“She’s my friend,” Starflight said, realizing guiltily that she was still gagged. “You can trust her. Her name is Fatespeaker — she’s the alternate NightWing I told Glory about.”
Tsunami signaled to the RainWing to let her up, and Fatespeaker came bounding over to them, unwrapping the vines from her snout.
“Hi! Hi! This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen!” she said as soon as she could talk. “I’ve never even had a vision of somewhere this pretty! No wonder the NightWings want to live here.” She seized Clay’s front talons and shook them vigorously. “What’s edible? I haven’t eaten in days; you wouldn’t believe how hungry I am.”
Starflight felt his own empty stomach twist as she chattered on, but it was much more than food that was worrying him. War was coming to this peaceful rainforest, no matter what anyone tried to do to stop it. After tonight, would it be so beautiful? He remembered some of the awful things he and his friends had seen since leaving the caves — the violence in the Sky Palace arena, the dead MudWings lying broken in the swamp, the panicked SeaWings crushing one another as they tried to escape the fire bombs when the Summer Palace was attacked.
It was hard to imagine any of that here — hard to imagine anyone burning these trees or hurting these harmless, happy-go-lucky dragons.
But Starflight had seen the cruelty of NightWings, and he knew how desperate they were for a new home. He believed they’d do anything, no matter how awful, to escape their volcanic island.
Fatespeaker was eating ravenously from the pile of fruit Clay had offered her, but Starflight didn’t think he could possibly eat until he felt that his friends were safe. Although that might be never, he realized ruefully.
“I have to see Glory right now,” he said to Tsunami. “The NightWings are planning to attack tonight.”
She gasped, and the trees around her all gasped at the same time. Tsunami turned to frown at the apparently empty branches.
“I told you all you could go back to the village,” she said. “I don’t need a bodyguard. I can take care of myself.”
Nobody answered. Tsunami sighed.
“You’ve never seen instant loyalty like these RainWings have for Queen Glory,” she said to Starflight. “Don’t even try to convince them to disobey her. Never going to happen.”
“That’s great,” Starflight said, pleased. At least one of us is fitting into her tribe.
“For her war strategy, yes,” Tsunami said. “For the size of her head, no.” She waved over the RainWing who had been sitting on Fatespeaker. Fatespeaker eyed him warily, but his tangerine-orange face was cheerful and extremely nonthreatening.
“Take these NightWings to the queen,” Tsunami said. “Clay and I have to stay on guard here,” she explained to Starflight. “Especially on a really sunny day like this, I’m afraid RainWings have a tendency to fall asleep all over the place.”
“Sure,” Starflight said.
“But if there’s any battle planning, I want to be involved,” Tsunami added fiercely.
“Of course,” Starflight said, spreading his wings. How long did they have until dark? Would the NightWings even wait until midnight, once they realized that Starflight had come through? Surely Morrowseer would guess that Starflight would warn his friends. What if that spurred them to attack sooner? They might invade at any moment — they might even be on their way right now.
He cast a worried look back at the hole. “Be careful,” he said to Tsunami.
“I’m ready for them,” she said. “Don’t worry.” She curled her claws menacingly.
Starflight and Fatespeaker followed the orange-gold RainWing up into the treetops, where there was even more sunlight. Fatespeaker ducked as a flock of tiny purple birds exploded past her head. She kept twisting to watch the shimmering azure butterflies that flitted by, and once she startled a large, spotted jungle cat so he nearly fell off the branch where he was sleeping.
“I can’t get over how amazing this place is,” she said to Starflight.
“The RainWing village is really cool, too,” he said.
“It makes me feel sad for the NightWings.” Fatespeaker tilted her head to catch more sunlight on her snout. “I mean, what if they had grown up somewhere like this? Would they still be the way they are, or would they be happy and kind, like the RainWings? It’s not their fault they hatched in such a miserable place. Maybe they could have been good — or, at least, better — if they’d lived somewhere else.”
“Maybe,” Starflight said. “In fact, probably — but I think being a good dragon is about the choices you make no matter where you are or who raised you or how. The NightWings chose to kidnap and torture RainWings. That makes it hard for me to feel sorry for them.”