Disclaimer: I do not own Tui T. Sutherland's Wings of Fire series. She holds all rights to the world, characters, and plot. I'm simply taking her sandbox and playing with it.
Failure
Sunny knew things would not end well when she saw the second dragonbite viper leap out of the box.
She definitely knew it was the end for Clay when she got up, dazed, and saw him limping, fang marks on his leg, the black ink of the viper's venom spreading quickly beneath his scales.
But when Peril arrived, Sunny dared to hope, dared to believe that things would end well for once. Fate and prophecy had not been kind to the dragonets, not since they first escaped their guardians' cave mere weeks ago. They had all suffered through trials and heartbreak; and now, with their goal in sight, everything was falling apart. Everything they worked so hard to achieve, gone with two viper bites.
Peace was dead. But as Peril's fiery orange figure rocketed into the Sandwing Palace, Sunny dared to hope that Clay wouldn't join peace in death. That Peril could carve the poison out of his leg, painful and dangerous as that sounded.
Sunny nearly fainted with relief when she felt Clay's chest rise and fall after Peril's impromptu surgery. Her relief was short-lived, however, when Blister's voice broke the silence that had befallen the Palace.
"To the victor go the spoils of war."
Sunny whipped toward the source of the voice, as did every other dragon in the vicinity. Blister stood behind Blaze, claws gripped tightly around her sister's snout, muffling her cries of pain as the tip of Blister's barbed tail sank deep into Blaze's heart. Within seconds Blaze's protests quieted—Blister nonchalantly released her hold on her sister, who flopped to the ground, squirming feebly in her death throes.
"Of three queens who blister and blaze and burn," Blister said, quoting the prophecy, "two shall die and one shall learn…" She reared up, flicking her tail. Sunny saw a posse of Sandwing guards flank her protectively.
"…that the Sandwing throne belongs to the one cunning enough to earn it, prophecy or not."
Shouts of alarmed echoed through the crowd. Queen Glacier whipped toward Blister, icy teeth bared. Blister glanced back casually, as if saying: Go on, I dare you. Attack me when you've lost your only ally. Give me an excuse to kill you.
"No!" screamed Sunny. "This is a peace meeting! We're supposed to decide the next Sandwing queen without any more fighting."
"Was a peace meeting," Blister corrected. "Instead, it became the very opportunity I needed to kill my sisters and win the throne that I deserve."
"You don't deserve the throne, Blister," said Tsunami, gills flaring as she stepped forward. "You've never deserved it and never will. The Sandwings would be better off with anyone other than you."
"Would they?" Blister turned to the dragons gathered along the walls of the Palace.
"I ask this of all of you—who would make the best Sandwing queen? Burn, the cruel, heartless tyrant who thrives off others' pain? No. She would bring ruin to the Sandwings, treat us like the oddities she keeps in her wretched weirdling tower. She would crush us into the sand, lord over us as if we were mere gems in her treasury."
Looks of confusion spread through the crowd. Sunny spotted Thorn perched ready for takeoff. Her mother met her eyes and Sunny saw the silent message: this will end horribly, get ready to run.
"Or what about Blaze? My ineffectual, vain, idiotic excuse for a sister? She wouldn't care about the Sandwings, oh no! She'd be like a spoiled Rainwing, dithering and prancing about the Palace all day, ordering everyone to pamper to her every whim. She wouldn't govern us, wouldn't step in to lead should another tribe attack us. In fact," Blister turned menacingly to Queen Glacier, "Blaze planned to give almost half of our territory to Ice Queen here for helping her to gain the throne. Tell me, what self-respecting queen would betray her tribe like this?"
Glacier hissed, though she backed up a step as murmurs trickled through the crowd at Blister's words. Sunny's heart dropped. Every word of what Blister had said so far was true.
"No. I am the only queen worthy of my mother's throne, and I have proven it by killing my two competitors today in front of you, dragons of Pyrrhia." She turned to Sunny, her black orbs meeting Sunny's eyes.
"And in front of the dragonets of destiny."
Silence.
Then Glory laughed.
"Oh yes, you are definitely worthy of Oasis's throne. Because of course the conniving, manipulative sister always makes the best queen, especially after she almost murders one of the dragonets," she said, gesturing toward the still-unconscious Clay.
