“That’s Avalanche,” Riptide said quietly to Tsunami, nodding at Flame’s mother. “She’s a spy, so she normally lives in the Sky Palace, and she left Flame here to keep him out of the war.” He hesitated. “She was away when Morrowseer came and took the dragonets. She was furious when she came back and found him gone. She nearly killed Nautilus.”
Nautilus shifted uneasily on his talons. “Some dragons don’t understand the things we have to do for peace,” he said, but not in a way that sounded like he meant it. “Do — do I want to know what happened to the others?” he asked.
“Fatespeaker is fine,” Sunny said, “but we don’t know what happened to Squid, and Viper is dead.”
The SandWing across from her snarled and raised his venomous tail. “How?”
“An accident in the Night Kingdom,” Tsunami answered. “Viper was fighting and fell into some lava. It was her tail that did that to Flame’s face.”
“We need Morrowseer,” Nautilus growled. “Several of us would like to have words with him. Words and teeth and claws.”
“And tails,” added the SandWing. He looked angry but not devastated. Sunny wondered if he was an uncle instead of Viper’s father, or something like that.
“Morrowseer is dead, too,” Sunny said. “So we need your help.”
“Oh, really,” said Nautilus. “Suddenly the wonderful independent dragonets need us?”
“Don’t be a rotting tooth,” Tsunami said to him. “If you want this prophecy fulfilled and this war stopped, you’ll help us, so shut up.”
He opened and closed his mouth a few times, then settled for flashing something with his luminescent stripes that Sunny guessed she wouldn’t want translated.
“We need to send a message to Blister,” she said. “You’re the only ones we could think of who might be able to reach her.”
“She’s looking for you pretty seriously,” Riptide said. “You probably just have to stand out in the open for a day and she’ll land on you.”
“Right, sure,” Tsunami answered. “Except we’re trying to do this in a not-ending-up-dead way.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “Good idea. I support that plan.”
“What do you want us to tell her?” Nautilus asked. “If we can get in touch with her and if we agree to do this.”
Sunny looked him in the eye, knowing perfectly well that he’d do anything she said, if it meant a chance at peace. He may have made some terrible decisions over the last seven years, but she believed that he did care about one thing very much, and that was ending the war.
“Tell her to meet us on the tenth midnight from tonight,” she said. “In the entrance courtyard of the stronghold in the Kingdom of Sand. If she doesn’t show up, she forfeits her chance to be queen.”
“This is it?” the SandWing demanded. “You’re fulfilling the prophecy and choosing a queen? It’s Blister?”
“Come along and see,” Sunny offered. “Anyone who wants to. Bring all the Talons of Peace. If it goes the way it should, you won’t be fugitives anymore. If Blister shows up and everything goes as planned, then the war will be over.”
“We’ll think about it,” Nautilus said, but even he had an unmistakable undercurrent of excitement in his voice.
“It’s important you tell her,” Sunny insisted. “We don’t know how else to reach her.”
“We’re not, like, friends with her,” Riptide said. “Just so you know. It’s not like the Talons of Peace are working with her, I swear.”
“But you can find her?” Tsunami asked.
“She sends one of her soldiers to the ruins of the Summer Palace pretty much every day,” Nautilus said. “Hoping for a message from Queen Coral. That’s how we’ll reach her.”
“Good,” Tsunami said.
“Thank you,” Sunny added. She turned to Tsunami. “Then we’d better go.” So we can send our messages to the other two sisters. We only have ten days now.
Tsunami swept her tail through the sand and looked over at Riptide.
“I could … come with you,” he said hesitantly, as if he wasn’t sure he’d be welcome.
“I think,” Tsunami said, “it’d be better if you stay and make sure Blister shows up at the stronghold. Then bring some of the Talons of Peace with you — and I’ll see you there?”
He nodded, tilting his wings back with a hopeful expression.
“All right,” Tsunami said. “See you soon.” It sounded like a promise.
“Bye, Ochre,” Sunny said, making one last effort to be friendly to the unlikable dragon. The MudWing had gotten his claws stuck in a pineapple as he tried to peel it and was now trying to shake it off. “Have a nice life.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered. He accidentally whacked himself in the snout with the top of the pineapple and yelped with pain.
Tsunami and Sunny rolled their eyes at each other and lifted off into the sky. They flew over Flame and his mother, still wrapped around each other on the beach. Sunny felt another jab of pity, although she knew the SkyWing dragonet didn’t want to be seen that way.
She glanced back as they reached the edge of the beach and saw that the other dragons had turned to leave, but Riptide was still staring after them.