Fatespinner blasted fire at the wall of his cave. He had had them! Had them in his claws, and they escaped! A single one of them had attacked and defeated both Greatclaws and Bobcat. The older IceWing had escaped as well, and was now no doubt taking more secret information to his queen. The only pieces of good news he had received was that Spark was alive and still under his control, and the idiot Scarlet had won the challenge. She, at least, would be easily manipulated.

Fatespinner shot another burst of fire at the cave wall, which was now blackened with soot. He would have his revenge. He would see them suffer. He would make them pay for every drop of blood they spilled from his followers. And Truthseeker, that traitor. He would take great pleasure in killing that one personally.

Frost banked gratefully down towards the tiny island below him. He had been flying so long, he had lost track of time. He was thankful the winds were calm. If there had been a storm, or even a moderate headwind, he felt like he would have dropped into the ocean already.

"Please tell me- we're almost there," he said, breathing hard.

Firestorm grimaced. "Unfortunately, this is called the midway island for a reason. It's about halfway between the NightWing island and the mainland."

Frost made a noise that was half gasp, half sigh.

"If the Night Kingdom is so far from the mainland, then how did the NightWings even find it?" Peril asked. She was practically hanging off the side of the island to avoid burning anyone. She and Firestorm were the only ones who were breathing almost normally.

"I have no idea," Truthseeker admitted.

They stayed on the island for a while to catch their breath. Even with Hurricane in the water and Peril perched awkwardly on the side, the island was still crowded with eight dragons on it.

After a while, Frost caught his breath. Firestorm noticed.

"Is there anyone who needs another minute?" she asked.

No one responded, so she took off, aiming slightly north.

"Is it just me, or does the Night Kingdom seem even further north than the Ice Kingdom?"

Beside him, Truthseeker laughed. "I never thought about it, but now that you mention it, I think it is."

"Then won't it be freezing cold?" Cobra asked.

"Well, the lava was what kept it warm, I think," Truthseeker explained. "But even if the volcano completely imploded and plugged itself up, the magma underneath might still heat the rocks."

"I hope you don't mean 'If we're lucky'," Caiman called.

After flying a long time, Frost spotted a dark shape on the waves ahead. He pointed it out to the others, and their wingstrokes seemed to strengthen again. A few minutes later, a dark tendril of smoke could be seen against the blue of the sky.

"That's it, all right," Firestorm called.

"It used to be," Truthseeker shot back. "Look at it. The eruption blew the island in two. Do you even see the volcano anymore?"

Frost saw that he was right. There was no clue that a high, fiery mountain had stood there just a few years before. There were two islands ahead of him, separated by a strip of water. They were nothing but masses of dark rocks, cut through with the occasional thread of glowing orange.

"Is it safe to land down there?" Peril asked as they began to turn down towards the dark stone. "How thick is the rock between us and the lava?"

"We're landing over there," Firestorm pointed to a large mound of boulders on the northwest shore of the south island. "By that bay," she pointed to the wide inlet of water separating the islands. "I think that was the mouth of the volcano."

Frost shook his head in wonder as he landed on a jagged boulder.

Caiman stared in wonder at the northern island. The volcano had separated it from the island he stood on in a single enormous blast. What if it erupted again? They would all be killed. If the force of the eruption could blow an island in half, then there was no way they could survive if they got in the way.

Beside him, Truthseeker was staring at the southern edge of the island. He seemed to be looking for something. Caiman followed his line of sight, but saw only rocks and a narrow stream of lava.

The NightWing sighed and turned away. His black scales made him hard to see against the boulders.

"Something wrong?" Caiman asked, trying to hide his nervousness.

Truthseeker sighed. He pointed to the southern coast. "My father, Morrowseer, died somewhere down there. He was the only one to die in the explosion. He was burned into nothing. If he hadn't been so proud, so power-hungry, so arrogant, if he had been willing to accept Glory as queen, he might have made it through the tunnel and survived. He was an evil, ruthless dragon. but still..."

He trailed off, then started again. "The whole point of his prophecy was to choose a side in the war, then make the SandWing sister they chose help the NightWings get a home in the rainforest. And they got that home! Without having to enter the war! Why couldn't he see that? Why couldn't he be grateful that his tribe was being given a chance to survive?"

