Darkness of Dragons, Page 29

  “They really won’t let you go home?” Kinkajou asked. “Even after you fought alongside them? Even though you’re totally awesome?”

  “No, they’re still pretty mad at me,” Winter said. “Snowfall said I could come back for visits, like for Icicle’s trial, and to visit Hailstorm, as long as I leave again within a few days. But my mother doesn’t want to see me, and there’s no one else I really want to see there. No one in the Circles, I mean.”

  He heaped a small pile of needles in front of him and nestled a pinecone into the middle of it. “It’s not so bad. I thought a lot about some of the stuff Qibli is always saying to me. There are all these IceWings outside the Circles — outside the palaces. I’d never thought about them before, but I visited as many villages as I could to make sure they all were cured of the plague, and you know what? Apart from being less obsessed with status and Circles, they’re not that different from the IceWings inside the palaces.”

  “That is astonishing news,” Kinkajou said gravely.

  He made a face at her. “I know, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Anyway, I met several who were interested in moving to Sanctuary. So I’m not the only IceWing here, which is great.”

  “But why is Snowfall so mad at you?” Kinkajou asked.

  “Oh, the whole First Circle is furious that I’ve ruined their Diamond Trial by letting Foeslayer escape. Luckily none of them know what she looks like, except Hailstorm, and I’m sure he won’t say anything, even if he happens to run into her in the rainforest.” He paused. “Moon’s last letter said Foeslayer has changed her name and is settling in with the rest of the tribe. I — I know she had something to do with Darkstalker disappearing, but nobody will tell me exactly what happened.”

  “That’s because you might not be cool about it,” Kinkajou pointed out.

  “I’m always cool!” he protested. “Oh, that wasn’t a pun, stop laughing at me. I’m serious. You guys are acting like you can’t trust me.”

  “We know we can trust you to be a loyal friend and awesome dragon and stand with us when we need you, yes,” said Kinkajou. “But to let us handle Darkstalker our own way? We’re not so sure.”

  Winter swept his tail through the pine needles. “He’s really not coming back, though? Is he asleep under the mountain again? Are we sure he’s definitely gone? He won’t be back in another two thousand years or something?”

  “Winter, he’s gone.” Kinkajou put one of her talons on his, looking him straight in the eyes. “He’s never coming back. Your tribe is safe.”

  “All right,” Winter said with a sigh. “I hope Moon is willing to tell me the whole story someday.”

  “Like I said, you could visit her. And you could start by apologizing for all those times you yelled at her and didn’t believe in her and were totally mean.”

  He winced. “Was I awful? I was so angry about her being friends with Darkstalker … I guess I can be a little awful when I’m angry.”

  “You can keep working on that,” Kinkajou assured him. “It, um — it might be too late, though.”

  “I know,” he said. “I knew back in the NightWing palace, when she took Qibli with her to face Darkstalker instead of me. It’s my own fault.” He traced his claw through the carpet of pine needles, wondering how long it would take his heart to heal.

  “But we’re all still friends, right?” Kinkajou said hopefully. “Turtle and Moon and I miss you.”

  “I miss you, too,” he said. He didn’t want to admit it out loud, but he missed Qibli as well. The letters he got from his former clawmate were not those of a triumphant rival, but a best friend who was worried about him.

  Best friends with a SandWing? What is the world coming to? And not just a SandWing, but the one who won Moon’s heart.

  If only I didn’t like him so much.

  In his last letter, Qibli had promised to come to Sanctuary soon, and to bring Flower and Smolder, in case they had any ideas for his scavenger project.

  He won’t let me stop being friends with him. None of them will.

  As weird as it is, they’re my new family now … my new tribe.

  And I think I’m going to be OK.

  “So what do you say?” Kinkajou asked. Her scales rippled and faded into the background, but he could hear her smile in her voice. “Want to go catch some scavengers together?”

  He smiled back. “Absolutely.”

  Peril still couldn’t quite believe that Jade Mountain was really her home now.

