She flicked her tail at Burn’s body, then at Blaze, who was crouched on the stones, bleeding from several small wounds. “Besides, it’s in the prophecy,” she growled. “Of three queens who blister and blaze and burn, two shall die …”
“And one shall learn,” Sunny quoted back at her, “if she bows to a fate that is stronger and higher, she’ll have the power of wings of fire.” Morrowseer was talking about the NightWings, hinting that the winning queen would have to submit to the NightWing tribe. But this is much better. “This is your fate — to accept your new queen.” She nodded at Thorn.
Blister coiled her venomous tail up, giving Sunny and Thorn a cold glare that was unsettlingly like the dragonbite viper’s. “You don’t seriously think that’s going to happen, do you?”
“So fight me,” Thorn said. “I’m not afraid of you. I can win this throne in battle, if that’s how you want to do it.” She tossed her head toward Blaze. “Or are you only willing to fight weak and cowering dragons?”
Blister’s expression was hard to read. Is she afraid to fight Thorn? Sunny wondered. Or is she calculating her next move — coming up with another evil trick?
“I don’t have to fight you,” Blister said, pacing closer and closer. Her obsidian eyes glittered in the moonlight. “You have no right to this throne. The Eye of Onyx is mine.” Suddenly she lunged forward and snatched the smooth black sphere out of Thorn’s talons.
Orange sparks flew off the Eye where Blister’s claws touched it. There was a hissing, crackling, spitting sound that seemed to fill the whole courtyard and expand outward, shock waves spilling over the walls and the desert beyond.
Blister’s talons started shaking. It looked as if she was trying to drop the Eye but she couldn’t. Lightning flickered across the black stone and then out, darting along Blister’s arms and up into her wings. She jerked back, nearly lifting into the air, and fell, still clutching the sphere.
But she didn’t scream. She never made a sound, even as her tail smashed into the ground and her head thrashed from side to side.
The lightning cracked again, faster, ripping through the SandWing’s body.
And then Blister, the dragon of their nightmares, the sister whose evil schemes had started the whole war, exploded into a pile of black dust.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke for a long, long moment.
And then Blaze said wonderingly, “It’s me? I’m the sister who survives?”
Thorn stepped forward and gingerly picked up the Eye of Onyx again. It made a little humming sound and flickered with dark purple lines, just once, then went quiet.
“What happened?” Starflight asked. Beside him, Fatespeaker shook her head, for once too shocked to speak.
“I think we’d better do some research about the exact enchantment on that thing,” Glory said, giving the Eye of Onyx a wary look.
“I can see why Oasis kept it in her treasury instead of wearing it,” Thorn said. “I’m a little traumatized right now.” But she lifted the necklace over her head and let the chain settle around her neck, with the onyx stone and the dragon wings resting in the center of her chest. They bumped against the moonstone that was already there, and Sunny thought of her father.
We proved him wrong. We really did it. We ended the war.
She looked up at all the dragons who were watching — from the walls, from the sky, and now spilling into the courtyard — SandWings coming forward to greet their new queen. Blaze was the first one to reach her, crouching and bowing low to Queen Thorn. Behind her, others followed suit.
“This is really strange,” Thorn whispered to Sunny. “I hope you’re planning to help me figure this all out.”
“I will,” Sunny said. “But you’ll be brilliant.” She caught a glimpse of Smolder, Six-Claws, and Qibli among the bowing dragons, and she saw Queen Glacier, Queen Coral, and Queen Moorhen watching from the walls, looking relieved. “And I think there will be lots of other dragons willing to help you figure it out, too.”
She realized that Clay was sitting up beside Starflight, rubbing his head, and she hurried over to him with Tsunami and Glory right behind her. His bewildered, worried, wonderful face — alive, alive and all right — made her whole body feel as though it was full of light.
“Wow, everything hurts,” Clay said. He blinked at them and at the sky where the sun was rising and at the courtyard full of dragons. “Uh … did I miss anything?”
It was a perfect day for flying.
Trails of white clouds splashed across the bright blue sky as if they’d been painted on in long, thin brushstrokes. The wind whisked around them, fast and breathless and playful, and the mountains below looked like sharp green gemstones in the warm sunlight.