Starflight glanced up uneasily at the plume of steam rising from the top of the volcano. Orange-gold fire glowed from inside, and he knew that streams of molten lava ran down at least one face of the mountain, toward the caves where the RainWings were trapped, if Glory’s description was right. Surely another eruption could come anytime, endangering the rest of the fortress.
That thought made him even more nervous about following Morrowseer back inside, but he didn’t have much choice. The large NightWing ducked into a mouthlike opening on the highest level of the fortress. The tunnels here were lit with hanging chandeliers of torches as well as the niches of coals Starflight had seen before. The stone under his talons felt smoother and more polished, as if it was frequently swept or mopped, unlike the lower tunnels.
Starflight thought of the gold dragon prints in the Sky Palace, the emerald-studded throne in the Kingdom of the Sea, and the colorful flowers that wound all around the RainWing village. There was nothing like that here — nothing to break up the monotony of the stone walls, nothing to showcase the wealth and power of the NightWings.
Then again, I guess no one ever comes here, he thought. Instead of trying to impress other dragons with opulence, they do it with mystery. He could see how that would make sense. But it would have been nice to see something besides fire and rock in all directions.
As they turned a corner, Starflight paused and looked back. He thought he’d heard — but maybe he was imagining things. But — it had sounded like claws tip-tapping on the stone behind them.
He stared along the dark tunnel, and suddenly had a shivery feeling of hope. Maybe it’s Glory, he thought. Maybe she’s here and camouflaged; maybe she’s come to rescue me. He couldn’t imagine how she would have gotten past the NightWing guards who must be posted around the hole. In fact, if he were in charge, he’d have stuck a NightWing in the tunnel at all times, just to be sure no one could invisibly squeeze by. But maybe the NightWings weren’t that smart.
There it was again. Tap tap tap. Definitely talons, although whoever it was wasn’t doing a terrific job of being stealthy. Glory is much better at sneaking than that. Maybe Clay?
It was awful how much his chest hurt with hope. If only it were Clay! If only that big brown head would poke around the bend, see him, and grin. Starflight promised the universe that he would never, ever make fun of Clay again, if only the MudWing would suddenly be here, rescuing him.
“Keep up!” Morrowseer growled from up ahead.
Starflight realized that he was really being an idiot. If someone were trying to sneak up behind them to rescue him, it wouldn’t much help if Starflight stood there staring at them. He started to turn to follow Morrowseer — but just then a head did poke around the last corner.
It wasn’t Clay. Or Glory or Tsunami … or Sunny.
It was just a NightWing dragonet.
She stared right at him for a startled moment, and then he shrugged and turned away — but at the same time she yelped, “Oh my gosh, it’s you!” and bolted up to him, grabbing his front talons.
“I had a vision about you,” she declared grandly. He froze in the act of trying to pull his talons away. “Have you had any visions about me?”
“You did?” Starflight said, blinking. She appeared to be his own age. So if she was having visions, that meant dragonets did develop their powers before they were full-grown. Which meant Starflight should have something by now.
But he didn’t. Whenever he tried to read minds or see the future, it was like staring into the night sky — empty and cold and meaningless.
He hadn’t admitted that to Morrowseer yet.
Speaking of whom — the floor now trembled ominously as the older NightWing came thundering back along the tunnel to them. His eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw the new dragonet.
“FATESPEAKER!” he roared so loud that Starflight thought the volcano might erupt right then. “I told you to stay in your cave with the others!”
“I know, I heard you,” she said cheerfully. “But I got bored and I wanted to explore and I saw you flying by, so I thought I’d come, too. I can’t believe I’m in the NightWing fortress at last! I’ve had lots of prophetic dreams about it, you know,” she said conspiratorially to Starflight. She still had his front talons pressed between hers. “Although in those it was actually bigger and lighter and smelled way less terrible, plus it had a lot more treasure and seriously less grouchy dragons.” She thought for a moment. “Hmm. Maybe they were just regular dreams.”
“Fatespeaker,” Morrowseer hissed. “What did I say about keeping your visions to yourself?”
“You said ‘Shut up about your visions. I’m not remotely interested,’” Fatespeaker answered. “But that doesn’t mean this dragon isn’t interested. Aren’t you interested?” she said to Starflight.