“This is Starflight. Starflight, these are my friends,” Fatespeaker said, blithely ignoring him. The SkyWing snorted and the SandWing rolled her eyes. “Over there is Flame, the SkyWing, obviously. The fat MudWing is Ochre, the SandWing with the sour expression is Viper, and the shrimpy SeaWing is Squid.”
“Did she get in trouble?” Squid asked Morrowseer. “I told her she’d get in trouble if she left the cave. I hope you thumped her.”
“Where have you been?” Viper demanded at the same time, jabbing her poisonous tail toward Morrowseer. “We’ve been here for a whole day and a half and no one has checked on us or fed us anything but what appears to be leftovers from a meal three months ago.”
“Most of which he threw up,” Flame said darkly, pointing at Ochre.
“It was awful,” Ochre said. “Probably food poisoning. You’re lucky I’m still alive.”
“Quite lucky,” agreed Flame. “Since I was extremely tempted to kill him.”
“That’s why it smells so bad in here,” Fatespeaker offered. “Can we move to a different cave? Or, oooh, into the fortress!”
If there’s a whole other set of dragonets — with all the elements that are really in the prophecy — then nobody needs us at all. Starflight’s head was spinning. But if the Talons of Peace had these all along, then why treat us the way they did? Why keep us around? And why would the NightWings send an assassin after us?
Pieces started to fall into place in his head. They wanted us dead so they could replace us with these five. It wouldn’t do to have two sets of dragonets running around claiming destiny. Then he thought about the timing, and a shudder ran through his scales. We had a chance until we angered Blister — until I angered her. It was after that when they decided to kill us. Because I failed to convince the others to pick her as the queen.
Morrowseer was watching his face intently, as if he might be listening to the thoughts running through Starflight’s mind.
“So Deathbringer was coming for all of us,” Starflight said to him.
“His primary target was the RainWing,” said Morrowseer. “Secondary, the SeaWing. The rest of you are still negotiable.”
Starflight shook his head. “You can’t kill Glory and Tsunami. I — I won’t do anything you say if that happens.” His talons trembled as if the volcano were rumbling under his feet. He half expected Morrowseer to slash his throat right then.
“We’ll see,” said Morrowseer. He didn’t look very worried.
“Your real problem is that my friends are never going to let you replace me,” Fatespeaker said to Morrowseer. “We were raised together! We’re loyal to each other! They’ll fight back if you try to take me out and put someone else in!”
“Replace her?” Viper said alertly. “We can do that?”
“Do it,” said Flame. “I vote yes.”
“Me too,” said Ochre. “He looks quiet. Quiet would be great.”
“Can I be the one to shove her off the cliff?” Squid asked.
Fatespeaker gave them all an injured look. “Very funny, guys.”
Starflight got the distinct impression that they weren’t joking. Poor Fatespeaker, he thought. She really thinks they’re her friends.
“Do you have annoying visions all the time, too?” Squid asked Starflight.
Starflight shuffled his talons awkwardly, but Morrowseer cut him off before he had to answer.
“You may all be ‘replaced,’” he said as if the word tasted disagreeable in his mouth. “Except for you.” He nodded at Flame.
The SkyWing dragonet puffed out his chest. “Ha. And don’t you all forget it.”
Viper hissed at him. “Then why’d you bring us here?” she asked Morrowseer.
“And when can we go back?” Squid asked.
Morrowseer frowned at Squid. Starflight could sense that he found the SeaWing unusually irritating. He wondered if that meant the NightWings might change their minds about Tsunami. If they kept her alive, they wouldn’t have to deal with this dragon as the alternative.
Then again, Tsunami could be pretty unusually irritating, too.
Too bad it didn’t work out more neatly for Morrowseer, Starflight thought with a twinge of satisfaction. Two unsuitable NightWings. Two annoying SeaWings. But two perfectly fine MudWings and SandWings.
He thought Sunny was more than perfectly fine, of course. Who needed a poisonous tail when she was funny, smart, and kinder than any other dragon in the world?
“If you want to be part of this, what I need to see from all of you,” Morrowseer growled, “is that you can take orders, work together, and do as you’re told.”
“‘Take orders’ and ‘do as you’re told’ are the same thing,” Fatespeaker said to him.
He glared at her. “That’s how important it is.” His dark eyes scanned the dragonets in front of him. “So. Your first test. You,” he said to Starflight. “All you have to do, if you can, is stay alive.”
“What?” Starflight said.
“The rest of you,” said Morrowseer. “Kill him.” He flicked his tail at Starflight.
The dragonets all stared at him for a long, awful moment.
“Can’t we kill her instead?” Viper asked, pointing at Fatespeaker.
“Oooo, yes. I volunteer,” said Flame.