The Dragonet Prophecy: Chapters 21–30

The sun was just a golden sliver against the mountains, and the moons were only starting to climb the sky, so he didn't have much light.

It was made of a hard sinewy metal that gleamed silvery-pink in the last rays of the sun—the same stuff in the bands on his wings.

He wondered if he could make different notes. He tried sliding the wire farther away from him, then closer to his neck, and then he tried the other three wires attached to his legs. The sounds were different—higher, lower—but still with that eerie, melancholy quality to them.

"Absolutely. As soon as poss—" Clay started, and then Tsunami trod heavily on his tail. He squelched a yelp of pain and made a face at her.

Statues of Queen Scarlet in different regal poses were scattered about the floor, some carved from marble, some of gold, others of smooth black rock with rubies for eyes.

"Find the ten most sober guards," Scarlet instructed Vermilion. “Post them out here. These dragonets are done ruining my party."

"What are we talking about?" Clay asked.
"You, you great lummox," Tsunami said, poking him with one talon.

She glowered at all the dragons equally.

"Oh, that's my new toy," Queen Scarlet said airily. "Pretty, isn't she? I bet I'm the only queen with my very own RainWing."

His scales were dull and crusted, and his dark green eyes were bloodshot and rolling wildly in his emaciated skull.

His tongue, purple and swollen, lolled to the side.

Gill did his soundless roar again. There was something unearthly about watching dragons fight in silence.

"Snap his neck! Pull out his teeth! Oooo, gouge his eyes! Something gory! Death! Death! Death! Death!"

"Perhaps our 'dragonet of destiny' doesn't have the stomach for battle," Queen Scarlet called snidely. "Maybe war is too scary for her. Perhaps she'd like to go back into hiding instead?"

Burn growled low in her throat. "This is a frivolous palace," she muttered.

Vermilion flapped his wings, and a huge cage came rolling out of the tunnel. The queen's son flew to the top of it and bit down to sever the cord that held the door. The door fell open, and four scavengers burst onto the sand, waving claws and squeaking ferociously.

The scavenger landed, screaming, in one SkyWing's outstretched talons, and the dragon promptly ate him.

Guards threw chains over Tsunami, who submitted without fighting for once, perhaps too shocked and angry to muster the energy.

"You think Peril can't lose. Well, it so happens that we have a special guest here today—a dragon whose scales are impervious to fire. Isn't that...thrilling!"

"I'm sorry," she said plaintively. "I know you're mad. I made a mistake. I just—I thought you were trying to get away from me."

Her talons shoved ineffectually at him.

The stadium erupted in pandemonium. All the dragons tried to take to the sky at once, crashing into one another and clawing viciously to get away from Glory and the screaming queen.

Wind billowed under his wings, and despite his fear of Burn, he felt that same fierce joy grip him at the freedom of flying. After days of being terrified he might fall, it was exhilarating to know that now he couldn't—that he had the whole vast crystal-blue sky to move in.

This one was smaller than the others he'd seen, with a thatch of black fur on its head and smooth skin nearly as brown as Clay's scales.

From here he could also hear the clamor in the tunnels.

Clay flung himself in the way and felt the fire blast his scales. Hot pain flashed through him, and then faded a moment later. He shook himself as the red glow ebbed from his scales and looked up into the guard's shocked face.

They touched down on the muddy banks of the lake, in a thick copse of trees beside a small cave nearly hidden by the roaring wall of water.

"You are the epitome of hilarious," Glory said.

He drew her back, away from the wrathful look on Kestrel's face, just in case there was any fire-breathing about to happen.

Her orange eyes shifted balefully from one dragonet to the next and landed on Clay. "Listen, MudWing. For all your noble talk, you're not going to be any use to the others if you can't fight and kill to defend them. Just think about that."