(3rd Pov Tsunami)
Tsunami dropped three cauldrons onto the cave floor - one packed with fish, one with clear water, and one with seaweed-mushroom salad. She'd found them on the kitchen level, unguarded, so she thought they might as well go to them.
Sunny seized the salad cauldron and shoved her nose into it. Starflight peered at the fish, and then, without even asking the others if they'd mind, he shot a burst of flame into the cauldron, which left the fish blackened and smoky tasting.
"Hey," Tsunami protested. "I like them raw."
"Overruled," Glory said. "Raw fish is gross."
"Raw fish is awesome," Tsunami insisted.
"You have unreliable taste," said Glory. "You think your terrifying mother is awesome."
"She is not terrifying!" Tsunami said. "She's a wonderful queen!"
"That is what the scrolls say," Starflight pointed out through a mouthful of charred fish.
"I agree to disagree about the fish," Stormcaller said popping a fish in his mouth and grabbing two others. "Queen Coral can be a good queen, it just depends on who you ask."
Tsunami looked up at the cave ceiling and shifted from talon to talon. "Er," she said. "well. Apparently she . . . wrote a lot of those herself."
"Really?" Starflight blinked in astonishment. "She's a writer? I had no idea. That's so - I mean, I wish I - do you think she'd read something I -" He stammered to a stop and fidgeted for a moment with the cauldron. "it's cool, is all," he mumbled, shoving a fish in his mouth.
"That's one thing we have in common, I guess," Stormcaller said, trying to get a fish bode out from in between his teeth. Starflight looked at him.
"What," Said Stormcaller, lifting his wing. Under it was a satchel that Tsunami forgot he even had. Stormcaller reached in a pulled out a scroll. Starflight opened his mouth to speak.
"You can read it another time," Stormcaller cut him off.
"Anyway," Tsunami said. "it's not just the scrolls. Her subjects think she's a great queen, too." 'Most of them. I think.'
"Compelling," said Glory. "Except for the part where she's killing off her own daughters."
Tsunami stared at Glory, too shocked to respond.
"Well, wait," Clay said. "That's just a theory."
"A good theory." Starflight observed. "With her daughters dead, and no sisters either, no one will ever be able to challenge for the throne. She could be queen for a hundred years and die peacefully in her sleep instead of in combat."
Sunny pulled the egg closer to her and patted it reassuringly.
"No!" Tsunami blurted. "you're so wrong! She would never - you haven't seen how protective she is. I mean, look at how she takes care of Anemone."
"Like a crazy dragon," Glory interjected, waving a smoky fish at Tsunami.
"Coral isn't crazy enough to be considered a crazy dragon," Stormcaller explained.
"It's a good way to make herself look innocent," Starflight offered. "Beside, think about when the murders started." He waited, with an "isn't it obvious?" look on his face.
"Oh dear," Clay said, rubbing his head. "Did we really study this?"
"I don't know either," Sunny whispered to him.
"Starflight," Tsunami growled. "Just tell us."
"Very well," he said. "It was right after the only challenge Queen Coral has ever faced. Her first clutch of eggs had only one female in it-"
"Orca," Tsunami guessed.
Starflight nodded with a pleased expression. "You do remember! She challenged the queen almost the moment she was full grown. I'm sure Coral was more shocked than anyone. Especially when Orca almost killed her. Queen Coral only won by accident, impaling Orca on that narwhal horn she has on the end of her tail."
"So?" Tsunami said. "Why would that make her murder all her future daughters?"
"Seriously?" Glory scoffed. "She saw how close she could come to death. She realized if she let any of her female children grow up, she might be dead within seven years. Much easier to kill them all in their eggs, or as little dragonets, before they become a threat."
"Stop it!" Tsunami clutched her head. It couldn't be true. "She's not like that. She loves her daughters. When she found the other egg broken -" Tsunami paused, realizing how much they didn't know. She backed up to tell them all about the Council, her mother's scrolls, the mysterious dragon who'd tried to kill her in the tunnel, and the way Queen Coral had reacted when Tortoise failed her.
"So you see," she finished, "it can't be her killing off the female dragonets. She wants them alive more than dead."
"Someone tried to kill you?" Clay said. "Are you all right?"
"I'd like to know what would happened to us if they'd succeeded," Glory said angrily.
"We would be suspects," Stormcaller said, eating another fish.
"Are you saying Sunny's in danger now?" Starflight demanded at the same time. "Because of the egg? Why would you do that to her?"
