Apologies for the late chapter!
Firestorm looked around. Hurricane was safe, Cobra was safe, Cougar and Truthseeker were safe, Frost was injured, but wasn't in danger.
"Where are Caiman and Peril?" she asked, trying to stay calm.
She looked around and saw only jagged boulders and lava rivers. Then, she saw Peril bent over by an outcropping of stone, holding Spark to the ground. A trail of lava droplets led from the two SkyWings to a river of lava.
"Caiman?" she called.
In her mind, she heard a faint response. She followed it, and soon found a groggy Caiman beneath an overhang of rocks. He had a large cut on his foreleg and a bruise on his head. Firestorm pushed her shoulder under Caiman's injured shoulder and helped him back to the others who were now seated near Peril.
"Anyone seriously injured?" she called.
Frost was holding his mouth open, and blue blood was dripping from the inside.
"I lost a tooth," he reported. "And Cactus managed to scratch up my face. But I'm all right."
"Spark tore my wing, but I can still fly," Peril said stoically.
Firestorm nodded. Her own wing was bleeding, but she didn't say anything.
Hurricane reported bruised ribs. Truthseeker had a gash down his tail and a scratch near one eye. Cougar had a deep cut on one of her hind legs, and was limping slightly. Cobra had only minor injuries.
"All right," Firestorm decided. "Let's get back to our camp and see what we can do about Fatespinner."
She turned and tried to fly, but pain shot through the arm bones in her wing. She drew it in instinctively, and fell to the rocks. The others gathered around her. Frost gently pulled open her wing to look, and Firestorm winced at the pain.
"What happened here?" Frost asked, putting his claws over the gash.
"Bravescales," Firestorm grunted. "Got a lucky hit. I'm fine."
"You are definitely not fine," Truthseeker corrected. "You won't fly for a while."
Firestorm grunted again, knowing the NightWing was right but refusing to accept it. She pulled away, opening her wings again. Before she could lift off again, something pressed her tail into the rocks. She turned and saw it was Caiman, putting his weight on her tail so she wouldn't be able to take off.
"I know you feel like you're responsible for us," he chastised. "But you are allowed to think about what you need. And right now, you need to rest your wing so it actually will heal properly."
Firestorm sighed, folding her wings in surrender. "Fine. You're right."
Hurricane grinned. "Savor this moment, everyone. It doesn't happen very often."
Firestorm was about to fire back a retort, when Fatespinner stirred. Truthseeker lunged across the rock and yanked the bracelet off the older NightWing's wrist. Fatespinner growled, but still seemed too groggy to do much else.
"Fatespinner," Firestorm said. "You've lost. Your followers are either gone or imprisoned. There's one of you and eight of us. Your prophecy failed. Actually, it was your prophecy that made this happen."
"In other words," Frost said, shooting a look at Firestorm. "You're going to come back with us to the mainland in the next few days, and you're going to tell the queens the prophecy was fake. You're also going to tell them the truth about your attempted rebellion."
Fatespinner didn't seem to have heard as his eyes fixed on Truthseeker.
"Traitor," he croaked. "You will be punished severely for this when I rule."
Truthseeker rolled his eyes. "I betrayed a group of traitors. I won't lose much sleep over that. And second, weren't you listening? You've lost. Your kingship is now nothing more than a lost dream."
Fatespinner seemed to recover very quickly at that, and he lunged at Truthseeker. The younger NightWing dodged nimbly out of the way, tossing the bracelet to Firestorm. Firestorm caught it, then jumped at Fatespinner, forcing him to the ground and then sitting on his back.
"Give up," she ordered. "You lost. Deal with it."
Fatespinner glared at her with hate in his eyes, but Firestorm could feel that he had given up. His dreams of power and authority slid from his mind, replaced by a feeling of surrender.
She stepped from his back and turned to the others. "When should we move?"
"First, you need to let your wing heal," Cougar said sternly.
"And we should also let the queens know we're coming and that we have him," Frost added.
"You should be the one to do that," Firestorm told him. "Dragons tend to trust dragons who are like them. No offense."
"Only problem is, I don't know Queen Glory," Frost admitted. "Or Queen Moorhen. Or Queen Coral."
"I can contact them," Truthseeker volunteered. "I've seen them before."
Firestorm nodded, slipping the bracelet onto her wrist. Peril stared at it uncomfortably.
Something wrong? Firestorm asked her in her mind.
When Fatespinner took me out of my cell in his caves... That time I came back covered in scratches… Peril trailed off, and Firestorm saw that day in her mind. She saw the bracelet slide onto her wrist, felt Fatespinner's voice curl into her mind like smoke.
She pulled out of Peril's memory. I'll only use it to keep him from harming anyone, she said. I promise.
Peril still looked uncomfortable, but nodded. She lifted her claws from Spark's wing and stepped back. He remained on the ground, staring at nothing.
Fatespinner smirked. "It won't work. Only I can control him. That bracelet won't work for anyone else."
"Fatespinner, don't you know that lying to a mind reader never works?" Hurricane sighed.
