Wings of Fire Book Four: The Dark Secret (25 page)
Read Wings of Fire Book Four: The Dark Secret Online
Authors: Tui T. Sutherland
Snow was falling, thick and fast, and the snowflakes spun across the icy ground in the freezing wind.
A SandWing stood huddled by the walls outside her fort, wrapped in blankets and trying to breathe fire into the air around her.
“P-p-please can’t we go inside?” she said to the tall white dragon beside her.
“No,” said Queen Glacier. “No one can be trusted with this information until we make a decision.” Her arctic-blue eyes regarded the IceWing guards who were positioned just out of hearing range, watching the skies for danger. Frost glittered along her wings and horns. The spikes at the end of her tail were as sharp and cold as icicles.
Blaze sighed. “You mean, until
you
make a decision.”
“Your input is always welcome,” Glacier said calmly. She knew there was no chance of the SandWing disagreeing with the IceWing queen.
“My neck hurts.” Blaze stamped her feet and poked the bandage on her neck. “
Ow
. Do you think it’s going to scar? I’ll be so mad if it scars.”
“You’re sure about what you heard?” Glacier asked her. “The NightWings have chosen to side with Blister, and they’re trying to force the dragonets to choose her as well?”
“That’s what it sounded like,” Blaze said. “But more important, that NightWing tried to kill me! You’re going to kill him, right?”
“We’re going to kill all of them, if we must,” said Glacier. “I have no objection to the idea of wiping out the NightWings. But we should consider what to do about the dragonets of the prophecy.”
“They seemed nice,” Blaze said, rubbing her talons together to warm them up. “Some of them were a little funny-looking. And I still don’t understand what that RainWing was doing with them. Besides, she was a little
too
pretty. I think it’s better to be just the right amount of pretty, don’t you?
Too
pretty is annoying.”
“Indeed,” said Glacier, barely listening. “We don’t want them telling anyone they’ve chosen Blister. It would be very demoralizing for our dragons.”
“But they can’t possibly choose her now that they’ve met me!” Blaze cried. “Now they know I’m wonderful and would make a great queen! They’ll definitely pick me.”
“Hmm,” Glacier said noncommittally. She didn’t have quite the same faith in Blaze’s persuasive abilities or dazzling charisma that Blaze did. Her own alliance with Blaze was based less on the SandWing’s potential queenliness and more on certain promises of future new territory for the IceWings.
“Well,” Glacier said, “just in case they’re leaning in another direction, I think we should make an effort to find these dragonets. I’d like to have a chat with them myself.”
“Fine, all right,” Blaze said, shivering violently. “I’ll tell you everything I know about what they looked like and what they said. But can we
please
do that inside?”
Glacier nodded thoughtfully and Blaze bolted for the door.
The IceWing queen was good at putting together clues and figuring things out. She would find those dragonets. And she really would start by talking to them — just to see which way they were inclined.
But of course, if it was the wrong way … well, a few dead dragonets here and there would hardly be noticed in a war like this.
* * *
A serpentine figure paced in the darkness, hissing softly.
Below her mountain ledge, in a hidden valley, hints of firelight flickered in windows, most of them covered with black curtains.
Blister narrowed her eyes at the scavenger den. Why did Morrowseer think she would care about a rat’s nest full of crawling, squeaking, pale, two-legged creatures? She wasn’t hungry. She didn’t even feel like burning down their pathetic little huts. She was too angry.
A whisper of wings on the wind made her twist around, tail poised to attack.
But it wasn’t an enemy, and it wasn’t Morrowseer. It was that spineless leader of the Talons of Peace, the SeaWing. And he had someone with him. She squinted as they landed.
“Forgive my lateness, Queen Blister,” Nautilus said with a bow.
“Where is Morrowseer?” she demanded.
“I — I don’t know,” he stammered. “I thought he would be here by now. I haven’t seen him since he took the alternate dragonets from the Talons of Peace camp. But I knew he was supposed to be here to meet you tonight, and I had to speak with him.” He squared his shoulders, obviously trying to look braver than he felt.
“Well, he’s
not
here,” Blister spat. “Who is that?”
Nautilus drew the dragonet forward, keeping one wing around him. It was another SeaWing, stunted and green and shivering.