"I don't mind," Sunny said, cuddling the egg to her chest. But she looked paler than usual.
"No, listen," Tsunami said. She took a step back toward the cave entrance. "Don't you see? We're doing a good thing by keeping this egg alive. And now Queen Coral has to take care of all of us, because we're protecting her daughter. She can't chain you up and not feed you anymore - if that was her idea in the first place."
Glory and Starflight exchanged "yeah, right" glances. Tsunami frowned and Stormcaller sighed.
"And if we find the real assassin," she hurried on, "then we'll be heroes."
"Not if it's your mom," Glory said firmly. "Which it is."
Tsunami wanted to kick her. "It can't be my mother," she said again. "The dragon who attacked me in the tunnel didn't have a dragonet attached. Where are you suggesting she stashed Anemone while she came after me? And how could she have broken one of her eggs when Anemone is with her at all times?"
"Ooo, I have a few guesses," Glory said.
"I think it's Shark," Tsunami said, ignoring her. "Tortoise pointed at him before she died. He was at the Deep Palace before the rest of the council. If I'm right and there's a secret entrance to the hatchery, he could have snuck in to kill the dragonets without anyone knowing. And he could have attacked me in the tunnel, too. Or he could have sent someone else to do it. Queen Coral thought she'd sent him on ahead already, so nobody knew where he was exactly."
"It couldn't have been Shark," Stormcaller said. "Or Cascade if you were thinking of him. You wouldn't have had the chance to fight back if they were to attack you."
Tsunami looked at him for a second. She did think Cascade was a possible candidate for being the assassin. It was almost as if he read her mind.
"Tsunami," Clay said, nosing her with his snout. His forehead crinkled worriedly. "It doesn't sound like you're safe here. Maybe we should go."
"Or at least we should go," Glory suggested. "You can stay here if you really want to. We could leave now, while no one is guarding us."
Tsunami hesitated. It was so much harder to fit in with the SeaWings than she'd expected. And she didn't like seeing sides of her mother that scared her. She preferred the image in her head that she'd dreamed about her whole life - the loving queen from The Missing Princess.
She fingered the pearls around her neck, thinking of how Coral had given them to her the moment she saw her, and how happy she'd been.
"No," Sunny said unexpectedly. "I'm not leaving this egg until it hatches." She rested her talons on it protectively. "And we can't split up. We have to fulfill the prophecy together."
"I agree with Sunny on this one," Stormcaller said.
"I also agree with Sunny," Said Starflight. "I don't love it here either, but we have to stay until we meet blister. That was the whole point of coming here."
'Not for me,' Tsunami thought. She'd forgotten that Blister would would be coming to meet the dragonets. She was not at all sure that was something to look forward to.
"Then I think you should stay with us," Clay said, taking Tsunami's talon's in his again. "So we can keep one another safe."
That was what Tsunami had planned to do anyway, but hearing it from Clay, and seeing Sunny nodding vigorously behind him, made her feel much better. They couldn't hate her too much if they wanted her to stay with them.
"All right," she said as if he'd convinced her. "Then I can help you protect the egg as well."
"You'd better," Starflight muttered, glancing at Sunny with a worried look.
They curled up together to sleep, sheltering the egg in the middle of their pile. Stormcaller stood on the other side of the cave, wrapping his tail around his talons, starting to fall asleep. She still wondered how he slept like that.
Tsunami rested her head on Clay's shoulder and listened to the rain pattering on the canopy far above them. Last night she'd slept underwater on Seaweed, and it had been the most comfortable sleep she'd ever had. But even though she was back in a cave, something about the rise and fall of Clay's deep breaths under her snout was more calming that any seaweed bed or pearl-studded underwater palace.
It wasn't until she was almost asleep that she remembered she'd forgotten to tell the other about Kestrel.
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Onto the next chapter
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(3rd Pov Stormcaller)
Stormcaller noticed the dragon standing in the cave entrance before he even woke up.
"WHERE ARE THEY?"
Stormcaller opened his eyes at the same time Tsunami bolted up from the sleep pile. Sunny lifted her head up, also awakened by the noise.
"WHERE ARE THE DRAGONETS? WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER? WHERE IS MY EGG?"
"Up here," called the dragon coiled in the cave entrance, watching them. Glittering black eyes met Stormcaller's amber ones before turning to the pile of dragonets. A SandWing tail barb flicked up and down. White-gold scales marked with black diamond patterns caught the glint of the sunlight now trickling through the canopy.
