hsst.” Starflight flicked her with his tail. None of the dragonets ever

talked about why Sunny didn’t look like a regular SandWing. Clay’s guess

was that her egg had been taken from the sand too early. Maybe SandWing

eggs needed the sun and desert sand to keep them warm until hatching, or

else they’d come out half baked and funny looking — although personally he

thought Sunny looked just fine.

Tsunami tapped her talons on the cave floor, studying her friends. “Clay,

you want to play the scavenger?”

“That’s hardly fair,” Starflight pointed out. “He’s twice Sunny’s size. A

real scavenger would be smaller than her, according to this scroll over here. It

says that scavengers have no scales, no wings, and no tail, and they walk on

two legs, which sounds very unstable to me. I bet they fall over all the time.

They like treasure nearly as much as dragons do. The scrolls say scavengers

attack lone dragons and steal —”

“OH MY GOSH, WE KNOW,” Glory snapped. “We were all here for

the fascinating lectures about them. Don’t make me come down there and

bite you, Starflight.”

“I’d like to meet a real scavenger!” Clay said. “I’d rip off its head! And

eat it!” He pounded his front talons on the stone below him. “I bet it would

taste better than the mouthfuls of feathers Kestrel keeps bringing us.”

“Poor, hungry Clay,” Sunny teased.

“When we’re free, we’ll go find a scavenger nest and eat all of them,”

Tsunami promised, nudging Clay with one wing.

Sunny blinked at her. “When we’re free?”

Oops. Tsunami and Clay exchanged glances. Sunny was sweet and

trusting and absolutely terrible at keeping secrets.

“I mean, after we fulfill the prophecy, of course,” Tsunami said. “Clay,

be the scavenger. Here, this can be your claw.” She swung her long tail in an

arc and smashed a stalagmite loose. Shards of rock flew across the cave, and

the other dragonets ducked.

Clay hefted the sharp rock spear in his claws and grinned wickedly at

Sunny.

“Don’t actually hurt me,” she said nervously.

“Of course he won’t,” Tsunami said. “We’re just acting it out. And the

rest of us will be the princesses. I’ll be Burn, Glory can be Blister, and

Starflight will be Blaze.”

“I had to be a princess last time, too,” Starflight observed. “I’m not sure

I like this game.” He stretched his wings and the scattered silver scales

underneath glittered like stars in the night sky.

“It’s not a game, it’s history,” Tsunami said. “And if we had any other

friends, we could play it differently. But there are three sand dragon

princesses, so you have to be one, so stop complaining.”

Starflight shrugged and settled back into the shadows, the way he

always did when he couldn’t win a fight.

“All right, go ahead,” Tsunami said, hopping onto the ledge next to

Glory.

“Um,” Sunny said. She eyed Clay warily. “Right. Here I go, la la la,

Queen Oasis of the SandWings. I’m so very important and, uh — royal —

and stuff.”

Tsunami sighed. Glory and Starflight hid their smiles.

“I’ve been queen for ages and ages,” Sunny went on. She strutted across

the cave floor. “No one dares challenge me for my throne! I am the strongest

SandWing queen who ever lived!”

“Don’t forget the treasure,” Tsunami hissed, pointing at a pile of loose

rocks.

“Oh, right,” Sunny said. “It’s probably because of all my treasure! I

have so much treasure because I’m such an important queen!” She swept the

rocks toward her and gathered them between her talons.

“Did someone say treasure?” Clay bellowed, leaping out from behind a

large rock formation. Sunny yelped with fright.

“No!” Tsunami called. “You’re not scared! You’re Queen Oasis, the big,

bad queen of the sand dragons.”

“R-right,” Sunny said. “Rargh! What is this tiny scavenger doing in the

Kingdom of Sand? I am not afraid of tiny scavengers! I shall go out there and

eat him in one bite!”

Glory started giggling so hard she had to lie down and cover her face

with her wings. Even Tsunami was making faces like she was trying not to

laugh.

Clay swung his stalagmite in a circle. “Squeak squeak squeak!” he

shouted. “And other annoying scavenger noises! I’m here to steal treasure

away from a magnificent dragon!”

“Not from me, you won’t,” Sunny said, bristling. She stamped forward,

spread her wings, and raised her tail threateningly. Without the poisonous

barb other SandWings had, Sunny’s tail was not very menacing. But nobody

pointed that out.

“Yaaaaaaah!” Clay shouted, lunging forward with his rock claw. Sunny

darted out of the way, and they circled each other, feinting and jabbing. This

was Clay’s favorite part. When Sunny forgot about trying to act queenly and

focused on the battle, she was fun to fight. Her small size made it easy for her

to dodge and slip under his defenses.

But in the end Queen Oasis had to lose — that was how the story went.

Clay drove Sunny back against the wall of the cave and ****** the fake claw

between her neck and her wing, pretending it went right through her heart.

