Starflight could not imagine making Battlewinner do anything at all, but then, Glory was a lot more persuasive than he was — and even more so now that she had a queen’s authority. He swerved down toward the entrance closest to the council chamber.
The three of them padded silently through the hallways. Loud voices rang out from a few of the rooms. Starflight caught snippets of an argument about who would get to wear some shared armor, a monologue about another battle the storyteller had been in, and a conversation about how killing RainWings would have to be easier than killing MudWings.
He’d forgotten all about the dead MudWings on the rainforest border. Why would the NightWings kill them? he asked himself, and almost immediately a possible answer came to him: to keep the MudWings out of the rainforest. If they believe there’s a deadly monster lurking in there — that it’s not safe to go anywhere near it — they won’t be tempted to conquer the rainforest themselves. Leaving it untouched and ready for the NightWings to move in anytime.
That explains the howler monkeys, too. He remembered Jambu saying that the monkeys used to make a normal monkey sound, but then suddenly they started screaming like dying dragons instead. I bet my dad is responsible for that. I bet he did something to the monkeys so their screams would scare the MudWings away.
Everything the NightWings did was part of their grand plan of taking over the rainforest. Starflight sighed and glanced at the map as he led the way into the room with the secret entrance. If only there were somewhere else the NightWings could go … but they’d clearly been all over Pyrrhia, destroying scavenger dens, for whatever reason, and if there had been somewhere else for them to live, surely they would have found it.
“Someone’s coming,” Glory whispered a heartbeat before Starflight heard claws tapping on stone and smelled the rank odor of NightWing breath.
Fatespeaker shot across the room to the map, but before she could lift the corner and duck underneath, scales slithered in the doorway and they all whirled to see Greatness staring at them.
The ground rumbled under their feet.
“What are you doing in here?” the NightWing princess asked. Her glittering diamond necklace was askew, as if she’d slept in it and had forgotten it was on. Her eyes looked exhausted, red and raw from the smoke in the air. “Why aren’t you with the others?”
“We … got lost?” Starflight tried.
Greatness squinted at them. “Oh, you’re the two little prophecy dragonets. Morrowseer was looking for you in quite a towering rage earlier. Listen, like I told him, the prophecy is important, but it’s even more important that we win this battle tonight. So the whole tribe is going, no exceptions. Everyone else is in the great hall — if you follow this tunnel down and take the fourth left, you’ll be halfway there and someone can guide you.”
“What about you?” Fatespeaker asked. “Why aren’t you there?”
“I’m going to speak with the queen first,” Greatness said. Her eyes darted involuntarily to the map.
“Actually,” Glory’s voice said from the air, “we’re all going to speak with the queen.” Greatness stiffened and pulled in her wings; Starflight saw a flash of scales changing color as Glory’s claws rested on the artery in the NightWing’s throat.
“Don’t call for help,” Glory said. “I’m not an ordinary RainWing. My venom is aimed at your eyes right now and I am not afraid to use it.”
“The dangerous one,” Greatness whispered.
“That’s right,” Glory said. “Now we’re all going up the hidden tunnel to the queen, and you’re leading the way, and you’re going to keep in mind that my fangs are right behind you.”
Greatness blinked and nodded several times, looking queasy. She hurried to the map and ducked into the tunnel. The rustle of wings indicated that Glory had followed her; Fatespeaker and Starflight were right behind them.
The rocky floor felt hot under Starflight’s talons, hotter than it had before. Another rumble shook the mountain as they pressed forward.
“Um,” Starflight said as a horrifying thought struck him. “There’s no chance this volcano is about to erupt, is there?”
Up ahead in the shadows, the bulky figure of Greatness paused and looked back. “It shouldn’t,” she said. “Our scientists predicted that we have at least two more years before another major eruption.”
“How can they be sure?” Fatespeaker asked. “Did someone have a vision?”
Greatness turned around and kept walking without answering.
Starflight braced himself against another tremble in the ground. “I don’t like the feeling in the air,” he whispered to Fatespeaker. “I don’t know much about volcanoes … but I’m pretty sure it’s a bad sign when they start doing this.”
“Poor NightWings,” Fatespeaker said softly.
“Hmm,” said Starflight. “More like, poor us, if we don’t get out of here soon.”