“She’s gone,” said Preyhunter. “We’ll never find her now — not without running the risk of a RainWing spotting us.”
“Let’s get out of here,” said Strongwings. “Before she brings back reinforcements.”
“Talons and tails!” Fierceteeth hissed. “We needed her!”
“We still have useful information for the next SandWing queen,” said Preyhunter. “They all want to know where the dragonets are. If we hurry, we’ll be the only ones selling that information, and we don’t need the SandWing as proof. We’re NightWings; everyone believes us.”
“Makes sense. Let’s go,” Strongwings said.
And with a flurry of wingbeats, the dragons headed for the dark open sky above the trees.
Sunny’s claws were trembling with the effort to stay still. She took a deep breath.
If I go back and tell the others, we can follow them.
But by the time they listen to me — if they listen to me at all — the NightWings will be long gone.
Sunny was used to the way her friends talked over her all the time. If she really wanted to be heard, she usually had to get Clay’s attention and have him make her suggestions for her. Which wasn’t fair — she had good ideas! — but her friends never expected her to have anything useful to say. They also didn’t trust her to keep secrets; they hadn’t even told her about it when they were all planning to escape their guardians. All they wanted was for her to be cheerful and supportive and agree with everything they wanted to do.
Would Glory even listen if Sunny tried to tell her about the rogue NightWings? Wouldn’t she be too busy? What if she just rolled her eyes at Sunny, the way she often did?
“I don’t want to be ‘distracted’ from worrying about the prophecy,” Sunny muttered. “I want to do something.”
Like stopping the NightWings. I could follow them right now. I might be the only dragon who can stop them before they tell Burn where we are.
Maybe if I do, my friends will see that I can do important things, and then maybe they’ll listen to me about the prophecy.
She thought guiltily of Starflight and what he would think when he finally woke up and realized she wasn’t there, taking care of him.
Then she thought of what her friends had said about her in the Obsidian Mirror, and she thought about Morrowseer’s smug, evil face, and she thought of all the dragons in Pyrrhia waiting for the dragonets of destiny to save them.
I’m doing this. Even if I have to fulfill the prophecy alone, I will.
Sunny clambered up through the branches and lifted off, following the black dragons into the night sky.
*
It was easier to follow the NightWings than Sunny would have expected. Her sharp eyes could catch the movement of their small, silver underwing scales flashing against the sky, and they weren’t making much effort to be quiet, either. Or maybe loud and flappy was how NightWings always flew.
They also were slower than Sunny and got tired more quickly, so she had to be careful not to pass them accidentally, especially during their frequent rest stops.
The sun was rising behind them when they reached the far edge of the rainforest, where the jungle shifted into sparser forest and more marshes, the outskirts of MudWing territory.
The Claws of the Clouds mountains stood out sharply up ahead in the growing light, like a line of jagged, broken teeth. Most of the mountains in the southern part of the range were not as tall as the ones in the north, where the SkyWings lived.
But there was one exception: Jade Mountain.
The tallest mountain on the continent was easy to spot, and not just for its towering size. Sunny remembered the picture on the map of Pyrrhia they’d had underground. In reality, the two crags at the top looked even more like sharp fangs sticking up into the air. One of the scrolls had said that from certain approaches, the tip of the mountain looked exactly like the head of a snake, lunging out of the ground to attack the clouds.
Jade Mountain. Sunny frowned. Someone had said something recently about Jade Mountain. Something she needed to remember. What was it?
Nothing came to her as the sun slowly lit up the mountain’s fangs.
Sunny had been worrying all night about how she would hide from the NightWings in the daylight. They didn’t seem to be watching behind them, but it would be hard to miss her golden scales once the sun was reflecting off them. She wished she had Glory’s camouflage scales. Really, any of her friends’ skills would be helpful, instead of her own total lack of powers.
But as the sky grew pinker and brighter and then started shading from gray to blue, the three NightWings flew lower, their wings drooping, until finally they landed beside a small river.