“My son,” Nautilus said quietly, touching the dragonet’s head. “Squid. Morrowseer left him to die in the mountains, but, by a miracle, one of our spies found him first.” His eyes were cold and glittering in the light of the two moons that were full overhead.
“I hate NightWings,” Squid mumbled.
“I rather hate them, too,” Blister agreed. She’d always been irritated by this arrangement with Morrowseer — these meetings he called, at his choice of time and place, with no way for her to contact him in between. An alliance with the NightWings and control of the prophecy dragonets
should make all this annoyance worthwhile … but so far she wasn’t getting any of what she’d been promised.
Worse yet, it almost seemed as if she was losing allies. Her small band of SandWings, hidden away safely in the Bay of a Thousand Scales, were loyal, of course. She controlled them with careful precision, knowing every move they made and every thought they had. She tricked them all into spying on one another by making each one think he or she was in an exclusive elite who reported secretly to her. And any hint of insubordination or weakness was instantly punished with death.
But the alliance she’d formed years ago with the SeaWings had slipped through her claws like ice melting. After the destruction of the Summer Palace, Queen Coral had fled with her tribe to their secret underwater home, and no one had seen her or any other SeaWings since. Blister had gone to the wrecked Summer Palace almost every day since the attack, but there were no messages, no dragons waiting to tell her what was happening, no apologetic scrolls from the SeaWing queen.
And if Morrowseer didn’t show up, then what would she do? She had no idea where the NightWing island was. No way to send him a message. In effect, no NightWing allies to speak of.
Maybe she did feel like setting a scavenger den on fire after all.
Nautilus sat with his wings wrapped around Squid, brooding. His glow-in-the-dark scales flashed dimly, as if he were telling his son something private, over and over again.
“If Morrowseer doesn’t show up,” Blister said, “I have a strong suspicion I know whose fault it is.”
The SeaWings both looked up, surprised.
“The dragonets,” she hissed. “Not this weakling. The originals. They’ve been nothing but trouble since they escaped their captors.”
Nautilus winced. “We called them ‘guardians,’” he said. “But you’re right. Everywhere the dragonets go, they seem to leave chaos behind.”
“Well, they’ve caused trouble for the wrong dragon,” Blister snarled. She glowered down at the slumbering scavenger den, her claws twitching with dreams of revenge. “Wherever they are, I will hunt them down. I will find them and then, prophecy or no prophecy … I’m going to kill them all.”
* * *
The sun was hot and blistering, beating down on the sand around the stronghold as the squadron of SandWings landed in the courtyard. The smell of the decapitated heads on the walls was stronger than usual. Burn inhaled deeply. She enjoyed the decaying scent, but mostly she enjoyed the unnerved looks on her soldiers’ faces every time she did that.
A dragon stepped out of the great hall, darting across the hot stones toward her. The black diamond patterns on his wings always reminded Burn of Blister, so it was difficult not to glare at her brother every time she saw him. But he was used to that.
“I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow,” Smolder said. His forked tongue flicked in and out.
She narrowed her eyes at him and waited.
After a moment, he remembered and added, “Your Majesty. I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow,
Your Majesty
.”
She didn’t appreciate the hint of sarcasm in his voice, but she wouldn’t point it out in front of her soldiers. She’d discuss it with him later, somewhere private, where she could dig her claws into his scales and get a truly sincere apology.
“How is our guest?” Burn asked, dismissing the soldiers with a flick of her tail.
“Still extraordinarily not pleased to be here,” he said. “You may want to move her to a … more empty chamber. She’s made a bit of a mess of what she could reach of your collection.”
Burn hissed. “Ungrateful cow.”
“Any word on the dragonets?” he asked, following her into the great hall.
“They’ve vanished again,” she said. “Although there’s a rumor going around the Sky Kingdom that they’re responsible for torching the northernmost outpost and killing all those SkyWing soldiers — as some kind of revenge for what Queen Scarlet did to them.”
Smolder folded his wings back and looked up at her. “Do you think that’s likely?”