The storm had passed.
And there was a SandWing watching them. Stormcaller didn't have to guess to know who she was.
"Wake up, you lazy snoring manatees." Tsunami hissed.
"You're a lazy manatee," Glory mumbled with her wings over her head. "And you smell like one, too."
"You're going to feel very silly in a minute," tsunami whispered crossly.
"Oh, if you insist," Clay muttered, mostly asleep. "I suppose I could eat one more hippo."
"Clay!" Tsunami yanked on his ears, and he sat up with a bewildered look, shaking his head.
Stormcaller watched them, unamused.
"Aww," he said, his wings drooping. "What happened to hippos?"
"Look," Tsunami whispered, pointing toward the cave entrance. Her friends all went silent and looked at the SandWing.
"Well, hello," she said with a sly smile. "So nice to meet you. I'm Queen Blister. They're up here," she called again. "Staying dry out of the storm, I presume," she went n conversationally. "Very wise. I would have done the same thing."
Stormcaller lightly dipped his head, bowing.
A flurry of wingbeats announced Queen Coral's arrival on the ledge behind her, followed by Anemone and three SeaWing guards. The queen poked her head into the cave and saw them.
"Where is my egg?" she demanded, eyeing the dragonets.
"Safe. And warm, like I promised." tsunami stepped aside and let her see Sunny coiled around the egg.
Queen Coral hissed and lashed her tail. "You never said anything about a SandWing touching my egg."
"Oh, but think about it, Coral," Blister interjected. "These are not ordinary dragons. These are the dragonets of destiny. If they can't be handled with our future, who can?" Blister smiled again, filling the cave with a feeling of unease.
Queen Coral took a deep breath, then turned to Blister with outstretched arms and wings spread wide. "Queen Blister, my friend," she said. "You got my message! I'm so glad you came. I knew you'd want to hear right away that we found the dragonets." She waved her tail at Tsunami and her friends.
Blister clasped Coral's front talons in hers and quickly let go. "I was thrilled to hear it," she said. Stormcaller doubted that. "And one of them was your beautiful missing daughter, as we always suspected." Stormcaller also doubted that.
"I knew the Talons of Peace must have sent Webs to steal her," Queen Coral said. "Tsunami, say hello to my ally, Queen Blister."
"We've met," said Tsunami. Starflight was frozen in fear, Sunny was craning her neck for a better view, Glory was studying her claws as if she wasn't that interested, Clay was curious but mostly was trying to keep his stomach from growling too loudly.
"Then introduce your friends," Coral ordered, smiling at Blister again.
Clay, Sunny, Starflight, Glory, and Stormcaller," Tsunami said, flicking a claw at each of them as she said her names. Queen Coral frowned at her.
"Marvelous," said Blister smoothly. "All so brave ad clever-looking. I heard you weren't a SkyWing, Glory, but that doesn't bother me. SkyWings are so overrated, don't you agree?"
Stormcaller recognized what she was doing. Warming up to the dragonets and complimenting them to gain their trust. It seemed to be working. Might as well play along.
Glory's wings twitched, and a ripple of dark pink shifted across her stone-grey scales.
"You 'heard'?" Tsunami demanded. "How? Nobody knew that except out three guardians. They didn't even tell the other Talons of Peace." Anemone gazed at them from behind Coral's wings, her blue eyes wide. The SeaWing guards shuffled on their feet nervously.
"Hmmm," said Blister. Her eyes flickered to Tsunami then Stormcaller and then back. "Let's just say I have friends. NightWings friends." She looked over at Stormcaller. "But, of course you already knew that."
Stormcaller faked a smug, yet pleased expression. "Of course," he replied smoothly. Blister smiled before slithering up to Starflight and brushed one claw slowly down his neck. "So I've hear a lot about you."
The NightWing dragonet really looked as if he might turn to stone and never move again. Blister glanced down at Sunny, who was frowning. "Sweet," she said, chucking Sunny under the chin. "And you must be the burly one," she said to Clay. She reached out and squeezed one of the muscles in his forearm.
"I guess," Clay stammered.
"I'm sure you've heard things about me, too," Blister said, returning to Queen Corals side. Her tail slid across the cave floor like a snake, the poisonous tip rattling on the stone. "But you can't always trust rumors and propaganda, especially when it comes to a big responsibility like the prophecy. So ask me anything you'd like. I'd be delighted to help you make your decision - although of course I hope you'll choose me." Her glittering eyes swept over all of them and back to Coral. "So, Coral, what's for breakfast?"
