PROLOGUE
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The wires stretched from him out to the necks and legs of other prisoners, who all had them as well. One went to his left, to one leg of a moon silver Icewing on the next column, who was asleep with her tail over her nose.
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As the arena began to fill with moonlight, Clay saw the prisoner to his left, the Icewing, with her silvery head stretched toward the sky, singing.
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And Everest screamed as she was dragged away, screamed until she was clubbed on the head by that grinning orange Skywing. Screaming when she woke up, chained. And then the screaming stopped. Because what use was screaming when you were trapped in a nightmare?
The thing with nightmares was that you usually woke up. But Everest had a feeling that she wasn't going up to this nightmare. Because this nightmare was real.
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Then she saw the last dragon-sunset orange, flames flickering from his nose, with a jagged tear on the tip of his left wing. He flew slower than the others, bringing up the rear, and his head swung back and forth, dark eyes searching the ground below them
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He paused, beating his wings back to hover in the air for a moment.
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Tsunami hated to admit it, but it was a good idea. She helped Clay wrestle the tree over until it lay heavily across the orange dragon's back and wings. The Skywing tried to push himself up, but the tree kept him pinned to the sand.
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"Wait," the Skywing rasped. His voice was hoarse and deep. He wriggled, lashing his tail across the sand. "Don't leave me like this."
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Inferno wished this was a nightmare. His brother was his family, his friend. His brother. They would be together. They would stay together. That's what Inferno had thought. But he should have known. He was grown up now. And grown ups had to deal with life.
Who would have thought life was such a nightmare?
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"Pearl, report," ordered the queen after the dragons had eaten in silence for a while.
"No change," said the elegant pale green dragon in the treasury pool. "All your jewels are safe, as always. No scavengers can get to them, and no dragon would dare to try."
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There were nightmares, and then there were dreams. Pearl liked to think she lived a steady blend of both. As she swam, she thought. As she thought, she swam. She was almost there. She glanced up sandy beach clung to the land, waves lapping against it. It only traveled back a short ways before the trees of the Mudwing forests ate it up.
Pearl scanned the beach for any dragons. Footprints churned up a section of the beach, drawing her attention to a fallen tree, and underneath that tree was a dragon. An enemy. Pearl had no idea what to do. Everything was fine, except for the dangerous proximity of a Skywing to you know what. He appeared to be in more trouble than he was trouble, but Pearl didn't know if it was a ruse or what.
Because dreams can turn into nightmares very fast.
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Fatespeaker sat quietly for a moment, but he could still hear her breathing. "Of course, if you're not down there, I sound totally insane right now," she said. "There's a Rainwing sitting next to me who is giving me the weirdest looks. Hey there. What's happening? Nothing weird, just talking to a pit. Carry on looking miserable, don't mind me. Oooo, his ears just went a little yellow," she reported. "Does that mean amused or terribly annoyed? What do you think?"
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And Jaguar was out of his nightmare. He was rescued and saved. There was nothing else in the world that could compare to the feeling of freedom, freedom after imprisonment. Nothing at all. And Jaguar was indescribably relieved and grateful and joyful and everything in between.
Because the thing about nightmares is that you wake up from them.
But they still never seem to go away.
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Forgive me for the plunge into this story's depths. I may have done something wrong. But the story still goes on. Of course, again, there may be some fault in my storytelling skills.
So let me begin where all stories begin.
At the beginning.