“She took better care of me than my mother did,” Peril flared. “And from what I saw of her, Kestrel isn’t the nicest dragon in the world either, right?” She hesitated again, then said tentatively, “Have you seen Kestrel? Do you know where she is? I wonder … I’ve been wondering if I should have gone with her when she asked me to.”
Sunny’s heart sank. She didn’t want to deliver this news. But I can’t lie to her literally twenty seconds after I just accused Scarlet of so much lying. I don’t know how she’ll react. But I have to tell her the truth.
“Peril,” she said softly. “I’m really sorry, but … Kestrel’s dead.”
Peril stared at her for a long moment, her odd eyes glowing blue and black, and then slowly, like a mountain crumbling, she collapsed to the stones and covered her face with her talons. “No, no, no,” she said. “I sent her away. I said we’d find each other again.”
“I know,” Sunny said, wishing she could wrap her wings around Peril the way Clay had. But Clay was the only dragon she knew who could touch Peril without dying. “I know. Oh, Peril, I’m so sorry. Listen,” she said desperately. Her anxiety about the battle outside was making every scale on her wings feel like jumping off and flying away. “Listen, I’m like you. I thought my mother didn’t want me either. But I just found out that’s not true, just like you — my mother wanted me the way Kestrel wanted you. Except I’m so afraid she’s going to die before I get to know her, and that’s why I need your help, please, Peril. She’s attacking the palace right now trying to rescue me, and you could save her. I’m sorry, I know it’s awful to throw all that at you at once, but I really need you.”
Peril pressed her talons into the stone and sat up. She took a deep breath, exhaling smoke in a cloud around her wings. Finally she looked down at Sunny, with an expression as though she was trying to find any small part of herself in Sunny’s eyes.
“Tell me more,” she said. Her legs trembled as if they might not keep holding her up, but she listened intently as Sunny explained about Thorn and the Outclaws.
“All right,” she said at last, when Sunny paused for breath. “I’ll stop the battle. But then I’m setting Scarlet free, so don’t try to get in my way.”
“But —”
“That’s the deal,” Peril said stubbornly. “I’ve already lost one mother. Scarlet is what’s left, so she’s the best I can do.”
Sunny curled her tail around her talons. She was very worried about this plan, but there wasn’t time to keep arguing. And what could she say? Having no mother would be better than having that mother? What did she know about it, really?
“Thank you,” she said instead. “I trust you,” she added. She wasn’t sure she really did, but she wanted to. “I know you can do it without hurting anyone.”
“Um,” Camel said unhappily from above them. “I really think I shouldn’t let this happen.”
“You can’t stop her,” Sunny said to him as Peril shot into the sky. “And your job is to watch me; that’s all Smolder said. I’m not going anywhere, see? Well, except back up to the pavilion to watch. Come on.” She followed Peril up and watched the shimmering copper scales flash toward the battle outside the walls.
From the high pavilion, Sunny could see two more corpses lying below the battle, but after a heart-stopping moment, she realized that neither one was Thorn or Six-Claws. She stared at the battle intently until she finally spotted her mother, grappling claw to claw with a soldier.
Smolder was there, too, not far from Qibli, shouting orders and darting around the formations. He was one of the first to spot Peril as she approached. Sunny could tell because he froze very suddenly, staring in the direction of the SkyWing.
The soldiers around him turned to see what he was looking at. Three of them took one look at Peril, shrieked, and fled into the desert, their shadows flickering rapidly across the dunes until they vanished in the direction of the Scorpion Den. Sunny guessed they had been to Burn’s palace and seen what Peril could do.
She’d never seen what Peril could do, not to another dragon. She’d been trapped in her cage while all her friends were in the arena at the Sky Palace, so she’d missed all the fighting. But Clay had told her about it — the melting scales, the black talonprints burning into her victims, the scorched smell — and it sounded terrifying. She hoped she wasn’t about to see it now.
Gradually the Outclaws stopped fighting, too, and fell back, until there was a wide circle of dragons around the clear space of sky where Peril hovered.
Sunny’s sharp ears caught some of what Peril was saying to them, but not all of it. Something about taking over the fortress, something else about surrendering.
She saw Smolder start forward as if he were going to argue with Peril. Oh, please don’t, she thought anxiously. It was strange to admit it, but she actually liked him. She definitely didn’t want him to die or get his scales melted.