He lapsed into silence again, glaring at the shore as if it was to blame for his father's fatal pride. Caiman wondered how he could help him.

"What about Battlewinner?" he asked, hoping desperately that this would take Truthseeker's mind off his father. "Didn't she die in the explosion?"

Truthseeker took a deep breath. "No. She died before then. An IceWing once breathed his frostbreath down her throat. She survived that, but she had to stay in lava or it would freeze the rest of her. When Queen Glory told her that she would be taking control of her tribe, Queen Battlewinner refused. She tried to leave the lava to kill Glory, but the ice killed her before she even laid a claw on her."

Caiman nodded. Suddenly, he heard a shout from behind them.

"Hey! You two! Firestorm and Frost want us to come up with a way to take down Fatespinner. They want everyone's input."

Caiman turned to see Hurricane standing on a tall rock spire, waving at them. He and Truthseeker joined the group. The rest of them were standing on a relatively flat slab of rock.

"We need a way to expose Fatespinner," Frost said. "The problem is, the queens will never believe us. I mean, Queen Thorn probably will, and also Queen Glory, and maybe Queen Glacier, but that's three out of six. Scarlet definitely won't, and I have absolutely no idea how Coral or Queen Moorhen will react."

"We have the dreamvisitor," Caiman pointed out. "Could we use that to contact the queens and try to convince them that he's a threat?"

"Probably," Truthseeker said. "The problem is, the dragon you're contacting has to be someone you know. If you don't know someone, you can't reach them."

"I've met Queen Coral," Hurricane offered. "Firestorm, Cobra, Frost, Caiman, and I have all spoken with Queen Thorn. Cobra and Truthseeker have contacted Queen Glory."

"I might be able to reach Queen Glacier," Frost put in. "That just leaves Queen Moorhen."

"I could reach her, maybe," Cougar said, nudging the dreamvisitor. "I was in a battle with her once."

"If you can't reach her, I could try," Peril suggested.

"That may help us to be safer on the mainland, but how does that really hurt Fatespinner?" Cougar asked.

"I have an idea," Hurricane said. "Truthseeker, does Fatespinner know you were a spy?"

"Does he know I'm a- Hurricane, I hit him so hard in the neck he'll have a bruise there for a month. That tends to clue a dragon in."

"Good point," Hurricane admitted. "But there was nothing before then to clue him in, right? So Scarlet wouldn't know, would she?"

The NightWing shrugged. "It depends on whether or not Fatespinner got a message to her. Why?"

"Here's what I was thinking," Hurricane explained. "If we could somehow get Fatespinner to move some of his troops to the Sky Kingdom, then have Truthseeker tell Scarlet that Fatespinner betrayed her, then she might declare war on him. It would bring Fatespinner out of the shadows. The other tribes couldn't not notice him then."

"Hmm," Firestorm said, thinking. "That might work. But how would we get Fatespinner to move to the Sky Kingdom?"

Hurricane shrugged. "I don't know yet."

Cobra held the dreamvisitor in her claws. The sky had darkened, and the moons and stars had appeared in the sky.

"If Queen Thorn is still awake, I'm going to bite something," she muttered as she lifted the glowing sapphire to her forehead.

Queen Thorn, she thought. Let me talk to you.

The darkness around her brightened slightly. Cobra saw a dimly lit room made of sand-colored stone. Queen Thorn was lying on a shelf of stone cushioned with animal skins. She held the sapphire against the SandWing queen's forehead, and slipped into her dream. The desert appeared around her, vast as the sky. She looked around and saw the circle of cacti around the entrance to the tunnel. In the center of the circle, she saw Thorn speaking to a NightWing. Cobra backed up instinctively, somehow sensing that this was not something the queen would have wanted her to see. She lay down behind one of the cacti, listening to the faint murmur of voices and waiting for them to stop.

