Moon Rising (25 page)

Winter turned to Moon, agony written across his face. She knew what he was asking, even though his mind couldn’t put it into clear thoughts yet.

“It’s true,” Moon said, scanning Icicle’s thoughts. “At least, that’s what Scarlet has told her. Scarlet could be lying, but Icicle believes her.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Winter said to his sister.

“Because you’re worthless,” she spat. “And I didn’t want to waste time arguing with your sensitive moral sensibilities.”

“She means she didn’t want to be talked out of it,” Moon said fiercely. “And she knew you would try, and you might even have succeeded, because you’re
not
worthless; you’re smart and brave and capable of caring about other dragons.”

“Is it really true, though?” he said, a question not quite for either Moon or Icicle. “Hailstorm isn’t dead?”

Icicle narrowed her eyes and flicked her tail, weighing the possibilities. “There’s still time,” she hissed at him. “We could still kill the dragonets and get him back.”

Winter hesitated, wavering. The memories of his brother were warm and tense, loving and terrible at the same time. He missed him desperately. And he needed to atone for the guilt of losing him in the first place.

But he shook his head. “Not with more killing. Not for Queen Scarlet. It won’t work.”

“Fine,” Icicle snarled. “I hope you choke on a walrus and die.”

She whirled and dove out the nearest window, tearing straight through the leaf pane and letting in a burst of too-bright sunlight.

“Icicle! Stop!” Winter yelled. He ran to the window and leaned out. “Come back! We can find him together!”

There was no response. In the fading echoes Moon could hear as Icicle flew away, she saw that the IceWing was planning to find Queen Scarlet and complete her mission somehow. The dragonets were far from safe.

Behind the desk, Qibli groaned, and Moon darted over to him as he sat up gingerly. His pale yellow scales were dented and bruised and his amber earring had been nearly torn out of his ear, making a small ragged tear where the hole had been.

Six-Claws said it was idiotic to get this,
he thought, touching his earring with a wince.
I can’t believe I let an IceWing knock me out. Thorn would be unimpressed. I should have started with a fireburst to her face, but I thought she was going to attack Moon and I just jumped in without thinking. Stupid, impulsive, everything Thorn says I need to learn to fix.

Moon reached toward him and then hesitated. “Can I —?” she asked.

He met her eyes and nodded. She took one of his warm talons in hers and gently felt his head. There was a sizable bump over one eye and a couple of claw marks slashed across his chest, but nothing as bad as she’d feared, considering Icicle’s formidable claws.

“That’s right,” Qibli said. He tried to stand up, flinched, and sat down again. “She’d better run. I was just resting for part two: the crushening! Where I do some — crushing — and it’s — very impressive — I think I’d better lie down.”

“Looks like you’ll live,” she said to him, relieved.

As will you,
said Darkstalker, sounding pleased.
At least for now. Tomorrow —

Let’s not think about tomorrow right this second,
Moon suggested.
And by the way … thank you.

*  *  *

Moon sat with Sunny as night fell, on the tallest peak of Jade Mountain, watching a storm approach. A wall of rain was visible to the south, sweeping slowly toward them; patches of blue sky still peeked through the building banks of dark gray clouds. The wind seemed to carry the faraway scent of dragon fire, ocean spray, and the rainforest. Moon wrapped her wings around herself, shivering as the breeze picked up and small raindrops began to fall.

Sunny had her tail tucked around her back talons and was pressing her front talons together. Her strange green-gray eyes were fixed on the line of desert they could still faintly see to the west.

“Poor Sora,” she said. “Queen Moorhen and Queen Ruby will be looking for her. Poor everybody, really, even Icicle. I mean, if Queen Scarlet had Clay — I don’t know what I’d do.”

“There’s one more thing I have to tell you,” Moon said.

I’m not sure this is wise,
Darkstalker interjected.

I’m not going to hide anymore,
she answered.
Even if that means giving up a little safety. Or, all right, a lot of safety, you’ve made your point.

She took a deep breath. “I can read minds. And see the future.”

Oh dear,
Sunny thought immediately, her face creasing with skepticism.
Another Fatespeaker.

“It’s true,” Moon said. She explained about the full moons, and about how she’d hidden her powers from everyone, and about how she’d used them to overhear Icicle and Scarlet and foresee the fire.

