Sunny’s heart plunged.
“Uh-oh,” Thorn muttered. They skidded up to the courtyard and found several SandWing soldiers milling about there, preparing their weapons as if they were getting ready for battle.
The soldiers all turned and stared at them.
“Go!” Thorn shouted, flaring her wings. Startled, Sunny hurtled into the sky. One of the soldiers roared and leaped after her; she felt the wind of his talons slashing just short of her tail. She twisted away and looked back in time to see her mother blast the soldier in the face with a burst of flames. He shrieked and plummeted to the ground.
The other soldiers were slower to react, and faster to catch on fire when Thorn blasted the rest of them as well.
She soared up out of the shrieking and mayhem and smoke and circled Sunny. “What are you waiting for?” she called. Thorn banked around and headed for the main courtyard. Sunny followed close behind her.
“I hope they’ll be all right,” Sunny said, glancing back at the flames.
“I hope we’ll be all right,” Thorn said. “Oh no! Moonlickers! Six-Claws, you idiot!” She swerved suddenly sideways and Sunny saw what she was aiming for: a cluster of battling SandWings on the stones below, with Six-Claws and Qibli in the center of it.
She heard Six-Claws roar, “Where is Thorn?” And then Thorn snatched a loose brick from the nearest wall and lobbed it past his head, clocking the dragon behind him in the snout.
“I’m right here, snails-for-brains!” she bellowed. “Let’s go!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Six-Claws and Qibli and twenty other dragons leaped aloft, kicking off their opponents and swinging their deadly tails wildly behind them.
“Where are the others?” Thorn called to Six-Claws as they all veered south, flying as fast as they could.
“Fled already,” Six-Claws said tersely. “Cowards.”
“Following orders,” Thorn reminded him. “As you should have done.”
“We weren’t leaving without you,” he growled.
“Yeah,” Qibli piped up. “I didn’t trust that Smolder dragon. I knew there’d be trouble! Didn’t I say so? Can’t trust a royal, that’s what I always say.”
“Because you’ve met so many royal dragons in your life, have you?” Six-Claws demanded.
Thorn shook her head, but didn’t argue, saving their breath for flying.
Sunny risked a glance back, but nobody was chasing them yet. She guessed the stronghold was disorganized chaos right now, with no one sure whether they were still in a surrendered stalemate, whether Peril was still lurking around to kill them all, whether it was really Burn on her way, or whether Smolder was still in charge.
She could see the wing of dragons in the distance, approaching the stronghold — too close, only minutes away from finding out what had happened — and she was pretty sure the hulking shape in the lead was truly Burn.
Her eyes scanned the horizon. Had Peril made it out safely? Or would Peril always be safe, because no one could get near her with talons like hers?
She spotted two small shapes winging away to the north, glinting orange and gold in the sunlight. Peril and Queen Scarlet, now free. Sunny shuddered. If Queen Scarlet really did know where the dragonets were, how long did they have before she came for them? What kind of revenge had she planned, all those nights in the horrible tower?
A feeling of dread climbed into her chest and squeezed; for a moment she couldn’t breathe.
Clay — Tsunami — Glory — and poor wounded Starflight.
“Mother!” she called, beating her wings to catch up to Thorn.
Thorn grinned toothily at her. “I’ve been called lots of things in my life, but that’s the strangest and the best at the same time.”
Sunny brushed her mother’s wingtip with her own. “I have to return to my friends,” she said. “I need to warn them — I’m afraid they’re in danger, now that Queen Scarlet is free.”
“Probably,” Thorn agreed. She hesitated. “Couldn’t I send a messenger instead? I wanted to bring you back to the Scorpion Den — I still haven’t heard about your life and what you’ve been doing all these years.”
“I know,” Sunny said. She wished she could stay with her mother, with those warm strong wings close by to keep her safe. For the first time, she could imagine life without the prophecy. She could be a normal dragon, living in the Scorpion Den with her mother instead of worrying about saving the whole world. But prophecy or not, her friends were her real life, her whole life. She couldn’t leave them in danger. “But this is really important. I’ll come back to you soon. Or — you could come with me?”
Thorn sighed and shook her head. “There might be retaliation from the stronghold. I have to fortify the Den, prepare my dragons, make sure everyone’s safe.”
That was true. Thorn had risked a lot, bringing her Outclaws into this dangerous rescue mission. Sunny touched her wingtip again. “Thank you for coming to get me.”