“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” cried a female SandWing, hurrying out of a nearby alley. “I would never have let him bother you, sir. Please forgive us.” She grabbed the dragonet and clutched him to her. He drooped, no energy left to wriggle away.
“You must be new here,” said the six-clawed dragon, squinting at her. “He shouldn’t be starving like that. Dragonets up to eight years old get a free meal every morning after sunrise at the pool. Start sending him, and he’ll be the size of a real dragon soon.”
The SandWing shivered and ducked her head. “But, sir,” she whispered. “I heard that was a trick.”
He sighed impatiently. “Let me guess — we feed them and then grab them to turn them into Outclaws, am I right?” She flinched, and her wings folded closer around the dragonet. “Listen, we’re not out to abduct a bunch of scrawny youngsters who’d be more trouble than they’re worth. Thorn just wants to make sure no more dragonets die of hunger in the Scorpion Den. It’s not complicated.”
“Yes, sir,” the SandWing whispered.
“Look, send him tomorrow morning, or I’ll come after you myself,” he said.
She nodded and scuttled away, keeping the dragonet under her wing.
“Some dragons,” muttered Sunny’s guard.
“Is that true?” Sunny asked. “The … um, Outclaws feed all the dragonets in the Scorpion Den?”
He shifted his wings up and down and scowled. “We try to. Dragons don’t change easily, though, especially in a place like this. And especially when someone’s trying to help them. Brainless worms,” he muttered, turning to stalk away again.
Sunny wasn’t sure that she would trust a gift from this dragon either.
“What’s your name?” she asked as she caught up to walk beside him.
He looked down at her, his black tongue flicking in and out. “Six-Claws.”
“Oh,” Sunny said, glancing at his odd talons, and then, before she could stop herself, “Your parents were feeling pretty creative.”
He barked a laugh that made several dragons around them leap into the nearest hiding place in terror. Sunlight glinted off his light yellowish-brown scales as he held up one of his front legs and examined the six wickedly sharp claws there. “I guess so. Yours?”
“I’m Sunny,” she said. “I never met my parents.” She chanced a sideways look at his face, but there was no reaction there. He was old enough to be her father, and from the way he walked and talked, she guessed he’d been in the Scorpion Den for a while. Plus he had those six claws — maybe peculiar defects ran in the family. Maybe he hadn’t commented on her tail yet because he’d seen other dragons with the same flaw … dragons related to him.
Or maybe I’m totally desperate.
They stepped down a set of five stone stairs and their talons sank into sand. Sunny tore her gaze away from Six-Claws and saw that the shadows of tents and canopies had been replaced by the sweeping shade of large palm fronds.
There was an oasis in the middle of the Scorpion Den.
Well, that makes sense, Sunny realized. Why else would dragons build a city here?
She could see a rippling pool of greenish-blue water in the middle of the sand and the palms. She could also see multiple well-armed, dangerous-looking dragons patrolling around the outskirts of it.
“Are those all Outclaws?” she asked. “You guard the water in the Scorpion Den?”
“In the desert, she who controls the water, controls everything,” Six-Claws said.
“And here that ‘she’ is Thorn,” Sunny guessed.
Six-Claws nodded toward a large white tent set up beside the water. The walls billowed like swans’ wings, and venomous tail points stuck out under the edges here and there. Two particularly mean-looking SandWings guarded the entrance, where a flap had been rolled up to allow dragons to pass through.
As they approached, Sunny spotted a flash of black scales through the doorway and ducked behind Six-Claws.
He peered over his shoulder at her. “Yes?”
“I don’t want them to see me,” she whispered.
“The NightWings?” he asked. “The ones you were … not following?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
Sunny had a pretty strong feeling that it wouldn’t be wise to reveal her connection to the prophecy. Even if the Outclaws didn’t immediately sell her to Burn, someone else in the Scorpion Den was sure to pounce on that opportunity.
“They tried to kill me,” she said. That was basically true.
Six-Claws looked amused. “Here’s some free advice. When a dragon tries to kill you, fly the opposite way.”
“I’m keeping an eye on them,” she said, bristling. “I need to know what they’re planning.”
“That’s up to Thorn now,” he said. “Come along, and stay behind me.”