After a long moment she opened her eyes and found herself standing ankle-deep in mud. Mud stretched around her, an endless warm swamp dotted with mangroves and dozing crocodiles. The sun was high above them in a hazy sky and insects buzzed through the long cattails.
Sunny turned in a circle and spotted Queen Moorhen pacing across a dry island that stuck out of the mud. Several scrolls were scattered around her talons, many of them covered in brown spatters, and a large map of Pyrrhia was scratched into the dirt. The queen lashed her tail and drew long lines with her claws across the mountains, furrowing them through the sketched-out Kingdom of Sand, and then slashing furiously at the corner of the map that represented the Ice Kingdom. She stopped, shook her head, and glanced down at the mud.
With a jolt of horror, Sunny realized that there were dead bodies lying half submerged around the queen’s island. She recognized at least one of them as one of the queen’s brothers, who’d been sleeping nearby in the royal camp.
This is a real nightmare. She might not be able to hear me.
But Sunny had to try. She waded through the mud, which felt gloppily real against her scales, and clambered up onto the island behind the MudWing queen.
Moorhen whirled around and stared at her.
Sunny spread her talons. “I’m harmless,” she said. “I’m here to talk.”
“Here? Now?” the queen demanded. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of a campaign? And everyone is dying and it’s all my fault and I can’t save them?” She slashed her claws across the Kingdom of Sand and turned to look down into the mud again. Her wings trembled and she lowered her snout to the closest corpse. “No. No, I command you not to die.”
“This is a dream,” Sunny said firmly and loudly. “You’re only dreaming. I promise you.”
The queen drew back from the corpse. “Hmm,” she said.
“It’s a nightmare,” Sunny said. “But they’re not dead. Your brothers and sisters are asleep right beside you in the camp. They’re safe, at least for now.”
“What does that mean?” Queen Moorhen asked. Her voice sounded less strained and her wings were relaxing. “Is that a threat?”
“Not at all,” Sunny said hastily. “I want them to be safe, too. I want all your subjects to be safe. That’s why I’m here.”
The queen looked up at the sky, then around at the swamp, down at the map, and back at Sunny. “This is really a dream? Then how are you here?”
“Old magic,” Sunny said. “But that’s not important. Do you know who I am?”
“I have a guess,” said the queen. “Shouldn’t there be five of you?”
“There are five of us,” Sunny said. “But I’m the one here talking to you. I’m here to tell you not to attack the Ice Kingdom. Not tomorrow, not ever. Too many dragons will die if you do, on both sides.”
“Is that an omen?” Queen Moorhen asked. “Did your NightWing tell you that?”
“You know it doesn’t take a NightWing prophecy to see that future,” Sunny said, touching one claw lightly to the scratched-up map beside her. “You know how many of your dragons you’ll lose.”
The queen drew a line in the dirt in front of her. “But then the war will be over, and perhaps that’ll be worth it. Burn has promised us immunity from attack for the next hundred years if we help her win. If we don’t — she’ll destroy us. She is a powerful enemy, little SandWing. A lot more powerful than you, and she’s an enemy I don’t intend to make.”
“You don’t have to,” Sunny said, thinking, That’s how Burn got her MudWing alliance? With intimidation and threats? So Queen Moorhen joined the war to protect her dragons…. It sounds backward, but I can see it. “We’re going to end the war. We have a message for Burn — meet us at midnight in seven days’ time, in the main courtyard of her stronghold. If you can tell her to do that instead of attacking the IceWings, we’ll find a way to stop the war. And you can come, too. We want everyone to see that this is the end of the fighting. No more dragons have to die.”
Queen Moorhen tilted her head with a skeptical expression. “It sounds like a tale from one of the SeaWing queen’s silly romantic scrolls. What are you planning to do?”
“You’ll see,” Sunny said. “Just be there. Be there instead of watching your dragons die in the Ice Kingdom. Bring the SkyWings, too. Everyone who wants this war to be over.”
The queen nodded slowly. “I’ll think about it. Are you choosing Burn, then?”
“We’re choosing peace,” Sunny said. “That’s the important thing.”
“That sounds like you’re avoiding the question,” Moorhen pointed out.
“Does it matter?” Sunny asked. “As long as the war is over?”
The queen thought for a long time, and then sighed. “Perhaps not.”
“Make sure Burn is there,” Sunny said. “It’s important.”
“It sounds like it,” said the MudWing queen. She brushed her tail over the map of Pyrrhia, erasing it and all the agonized clawmarks she’d drawn on it. “I’ll see what I can do.”