“I took care of him,” Fatespeaker said.
Sunny felt a flash of something odd. Like she wanted Fatespeaker to shush and go away. Jealousy? But wouldn’t that mean … that I like Starflight the way he likes me?
Did she? It would be nice if she could love him back. It would make him happy — and she did care about him. Plus he was a real hero — he’d just saved the entire NightWing tribe from extinction.
We don’t have time for mushy romance right now anyway, she told herself sternly. Whatever’s going to happen with me and Starflight, whatever we are — we’ll figure it out after we stop the war.
She glanced around the room and noticed that Webs was still there, asleep in a corner, although the venomous scratch on his tail looked almost completely healed. There were a few RainWings as well, four with injuries that might have happened during the attack on the NightWing island, and two others whose breaths rattled in their skinny chests as they slept. Sunny guessed they had been prisoners and were still recovering from their treatment at the talons of the NightWings. She could see spots on their snouts and ankles where iron bands had rubbed the scales raw.
The only other dragon occupying a bed was the SkyWing, Flame. He’d grown up with Fatespeaker among the Talons of Peace, as another possible alternate for the dragonets. She could tell that the healers had applied the cactus-milk antidote to the wound that slashed across his face, but it would still leave a nasty scar. She wondered if his face had looked that furious before he was injured; she suspected yes. He was awake, glaring around the treehouse with trails of smoke coming out of his nose and ears.
“So where were you?” Clay asked, bumping Sunny’s wing with his own. “Tsunami thought maybe you’d been kidnapped, isn’t that crazy?”
“Well, I kind of was kidnapped,” Sunny admitted. Starflight and Fatespeaker both gasped. “But I got away. Except then I got caught again, and then I was a prisoner in Burn’s stronghold for a while.”
“What?” Starflight tried to sit up and nearly fell off his bed. Clay’s eyes were wide and shocked.
“I’m here now, though, aren’t I?” Sunny said. “It all turned out fine. I’ve taken care of myself. Mostly,” she added honestly. “It was a little crazy. But I should tell you all at the same time. Where are Tsunami and Glory?”
*
Tsunami was drilling RainWings in evasive maneuvers, although apparently what that actually meant was a lot of yelling things like “Pay attention!” and “Leave that toucan alone!” and “Why are you pink? Stop being pink!” and “THREE MOONS, ARE YOU EATING AGAIN?”
Sunny half hoped that meant she’d be all yelled out, but of course it didn’t. Tsunami had plenty of yelling energy left for Sunny.
“Where have you BEEN?” she roared. “Do you know how WORRIED we’ve been? How could you DO that to us? I was so sure the NightWings did something to you that I nearly threw them all back to the volcano! We’ve had search parties out every day, but not ONE SIGN of you ANYWHERE! Not even Deathbringer, well, he said he smelled you over to the west, but who trusts him, NOT ME IS WHO. I haven’t slept in days, Sunny! DAYS!”
She grabbed Sunny and wrapped her wings around her in a fierce hug. Sunny felt her own anger melting and realized she’d been furious with Tsunami ever since overhearing the conversation in the Obsidian Mirror. She may not take me seriously, Sunny thought, but she really does love me.
“I’m sorry,” Sunny said, muffled, into Tsunami’s shoulder. “But I swear I was doing important things. I’ll tell you all about it. Where’s Glory?”
“Checking on the NightWing camp,” Tsunami said, relaxing her grip on Sunny but keeping one wing around her. “She is kind of awesome with them. All scary and tough and royal, like a real queen. Do not tell her I said that.”
Sunny grinned up at her. “Are they behaving?”
“For the most part,” Tsunami said. “They were all absolutely starving, so just giving them enough food is making them a whole lot happier and easier to deal with. Glory’s letting them hunt and eat as much as they want, except for the sloths. Those are off-limits, apparently. I guess being a giant sucker for cute furry things is a RainWing genetic defect.”
“I wouldn’t eat them either,” Sunny pointed out.
“Well, but that makes sense,” Tsunami said. “You practically are a cute furry thing.”
Sunny debated getting riled up about this, but Tsunami was already turning to one of the RainWings — all of whom were staring nosily at Sunny — and ordering him to fetch Glory.
“Tell her to meet us in the healers’ hut,” she said. “And NO DAWDLING. If you stop to admire so much as one beetle I will seriously bite you.”