Wings of Fire Book Four: The Dark Secret (21 page)

Two hours later, Queen Glory’s army was on the move.

The sun was just starting to sink below the trees. It wasn’t dark here yet, but it would be soon.

Starflight dug his claws into the mud by the stream, trying to beat down his terror. The clearing bustled with activity, but it was unsettling activity, because most of the gathered dragons were essentially invisible, carefully camouflaged against the background. Starflight kept being bumped and jostled by what appeared to be empty air.

Tsunami was trying to make all the RainWings face her and shut up so she could give them a rousing battle speech. The fact that this was proving difficult did not bode well for the overall attack, Starflight thought anxiously.

“Starflight,” Glory said, materializing beside him. Her scales shimmered from dark green to a sort of worried-looking pale blue and back. “Are you all right?”

“I guess,” Starflight said. He shifted from one foot to another. “You know. Nervous.”

“Do you want to stay here?” she asked him quietly. “I’d understand if you do.”

“No!” Starflight said. “I mean, I shouldn’t. I can’t.” He glanced at Sunny, who was sorting piles of sleeping darts into little bags that could go over the RainWings’ necks. She had none of the weapons other dragons had — no venom, no camouflage, no fireproof scales like Clay, not even the poisonous tail barb a SandWing should have. He’d never let her go off to a battle without him. Stay behind while his friends threw themselves into danger? How could she ever love him if he made that choice? “I promise I won’t be scared.”

“It’s normal to be scared,” Glory said. “
I’m
scared. You’d have to be crazy not to be — well, crazy or Tsunami, which is basically the same thing. You just have to push that aside and do what you have to anyway. But I meant, do you want to stay here because we’re going to fight your tribe? If it’s too much to ask, I understand if you want to sit this one out.”

“They’re not my tribe,” Starflight said. “You are. You and Sunny and Tsunami and Clay.”

“Aw, you big sap,” she said, but her wingtips went all rose-colored, and he knew Glory felt the same way even if she’d never say it out loud. “All right,” she said, punching his shoulder, a rare gesture of physical affection from her. “Let’s go change the world.”

She bounded to the tunnel opening and summoned the first wave of RainWings with a flick of her tail. They huddled, listening to her orders.

Starflight looked around at Sunny again.

I might die today.

What if she never knows?

What if I die without ever telling her how I feel?

He lifted his face toward the setting sun. He’d bluffed the NightWing guards. He’d escaped from the NightWing island. Surely he could say three words to one dragon.

When he looked down again, Sunny was right in front of him. His heart seized as though someone had wrapped fierce talons around it.

“We’re going to be all right,” she told him, shaking out her wings. “Just think of the prophecy. We have to be alive to stop the war, right? So we
can’t
die today. Isn’t that comforting?”

“I wish I had your optimism,” he said.

“It’s not optimism,” she objected. “It’s faith. There’s a reason we’re here. What we do today is part of it, but there’s more, too, and we have to survive to make it all happen.” Her smile made him feel as if lightning were crackling under his scales.

“Sunny,” he said hesitantly. “There’s something — I mean … something I’ve wanted to tell you. For a long time.”

“I’m listening,” she said, tilting her head.

Across the clearing, Glory was flaring her wings and waiting for silence. It was now or possibly never, depending on what happened today.

“I love you,” he blurted.

Sunny blinked, and then blinked a few more times. “I … I love you, too, Starflight.”

“No,” he said. “I mean — I mean you’re all I think about, and I want to be near you and it hurts when I’m not, and
everything I do, I think, what would Sunny want me to do? And I think you’re the only dragon who sees me the whole way I am and likes me anyway.…” He thought, uncomfortably, of Fatespeaker and spotted her at the same time, across the clearing near Glory, watching the RainWing queen with her eyes wide and her head upturned. But his feelings for her and his feelings for Sunny … well, they
couldn’t
be the same.

“And I had to tell you,” he hurried on, “in case something happens to either one of us today, although if anything happens to you I don’t know how I’d be able to breathe or think or do anything ever again.”