“I don’t know anything about them,” she said. “In the arena, they didn’t seem fierce enough to kill anything. But
then they attacked Scarlet, so they’re clearly more dangerous than they look.” She stopped at the long table loaded with food that ran down the center of the hall. “I do know I don’t like them,” she muttered. “And I wish I’d gotten my claws on
all
of their eggs before they hatched.” She snatched up a dead hawk and ripped off its head with one bite, imagining doing the same to a certain SeaWing, or that insidious RainWing.
“It’s not going well with Ruby?” Smolder asked.
“The supposed new queen of the SkyWings is a bore and a nuisance,” Burn snarled. “She wants to ‘restore order in the Sky Kingdom’ and ‘establish the stability of her own throne’ before engaging in any more battles at my side. She’s even more difficult than her annoying mother, and she follows orders very poorly, if at all. We haven’t had a satisfying battle in weeks. I’m considering getting rid of her.”
“Sounds frustrating.” Smolder slid a platter of dates toward himself and popped two in his mouth.
“It is. I really need to kill something. It’s been too long since I last ripped out a dragon’s throat.”
Her brother sidled a few steps away, perhaps thinking he was being surreptitious, but failing. “Well,” he said. “There’s always your prisoner.”
“No, no,” Burn corrected him. “Queen Scarlet is our
guest
. For now. I may change my mind once I decide how useful she can be.” She glanced out at the blazing sun reflecting off the courtyard stones. “No, I have another victim in mind. Five of them, in fact.”
“Of course,” he said, ducking his head. “You just have to find them first.”
“Oh, I will,” she said. “Everyone will finally shut up about the wonderful ‘dragonets of destiny’ when I have their heads mounted on spikes on my walls.” She bared her teeth at her brother, smoke rising from her nostrils. “Mark my words. Soon we’ll put an end to this prophecy nonsense once and for all.”
Sunny thrashed furiously against the huge wings that wrapped around her.
“Quick, while they’re all distracted,” she heard a voice hiss. A shower of raindrops pattered down on Sunny’s head as the dragon holding her ducked through the leaves. It was hard to see much more than black scales, but Sunny realized she was being dragged into the forest, away from the tunnels and the crowd of dragons.
But I have to make sure Starflight is all right!
She clawed at the arm that pinned her wings down, but the NightWing only grunted and held her tighter.
Wet leaves squelched and slithered under their talons. From the sounds around her, Sunny guessed there were three NightWings, including her attacker, sneaking away from the scene while everyone was focused on Starflight and Clay.
That’s … ominous.
Maybe she should try to find out what they were up to. She stopped struggling and listened.
The dragons were moving fast and quietly, even without flying; in just a few heartbeats, Sunny couldn’t hear what Glory and Tsunami were shouting anymore. Her abductors also moved purposefully, as if they knew the forest well.
A hunting party,
Sunny thought with a shiver.
These are probably some of the dragons who came through the tunnel to kidnap RainWings.
What do they want with me?
“Here,” one of the dragons said after a while, and they all stopped. Even with Sunny’s excellent hearing, the dragons
roaring behind them sounded like distant thunder muttering on the horizon. Rain poured down harder and harder, and the ever-present insect noises of the rainforest had gone into hiding.
Sunny was dumped onto the ground, mud squishing between her claws and splattering her tail. She sprang up and hissed at the dragon who’d been carrying her. He barely glanced down at her before turning to the other two.
“Now what?” he demanded. “The whole plan is ruined. I’m not staying here to kowtow to a RainWing dragonet.”
“Me, neither,” said one of the others, a female who was little more than a dragonet herself. Sunny guessed she was about nine years old. She was bedraggled, wet, bony, and hunched over, and yet when she snorted a burst of flame, Sunny could see her eyes gleaming with stubborn ferocity.
“Where are we supposed to go?” hissed the last dragon, another male, much less brawny than the one who’d been carrying Sunny. He had a few missing teeth and his tail was bent at the end, as if it had once been broken and then fixed incorrectly. “We were promised the rainforest.
This
is where I want to live, but not as second-class dragons. Imagine, RainWings telling us what to do!”
“Well, we’ve got
her
, like you suggested,” the big male said to the dragonet, flipping one wing toward Sunny. “So what do we do with her?”
