Moon Rising

She gazed back innocently, her chin raised.

  “Uh,” said the NightWing. “This one?”

  “That one,” said Anemone. “It’s my favorite kind.”

  “This one that I’m eating?” he said.

  “You heard her,” snapped one of the SeaWings, a skinny grayish-blue dragon whose hostile mental vibrations seemed familiar. Moon thought for a minute, and then guessed that he was the same one Clay had separated from Carnelian in the hallway yesterday. Pike, if she remembered right.

  “But … I’m eating this one,” said the NightWing in a tone of deep confusion.

  “Oh, but I would like it very much,” said Anemone.

  “Anemone —” Tsunami tried to interrupt, stepping forward.

  “Don’t you know this is the SeaWing princess?” Pike snarled. He shoved himself in the NightWing’s face and flexed his webbed talons. “The heir to the throne! Give her the fish. Now.”

  “Uh —” said the NightWing. She’s not my princess, though, his brain mumbled.

  Clay hurried over through the silence that had slowly fallen around Pike, Anemone, and the NightWing. Most of the other dragons were staring at them, except for Coconut, who was deeply focused on a bunch of grapes.

  “Hey, this is an understandable mistake,” Clay said, gently scooting the NightWing back away from Pike. “We haven’t posted any prey center rules yet, but we will. Basically whoever gets their claws on it first, they get to eat it. If we find that doesn’t work, we’ll revisit the rules in a couple of weeks. But that’s how it is right now. All right?”

  Pike scowled. “But the princess wants that fish!”

  This one’s going to be trouble, Moon heard from Clay’s mind, clear as day. He sighed.

  “I do,” Anemone agreed. She looked up at Clay with large blue eyes. “Mother would want me to have it.”

  “There’s lots of other fish,” Clay said, “and you’re welcome to join us in the evening when we go out to catch more in one of the mountain lakes.”

  “That’ll be fun,” Tsunami said, elbowing her sister heartily. “I’ll come, too. There are some awesome lakes I want to show you, not far from here.”

  Anemone blinked. She looked from Clay to Tsunami, and then narrowed her eyes at the NightWing, who was surreptitiously starting to chew on the fish’s tail.

  So that’s how it’s going to be? I don’t like this at ALL, said her mind, but her mouth said, “Oh. Very well.”

  Moon wondered if she’d imagined the ghost of a smile that whisked across Turtle’s face.

  “You can have my fish, princess,” Pike said, handing her a dripping salmon that he’d already sliced lengthwise with his claws.

  Anemone looked down her nose at it, then shook her head. “I’m not actually that hungry after all. Come on, Ostrich.” She swept out of the cave, deliberately avoiding Clay. The SandWing glanced around, thinking disappointed hungry thoughts, but hurried after the princess.

  Pike hissed at the NightWing. “You’ll pay for this, Bigtail,” he snarled. “Nobody disrespects the SeaWing princess.”

  “Time to cool down, Pike,” Tsunami said sternly.

  Pike hissed again, but slunk off with his salmon.

  Oh, dear, thought Clay. Moon watched him smile at the NightWing as if nothing was wrong, and then give Tsunami a “we should talk about that” look. She rolled her eyes and hurried after her sister.

  Umber’s whole face lit up as Clay paced over to them. “Hey,” Clay said affectionately, nudging his little brother. “Where are Marsh and Sora?”

  “Coming over now,” Umber said, waving his wings.

  Moon sat up and saw Sora approaching with another dragon who looked like her, only more fidgety and nervous. Sora’s expression was subdued, but painful anxiety clawed at her insides, all jumbled into scraps of thoughts: are we safe; miss Reed; I saw her; can’t sleep; not safe anywhere; oh, Crane, I wish you were here. The MudWing took a deep breath and started the same internal ritual Moon had found in her mind the night before. Sora imagined mud slowly pouring over all her worries, leaving only a rippling, peaceful swamp.

  She’s like me, Moon thought. Everyone here was anxious in some way, but with Sora it ran deeper, all the way to paralyzing fear. She wanted to escape as much as Moon did.

