It was still raining when Sunny woke up the next morning. She could hear the pitter-patter at the far end of the passageway, and the breeze that gusted toward them smelled damp and fresh. But it came along with dim morning light, and the wind wasn’t as cold or fierce as it had been the night before. She felt sure that the worst of the storm had passed.
She stood up and stretched, reaching her wings as wide and high as they would go and pressing her talons out in front of her.
Everything felt less awful again, somehow.
Her father was still asleep. Sunny hesitated, half tempted to leave without saying good-bye, but she couldn’t do that to him.
“Stonemover?” She picked up the burnt stick she’d used for a torch and nudged a part of his shoulder that didn’t look entirely made of stone yet.
“Mmmph?” he answered. His eyes slowly peeled open.
“I have to go,” she said.
“Already?” He sighed, this time long and smoky so she had to step back to breathe. “Can’t you stay? It’s really … quiet here.”
Really lonely, you mean, she thought.
“I’m sorry,” she said, then added with a burst of excitement, “I think I’ve figured out how to end the war. I mean, I think I found a clue, sort of. At least I have an idea.”
Stonemover’s eyes were dark and puzzled. “But …” he said. “But why? The prophecy isn’t real, remember?”
“That doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’m not doing it because a prophecy told me to. If I can stop the war, I think I should. It would be nice if someone else would take care of it, but maybe that’s what everyone else is hoping, and maybe someone just has to do it.”
“Hmm,” said Stonemover. “Somehow I suspect it won’t be that easy.”
“Maybe it will be,” Sunny said brightly. “I’ll find the Eye of Onyx and give it to one of the queens, and that’s all it’ll take.”
“Ah,” said Stonemover. “That’ll never work.”
“I thought you might say that,” Sunny said. “Don’t worry, I’ll come back and tell you all about it when it totally does work.” She smiled at him, and she thought she saw the slightest movement of a maybe-smile twitching around the corners of his mouth.
“I wish —” he said, then stopped.
I don’t even know where to begin with wishing, Sunny thought. I wish the Talons hadn’t taken me? No, because then I wouldn’t have grown up with my friends. I wish I’d been born looking like a real SandWing? No, because then I wouldn’t be me, and I wouldn’t want to be anyone else.
Maybe I wish the prophecy were real.
I wish I knew for sure that this would work.
Sunny shook out her wings. “Just wish me luck,” she said. “I’ll see you soon.”
She could sense Stonemover watching her gloomily as she headed up the passage, toward the light and the quiet rain. She wondered what her mother would think of him now, how much he had changed since they knew each other.
None of my friends got to know both of their parents. I’m lucky they’re both still alive — and I’m lucky they’re not that bad.
But now that I’ve met both of them, I know which one I want to be like.
I’m not going to sit in a cave and mope because things aren’t the way I want them to be. I’m going to go make them happen, the way Thorn started the Outclaws and searched for me. If she’d given up, how would we ever have found each other? She’d have been just another dragon in the Scorpion Den, and maybe our paths would never have crossed.
The passage ended in a shallow cave overlooking the mountain range below. The sun was rising in the east, which was also the direction of the rainforest. But the forest with the scavenger was to the west.
Do I have time? What if Scarlet gets to the rainforest before I do?
Sunny hesitated with her claws gripping the ledge and her wings outspread. Maybe Scarlet had been bluffing about knowing where the dragonets were. How would she guess they were in the rainforest, if no one else had found them there? Maybe she was only trying to scare Sunny.
Well, she did a good job of that.
Too bad I don’t have the Obsidian Mirror anymore. It’d be useful to know what Scarlet is doing. Maybe I should go warn my friends and then come back.
But what if the scavenger leaves the ruins? This could be my only chance to find the Eye of Onyx and stop the war.
It was a detour, but she had to risk it.
She leaned forward and plummeted down the mountainside, soaring west toward the scavenger ruins and, she hoped, the missing treasure.
*
The burnt village was easy to spot from the air: a dark gash, stark and black against the surrounding greenery. Sunny spiraled toward it, studying the trees with her sharp eyes and looking for any movement that might be a scavenger.
Nothing so far, but it was late afternoon and Sunny wasn’t even sure whether scavengers were normally nocturnal or preferred the day.
She landed lightly in a cloud of ash that smelled like a wood fire. The ruins were still and deserted, and Sunny wondered uneasily if she had been wrong. What if the scavenger wasn’t here? Or what if she’d been here but was now gone, and Sunny had missed her?