Twenty years ago, the night Oasis died — Flower must have hidden some of the treasure in the dead dragon’s mouth, before she ran off to hide in the dunes. Maybe she thought she’d have a chance to go back and get it, or maybe she didn’t want to be caught with it.
Sunny carefully lifted the sacks onto the sand. Emeralds and gold coins and tiger’s-eye bracelets spilled out through the holes. She sliced open the sacks with one of her claws.
And there it was at last: the Eye of Onyx.
“By all the moons,” Thorn whispered.
Sunny slid her talons around the black sphere and lifted it up. As she did, she realized that it was set on a chain of hammered gold links so it could be worn as a necklace.
And then she took a closer look at the setting.
In molded, beaten gold, on either side of the onyx stone, were two dragon wings. They caught the firelight of the torches and glowed red-gold-orange as she held the necklace up.
Wings of fire.
Had somebody known, somewhere along the line, and told the NightWings? Was it just a coincidence?
In a way the prophecy turned out to be real after all.
Even if somebody thought they made it up, it’s real to me and to all the dragons who need the war to be over.
But the prophecy didn’t make this happen; no all-powerful fate or guiding force in the universe made this happen.
We made this happen. Me and my friends and all these dragons here and even Flower.
She could feel power thrumming through the sphere, like the Obsidian Mirror or the dreamvisitor, but stronger and lighter, somehow. She wondered if animus-touched objects had different auras based on which dragon had enchanted them.
“No wonder no one has been able to take the SandWing throne all these years,” Tsunami said.
“It’s like Queen Oasis was still hanging on to it,” Glory agreed, nudging the bones with her tail. Flower was watching them nervously from on top of the skull. Sunny held up the Eye of Onyx and made a little bow toward the scavenger.
“Thank you,” she said. “This is what we needed.”
“Sunny,” Tsunami said, “with this, you could be queen. You’d be a great queen.”
“It’s true,” Glory said. “Nobody wants Blister. They’d follow you, if you want the throne.”
They were right. Sunny could sense that the magic in the sphere was not confined to royalty. Any SandWing who held the Eye of Onyx could command the kingdom. Even Sunny, with her harmless tail, could be queen.
Another earthquake shook the ground under her talons.
“And I promise not to be jealous,” Tsunami said, “even though this is all highly unfair because why aren’t thrones just falling into my lap, is what I’d like to know.”
Sunny imagined it: a palace, an army, treasure, and power. She’d command the largest kingdom in Pyrrhia. She could make the Kingdom of Sand a safe, peaceful place to live. She could change the laws and stop dragons from fighting each other all the time.
She looked up at the wings and claws and teeth lining the walls. Or could she? Would she be strong enough to punish anyone who opposed her? Would she know how to defend her subjects if another tribe attacked them? Would she have to become a different kind of dragon?
I don’t want to be queen, Sunny realized. I don’t want to fight for my throne or worry about the size of my territory and how much is in my treasury.
I want to be with my friends. I want to teach dragonets how to make peace and how to find other solutions instead of war.
I just want to be me, Sunny.
But it still didn’t have to be Blister. There was another choice.
She could feel the eyes of every dragon on her; even Blister and Blaze had stopped fighting, alerted by the silence that something significant was happening. Blister stepped toward them with a hiss.
Sunny looked right at her, then turned and gave the Eye of Onyx to Thorn.
Something crackled between them as their claws touched — a tiny jolt of purple lightning sparking along the curve of the black stone.
“This is the new SandWing queen,” Sunny said, hearing her voice echo across the courtyard. “She is our choice. She is the right choice.”
Murmurs and gasps rippled through the watching dragons.
“Fourth moons and fireballs,” Thorn said, awestruck. “Me? Are you sure?”
“I’m extremely definitely sure,” Sunny said.
“Awesome,” Glory whispered, and when Sunny looked over at her, the RainWing queen winked. Beside her, Tsunami was nodding, too.
“Absolutely not,” said Blister, advancing on them. “That is mine. I deserve it. I took the rest of the SandWing treasure. I tricked Mother into flying to her death alone.” She gave the old queen’s bones a scornful look. “I used my brain to get out of facing Burn in a challenge duel, by turning our fight into a war.” She hissed at the dragonets, her usual stillness broken into trembling anger. “I am the smartest dragon in Pyrrhia. I am the rightful SandWing queen.”