  Or at least, the way I wanted to escape yesterday. Now … Well, she had to admit now she was wondering if maybe her mother was right. Maybe school wasn’t so terrible after all. Poor Sora. She needs a crazy, enthusiastic clawmate like Kinkajou to take care of her.

  Or maybe I can help her. Maybe because I know how scared she is — maybe I can make her feel better. Maybe that’s one good thing I can do with my powers.

  “This is my brother and sister,” Umber said. “Marsh is really fast — you should see him fly. And Sora knows everything; she’s the only one who ever practiced her reading.” He beamed at them both as if they were the most special, perfect dragons in the world.

  “Hey,” Qibli greeted them, his mouth half full of goat. He looked as though he wasn’t particularly paying attention, but a part of him whispered, That’s the MudWing sibling bond. Loyal like the Outclaws are to Thorn, probably more so. Wish I had a brother and sister I liked that much. Actually a brother and sister who didn’t actively try to kill me every time they see me would be a dramatic improvement.

  “I’m Moon, remember?” Moon said to Sora, trying to look friendly and nonthreatening. “Would you like some?” She held out a piece of her prey.

  Sora gave her a shy smile. “Thank you.” She took the goat leg in her claws, tore it in half, and gave the other half to Marsh.

  “Who’s in your winglet?” Umber asked. “Marsh, you’re in the Copper Winglet, right?”

  “Yeah. That’s my clawmate,” Marsh said, nodding over at Coconut.

  Ha, Qibli thought. That’s perfect. Put the slowest, least threatening dragon in the world with the most nervous. Not even this twitchy MudWing could be scared of that sloth masquerading as a dragon over there.

  Marsh looked around, twisting his claws in nervous circles. “I don’t remember the other names yet.”

  “That’s all right, you’ll figure them out. Sora?” Clay prompted his sister. “Anyone really nice?”

  She fiddled with the meat in her talons, pulling out tufts of fur. “There’s a RainWing in my winglet who seems nice — she’s blind.”

  “Tamarin!” Kinkajou cried. “Oh, you must be in the Gold Winglet. She’s my best friend!”

  Moon decided not to be hurt by this. She knew Kinkajou would have other best friends. Possibly six more by the end of lunchtime.

  “A SandWing named Onyx,” Sora said, counting on her claws. “That SeaWing over there, Pike. His clawmates: a NightWing called Bigtail, and a SkyWing with a bad scar across his snout. And my clawmate.” She nodded at the far wall, at the IceWing seated on the ledge next to Winter. They were both gazing disdainfully down at the eating dragons. Above them, sharp, twisting stalactites studded the roof of the alcove where they sat, almost as though they were glaring out of a mouth filled with enormous teeth.

  “Winter’s sister?” Qibli said. “Then you and I are in the same tent, friend. Is she as stuck-up as her brother? Has she mentioned being in line for the IceWing throne yet?”

  Sora blinked at the IceWings. Ripples shuddered across the mud puddles in her mind, but she refused to let whatever was under there escape. “Her name is Icicle.”

  “To be honest,” Clay admitted, “from what we’d heard about Icicle, we figured we had to put her in the same cave as the nicest, least offensive dragon we could think of, so there wouldn’t be any casualties the first week of school. I hope it’s going all right, Sora.”

  His sister dropped her gaze to her claws. “It’s fine,” she said.

  “Let me know if not,” Clay said gently. “It’s really important to me that you be happy here.”

  Sora nodded, thinking of the same brothers and sisters Moon had seen in Umber’s mind.

  “Don’t we hav
e history together next?” Turtle asked. “Our winglet and your winglet together?”

  “Do we?” Umber said, delighted.

  “I think so,” Qibli said. Moon could see that he had the day’s schedule memorized, plus a detailed layout of the school map in his head, but he was pretending to still be figuring things out with the rest of them.

  “I have to go to the library first,” Moon said to Kinkajou. “But I’ll catch up to you.” She stood up and paused, listening to the uneasy rippling quiet in Sora’s mind. “Um … do you want to come with me?” she asked Sora.

  The MudWing blinked at her in surprise. “I do,” she said, standing up. As they headed out of the prey center together, Moon could hear the reactions stirring behind them.

  That was nice of Moon, Umber thought.

  Aw, maybe they’ll be friends, went through Clay’s mind.

