LYNX

I'm sitting in my room in the palace, looking out of the window. Watching. Waiting. Because soon, eleven of the twelve who left will return from the Diamond Caves. One will be dead. Either Prince Winter or Prince Hailstorm. It seems like the entire tribe is doing the same – well they would be. The Diamond Trial is something an IceWing will only see once in their lifetime – if that.

Most of them aren't about to lose their one of their closest friends though. Winter isn't a typical IceWing, but he means well and this isn't fair. There's no way in Pyrrhia he can beat Hailstorm. Hailstorm's two years older than him and he's been top of the rankings for most of his life.

This isn't a test, or a trial, it's an execution. No-one knows what the Diamond Trial is, but only one dragonet can survive it and that will be Hailstorm. Winter just doesn't have a chance, and there isn't even anything I can do. Hailstorm was top of the rankings for as long as I can remember, until the SkyWings captured him. Winter wasn't. Winter was in the Fifth Circle, Sixth Circle.

Winter, my friend, is going to die. By the talon of his own brother.

My brain scrabbles for some way that Winter can win. Maybe… maybe Hailstorm has got out of practice while he was missing. (We still don't know what actually happened to him. There are rumours, saying weird stuff like he was turned into a SkyWing or something, but they can't be true.) But I've seen him training since, and he might be a little, but not enough.

Maybe Winter learnt some stunning new technique at Jade Mountain Academy. But no, I trained with him since, and he hasn't. Not unless he was hiding it, and why would he do that? Winter wouldn't do that.

I don't want Hailstorm to die either. When I was two or so, he was my idol. I got to know him a little bit, and I got over the idol stage, and he was a nice enough dragon. I was never as close to him as I was to Winter though.

Winter's the one who has to survive. He has to.

Suddenly I can see the party of dragons. They wing closer, and I can see the individual shapes – only eleven of them now, obviously. Which one is missing? Which brother? Winter or Hailstorm?

Winter or Hailstorm?

Closer still, and I can see the face of Hailstorm, flying determinedly with a blank face at the head of the pack.