Moon Rising

  You could always kill her, Darkstalker suggested. I’m kidding! Ha ha, evil nightmare dragon, right?

  That’s not funny, Moon said.

  Too soon? he asked. All right, I’ll wait another two thousand years to make jokes about my evilness.

  Moon tried to focus on the dreams of the dragons along the corridor. Pike was dreaming about swimming with whales, except he kept seeing Tamarin’s burnt face on all of them. Someone else’s dreams were of a battle, grappling with dragons in a blue sky with a waterfall down below. Others were deeper, in a sleep without dreams, and Winter was just sliding into sleep. From the jittery, speeding feeling of Qibli’s brain, Moon guessed he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.

  She didn’t think she’d be able to either, but as the hours passed she felt her wings getting heavier, and her eyelids kept trying to close. Need to stay awake. I have to catch Scarlet if she comes with the dreamvisitor.

  More dragons were asleep now, close to midnight, and it was harder to tell whose dream was whose as muddled images overlapped and swam together.

  Moon wasn’t sure if she was dreaming herself when she finally heard the slithery voice from two nights ago.

  Is it done?

  No. It was … an eventful day. We’ve had a few deaths, but not the ones you want.

  I am not a patient dragon. Your time is running out.

  Oh my, do you have a scroll for those? Ominous Clichés for Aspiring Villains?

  I wouldn’t recommend mocking me. It hasn’t ended well for anyone.

  You sound pretty menacing for a dragon who has to make others do her killing for her.

  Tomorrow, said the slithery voice. Just one of them, think you can manage that? Kill one of them by the end of tomorrow … or you know what will happen.

  I’ll do it, came the response. Don’t worry, they’ll be dead soon. And if you touch him, I’ll kill you, too.

  A rumbling laugh. Good luck.

  The connection was severed, tossing Moon away and into her own dreams, which echoed with deadly dragons, falling mountains, and clouds of fire for the rest of the night.

  Kinkajou was gone when Moon woke up. Moon could hear her distantly, in the infirmary, watching over a sleeping Tamarin.

  She tried to stretch her wings and flinched at the pain in her shoulder. Her head, too, still throbbed from hitting the cave wall. Everything seemed to hurt more than it had the day before.

  I couldn’t tell who that was last night, she thought. Darkstalker? Your power is so much stronger than mine. Could you see who was talking to Scarlet? Was that Scarlet?

  He was quiet for so long she wondered if he was asleep, or if that was even a thing he did.

  I know some things, he said at last. But everything I could tell you leads to futures that end badly, for you and for me. For instance, I can see clearly that if I tell you right now who has been speaking with the fallen SkyWing queen, you will seek out that dragon, and you will end up dead. Which would be unfortunate, both because I quite like you, and because then I might have to wait another thousand years to be rescued.

  Moon was shaken. She straightened the leaves around her bed, noticing the way her talons trembled. You can really see a future where I die today?

  Quite clearly. Also a few where you die tomorrow. Actually the next couple of months are quite perilous for you altogether.

  She stared at the moss of her bed, wondering if there was enough to bury herself in it and never come out. You’re not exactly helping with my afraid-of-everything problem, she pointed out.

  I think you’re braver than you think you are. But maybe that’s a future version of you. One that may never exist, if we’re not careful.

  But I have to find out who set the fire, she thought. I have to tell Winter something by midnight tonight.

  Believe me, I will do my best to keep you alive, Moonwatcher.

  She remembered Sora’s calming ritual and tried to imitate it. Mud didn’t feel soothing to her, so she thought of the rainforest, and imagined that her bones were as strong as the giant mahogany trees. She imagined that her wings were as vast and wide as the treetop canopy, and she imagined all the creatures of the rainforest — sloths, lizards, frogs, dragonflies, jaguars, tapirs, toucans, monkeys — all responding to her talons, spreading out through the trees and then galloping back to her with news, like the scurrying thoughts of the dragons all around her.