When she finished, Sunny’s thoughts were a lot less skeptical. “That’s kind of a huge secret to have kept for so long,” she said, studying Moon’s eyes. “It must have been hard.”

Moon nodded.

There was a pause, and then Sunny said, “Can you tell what I’m thinking right now?”

“Sure.” Moon shook out her wings, tilting her head at Sunny. “You’re wondering how Tsunami will react to this — you don’t think she’ll believe me. And part of you is worrying about Starflight and hoping Fatespeaker will take care of him properly.” Sunny arched her brows, startled. “But mostly,” Moon hurried on, “you’re thinking about the school and wondering if it’s already failed. You’re thinking about giving up and sending everyone home, because it’s only the first week and all these terrible things have happened. You’re wondering if bringing peace to all the tribes is too hard, and if you’re not the right dragon for the job.”

“Wow,” Sunny said faintly.

“But you are,” Moon blurted. “You can’t give up. Of course it’s hard; the whole point is that you’re trying to fix something that’s nearly impossible to fix. But if no one ever even tries, then it will always be terrible. You and Clay and the others … dragons believe in you. You have to take that gift and do something with it, not run away from it.”

Hmmmm,
Darkstalker said significantly.

I know, I hear myself,
she said.

“Was that a prophecy?” Sunny said hopefully. “Did you see us changing the world? Like, five eggs to hatch on brightest night, five dragons born to teach history and art and get everyone to calm down and be nice to each other?”

Moon laughed. “When the school has lasted twenty years, the tribes will be at peace?” She shook her head. “No, it’s not a prophecy. It’s just faith.”

Sunny nodded. “I know all about that.”
And if we make our own destiny, that’s what I want mine to be,
she thought. “Let’s go back inside before those clouds really open up on us.” She reached out and touched Moon’s shoulder. “Thank you for telling me all that, Moon. I mean, about your powers and everything.”

They flew down to the Great Hall, where Moon found Kinkajou and Qibli waiting for her. Kinkajou ran over and threw her wings around Moon. Her frantic relieved thoughts seemed to bounce wildly along Moon’s scales.
Alive! Friends! Heroes! Averting tragedy and saving the day!

“Qibli told me what happened,” she said. “I can’t believe I missed it all! I can’t believe I wasn’t there to protect you! You’re totally heroes, saving us all from bad guys! Although I’m kind of confused about who’s the bad guy and who I should be mad at, because SORA WHAT but also Icicle was totally scary but then SAVING HER BROTHER ACK so I get it but still, attacking my winglet! My best friend! Not OK!”

Best friend. After everything?
“I thought you were mad at me,” Moon said. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sunny slipping away with a wave.

“I was, but that was yesterday,” Kinkajou said. She released Moon and stepped back, gleaming gold and pink with blue all along her spine. “I mean, I realized it’s not that big a deal; I kind of say everything I’m thinking anyway, right?” She grinned. “Or if you hear something you shouldn’t, that’s kind of worse for you than for me, I figure. And I was thinking if
you
promise to tell me all
your
secrets from now on, then it won’t matter if you know all of mine. Right?”

Moon smiled back, but thought uncomfortably of Darkstalker.

Stop, stop,
he said.
I see all the bad decisions you’re about to make. Don’t do it, Moon.

“Where’s Turtle?” Moon asked, ignoring him.

“Here,” he said, stepping out of the shadows. She hadn’t noticed the quiet fuzz of his mind beyond the clamor of Kinkajou’s thoughts.

“Can I see your armband?” she asked.

Inside her head, Darkstalker sighed.
I literally can’t see any future where I can talk you out of this.

Oh, good,
Moon thought.
Then take a break and don’t try.

Turtle slid the golden band down and over his talons and handed it to her. The silence instantly fell over everything and Moon shivered. It was such a
lonely
feeling. How did other dragons live like this all the time?

She studied the black rocks studded around the band. There were six of them, smaller than Onyx’s stone, but they were all the same scorched-looking black with flecks of silver and otherworldly metals.

“Where did these stones come from?” she asked Turtle.