“Oh my gosh, Starflight, stop,” Sunny said in a rush. “This — right now — how can I say anything, let alone the right thing, when we’re — when everything —?” She spread her wings helplessly, indicating the mob of RainWings around them.

“It’s all right,” Starflight said, and realized that he meant it. “Don’t say anything. You don’t have to. I just wanted you to know, just in case.”

She wrinkled her forehead, as if that didn’t seem right to her, but he twined his tail around hers and looked down at their talons sinking into the riverbank.

“Just promise me you’ll be safe,” he said.

“I hardly get to do anything in this battle,” she said fiercely. “
You
promise
me
you’ll be safe.”

He opened and closed his mouth, wishing he could promise that and mean it.

“Exactly,” she said. “So stop talking like a scroll and just tell me you’ll see me soon, OK?”

“I’ll see you soon,” he said, and for a moment her certainty made him believe it, too.

“Good luck. Kick a NightWing for me,” she said as Starflight stepped away, and then she pulled him back for a quick hug, and a moment later he found himself walking over to Glory, his mind a daze.

I did it. I told her. And the world didn’t collapse.

The queen of the RainWings flared her wings one more time and the clearing finally fell silent.

“You know I don’t like giving speeches,” Glory said, “so I’ll just say this. We’re going to save our fellow RainWings, and we’re going to make this rainforest safe, and we’re going to do it like real RainWings. And by the three moons, try not to talk or sneeze or fall asleep in the tunnel on the way there, all right?”

She turned to the dragon standing next to her. It took Starflight a moment to recognize Glory’s brother Jambu; he wasn’t his usual vibrant raspberry color, but a rippling shadowy black that would blend in well with the tunnel walls. He was apparently one of the best shots with a blowgun, and he’d volunteered to be the first one through the hole. Starflight wasn’t sure if that was bravery or just not knowing what he was getting himself into, but right now it amounted to the same thing.

Jambu hopped up to the hole and slid in; Glory followed
immediately behind him, and then Mangrove, Liana, Grandeur, and three other RainWings armed with blowguns.

According to the plan, Starflight and Fatespeaker were next, so that once the guards were knocked out, they could lead the RainWings to the prison caves and the fortress. He took a deep breath and looked back, hoping to catch Sunny’s eye.

She was watching him, her scales glowing in the fading sunlight.

I can do this.

Starflight clambered into the hole and almost immediately, Fatespeaker followed, nearly stepping on his tail. Neither of them said anything, but he felt a little safer knowing she was at his back.

It was stifling in the tunnel, and eerily quiet; the RainWings ahead of him were stealthier than he’d have expected. He wasn’t sure how far ahead they were, exactly; even with his excellent night vision, Starflight couldn’t make out the difference between shadows in here. The tunnel tilted down, and he crept along as fast as he dared, keeping his wings carefully folded to hide the silver scales.

Ahead of him, he heard a quiet
zzt
, and then another, and then seven more in rapid succession. Sleeping darts fired from blowguns, straight out of the shadows, hopefully knocking out all the guards by the hole before any of them noticed and sounded the alarm.

Next, Starflight heard a muffled
thump
as one RainWing after another jumped into the cave, and then he saw the
flicker of firelight. A moment later, he climbed out of the tunnel and felt the warm rocks scraping below his scales.

Nine NightWing guards were lying around the cave, each looking as if he or she had just fallen asleep all of a sudden. Their chests rose and fell peacefully; their spears rested harmlessly on the ground nearby.

Glory turned to Mangrove and pointed at the spears. She made some kind of signal Starflight didn’t follow, but Mangrove apparently did. He started gathering all the weapons in the cave and passed them to the dragons still coming through the tunnel. They were handed back talon over talon until they were safely stashed in the rainforest, far away from NightWing claws.

The NightWings are still dangerous. We can’t take away their talons or teeth or fire. But one less weapon in a NightWing’s claws can’t hurt.

Jambu and Grandeur had already crept ahead; if he strained his ears, Starflight could hear the
zzt zzt
of the blowguns taking out the guards by the cave entrance.

How long was this going to work? How many NightWings could they send to sleep before somebody noticed? And once someone sounded the alarm, how soon before RainWings started dying?