  She folded her wings, made a determined face, and headed for the door, where she collided with Qibli coming in.

  “Don’t say anything,” he said quickly as she stumbled back. He spoke fast, as if hoping his spoken words would drown out his thoughts, but those were only a mirror of his speech, as though he’d practiced what he was going to say a few times over. “Not yet, give me a chance. Listen, I’m sorry about anything you’ve heard in my head. I wish I could shut it off or that I was a nicer dragon on the inside, but I guess it’s too late and you already know how I am. I don’t know what it’s like for you — I would think confusing — but at least you must know I’m not the one who caused the explosion yesterday. And I think that’s the most important thing, and you’re the dragon who has the best chance of figuring it out, so I’m here to help you, is what I wanted to say.”

  He took a deep breath, and now she could hear the struggle he was going through: Run away from her, or stay? Find a way to be friends, or warn the world about her? Trust her … or not?

  “Why do you think I can figure it out?” she asked, although she could guess.

  “Isn’t that what your powers are for?” he said. “If I could read minds and see the future, that’s what I would do — stop bad dragons before they hurt anyone — or, in this case, hurt anyone else, I suppose. Why else would you be able to do what you can do? Don’t you think that’s why you have them?”

  Moon had never thought of her powers quite that way. All she’d ever heard from her mother was that they were a curse, a dangerous condition, and she should hide them. Or, according to Darkstalker, they were a gift that destined her for power and made her better than other dragons.

  But they were something entirely new in Qibli’s shimmering mind: a tool she could use to help and protect other dragons. If she used them wisely.

  This was a kind of test, she realized, although he didn’t consciously know that. If she helped catch the dragon who killed Carnelian and Bigtail, Qibli would be able to believe her powers could be used for good. He’d be able to believe that she was good.

  “Of course,” she said. “Yes. I was thinking the same thing — I want to help. But I don’t know where to start.”

  “How does it work?” he asked. “Can you just dig around in a dragon’s brain and find out anything you want?”

  She shook her head. “It’s more like walking into a room and hearing a conversation; I think I pick up whatever is going through a dragon’s brain when I’m near them. Sometimes it’s clear, linear thoughts, and sometimes it’s a jumble of words, and sometimes it’s pictures, and I get a lot of emotions, too. Sometimes it’s so strong that it’s hard to tell what I’m feeling myself. And it’s always louder and stronger when I’m touching someone.” She reached out unconsciously to demonstrate, and he shied away from her.

  She dropped her talons. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to —”

  “It’s all right, sorry,” he said, shifting guiltily at the hurt look on her face. “I have to get used to this.”

  “I know.”

  “So the bad guy would have to be thinking about what he’s done in order for you to catch him,” Qibli said. “But they must be, right? After killing two dragons, wouldn’t that be all you could think about?”

  Moon rearranged the scrolls in the rack by the door, scanning the thoughts along the hall. “Apparently not. I haven’t heard anything clear like that yet.” She hesitated. “But there are a couple of dragons here whose thoughts I can’t hear, and I don’t know why. Onyx. Peril — sometimes a thought gets through, but it’s all fire in there. And … Turt
le.”

  “Turtle?” Qibli echoed. “He can shield his thoughts from you?” That’s hardly fair. How did he figure out how to do that? He doesn’t seem clever enough for — Qibli cut his own thoughts off. “If you heard that, don’t listen to it. I like Turtle. I don’t mean to be mean. He can’t be the one who did this, right? Peril, maybe. Onyx … I don’t know anything about her. I don’t think she was in the Scorpion Den, or I’d at least have heard of her.”

  “I’m not sure it’s one of them,” she said. “But if it is, I wouldn’t be able to hear them, that’s all.”

  He nodded. “All right. See if anyone else thinks anything suspicious at the assembly, and if not, we’ll focus on those three.”

  “Assembly?” she said.

