The Lost Heir (15 page)

“Well,” Tsunami said. “Sometimes bossing doesn’t work, and you have to try something else. It’d be much easier if everyone just did as I told them.”

He laughed. “I should get out of here before someone sees me.”

She nodded and wound her tail around his. “I’ll look for you again tomorrow, if I can. There’s a lot of Aquatic I still have to learn.”

He smiled and slipped out of the cave into the water. She waded onto the beach and watched his sky-blue scales vanish into the underwater tunnel. She was glad she’d found at least one dragon she could trust in the Kingdom of the Sea.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,” Glory started.

“Don’t you dare,” Tsunami said, shoving her into the lake.

The RainWing squawked indignantly and flapped up into the air, showering them all with cold droplets. Rain was still dripping down through the canopy, and small waves scudded across the surface of the bay.

“Let’s try that cave,” Tsunami said, pointing to one far up the cliff. “If there’s anyone in it, I’ll clear them out.”

Glory snorted.

But the cave turned out to be empty and dry, and once they all huddled into it, it felt warm as well. Sunny immediately curled around the egg, stroking it and murmuring to it. Starflight blew a small spurt of flame into the air to heat them up.

“The dragonet can’t hear you,” Tsunami pointed out to Sunny.

“We don’t know that,” Sunny said. “She might be scared. I’m just telling her it’s all right, and we’ll take care of her.”

Tsunami hid a smile. She was glad Sunny had agreed to take the egg — she’d been a little worried that the little SandWing might still be too mad at Tsunami to want to help. But maybe she’d forgotten about Tsunami attacking the SkyWing soldier. Or maybe Sunny was always willing to help. She didn’t fight about every thing just to be difficult, like Glory did.

Clay nudged Tsunami with his snout. “We’re happy to see you,” he said. “Tell us about the tribe. Does everyone adore you? Are they good fighters? What do they eat?” he finished wistfully.

“Let me find you some food first,” Tsunami said, turning toward the cave entrance. She was surprised at how warm and happy she felt to be back with her friends again.

This was how she’d expected to feel among the SeaWings — like she was coming home.

So why don’t I?

Tsunami dropped three cauldrons on the cave floor — one packed with fish, one with clear water, and one with a seaweed-mushroom salad. She’d found them on the kitchen level, unguarded, so she thought they might as well go to the dragonets.

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 fire into the cauldron, which left all 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 all the scrolls say,” Starflight pointed out through a mouthful of charred fish.

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.

“Anyway, it’s not just the scrolls. Her subjects think she’s a great queen, too,” Tsunami said loyally.
Most of them. I think.

“Compelling,” said Glory. “Except for the part where she’s kill ing off all her 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 her 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.

“It’s a good way to make herself look innocent,” Starflight offered. “Besides, 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 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 kill ing off the female dragonets. She wants them alive more than anyone.”

“Someone tried to kill you?” Clay said. “Are you all right?”

“I’d like to know what would have happened to
us
if they’d succeeded,” Glory said angrily.

“Are you saying Sunny’s in danger now?” Starflight demanded at the same time. “Because of that 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 even her idea in the first place.”

Glory and Starflight exchanged “yeah, right” glances. Tsunami frowned at them.

“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?”

“She could have sent someone else,” Starflight said. “Or the attack on you could be unrelated to the princess murders. Perhaps there’s another reason someone wants you dead.”

“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. Queen Coral thought she’d sent him on ahead already, so nobody knew where he was exactly.”

“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 had 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,” 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 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 talons 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. 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 breathing under her snout was more calming than 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 others about Kestrel.

“WHERE ARE THEY?!”

Tsunami bolted awake out of a nightmare about the last egg slipping through her claws and smashing on a coral reef. She blinked and checked under her wing. Sunny was still curled neatly around the egg, keeping it warm. The little SandWing lifted her head as if something had woken her up as well. What was it?

“WHERE ARE THE DRAGONETS? WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER? WHERE IS MY EGG?”

“Up here,” called an unfamiliar voice with a weird hiss to it.

Tsunami leaped to her feet. A shape was coiled in the cave entrance, watching them. Glittering black eyes met Tsunami’s. A poisonous tail barb flicked up and down. White-gold scales marked with black diamond patterns caught the glint of sunlight now trickling through the canopy.

The storm had passed.

And there was a SandWing watching them sleep.

Tsunami didn’t have to remember the illustrations in their scrolls to guess who it was. She poked her friends with her claws.

“Wake up, you lazy snoring manatees,” she hissed.

“
You’re
a lazy snoring 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.

“Aww,” he said, his wings drooping. “What happened to the hippos?”

“Look,” Tsunami whispered, pointing toward the cave entrance.

Her friends all went silent as they saw the SandWing in the shadows.

“Well, hello,” said the stranger with a sly smile. Tsunami shivered without quite knowing why. “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 on conversationally. “Very wise. I would have done the same thing.”

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 Tsunami.