She glanced at Firestorm. He is lying, right?
Firestorm nodded slightly.
Later that night, While Frost was using the dreamvisitor, Firestorm was staring up at the night sky. Fatespinner was being held in a small cave, guarded by Cobra. Caiman, Truthseeker, Cougar, and Hurricane were sleeping in the center of a bowl-shaped depression in the rocks. Peril had taken Spark up to a higher rock pile. Peril was still awake, but Spark had fallen asleep.
What are we going to do with him? Firestorm thought. We can't take him back to Pyrrhia; he'd be too dangerous to the other dragons. We can't leave him here; he'd die. We can't kill him.
She pushed gently into his mind, listening. She felt faint memories of fear, pain, and loss. But she also felt a moment of confusion, the same memory she had felt from him in Fatespinner's caves. Only now, it made sense to her. Firestorm listened to the memory, then pushed it gently back to him, letting it float on the surface of his mind. She hoped that by getting him to focus on memories like that, it would help him somehow.
Suddenly, Firestorm felt a new presence near her.
Find him- get back to Pyrrhia- kill any of them that get in my way-
Firestorm stood silently, following the voice. When she was a good distance from the camp, she called out in a low voice.
"Bravescales, I know you're there. I thought we told you to leave."
The NightWing's thoughts abruptly changed direction.
Which is it? Not Truthseeker, I know his voice. No, none of the males. Not the SkyWing either.
"You remember me," Firestorm said, stepping around the boulder and coming face-to-face with the NightWing.
Without hesitating, Bravescales lunged at Firestorm's throat. She dove to the side, but Bravescales still managed to open a gash on the back of her neck. She spun, digging her claws into her assailant's wing. Bravescales threw her off, then landed on her, pinning her to the ground.
"You should have brought help," Bravescales hissed into Firestorm's ear. "Now your friends will all die unless they give me Fatespinner."
Firestorm knew that Bravescales believed every word she was saying. As Bravescales pulled her head back, preparing to blast her victim with flames, Firestorm remembered what she had seen in Spark's mind and pushed those images into Bravescales' mind. The NightWing faltered, surprised, but didn't loosen her grip long enough to allow Firestorm to escape.
"A good try," she said with mock pity. "But not good enough."
Desperately, Firestorm slashed at Bravescales. Her claws dug into her throat, and Bravescales' eyes bulged.
"No," she choked. "No. I haven't..."
Her words faded into a rattle as she died, her body slumping onto Firestorm. With some effort, Firestorm heaved the NightWing's corpse off her, and made her way to the shore. She cleaned Bravescale's blood off as best she could, then walked back to camp.
A few days later, Hurricane was flying behind Fatespinner as they made their way across the sea. Firestorm's flying was still unbalanced, but she had refused to wait any longer. She had insisted that they take Fatespinner back to the continent as soon as possible.
Actually her exact words had been: The sooner we get this lying snake-heart back to the continent and get him to face justice, the happier I'll be.
Hurricane had smiled inwardly at that, but agreed with Firestorm. She didn't want to have to deal with Fatespinner any more than she had to.
Through the light mist, she could just begin to see the peaks of the SkyWing mountains. She suddenly realized something, and voiced her concern.
'"Firestorm, what will we do about the SkyWings? Either Queen Scarlet will want him killed, or he will convince her to have us killed. What's your plan?"
"Don't worry," Firestorm responded. "Some dragons I know will be meeting us."
As they landed on the northernmost peak, three dragons stood to meet them.
"Good to see you, Commander," Firestorm said to the largest dragon, who had a scar cutting through the dark orange scales on his face.
"Firestorm," he replied. "Glad to see you're alive."
"You too," she said. "But I know you can't stay away from the Sky Palace very long, Scree. This is Fatespinner, the dragon who faked the prophecy."
Hurricane nudged the NightWing forward so he stood in front of Scree, who stared.
"You're Fatespinner?" he said incredulously.
"I had a similar reaction," Hurricane muttered.
"I let you go because I didn't think you were worth chasing," he continued. "But you were the ringleader the whole time?"
"You've made your point," Fatespinner snarled. "And it was you who led the attack on us? You who broke the truce I had with your queen?"
"There would have been no attack had you not plotted to overthrow her," a different SkyWing snapped.
Hurricane winced, feeling a pang of guilt for what they had done. "Actually, that was our fault. Partially."
Scree turned to her. "What do you mean?"
Hurricane took a deep breath. "We baited Fatespinner into coming across the Sky Kingdom. We contacted Queen Scarlet and told her that Fatespinner was attacking. We were hoping to expose him to the other tribes."
Fatespinner stared at her in rage. "That was you?"
He lunged at Hurricane, but Cougar and Scree intercepted him and held him to the ground. Fatespinner snarled and writhed, but under the weight of the two dragons, accomplished nothing.
Scree turned to Firestorm and opened his mouth, but Firestorm cut him off. "I know what you would have thought of that idea, but it was true. Sort of."