“Aaaaaaaargh,” Sunny howled. “Impossible! A queen defeated by a

lowly scavenger! The kingdom will fall apart! Oh, my treasure … my lovely

treasure . . .” She collapsed to the ground and let her wings flop lifelessly on

either side of her.

“Ha ha ha!” Clay said. “And squeak squeak! The treasure is mine!” He

scooped up all the rocks and paraded away, lashing his tail proudly.

“Our turn,” Tsunami said, jumping off the ledge. She hurried over to

Sunny, clasped her talons together, and let out a cry of anguish. “Oh, no! Our

mother is dead, and the treasure is gone. But worst of all, none of us killed

her — so who should be queen now?”

“I was about to challenge her,” Glory cried. She flapped her wings

dramatically. “I would have fought her to the death for the throne. I should be

queen!”

“No, I should be queen!” Tsunami insisted. “I am the eldest and biggest

and would have challenged her first!”

They both turned to look at Starflight, hidden in the shadows. The black

dragon looked as if he was trying to become even more invisible.

“Come on, Starflight,” Tsunami said. “Don’t be a lazy —” She caught

herself just before saying “RainWing.” The teachers said things like that all

the time: “If you don’t study, you’re no better than a RainWing”; “What’s the

matter, someone replace your brains with a RainWing’s?”; “Still sleeping?

Anyone would think you were a RainWing!” (That last one was mostly for

Clay.)

But the dragonets all knew Glory hated it, no matter how much she

pretended she didn’t care. It also seemed really unfair. Glory was the only

RainWing any of them had ever met, and she studied and trained harder than

anyone else.

“Er … dragon,” Tsunami finished awkwardly, with a quick glance at

Glory. “Starflight, get out here.”

The NightWing shuffled forward and looked down at Sunny, who had

her eyes scrunched shut. “Oh dear, oh dear,” he said. “Well, now I should be

queen. As the youngest princess, I could have the longest reign. That would

be good for the SandWings. Also . . .” He paused and gave a long-suffering

sigh. “Also, I am by far the prettiest.”

Sunny giggled, and Tsunami poked her to keep still. Clay swept his

treasure rocks into a pile and sat on them.

“I should kill you both right now,” Glory snarled.

“You and what army?” Tsunami taunted her.

Glory stretched her neck up and bared her teeth. “That’s a great idea. I’ll

go get an army — an army of SeaWings — and then you’ll be sorry.”

“You’re not the only one who can make alliances,” Tsunami said. “I’ll

get the SkyWings on my side. And the MudWings! Then we’ll see who wins

this war!”

There was a pause. They both looked at Starflight again.

“Uh, yeah,” he said. “You do that, and I’ll ally myself with the IceWing

army. Also, by the way, most of the SandWings want me to be their queen.”

“They do?” Sunny said, opening her eyes. “Who says?”

“Stop talking,” Tsunami said, poking her with one talon. “You’re dead.”

“There are lots of recent scrolls about it,” Starflight explained

pompously. “Blaze is very popular with her own tribe.”

“So why can’t she be queen?” Sunny asked. “If that’s who they want?”

“Because Burn is bigger and scarier and could crush her like a bug if

they actually fought claw to claw,” Glory chimed in. “And Blister — that’s

me — is smarter than both of them put together. She knew she couldn’t kill

Burn in a regular duel. It was her idea to involve all the other tribes and turn

their SandWing throne battle into a world war. She’s probably waiting for the

other two to kill each other.”

“Which one do we want to be queen?” Sunny asked. “We get to pick,

right? When we fulfill the prophecy?”

“None of them,” Starflight said gloomily. “Blaze is about as smart as a

concussed sheep, Blister is most likely plotting to become queen of all the

tribes somehow, and if Burn wins, she’ll probably keep the war going just for

fun. They’re all pretty nasty. I guess we’ll see what the Talons of Peace

decide.”

“The Talons of Peace don’t get to decide,” Tsunami said, bristling.

“They only think they’re in charge of us.”

“We can still hear them out,” Starflight argued. “They want what’s best

for us and Pyrrhia.”

“Easy for you to say,” Glory snapped. The ruff around her neck flared

orange. “You weren’t stolen from your home. The NightWings were pretty

eager to hand over your egg, weren’t they?” Starflight flinched as if she’d

burned him.

“Boring!” Clay shouted from his pile of rocks. “Stop fighting with each

other! Come fight me for this treasure instead!”

“No one knows what the scavenger did with the sand dragon treasure,”

Starflight said in his “top of the class” voice, turning away from Glory.

“Among other things, he stole the Lazulite Dragon, the gold SandWing

scepter, and the Eye of Onyx, which had been in the SandWing treasury for

hundreds of years.”

Clay stamped his feet. Starflight’s lectures always made his scales itch.

“I just want to fight somebody!” he said. Somebody who wasn’t trying to

beat him into a violent rage, preferably.

