They abruptly came around the bend into the queen’s cave. Queen Battlewinner was sitting erect in her boiling lava cauldron, glaring at them with fierce eyes that reflected the red light around them.
Starflight inhaled sharply as he spotted another dragon in the back corner of the cave: his father, Mastermind. The scientist was fussing over several hunks of metal on the floor, and after a moment, Starflight remembered seeing them in the lab. All put together, they looked like a suit of armor that would fit over an entire dragon, with room to pour something in between the dragon’s scales and the metal.
Lava, he realized. This is how Battlewinner plans to get to the rainforest. Mastermind has been building her a portable lava device. His brain immediately started taking apart the science of the idea. But how would it stay hot, away from the volcano? Can any metal really contain it? He also realized, tangentially, that his father had lied about not seeing the queen — he must be one of the few dragons who knew her secret, and was working to help her keep it.
Mastermind looked up as they came in and locked eyes with Starflight. His expression was startled, but in a distracted way, as if he was dealing with something far more important, and after a moment he bent back to the armor without saying anything to his son.
“Fool,” Battlewinner snarled at Greatness.
Greatness hung her head, looking less like a queen than ever.
“Preparations?” the NightWing queen hissed.
“Everyone is gathering,” Greatness said. “But, Mother, I can’t lead them into battle by myself. Can’t we postpone the attack? Mastermind says your armor isn’t ready …”
“It will be,” Battlewinner hissed. “Tonight.”
“I don’t think so,” Mastermind said anxiously from behind her. He dropped a curved tailplate with a loud clatter and winced. “Your Majesty, I don’t understand why you have to go. I need more time to make sure this will work for you.”
“Must do this right,” Battlewinner snarled. “Can’t trust you to invade properly.” She cast a scornful look at Greatness.
“You shouldn’t,” Greatness said, fingering the diamonds around her neck. “I don’t know what you want me to do. So I was coming to ask you and then —”
“And then she ran into me,” Glory said.
Mastermind let out a yelp of fright as Glory’s scales shimmered into sight, shifting from the camouflage of the shadows to a bold royal blue shot through with veins of gold. She looked regal and out of place in this smoky red and black cave. “Well,” she added, “more accurately, she ran into my claws.” She flexed her talons and narrowed her eyes at Queen Battlewinner.
“And you are?” growled the queen.
“Queen Glory of the RainWings. I have come to give you one chance to end this war before we destroy you.”
The dragon in the lava made an involuntary scoffing sound that clearly hurt her throat. She paused for a long moment, clutching her neck, then dipped her whole body under the lava and emerged again.
“Funny,” she said finally.
“Not very,” Glory said. “If you think an IceWing attack is hard to live with, wait until you experience a little RainWing venom. I’m afraid your lava bath won’t be able to help you with that.”
Smoke hissed softly through Battlewinner’s nostrils as she stared at Glory.
“Oh, three moons,” Greatness said anxiously, wringing her talons. “What do you want?”
“We’re taking our prisoners back,” Glory said. “You will never set foot in the rainforest again. You will leave the RainWings alone forever. We’ll destroy the tunnel between our kingdoms, you’ll call off the invasion, and we’ll never even sniff another NightWing near our village for the next twelve generations.”
Starflight cleared his throat a few times significantly and Glory glanced at him. “Also,” she added, “you will stop meddling with the prophecy dragonets — both the real ones and the fake ones. You’ll let them save the world and stop the war however they decide to.”
“Never,” hissed Queen Battlewinner. “Never.”
“Never what?” Glory said. “Because you don’t have a lot of options here.”
“I see one,” Battlewinner croaked. “You die.”
Glory bared her teeth at the NightWing queen, but Greatness interrupted, her voice pleading.
“Please listen. You’re dooming us to a horrible end,” she cried. “The volcano is not only a future threat — it’s killing us now. There’s almost no prey left. We’re all starving. Fewer dragonets are born each year. And we’re barely NightWings anymore. Don’t you see? The tribe is dying. We need a new home.”
“Well, you can’t have ours, you murderous entitled worms,” Glory flared.
“Why not?” Mastermind asked, sounding genuinely confused.