“Oh, it’s kind of a cool story,” he said. “I was out swimming at night with a few of my brothers a while ago — it’s great, the sea at night with all the stars — and we were watching the comet that was so bright, remember? And then I saw something like a trail of fire fall from the sky into the ocean. No one else wanted to come search for it with me, so I figured I could keep what I found, which was this big chunk of black rock that had fallen all the way to the sea floor. It wasn’t hard to find, actually; it turned the water all around it a whole lot hotter. Anyway I took a few bits that had broken off and had them made into that armband.”

“Skyfire,” Moon said, passing it back to him. She had a brief, intensely curious impulse to give the armband to Qibli for a minute, so she could hear what Turtle was thinking and maybe find out his secret. But that was exactly the kind of thing she needed them to trust her
not
to do. “That’s what Onyx calls it. She has a piece of it, too.”

Qibli went still, looking at her. He was already figuring out what she was going to say.

She turned to include Kinkajou as well. “It turns out that skyfire can block mind reading. I discovered that today, while we were talking to Onyx. That’s why I can’t read her, or Turtle — if you’re wearing this rock, I can’t hear your thoughts at all.” She faced Turtle again. “I was hoping — if it’s all right with you, Turtle, I wondered if Kinkajou and Qibli and Winter could each have one of these rocks. You’re all my friends — my winglet — and I want you to have a way to keep your thoughts private.”

Kinkajou leaped up and hugged her again.

“Very cool,” Qibli said, giving her a smile.

“That explains a lot,” Turtle said. He started picking at the stones in the band. “Of course they can have them.”

“I’ll take Winter his and explain everything,” Moon said with a deep breath.

“Actually,” Qibli said, “I have bad news.”

Moon saw it in his mind; she couldn’t believe she hadn’t picked it out of the torrent of his thoughts before.

“Oh, no, really?” she said.

“What?” Kinkajou asked. “What? What? WHAT?”

“It’s Winter,” Qibli said. “I checked our cave for him an hour ago. He’s gone.”

“Gone?” Kinkajou cried with dismay. “Why? Where’d he go?”

“I don’t know, but Bandit’s cage is missing, too,” Qibli said. “So I don’t think he’s coming back.”

“Oh,” Turtle said. “I saw him leaving, but I thought he was just going hunting. I should have stopped him.” He managed to pry two rocks free and handed one to Qibli, then another to Kinkajou. Their thoughts fuzzed out into that quiet hum as they slipped the rocks into the library card pouches around their necks. Moon could still hear dragons elsewhere in the school, but she knew she’d miss listening to Qibli and Kinkajou.

I’ll just have to listen better to what they actually say,
she promised herself.

“Which way was he going?” Moon asked Turtle.

“Northwest, toward the forest that’s between the mountains and the desert,” he said. “Uh. Where are
you
going?”

Moon was heading for the mouth of the cave, where they could see sheets of rain pouring down.

“I’m going to find him,” she said.

“In this weather?” Turtle protested.

“Oh yay!” Kinkajou cried. “Me too!”

“Are you sure?” Moon said to her, waving one wing at the storm outside. “I understand if you don’t —”

“I’m a
Rain
Wing,” Kinkajou said. “It rains all the
time
in the
rain
forest. Trust me, I can handle it.”

“I’m not sure I can,” Qibli said, rubbing the back of his head. “But I’m coming with you anyway.”

Kinkajou looked expectantly at Turtle.

He shuffled his feet, flickering his glow-in-the-dark scales nervously. “In this
weather?
” he said again.

“Come on, Turtle!” she said. “We’re a winglet! We’re all that’s left of the Jade Winglet! We should stick together! Also, how can you be bothered by a little water? You
live
in it. You can actually breathe it. You’ll be fine.” She bumped his hip hard enough to overbalance him and he took a staggering step sideways.

“It’s
different,
” he objected. “Swimming is not the same as trying to fly while getting blown about and whacked in the face with little balls of water and also lightning — have we talked about the lightning?”

“He’s coming, too,” Kinkajou said to Moon. Turtle sighed in defeat.

“None of you have to do this,” Moon said. “I just — I feel like I owe it to him.”

“He’s my clawmate,” Qibli pointed out. “Also, I am a total expert on evil brothers and sisters.”

“And I am coming to keep you safe,” Kinkajou said. “Don’t argue with me, I’m very menacing.” She turned her wings black and bared her teeth, but the pink scales that remained rather undercut the effect.