  Qibli stepped into the hallway and lifted a small message off the wall. In subdued letters, it read: GATHER IN THE GREAT HALL AT THE BELLS.

  “Poor Sunny,” he said, rubbing chalk dust off the edges of the tablet. “She must be so upset.”

  “She is,” Moon said.

  Three gongs echoed through the tunnels. Dragonets began to emerge from their caves in silence, a flowing mass of scales and wings all heading in the same direction. Qibli studied the ones going past, momentarily forgetting to worry about Moon reading his mind.

  Who did it? The answer is in the motive; that’s what Thorn would say. So why? The Outclaws never used anything like bombs, because Thorn didn’t want collateral damage. Targeted killing if necessary, open challenges if possible. A picture of his mother flashed through his mind, but Moon didn’t catch why; she was sure from his earlier memories that his mother was still alive. Blowing up innocent dragons while you’re far away — it’s a coward’s choice. Were they trying to kill someone in particular, or as many dragons as possible?

  And did they succeed? Trying to kill Tamarin makes no sense; she must have been an accident. But Carnelian and Bigtail — they were fairly unfriendly dragons. They could have made enemies quickly. Or … one enemy.

  He turned to Moon with his tail raised, an expression like lightning striking on his face.

  “Pike?” she said. “I didn’t think of that.”

  Qibli’s eyes widened.

  “I’m sorry,” Moon said immediately. “I’m really sorry, I couldn’t help hearing it.”

  “It’s fine,” he said, shifting uncomfortably. “I suppose it makes for faster conversations. Pike fought with both Carnelian and Bigtail before the explosion. I can’t think of anyone else who might want both of those dragons dead.”

  “But do you think it could have been that specific?” she asked. “How could anyone know who’d be in there when the cactus exploded?”

  “Cactus?” he said.

  Two gongs sounded. They started toward the Great Hall, staying well behind the other dragons so no one could overhear them. Keeping her voice low, Moon explained about the dragonflame cactus and the seed pods, watching his brain spiral out into all the possibilities that meant. She also told him about Queen Scarlet and the dreamvisitor conversations.

  “Oh,” she said, stopping suddenly in the tunnel. “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about the cactus! I totally forgot! Sunny asked us to keep it a secret.”

  “But you had to tell me,” he reassured her. “I need all the clues if we’re going to figure this out together. Don’t feel bad; I won’t tell anyone else.” He shrugged. “And I bet you can see in my brain that I’m telling the truth.”

  He was, and he was also trying to be funny to hide how freaked out he was, and then feeling stupid for trying to hide anything from her.

  “So you think it was probably a SkyWing,” he said, “or at least someone working for Scarlet. And perhaps they were just trying to disrupt the school and didn’t care who they killed. That makes sense. But it is possible they were after someone in particular … and we all heard Pike threaten Bigtail in the prey center.”

  “That’s true,” said Moon. “He’s really angry on the inside.”

  “How surprising. He’s so mellow on the outside,” Qibli said wryly.

  “I think he nearly died in the Summer Palace attack,” Moon said, then stopped with a gasp. “Oh — so he must know about the dragonflame bombs, too!”

  The last gong sounded, and they had to hurry; even so, they were the last ones to enter the Great Hall. The other dragons of Jade Mountain were all gathered, with the five teachers and Fatespeaker on a raised ledge facing them. Moon could feel their surging emotions clearly, but she thought she could have read them just as well by the looks on their faces, the way Qibli was doing.

  Sunny: devastated. Tsunami: furious. Clay: grieving. Starflight: anxious, and trying desperately to puzzle out what had happened. Fatespeaker: scared for Starflight, and a little unsure about whether this school was worth it. And Webs, who was mostly relieved that he’d been late to class and had therefore survived.