As if the thought had summoned her, Kestrel suddenly loomed in the

entrance of the cave.

“WHAT is going on in here?” Kestrel’s booming voice made all five

dragonets jump to attention. Sunny slipped as she tried to scramble to her

feet, and Starflight jumped forward to catch her.

The enormous red SkyWing slithered into the cave, glaring down at

them. “This doesn’t look like studying,” she hissed.

“We’re s-s-s-sorry,” Sunny stammered.

“No, we’re not.” Tsunami shot the SandWing a glare. “We were

studying. We were acting out the death of the queen that started the whole

war.”

“You mean play-acting,” Kestrel growled. “You are too old for games.”

“When were we ever young enough for games?” Glory muttered.

“It wasn’t a game,” Tsunami said. “It was a different way of learning the

history. What’s wrong with that?”

“And now you’re talking back,” Kestrel said. She looked smug, as she

always did when Tsunami got in trouble. “That means no sleeping in the river

tonight.” Tsunami scowled. Kestrel tapped the pile of scrolls by the entrance

with one claw. “The rest of you, learn from the SeaWing’s mistakes and

study the correct way.”

“That’s not fair.” Clay spoke up as Kestrel turned to go, even though it

made his heart pound. “We were all doing the same thing. We should all be

punished.” Glory shook her head at him, but beside him, Sunny nodded.

Kestrel stared down at Clay. “I know who the ringleader was. Cut off

the head, and the problem goes away.”

“You’re going to cut off Tsunami’s head?” Sunny squeaked.

Glory sighed. “It’s a metaphor, featherbrain.”

“Now go to bed,” Kestrel said. She turned and swept out of the cave,

knocking over Starflight’s neat stacks of scrolls as she went.

Clay nudged Tsunami’s dark blue shoulder with his snout. “Sorry. We

tried.”

“I know, thanks,” Tsunami said, brushing her wing against his. “Hey,

Sunny, would you mind taking those scrolls back to our sleeping cave?”

The small gold dragon brightened. “Sure, I can do that!” She hurried to

the entrance, gathered the scattered scrolls in her front talons, and whisked

out of the cave.

“I can’t stand this much longer,” Tsunami said as soon as Sunny was

gone. “We have to get out of here, and soon.”

Clay glanced at Glory and Starflight, who didn’t look surprised. “You

talked to them about it?”

“Of course,” Tsunami said. “I needed their help figuring out an escape

plan.” Clay couldn’t help but notice that she hadn’t asked him for any escape

plan ideas. Even the dragons who liked him thought he was pretty useless.

“I’m not sure we’re ready,” Starflight said, wrinkling his forehead.

“There’s so much we haven’t learned yet. . . .”

“That’s what the teachers want us to think!” Tsunami’s blue scales

shifted as she shook herself from head to tail. “But we’ll never know until we

get out of these horrible caves and see the world for ourselves.”

“What about the prophecy?” Clay asked. “Shouldn’t we wait two more

years?”

“I don’t see why,” Glory said. “I’m with Tsunami. Destiny is destiny,

right? So whatever we do must be the right thing. We don’t need a bunch of

ancient dragons telling us how to save the world. They’re not in the

prophecy.”

“When do we tell Sunny?” Starflight asked, glancing at the cave’s dark

opening.

“Not until the last minute,” Tsunami said fiercely. “You know she can’t

keep a secret. Starflight, promise you won’t say anything to her.”

“I won’t, I won’t,” he said. “She’s not going to like it, though. She

thinks everything is great here.”

“Of course she does,” Tsunami said. “She doesn’t care that we get

treated like cracked eggs even though we’re supposed to be the key to peace

or whatever.”

“She cares,” Starflight said defensively. “She just doesn’t whine about

it.”

“Yowch,” said Glory.

Tsunami whirled to glare at Starflight, her gills pulsing. “Say that to my

face.”

“I am saying it to your face,” he said. “Or was I saying it to your rear

end? It’s easy to get the two confused.” He ducked behind Clay before

Tsunami could even bare her teeth at him.

“Hey, stop. Quit snarling at each other like mini Kestrels,” Clay said,

standing up to keep his bulk between Tsunami and Starflight. “Nobody’s

happy here. Sunny deals with it differently, that’s all. But remember what we

decided — we five stick together or else everything gets worse, right?”

Starflight hunched his wings forward, muttering.

“Clay’s right,” Glory said. “The last thing we want is to be like Kestrel

or Webs or Dune.”

Tsunami hissed for a moment, then shook herself. “All right, I know.

I’m trying. But this place is slowly killing me,” she said. Clay shivered at the

fierce look on her face. He would not want to be the dragon standing in her

way.

“As soon as we have a plan, we go,” Tsunami said, looking them each in

the eye. “Let’s see them force our destiny on us when they can’t find us

anymore.”

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