“Where is my egg?” she demanded, eyeing the other four 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 trusted with our future, who can?” She smiled again, but Tsunami couldn’t shake a weird feeling of uneasiness.

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.

Tsunami squashed a flare of irritation.

Blister clasped Coral’s front talons in hers and quickly let go. “I was thrilled to hear it,” she said. “And one of them was your beautiful missing daughter, as we always suspected.”

“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. She felt her friends behind her: Starflight frozen in fear; Sunny craning her neck for a better view; Glory studying her claws as if she wasn’t that interested; Clay curious but mostly trying to keep his stomach from growling too loudly.

“Then introduce your friends,” Coral ordered, smiling at Blister again.

“Clay, Sunny, Starflight, Glory,” Tsunami said, flicking a claw at each of them as she said their names. Queen Coral frowned at her.

“Marvelous,” said Blister smoothly. “All so brave and clever-looking. I heard you weren’t a SkyWing, Glory, but that doesn’t bother me. SkyWings are overrated, don’t you agree?”

Glory’s wings twitched, and a ripple of dark pink shifted across her stone-gray scales.

“You ‘heard’?” Tsunami demanded. “How? Nobody knew that except our three guardians. They didn’t even tell the other Talons of Peace.”

Anemone gazed at her from behind Coral’s wing, her blue eyes wide. The SeaWing guards shuffled on their feet ner vously.

“Hmmm,” said Blister. Her eyes flicked to Tsunami and away. “Let’s just say I have friends. NightWing friends.” She slithered up to Starflight and brushed one claw slowly down his neck. “So I’ve heard a lot about
you
.”

The NightWing dragonet really looked as if he might turn to stone and never move again. Tsunami would have kicked him if she’d been closer.
Don’t be so impressed by her. We’re the ones with the power. According to the prophecy,
we
choose the next SandWing queen, and she knows it!

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 Coral’s 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 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 again 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.”

Tsunami’s gills flared. She was not a baby dragonet to be ordered around. And she had no intention of leaving her friends alone again.

“Let the others come, too,” Blister said before Tsunami could speak up. “I’d love to get to know them better.”

Coral wrinkled her snout at the dragonets. “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 little dragonet a surprised look.

Sunny hugged the egg closer. “No way,” she said. “It stays with me.”

Blister shrugged, and Tsunami suddenly wondered how she felt about new dragonets who might threaten her ally’s life. Maybe it was in Blister’s best interests to make sure no one survived to challenge Coral. She certainly seemed sinister enough to be the assassin.

But Blister couldn’t breathe underwater, so she couldn’t get to the Royal Hatchery. She might be involved, but she couldn’t actually be committing the murders. It had to be a fellow SeaWing.

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.

Starflight was seated to Blister’s right, with Tsunami next to Anemone on her mother’s 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.

Tsunami spotted Snail and Herring among the guards. Their eyes darted anxiously from side to side, as if they were wondering how they were still alive.

Because Mother wants to make a spectacle of them,
Tsunami guessed. Coral was probably waiting for the right moment to punish them in public, the way she’d punished Tortoise.

Well, two can play the spectacle game, Your Majesty.

“MOTHER!” Tsunami declared 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.

“I have something DREADFULLY SHOCKING to tell you!” Tsunami announced. She wanted this to be loud, so every dragon could witness it.

“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, but Tsunami couldn’t tell whether that was because the news actually surprised her or because she was being confronted openly with what she’d done.

“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 dearest daughter’s dearest friends. Who are part of the prophecy and every thing.”

“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 glare at Lagoon, who froze with a sea snail halfway to her mouth, suddenly realizing 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, but Tsunami spotted it, and it was one Riptide had taught her.

Silence
.

Oh, Mother,
Tsunami thought sadly.

“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.”

Tsunami was fairly sure Lagoon wouldn’t actually suffer very much. Queen Coral would have her back at Council meetings before long. But Tsunami wasn’t done.

“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 every thing! Is that not UTTERLY SHOCKING?”

“It is,” Coral said. Tsunami thought she might be 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 choose 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 her, 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 dungeon 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.

Splendid,
Tsunami thought to herself. It didn’t guarantee that Snail and the other guards would be safe, but surely that had to make it more difficult for Queen Coral to punish them for last night.

Not only that, but with Shark in the dungeon, even for only a day or two, Tsunami felt like she and her friends and the egg would all be a lot safer.

“Such excitement,” Blister said. “If we’re quite finished with our 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 then repeating those things over and over, especially when no one cares to hear them.” She shot a grin at Starflight, wishing he would relax. He looked too petrified to eat.

“How splendid! How impressive!” Whirlpool said from beside her, in a voice of sincere admiration. Tsunami wrinkled her snout at him. He probably
would
get along well with Starflight, now that she thought about it. But Starflight was not even remotely as awful or annoying as Whirlpool.

“I assume you have a plan about how to fulfill this prophecy,” Blister said. “I mean, you must, right?”

A tense hush fell over the feasting table. Ears were pricked all over the palace. Every dragon in Pyrrhia wanted to hear the answer to this.