Suddenly, she heard shouts. She lifted her head, and saw Thorn staring at the NightWing in horror. Where there had been nothing but sand just moments before, there was now a gaping tunnel. The NightWing was standing at its mouth, staring down the tunnel. His back talons and tail were turning hard and gray, and the discoloration was rapidly sweeping up his body. Cobra scrambled down the dune, racing towards the SandWing queen. Thorn was clutching the NightWing's talons, begging him to look at her as his scales turned to stone.

"Your Majesty," Cobra gasped as she reached the pair. She tugged at Thorn's wing. "Your Majesty, this is a dream. It's not real."

The SandWing queen stepped back from the NightWing, who had now turned completely to stone.

"He's gone," she whispered. "He's gone and I couldn't save him."

Cobra was worried that Thorn wouldn't be able to see or hear her. She had heard that a dragon trapped in a nightmare wouldn't be able to interact with a dragon using a dreamvisitor. But then Thorn turned slowly to look at Cobra.

"What?" she asked, her voice raspy from crying.

"Your Majesty, this is a dream. It's not real."

She held out her talons to display the dreamvisitor clutched between them. Thorn's eyes slowly focused and she stared into Cobra's face.

"Cobra? Where did you get a dreamvisitor?"

"We stole it from Queen Scarlet," Cobra explained. "She's working with Fatespinner. We were captured by some of his dragons and held prisoner for a while."

Thorn nodded, but frowned slightly. "Queen Scarlet? She's supposed to be dethroned."

Cobra grimaced. "She was, but a few days ago, she challenged Queen Ruby for the throne, and she won."

Thorn sighed. "I suppose it's too much to hope that she's changed since the last time she was queen."

"Unfortunately, yes," Cobra agreed. "But I came to tell you where Fatespinner was."

She traced a rough outline of Pyrrhia in the sand, and jabbed at the general location of Fatespinner's lair.

"He wants to rule the seven tribes, so he picked a very central location. You can just barely see Jade Mountain on the southern horizon," she said. "The entrance is through a tunnel at the bottom of a narrow ravine."

Thorn nodded. "How many dragons does he have?"

"Several dozen that I saw, from all different tribes except the RainWings. Oh, and the SkyWings he had left for the Sky Kingdom with Scarlet. I don't remember seeing many MudWings, but he may have more."

"He had SandWings, too?"

"Yes. Bobcat, she's with him and also a male named Cactus. There were others, too, but I don't know their names. Firestorm said they were there because they didn't think you should be queen."

The SandWing queen sighed, suddenly looking much older. "I always knew there would be dissenters, but never anything like this."

Cobra nodded apologetically.

"What about Spark? Does Fatespinner still have him?"

"He does. I think it was Scarlet who gave him to Fatespinner, not Ruby."

Thorn closed her eyes. "How can one dragon do so much damage?"

"I don't know, Your Majesty."

"Good luck, then," Thorn said, smiling weakly.

Cobra nodded and lifted the dreamvisitor to her head. The desert disappeared, and she thought now of Queen Glory. Nothing happened. She still felt the rock of the NightWing island under her claws.

After another minute of nothing, she sighed, tossing the stone to Frost.

"Your turn. I couldn't get to Queen Glory."

Frost caught the sapphire and held it to his forehead.

"What happened?" Peril asked her softly.

Cobra gave her a short summary of what she had told the SandWing queen. She didn't mention the nightmare she had walked in on.
After several minutes of holding the dreamvisitor to his head, Frost lowered his claws.

"It took some convincing to get her to listen," he reported. "She doesn't really know me that well. Who's next?"

"I'll go," Hurricane volunteered. "Might as well get it over with."

Frost handed her the dreamvisitor.

The Deep Palace appeared around Hurricane. She immediately noticed the strange sensation of being underwater but not using her gills. She looked around, eyes adjusting to the light, and finally saw the large SeaWing queen stretched across the back of the room.

Queen Coral.

A smaller dragonet was curled up next to her, attached to the queen by a harness made of a thin, shimmery material.

Auklet.

Hurricane placed the dreamvisitor against Queen Coral's brow, and her surroundings changed. She was in the royal hatchery, alone except for several eggs, a marble statue, and Queen Coral.

The SeaWing queen leaped to her feet. How did you get in here? She flashed with her stripes.

