“Yibble!” Holler demanded.
“All right,” Sunny said, scooping her up. Holler shrieked, with a little more terror than Sunny thought was necessary, considering she’d asked for this. As Sunny set her on her shoulder, Holler grabbed Sunny’s neck and balanced herself across her scales, making startled yelping noises.
“Hold on tight,” Sunny said, swinging her head around to check that Holler was firmly in place. She spread her wings and leaped into the sky.
It was a clear, starry night; all the clouds from yesterday’s storm had blown away, and two of the moons were half full in the sky overhead. The rustling leaves below them looked like waves rippling on the sea.
Sunny soared up in a long arc, swooped down across the forest, and veered back around again. The scavenger was quiet on her back, which was much preferable to shrieking.
I hope Fluffy understood me, Sunny thought. I hope he hasn’t gone to get a pack of other scavengers with pointy things. Imagine if he really does come back with the missing treasure! I could be moments away from holding the Eye of Onyx.
The Eye of Onyx, and power over the whole Kingdom of Sand.
Sunny shivered from horns to tail and felt the scavenger clutch her neck tighter.
Whoever holds the Eye could be queen. Even I could be queen. That would be one way to end the war — none of the three sisters wins, and I take the throne. Sunny, queen of the SandWings.
Of course, that would leave three dragons with a single unified mission: kill me.
It was scary, but it gave her an eerie thrill to think about, too. What if that was her real destiny — to rule the SandWings?
She glanced down at the forest and saw movement near the torch she had lit. Fluffy was back! She tucked in her wings and dove toward the ruins, landing with a thump right in front of him.
Fluffy jumped back with a yell. His eyes widened when he saw Holler on Sunny’s shoulder, and he launched into another shouting fit, practically hopping up and down. Holler slid off Sunny’s back and joined in.
Sunny wasn’t interested in their little monkey squabble, though. She was interested in the bulging canvas sack that Fluffy was clutching.
Reaching over Holler’s head, she deftly lifted the sack out of his paws. She turned toward the firelight and, fidgeting with excitement, emptied the contents of the sack onto the ground.
Gold coins and jewels tumbled out and bounced through the ashes, clinking and clattering into a small pile. Most of the jewels were tiny — none as big as the dreamvisitor — and barely worth stealing. The biggest object was a statue of a dragon carved from blue stone, with emeralds for eyes. The Lazulite Dragon, Sunny guessed, remembering the scrolls about the missing treasure.
She sifted through the pile, her heart sinking. She knew the answer at first glance, but she dug through it all, examining every coin, just to be sure she was right.
She was.
The Eye of Onyx was not there.
“This isn’t all of it!” Sunny cried, whipping around to face the scavengers. “Where’s the Eye? Why isn’t it here?”
They stopped chattering immediately and jumped away from her, holding their paws up in the air. Fluffy pointed at the sack and yibble-yibbled frantically.
“You must have it! Where else could it be?” Sunny started pacing back and forth. She could feel smoke rising from her snout, and she knew she was probably scaring the scavengers, but they didn’t run away. “I need the Eye of Onyx. It’s my one chance to end the war!” She stopped and faced them again. “How am I supposed to end the war without it?”
“Yibble?” Holler said tentatively. “Yibble … yibble?”
“Well said,” Sunny said to her. “That’s very helpful.” She sat down and frowned crossly at the pathetic pile of treasure.
“Ribble yibble,” Fluffy said to Holler.
“Urble YOBBLE,” she snapped back.
“Someone else must have it,” Sunny said, thinking aloud. “If you had it, you’d have brought it to me, because you were worried about Holler. You wouldn’t keep the one thing I need, when I’m sure scavengers prefer shiny little things like all of this. So you don’t have the Eye of Onyx, which means it’s … somewhere else in Pyrrhia.”
She sighed, and then stopped herself mid sigh so she wouldn’t sound like Stonemover.
Her first theory was probably right, and some other dragon had stolen most of the treasure. Perhaps they had the Eye of Onyx and didn’t realize what it was or what it could do. But that didn’t help Sunny, who had no way to track down the real thief.