Nightmares. She touched the pouch around her throat. A possible idea was starting to come to her.
“When are you supposed to attack?” Clay asked.
“We move out tomorrow morning,” Pheasant answered. “A few days to cross the mountains and the desert — those who make it — and then we’ll be at the Ice Kingdom.”
“So we have to do something about it now,” Sunny said, standing up and pacing around the fire. “Where is Queen Moorhen? Is she here? Do you know?”
Reed and the others looked alarmed, apart from Umber, who looked excited. “You can’t just go talk to the queen,” Reed said. “She’ll never let you get away. There are orders to capture you all if anyone sees you, although everyone’s looking for five dragonets together, and most dragons don’t know what you look like. But if you walk right into her camp — you might as well put on your own chains.”
“We’re not going to do that,” Sunny promised. “I have a plan. A sort of a plan. A something worth trying anyway. So which way is she?”
Umber flicked his tail toward the center of camp. “Right in the middle of everything,” he said. “Like a real bigwings.”
“Please don’t kill her,” Sora said softly. “She’s not a bad queen.”
“We’re not going to,” Clay assured her. “We would never. We don’t do that.”
“We’ll be back,” Sunny promised them. She plunged into the darkness with Clay close behind her, weaving between the fires again.
“Do you really have a sort of plan?” Clay asked. “Because I have no plan. Except maybe a throwing-up-I’m-so-nervous plan.”
“I do,” Sunny said, curling her claws around the dreamvisitor. “I just have to see the queen and make sure she’s sleeping.”
“Oh,” Clay said. “Aha.” He took the lead, adjusting their direction, and soon they saw a brightly burning circle of fires ahead of them. Wide-awake guards were posted between the fires, staring alertly out at the camp and up at the sky.
But beyond the guards they could see a huge dragon, as big as Morrowseer, curled in a slumbering ball. Firelight reflected off her russet scales and caught the glitter of gemstones on her ankles and head. The spines on her back moved slowly up and down as she breathed.
Clustered around her were four other dragons, all smaller than her, all glittering with gems and sleeping as well.
“Her brothers and sisters?” Sunny guessed. They stopped well out of sight of the guards, studying the royal camp.
Clay nodded. “I think so.” He grinned. “If Starflight were here, he could tell us all their names and personal histories and what they each eat for breakfast every day.”
Sunny grinned back, although inside, her stomach felt as though it was trying to eat itself. “I remember one thing I read,” she said. “It said that no MudWing queen has ever been challenged by a sister — only daughters. I didn’t understand it then, but I do now. In your tribe, brothers and sisters are always loyal to one another. A sister would never try to take the throne from her bigwings.”
Clay nodded. “That feels right to me,” he said.
Sunny stared at the queen, trying to memorize her features, or what she could see of them. Would this work? Was she really going to risk it?
The image of hundreds of IceWing corpses flashed through her head. Of course I am.
Struck by another idea, she studied all the queen’s brothers and sisters, too. She wondered how many times the dreamvisitor could be used in one night.
“All right,” she said, pulling Clay away.
They chose the darkest patch of shadow they could find, outside the camp, with the mountains looming over them.
“Maybe you should be the one to do this,” she whispered to Clay, trying to pass him the dreamvisitor.
He shook his head and pushed it back to her. “You’ve used it before. And you’ll know what to say. And if it’s me — well, she might think it’s a normal dream, just another MudWing voicing her inner anxieties or something. But if it’s you, she’ll know it’s real. A real message from the dragonets, because nobody else looks like you.”
That’s true, Sunny thought. And then, wryly, So maybe there is a good reason to look this weird after all.
“You can do it, Sunny,” Clay said. “I’m completely sure.” He twined his tail around hers and she felt a tiny bit less terrified.
Sunny cupped her talons around the dreamvisitor and held it to her head, closing her eyes. She’d only ever used it on her friends.
Please let this work, she prayed.
She thought of the huge brown dragon she’d just seen. Queen Moorhen. Let me in.