"Let me guess," Glory muttered. "Fish."
Clay blinked at the queen hopefully.
"Yes, what a good idea. Let's go eat," said Queen Coral. "And then you can tell me the latest updates from the war. We hear something odd is going on with the SkyWings. Anemone, Tsunami, come."
"Let the others come, too," Blister said. "I'd love to get to know them better."
Coral wrinkled her snout at them. "All right," she said doubtfully.
"You can leave that here," Blister said, nodding at the egg.
"No!" Coral and Sunny said at the same time. The SeaWing queen gave the dragonet a surprised look.
She hugged the egg closer. "No way," she said. "It stays with me." Blister shrugged. Stormcaller could practically feel at the suspicion radiating off of Tsunami. She was most likely thinking Blister had something to do with her attacker and the dragon committing the murders.
The feasting hall was two levels above the kitchens, so the smells of pickled fish and roasting seagulls ("in honor of our SandWing guests," Queen Coral explained) surrounded them as they arranged themselves around the long, low oval table. Queen Coral's seat was higher than everyone else's, but Blister's right beside her, was not much lower.
Stormcaller was on Blister's right with Starflight to his. Tsunami sat next to Anemone on her mothers left. On Tsunami's other side was Whirlpool, who played with his hoop earring, slurped loudly as he ate, and droned on about Coral's latest book even when nobody seemed to be listening.
SeaWing guards were arranged around the perimeter of the floor, interspersed with SandWing soldiers who had arrived with Blister. The SeaWings stamped their talons and swished their tails, casting dark looks at the SandWings.
Stormcaller glanced around a few times to see that the Lagiacrus was nowhere to be seen.
Stormcaller internally groaned and kept up his smug façade. He had a gut feeling that Tsunami was going to do something. Whether it was good or bad, he didn't know.
"MOTHER!"
Bad it is.
Tsunami yelled out dramatically as the waitstaff set bowls of soup in front of each dragon. Beside her, Whirlpool jumped and nearly tipped his bowl onto himself. Even Queen Coral looked startled. Stormcaller lightly sighed.
"I have something DREADFULLY SHOCKING to tell you!" Tsunami announced. It was as if she was trying to be as loud as possible so everyone in the Summer Palace could witness it.
'Ooooooooh,' thought Stormcaller. 'So that's her plan.'
"Oh?" said Coral. "Could we discuss it after breakfast? In a civilized fashion?"
"NO," Tsunami said, louder than before "This is TOO SHOCKING." Even SeaWings not invited to the feast were starting to peer out of their caves and poke their heads out of the lake to hear what was going on.
"Well, perhaps -" Coral started.
"WOULD YOU BELIEVE," Tsunami said, "that my friends - the DRAGONETS OF DESTINY, remember - were CHAINED UP? And STARVED? In YOUR CAVES? By YOUR DRAGONS?"
"What?" Coral said, flapping her wings. She looked thoroughly alarmed. Stormcaller assumes it was either because she was actually surprised the news or because she was being openly confronted about it.
"I KNOW!" Tsunami practically bellowed. "It's UNBELIEVABLE. I'm sure you didn't know anything about it, of course."
"Of course," Coral said in a hurry. "I would never treat any dragonets that way! Especially my daughter's dearest friends. Who are part of the prophecy and everything."
Stormcaller doubted that.
"And I'm sure you'll want to punish the dragons who disobeyed you by treating my friends so terribly," Tsunami said. "Right? Like, for instance, the one who lied to you about keeping them well fed?" She shot a glair at a plump SeaWing with turquoise colored scales. The SeaWing froze, with a sea snail halfway in her mouth. As if she just realized what was going on.
"Absolutely," said the queen. "Guards! Throw Lagoon in one of the underwater dungeons!"
"But -" Lagoon said. "But I was only -"
"Next time you'll obey my orders," said the queen. A stripe quickly flashed under her wings. Stormcaller didn't quite know what it meant, but it was something along the lines on 'quiet' or 'shush.'
"Can't I even -" Lagoon said, reaching wistfully for her cauldron of soup as the guards pulled her away.
"No breakfast for you," the queen ordered. "Think about how that feels as you sit in my dungeon."
Stormcaller was fairly certain that Lagoon wouldn't suffer very much. Stormcaller lifted his bowl of soup up to his mouth, thinking it was over. He was wrong.
