Dangerous Gift Read online

  She didn’t mention the other three hidden weapons, just in case Lynx was actually working for Crystal or the NightWings or had her own ulterior motives and was maybe planning to attack Snowfall as soon as she had her away from the castle unprotected. Well, ha ha, Snowfall had foiled her with those five guards! And the extra secret weaponry. And the totally being onto her!

  “Headache again?” Lynx said sympathetically.

  “No,” Snowfall snapped, jerking her claws away from her temples. More like headache always, she thought. And you’re not helping, potentially untrustworthy dragon!

  She spotted a cluster of ice structures below them, along the cliff that overlooked the ocean here. “What’s that?”

  “One of the outer villages,” Lynx said. “Where-the-Terns-Fly, I think.”

  “I should royally decree that all IceWing villages must have one-word names,” Snowfall said grumpily. Her claws still hurt from years of writing out the list of villages, over and over again, and labeling them on maps, and writing essays about them. The time she could have saved if Hamlet-That-Worships-the-Whales-Who-Sing-at-Night had just been called Whales! Not to be confused with Where-the-Whales-Leap-at-Dawn, of course.

  “That would be a GREAT royal decree,” Lynx said fervently. “At least for maps and lists and essays by exhausted dragonets!”

  “Your puny little estate is out here somewhere,” Snowfall remembered.

  “It is.” Lynx cast a wistful glance to her left. “It overlooks Among-the-Evergreens. My father lives there but … I haven’t been back in a while.”

  “What is he — Fifth Circle? Sixth?”

  “Fifth, for the last couple of years,” Lynx said. Because Lynx’s success at court has raised him up, Snowfall guessed. “But hang on, isn’t there some kind of rule that no one is allowed to talk to the queen about the wall?”

  “It’s fine if I bring it up!” Snowfall said, bristling. “But you can’t ask me to change anything! Not that I would anyway! No one else makes my decisions for me!”

  “Oh, good,” Lynx said. “I was wondering why Tundra and Permafrost had stayed up so high lately when they’re always so awful, but now that I know it’s entirely your decision, I feel much better.”

  Snowfall glared at her. “That sounded like SARCASM.”

  “Did it?” Lynx gasped.

  “Your Majesty,” one of the guards interrupted, swooping back toward them. “We think we see something.”

  Snowfall pumped her wings to shoot ahead of Lynx, catching up to another guard who’d been flying out in front. She squinted at the horizon, where the ocean took over from the snowy cliffs.

  At first she thought she was looking at clouds — ordinary clouds, nonthreatening puffs of fluff in the sky. And then she realized that the clouds were flickering and shivering with movement. Flashes of green and gold and rose and aquamarine caught the sunlight.

  They were clouds of wings, a whole fog of dragons descending on her kingdom.

  The jolt of terror that ran through Snowfall’s veins was like being stabbed with a SandWing tail. It was like six NightWings attacking her at once.

  It was like the moment a cobalt-blue hybrid dragon had bowed in front of her, held out a garish earring, and said, “I am so sorry I didn’t get here sooner, Queen Snowfall. I am too late for your mother, but I can at least save your life, if you put this on. This plague — it’s a spell. It was sent by an animus NightWing named Darkstalker to wipe out the entire tribe of IceWings.”

  “They’re coming to kill us,” she said, whisking around in the air and nearly colliding with Lynx. Hearing her words, the closest guards faltered in the sky; they looked as scared as she felt.

  “They’re not coming to kill us,” Lynx said. “I mean, we don’t know that they’re coming to kill us. They’re probably not coming to kill us. We’re going to find out!”

  “This is a terrible way to find out!” Snowfall protested as Lynx turned her around. “It would be much smarter to attack them with my whole army the moment they land!”

  “No, no,” Lynx objected, alarmed. “That would start things off on completely the wrong talon! Listen, it won’t take long to get your army if we need it. If these dragons do seem dangerous, we can retreat to my father’s estate and use the mirror signal system to summon backup. See? No need to panic.”

  Snowfall hissed at her. Yes, fine, she should probably act less terrified in front of the guards. Queens weren’t supposed to freak out about anything. Queens never panicked.

  Mother was never scared, not once, not during the war and not even when the plague came.