“All clear.” Grandeur’s voice whispered along the tunnel like leaves rustling.

Glory’s scales had shifted to gray and red and black to match the cave. Starflight couldn’t see her, but he felt her wings lightly brush his. It was his turn to lead the way.

He glanced back at the hole that led to the rainforest. Tsunami and Clay and Sunny were supposed to stay out of sight during the first wave — if anyone spotted blue or brown or gold scales on this island, they’d know the tunnel had been breached and the NightWings would be on them all immediately. So they were to stay hidden until the stealth campaign turned into a real battle. On the one talon, Starflight was relieved that he didn’t have to worry about Sunny, but on the other, he’d feel a lot better if Clay and Tsunami were leading the charge instead of him.

But this is the smart way to do it — the only way to do it.

He padded down the tunnel with Fatespeaker beside him, stepping over the slumbering NightWing guards. He could hear the sound of the ocean waves crashing on the black sand below. Outside, the sky was even more gray and ominous than before, with grim lowering clouds that flickered with lightning, all lit by the red glow from the volcano.

After the bright warmth of the rainforest, the island air seemed even darker and smokier. As Starflight stepped out onto the cave ledge, he felt the ground tremble beneath his talons, then stop.

That’s unsettling,
he thought.

“What a nightmare,” Grandeur’s voice whispered behind him.

“It’s worse than I expected,” said Jambu. “How can anyone live here?”

“You carry this,” Glory said, handing Starflight one of the guard’s spears. “We might need it, and it’ll look less
weird in your claws — if I hold it, it’ll look like it’s just flying around through the air by itself.”

Starflight nodded, although the weight of the spear felt extremely strange in his talons. It was more likely that he’d accidentally poke his own eye out than that he’d be able to use this to fight. He tried to hold it as far away from himself as possible as he lifted up into the sky.

“Take us to the prison caves first,” Glory’s voice said from the air beside him. “Once Mangrove and the others are set up to free the prisoners, you and I can head for the fortress.”

“You?” Starflight said. It was really odd not being able to see her; he felt as if he were arguing with the air. “That’s the most dangerous part. As the queen, shouldn’t you keep yourself safe? You can send someone else for Splendor.” He tilted his wings to soar toward the prison caves and the lava river.

He could feel air currents shifting around him as several invisible dragons flew alongside. He wasn’t sure how many RainWings were following him, but he hoped none of the NightWings would hear the wingbeats and get suspicious. There were very few NightWings in sight — one or two on the balconies of the fortress plus the guards in the cave entrances below. Starflight guessed that the rest were assembling in preparation for their planned attack tonight.

“I’m not going to be the kind of queen who sends other dragons into danger that I’m not willing to face myself,” Glory said. “And even if I could send someone for Splendor, I can’t send anyone else to face Battlewinner.”

Starflight sucked in a surprised breath. “Battlewinner?” he said. “Is that a good idea?”

“Weren’t you the one who suggested diplomacy?” Glory said, and he could hear amusement in her voice.

Yes, but that was before I knew anything about the NightWings.

“Rescuing the prisoners is the top priority,” she went on, “but if I can threaten her somehow — maybe if I tell her I’ll expose her secret — perhaps I can get her to leave us and the rainforest alone from now on.”

“I doubt it,” Fatespeaker said. “The NightWings really want your rainforest.”

“Well, too bad,” Glory snapped.

“Shh,” Starflight said. They were approaching the first prison cave. He dipped his head toward it and felt a
whoosh
of wind as one of the RainWings dove past him. A moment later, the two guards in the cave entrance both reached for their necks, looking confused, and then, in slow motion, they crumpled into slumbering heaps.

“We’re lucky the caves line the river,” Starflight said, circling around in the sky. “The guards at each entrance can’t see any of the others get knocked out.”

He saw the guards in the next cave collapse to the ground, and then the next, and the next. The RainWings were fanning out, following instructions Glory had given them before leaving the rainforest. He saw the shimmer of scales and teeth here and there as the RainWings landed in pairs, shifted color, and darted into the prison caves.