“Not yet, but my partner and I have three eggs hatching next month,” he said proudly.
“So you can be a different kind of parent than yours were,” Sunny said. “The kind that takes care of his dragonets. The kind who would attack a stronghold full of soldiers to protect them,” she added hopefully. She didn’t know much about parents in general, but she knew what she would do if she had dragonets and any of them were in danger.
“Hmm,” said Camel, looking even more anxious. He swished his tail and gazed down at the battle — the blood on the sand, the sprawled bodies, the flashing claws.
Maybe this isn’t the right approach for this dragon, Sunny thought.
“All I’m saying,” she continued, “is that I can’t stand here and watch my mother die trying to save me. Please, please, let me go help her.” She leaned toward the wide-open blue sky, imagining how she would dive in and drag all the soldiers away from Thorn.
“Oh,” Camel said uncomfortably. “Oh, no, no. I can’t do that. If Burn finds out, she might take my eggs away. That wouldn’t be good parenting, would it?”
Sunny sighed. “I guess not,” she admitted fairly. “But maybe I can stop the fighting, so nobody else has to die.”
Camel hesitated again, looking down at the battle, and Sunny wondered if his partner was one of the ones out there fighting. “How?” he asked. “I mean — you’re not —” He glanced at her harmless tail and away again quickly.
Not exactly scary. Not exactly big. Not even a little bit useful.
He was kind of right. What did she think she could really do if she joined in?
Is there another way to stop them? A Sunny way?
She stared down at the battling dragons, racking her brain.
And then something moved under the sand.
Sunny leaned forward, staring intently. Not far from one of the fallen soldiers, a patch of sand rippled as though something were buried underneath it.
Something, or someone.
Sunny had the horrible feeling for a moment that the ghost of Queen Oasis herself was about to come bursting out of the sand to attack the dragons.
But the head that popped out was not a SandWing’s. It was followed by shoulders and wings that glowed coppery orange in the bright sunlight. The dragon wriggled the rest of the way free and began swarming across the sand toward the stronghold walls.
Sunny gasped.
She recognized those scales — like hers, they were a color unique to only one dragon in Pyrrhia, as far as anyone knew.
It was Peril. It had to be. Peril, the SkyWing who had helped them escape from Queen Scarlet’s palace.
Well, first she had pretended to help them escape, and then she’d betrayed them, and then she’d nearly killed Clay, but in the end she’d done the right thing, although sometimes it was hard to remember that. But without her, the dragonets and Kestrel might have been trapped in the Sky Palace until Scarlet figured out a “thrilling” death for each of them.
Sunny’s heart sank, thinking of Kestrel and how she’d died under Blister’s claws in the Kingdom of the Sea. How would Peril react to the news of her mother’s death?
But more important, what was she doing here? And why was she clearly trying to sneak into the palace?
Peril reached the walls and glanced back at the battle, but the fighting was too fierce for anyone to notice her. She spread her wings and launched herself over the wall, landed neatly in the courtyard, and darted into the palace.
Sunny inhaled sharply as an awful thought struck her.
Surely not.
“Did you see that orange dragon?” she asked Camel. “I have to follow her. Come with me, so it’s not like I’m escaping from you.”
“Um,” Camel said. “But wait, shouldn’t I —”
Sunny didn’t hear the end of that sentence; she was already in the air and winging toward the courtyard that held the weirdling tower. She could see the dark red crown of it looming over the rooftops.
Her talons came down with a thump in the sandpit and she glanced around at the tower door, but it was still closed, and, she hoped, locked. Not that a lock on a wooden door would be much use at stopping Peril and her fiery talons. The six SandWing soldiers arranged outside wouldn’t be able to stop her either. They looked curiously at Sunny, but held their positions.
Camel flapped down behind her and landed on the wall, as far from the tower as he could get without losing sight of Sunny.
She waited a moment, trying to calm down her heartbeat. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Peril isn’t here to rescue Scarlet. I mean, why would she?
But then she heard talons clattering over stone, and Peril came running into the courtyard.
The SkyWing skidded to a stop when she saw Sunny. Her flame-blue eyes went wide through the wisps of smoke that rose from her scales.
“Hi, Peril,” Sunny said, hoping she sounded more friendly than terrified.