  She was part of a winglet and everything! Turtle’s winglet, no less! She went to CLASSES. And STUDIED. And had HOMEWORK. And did projects with OTHER DRAGONS.

  It was SO WEIRD.

  She still had her own cave, because of the whole accidentally-setting-your-clawmates-on-fire-while-sleepwalking-would-be-bad thing. And she still needed her friends to read all the scrolls to her. She’d asked Starflight to get to work on inflammable scrolls once he and Tamarin were done with their project of making scrolls that blind dragons could read.

  Peril figured if anyone could figure out scrolls that wouldn’t burn, it was Starflight. He was certainly motivated to. He got hilariously twitchy whenever he smelled Peril anywhere near his papers.

  She padded down the corridor toward the prey center. Not because it was highly likely that Clay would be there at any given time, of course. She actually had a perfectly good all-Peril no-Clay reason to go to the prey center.

  But she didn’t mind the little bounce her heart gave when she peeked into the center and saw him there.

  Act normal! Or at least vaguely as though you have any idea what normal is!

  He was curled by the river, chatting with his brother Marsh. Marsh’s clawmate, Coconut, was there, too, poking around on the far side of the cave. The RainWing’s scales were a honey-colored mix of amber and brown, like a gold-dappled version of Marsh’s.

  Is he busy? Maybe he’s busy. Maybe I should —

  Clay turned and smiled at her before she could duck out of sight again. She smiled back sheepishly and he padded across the cave to join her.

  “Hey, Peril,” he said. She knew he sounded kind no matter who he was talking to, but she hoped she wasn’t imagining the extra little bit of sweetness in his smile for her.

  “I came down to see if anyone wants their food set on fire,” Peril said quickly. “The RainWings like it when I roast their bananas and sweet potatoes, so we’re experimenting with other stuff. Siamang and I came up with this cooked mashed-up apple thing that is awesome.”

  “Applesauce?” Clay asked.

  “Oh,” Peril said. “Is that what it’s called? We didn’t invent it? OK, fine, applesauce, then. I bet ours is better than anyone else’s, though.”

  “Probably,” he said. “You’d better make it for me sometime.” He put one wing around her and she somehow managed not to burst into delighted flames.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked. “I mean, not that you shouldn’t be here, you can be anywhere you want, of course, and it’s just a wild coincidence that you happen to be here, in the place where I also happened to be going. WILD COINCIDENCE.”

  “Checking on Marsh,” Clay said. “I was so worried about him after Umber and Sora left … but he seems really happy lately. Doesn’t he?”

  “I think so,” Peril said. “I mean, I’m not super great at, like, emotions? On other dragons? But I’m pretty sure when a dragon smiles that much, it means he’s happy.”

  “I think it’s Coconut,” Clay said. “He’s the perfect clawmate for Marsh. I wish we’d paired everyone else into best friends that well.”

  “I like the SkyWing that Queen Ruby sent to replace Flame,” Peril said. “He’s not completely terrified of me. It is pretty weird to have conversations with a SkyWing who isn’t terrified of me.”

  “I hope Flame will be all right,” Clay said. The angry SkyWing dragonet had accepted an earring reluctantly, choosing freedom from Darkstalker’s spells even though it meant having his scars back. But he couldn�
�t stay at the school after what he did to Stonemover, and he didn’t want to anyway, and Peril thought that was for the best because he was an awful grouch to be around. Queen Ruby had taken him back to the Sky Kingdom to work with the healers.

  “The queen will sort him out,” she said. She glanced around the mostly empty prey center. “It seems so quiet today.”

  “Everyone’s working on independent study projects,” he said. “I just saw Ostrich, Thrush, and Barracuda talking about the science of RainWing camouflage in the library. And Tamarin, Pike, and Fearless are doing a presentation about Darkstalker’s history later, if you’re interested.”

  She shuddered a little, flicking her tail closer to his. “I don’t know. Whenever his name comes up, everyone looks at me like they’re remembering it was my fault he got out. I mean, I’m clearly the ‘talons of fire’ in the prophecy. Which makes me want to be like YEAH, I KNOW and I’M SORRY, OK and I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY TO SAVE YOUR FRIENDS FROM AN ANCIENT SCROLL WITH NEBULOUS POWERS.”