"And GUESS WHO ordered your guards to chain up Clay?" Tsunami demanded. She flung an accusing talon toward Shark. "COMMANDER SHARK! Of all the dragons who should obey you in everything! Is that not UTTERLY SHOCKING?"
'Not really,' Stormcaller thought. Shark always did what he thought was best. If he thought someone was a threat, Shark would deal with them accordingly.
"It is," Coral said. She was grinding her teeth, but she hid it well. "I find it quite hard to believe."
"Imagine the distress the poor guards felt," Tsunami said, "when I explained to them that you would never have ordered those chains on Clay. To have to chose between their commander and their queen! Naturally they chose you, of course. That's why they gave me the key to Clay's chains. Because they understood that's what you would have wanted them to do. Right?"
Queen Coral gave Tsunami an appraising glance. Beside him, Blister was eating her soup with an amused expression.
"Very good," Coral said slowly. "It sounds like those guards are practically heroes."
"And Shark -" Tsunami prodded her.
"To the dungeons with him as well," the queen said with a wave.
Shark didn't protest like Lagoon had. He snarled at the guards who approached him, shot Tsunami a look full of hatred, and headed off to the dungeon without another word. Coral would get Shark out of the dungeon as soon as she got the chance.
'Such excitement," Blister said. "If we're quite finished with out morning theatrics, I would love to ask you brilliant little dragonets about the prophecy."
"Starflight can recite it for you," Tsunami said. "He's really good at memorizing things. And the repeating those things over and over, especially when no one cares to hear them." She shot a grin at Starflight who look too petrified to eat.
"How splendid! How impressive!" Whirlpool said from beside Tsunami, in a voice of sincere admiration. Tsunami wrinkled her snout at him.
Stormcaller just wished he could eat in peace.
"I assume you have a plan about how to fulfil this prophecy," Blister said. "I mean, you must, right?"
A tense hush fell over the feasting table. Ears were pricked up all over the palace. (almost) Every dragon in Pyrrhia wanted to hear the answer to this.
From what Stormcaller knew, the dragonets didn't have a plan. they'd only recently escaped from under the mountain and then the SkyWing palace. But they couldn't admit that to all these dragons. Or, at least they wouldn't.
"We're working on it," Tsunami said. "Obviously we can't say too much."
"This is the information-gathering phase," Glory offered unexpectedly. Blister gave Starflight a significant look.
"Um," he blurted. "But. We think you, of course - I mean, obviously you - er - you'd make a great queen. Of the SandWings. That is. the other two - hardly any competition - really, it's um, a clear, so to speak, sort of, um, choice." Stormcaller flicked the younger NightWing's tail with his own, stopping his rant.
"Starflight," Tsunami said sharply. "What are you doing? You don't speak for all of us."
"Oh?" said Blister. She narrowed her eyes at Starflight and then Stormcaller. "Then who does?"
"We each speak for ourselves," Glory said.
"Yeah," Sunny piped up.
"And we haven't decided anything," Tsunami said firmly.
"I'mjustsayingshe'dbeallright," he mumbled, subsiding. Blister looked mildly disgusted. It took more of Stormcaller's will-power than it should have to hold back a sigh.
"You're quite right, NightWing," Coral said, patting Blister's talon. "She's an excellent queen."
Blister smiled, but mover her talon away as soon as she could. Stormcaller noticed that Bister referred to Coral as simply "Coral," while the SeaWing queen kept referring to her ally as "Queen Blister."
Blister turned to Stormcaller. "So, NightWing. I must ask, what you are doing with the dragonets?" Stormcaller could feel many of the dragons' eyes turn to him.
"Happened upon them while they were escaping form the Talons of Peace, and decided to help. Since then I've been assisting them when I can. " Stormcaller did his best to explain without giving away to much information, and trying to keep up the façade.
Blister made a "Hmmm," sound.
"Oh," Queen Coral said. "Queen Blister, I mean to tell you, the strangest thing happened. We found a dead SkyWing in our territory the other day." This caught Stormcaller's attention. Tsunami sighed.
"Really," Blister said. "That sounds like good news to me,"
Coral laughed. "You're right, that's true. But what's really strange is she'd been poison-stabbed by a SandWing. Why would a SandWing and SkyWing be fighting all the way out here?"
Questions started pouring into Stormcaller's head. What SandWing? What SkyWing? What was the SandWings motives? Why were they out here is the SeaWing's territory?
