He knew he should act like Squid was the real prophecy dragonet, especially if they all wanted to get out of this cave alive. But he couldn’t bring himself to betray Tsunami, who, if you asked him, in all of Pyrrhia was the dragon most likely to fulfill a prophecy and save the world.
He braced himself and looked the orange dragon in the eye. “She’s gathering an army.” This was true. No need to mention that it was an army of RainWings. “We’re going to end this war.” He turned to the other SkyWings in the cave. “Soon you’ll be able to go home to your families. Soon you will all be safe. Soon there will be peace.”
He caught a look of longing on some of their faces. Even the fierce, bad-tempered SkyWing tribe wanted a chance to live peacefully, he was sure of it.
“Was that a prophecy?” one of the soldiers whispered to another.
Starflight shook his head. “It was a promise,” he said.
Viper let out a muffled impatient snort. Starflight knew even his real friends got fed up with the way he sounded like an epic scroll sometimes, but he couldn’t help it — when he thought about prophecies and acting like a hero, that’s how he thought they should all sound.
“But what about Blister?” asked the orange dragon. “Have you really chosen her? Is she the next SandWing queen?”
Several of the SkyWings hissed, rattling their wings.
Flame and Viper and Squid and even Ochre were watching Starflight now. He could guess that they were willing him to say the right thing here — to convince everyone that Blister was the choice of destiny, that she was going to win, and nobody could do anything about it.
But he remembered Blister’s menacing stillness and the glint of evil in her eyes. He remembered the way she manipulated the SeaWing queen, and he remembered that she’d killed Kestrel and tried to kill Webs, although there wasn’t any good reason why —
Oh.
He glanced at the alternate dragonets. If Blister wanted to pick and choose her dragonets of destiny, she needed the original guardians dead so they couldn’t dispute her version of history. His mind was racing. She knew about Glory when we met her — she even said she had NightWing friends. She’s conspiring with them.
Which meant she was almost certainly part of the plan to assassinate Glory and Tsunami, too.
He coiled his tail. He couldn’t make her the next queen of the SandWings. If his voice had any power, he couldn’t let her use it.
“No,” he said, wincing as his voice cracked. He sounded like a one-year-old dragonet pretending to be a queen. “We haven’t chosen anyone yet.”
“So choose Burn,” said one of the soldiers. Several others nodded.
“Burn is cruel,” Starflight said. “You know she is. She lives for war. Even if she wins, she won’t stop killing and fighting. She’ll probably turn on all of you and try to take your kingdom next.”
There was no uproar this time, only shocked silence. They may not have wanted to admit it to themselves, but what he’d said was true. Burn was not a safe ally to have, and she’d be a very dangerous queen of the SandWings.
“Yeah,” Flame said half-heartedly. “What he said.”
“So, was that a prophecy?” the same soldier whispered.
“Let’s take them back to the palace,” said the orange dragon decisively. “We’ll turn them over to Queen Ruby and let her decide. If they know anything about Queen Scarlet’s whereabouts, she’ll get it out of them.” He lashed his tail.
No, Starflight thought, backing toward the door. Back to the SkyWing palace — that would be even worse than staying with the NightWings. Queen Scarlet had tried to make him fight to the death in her arena. He still had nightmares about scavengers with sharp weapons climbing his neck, determined to stab out his eyes. Or about a horde of IceWings descending to destroy him, even though Morrowseer had taken him away before that happened in reality.
But this wasn’t a dream. The SkyWing claws reaching for him were real, and his legs really were not moving, and he couldn’t remember a single training move that might help him fight back, and he was about to be captured and imprisoned once more.
And then the door burst open.
And the NightWings came blazing in.
That’s who was following us, Starflight thought with a jolt of shock as eight NightWings came through the door, breathing flames in all directions. He saw the tables and the map catch fire, and he saw flames engulf the orange dragon, and then he felt talons seize his tail and he was dragged out the door into the pounding rain outside.
Flame, Viper, Ochre, and Squid were tossed on top of him, howling.
By the time Starflight struggled free and looked up, the door of the outpost was ablaze. Inside the cave, fire raged from wall to wall. SkyWings were shrieking in agony. A troop of black dragons blocked the way out, killing any soldier who tried to escape.