Hurricane showed her the dreamvisitor between her talons. Coral seems to relax a bit.

Why are you here?

I need to talk to you about the prophecy.

Coral frowned. You mean Fatespinner's? What is there to talk about?

It's not real, Your Majesty. Fatespinner wants to rule the seven tribes of Pyrrhia, but he had a vision of us stopping him. He made up the prophecy in the hopes we'd be killed before we could do so.

Coral frowned. Do you have any proof?

Hurricane wracked her brain to think of something she could use to convince the SeaWing queen. Lionfish, she blurted. She didn't die in battle. She's working for Fatespinner.

Coral's eyes narrowed. That's not very convincing evidence.

Scarlet, then. Fatespinner helped her regain the throne so he would have a queen he could easily manipulate. She challenged Ruby just a few days ago, and she won.

Coral hissed, a sound that carried surprisingly well through the water. She tortured my husband.

Hurricane lowered her gaze. Gill. I know.

Will hurting Fatespinner hurt her?

Hurricane shrugged. 'I don't know. She's already queen, so I don't know if she needs him anymore.

Does he have an army?

Yes. Dragons from every tribe except the RainWings, maybe the MudWings, and now the SkyWings. He also has a SkyWing with too much fire that he can control with a pair of animus-touched bracelets. I think that was Scarlet's doing.

The MudWing we had in prison. Was he one of you?

Yes, Your Majesty.

Then go. Do what you need to do.

Hurricane nodded and left the SeaWing queen's dream.

"Next?" she called.

"I can talk to Queen Moorhen," Cougar said, stepping forward. "She might be more willing to trust me than Caiman."

Hurricane handed her the sapphire, realizing that she and her brother had probably been discussing this while she had been discussing things with Queen Coral.

Cougar raised the sapphire to her forehead, closing her eyes. A few minutes later, she lowered it again.

"That was easier than I thought it would be," she remarked. "Queen Moorhen didn't take much convincing. Is there anyone else?"

"I wanted to try convincing some of the SkyWings," Firestorm said. "Scree and some of the others were loyal to Queen Ruby. If they know Scarlet is or was working with Fatespinner, they might not support her."

"It's risky," Peril warned. "What if they're so scared of her that they tell her about it?"

"One, Scarlet will never know about it if they don't tell her. Two, even if they tell her, what's she going to do about it? I won't mention any of you, I won't tell any of them any of our plans."

Caiman took a deep breath. "Just... be careful."

"I'm always careful," Firestorm said.

Hurricane stifled a snort of laughter.

Commander Scree, Firestorm thought as she pressed the dreamvisitor to her forehead.

The mountains unfolded before her. A large, dark orange dragon lay before her. She leaned over him to press the dreamvisitor to his forehead, and caught sight of a fresh, nasty scar twisting from his snout back to his ear. She winced in sympathy, remembering what Scarlet's claws had done to Queen Ruby.

The scene around her changed to a sky-blue shade, dappled with clouds. there was no land, no other dragons in sight. Firestorm turned in a circle in time to see Scree emerge from a cloud bank. He soared in a wide arc, then saw her.

"Of course you would interrupt my dream," he sighed.

Firestorm blinked. "You know this is a dream?"

"Of course I do," he said calmly. "The queen isn't here."

Firestorm sighed in relief. Maybe this would be easier than she'd thought. "You preferred Ruby as queen?"

Scree nodded. "She was smarter. Scarlet... She's cruel. Had Burn won the war, I think the Sand Kingdom would have become like us."

"Commander," Firestorm began. "For the past few years, Scarlet has been working with a NightWing who wants to rule the seven tribes of Pyrrhia."

Scree stared at her. "What?"

"His name is Fatespinner," Firestorm began. "He's the one who faked the prophecy." She proceeded to fill him in on everything they had learned in the past few weeks, including how Fatespinner has helped Scarlet only so he could have a queen in his debt who he could easily manipulate. When she finished, Scree was staring at her as if she had suddenly turned into a SeaWing.

Finally, he managed to form words. "You've been busy over the past month."

"You have no idea," Firestorm laughed.

"So what do you want me for?" Scree asked.

"Just... If Scarlet ever has a reason to go against Fatespinner, support her."