Blister shrugged, resettling her wings. "That is very peculiar," she said.
"I wonder who she was," said Queen Coral. "She had these odd burn scars on her palms-"
Stormcaller watched Tsunami reach over Whirlpool to try and grab Sunny, but she wasn't quick enough. Sunny let out a gasp of horror.
"Oh, no!" Sunny cried. "That sounds like Kestrel! Tsunami, what if it was Kestrel?" She pressed her claws to her snout, her eyes welling with tears.
A heavy silence fell over the table. Every SeaWing in the entire palace seemed to be staring at Sunny and Tsunami. Queen Coral was giving Tsunami a particularly intent look. Stormcaller was also intrigued. If it was Kestrel, thing could turn out . . . interesting.
Across the table, Glory and Starflight both had their mouths open in shock.
"Tsunami?" Coral said slowly. "Is there something you want to tell us?"
"All right," Tsunami said, squirming. "Yes. I'm sorry. I saw her. It was Kestrel."
Stormcaller raised an eyebrow. Sunny let out a sob and buried her head in her talons. Clay patted her on the back awkwardly.
"Your SandWing seems distressed about this SkyWing." Blister observed.
"Kestrel was one of the guardian who raised us," Tsunami said. "Although she wasn't very nice, Sunny. She doesn't deserve your grief."
Sunny's wings trembled, and she didn't look up.
Stormcaller hadn't known Kestrel for that long, but from what he gathered from meeting her. She was stubborn and did what she believed was best. Whatever had made her come out here must have been important.
"So," Coral said, leaning toward Tsunami. "Explain this to me. You recognized this SkyWing - a SkyWing I have now been wondering about for days - and you chose not to tell us who she was. Why is that?"
"I didn't think knowing who she was would explain anything," Tsunami said. "I knew her, but I have no idea why she was out here or who killed her." She glanced at Glory, Starflight, and Clay with an apologetic look. "And I wanted to tell my friends first. Kestrel wasn't a good parent, but she was one of the only parents we ever knew. I thought they should know - and I just haven't had the chance to tell them."
"I understand perfectly," Blister purred. She stroked Coral's talon with one claw. "Forgive her, Coral. It can be very shocking, seeing the dead body on a dragon you know. Especially when you've probably wanted to slash her throat yourself once or twice in your lifetime - right, Tsunami? I know I felt that way about my mother most of the time."
'Why did she bring that up?'
Queen Coral had only said that Kestrel was stabbed by a SandWing.
'Why did she bring up slashing her throat?'
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Onto the next chapter
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(3rd Pov Tsunami)
Tsunami didn't know what to do. Should she accuse Blister of Lying - of murder - in front of all these dragons? How would Queen Coral react?
'Stop yourself,' she thought. 'Think. Don't lash out immediately: the way you want to.' She shot a glance to Starflight and Stormcaller. they were smart enough o have noticed Blister's mistake. Sure enough, there was a puzzled expression on Starflight face. And Stormcaller was the same as before, a smug-ish look on his face. He didn't show it, but he probably noticed it, too.
Starflight's eyes met her's and he shook his head a tiny bit.
Tsunami took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Perhaps he was right. She might put her friends at risk if she picked a fight with Blister right now. Better wait and watch. And hope that Starflight could use that giant brain to figure out why in the world Blister would have killed Kestrel.
Blister's dark tongue flickered in and out of her mouth. She leaned toward Coral, smiled at Anemone, and said, "How is our secret weapon coming along?"
Anemone dropped her head and stared unhappily at the table.
"Wonderfully!" Coral said. She patted Anemone's head, beaming with pride. "Why don't we show you? Whirlpool, come along."
Whirlpool puffed out his chest and stood up. Curious, Tsunami got to her feet at the same time, but Queen Coral shook her head, her pearls dancing in the green light. "You can skip this, dear. I'm sure it won't interest you."
"I'd like her to come," Anemone piped up. "Please?"
Coral and Blister exchanged a significant look. 'They don't trust me,' Tsunami guessed. 'They don't want me to know about any "secret weapon" until they know I'm on Blister's side.'
'Well, too bad.'
"I'm sure it'll be very interesting," Tsunami said with earnest enthusiasm. "Everything you do is interesting, Mother." She blinked her large green eyes at Queen Coral. Across the table, Glory snorted and then tried to hide it with a bout of coughing.
"Please?" Anemone said again.