The NightWing dragonet lashed her tail and narrowed her eyes at Sunny. “We use her as a bargaining chip. We can
hold her hostage until they take our whole tribe to the RainWing village and make one of us queen.”
“Like who?” said the other male. He spat a small flame at the branch that was dripping onto his head. “Greatness is weak and won’t fight for it. Queen Battlewinner had no brothers or sisters and no other daughters. There’s no one else to claim the throne.”
“I’ll take it,” said the dragonet. “If that RainWing can be queen, why not me? I’m bigger than her.”
“True,” growled the big one behind Sunny.
“They won’t give you anything in exchange for me,” Sunny spoke up. “I’m nobody. Just a weird-looking SandWing with a useless tail.” She snapped her mouth shut. She’d been saying things like that her whole life, but she’d never felt awful about it until today. If there was no prophecy — then that meant she really
was
just weird looking and useless.
No, that’s not how it works. I’m weird looking
because
I have a destiny. There’s a reason I’m like this. There has to be.
The NightWings regarded her with skeptical expressions.
“That would be annoying,” said the big one. “I’d be pretty angry if I carried this little thing through the forest and got my scales scratched up for no reason. Fierceteeth, I thought you said she’d be worth something.”
Fierceteeth!
Sunny remembered what Starflight had told them about the dragonets he’d met while he was trapped in the NightWing kingdom. Wasn’t Fierceteeth his half sister?
“She will be if she’s who I think she is,” said Fierceteeth. She jabbed Sunny painfully in the ribs. “Aren’t you Sunny? Starflight yapped on and on about a Sunny whenever he was asleep.”
Sunny blinked at her, too startled to answer.
“Yeah, this is her,” Fierceteeth said. “My brother’s totally in love with her. He’ll agree to anything to get her back.”
That might actually be true
, Sunny thought with alarm.
Does he really talk about me in his sleep?
Only a few hours had passed since she’d stood in the rainforest clearing, in the middle of dragons preparing to invade the NightWing island, and Starflight had told her he loved her — that he’d always loved her.
But it was Starflight … her sweet, smart, anxious friend … and she’d never thought of him like that. It was still hard for her to believe that he meant it. None of the other dragonets took her seriously. She’d always assumed he was the same way — that he thought she was too little and cheerful to be worth listening to.
Focus. Don’t let them use you to hurt your friends.
“Didn’t you see Starflight’s injuries?” she said. “He’s too wounded to have any say in what happens next. And Glory couldn’t care less about me. Face it, you can’t use me. You should go back and rejoin the other NightWings.”
“Nice try,” Fierceteeth said.
“What if she’s right?” said the NightWing with the missing teeth. “What if they don’t want her? What if we expose ourselves and then they just kill us?”
“Strongwings won’t let them do that,” Fierceteeth said, stepping closer to the burly dragon.
They’re a couple,
Sunny realized.
A really strange couple.
Strongwings was nearly twice the size of Fierceteeth, but he kept turning toward her and ducking his head like he was waiting for her to order him around.
“I know how we could find out,” said the other male. He drew something flat and shiny and oval-shaped from under his wing. In the moonlight, it shone like polished black glass and fit neatly between his front talons. The rain seemed to swerve to avoiding falling on it.
“The Obsidian Mirror,” said Strongwings with a hiss of admiration. “Nice work, Preyhunter. I wondered if someone would think to save it.” He leaned in and touched the smooth surface with one claw. “No surprise that it wasn’t Greatness. She was more worried about saving her own scales.”
“She never used it anyway,” snorted Preyhunter. “Even when we needed to know what the RainWings were up to. She said she didn’t trust anything that came from an animus. I don’t think the queen knew she wasn’t checking it.”
“It doesn’t work as well as it used to,” Strongwings said. “Everyone thinks Stonemover did something to it before he disappeared.”
“What is it?” Fierceteeth asked.
“A really old animus-touched piece of treasure,” Strongwings explained. “This was one of the most important things we had to save from the treasure room when the volcano erupted and buried that part of the fortress, back when
I was a small dragonet. We use it for —” He stopped and glanced at Sunny. “Hmm.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll kill her before she can tell anyone anything important,” said Preyhunter.
Go ahead and try,
Sunny thought fiercely.
No one else has managed it yet.