Scree nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you," Firestorm said, then Scree faded away as Firestorm turned her thoughts to another dragon.

Eagle, she thought.

Her conversation with the guard went much the same way as the conversation with Scree, at least once she had convinced him to listen to her and that she could be trusted. Eagle was still a bit angry that she and Caiman had knocked him out while trying to escape Vulture.

After Eagle had agreed to support Scarlet should she ever turn against Fatespinner, Firestorm visited three more SkyWings. All agreed to help, though with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Finally, she lowered the dreamvisitor, and the remains of the NightWing island reappeared.

"That went well," she reported. "All the dragons I talked to were willing to listen."

"So have you figured out how we're going to get Fatespinner to expose himself?" Truthseeker asked, almost invisible in the shadow of a boulder.

Firestorm sighed. "Not yet."

A day later, Peril held the sapphire in her talons.

"Are you sure this will work?" she asked skeptically.

"No," Frost admitted. "But no one has a better idea."

Peril sighed, holding the dreamvisitor to her head.

"Fatespinner," she growled. "Let me in, you traitorous mass of frog spit."

The NightWing island faded away, replaced by a dark cave. The walls were dotted with starburst-shaped patterns of soot and scorch marks. Apparently, Fatespinner had been in a bad mood since they had escaped.

Faint lines of moonlight shone through narrow cracks in the wall and ceiling, illuminating the small NightWing stretched across the back of the cave. Peril glared at him, holding the dreamvisitor to his head.

The cave faded away, replaced by a mountain peak she recognized. Actually, two peaks. Jade Mountain. Fatespinner was standing on the higher of the two, looking out over Pyrrhia. With a start, Peril realized that all of Pyrrhia could be seen from here. From the snowy plains of the Ice Kingdom to the hundreds of islands in the Kingdom of the Sea. She realized Fatespinner was looking over his kingdom.

Peril turned back to the NightWing,who was now perched on a black throne studded with jewels. She stepped in front of him, realizing he was larger in his dream. He was at least as large as Greatclaws, and was wearing a crown of diamonds.

He looked at her, startled, but quickly regained his composure.

"Peril. Come to pledge your allegiance at last?"

Peril snorted. "Pledge my allegiance to what? All I see is a self-important, power-hungry NightWing who will never get what he wants."

Fatespinner stood, spreading his wings. "I will soon be the ruler of every tribe in Pyrrhia, idiot dragon. If you don't bow to me, you will never survive."

"Did your visions tell you that?" Peril asked.

"My dreams are my visions," he said, smirking. "Everything you see here will come to pass."

"You mean Pyrrhia will shrink so you can see the entire continent from Jade Mountain, and a single NightWing who sees himself as larger than life will build himself a throne there?"

"You have no hope of defeating me, SkyWing!" Fatespinner roared in rage. "I have enough followers to take even the Mud Kingdom. What makes you think your band of ten dragons can possibly win? Especially when two of them are nothing but dragonets?"

"Oh, I think we can," Peril said calmly. "Isn't that why you made up the prophecy? You were afraid that we would?"

Fatespinner slashed at Peril, but his claws went through her scales like cold water. He reared back in surprise, staring at her. Peril smirked, holding out the dreamvisitor.

"Recognize this?"

Fatespinner roared in anger again. "What do you want, Peril?"

"I came to give you a message," Peril said calmly. "If you want to confront us, come to the old NightWing kingdom. The tunnel is sealed, so you'll have to fly across the Sky Kingdom. Lucky for you, Scarlet won the challenge."

"And if I choose not to come?" Fatespinner retorted.

"Then you can try to take over the kingdoms of Pyrrhia, knowing we're still out there, and becoming more and more paranoid until even your followers can see you're not fit to rule. If we let you make it to that point, that is."

Fatespinner snarled. "You dare threaten me? I will have you jailed for this insolence!"

"You're not my king," Peril said. "And you never will be. Therefore, it can't be insolence."

She left Fatespinner's dream, and the glow of the lava reappeared around her.

"How'd it go?" Cobra asked.

"Pretty well," Peril replied, placing the dreamvisitor on the ground.