Moon smiled at them. “All right,” she said. “Let’s go.”

*  *  *

It seemed as though they flew for hours before they reached the outskirts of the forest, and then they spent forever circling over the trees. Moon kept thinking she heard a distant whisper that sounded like Winter, but the force and fury of the storm drowned out even the noise in her head.

“M-m-maybe we should go back,” Turtle shouted to her as they did another pass over a clearing she was sure they’d flown over three times. “Maybe he’s halfway to the Ice Kingdom already.”

“I don’t think so,” Qibli called back. “Not with Bandit. He wouldn’t fly too far with that cage — scavengers don’t handle this kind of weather as well as we do.”

Turtle made a “would rather not handle this weather either myself” face and tried to shake some of the rain off his waterlogged wings.

“Wait!” Moon cried, grabbing Kinkajou’s tail. “I heard him! This way!”

She swooped toward the trees, half blinded by the downpour. A gust of wind blew her sideways at the wrong moment and she collided with the top of a tree, but she righted herself and dropped down through the branches to the forest floor.

The others followed, one by one, as she led the way through the dark forest. Suddenly she stopped to listen to a voice up ahead.

“Go on, get out of here. I know it’s raining, but it’s better than the Ice Kingdom, trust me.”

“Winter!” Kinkajou yelped. “That’s him!”

Moon breathed a plume of fire and it reflected off silvery scales in a clearing to their right. They hurried over and found Winter crouched beside his scavenger cage. The door was open and Bandit stood at the edge, staring bleakly out at the huge, dark forest and the storm.

“By all the snow monsters, what are you doing here?” Winter demanded, flapping his wet wings.

“Looking for you,” Moon said.

“And we found you!” Kinkajou added. “We’re amazing!”

He turned his head to look back at Bandit, avoiding their eyes. “I’m not going back to Jade Mountain,” he said. “I’m going to look for my brother.”

“I thought so,” Moon said. “We want to help you.”

“We
do
?” Turtle said, sounding alarmed.

“Yes!” Kinkajou said. “I didn’t know we did, but now I totally do!”

Wait,
came the voice of Darkstalker, faint and whispery.
Moon. Please don’t leave me.

She hadn’t thought of that — that if she went with Winter, wherever he meant to go, she’d be flying out of Darkstalker’s range. He wouldn’t be able to communicate with her anymore. He’d be all alone.

I’m afraid I’ll go mad,
he said.
With no one to talk to — no way to know if you’re all right …
For the first time ever, his surface cracked and she saw past what he wanted her to see. Beneath the funny, confident, commanding voice she knew, she felt a deep hole, and all the way down the hole reverberated with infinite loneliness. A moment later, Darkstalker pulled his guard back up, and she was left skating on his conversational thoughts again.

I’ll come back,
she promised, feeling hugely sorry for him.
And listen, while I’m out there … I can look for your talisman.

Will you?
he asked.
Really?

I will try.

Winter was shaking his head. “You can’t come with me,” he said. “I’m going to Queen Glacier. I need to explain it all to her and get her to help me find Hailstorm.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to go to the Sky Kingdom?” Kinkajou asked. “Your brother must be imprisoned there somewhere, right? We could look for him in, like, all the mountain caves, or something.”

“Or you could go after Icicle,” Qibli said. “Try to find out more about what Scarlet told her.”

“I don’t know where she’s gone,” Winter said bitterly.

“I have a guess,” Qibli said with a glance at Kinkajou. “You won’t like it, though. I think she’s gone to the rainforest. She knows the one Scarlet hates the most is Glory — everyone knows that, if they know the story of what Glory did to her face. So I think Icicle might think that if she kills Glory, Scarlet will forgive her for failing to kill the others.”

There was a hushed silence, broken by the patter of raindrops and a roll of thunder overhead.

“Then
I’m
going to the rainforest,” Kinkajou said fiercely. “I’m not letting her kill
my
awesome queen.”

Which is the right way?
Moon wondered.
Where should we go?
If only Darkstalker could tell them. This seemed like exactly the right time for a vision of the future.

Are you sure?
he asked.

Yes — can you tell us how to find her?
Moon asked.