"All right," Coral said with a sigh. "But not the others." Her gaze flicked suspiciously to Clay.
Tsunami followed Coral, Blister, Anemone, and Whirlpool to a high level of the pavilion she hadn't visited before. The closer they got, the louder an odd noise grew. The level was shaped like a bowl, with low walls and slight slope down to the center. Weapons were lined up along one side: white twisting horn spear like the ones attached to Coral's tail; battle armor of chain link or scales hammered over more scales; gleaming metal claws like the one scavengers carried in all the scrolls.
In the bowl, three dragons were fighting. Two of them were guards, who Tsunami didn't know. But the third dragon was Cascade. Off to the side - watching the fight - were three other SeaWings guards.
Each guard wore metal armor on their chest and shoulders and held a spear, while Cascade wore no armor and was using a massive, metal trident. It was as long as Tsunami was and the end of it was larger than her head. The handle and center prong were light-blue and the other two prongs were orange, like Cascade's scales.
The five of them landed on the pavilion and the tired guards bowed.
"Your Majesties," one of them said. One of the guards fighting stopped to bow to the queens. Cascade and the other guard didn't bow and continued to weave around and jab at each other with their weapons. As soon as the guard bowed, Cascade spun around and slammed the broad side of his trident into the dragons chest and knocked him over.
The guard got up and walked over to the other tired SeaWings.
"How much longer is this going to take," Coral asked the first guard. There was another loud clang and the last guard was on the ground.
"Training went on a little longer than expected," Cascade said, walking up to them. The trident was now strapped to his back. "You five can go eat, rest up." he order. The five guards gave him a thankful nod and flew off the pavilion, going down.
There was a pause before Whirlpool spoke up. "May I?" he said officiously, gesturing to one of the strands of pearls on Coral's wings. She dipped her wings so he could remove it. He strutted to the center of the bowl and carefully laid the rope of pearls on the floor in front of him.
"All right," he said, rubbing his talons together. "See if you can make it crawl over the wall."
Tsunami looked around. Who on earth was he talking to? Where was the secret weapon?
Anemone sat down next to Tsunami and sighed. "Do I have to?" she said. "It seems like a waste," Tsunami stared at her.
"Practicing is never time wasted," Whirlpool said, wagging his claw in a way that made Tsunami want to snap it off. Cascade also had an unimpressed look.
"But I don't want to end up like Albatross," Anemone said. She flicked her wings and edged a little closer to Tsunami.
"He made an entire pavilion grow from stone before he went mad and tried to kill everyone," Whirlpool said patronizingly. "You have a way to go before that happens/ Now. The necklace, please."
Anemone sighed again. She held out her front talons and, to Tsunami's amazement, the necklace began to slowly wind toward toward the wall, moving in curves like a snake.
"Oh my gosh," Tsunami blurted. Suddenly everything made sense - the "magic" inn Whirlpool's title, the self-adjusting harness in the Deep Palace. "Anemone! You're an animus!"
Anemone dropped her talons, and the necklace stopped moving. "I know," she said with an expression like she would rather be descended from sea cucumbers.
"We've had a few animus dragons in the royal family," Coral said proudly. "But not in several generations. Anemone was hatched just in time to help us win this war."
"Careful," Blister said with a hiss.
"She doesn't have to know our whole plan to guess that an animus dragon would be very useful in battle," Coral said. "There are lots of marvelous things we can do with this power."
"Yes, watch this," Whirlpool said. He picked up a metal armor breastplate and flung it up in the air, over the edge. "Catch the spear!" he called to Anemone.
None of the spears moved. The breastplate plummeted toward the lake. "Sorry," Anemone said, not looking very sorry. "You didn't give me enough warning."
"Ow!" someone yelled from below.
"Anemone," Whirlpool said with a sigh. "Battle is all about quick thinking."
"How would you know that?" Cascade said, walking over to the spears by the wall and began looking them over one by one.
Whirlpool frowned at him.
"Try it again," Queen Coral said, clapping her front talons together. "And this time do as you're told, Anemone."
Whirlpool flung another piece of metal armor into the air. Instantly one of the narwhal spears shot after it and pierced it through. Blister and Coral applauded while Cascade frowned, but Tsunami thought it was more interesting that the spear then carefully brought the armor back to rest safely on the floor.
"Impressive," Blister said. "But not much more impressive than what I saw last time. What about progress? What about bigger objects? How much longer must this training go on?"
