He stopped, his heart rattling nervously. “Wait,” he said. “It collapsed because it was covered in lava. That can’t be safe to explore.”
She flicked his nose with her tail. “Oh, stop worrying. Mightyclaws told me it happened, like, eleven years ago. It’s just a bunch of rocks now, and he said it’s kind of neat-looking. I guess it covered the part of the fortress where they used to keep their treasure, so they had to blast tunnels into it to get their treasure out. Tunnels! In lava rocks! It’ll be awesome. Come on!”
She bounded ahead and he followed, more slowly, wishing he’d listened to his original stay-in-bed instincts.
Fatespeaker’s sense of direction turned out to be better than her sense about dragons, and before long they found themselves in a part of the fortress where the roof was partly gone. What looked like thick black bubbles of rock filled the hall ahead of them. Chilly air whistled through the gaps in the walls, battling with the heat from the volcano below their talons.
“There,” Fatespeaker whispered, darting up to where the petrified lava met the wall. A tunnel just big enough for a dragon had been chiseled and blasted and dug out of the rocks. Without any hesitation, she headed inside.
What am I doing? Starflight asked himself. He really desperately wanted to melt into the shadows and stay there waiting for her. But he also felt as though she couldn’t go in there alone. And this time there was no Clay or Tsunami or Glory to do the brave thing for him. He was the only dragon Fatespeaker had.
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to step into the small tunnel. Jagged rock pressed in from all sides, scraping his wings and the top of his head.
The tunnel twisted quickly downward, so they had to dig their claws in to avoid sliding. Fatespeaker breathed a small plume of fire, but all that did was illuminate the thick dark walls that encircled them. The air was hot and stuffy, and Starflight began to wonder if anyone had ever died exploring these tunnels.
Suddenly the tunnel turned directly down and dumped them out into an empty space. Fatespeaker fell first, letting out a shout of surprise, so Starflight had a minute’s warning and was able to open his wings as soon as his claws lost their grip on the floor. Still, he tumbled several feet and landed on top of her.
“Ooof,” she said. He scrambled away, and they both lit up the air with their fire at the same time.
The room was small but intact; the lava had crushed the upper floors but left this one preserved. Starflight could see a small hallway outside the door, with more rooms beyond that. He looked up uneasily, thinking about the weight of everything above them.
Fatespeaker was already hurrying to the doorway as their fire faded into complete darkness. “Mightyclaws said the old treasure room is three doors down on the left. Come on!”
“But isn’t it empty?” Starflight asked, following her with his front talons outstretched. “Are we just going to look at an empty room?”
“A fascinating empty room,” she insisted. “It used to be full of treasure, just imagine. I’ve never even seen any treasure before.”
“Oh, right,” Starflight said. “The Talons of Peace wouldn’t have any, I guess, unless some dragons brought it with them when they left their tribes.”
“If anyone did, they keep it hidden,” she said. He felt her tail flick against his snout accidentally as they both felt their way along the walls. “You didn’t have treasure in your hiding-under-the-mountain place, did you?”
“No, but I’ve been to the Sky Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Sea,” Starflight said, “and I saw enough treasure there to know that having lots of treasure doesn’t make you a good queen, or a happy tribe.”
“I thought Queen Coral was a good queen,” Fatespeaker said, sounding surprised.
“Well, keep in mind she wrote a lot of the scrolls you’ve probably read about her,” Starflight said. “But she’s not terrible. She’s better than Queen Scarlet, that’s for sure. Or Blister.” He shuddered, remembering the SandWing dragon who had been so disgusted with him.
“I bet the SandWings would be happier if they could find the treasure that scavenger stole, though,” Fatespeaker said.
“Maybe,” Starflight said. “There were some really famous pieces of treasure in there, including stuff that was rumored to be animus-touched.”