  But WHY NOT, is my question. There are SO MANY THINGS to be scared of! Was she secretly this close to falling apart all the time, like I am? Did she wonder how she was going to hold the whole tribe together in this large cold kingdom after a war with so many deaths? Didn’t she spend all her time worrying about how we could possibly survive against a tribe of dragons who hate us and who by the way have ALL the magic powers?

  Stop thinking about NightWings. Deal with the brand-new mysterious scary thing.

  “Nobody is panicking,” she said, flicking her tail. “You’re an impertinent gnat. Stop annoying me.” She pushed Lynx aside and flew on ahead. There was an alarming heartbeat of stillness from the guards, but then she sensed them moving into place around her, flying in formation just as though she were exactly the right queen doing exactly the right thing.

  Instead of making this all up as I go.

  She led them to a cliff that overlooked a grove of snow-covered pines and a rocky beach. Below them, dragons were swooping down to land.

  They were not NightWings — the scout was right about that.

  They were not SeaWings or RainWings either.

  The green dragons — actually green and brown and sometimes flecked with gold scales, Snowfall noticed — had wings elegantly shaped like leaves, no phosphorescent markings, and no webs between their claws.

  The other tribe was much stranger. Their scales were all over the color spectrum — shimmering pinks, dark violets, pale lavenders, blues and oranges and summery yellows. They each had four wings instead of two, and even at a distance, Snowfall could see delicate antennae curling from their foreheads.

  “Weird creepy dragons,” she hissed, crouching close to the ground and peering over the cliff edge. “They must be evil! They look totally different from us!”

  “So do SandWings, but we managed to ally with a bunch of them during the war,” Lynx pointed out from beside her. “Every tribe looks a little different, but none of them are completely evil.”

  “Wrong,” Snowfall snapped. “Objectively wrong. NightWings are NINE THOUSAND PERCENT evil.”

  Lynx gave her that curious sideways look again. “Didn’t that empathy spell work on you at all?” she asked. “Didn’t you feel what they were feeling, during our battle with them? It made the rest of us IceWings hate them way less. Why not you?”

  Snowfall didn’t answer. That moment — in the middle of the battle, when an animus dragon had connected all the minds of the fighting dragons, IceWings and NightWings together — that had been one of the worst moments of her life.

  Because threaded through the IceWings’ fear, in dragon after dragon, she’d found one particular whisper: What are we going to do without Queen Glacier?

  How can Snowfall possibly save us from this?

  She’s not ready.

  She’s a smug little monster.

  Our new queen is a spoiled dragonet who has no idea what to do.

  Why would Glacier pick her?

  Up until then, she’d thought maybe the tribe was proud of her. Maybe they were glad she was the sister who’d been chosen; maybe they knew how fiercely she would fight for them. Maybe when Glacier chose her, it had convinced everyone that she was truly a worthy queen.

  Apparently not.

  And over on the other side, she felt the NightWings’ triumph, too — look at their queen! She’s barely old enough to fly! She doesn’t
know anything!

  We can destroy her easily.

  It wasn’t the biggest feeling the battling dragons were all having — that was fear. And now that fear was all anyone talked about: NightWings, hey, maybe they’re just like us! Maybe they’re scared of stuff, too! We can totally understand them!

  Snowfall seemed to be the only one who remembered those layers of doubt under everything else. At least, no one had ever dared to ask her, “Hey, did you happen to hear me thinking about what a terrible queen you’ll be?”

  And she was still afraid of NightWings. The other IceWings were delusional not to be.

  “Do you want me to go talk to them first?” Lynx asked. Snowfall realized the other dragon had been studying her face for the last few minutes.

  “No,” Snowfall growled. “I’ll go. We’ll leave two guards here in case they have to fly for help.” She flicked her tail at the three biggest guards to signal them to follow her.

  The closer they got, the more Snowfall noticed how bedraggled all the invaders looked. Some of them had singed tails or wings; all of them were wet and crusted with salt from the spray. Most of them were very thin. Almost all the colorful dragons had heavy-looking metal wrist cuffs around their front talons. Why would anyone wear something like that for a long flight? Snowfall wondered suspiciously. They’d drag you down the whole time. They must be some kind of powerful weapon.