  Does she like her better than me? Kinkajou thought forlornly.

  My boring little clawmate with a NightWing? came a frigid thought from across the cave. What’s that all about?

  Moon hurried into the stone tunnel, trying hard to think about raindrops. They were halfway to the library before she realized that neither she nor Sora had said a word the whole walk.

  “Um,” Moon said. “The library is great, isn’t it?”

  Sora nodded.

  “I like the leaf windows,” Moon added.

  Sora nodded again. “Me too,” she whispered.

  Is this what I seem like to everyone else? Moon wondered. Shy and really hard to talk to? Maybe I should try a little harder. It’s easy to talk to my mystery friend … but I don’t have to hide anything from him. I guess I couldn’t, even if I wanted to.

  Starflight sat up as they came into the library, setting aside a stone tablet with letters carved into it. “Hello?” he said tentatively.

  “It’s Moon and Sora,” Moon said.

  “Oh, hi,” he said, relaxing. “Sora, I found that scroll on IceWings for you.” He slid a scroll across the desk with his claws.

  Sora glanced at Moon, ducked her head, and mumbled something like, “Figuring out my clawmate.” She took the scroll and scurried over to her spot by the windows.

  “How are you, Moon?” Starflight asked. “How was class this morning?”

  Terrifying. “All right — interesting,” she said. “Do you have any scrolls about dreamvisitors?”

  He tipped his head, frowning a little. “I’m sure we do. Why? You didn’t — I mean, you haven’t been visited by someone, have you?”

  “I’m just curious,” Moon said quickly. “Someone mentioned them, um, in class, and I don’t know anything about them.”

  Starflight slid out from behind the desk and started walking along the shelves, touching the carvings here and there. “If you ever do see a strange dragon in your dreams, let me know, all right? Especially if she’s a SkyWing.” A viciously scary orange dragon wreathed in smoke flashed through his mind.

  “A SkyWing?” Moon said alertly. “Why?”

  Starflight sighed. “Queen Scarlet — ex-Queen Scarlet is out there with a dreamvisitor, and she hates us. I worry sometimes that she’ll start scaring our students in their dreams.” And that’s far from the worst she could do, he thought anxiously.

  “How did she get her dreamvisitor?” Moon asked.

  “We’re not entirely sure,” Starflight said. He tilted his wings back and scratched his head. “She must have found it while she was imprisoned in Burn’s weirdling tower, and Burn must not have known it was there. My theory is that Scarlet found it in or on this NightWing dragon corpse she disemboweled, somehow.”

  “Oh,” Moon said. “Does anyone know where the other two dreamvisitors are?”

  To her surprise, Starflight nodded. “We know one for sure — it’s right here in the school. I think Sunny has it this week. She got it from a scavenger, who stole it from the SandWings. And we’re pretty sure the other dreamvisitor was lost in the volcano. I found it in the NightWing treasury, but someone stole it from me shortly before the island exploded.”

  “You don’t know who?”

  He shook his head, flickers of guilt ricocheting through his mind. “Here.” He brushed his talons across a section of the wall, and then chose a scroll and held it out for her. “This should be The Animus Histories. It’s about several animus-touched objects, but the dreamvisitors definitely have a section in there.”

  “Thanks,” Moon said. Could she have heard Queen Scarlet in someone’s dream last night? Another awful thought followed that one. She hesitated — but she had to ask. “Could a dragon ever use a dreamvisitor to talk to someone while they’re awake? I mean, like in their heads?”

  Now Starflight looked really puzzled. “No, that wouldn’t make sense,” he said. “The way they’re enchanted is to get into dreams, nothing else. Why do you ask?”

  “Just a story I heard once,” Moon said.

  I promise you, little Moon, I am no SkyWing.

  Then who ARE you? Moon thought back fiercely.

  No answer, of course. She took the scroll over to a ledge by the biggest window and curled up with her back against a tapestry-covered wall.

  There were more animus-touched objects than she would have expected, considering there hadn’t been that many animus dragons in Pyrrhia’s history — at least, as far as anyone knew. She stopped on a spread with a beautiful drawing of a tall, sweeping pavilion, twelve stories high, made of white stone and looking as if it had grown straight out of the water into this perfect shape.