  “You said friends,” Clay echoed, bumping her side with a grin.

  She scrunched up her snout so she wouldn’t smile too much. “I think sometimes maybe they actually like me a little bit?”

  “Or a lot,” Clay said. “My guess is a lot.”

  “Even Winter has sent me a couple of letters,” she said wonderingly, “like he cares what’s going on with me. I got one from Qibli today. Sunny read it to me.”

  “I can help you write a letter back later, if you want,” he said. “Although I can’t promise any of the words will be spelled right.”

  She laughed. “Aren’t you a teacher now? I’m pretty sure teachers should be able to spell.”

  “Yeah, I carefully avoid writing anything where my students can see it,” he said. “Peril, don’t feel bad about Darkstalker anymore. He would have gotten out of his prison sooner or later. He was too smart to be stuck under there for long. And I think that scroll could have been just as dangerous as he was, if it was left floating around the continent.”

  “Right,” Peril said dubiously. Sometimes she agreed and was all like, GOOD FOR ME YAY PERIL, especially whenever Qibli talked about what the scroll might have done to him if it had stayed in his talons. But a lot of the time she remembered Darkstalker bursting out of the mountain and thanking her for releasing him, and then it was hard not to feel like the dragon who nearly set the whole entire world on fire.

  She thought for a moment. “You know,” she said, nudging Clay’s neck with her snout, “sometimes I think it’s a good thing it was my dad who found it. He was a jerk, but he could have done much worse things with it. Another dragon might have done way worse things. Right?”

  “Right,” Clay reassured her.

  Peril looked out at the rain. “I wonder if I’ll ever see him again. I think he’s going to stay pretty mad at me forever.”

  “You don’t need him,” Clay said. “You have friends now.” He ducked his head to meet her eyes. “You have me.”

  Now there was no chance of holding back her smile. “Want to go flying with me?” she said impulsively. “I mean, I know it’s raining, but it’s kind of cool to fly in the rain, unless you’re busy, you’re probably busy, you’re, like, running a school, so, that’s OK if you can’t, we —”

  “Peril,” he said, catching one of her front talons in his. “I’d love to.”

  Turtle spread the scroll out on a sunlit rock and read it again, humming to himself.

  Dear Turtle,

  Auklet and I send our love. You must come home for a visit soon so you can see the new palace we’re building. We chose the perfect island for it and we’re starting with an auditorium that will have wonderful acoustics for my scroll readings, with enough room to host dragons from all the tribes. We’re not going to hide this one like the Summer Palace. I’m hoping it’ll be a center for diplomacy and trade and art that will help us build relations across Pyrrhia, but especially with Queen Moorhen and Queen Glory, who have such interesting ideas.

  Thank you for the spell you sent to get rid of the Albatross ghost Darkstalker conjured. What a strange and malevolent piece of magic. Everyone is quite relieved it’s gone!

  I hope your sister is doing well! Your brothers seem to think you played an enormously clever practical joke on them the last time you were at the palace. I didn’t get all the details, but they’re very impressed with you. You’d better carefully check your bed for lobsters the next time you’re here.

  Sending you all my love, and my newest story,

  Mother

  He dabbled his tail in the water of the lake below him, smiling. Every letter from Queen Coral felt like a new magic spell, making him stronger and braver and more the hero he hoped to be.

  Up in the sky, Anemone was doing flips in the air, flinging out her wings happily. A bracelet of pale pink pearls shone around her wrist, matching her scales. It was the only jewelry she wore anymore, most of the time. She’d sat with Qibli for hours one day, working out the words for a spell that would protect her soul — not just from animus magic, but from the feelings of invincibility and superiority that went along with it. Ever since putting it on, she’d been acting lighter and younger, giggling and teasing Pike, and taking her winglet swimming in the mountain lakes every day.