No,
he said,
but I’ve been trying to protect you from this … and if you’re leaving my range, then I won’t be able to anymore.

What —?
Moon started to ask, but then suddenly a headache hit her like nothing she’d ever felt before, like an entire tribe of dragons descending on her head with their claws out. She staggered back with a cry, and the others whirled toward her.

“Moon?” Kinkajou leaped over, colliding wetly with her in the dark. Her scales were slick with raindrops as she tried to hold Moon up.

But Moon couldn’t stand; the weight of the vision was bearing down on her. It was everything from her nightmare: the mountain falling, the dragons dying, the fire and earth cracking and destruction. Words were marching through her head and out of her mouth, inexorable and strange:

She choked for a moment on the last line, as though it were coming out edged with thorns. But at last it was said, and she collapsed into Kinkajou’s wings, and the vision disappeared, taking the headache with it.

“By all the snakes,” Qibli said. Thunder rolled across the sky again and lightning flashed, illuminating the scared faces around her. “What was that?”

“That’s what you’ve been muttering in your sleep,” Kinkajou said.

“It sounded like a prophecy,” Winter said disbelievingly.

Moon forced herself to stand up, although her wings were shaking so hard she thought they might fall off. “Turtle,” she said, “please give him one of the rocks.”

Winter eyed the small black stone with suspicion as Turtle dropped it in his palm. “What’s this?”

“I have a lot to explain,” she said. “Everything, the whole truth. I’m going to tell you everything.”

Everything?
Darkstalker said with a distant sigh.

“That sounds ominous,” Winter said.

“No more ominous than
Jade Mountain will fall beneath thunder and ice
,” Qibli said. “I hope we’re all planning to talk about that, because I’m extremely unsettled right now.”

“She said we have to find the lost city of night,” Kinkajou said. “That’s all, and then everything will be fine. Right? Isn’t that what everyone else heard?”

“I’m pretty sure I heard that we’re all going to die,” Turtle said. “Death, death, monsters everywhere, death.”

“Is that it?” Qibli asked Moon. “Is that what you saw? Jade Mountain is going to fall on us all?”

“I don’t know,” Moon said. “I’ve had visions, but none of them ever came out in words like that before. I don’t know what it means.”

Probably means it’s important,
Darkstalker offered.

Thank you, that’s very helpful,
she retorted.
Does it mean that what I saw is inevitable?

No … there’s another possible future,
he said.
But it’s along a very difficult and dark path.

She closed her eyes.
Can I see that one? Is it awful, too?

In response, she felt a slow spreading pain through her temples, and a moment later, a vision appeared. It looked like Jade Mountain Academy, but somehow different. Sunlight poured through the windows as she moved through the caves. Small dragonets she didn’t know, each of them a different color, played a game of chase in the sky.

She came into the library and the dragon at the desk raised his head, listening. It was Starflight, but he was older, radiating happiness and peace. A small black dragonet raced into the cave, leaped onto the desk, kissed the side of his head, took one of the scrolls, and flew off down another tunnel, calling, “Thank you, Father!”

“No flying in the tunnels!” he called after her, but he was smiling.

Clay — older, bigger Clay — poked his head in through another entrance and said, “My class is asking for more scrolls about the War of SandWing Succession. I thought maybe you could come talk and talk and talk at them instead, and then maybe they’ll go to sleep and stop asking me questions.”

“Ha ha, hilarious,” Starflight said, sliding out from behind the desk. “Firefly, just put that back when you’re done, all right?”

Over in the window bay, a dark purple dragonet answered, “Sure,” absentmindedly. She was curled up with two other dragons, one blue and one a deep orange-brown Moon had never seen before. They had a scroll spread out in front of them and were studying it together.

“Can you imagine?” the blue one said. “The tribes hated each other so much back then.”

“It’s a good thing we’re so much smarter than all the dragons who lived before us,” said the purple one importantly. “We’d never make
their
mistakes.”

“I’m glad we’re here, though,” said the third dragonet. “At the Jade Mountain Academy. I’m glad it exists.”

“Me too,” the others said in unison.

The vision faded quietly away.

That’s what we’re fighting for,
Moon thought.
Thank you, Darkstalker.

I can help you make it real,
he said.
Remember that when you can’t hear me anymore.