  The SeaWing Summer Palace, read the caption. Made of stone enchanted by Albatross, a SeaWing prince, to grow into a tower he designed.

  That’s really pretty, Moon thought, brushing one claw lightly across the drawing. I wish I could create something like that. She rolled the scroll to read the longer paragraph on the side.

  Albatross was one of the first known animus dragons, hatched over two thousand years ago, before anyone truly understood the limits of this power. He used his animus magic to create many things, including the beautiful Summer Palace pavilion, whose location is known only to SeaWings. But at the time nobody realized the terrible price of using animus powers, and nobody saw that Albatross was slowly going insane.

  Not until the Royal SeaWing Massacre.

  It was a devastating shock to the entire Kingdom of the Sea when Albatross, who had been hailed as one of the greatest SeaWings of all time, suddenly snapped and tried to murder his entire family. He managed to kill nine dragons, including his sister the queen, his own daughter, and her husband, before someone was able to stop him with a spear to his chest. Among the few who survived were his young grandson, Fathom, and granddaughter, Pearl. Pearl ascended the throne peacefully and ruled for many years. One of her first edicts was to outlaw the use of animus magic anywhere in her kingdom.

  Her brother, Fathom, was an animus dragon himself, but after the massacre he refused to ever use his power — except perhaps once. [See: Fathom]

  Moon shivered. What an awful story. I guess there are worse powers than mine in the world. At least mind reading only made her socially anxious and gave her headaches. She was pretty sure it wasn’t turning her homicidal, though.

  She found the section on dreamvisitors and studied the drawing of three star-shaped sapphires. Dreamvisitors, read the caption. Enchanted by a NightWing named Darkstalker to allow whichever dragon holds one to walk in any other dragon’s dreams.

  Moon hadn’t realized they were made by a NightWing. She unrolled it to the longer description.

  The first known animus dragon in the NightWing tribe, Darkstalker, also had the powers of mind reading and prophecy, making him a truly formidable dragon. He created three dreamvisitors so there would be one for him, one for his best friend [see: Fathom], and one for his beloved, a dragon named Clearsight. They were intended to link the three, no matter how far apart they were.

  That’s sweet, Moon thought. If it were her, who would she give dreamvisitors to? Mother, of course
. She felt a twinge of sadness and also guilt, that she’d managed not to miss her mother every second she’d been gone. Who else? Kinkajou? The idea of Kinkajou flinging rainbows around in Moon’s dreams as well as in her waking thoughts was a little alarming.

  The answer is no one, really, Moon admitted to herself. She didn’t want anyone to see inside her subconscious. If they did, she was sure they’d never trust her again.

  Ultimately Darkstalker grew to be too powerful and his ambitions began to terrify the dragons around him. He claimed he’d found a way to make himself immortal. Rumor had it he planned to overthrow the NightWing queen and seize the throne for himself. After he killed his own father with an aspect of animus power that no one had ever seen before, the tribe agreed: He was too dangerous to be free.

  The details of the trap set for Darkstalker are lost to history, but it is certain that he and Clearsight disappeared one night and were probably both killed at the same time. It is also believed that he was ultimately taken down with an animus-touched object created by Fathom — the only time Fathom ever used his power.

  Fear of the Darkstalker lingered in the NightWing tribe, however, causing them to move to a new, secret home in case he ever returned. NightWing ghost stories still speak of him, and there are those who believe that one day Darkstalker may yet rise again and come seeking his revenge….

  NightWing ghosts, Moon thought, touching the scroll lightly. Mother never told me any traditional NightWing ghost stories. She had much more effective ways of terrifying me, just by telling me about the volcano and the RainWings and what would happen if another NightWing ever found me in the rainforest.

  She rolled the scroll in either direction, but there was no more information about the dreamvisitors.

  Read the section on Fathom, the mystery voice suddenly commanded in her head.

  On Fathom? Moon thought, glancing up. Sora shifted slightly, but kept her eyes on the scroll in front of her, drowning her worries under a deluge of words about IceWings. Why? To find out what he did with his dreamvisitor?

  Just read it, the voice said, and there was an odd vibration to it that she hadn’t heard before, like an egg shuddering before it cracked.