  Turtle wasn’t sure if it was the magic of the bracelet or the relief that came from not worrying about her soul anymore. The soul reader had revealed a much higher level of good in the princess’s soul than they all had feared — and Turtle’s own soul was almost entirely good, too, to his delight.

  Now Anemone kept the soul reader in her room, and Turtle suspected she checked it fairly often. He hadn’t seen her cast any spells in the last month. She’d been focused on doing good things — like donating half her treasure to help build Sanctuary — and otherwise, she seemed content to be a normal student for now.

  He heard splashing in the lake and turned to find Kinkajou wading out of the water toward him.

  “I thought we were going swimming!” she said.

  “I just wanted to read this letter one more time,” Turtle said, rolling it up again.

  “Awwww.” Kinkajou flicked a spray of water at his tail. “You’re so cute about your mom, it almost makes me wish I knew who my parents are.”

  He tipped his head at her. “I could probably find out for you.”

  “That’s all right,” she said. “I know you’re trying to use your magic as little as possible. I can figure it out some other way if I ever really want to.”

  Turtle tapped his skyfire armband. “But I can use it, if you ever need to. Qibli’s soul spell is really well-written.”

  “Speaking of well-written,” Kinkajou said as he dove into the water. She waited until he surfaced again to finish her thought. “I loved the story you wrote for class the other day. You should write more of it.”

  “Really?” he said shyly. “You’re not just saying that?”

  “I’m not enchanted to say nice things about you anymore,” she said with a laugh.

  He laughed, too, but a little awkwardly. They’d pretty much avoided the subject of the love spell for the last month. He paddled his webbed talons underneath him for a moment, then blurted, “I still really like you, Kinkajou.”

  Her scales shimmered rose with flecks of citrus orange and yellow. “Oh,” she said. “I mean, I really like you, too, just … I’m still … it’s weird, Turtle! It’s weird to wake up suddenly having all these feelings and then find out they’re not real and then suddenly they’re gone but not really because you remember feeling them, which is awfully close to actually still feeling them, and then there are lots of reasons to feel them because you are adorable but I’m not totally sure how much I feel them and so it’s very confusing.”

  “Sure, yeah, OK,” he said. “Never mind.”

  “No, not never mind!” she said, splashing water over his head. “More like, let’s keep hanging out and see what happens? And I’ll try to figure out which feeli
ngs are real after a little more time has passed? That’s what I think we should do.”

  “That’s all right with me,” he said. “I mean, it’s great. Totally great with me.” He felt a fish swim right between his claws, but it wiggled away when he tried to grab it. “You really think I’m adorable?”

  “Yes,” said Kinkajou, “but I think lots of things are adorable, so don’t get too excited. I mean, you’re somewhere between baby sloths and Anemone’s crush on Tamarin on the adorableness scale.”

  He dunked his head underwater, hiding his smile. A moment later, he popped out again. “Wait, what? Anemone has a crush on someone?”

  “Oh my gosh, yes,” Kinkajou said with a giggle. “You haven’t noticed? She’s been casually showing up everywhere Tamarin is, offering to read her scrolls, leaving her little gifts of flowers or unusual fruit. It’s almost cute enough to make me forgive her, but I told Tamarin she better be careful. I am watching VERY CLOSELY to make sure Anemone doesn’t use any magic on my friend.”

  “She won’t,” Turtle said confidently. “Our soul spells stipulate that we can only do magic that doesn’t affect another dragon’s free will. And that we can’t do any magic that’s selfishly motivated. Both of those should keep Anemone from doing any more love spells.”

  “Hmmmph,” said Kinkajou. “Well, I’m keeping an eye on her anyway. She’s going to have to be pretty super awesome to ever be worthy of Tamarin.”

  I’m going to work hard to be super awesome, too, Turtle promised himself. I’ve read enough romance scrolls; I should have some idea of what to do. It’ll be crazy if I actually end up in one of those stories myself.

  Save the world, check. Stop being afraid of my magic, check. Figure out a way to protect my soul, check.

  Become the kind of dragon I’d want to read about — working on it. Probably working on it for the rest of my life. But I think I’m getting there.