Scree narrowed his eyes. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
"Fatespinner was planning to take over the seven tribes," Truthseeker explained, stepping forward. "That's why he helped Scarlet get the throne again. He wanted her in his debt, so he could manipulate her into putting the might of the SkyWing army behind him when he mounted his attack on the other tribes. After he won, he planned to kill her."
One of the other SkyWings stepped towards Truthseeker. "How do you know this?"
"Queen Glory sent me to spy on Fatespinner. And I managed to learn a lot."
At this, Fatespinner began thrashing again. "You will pay," he snarled. "All of you. None of you will breathe free air for as long as you live!"
They ignored him. Scree turned back to Firestorm. "What will you do with him now?"
"We were planning on taking him to the queens of the different tribes and making him tell them the truth."
Scree nodded. "Fair enough."
He turned his gaze to Fatespinner, who was still pinned beneath his talons. "How many dragons support you?"
Fatespinner said nothing. Scree hauled him to his feet, grabbed one of the NightWing's horns, and forced his snout towards his own. "Tell me, or we can use more extreme measures."
"He has a bit less than a hundred," Firestorm answered.
After that, Fatespinner answered Scree's questions on his own, although occasionally Firestorm or Truthseeker had to correct a lie he tried to tell.
Five days later, they were at the northern edge of the Kingdom of Sand. Cobra had used the dreamvisitor to alert the SandWing queen, and they planned to meet her near one of the few rivers that wound through the desert. Hurricane could just barely see it on the horizon, shining with reflected sunlight. Even at the edge of the desert, the heat was extreme.
"Can we please wait until tonight to travel?" she asked hopefully.
Fatespinner snorted, which was about the only sound they heard from him on most days.
Frost nodded. "It will take Queen Thorn a while to get here. We can afford to wait."
That night, they flew the distance to the river in a pleasantly cool night. The riverbank was dotted with villages, but they managed to find a relatively isolated area to wait until the morning.
Queen Thorn arrived around midmorning, flanked by a six-clawed SandWing, and three others. Hurricane and Frost stood in the shadow of a palm tree, trying to hide how miserable they were. The heat didn't take long to set in in the mornings.
Cobra stepped forward, bowing.
"Thank you for coming, Your Majesty," she began. "I am grateful that you trusted us."
Hurricane smiled slightly. Cobra was also referring to the time when the SandWing queen had "accidentally" allowed them to escape, but of course her companions wouldn't know that.
"This is him?" the six-clawed dragon asked.
Cobra nodded. "This is Fatespinner."
Thorn nodded, fixing her eyes on the NightWing who was glowering at her.
"Did you fake the prophecy?"
When Fatespinner said nothing, Firestorm fixed him with a look that said, 'Do you want to go through this again?'
"Yes," Fatespinner grumbled.
"What were you trying to accomplish by framing innocent dragons?"
Thorn's questioning was short and to the point. She didn't falter when Fatespinner's answers shocked her, and she didn't react to his jabs and attempts to catch her off guard. Suddenly, he stopped answering and glared at the riverbank.
Firestorm looked up as well. "Something's wrong."
As the words left her mouth, something exploded out of the sand at the water's edge. It raced towards Firestorm and the queen, not slowing down. Instinctively, Hurricane ran to intercept it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Caiman doing the same. They collided with the SandWing and rolled towards the water. The SandWing battered desperately, but Caiman pinned his tail to the ground and Hurricane sat on his flank. It was over in seconds.
"You pathetic failure," Fatespinner hissed at the SandWing. "Why even come to me?"
"Fox?" Thorn accused. Hurricane and Caiman backed away as Thorn rested the tip of her tail on his chest.
"Tell me why I shouldn't," she hissed.
Fox stared at her tail, shaking. "I... I can give you information," he said desperately.
Fatespinner growled. "If you do..."
Fox gulped and didn't say anything. Thorn gestured to one of her guards, who stood guard over Fox as Thorn turned back to Fatespinner.
"One last question, you pathetic viper. What other SandWings are on your side?"
Fatespinner glared at her. "More than you could ever handle."
"Tell me."
Fatespinner spelled out a list of names, ending with Bobcat and Cactus.
"Cactus is dead," Frost choked out, staring at his claws.
The rest of the meetings with the other tribes were largely uneventful, except for the fact that one of the IceWings sent by Queen Glacier wanted to kill Fatespinner right there and then. Fortunately, the other two were able to restrain him long enough to calm him down. Queen Moorhen stayed calm enough, probably because there were only two MudWings in Fatespinner's ranks. Queen Coral wanted Fatespinner punished severely, and it took a while to convince her that his own queen should be the one to decide the NightWing's punishment.
In the rainforest, Queen Glory interrogated Fatespinner quickly and ended with; "Your sister agreed to this after your former queen died. If you don't like having a RainWing as your queen, then too bad. Get over it."
So did I ever declare Fatespinner to be Battlewinner's son and Greatness's brother before now, or was that something I just came up with out of nowhere right at the end…
Also, Peril stayed behind on the NightWing island with Spark. That's why she wasn't with the rest of them on the continent.