  Some of the green dragons looked oddly lumpy, until she realized they were each wearing several woven pouches. And what’s in those? she wondered. Cursed objects? What if they have something that can enchant us to hand over our whole kingdom?

  She touched the diamonds in her armband, sharp-edged and cold. It was comforting to know she had magic of her own.

  Most of the dragons looked up wearily as Snowfall and the others landed, pebbles and ice crunching under her claws.

  One of the green dragons stood up, frowning, but then another green dragon tugged her back down, and a third green dragon climbed to her feet and came to face Snowfall.

  “Who are you?” Snowfall demanded. “What are you doing in my kingdom?”

  The green dragon sat down and spread her wings with her front talons raised, palms up. “I am Pr — um, Queen Hazel of the LeafWings. The other dragons traveling with us are SilkWings. We come from the land of Pantala, across the sea.”

  “Seems like a lot of dragons to bring with you for a neighborly visit,” Snowfall said.

  “I’m afraid we need help,” Hazel said, sorrow flickering across her face. “We were forced to flee our home very suddenly. Our jungle was burning and our queen was gone. There is a terrible danger back on our continent, and if we hadn’t escaped, it would have destroyed us all.”

  Snowfall could FEEL the waves of sympathy radiating off Lynx, who was standing a little too close to her left. No surprise that she would fall for any sad-snout story she heard. But Snowfall was smarter than that. She had a kingdom to protect.

  “It sounds like you should have stayed and fought for your land,” she said. “We don’t have any room for you anyway. You’re going to have to leave. Right now.”

  Hazel’s face fell. “Just — wait, please. Let me tell you the whole story.”

  Something suddenly charged at them across the sand, shrieking alien syllables. Snowfall spun toward it, drawing her knives, and was a tail flick away from throwing them when she realized the attacker was a tiny dragonet.

  Like, really tiny. It skidded to a stop with a terrified yelp, staring up at her glittering weaponry. Big, black-rimmed eyes blinked in a warm golden face. Her four wings were a little more shimmery and thinner than most of the others, and her scales alternated in black and yellow stripes.

  The dragonet burst into tears.

  “Oh, well done, Your Majesty,” Lynx whispered to Snowfall. “Excellent self-defense.”

  Another yellow-and-black dragon came hurrying over and wrapped her wings around the baby. She wore crooked spectacles and she looked absolutely exhausted.

  “It’s all right,” she murmured. “Don’t cry, Bumblebee! Look, we made it to the Distant Kingdoms! Can you believe it’s real? Isn’t this amazing? We’re here! We’re safe now!”

  Lynx shot Snowfall a “you’re going to crush this moment, aren’t you?” look.

  “Pribbishimmy,” Bumblebee sniffled into the other dragon’s shoulder. “BuTEETH! ARROARAWR!”

  The spectacled dragon looked up and met Snowfall’s gaze. Her eyes flew wide, and suddenly she didn’t look tired at all.

  “Oh, wow!” she cried. “Our first new dragon in the Distant Kingdoms! Isn’t she beyond amazing? Oh my gosh, she looks like she’s made of ice! I had no idea — hello, hi, are you actually made of ice? I mean … you can’t be, right? No, you’re clearly biological, but how are you so shiny? It is very cold here; is this some kind of arctic adaptation?”

  “Cricket,” the one called Hazel said in a warning tone. “I am trying to negotiate with this dragon queen.”

  “She is the queen?” Cricket burst out, so excited her words started tumbling over each other even faster. “Of the whole continent? Wow! How many dragons is that? Do you think this place is as big as Pantala?”

  “Of the Ice Kingdom,” Snowfall interrupted coldly. “I am Queen Snowfall of the IceWings.”

  “But no, we’re not actually made of ice,” Lynx whispered to Cricket. Snowfall glared at her.

  Beyond Cricket and Hazel and Bumblebee, Snowfall could see even more dragons arriving, staggering onto the beach. There really were hundreds of them. And they landed with such … relieved expressions, as though this was exactly where they wanted to be. As though it were just the kind of territory they’d been hoping to steal.