"Did I also mention that she tried to undermine Queen Coral and take control of the Seawings? Or that she planned to invade the rainforest? She would have done so by now had the five of us chosen her for queen." Glory's scales turned from their previous white and green to a vibrant shade of red.
"If we'd chosen Blister for queen, an entire tribe of dragons would be dead by now. Is that the kind of queen the Sandwings want?"
Silence again. Blister's glare was as cold as an Icewing's breath. Then, the corners of her snout lifted in a malicious smile.
"It doesn't matter whether or not the Sandwings want me as queen. What matters," she said, flaring her wings regally, "is that the Sandwings will have me as queen. They will have a queen who is smart, rich, and powerful, a queen who will make the Sandwings a strong tribe once more. A queen who will treat kindly those who accept her rule, and…persuade those who refuse."
To her dismay, Sunny saw the Sandwings bow—hesitantly at first, then one after another. Within the black orbs of her tribe's dragons she saw a myriad of emotions: fear, hopelessness, grudging acceptance, silent defiance. She saw more than a few looks of wholehearted respect.
Blister's grin widened as she turned to the dragonets.
"That settles that. Only one thing left." She pointed a talon at Sunny. "Arrest the runt and her friends. They will die for all the trouble they've caused me." Blister's guards pounced.
Before Sunny could react a sandy blur slammed into the guards. She caught a fleeting glimpse of Thorn before hearing her shout, "Run!"
Sunny froze in a perfect Starflight imitation.
"I said RUN, Sunny!" Thorn screamed one last time before she became a whirlwind of claws and teeth, fending off Blister's guards.
Heart wrenching, Sunny grabbed Clay and dragged his hefty body as fast as she could. "We're leaving," she said, "get back to the rainforest!"
Glory, Deathbringer, Tsunami, and Riptide shot into the sky, flying protectively overhead as the Palace descended into chaos—some dragons taking flight, some pushing forward, others milling about aimlessly, and a few rushing to catch the dragonets or stop Thorn. Fatespeaker grabbed Starflight and helped him into the air.
Sunny pulled on Clay. She opened her wings and flapped hard, but she couldn't get off the ground, not while carrying a passed-out Mudwing twice her size and weight. She bumped Clay's leg and he let out a pained moan.
"Come on, Clay, hang in there," she cried out, tears welling in her eyes. He was their bigwings, the leader of their little troop, the one keeping them all together. He listened to her, supported her when no one else would. No way was she letting him die here in Blister's clutches. She'd drag him all the way to the animus tunnel if she had to.
A pair of orange claws suddenly appeared next to Sunny's. She looked up to see Peril.
"I've got him, Sunny. Go!"
"Are you—"
"Yes, I can carry him just fine. Just go, I'll be right behind you."
Her throat clogged with unspeakable gratitude, Sunny simply nodded and took to the air. She chanced a look behind her and nearly plummeted back to the ground. Thorn, blood-streaked and panting, was backed up against the walls of the Palace by Blister's guards. Even from a distance Sunny saw her flanks heaving with exhaustion.
"Rainwings, attack!"
As soon as Glory gave the command, Sunny watched in horrid fascination as the fifteen Rainwings shed their disguises, reared back, and spat their black, inky venom at Blister's guards. Their menacing growls broke off into screams of agony as they wiped at the acidic spit, invariably adding to the pain. In a wingbeat Thorn was out of there, airborne and heading toward Sunny.
"Fall back, head for the rainforest!" Glory shouted, before the dragonets turned tail and ran for the tunnel.
As Sunny's wings beat against the hot desert air, the screams of dying dragons reached her ears. She glanced back at the Palace, now almost empty of dragons, as those who had come to watch the meeting fled into the night. Slowly she turned her gaze to the night sky above, where the two moons and the comet blazed, oblivious to the horrors that lay beneath their bright light. What had once seemed a promise, an omen that things would change, now seemed a cruel joke to Sunny.
The brightest night had come. The dragonets had gathered the three Sandwing sisters for a peace meeting.
Two were dead now, and the worst of them ruled the tribe.
She had failed. She had failed the destiny—her destiny—to bring peace to Pyrrhia and end the war.
Sunny closed her eyes and hung her head. She felt like nothing more than the scared, mixed-breed runt that she was.