  The students, on the other talon, were a mess of jumbled mental energy. Moon stumbled as she approached the crowd; it felt like stepping into a hurricane. It was worse than the fear set off by Peril’s arrival. This was an avalanche of terror, everyone convinced they’d be the next to die. Moon thought she’d been scared before; now she felt as though her claws were melted to the ground, all her nerves screaming, “Run!” while her frozen body disobeyed.

  Qibli must have seen something in her face. He stepped closer, until she could feel the warmth of his scales, and whispered, “Remember you’re feeling everyone else’s fear; it’s not all yours.”

  Find an anchor, Darkstalker reminded her. Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed.

  Easy for you to say, Moon shot back. But she reached out and latched on to Tsunami’s thoughts. The SeaWing was loud and angry, but at least she wasn’t petrified.

  “Hi, everyone,” Sunny said somberly. “I know you’re all worried about the awful fire that happened yesterday. The first thing we want you to know is that the school is not closing, at least, not right now, but we understand if you want to leave. There are dragons on their way here now who can escort you safely home.” Her mind flashed quickly past Glory, Deathbringer, a six-clawed SandWing, and a big MudWing who looked like Clay.

  “We understand if you want to go, but we’re hoping you’ll choose to stay,” Clay added. “We’d ask you all to give us two days before you decide. Give us two days to find out what happened and who did this. If we can’t — if we think it’s too dangerous to stay here — we’ll consider shutting down the school.”

  Moon was surprised to realize how sad that made her. Three days ago, she would have been thrilled if the school was closed and she could go home with no guilt. Now, even with all the trouble with her friends, she wanted to stay. She wanted the school to go on, and she didn’t want to give up.

  Moon. Startled, Moon looked around and found Qibli staring intently at her. He tipped his head. See if you can edge this way. Pike’s over here.

  Only half listening to Clay’s speech, she sidled through the crowd until she was directly behind the SeaWing. Carefully she disengaged from Tsunami’s mind and opened up to the swarm of thoughts around her.

  Maybe I should go home. But is it any safer there?

  It must have been someone in this cave. It could be the dragon right next to me. She does look kind of smug. That worm; I should bite her.

  I heard the whole cave exploded and then collapsed. Maybe the whole mountain will collapse next. I knew it was stupid to live somewhere with rock over your head all the time.

  What would Queen Glory do? She’d know how to protect us.

  At least the princess was nowhere near the fire.

  There, that was Pike. She narrowed her focus onto him.

  He had a confusing mind. His thoughts rampaged around like wild rhinoceroses; half of them began and then trailed off as he jumped to another. If Anemone had been hurt — maybe Queen Coral is right — can’t protect her if I’m dead — dare to kill me, I’ll rip off their — that poor little RainWing — I miss the Deep Palace, nothing c
atches on fire there — wish I’d had a chance to fight that NightWing — would’ve given him a tail whack he’d never forget — never even got to fill his bed with slugs — so pointless, having dead enemies, nobody to yell at — there’s Anemone; that IceWing is standing too close to her; maybe I’ll go bite him — wonder which of these idiots set the fire — that’d give me someone to snarl at —

  Moon pivoted to meet Qibli’s eyes and shook her head. Pike was an odd, bad-tempered dragon — and might be secretly protecting Anemone for Queen Coral — but he wasn’t their killer.

  Frowning, Qibli scanned the crowd, choosing and discarding suspects at lightning speed. He crossed off all the RainWings right away, which Moon agreed with; none of them ever had an aggressive thought, as far as she’d seen. He paused on Umber and thought, Too loyal to Clay, then Marsh: Too nervous. Moon agreed with that as well; from the frantic terror spiking out of Marsh’s head, she rather thought he belonged in the infirmary, too, tranquilized in the bed next to Sora’s.

  Winter and Icicle? he wondered, studying the two haughty IceWings, who stood a few paces away from the rest of the crowd, with the other four IceWing students forming a sort of barricade between them and everyone else. Not Winter, he mused. He was with me or near me most of the day, especially right before class. But maybe Icicle?