"I'm sure she's nearly ready," said Queen Coral.
"Years. Lots more years," Anemone said at the same time.
Blister's forked tongue slipped through her teeth, and she narrowed her eyes at Anemone. "Coral," she said, tilting her head.
"Stay here," Coral ordered. She slid as far away as the harness would reach and crouched with her wings spread, whispering to Blister.
Whirlpool strutted over to Tsunami and Anemone. Anemone gave him a glare, and suddenly the pearl necklace he'd left on the floor whirled around, whipped under his belly, and soared off the ledge. With a yelp, the green dragon raced after it, diving over the edge.
"This is what you have to save me from," Anemone whispered quickly.
"Boring lessons with Whirlpool?" tsunami answered. "Sure, I'll get right on that."
"No, not just that," Anemone said, wrinkling her snout. "Although he is awful. All he ever asks me to do is make things move. I can enchant any inanimate object to do my bidding, and he's like, 'Make this spear dance! Now make that chair walk from here to here!' It's insulting, really."
"What else could you do?" Tsunami asked. She glanced at Coral and Blister, but they both had their backs turned and were sharing their own secrets.
"According to Blister, I should be able to enchant the Sky Kingdom's palace to cave in on all the SkyWings," Anemone said softly, looking up at Tsunami. "She also wants me to curse a spear so it will search for Burn's heart and not stop until it kills her."
Tsunami coiled her tail closer, trying not to look as shaken as she felt. If Anemone could do either of those things, she really was a secret weapon. Power like that could end the war in a week.
"I don't know for sure if I can do any of that," Anemone said. "I'm scared to try. I don't want to try. Every time an animus dragon uses her power, she loses a bit of herself." Tsunami's sister held out her talons as if they might not really be hers. "Albatross was a prince and a hero at first, but they didn't know about the price of animus magic then. Building the pavilion turned him evil." She slipped one talon into Tsunami's grasp. It felt colder than ice and hard as stone. "I don't want that to happen to me."
'How can I possibly save you?' Tsunami wondered. Even she was tempted by the kind of power that could bring peace so quickly. But she couldn't ignore the fear in Anemone's eyes.
"First I'll catch the dragon who's trying to kill us," she said, curling one wing around Anemone. "Maybe then Mother will let you off the harness and start to trust you more. Maybe she'll listen to you tell her you don't want to use your power."
"Ha," Anemone muttered.
Tsunami didn't know what else to say. She had no words of advice ready for dealing with strange magical problems. But she did have a lot of other questions for Anemone, and this might be the only time to ask them.
"Can I ask you a question?" she said. "If none of Queen Coral's daughters survived, who would be queen after her?"
Anemone flicked her tail around and studied the end of it. "Who knows? I don't think a queen has ever died and passed on the throne peacefully, at least not in out kingdom. And who else would challenge her? I heard Uncle Shark say once that maybe a son should inherit. But I guess it would probably be our cousin Moray. Except she doesn't want the job - she wants Coral to be queen forever. At least that's what she says."
"You don't believe her?" Tsunami asked.
"There's just something weird about her," Anemone said. "Isn't there? It's like she must be faking, because nobody could really act like that all the time and mean it."
"Maybe," Tsunami said. "But I think the assassin is Shark. I bet he wants Moray to be queen, and if none of Coral's daughters survive, it'll have to be her."
Anemone snorted. "Moray would rather die than challenge the queen.."
Tsunami saw Queen Coral's wings flutter closed. "In the meanwhile," she whispered quickly, "keep acting like you need more training. Make mistakes sometimes if you have to. Make them think you aren't ready for as long as possible."
"Mistakes," Anemone said with a sigh. "Why didn't I think of that?" Queen Coral slid back to them, twister her snout from side to side. "Where's Whirlpool?" she asked.
"I think he lost something," Anemone said innocently.
"Queen Blister wants you to try -" Coral started, but stopped as the SeaWing's head suddenly went up. Blister stared around the cavern, poised in her eerie stillness, nothing but her eyes moving. Tsunami felt hypnotized by her, Anemone, Coral, and Cascade were equally silent, waiting.
Cascade's gaze quickly lifted to the canopy of leaves and vine overhead, Blister followed his gaze with her own.
Cascade let out a low, long growl and grabbed his trident off his back.
Then Tsunami heard it, too.
Something was moving around up there.
Something big.
END OF CHAPTER
A/N
Hope you all liked the triple chapter chapter.
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