  One of them collapsed, digging his claws into the snow-dusted soil. Is he sick? Snowfall wondered. Is he contagious? Another movement made her spin to her right, but it was only a pair of young, strong LeafWings helping to drag a SilkWing out of the water. Do they have magic? Are they going to suddenly turn violent?

  “You must leave,” she said to Hazel. She realized she was still holding the knives she’d brandished at the dragonet. She lifted her head regally and sheathed them. “You are not welcome here. Go invade Thorn’s kingdom instead.”

  “We have several dragons who can’t possibly fly any farther right now,” Hazel pleaded. “They’re injured or elderly or too small, and we’ve been traveling for days. Please. They need to rest.”

  “That’s not my problem,” Snowfall said. “They’re not my dragons.”

  “Snowfall,” Lynx said meaningfully.

  “They’re not!” Snowfall protested. “I have a tribe to protect!”

  “We’re no threat to you, I promise,” Hazel said. Snowfall realized the LeafWing queen was shivering. Was that fear or exhaustion or cold? Hopefully cold — maybe the temperatures would drive them out of the Ice Kingdom even faster than she could.

  If so, maybe letting them stay for one night would be all right, if they promised to stay on the beach … and left first thing in the morning …

  “That’s everybody!” a brash, familiar voice announced. Someone large and blue bounded out of the ocean. “I mean, except Turtle, but he’ll come wheezing up soon, don’t worry.”

  Snowfall gasped.

  “You,” she spat.

  It was that awful SeaWing “dragonet of destiny” who ran the Jade Mountain Academy! So this WAS a SeaWing invasion! Somehow! And wasn’t she friends with Glory? The NightWings were probably lurking nearby, waiting for Snowfall to be distracted by the weird-looking dragons, and then they would POUNCE! An ambush! An attack! Just as she’d suspected!

  “Oh no,” Tsunami said, wrinkling her snout and giving Snowfall a disgruntled look. “We hit the Ice Kingdom? I thought we were way farther south.” She sighed and shook out her wings, scattering salt water and kelp and tiny sea snails everywhere.

  “What are you doing here?” Snowfall demanded furiously. “How DARE you come into my kingdom? Bringing an enormous throng o
f suspicious, weird-looking strangers?! Get out at ONCE!”

  “We’re not suspicious,” the one named Cricket protested. “We’re just tired and scared and running away from a really scary bad thing. What do you think we could possibly do?”

  “It’s all right, Cricket,” Hazel said, taking a step back toward her other green dragons. Snowfall noticed that the first one who’d moved was standing up again, frowning menacingly. “I’d be alarmed if this many dragons suddenly showed up in my jungle, too.”

  “You wouldn’t be SUPER RUDE to them, though, I bet,” Tsunami snapped.

  “Oh, I know!” Cricket said. “Wait, Queen Snowfall, we’re not total strangers! Bumblebee and I had an ancestor from your continent, hundreds of years ago. Doesn’t that help to know? You must have heard of her — we’re descendants of Clearsight!”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Snowfall saw Tsunami wince.

  Snowfall had a strange moment of vertigo, as though the ground under her had suddenly cracked and sent her sliding into the dark ocean. A pulse of fury stabbed through her temples and out to the tips of her wings.

  The black scales. The secretive, smarter-than-you expressions. She should have seen it. These dragons were part NightWing.

  And worse than that, they were related to Clearsight. Clearsight, the dragon who’d helped Darkstalker rise to power in the first place. The true love of that mass murderer.

  Seething with rage, Snowfall lifted her wrists and smashed the diamonds together. Once, twice, three times, just as the instructions had said.

  Behind her, along the top of the cliff, the entire IceWing army appeared.

  Lynx jumped away from her, startled. The other dragons — Hazel, Cricket, Bumblebee, Tsunami, and the hundreds of invaders — froze in place, staring up at the glittering ranks of soldiers.

  “Three moons — how did you do that?” Lynx hissed.

  Snowfall tipped the wristbands toward her, smirking. “The gift of stealth,” she said. According to the notes in the Forbidden Treasury, she could use it to hide herself or anything else she wanted to. So she’d gathered her army in the night and prepared them to fly, weapons at the ready. She’d tested her new magic toy to make sure she could hide them, soaring along behind her. And there they were, as though she’d pulled them from thin air.